Free 1956 Charles Willeford novella: Wild Wives

(Image from Hang Fire Books Flickr stream)

Manybooks.net has pulp author Charles Willeford's noir novella Wild Wives available for free in a variety of ebook formats.

Willeford, along with Fredric Brown, is one of my favorite pulp crime fiction writers because his work transcends the genre. From Willeford's Wikipedia entry: "Steve Erickson suggests that Willeford's crime novels are the 'genre's equivalent of Philip K. Dick's best science fiction novels. They don't really fit into the genre.'" Wild Wives by Charles Willeford Buy on Amazon.

[#1 posted by Neon Tooth, June 30, 2009 10:01 AM]

Father Yod?

[#2 posted by Anonymous, June 30, 2009 10:44 AM]

I think I'll read this while listening to YaHoWha 13 - Magnificence in the Memory tonight. Then I might just beat the wife.

[#3 posted by nanuq, June 30, 2009 12:39 PM]

What, no lesbians in this cult? I thought they big in 50s pulps. Them and communists.

[#4 posted by mfrankly, June 30, 2009 12:46 PM]

Heya Mark, mods, editors: Check your brackets, they seem to be unbalanced.

[#5 posted by Anonymous, June 30, 2009 2:56 PM]

Great stuff.

[#6 posted by zyzzyva, June 30, 2009 3:30 PM]

While Manybooks may have it, the real place to go for all your pulp needs is Munseys.

http://munseys.com/

(No, they don't pay me for that.)

[#7 posted by Anonymous, June 30, 2009 3:50 PM]

This is a great book. I'm a huge Willeford fan. Definitely check it out.

[#8 posted by buddy66, June 30, 2009 5:01 PM]

THIS is a guy I wish I had met. Our paths must have paralleled a few times, one street over; he bummed around in much the same way in many of the same places, except for the Florida years ... Man, I hate that place!

I didn't read him until a couple years before he died. Too bad he came to general recognition so late in his life. I'd have loved to have pounded down a few beers with him forty years ago and swapped some true lies. I'll bet he had a million of 'em.

The Hank Moseley books are absolutely wonderful.