Gerry Kells, a criminal and a loner, survives in the brutal world of the depression by a simplistic code, loyalty and revenge

Fast One

Literature & Fiction

Cain, Paul

United States

Vintage

Seven brutally ingenius tales of murder passionate and cold-blooded, written by a poet of the hard-boiled. There's Black, a stranger in town, who gets drafted into a gang war just because he had the bad luck to trip over a corpse on his way from the station. There's the glamorous Bella, whose boyfriends have the distressing habit of stabbing one another while she naps in the next room. And of course there's Johnny Doolin, who hires himself out as a bodyguard--only to find that his client has no interest in staying alive. The men and women in Seven Slayers are exactly what the title promises: people who kill for love or money or for the sheer, perverse joy of homicide. And this riveting collection is one of the few surviving books by Paul Cain (aka Peter Ruric, aka George Sims), a hard-drinking, enigmatic writer of the 1930s who had as many pseudonyms as he had wives and of whom Raymond Chandler wrote that he had reached in his fiction "a high point in the hard-boiled manner."

Seven Slayers

Literary

First published by Doubleday in 1932 in the depth of the Great Depression, an era whose seamy side it depicts, and only recently rediscovered, Fast One byPaul Cain (one of the mystery men of American literature) explodes into real life with the story of one of the toughest characters ever to emerge in American fiction.
Paul Cain is the pseudonym of Peter Ruric, a man who emerged from nowhere in the 1930s, wrote Fast One and several short stories and movie scripts, and then disappeared. Nothing more has been heard of him. Gerry Kells, the antihero of his shocking, brutal novel, is equally mysterious. A loner with a reputation but without a visible past, Kells simply appears, rearranges the lives of the Los Angeles underworld, and then is heard no more.
Only the strong prosper in the world of the depression. Seemingly amoral, Kells does prosper. He strikes to survive, kills without conscience, without time for conscience. But he never becomes a mere killing machine. His integrity, his humanity, abides in a code demanding that he pay for all services: those rendered for him, those rendered against him.
Fast paced and very readable, the novel limns a true character who should take his place in our national literature, if only for his representation of the individual will to survive in one of the toughest times in American life.

Fast One (Lost American Fiction)

Short Stories & Anthologies

Southern Illinois University Press

Black Lizard

First published by Doubleday in 1932 in the depth of the Great Depression, an era whose seamy side it depicts, and only recently rediscovered, Fast One by Paul Cain (one of the mystery men of American literature) explodes into real life with the story of one of the toughest characters ever to emerge in American fiction. Paul Cain is the pseudonym of Peter Ruric, a man who emerged from nowhere in the 1930s, wrote Fast One and several short stories and movie scripts, and then disappeared. Nothing more has been heard of him. Gerry Kells, the antihero of his shocking, brutal novel, is equally mysterious. A loner with a reputation but without a visible past, Kells simply appears, rearranges the lives of the Los Angeles underworld, and then is heard no more. Only the strong prosper in the world of the depression. Seemingly amoral, Kells does prosper. He strikes to survive, kills without conscience, without time for conscience. But he never becomes a mere killing machine. His integrity, his humanity, abides in a code demanding that he pay for all services: those rendered for him, those rendered against him. Fast paced and very readable, the novel limns a true character who should take his place in our national literature, if only for his representation of the individual will to survive in one of the toughest times in American life.

Creative Arts Book Company

Hyperion Books

No Exit Press

Illustrated by Geoff Grandfield, this is the graphic-novel version of the gangster novel "Fast One". Set during the Great Depression in Los Angeles, it relates the saga of gunman-gangster Gerry Kells and his dipso lover, S.Granquist, who rearrange the LA underworld.

Fast One: the Graphic Novel

Arts & Photography

Grandfield, Geoff

History & Criticism

Oldcastle Books

For the first time ever!-two hardboiled classics!-joined at last! First published in 1933, Fast One is the roughest novel of the Black Mask school-praised by Chandler!-hailed by Captain Shaw! A searing tale of underworld Los Angeles, where the only crime is loving too much! To live outside the law you must be honest! Seven Slayers contains seven of Cain's very best short stories written for Black Mask! Each one a pip and a prize! Together in an attractive, readable edition-and for a very low cost-these two books comprise the Omnibus! George Carrol Sims wrote for Black Mask under the nom de guerre Paul Cain. As Peter Ruric, he wrote for Motion Pictures-including 1934's The Black Cat, a film distinguished by every element except its screenplay, and 1944's Mademoiselle Fifi, one of the lesser known films produced by RKO's Val Lewton. Sims dated the actress Gertrude Michael, said to inspire the character of Granquist in Fast One. Sims died of cancer in a Hollywood hotel.

Omnibus (Fast One / Seven Slayers)

Classics

Resurrectionary Pr

It's the last days of Prohibition and the first days of the Depression and East Coast crime bosses are vying for control of Los Angeles. Caught in the middle of the intrigues is Gerry Kells, a former New York enforcer now living a life of ease on the West Coast. As the fiercely independent Kells rejects the appeals of various crime bosses who want to make use of his talents, powerful forces align against him. Being framed for a murder turns out to be the least of his troubles and as the stakes get higher, and the odds get longer, it's only Kells' nerve and toughness that keep him one step ahead of the law—and the reaper. Featuring one of the most brutal finales in crime fiction history, this lost 1933 masterpiece took hard-boiled writing as far is it safely could. Some say too far.

Fast One: The Most Hard-Boiled Novel of the 1930s!

Gutter Books LLC

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cain, Paul. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cain, Paul

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cain, Paul. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fast One

Seven Slayers

Fast One (Lost American Fiction)

Seven Slayers

Fast One

Fast One

Seven Slayers

Fast One: the Graphic Novel

Omnibus (Fast One / Seven Slayers)

Fast One: The Most Hard-Boiled Novel of the 1930s!