Twenty years ago Charles Ardai was one of the founders of Hard Case Crime, an imprint that tries (and mostly succeeds) to capture the spirit of hard-boiled pulp fiction that flourished in the middle of the last century. To celebrate the 20th anniversary we have “Death Comes Too Late”, a collection of short stories from Charles Ardai that captures the heart and spirit of the pulps.

These short stories run all over the place, showing that the attitude of noir can be applied to various times and various settings, from the home front of WWII to gangsters in postwar Mexico and even ancient China.

Catching black marketeers, with deadly consequences. A kind gesture between friends playing videogames leads to a dark ending. Joining the circus. A plane that was supposed to explode but didn’t interjects with a guy stealing some pearls. An east coast casting director comes to the end of the line and tries to do the right thing. A man searches for another in Mexico to give him a letter, a warning. A man hires a PI to find his fiancé, a case of mistaken identity. Taking care of the boss’s sister can be dangerous work when you’re a gangster. Even superheroes need a PI once in a while. Two factions both believe Elvis is alive, but they have cross-purposes. A woman comes looking for her father among the ladies of the night. A suicide note leads to a difficult conversation. A son lies to his dying father. A husband avenges his wife’s attackers. Three loan sharks fulfill a murder contract during Carnival. A woman has an affair while her husband is at a conference. How easy is it to kill a presidential candidate? A traveling salesman makes a fateful stop at a bar one night. A man walks out of his life and right into a murder. Two Chinese brothers have different approaches to solving a murder.

Each of these situations has a dark side, a twist you didn’t see coming, an unexpected tragedy. Mr. Ardai demonstrates that noir can happen anywhere, anytime. And we are fortunate to have him to show us.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Titan Books, Hard Case Crime Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Charles Ardai has long been an icon in pulp crime fiction; as one of the founders of Hard Case Crime, he is the reason that so many classic pulp writers have been given a second life. Without Ardai and Hard Case Crime, I would not have discovered Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins and so many others.

Ardai has written a handful of great crime novels in the last few decades, but this latest entry "Death Comes Too Late" takes the form of a short story collection, a real celebration of what Hard Case Crime can be. Ardai writes pulp fiction with great skill and creates engaging and exciting worlds with every tale.

This really is a great collection and one that I will be seeking out to show others just what Hard Case Crime and pulp stories are capable of.

Thanks to NetGalley for approving me of this Hard Case Crime book! Great short story collection and I was not expecting a story collection! Might be the best set of stories i have read in a long time. Ardai is legit a great mystery writer and while a few of the stories followed a certain formula I enjoyed seeing how each panned out. This is my first Hard Case Crime book and it will not be my last!

Mr. Ardai is an accomplished author in the genre of noir short stories, a fiction category that may have reached its apogee a mere seven or eight decades back. This collection of tales previously published in magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Ellery Queen’s organ, is nothing if not authentic, and the earliest included work first appeared 32 years ago. Ardai is known as a champion of this form, having established the Hard Case Crime imprint and written introductions and appreciations of some of the leading exemplars of the hard-boiled canon. This well-stocked collection of his own work is understandably uneven, but reaches some impressive heights. In particular, Ardai’s 2010 story, “A Free Man,” is poignant, persuasive and gripping, in the tradition of the very best noir. “A Bar Called Charley’s,” written in 1990, is equally good. If Ardai has one particular fault, it might be that he loves the genre a tad too much. Several of his tales might be regarded as affectionate copies of the masters of the post-war period, but that is mild criticism, and I doubt that the author would object. His work is well worth reading and recommending, and I am grateful to NetGalley for making this prepublication edition available for my review.

My personal preference is to not read a short story collection straight through, as I like to read an occasional story at a time by an author, and savor it. The good news is that this collection - Death Comes Too Late - provides the reader with a lot to savor.

Charles Ardai is a wonderful author, whose work I do not recall reading before, thus I am delighted that Hard Case Crime made it possible here. Ardai excels in telling a short story, in each he creates an engaging atmosphere, and memorable characters. Without making it obvious, many of the stories in this volume conclude with a believable but satisfying twist. Whether the character study of a show business agent, a privilege detective or a hood, every story in this collection provides a satisfying read, and frequently made me want to turn the page and begin the next.

If you are into mysteries, and the hard boiled “nor” side of life, the collection of tales within Death Comes Too Late, will not disappoint you.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Hard Case Crime imprint, the publishers have released Death Comes Too Late, a collection of 20 mostly noir short stories from across the career of imprint founder Charles Ardai. The author admits the choice of title is a bit cheeky for a collection of stories in which death seems to arrive in a timely manner, if not early and unexpectedly. Regardless, it is a phenomenal collection by an author who I think is truly underrated. I say this as someone who is mostly familiar with Ardai as founder/editor/publisher and who had previously read only one of the stories contained herein.

That story, “Mother of Pearl,” blew me away when I first read it in From Sea to Stormy Sea (edited by the great Lawrence Block), and it blew me away again here. It is one of the few non-noir stories in the collection, if noir must include a crime or double-cross of some kind. There is a mystery at its core – who is this nameless, seemingly genderless, narrator telling us this tale of a young woman’s search for the truth of her father’s death and the mother who put her up for adoption? As I said back in 2020, the story is “a rumination on success, failure, identity, and the search for where we come from,” and upon multiple rereads I continue to find some moment or bit of phrasing or twist in the story that didn’t stand out to me on previous reads. As with most of the stories in Death Comes Too Late, “Mother of Pearl” has layers upon layers, twists to the twists, that keep you wondering where Ardai is leading you right up to the last paragraph.

I think it is safe to say that the whole collection is a rumination on success, failure, identity, and the search for where we come from (sometimes to embrace it, sometimes to understand it, sometimes to leave it behind). And equally safe to say that most of the time, those ruminations take some long, complicated routes to get to that moment of embracing, understanding, or leave-taking.

The book starts strong with “The Home Front,” in which a private investigator hired by the United States government to suss out black marketeers during World War Two is responsible for the accidental death of a young man he’s just arrested – which is just the start of a journey that turns brutal and bloody by the end while our protagonist tries to decide who he is after the tragedy. This is followed by “Game Over,” which starts with a boy’s simple wish to treat his less-well-off best friend to a free afternoon of video games at the local pizza place but whose plan to do so results in wounded pride, misunderstanding, harsh accusations, and yes tragedy. Two quite different time frames with characters of very different ages, both dealing with expectations of who they are based on something someone else has done (or not done). “The Fall of Man” is another heartbreaking story with a teen at the center, a startlingly honest look at suicide and its aftermath.

Charles Ardai is an expert at making sure his stories don’t end where they start – those long, complicated routes mentioned earlier – even when obeying genre dictates. “The Case” starts out as a standard “missing luggage” story but neatly twists through two characters’ points-of-view into something that would be at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “Goin’ West” starts with a classic “Hollywood casting couch” scene (only in New York) that doesn’t quite go where you’d expect but with a conclusion that feels inevitable. “The Shadow Line” opens with our narrator waking up in a room in Mexico with a sex worker, intent on hunting down a man he’s been sent to locate – but not for the reasons that seem apparent. “Jonas and the Frail” is a “bodyguard loses his teenage charge, chaos ensues” tale with a killer reveal and ending; “Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright” is a revenge tale writ large; “My Husband’s Wife” is a riff on “disaffected corporate wife has affair” type stories. But they all take surprising turns, and each protagonist faces challenges that reveal something about where they came from or who they really are.

Ardai is also not above twisting his genres. “The Deadly Embrace,” one of my favorites in the collection, is a neat bit of super-hero noir that takes the real-world fierce competition between comics publishers in the 1950s (think the famous DC vs. Fawcett lawsuit over the original Captain Marvel) and combines it with a twist on the Hollywood Studio System in a world where super-heroes are real but under contract to the comics companies, which some of them find stifling. “Don’t Be Cruel” plays with conspiracy theories (particularly around Elvis’s supposed survival) in a noir light. “The Day After Tomorrow” is another tale that is not really noir at all, but more horror.

The collection ends with another decidedly non-noir tale, the mystery “The Investigation of Things.” If any story in the book can be called “Sherlockian,” it is this one. Two brothers in 11th century China, both detectives with decidedly different investigatory styles, are called to solve the murder of a Buddhist monk and stumble upon the invention of something we are all too familiar with as a weapon of murder in our modern era. There are twists upon twists, with one brother looking at minute and seemingly unimportant minute details while the other systematically interviews reluctant peers of the deceased (said brother even utters a variation on Detective Columbo’s famous “oh, just one more question” line, which brought a smile to this reader’s face).

If you love short stories in the mystery/crime genre that are more than just a recitation of the facts of the case or the reveal of the mystery, stories that explore the breadth of human interactions and passions, then Charles Ardai is your man, and Death Comes Too Late is your next must-read short story collection.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

As the blurb says the stories genuinely took me to the darkest places and darkest corners of the heart. The stories were unsettling, unforgettable, and unputdownable. There were shocking revelations and jaw dropping twists and turns. Some stories were simply heart wrenching and brutal. While some of them were so gripping and unforgettable. They blur the line between truth and unsettling reality. The stories diminished the line between whom to trust and whom to not. The book has the best crime stories featuring noir crime, dark-minded truths, cold blood murder, hard boiled detective stories, questioning morals, pain of losing loved ones, revenge and diminishing the line between moral and immoral.

In home front, rory harper killed a boy in an accident and it turns his life upside down but the worst happens when he ends up at Moira’s house. Game over shared the story of Lyle and kyle, expect the unexpected in this story. The day after tomorrow was really short but frightening. The case was unpredictable and intense. Goin’ West was a mysterious and complex story. The Shadow Line is so deep and action packed. In Nobody Wins, Leon Culhane hires Mr. Mickity to find his fiancé Lila. The truth is gruesome and this is a noir crime story. Jonas and the Frail was filled with horror and twists and turns. The Deadly Embrace was twisted and the plot twists were unpredictable. Don’t be cruel unveiled the dark corners of human heart. Mother of Pearl, this is a story of a mother and daughter. The Fall of a man is such a clever story. Fathers and sons, unthinkable things happens and secrets from the past unravels. Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright, a husband learns horrible truths. Masks, dreadful truth and secrets unveils in this story. The Investigation of Things, this is about moral, unthinkable things and unsettling reality. The ending was shocking. Some tales unveils the buried secrets from the past while some were about revenge.

My absolutely favourite stories are Nobody Wins, Jonas and the Frail, The Deadly Embrace, Don’t be cruel, Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright, Fall of a man, The investigation of things and the home front.

Many thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley.

The cover of this book brings to mind hard boiled detective tales, spy novels and mercenaries for hire stories. Sure, there is some of that in this anthology of short stories but there is so much more: hard luck, even harder irony, action and lots and lots of heart. The language may be gritty (not swears) but it also evokes powerful images and atmosphere. Give it a try, I think you will be very surprised at the level of writing and variety of stories you find.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

This latest instalment in the Hard Case Crime collection is a brilliant addition to the growing catalogue. I love a good short story from time to time and this collection is perfect since it has a good mixture of length and style but all with the over arching theme of crime. There is a nice mixture of hard boiled to more experimental styles. I personally liked the more noir offerings but there is something for every crime fan here and best of all this makes the perfect starting point for the wider Hard Case Crime novels.

I loved the style and writing of each piece even when they varied in tone and style. It is clear to see from this collection why Ardai has won such prestigious awards. I have to say this was my introduction to them and I will certainly be looking into more works by them in the future. Perfect for fans of the genre both new and old.

For anyone who hasn't yet discovered the thrill of reading Hardboiled Crime Fiction this is a perfect place to start. And for anyone wanting to enhance their collection of the genre this is a worthy addition.
Charles Ardai has written twenty stories which are vast in scope and period. Some of them fit perfectly into the golden age of the genre with neat, clever plots set in the 1940s and 1950s. But there are more modern settings as well featuring - a suitcase with a bomb in it - the death of a Buddhist monk - competing superheroes and supervillans - all using the recognised tropes of the genre but in new innovative ways.
I won't name any of my favourite stories because in all honesty I loved them all.

Superb! Great handling of that particular style of novel. Good story, good action and just a lot of fun. I recommend it!

Titan Books provided an early galley for review.

This cover, painted by Paul Mann, looks like it came right from the paperbacks I would see around town in the early 1970's. Its nostalgic feel drew me into checking this one out.

In the introduction, Ardai talks about how satisfying a good short story can be. He certainly knows from experience as these tales of his here are quite good indeed. The lengths vary - some longer while others shorter (the shortest being just two pages). Ardai though knows how to make the most of his words, to move the narrative along and to convey the concepts cleanly and consisely. I easily found several favorites in the tales presented.

The stories cover over three decades of the author's work, from 1990's "A Bar Called Charley's" to 2023's "Game Over". I definitely connected with some of the stories more than others, but that is always the benefit of collections like this. There is bound to be something that will appeal to every reader.

I also liked the fact that we are given a bit of variety in the settings. Sure, there are several tales with similar themes (like finding a missing woman or committing a murder), but Ardai switches it up by putting the stories into different environments. Vareity is the spice of life, after all.

Writing reviews of short story collections is hard. Maybe a little easier when it's the same author. With Death Comes Too Late Charles Ardai has made it pretty easy to review since they're all really, really good. The Hard Case Crime Library has become automatic reads for me in the past twenty years and this collection celebrates that by reminding us that he himself, is a gifted writer. I've read a few of these before, along with a couple of his novels and comic books and my admiration for him has only grown. Like with any good short story collection there were some stories I liked more than others, but there isn't a bad one in the bunch and writing short fiction is its own art and Charles Ardai is a master of this art.

Special Thanks to Hard Case Crime, Titan Books and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

I love a good short story and am a big fan of the Hard Case Crime series so while I wasn't familiar with the author's written work when I saw this collection celebrating the publishers' 20th anniversary by collecting together 20 of the author's best short stories, I thought it looked interesting.
I really enjoyed this eclectic collection - some of the stories are hardboiled, some feel more experimental, some more like sketches of a moment in time (I mean that in a good way).
The stories range from award winning pieces (and what awards - Edgars, Shamus finalist, Year's Best to tales from over 30 years ago,
There are the straight forward 'classic' noir feel stories like the book's opener The Home Front which covers enough material to be a long form novel if the author had desired to write it, through to mob tales like Nobody WIns, to some oddities like Don't Be Cruel - an Elvis conspiracy story, and even a PI meets Superhero short.
The range of subject and style is as impressive as the writing itself and despite my previous ignorance I'll be seeking out more from the author.
Recommended.