Charles Ardai, former CEO of the Web services company Juno and an enthusiast of vintage mysteries and pulp, has used some of his own money to start a book imprint. With friend Max Phillips, a Holt author and fellow pulp-lover, Ardai has created Hard Case Crime, whose titles will be distributed and co-sponsored by Dorchester, one of the last freestanding mass-market houses in the U.S.
On tap are six new books in the pulp style and six old books in the style. The agreement kicks in this September and will run for a year. Dorchester will publish two books each month in the fall, and two books per month next March, May and July. The books will move along the pulp-mystery spectrum, with titles that inspired the Indiana Jones movies and Orson Welles's Touch of Evil, some Ross MacDonald—like mysteries and a Lawrence Block reprint.
Ardai's case for the books is uncomplicated: "Instead of having people spend $10 at the multiplex, can you get them with a $6.99 paperback?" He'll package the titles as slim novels with movie-poster—like cover and a sense of fun—anything that doesn't say, as he put it, "important with a capital I."
Ardai, who edited a number of mystery collections before Juno, said he toured publishers for a year and a half before settling on Dorchester, which he felt understood the idea to do these as mass markets. Distribution will range from bookstores to truck stops. Said Ardai, "If you're under 30, you've never seen these kinds of books. If you're over 30, you haven't seen them in a generation. We think we can sell a lot of copies."
