Dear Reader…
Will
you read my book? Last
Puffs took me years to write, will you take a look? It's based on a novel
by a man named Hammett, (The Dain Curse), and I need a break, and I want to be
a pulp fiction writer.
Pulp
fiction writer.
Of course, dear Reader, writers hope their books speak for
themselves. But given the chance here, I’ll tell you a little bit that might
help your enjoyment of the Last Puffs.
Last Puffs is a
story about war, love, betrayal, revenge, and murder, starring my series P.I.,
Frank Swiver. Frank is a pacifist—unusual in a tough trade like private
investigating, in which you’re bound to come up against some violent
characters. But that’s OK—a non-violent protagonist gives me a chance to
explore themes like courage in conflicts and confrontations.
The core idea, the seed from which the whole book grew, came
from a feature I heard once on National Public Radio about an old-fashioned
cigar factory, like you might find in Havana, Cuba,
or Tampa, Florida.
In these factories, there would be a lector, an employee who would read aloud
to the workers as they rolled cigars by hand. I knew then I wanted to write a
scene set in such a quiet factory, where a beautiful dark-haired, dark-eyed
young woman rolls tobacco along her bare, tawny thigh.
Around the same time, I had written an unsold short story,
“The Girls from Nanking.” I’d based “Nanking”
on Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op story-model. When the Op is called in on a
case, each “person of interest” tells the Op a story—their version of what
happened. The Op investigates and builds his own version of reality—the “true”
solution of what happened. Here, Frank Swiver investigates a case for Joan
Spring, a wealthy Eurasian woman,
(who just might be a spy for Mao’s fledgling government in Peking).
It also happened that around that time I was reading The Dain Curse, by Dashiell Hammett. In
the Dain Curse, I saw a structure for
a novel that would enable me to combine “Nanking,” and
the cigar factory treatment into a coherent narrative. And perhaps I could even
work in a prequel of sorts, a story about how Frank, fighting in the Spanish
Civil War, became a pacifist.
What could a Spanish Civil War story have to do with a Red
Chinese spy in San Francisco in 1948-’49, and a Cuban cigar factory in
California? Well, Raymond Chandler once wrote, “The most effective way to
conceal a simple mystery is behind another mystery. Make the reader solve the
wrong problem.”
So that is what I did.
If
you like Last Puffs, please leave a review.
I
need a break, and I want to be a pulp fiction writer.
Pulp
fiction writer.
Love,
Harley
Mazuk
About the Author
Harley Mazuk was
born in Cleveland, the last year
that the Indians won the World Series. He majored in English literature at Hiram
College in Ohio,
and Elphinstone College,
Bombay, India.
Harley worked as a record salesman (vinyl) and later served the U.S. Government
in Information Technology and in communications, where he honed his writing
style as an editor and content provider for official web sites.
Retired now, he likes to write pulp fiction, mostly private
eye stories, several of which have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. His first full length novel, White with Fish, Red with Murder, was
released in 2017, and his newest, Last
Puffs, just came out in January 2018.
Harley’s other passions are his wife Anastasia, their two
children, reading, running, Italian cars, California
wine and peace.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
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About the Book:
Frank Swiver and
his college pal, Max Rabinowitz,
both fall in love with Amanda Zingaro,
courageous Republican guerilla, in the Spanish civil war. But the local
fascists murder her and her father.
Eleven years later in San Francisco in 1949, Frank, traumatized by the violence in Spain, has become
Frank takes on a case for Joan Spring, half-Chinese wife of a wealthy banker. Joan seduces
Frank to ensure his loyalty. But Frank busts up a prostitution/white slavery
ring at the Lotus House a brothel in Chinatown, where Joan was keeping refugees from Nanking
prisoners.
Then Max sees a woman working in
a Fresno cigar factory, who is a dead ringer for Amanda, and
brings in Frank, who learns it is
Amanda. She has tracked the fascists who killed her father and left her for
dead from her village in Spain to California. Amanda wants Frank to help her take revenge. And by the
way, she says the ten-year-old boy with her is Frank’s son.
Joan Spring turns out to be a Red Chinese secret agent, and she’s
drawn a line through Max’s name with a pencil. Can Frank save Max again? Can he
help Amanda avenge her father when he’s sworn off violence? Can he protect her
from her target’s daughter, the sadistic Veronica Rios-Ortega? Join Frank
Swiver in the swift-moving story, Last
Puffs.
Praise:
February 10, 2018
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Frank
Swiver is a detective. Murder investigations are his specialty. He likes wine,
loose women and fast cars. Not necessarily in that order. Swiver inhabits an
earlier world that is archaic and, without doubt, politically incorrect by
today’s standards. Harley Mazuk recreates in Swiver a character from another
era whose story is fun and entertaining. Mazuk has an impressive knowledge of
wines and cars which permeate his narrative. As to his knowledge of women, I am
not competent to judge. I do know that the geography and time period portrayed
is well researched. There are many twists and turns to the plot as well as an
injection of espionage that keeps the reader guessing. Fans of old fashion
detective novels will enjoy this book. I know, I did.
-- Amazon Reviewer
This was the most difficult blog post for me to write, but I'm happy with the results! Thanks very much for hosting me at Dear Reader, Love Author.
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