The Big Clock (1946) by Kenneth Fearing. This book is about time, and the pressure that comes when your time is running out. The setting is New York City at the end of the 1940s. Janoth Enterprises is the leader in the world of magazine publishing. Earl Janoth is the king of that realm.
One of the mags the company owns is Crimeways, and George Stroud is the executive publisher. Self-confident, smug in so many ways, he is the perfect man to helm that particular magazine. It is said if you want to know what is happening in the world of crime in the US, look here rather than to the police. Janoth himself trusts George in all things.
So when Janoth’s “close female friend” is murdered in her apartment, he turns to George to find the mysterious man who was seen outside her apartment minutes before the crime. George eagerly accepts the case and puts all other matters aside, both business and personal. He slowly works through the girlfriend’s recent past and makes some stunning discoveries. He knows that following this trail will lead him to the mystery man, but he is in no hurry.
George already knows who the mystery man is, and also knows the the man is not the killer. It has been revealed early in the book that George is that man, but he has no evidence to prove who the killer is. So he is working against the clock as both his and the police’s investigation lead toward that fatal discovery.
The question is can he survive the race?
This book has been made into two movies, the last being “No Way Out” starring Kevin Costner. While the book starts a little slow, it speeds up as the pressure, and lack of time, play against George.
This is a classic crime story and a great read. ( )

George Stroud es editor de una revista de un importante grupo editorial y un orgulloso padre de familia, aunque también es aficionado al alcohol y a las mujeres más allá de lo recomendable para la salud. A causa de sus vicios, no tarda en descubrir que tener una pequeña aventura con la atractiva amante de su jefe puede, además de amenazar su hogar y su carrera profesional, poner en peligro su vida. Su futuro dependerá de cómo juegue las cartas que le ha repartido la fortuna en una extraña mano en la que al mismo tiempo será cazador y presa.

Wow, what a story! This one kept me guessing to the end. A philanderer with a wife and kid is a big shot at Time, Inc., hence The Big Clock. The cheating SOB takes out the Prez's girlfriend, and just as he's bringing her home, Prez shows up. Prez doesn't see him clearly, but when he kills said girlfriend in a fit of rage, later remembers that mystery man had seen him coming to visit girlfriend. The hunt is on! This is a real page-turner. ( )

Fantastic classic noir with a lot of nice literary touches. ( )

Racing the Clock of Life

The Big Clock is a different kind of murder/crime novel, but nonetheless dark and tawdry as American Noir should be. It’s different because the murder doesn’t come until well into the novel, and then really isn’t the focus of the suspenseful race against the clock. The focus is George Stroud, an ambitious magazine writer/editor, a man who drinks hard and cheats on his wife, who thinks quite highly of himself, of his intelligence, and his appreciation of aesthetics, particularly when it comes to art. The plot is a finely honed chase story about an innocent man, at least innocent of murder, trying to save his life. Even more, it’s a keen psychological probing of a cunning mind, that of George Stroud.

Outlined, the story begins with George grumbling to himself at a party thrown by his employer, Earl Janoth, chairman of Janoth Enterprises, an agglomeration of magazines. There he meets Pauline Delos, a magnetic blonde, who also happens to be seeing Janoth. Sometime later George and Pauline hookup, when George’s wife and daughter are safely out of town. The pair have a wild weekend in New York, where they buy a painting that proves a key clue in the tale, and upstate in Albany. At the end, he sees her home, but not to her door because Janoth is arriving at that precise moment. George holds back in the shadows, unrecognized. Next thing he knows, Pauline is dead and the most likely murderer is Janoth. In a twist, though, to protect himself, Janoth and his business partner concoct a tale about the mystery man, who is the only one who can place Janoth at Pauline’s apartment, with the objective of eliminating him. They sic the full resources of the publishing house on finding the man, and they put George in charge. George, faced with the task of ferreting out himself, has to continually throw his team of investigative reporters off his scent, until, at the end, they have pretty much closed in on him. It’s then that Fearing springs a surprise, the seed of which he has placed in plain view at the outset of the novel.

Readers will find two features of the novel particularly interesting. First, the clock of the title; it serves as both a sort of stopwatch counting down the hours and minutes until George finds himself exposed. It also functions as an overarching symbol of the relentless grind of life, it’s unalterable march to the fatal moment in every life. The second are the Louise Patterson paintings; one hanging in George’s office builds tension as we readers and George wait for somebody to identify it as a Patterson. Even more, though, George’s attachment to his Patterson paintings, and specifically the one from the antique shop, speak volumes about George’s character: his self-pride, his superior aesthetic eye, and his willingness to behave recklessly to preserve is purchase, which is really part and parcel of his identity.

You’ll find The Big Clock not only suspenseful but more sophisticated than the typical noir crime novel. ( )