Road Dogs; Stephen Marlowe

Subterranean Press is offering a free novella by none other than Norman Partridge.

Road Dogs is a supernatural noir or a noir supernatural. It works well as both.

Partridge is well known for his striking imagery, the sinners who fascinate him (nobody in a Partridge story is ever quite innocent, even the good people) and storylines that are impossible to predict.

You'll find all these on display in this swift, tense and eerie story of a prodigal brother who returns home to find out if his sister's death was really an accident. Partridge sets his story in a desert that is both real and spiritutal. His true ear brings his people alive in just a few lines and his blue collar milieu is as honestly detailed as Stephen King's was in his early novels.

This is a fine addition to Patridge's growing body of unique and excellent work. Read it for yourself.

http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2008/fiction-road-dogs-by-norman-partridge/

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Obituary of Stephen Marlowe from Guardian UK (Thanks to rara Avis for the tip)

Stephen Marlowe


US sci-fi and crime writer and early star of Gold Medal books

Michael Carlson
Thursday May 29, 2008
The Guardian

Although best-known for his series of pacey novels featuring the private eye Chester Drum, Stephen Marlowe, who has died after a long illness aged 79, was a prolific author who produced more than 60 novels under a variety of names, including his own.

Marlowe was born Milton Lesser in Brooklyn, New York. He sold his first science-fiction novel, Somewhere I'll Find You, while studying philosophy at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. After military service in Korea, he was tipped off by science-fiction editor Damon Knight about an opening with the Scott Meredith literary agency.

Article continues
Meredith, who dreaded advertising an editorial job that would attract literary "wannabes", was rare among agents. Besides traditional representation, his other business was critiquing, for a fee, manuscripts submitted by aspiring authors. Many struggling writers took jobs as editors with Meredith and went on to prolific careers, including Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block. In fact, as the new chief editor, Marlowe's first hiring was one Salvatore Lombino, who would become first Evan Hunter and then Ed McBain.

For the rest go here
http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2282498,00.htm