Its been a while since ive been on the site but i still enjoy the book club vote.
Anyway, I'd like to nominate They Don't Dance Much by James Ross.
Its been pigeonholed as Country noir which i guess if i had to shelve it under anything that would be it but its really just good honest pulp. It's a cut above most pulp titles though that are getting a second lease of life in the ebook market. The characterisation in particular is very good i thought.
From Goodreads:
Quote:
In this classic country noir, featuring a new introduction by Daniel Woodrell, a small town farmer takes a job at a roadhouse, where unbridled greed leads to a brutal murder
Jack McDonald is barely a farmer. Boll weevils have devoured his cotton crop, his chickens have stopped laying eggs, and everything he owns is mortgaged — even his cow. He has no money, no prospects, and nothing to do but hang around filling stations, wondering where his next drink will come from. As far as hooch goes, there's no place like Smut Milligan's, where Breath of Spring moonshine sells for a dollar a pint.
A bootlegger with an entrepreneurial spirit, Milligan has plans to open a roadhouse, and he asks Jack to run the till. The music will be hot, the liquor cheap, and the clientele rough. But the only thing stronger than Milligan's hooch is his greed, and Jack is slowly drawn into the middle of Smut's dalliances with a married woman, the machinations of corrupt town officials — and a savage act of murder.
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