You can't get much more hard-core pulp fiction that this one. Apparently, although this book was written in 1941, it was considered too risque to be published in the U.S. When it was first published, it was highly expurgated. I presume Munseys.com (oops, it seems Munsey's has gone down the toilet. Bummer that) provided me with a more-or-less original version. It certainly wasn't tame.

So, we have a private detective, Karl Craven, who is to "rescue" a young woman from a religious cult, known as Solomon's Vineyard. When he shows up at the town where he is to do his work, he finds his partner has been murdered. The religious cult appears to be part mystical and part racket, i.e. they seem to be into drugs, illegal booze and other things. While in the process of skirt chasing a red-headed hottie, named Ginger, and gambling (presumably in his spare time, when he's not doing his job), Craven falls afoul the local mob boss. He also becomes involved with "Princess", the woman who oversees the lives of the women at the religious cult center. So anyway, we have lots of womanizing, amazing feats of hard drinking, drugs, gambling, prostitution, and even human sacrifice. What could be more fun?

Actually, it's not a badly written book, so one could do worse than sink into its scenes of general degradation. We all need that once in a while, right?
( )

Solomon’s Vineyard by Jonathan Latimer is a short, violent, hard boiled crime story that was written in 1941. Although known for more humorous noir stories, Solomon’s Vineyard takes a dark turn and was considered too violent and too risque to be published and was held up for a number a years in America. Of course, by today’s standards, there isn’t much shock value in this story about a private investigator trying to rescue a young girl from a strange religious cult, but this story of murder, violence, perverse sexuality and twisted religion was considered extremely disturbing.

I found myself being reminded for the gritty crime novels of John D. MacDonald. The writing isn’t up to the standards of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, although Jonathan Latimer was a crony of both these authors. There were definite cringe moments from the main characters treatment of Negroes to his thoughts on women but overall this is a fine example of a pulp novel that takes it’s readers on a wild ride. ( )

Karl Craven believed there were two ways to approach the private detective business; underground or on top. The way he saw it, ”Underground you had the element of surprise on your side, but it was harder to move around. On top you went everywhere, taking cracks at everybody, and everybody taking cracks at you. You had to be tough to play it that way.” Craven was tough. He could stop a lousy moke’s fists with his face or scuff up a gangsters shoes with his ribs. He liked his men manly, his Negroes servile, and his sex rough. He was a man’s man with big appetites and I’m not just talking about the 4 lb. steaks and six double lamb chops he scarfed down regularly.

In other words, Karl Craven was not the kind of guy folks would describe as warm and fuzzy. Truth be told, he was an asshole.

But sometimes when you are reading hardboiled pulp fiction, warm and fuzzy just doesn’t cut it. You need someone who reminds you of the ripe odor of the locker room at the boxing gym. This is that kind of book. Written in 1941 and banned from publication until 1988, Solomon’s Vineyard has it all, grave-robbing, religious cults, kinky sex, and whorehouse violence. What more could a guy want? An affordable price? How does 99¢ on Kindle sound?

Bottom line: This book is what it is and what it is is entertaining gritty mid-century pulp fiction. Be warned, if my review so far hasn’t tipped you off that this book is far from politically correct, take it from me, this book is far from politically correct. Karl Craven is not someone whose actions I approve of. If you find misogyny, racism and homophobia in a fictional setting, you may wish to look elsewhere for your reading material.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
• 5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
• 4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
• 3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
• 2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
• 1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. ( )

"McGee drove as though he had a horse in front, saying 'Giddap' when he wanted to start and 'Whoa' when he was stopping. I was scared he would forget the horse wasn't there sometime and try to stop by pulling back on the steering-wheel. He didn't, though."

I don't know why but I found this extremely funny. The whole book is like that: a wild ride

So good you're almost able to forgive blackmask.com publishing for screwing up pretty much every single sentence. ( )