The Evil Days; A Novel Of Crime And Suspense In The Suburbs [from the Dust Jacket]

New York: Random House, 1973. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Fair. The format is approximately 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches. [6], 210 pages. Inscribed by the author on the fep. Inscription reads 1/7/74 For Ruth and Leo With love---Bruno. The DJ has wear, tears, soiling and chips. Book is slightly cocked. Bruno Fischer (29 June 1908 - 16 March 1992) was a German-born American author of weird and crime fiction. Fischer published his first novel, So Much Blood, in 1939. Several of his books were published by Dell and Lion Books, including the popular Ben Helm series of P. I. novels. Paperback-original publishing house Gold Medal Books took on Fischer on the recommendation of John D. MacDonald. Gold Medal released several of his novels in the 1950s; House of Flesh (Gold Medal #123, 1950) sold some 1.8 million copies. An early member of the Mystery Writers of America, he was the editor of one of their annual short story collections, 1953's Crooks' Tour, and he is known to have written at least one erotic novel in 1970 (Domination, Olympia/Ophelia Press) under the pen name "Jason K. Storm". In the 1960s Fischer worked as executive editor for Collier Books and education editor at the Arco Publishing Company. His last novel was 1973's The Evil Days, written after the demands of his job. The first of the seven days covered in this novel was (till evening) like any other weekday for Caleb Dawson-solid citizen, commuter, wry observer of life. In the morning his pretty wife drove him to work. At 6: 19 pm she was again at the station in the family car to drive him home to their two fine young sons and their heavily mortgaged house. And then everything changed for them that evening when, after the children were asleep, she showed him the contents of a leather pouch she had found that morning in the parking lot of the local shopping center. Derived from a Paperback Warrior posting found on-line: "The Evil Days" was marketed as a "novel of crime and suspense in the suburbs." The plot setup is one we've seen before: Caleb Dawson's wife finds a bag of jewels that she wants to keep to supplement the family's meager income. Caleb thinks it's a bad idea, but acquiesces to his money-hungry wife's ill-conceived scheme. As you may have guessed, there are unsavory people who aren't excited to just walk away from a lost fortune and want the jewels recovered. Meanwhile, there's a violent murder in the same suburb that serves as the basis for a satisfying mystery. Could the two events be connected? Fischer spent much of the 1960s working as an editor for two large publishing houses, and he puts his industry knowledge to good use in "The Evil Days." Caleb works for a respected publisher that has been acquired by a large corporation. The inside baseball treatment of the publishing world is an interesting aspect to this novel for avid readers with an interest in the way a book is brought to market, and the way that editors speak about writers when they're not around. The snappy dialogue feels authentic because Fischer has been there. Another interesting way to read this novel is with the knowledge that Fischer was an honest-to-goodness Socialist. His early career was spent editing leftist publications, and he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1938 as the Socialist Party Candidate. The ideas that workers are exploited by their bosses and that lust for money invites unhappiness are recurring ideas in his books and stories. "The Evil Days" has elements of both themes. But even if you don't read this paperback as a Marxist allegory, it remains a helluva mystery filled with moral dilemmas, poetic intrigue, sex, and murder. His politics aside, Fischer was an outstanding writer who honed his craft writing short-stories for the pulps, and that fat-free approach to storytelling carried forward for decades to this fine tale. The Hitchcock-style mystery is plenty tense. Fischer was a pro at this game, and this final novel was a fitting close to a remarkable body of work.