The Name of the Game is Death / One Endless Hour (Dan J. Marlowe Bibliography) - Softcover

Marlowe, Dan J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933586443 ISBN 13: 9781933586441

Publisher: Stark House Press, 2013

Synopsis

Stephen King called Marlowe “the hardest of the hard-boiled,” and these two novels are his masterpieces. Here are the two books that introduce Earl Drake, a hardened thief on a mission of vengeance. He’s been shot, burned and put away in an asylum—but they can’t keep him there. Drake is a force to be reckoned with. Barry Gifford said it best: “Nobody wrote tougher prose than Dan J. Marlowe. Nobody.” This volume includes an introduction by Charles Kelly, author of "Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe."

About this title

From the Inside Flap

The Name of the Game is Death He calls himself Earl Drake. That's not his real name, but it'll do. Hell, he's changed his identity so many times, it hardly matters anymore. Right now he's calling himself Chet Arnold. After the last bank robbery, after they made their escape and Bunny ended up taking most of the money with him to Florida, he figured it was time to collect. But something's happened to Bunny. So here he is in Hudson, Florida, trying to find Bunny and the money. First he finds Hazel, six feet tall, red hair, all woman. Then he meets Lucille, the local man-hungry postmaster. Finally he meets Blaze Franklin, a cop who's just about ready to kill somebody. It's one helluva situation. And that's the kind that Drake likes best. One Endless Hour Sheriff Blaze's double cross is a good one. But Drake finds Bunny and he finds the loot. Trouble is, it all blows up in his face this time. Literally. And now they've got him behind bars and covered in bandages--and under the thumb of a particular sadist named Spider Kern. The authorities think they've got a monosyllabic basket case named Chet Arnold locked up for the criminally insane. But thanks to the experimental plastic surgery treatment of Dr. Afzul, they soon have an Earl Drake who is not only armed with a new face, but a plan as well. All he needs is a gun, and it's payback time. Sweet payback time.

About the Author

Dan J. Marlowe was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1914, the son of a printing press mechanic. He received an accounting certificate from Bentley School of Accounting and Finance in Boston in 1934, and lived alternately as a professional gambler and an office manager until 1956, when he decided to try his hand at writing. By the end of 1958 he had sold his first two books, featuring detective Johnny Killain. In 1962, Marlowe produced his masterpiece, The Name of the Game is Death, which so impressed a real bank robber, Al Nussbaum, that the two of them started corresponding and eventually became friends and collaborators. At the height of Marlowe’s career, having already won the 1971 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original, he suffered an attack of amnesia. Moving to Los Angeles with Nussbaum, he tried to regain his writing skills. He passed away of heart failure in Tarzana, Calif., in August of 1986.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stark House Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1933586443
• ISBN 13: 9781933586441
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240