The Squeeze/ —And the Girl Screamed

Gil Brewer

By guest reviewer Nicholas Litchfield,
editor of the Lowestoft Chronicle

IN two tumultuous stories set in 1950s Florida, a jobless accountant burdened by debt becomes entangled with a seductive femme fatale in a plan to steal her family’s fortune… and a former cop finds himself the prime suspect in a murder he witnessed and must track down the real killer to prove his innocence.

The Squeeze/ —And the Girl Screamed are notable works by the late American author Gil Brewer (pictured below), a master of gripping crime thrillers. With 50 novels and over 100 short stories to his name, Brewer gained significant acclaim as one of the most popular noir writers of the 1950s.

Initially published in 1955 as an Ace Double paperback original, The Squeeze is one of Brewer’s early works, released four years after his successful bestselling novel, 13 French Street, which sold over 1.3 million copies. In his introduction to this collection, David Rachels notes that Fawcett, Popular Library, and Avon all rejected the manuscript before it was accepted by Ace Books.

Lead player is Joe Maule, an accountant whose life spirals out of control when he loses $17,000 at The Green Ditch, a gambling house in Tampa, Florida, owned by the brutal Victor Jarnigan. What Joe doesn’t know is that Jarnigan – a syndicate boss who controls much of the Florida West Coast gambling – has rigged the casino machines, intentionally setting Joe up as a patsy to manipulate him later.

Jarnigan knows that the attractive redhead Caroline Shreves, with ‘legs curved like twin dreams’, has been watching Joe in the casino and enquiring about him. Caroline lives with her stepsister, Sara Lobb, and her brother-in-law, Ernest. Rumour has it there’s $260,000 hidden in their house, money given to Ernest by his thieving brother who was executed for causing a nightwatchman's death during a botched robbery and passed on his ill-gotten savings before his demise.

The fat, bear-like Ernest never leaves his beach house in Indian Rocks, and Jarnigan sees an opportunity to connect Caroline with Joe, with the understanding that Joe will build a relationship with the family and uncover the hidden loot for Jarnigan. If successful, Joe’s debt will be wiped clean… if he fails, the consequences could be fatal.

As the days turn to weeks, Caroline’s love for Joe blossoms, and Joe spends more time inside the house getting to know Ernest and Sara. But Jarnigan’s thugs regularly inflict beatings on Joe to hasten his progress, leaving little room for error.

In a moment of desperation, Joe confides in Caroline, and together they devise a plan to force Ernest to reveal the location of the hidden money, aiming to escape without involving Jarnigan. The plan is fraught with risk and danger, and inevitably, things go awry in the worst possible way.

Brewer’s fast-paced thriller is filled with tension and graphic violence, culminating in a twisty tale with an unpredictable ending. And yet it’s the strong characterisation and witty descriptions that leave a lasting impression.

The second tale, —And the Girl Screamed, a paperback original released under the Crest Books imprint, is a punchy crime thriller centred on police officer Cliff Reddick who has been on active leave for fourteen months after getting shot in the arm while apprehending a prison escapee and, in the process, saving his partner’s life. Troubled by the department’s decision to reject his return to active duty during a quick-draw test, he reflects, ‘All I knew right then was that I had wanted to be a cop all my life and now it was shot.’

Cliff’s longing to return to the force is deeply entwined with his personal life and his belief that his lover, Eve Thayer, would eventually leave her powerful husband, Edward. Ed is a big-shot lawyer, ‘handsome, suave, and bold enough to go after what he wanted the moment he saw it.’ Eve sees him as ‘a rotten schemer’ but Ed adamantly refuses to let any hint of his wife’s infidelity surface, will not grant her a divorce, is fully aware of her affair with Cliff, and is now plotting his revenge.

The opportunity for Ed’s payback arrives when Cliff and Eve witness a murder on the beach one night. Hearing a scream that ‘ripped across the soft night, a crazed shriek of pure helplessness and fear,’ Cliff stumbles over the lifeless body of 17-year-old Jinny Foster. In a desperate attempt to distance himself from the murder and shield Eve’s infidelity, he delays reporting the incident to the authorities until he drives Eve home.

Unfortunately, he later discovers that his wallet has slipped from his pocket into the sand beside the body, making him a prime suspect in the murder investigation. With the law closing in, he embarks on a frantic mission to uncover the truth, posing as an investigator to engage with the victim’s distraught parents and school friends.

What he uncovers is a town beset by a wave of juvenile delinquency and moral decay, where discerning the truth becomes far more perilous than facing the police.

Compellingly narrated, —And the Girl Screamed is a nail-biting, tightly woven suspense novel filled with vividly drawn characters and exhilarating drama. Paired with The Squeeze, these novels deliver a thrilling reading experience which keeps you scrambling through the pages to enjoy the final showdown.
(Stark House Press, paperback, £14.95)