So Many Doors

September 24, 2018
In this somewhat dated tale of murder and obsession from Hall (1920–2008), first published in 1950, bulldozer operator Jack Ward seduces a California rancher’s daughter, Vassila “V” Baird, and the two begin a steamy affair. Set in the years around WWII, the novel starts off in Bakersfield and the Central Valley and moves to San Diego, where Jack and V get married. Eventually, their relationship falls apart and ends in cold-blooded murder. The fuse lit to ignite a James M. Cain–style atmosphere burns slow, and the clashes between Jack and V often come off as hysterical melodrama. The two leads prove less interesting than peripheral characters such as the idealistic Ben Proctor and Marian Huber with her petty jealousies. On the plus side, Hall (Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades and four other mysteries set in 1880s San Francisco) provides plenty of fascinating detail about the lives of the “cat skinners” who handled the big excavating and paving equipment of that era. In this early novel, he may have created his own subgenre: Road Grader Noir.

October 1, 2018
A willful and provocative beauty drives every man within her orbit to distraction, and one to murder, in a novel that was first published to great acclaim in 1950.Each of the tale's five sections focuses on a different character, all of them with hard-luck stories. The first begins as a broken Jack Ward sits in jail. Having confessed to the murder of an unnamed woman, he tells his court-appointed lawyer that all he wants is the gas chamber. Next Hall (Warlock, 1958, etc.) flashes back to Depression-era southern California, where Baird, a distressed rancher, is trying to keep his gorgeous and unruly teenage daughter, Vassilia, from running wild. Denton, a wealthy neighboring rancher, garners her affection by buying V a beautiful horse. When he offers to pay for V's college education, claiming that he loves her like a daughter, Baird is unwilling to deny his generosity. The next section focuses on Ben Proctor, a small-time politico and roommate of Jack Ward, who's dating V. Despite himself, Ben finds himself undeniably drawn to V, something Jack seems frustratingly oblivious to, often inviting him to join them. Whether her flirtatiousness is a form of friendly attention or something more, this arrangement can't end well. Then the story jumps to Marian Huber, who adds another angle through her husband Arch's friendship with Jack Ward, who's newly married to naïve Gene Geary. Marian doesn't think that supersweet Gene is a good match for erratic Jack, but when she spots him with a voluptuous temptress, she feels duty-bound to inform the innocent newlywed.Hall's cautionary tale of a femme fatale boasts crackerjack storytelling, vibrant characters, and some terrific twists.

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October 1, 2018
The gorgeous woman called V is dead when the story begins. The narrative at once shifts to her childhood, and we watch her pass through the "doors" of the title, each one opening on a seemingly random event that leads, as in Greek tragedy, to the horrible finale. If V's father hadn't suppressed her pride in her burgeoning teenage body; if men hadn't treated her as a commodity; if her lover hadn't dumped her; if his coworker's wife wasn't a meddler; and if the doctor's instruments hadn't been dirty. And so on. The novel, which appeared in 1950 as a paperback original, has been out of print for 60 years. Hall went on to a celebrated career in multiple genres, and the appearance of this lost early novel will draw plenty of interest, though in some ways the artful prose undercuts its pulp power. Still, the writing carries its own appeal, and there is a glorious explosion of an ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)