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| 1961 Gold Medal edition |
Author: Philip Race (aka E. M. Parsons)
First Published: 1961
Ebook Publisher: Cutting Edge Books
Ebook Date: May 2020
Ebook Date: May 2020
This review is about Killer Take All by Philip Race, not to be confused with the James O. Causey book, released a few years earlier in 1957, titled Killer Take All! Note the exclamation mark, it makes all the difference. Race's book has just been released by Cutting Edge Books in eBook format. Funnily enough I had only very recently purchased the Gold Medal original via eBay UK. for this review though, I read the eBook which comes as a double header collecting Race's two novels starring Johnny Berlin (the other being Johnny Come Deadly). The copyright is dated 1959, but my UK Gold Medal was printed 1961.
Philip Race has a fantastic story. Race is the pen name used by Elmer Merle Parsons who was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1926. By the time he was 23 he had taken to crime and was committed to jail for burglary and grand theft in Phoenix. After serving three years in a state prison he continued to operate on the wrong side of the law and was also found guilty of fraud resulting in a further sentence of five years which he had to serve in San Quentin. Whilst there he ended up being the editor of the prison newspaper, and turned his hand to writing fiction. He actually sold his first novel to Fawcett while serving out his sentence, along with the two Johnny Berlin novels before being released in 1960.
After a few more books, Parsons went on to write for television, contributing to such shows as The Virginian, Bonanza, Ripcord, Sea Hunt, The Dakotas, Everglades, The Aquanauts and and even an episode of Flipper.
Killer Take All follows the plight of Vegas casino dealer Johnny Berlin, as he makes a stop in a small town called Edson, in northern California. He is on his way to Portland and has lost his way down a back road when he pulls over to ask directions from two cars parked up next to each other. One of the cars swiftly pulls away and as Berlin approaches the driver of the remaining car, he is confronted by the wrong end of a gun.
It turns out he has met Marino Donetti, owner of a new gambling club in McKaneville. After finally getting directions to Edson, Berlin finds himself being asked to sit in at a table, as a favor to an old flame. Her bosses club is in dire straits, operating on a knife edge of profit/loss margins, and there is a high roller at the craps table about to take the house down - for good. Berlin manages to avoid complete disaster, and the owner, Dan Gurion, offers him a job.
Johnny is initially reluctant to stay in such a small back-water town - but on the drive to McKaneville his car is driven off the road by a mysterious pursuing vehicle and he is lucky to survive the crash. It seems he has accidentally gotten mixed up in a war between gambling establishments in the area. Gurion tells him that Donetti has been trying to organise a Gambler's Protective Association, but locals see this as the first step of Mob involvement and the eventual takeover of all their clubs leaving just Donetti's enterprise as the only place operating. Berlin decides to stay, to work out what is going on, but more importantly to try and discover who tried to murder him in the automobile incident.
The overall feel of the novel is quite dark and seedy. Parsons may have had some experience in this life, or he may have absorbed the details about it from his time inside. There is an air of realism that I enjoyed. The character of Berlin is quite enjoyable, he is almost a lovable rogue, with an eye for the girls. One of the downfalls of the story though, is that there are a lot of other characters. Berlin himself appears to be the object of admiration to four women, then there are multiple club owners and dealers and gamblers and pimps and prostitutes and mobsters and local cops. It was genuinely quite difficult to follow the action at some points - best to just let it flow I decided.
In some ways it's not surprising this title was writen from inside a jail cell - for example, the plethora of woman competing for Berlin's attention could possibly be a result of Parsons sexual frustration at being incarcerated? Maybe having a large cast of characters was his way of including a lot of the inmates he was spending time with?
Despite Berlin being a dealer, there is surprisingly little actual gambling action in the book, whch doesn't hurt the plot, but would have been nice to feature more of. Despite these problems the hardboiled, first-person prose is very good. There are a few good comebacks, and some nice put downs of the femme fatales and suspects.
It’s tough to give Killer Take All a full hearted recommendation. The plot gets a bit complicated, and the number of players was just too much for a comfortably coherent read I think. Also, the story spans a relatively short time-frame, but the main character manages to nurture relationships both friendly, unfriendly and romantic rather quickly. However, Parsons clearly found his place in life as writer, and Johnny Berlin was a likeable enough central character to want to read more of, so I'm going to revisit him and Parsons at some point.
Philip Race has a fantastic story. Race is the pen name used by Elmer Merle Parsons who was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1926. By the time he was 23 he had taken to crime and was committed to jail for burglary and grand theft in Phoenix. After serving three years in a state prison he continued to operate on the wrong side of the law and was also found guilty of fraud resulting in a further sentence of five years which he had to serve in San Quentin. Whilst there he ended up being the editor of the prison newspaper, and turned his hand to writing fiction. He actually sold his first novel to Fawcett while serving out his sentence, along with the two Johnny Berlin novels before being released in 1960.
After a few more books, Parsons went on to write for television, contributing to such shows as The Virginian, Bonanza, Ripcord, Sea Hunt, The Dakotas, Everglades, The Aquanauts and and even an episode of Flipper.
Killer Take All follows the plight of Vegas casino dealer Johnny Berlin, as he makes a stop in a small town called Edson, in northern California. He is on his way to Portland and has lost his way down a back road when he pulls over to ask directions from two cars parked up next to each other. One of the cars swiftly pulls away and as Berlin approaches the driver of the remaining car, he is confronted by the wrong end of a gun.
It turns out he has met Marino Donetti, owner of a new gambling club in McKaneville. After finally getting directions to Edson, Berlin finds himself being asked to sit in at a table, as a favor to an old flame. Her bosses club is in dire straits, operating on a knife edge of profit/loss margins, and there is a high roller at the craps table about to take the house down - for good. Berlin manages to avoid complete disaster, and the owner, Dan Gurion, offers him a job.
Johnny is initially reluctant to stay in such a small back-water town - but on the drive to McKaneville his car is driven off the road by a mysterious pursuing vehicle and he is lucky to survive the crash. It seems he has accidentally gotten mixed up in a war between gambling establishments in the area. Gurion tells him that Donetti has been trying to organise a Gambler's Protective Association, but locals see this as the first step of Mob involvement and the eventual takeover of all their clubs leaving just Donetti's enterprise as the only place operating. Berlin decides to stay, to work out what is going on, but more importantly to try and discover who tried to murder him in the automobile incident.
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| 2020 eBook |
In some ways it's not surprising this title was writen from inside a jail cell - for example, the plethora of woman competing for Berlin's attention could possibly be a result of Parsons sexual frustration at being incarcerated? Maybe having a large cast of characters was his way of including a lot of the inmates he was spending time with?
Despite Berlin being a dealer, there is surprisingly little actual gambling action in the book, whch doesn't hurt the plot, but would have been nice to feature more of. Despite these problems the hardboiled, first-person prose is very good. There are a few good comebacks, and some nice put downs of the femme fatales and suspects.
It’s tough to give Killer Take All a full hearted recommendation. The plot gets a bit complicated, and the number of players was just too much for a comfortably coherent read I think. Also, the story spans a relatively short time-frame, but the main character manages to nurture relationships both friendly, unfriendly and romantic rather quickly. However, Parsons clearly found his place in life as writer, and Johnny Berlin was a likeable enough central character to want to read more of, so I'm going to revisit him and Parsons at some point.
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