WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Sam Fuller's "The Dark Page" has been re-issued, and for those who know his movies, that's all that needs to be said.
It originally was published in 1944, when Fuller was in the Army during World War II, an experience that eventually resulted in his movie "The Big Red One." "The Dark Page" was his fourth novel, and after the war, he was more or less permanently seduced by the movies, although he really just saw movies as a more visceral way of telling stories.
In outline, "The Dark Page" is a terse, nasty noir about a newspaper editor who murders a woman and finds that his best reporter, who happens to be covering the murder, keeps getting closer to the killer.
It's a great premise for a thriller, and because Fuller knew the newspaper business inside and out — he worked his way across the country as a reporter during the Depression by hopping newspapers the way hobos hopped trains — it brings back an era of ink and romance, as well as basic human venality.
Wim Wenders contributes an introduction that completely captures Fuller's gusto as a man and an artist.
In the Pipeline...
Sports Illustrated Books will publish Kostya Kennedy's "56: The Last Magic Number in Sports," the story of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941. Publication will be on the 70th anniversary of the event.
Mike Browning's Word of the Week...
grinagog: someone who always is smiling foolishly and without reason.
Scott Eyman writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: scott(underscore)eyman(at)pbpost.com.