It didn't turn out to be what I expected.

Although I wasn't sure what I was going to read, the combination of vampires, horror, and erotica had caught my attention. By the way, this is not my favorite genre.

I can't say that the work is this or that. Instead, it simply didn't appeal to me. The good thing is that it's quite short, so it can be read in one sitting.

Maybe someone else would enjoy it more, but for me, it just didn't hit the mark.

However, I'm still open to exploring other works in different genres to see if I can find something that truly interests me.

After all, reading is a personal experience, and what one person likes, another may not.

So, I'll keep looking and hoping to discover that hidden gem that will capture my imagination and make me fall in love with reading all over again.

After spending eleven long years in prison, Joe Kurtz is desperate to start anew. Eager to get back on his feet, he makes a fateful decision and signs on with the mob. His task? To investigate who is hijacking their trucks. But the question remains: can Joe figure out the culprit before someone from his past takes him out with a bullet?

Wow. Dan Simmons truly knows how to tell a captivating story. "Hardcase" pays homage to the Parker books by Richard Stark, yet manages to carve out its own unique path and avoid being a mere ripoff.

Joe Kurtz, a former private investigator, now finds himself working for the mob and caught in the middle of a dangerous power struggle. Simmons' writing style is reminiscent of Stark's - spare, yet powerful. The story is filled with unexpected twists and turns, especially in the final forty pages or so. The action is intense, fast-paced, and brutally violent. By the time the story reaches its conclusion, Kurtz has endured a great deal and is far from unscathed.

I can't reveal too much more without spoiling the plot. Suffice it to say, the title is spot-on. Joe Kurtz is a hardcase in the truest sense of the word. If you're in the market for a great crime novel, look no further. "Hardcase" is a must-read.

If you have any doubts that this one was inspired by the Parker novels, just check out the dedication: “This book is for Richard Stark, who sometimes writes under the wussy pseudonym of Donald Westlake.”

Joe Kurtz may be a private detective instead of a professional thief, but he can match Parker for sheer ruthlessness and poor social skills. In the first six pages of this book, he sticks a guy's hand into a garbage disposal and chucks him out a window. For that little temper tantrum, Kurtz spends eleven years in prison where he meets and protects the son of a Mafia don. When Kurtz gets released, he immediately offers his detective services to the mob to help them track down an accountant of theirs that has gone missing.

However, Kurtz will have to cope with a shifty lawyer, the don’s beautiful daughter, a pair of deranged killers, redneck white supremacists, gang bangers, a dirty cop and a Danish hitman. It seems like a never-ending list of obstacles and adversaries for him to overcome.

Apparently, Dan Simmons wasn’t content with being an award-winning writer of horror, sci-fi and detailed historical fiction. So, he decided to just cobble together some hard-boiled crime novels in his spare time. While Kurtz is obviously inspired by Parker, Simmons managed to give Kurtz his own distinct personality. This makes the book feel like a homage instead of a rip-off.

The outlandish plot and over-the-top violence make this seem like an action movie at times. But Simmons’ writing, combined with the Kurtz character, made this a lot of fun if you like books with plenty of kicked asses. It's a wild ride that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

Pitch perfect homage to Stark's (Westlake's) Parker novels.

It truly maintains its own unique voice while wholeheartedly embracing the violent and hard romps that serve as its inspiration.

It really gives the impression that Simmons devoured all the Parker novels and then came to the conclusion that there was a need for yet another one. So, he set out and wrote it.

This is a great, quick read. It has a great momentum that keeps the pages turning. There is plenty of violence that adds to the excitement and intensity. Additionally, there are some nice twists that keep the reader on their toes and add an extra layer of intrigue. Overall, it's a highly enjoyable and engaging work that pays tribute to the Parker novels while also standing on its own merits.

I know Dan Simmons mainly from his science fiction and horror work, but this is something completely different.

The story is about Joe Kurtz, a kind of private detective who has just come out of prison and gets involved in a drug-related war between mafia families and street gangs.

The story reads smoothly and remains interesting, but it still lacks depth. The brutal violence is clearly in the foreground, with all the weapons used described in detail.

The reason for this is not immediately clear to me, unless it is just meant as one big cliché. The development of the characters also remains somewhat lacking. The figure of Joe Kurtz is intriguing, but is not really explored in depth.

The story itself is also not particularly original. It reminds me a bit of many action movies: nice to relax and read for a while, but easy to forget quickly.

Overall, while the book has its entertaining aspects, it fails to fully engage on a deeper level.

Ex-con Joe Kurtz finds himself in a precarious situation. He works for the elderly Don of a once-powerful but now fading mafia family based in Buffalo. However, his life takes a dangerous turn as he becomes the target of a homicidal dwarf, drug dealing gangsters, crooked cops, and an international hit man known as "the Dane". The story is filled with action, suspense, and dark humor. It's a politically incorrect yet highly entertaining read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I'm so excited about this story that I've already started working on the sequel, "Hard Freeze". In this new installment, I plan to take readers on an even more thrilling adventure with Joe Kurtz. The stakes will be higher, the danger more intense, and the humor just as biting. Stay tuned for more from this exciting series!

I'm starting to suspect Dan Simmons is a genius.

I know that might sound ridiculous and overly exaggerated, but let me explain. The fact that he can pen something as lofty and profound as Hyperion and then turn around and write something as delightfully lowbrow and unrefined as this book, and both be so thoroughly and effortlessly awesome, has already made him one of my favorite writers.

As a side note, I'm almost done with The Terror, so watch out for that almost surely annoyingly gushing review.

What we have here is a no-frills, black-as-night, lean, mean hardboiled crime story. Our protagonist, Joe Kurtz, is so tough and unyielding that he makes guys like Philip Marlowe and Jack Reacher seem positively... well, soft. They come off maybe more gently cooked. Also, the setting is much grimmer and colder than most crime stories. Granted, a lot of them are set in New York, but there you have all that light and stimulation to make it look nice. I've never been to Buffalo, but I'm fairly certain it's not as visually impressive as New York.

Joe Kurtz is basically a homeless ex-con P.I. He doesn't have a breezy Ventura Boulevard office like Marlowe; instead, he makes his office in the basement of a seedy porn shop. Reacher may be an ex-MP nomad, but did he ever do 11 years for outright murder? I think not! He seems to be based on this Parker fellow that I've never read about, but I doubt Mr. Parker ever shot a police officer in cold blood. In many ways, he's the perfect anti-hero for this kind of story. I've talked a lot about how brutal Kurtz is, but he's always likable and even occasionally funny, and Simmons always writes him deftly and affectionately.

This grim-faced fun extends to the rest of the cast of characters, including a fallen mafia Don and his dysfunctional family, a chillingly efficient Scandinavian hitman, and a couple of gross street enforcers. I loved these last two. I've been fascinated by antagonists in stories ever since I was a kid, probably starting when my dad gave me some strange old copy of Peter Pan that had all this cold-blooded murder and violent death in it. You don't even have to write a "relatable" or "human" bad guy for me to love them, and these two were neither. They were just straight-up vile two-dimensional jerks, and it was great.

While Simmons clearly enjoys playing with the standard tropes of the hardboiled crime story, this is not a jokey send-up or a smug pastiche. It's clear that the guy loves these kinds of stories and wanted to write one, and it's as good as it sounds. The pages fly by, and the sense of the author's enjoyment as he wrote this book is constantly palpable. It's not long (300 pages), but I read it in two sittings, which is entirely due to the aforementioned factors. The plot meets the mandatory complexity of a hardboiled mystery but is constantly moving forward with consistently dark and awesome scenes of intimidation, violence, sex, clandestine surveillance, breaking and entering, etc. All the good, sophisticated stuff we crime fiction fans love. To write a successful hardboiled novel, you must also be quick with the dry, often crude wit and turn of phrase, and Simmons succeeds here as well, resulting in gems like Kurtz drove about three miles before deciding that whoever was behind the wheel of the Honda was a fucking idiot or The trick was to enjoy the hard-on but not be led around by it. Is it Shakespeare? No. And thank the Book Gods for that.

Every fan of hardboiled fiction owes it to themselves to check this one out. It's even more amazing that he wrote two more of these! I'll be reading those very, very soon. I really don't see anyone who loves a dark crime story with a good bit of violent action not being satisfied by this one. I mean, this is the kind of book where the protagonist commits open defenestration within the full view of several police officers within the first 5 pages! (I can't believe I finally got to use the word defenestration. Thanks, Dan Simmons!) What an incredibly versatile and fantastic storyteller. I know I'm being a bit of a fanboy and annoying, but like I said, there really is something to be said for an author who can write an awesome book about the future of the human race and the meaning of art and then turn around and write an awesome book about a homeless murderer killing junkies and racist hicks and having sex with beautiful women. You know what I mean?

Fría Venganza (Joe Kurtz #1) by Dan Simmons is an exciting and engaging novel.

Just 48 hours after being released from prison where he spent 11 years, ex-private detective Joe Kurtz gets a job with a branch of the mafia run by the Farino family. He begins to investigate the attacks on trucks transporting stolen electronic merchandise that the Farinos suffer. As he gets involved with third-party interests and his own past, Joe Kurtz starts to be pursued by thugs, foreign assassins, and corrupt police officers. Meanwhile, he tries to keep his parole officer out of this violent chain of events.

Fría Venganza (Hard Case) is the first book of a trilogy written by the American author Dan Simmons (1948-). It pays homage to the Hard Boiled genre. In fact, this story is dedicated to Richard Stark, the pseudonym of Donald Westlake used to write the Parker series of books.

Dan Simmons sets aside a bit of science fiction and horror (although not the blood) and fully immerses himself in the action with this story. Fría Venganza is a story with a very fast pace, easy to read and entertaining. It doesn't pretend to be much more than a good time reading a plot full of violent action, mafia, detectives, and of course, the classic Femme Fatales, indispensable in this genre.

This work doesn't possess the allure and cleverness that an Elmore Leonard novel typically has. Instead, it leans more towards the style of a Mickey Spillane hardboiled, no-nonsense noir. However, it doesn't quite have that sharp edge.

It gives the impression that someone is writing a homage (and perhaps they are?), which is okay. But if you pick this up after reading the Hyperion saga or even more recent hits like The Terror, you'll be left scratching your head, wondering where the magic has vanished.

The story seems to lack that certain something that makes those other works truly stand out. It may have elements of the noir genre, but it fails to fully capture the essence and excitement that readers have come to expect.

Perhaps the author was trying too hard to imitate the style of others rather than finding their own unique voice. As a result, the narrative feels a bit flat and unengaging.

Overall, while it may have some redeeming qualities, it doesn't quite measure up to the standards set by its predecessors.

The next novel by Simmons, written with the intention of showing "I can do it too". Another such work is "Summer Nights", but everything is different here.

Genre-wise, this is a "hard boiled" detective story. So there is a standard set: a tough detective, the mafia, drugs, gangsters, a broken marriage of the main hero (not quite, but Simmons offers a plot-equivalent), hired killers, corrupt policemen, money in suitcases, betrayals, shootings. The men here are real men, and the women... There are almost none of them here.

But Simmons exaggerates all this. The men are not just men - testosterone drips from them instead of sweat. For example, one of the mobsters in the middle of December walks around in sports pants and a single T-shirt - so that his pumped-up torso is visible. That is, he is not just a man, but a man-tar from Gravity Falls. The main hero is not just strict - he is a rock in everything. Spent 11 years in prison? No problem, the first sex after release lasts at least 5 hours.

That is, you read this novel - and for the first half you laugh, it's so caricatured.

However, Simmons does not stop at caricature. The plot is quite twisted, at first there are not so many turns, but then the American "bitters" begin. And so, all the villains shoot, but Simmons rather parodically places several "royals" in the bushes. The scene of the final clarification of who the villain is is the height of parody.

The novel is easy to read, there is no depressive atmosphere or hopelessness of tough detectives. Just a fun story.

P.S. And there is also a "cameo" by Simmons here. I understand that he likes to introduce a character who is a teacher/writer. There is one in "Winter's Orbit", in "Hyperion". And here there are two of them - one is a philosopher, the other is a biblical scholar. Both are homeless, live under a bridge, but have a computer with access to the Internet. And the scene of their argument, where one swears in Latin and the other in ancient Hebrew, Simmons definitely added with courage: and I'm from this genre anyway.

A great long story or short novel (I don't know the number of words). "Dying in Bangkok" is a story told by a former US military combatant in which Thai mythology, impulses, horror, mystery, and above all, a superb setting are intertwined.

It's true that not much can be said because of its brevity. Saying more would reveal part of the charm of this novella. Although it has a more or less predictable ending (I hadn't guessed it, but it seems that many other readers had, judging from the reviews), we can also say that it is practically round.

This is the first thing I read from the well-known and multi-awarded Dan Simmons, and surely it won't be the last.

I was really impressed by the way Simmons managed to create such a vivid and engaging atmosphere in such a short space. The combination of different elements, like Thai mythology and the protagonist's personal experiences, added depth and complexity to the story.

Even though the ending might not have been a complete surprise for some, it still had an impact and left me thinking about the story long after I finished reading it. I'm looking forward to exploring more of Simmons' works in the future.

Joe Kurtz, despite spending 12 years in jail, has no plans to abandon his chosen career as a private investigator. He firmly believes that it's just a matter of stumbling upon the right case. However, that case seems elusive, so he pays a visit to Byron Tatick Farino, the mob boss. He proposes that for $400 a day plus expenses, he'll attempt to locate the Family's missing accountant and also determine who is hijacking the Family's trucks. Farino is inclined to let him proceed as he has little to lose, especially since Joe saved his son from a dreadful fate in Cell Block D.

Joe is now on the move. After reuniting with his ex-assistant, Arlene, he sets up an office in the basement of a porn store and commences looking into the Mob's affairs. No sooner does he interview the accountant's wife than she is discovered dead and brutally mutilated. The list of those who want Joe to back off is extensive, and they are clearly serious about preventing him from uncovering too much. There's the individual hijacking the trucks, who wishes to continue undetected. There are also Malcolm and Cutter, a couple of sociopaths (if not psychopaths) working for the Mob's lawyer. Not surprisingly, they are not entirely loyal and are aware of the $10,000 reward for the person who killed Ali, one of the Death Mosque brothers in Cell Block D. Finally, there are the Levine brothers, Manny and Sammy. Joe has never heard of them, but the word is that Manny blames Joe for Sammy's death.