The Name of the Game is Death (Drake #1)

Author: Dan J Marlowe
First Published:  1962
Pages: 142

"Two guys with guts and a go-to-hell-with-you-Jack regard for consequences have about three chances in ten of pulling off a big, well-planned smash-and-grab. If one of them can shoot like me... the odds are a damn sight better."

The Name of the Game is Death is the first novel in what eventually became known as the Drake series (to give it it's full name, Drake: The Man With Nobody's Face). Published by Gold Medal in 1962 and written by Dan J Marlowe, an American born 1917 in Massachusetts. Marlowe was often overlooked in the hard-boiled crime scene until recently where a resurgence in his works have brought him to the attention of a wider audience. Thank God. He was a fantastic author of noir fiction if this opening novel about the origins of Drake is to be repeated in his further books. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. From beginning to end Drake is presented as a tough criminal character who takes no prisoners and dishes out his own form of revenge in glorious prose from Marlowe. The plot is stripped back to it's bare minimum and rattles along at a fast pace.

The central character of Drake starts his narrative just as he and his partner Bunny are about to rob a bank. The execution of the bank-job does not go quite to plan and Drake and Bunny split, with Bunny taking the proceedings of the heist whilst Drake is forced to seek out medical assistance from a local doctor. Eventually the previously agreed arrangements begin to unwind as Drake loses contact with Bunny and has to travel across the US to find his partner in crime.

What follows is a fantastically character driven story of Drake embedding himself into the working life of a small town, meanwhile secretly trying to locate Bunny who has disappeared. The supporting cast spring to life, Drake shows his weakness for animals, and by the finale you are definitely beginning to root for the hero/criminal as he mets out punishment in glorious noir-ish style.

Dan J Marlowe is an author I have only just been made aware of. His writing career is short and very interesting, I'll leave it to you to find out more. But I'm certainly glad I gave him a try. I would recommend The Name of the Game is Death to anyone with a bent towards hard-boiled, noir stories. I have a massive amount of admiration for Raymond Chandler (who doesn't!), but Mr Marlowe has opened my eyes to a new man on the block.

I have shown a couple of original paperback covers in this blog. My own copy, as denotes the purpose of this blog, was an eBook readily available on good websites. It should be noted that the first two novels of the Drake series are published in eBook by a different publisher than the rest of the series (notable by their "Operation..." titles). I'm not sure why this is, if anyone can enlighten me I'd be grateful. I paid just a little over £2 and I think it was great value for money.