Block-call

YOU COULD CALL IT MURDER is an incredibly short book; it's practically a novella. My copy clocks in at a slim 168 pages, has a slightly larger than average font, and greater-than-necessary spacing between the lines. The story itself is also fairly small in scale. It's a typical noir adventure, but told with enough spark to make it a reasonably enjoyable book.

The novel is so short that it's hard to discuss anything specific about it without potentially venturing into spoiler-territory, so I'll be brief. In short, this book is filled with the usual sort of stuff pertaining to this genre. There are tough guys, fast women, lots of boozing and smoking, a shootout with the baddie, murder, and blackmail; you get the idea. None of this material is in any way original, yet the story moves quickly enough for it to be a lot of fun.

YOU COULD CALL IT MURDER is definitely not the best noir novel ever published, but, luckily, it isn't the worst either. I didn't love the book; I just found it entertaining while I was reading it. I may never read it again, but it did provide me with a quick little shot of noir, which is exactly what I wanted. It's short enough that you can read it in a single, lazy afternoon, and there are much poorer ways you could spend that afternoon. If you like this kind of thriller, then you'll probably like this "lite" version.