Ennis Willie

I stumbled on this book through a mention by Max Allan Collins. Ennis Willie is another of those who has become relatively unknown, but who Collins considers one of the best of the noir genre. He wrote about 21 hard-boiled novels in the early sixties and then disappeared from writing. It was later discovered he had opened a printing business in Atlanta and given up writing.

Ed Gorman and Collins have been part of the resurrection of his books and I thought I would give one a whirl. I liked it.

Sand (notice the use of one name only, a characteristic of the Parker and Nolan novels)is on the run from the mob and has sought shelter in an old gothic castle-like house run by the hunchback Count Bello who guarantees the safety of his guests. That guarantee was shattered. Sand is forced to defend himself against a mob plant and then help investigate the murder of a young woman who is found outside his room on the balcony. Then another woman is killed.

Not high art by any means, and the sex scenes are very chaste sixties and a bit unreal, but if you are at all interested in the evolution of the hard-boiled genre, this is a must.… (mehr)

Sand’s War: A Sand Shocker, is a collection of two 100-page Sand novellas, i.e., Haven for the Damned and The Scarlet Goddess, which were written by Ennis Willie and were first published in 1963. Willie wrote 21 hard-boiled, tough-guy, crime novels between 1961 and 1965. Sand’s War was published by Ramble House in 2011. The protagonist, Sand, doesn’t need a first name or title. He is the quintessential tough guy who worked for an organization known as the Syndicate. Surprisingly, he was able to extricate himself from the Syndicate because he is simply too tough and too mean for them to kill him. These Sand novellas could also be categorized as “bullets & broads” stories. Even though he is tough and mean (or maybe because he is tough and mean), Sand is also very much in demand by beautiful voluptuous women. He enjoys several sensuous “soft-porn” interludes for the reading voyeur. However, the fun of these works arises from the over-the-top tough-guy violence when Sand reacts to those who put him in a dangerous situation or intend him harm. In Haven for the Damned, Sand takes refuge from the Syndicate in Castle Bello in a rural mountain village. The castle is owned by Count Bello, a hunchback, who sells sanctuary to anyone who needs protection from the law or criminal elements. Unfortunately, Sand’s security is threatened by the brutal murders of several women in the castle, and especially when four assassins from the Syndicate attempt to kill him. In The Scarlet Goddess, Sand is hired to deliver a package containing an unknown object. However, the package is stolen from him by a beautiful woman who is then murdered by something described as a Sasquatch. Sand’s efforts to recover the unknown object turn extremely violent. These Ennis Willie works derive from the pulp crime fiction era of the 1930s and 1940s. In an introduction to this collection, Max Allen Collins, referred to Ennis Willie as: “the most successful Mickey Spillane imitator and a distinct original talent with a voice all his own.” I haven’t read any Spillane works, but I think I will now give them a try. I found the Sand stories in this book to be very enjoyable reads. They don’t require much thought, but there is plenty of interesting action. Sand is indeed a hard-boiled violent criminal, but he has many redeeming characteristics and unleashes his incredibly savage skills with precision when they are required. I definitely plan to read more Sand works by Ennis Willie, e.g., Sand’s Game, also published by Ramble House.… (mehr)