stuart james – Cutting Edge Books

THE STUART JAMES READER

Now, for the first time ever, three long-lost, relentlessly hard-boiled classics by noir master Stuart James are collected in one volume: Frisco Flat, Bucks County Report, and Judge Not My Sins.

“One way or another, all of his books are as strikingly memorable. Using words with manipulative skill, he paints portraits that are poignantly three-dimensional and compassionate. You’re about to experience the essential Stuart James.” David Spencer, from his extensive Afterword in this volume.

FRISCO FLAT
When his father is beaten-to-death, Korean War vet and ex-prize fighter Frankie Cargo returns to his home in the small, northern California waterfront town of Frisco Flat. Cargo has inherited his father’s fishing boat business and trouble from Sam Barlow, the vicious local cannery owner who rules the town with fear…and with the iron fist of the psychopathic and corrupt Sheriff. If that wasn’t bad enough, Barlow gets involved with the Sheriff’s lover, the voluptuous Tosca Sorrento, who wants more than any man can give. But Barlow won’t be pushed…and never backs down from a fight.

“Pretty darned good. Frisco Flat moves along well. The book is a little better written, a little more literary in places, than many of the hard-boiled novels from that era,” James Reasoner, Rough Edges

BUCKS COUNTY REPORT
The explosive, bestselling novel that lays bare the erotic frustrations of suburban couples in 1960s America with savage frankness and searing drama.

In the wake of the Masters & Johnson studies, exposing the surprising sex lives of Americans, came this fictional bestseller that explores what happens when a famous “sexologist” visits a small town to interview the idle wives of the rich and famous… sparking passions that have been ignored or suppressed, dramatically changing the lives of the residents.

JUDGE NOT MY SINS
The provocative story of a fierce, destructive affair… of a man who longs to love without restraint, to give up his wife and children to plunge himself into a consuming passion that threatens his world… and of a woman who is driven by desire, and tormented by the horrible knowledge that her voracious hungers will destroy the man she loves.

CARNIVAL GIRL by Max Gareth aka Stuart James

A sensational story of sex and struggle set against the flaming background of a traveling carnival, where kind hearts clash with ruthless passions, and savage lust takes the place of love..

A pretty face, a love hungry body of nurturing beauty…Norma is young and green. Norma has fought to keep her virginiity since the age of twelve from the hands of her drunken, lustful stepfather. She flees from home and keeps going for three crazy days, heading west without money or clothes. She joins a traveling carnival and becomes their star performer, the sexy sensation of the show, the sensual woman every man wanted to possess and every woman wanted to be. But she’s swept up in a sweet, aching glorious storm of passion and pleasure that threatens to consume her…body and soul.

“Max Gareth” was the pseudonym of Stuart James, author of Bucks County Report and Frisco Flat, among other novels.

“A fast-moving, compelling tale that has a literate, well-written style and lots of interesting carnival background. A very readable, entertaining yarn. Clearly, Stuart James was a natural storyteller.” James Reasoner, author of more than 350 novels under various pseudonyms.

BUCKS COUNTY REPORT by Stuart James

The explosive, bestselling novel that lays bare the erotic frustrations of suburban couples in 1960s America with savage frankness and searing drama.

This book was republished in the early 1960s with the same title, but under the pseudonym “Irwin Wallach,” and later under the title The Devil’s Workshop, but once again under the Stuart James byline.

THE BEST PULP NOIR FICTION VOLUME SIX: Four Hard-Boiled Novels

Four complete novels of raw, hard-boiled, pulp noir greatness by four masters of the genre, back-in-print for the first time in sixty years.

THE HOODS TAKE OVER by Ovid Demaris * BEYOND DESIRE by Richard Himmel * FRISCO FLAT by Stuart James * BRUTE MADNESS by Ledru Baker, Jr.

THE HOODS TAKE OVER
The East Coast mob has moved to Los Angeles and nobody seems willing to stand up to their campaign of terror. But that changes when a young teacher out shopping for groceries witnesses a brutal mob murder, identifies the killers for the police, and is immediately targeted for death. It’s one ordinary man with integrity up against mobsters without a soul. He doesn’t stand a chance… or does he? This book was adapted into the 1958 movie Gang War starring Charles Bronson.

“This is the kind of novel the term ‘Noir’ was coined for..” NB Magazine UK

BEYOND DESIRE
Clarissa…in her arms, Peter achieved manhood. She taught him that to love too many women was to love none at all. He was obsessed with her, drugged by her warmth and willingness. By now, he was ready to kill himself and her if she refused him…

“Decidedly off-beat but nonetheless absorbing. Himmel makes a most unusual story convincing. He should rake’em in.” Pensacola News-Journal

FRISCO FLAT
When his father is beaten-to-death, Korean War vet and ex-prize fighter Frankie Cargo returns to his home in the small, northern California waterfront town of Frisco Flat. Cargo has inherited his father’s fishing boat business and trouble from Sam Barlow, the vicious local cannery owner who rules the town with fear…and with the iron fist of the psychopathic and corrupt Sheriff. If that wasn’t bad enough, Barlow gets involved with the Sheriff’s lover, the voluptuous Tosca Sorrento, who wants more than any man can give. But Barlow won’t be pushed…and never backs down from a fight.

“Pretty darned good. Frisco Flat moves along well. The book is a little better written, a little more literary in places, than many of the hard-boiled novels from that era,” James Reasoner, author of Texas Wind

BRUTE MADNESS
A wild, hard-boiled, pulp novel that will leave you breathless. Once the action starts, it doesn’t let up. Mark Mitchell is a playboy atomic rocket scientist who marries the wrong woman…and is betrayed in the worst possible way. He is quickly arrested, convicted of treason, and sentenced to life in prison. But that’s only the beginning of his nightmare in this lightning-fast, insanely unpredictable, brutal Cold War noir thriller.

JUDGE NOT MY SINS by Stuart James

The provocative story of a fierce, destructive affair… of a man who longs to love without restraint, to give up his wife and children to plunge himself into a consuming passion that threatens his world… and of a woman who is driven by desire, and tormented by the horrible knowledge that her voracious hungers will destroy the man she loves. A classic novel of 1950s suburban life by Stuart James, author of FRISCO FLAT and BUCKS COUNTY REPORT.

FRISCO FLAT by Stuart James

When his father is beaten-to-death, Korean War vet and ex-prize fighter Frankie Cargo returns to his home in the small, northern California waterfront town of Frisco Flat. Cargo has inherited his father’s fishing boat business and trouble from Sam Barlow, the vicious local cannery owner who rules the town with fear…and with the iron fist of the psychopathic and corrupt Sheriff. If that wasn’t bad enough, Barlow gets involved with the Sheriff’s lover, the voluptuous Tosca Sorrento, who wants more than any man can give. But Barlow won’t be pushed…and never backs down from a fight.

“Pretty darned good. Frisco Flat moves along well. The book is a little better written, a little more literary, than many hard-boiled novels.” James Reasoner, author of Texas Wind

“The pacing is brisk and the action sequences are exciting.” The Reading California Fiction Blog

STUART JAMES grew up in rural Pennsylvania and at 15 went to work as a sports reporter for the Delaware Valley Advance. Later. while attending Temple University, he was a copy boy for the Philadelphia Record, then served a stint in an intelligence unit in the Army. Newspaper work took him all across the country before he abandoned journalism, invested in a used Royal typewriter. and wrote adventure stories “by the pound”—meanwhile holding down such jobs as hunting guide, truck driver, bartender, rough carpenter, carnival barker, cannery worker, and ice cream salesman—as the rejections flooded in. At age 28, while working on a tuna boat out of Monterey, California, he sold his first story to a pulp magazine for $100. Several hundred stories later, when the short fiction markets started drying up, he became a staff writer, then executive, for a series of magazines. including Popular Mechanics and True. Finally, he quit magazines to become a a PR copywriter as well as ghostwriter and scriptwriter. “All the stuff any writer does,” he said. Many of his professions inform the milieus and character portraits in his novels. In 1992, the year of his last known published book, he was making his home between residences in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cedar Key, Florida. At this writing (October, 2020), there is no further information known as to his whereabouts (he would be 98 if still alive) or passing. (Biography courtesy of David Spencer)