The Velvet Fleece

Noir fans will relish this reprint of a standout caper from Eby (1908–1998) and Fleming (1906–1964), cousins who coauthored five crime novels in the 1940s and ’50s. Silky Gould and Rick Maxon are scheming to cheat Florida millionaire Walton Vanderlinde out of his fortune by convincing him to invest in a phony yacht club. But Vanderlinde dies soon after revealing he’s got blackmail material on Silky, and the con artists go on the run, fearing they’ll be prosecuted for his death. They end up in Hart City, Calif., where Rick convinces wealthy widow Deborah Clark that he was an infantry buddy of her late husband’s, and that she should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to establish a youth center in his memory. Complicating matters are Silky’s girlfriend, who’s got the hots for Rick, and mounting professional tensions between the partners. Rick’s backstory (he was raised by a grifter who used him in schemes as a toddler) puts his criminality in plausible context, and readers will find it difficult not to root for him, despite his nastiness. Admirers of James M. Cain should take a look. (June)