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kellyvandamme's review
5.0
Always the Dead tells the story of Scott Kelly, born in Ireland but raised across the ocean by parents looking for a better life. Scott served the Marines in the Second World War and worked as a mob hitman. Now, his body is in a sanatorium in California in 1949 where he’s being treated for tuberculosis, but part of his mind is stuck in Okinawa, Japan, on the atrocities he’s seen and done there, and also on the crimes he’s since committed.
The one highlight of Scott’s life is his relationship with Jean Spangler, whom he loves more than he dares admit. The name might ring a bell because this is where Always the Dead is based on actual facts and events: in 1947 an actress by the name of Jean Spangler went missing and a dozen theories have been voiced about her disappearance. Always the Dead tells her story from the viewpoint of her lover Scott Kelly.
Always the Dead evokes memories of the black and white gangster movies of yore, where blood flows darkly and gunshots ring through the night, where the men are tough and the women are beautiful, albeit perhaps slightly ditzy. It doesn’t get any more noir than this.
There’s just something about Stephen J. Golds’ writing that never fails to draw me in, something that seems to cast a spell over me. He is the absolute master of rather short books that pack an enormous punch written in a prose that is pitch-black and anything but flowery, yet strangely poetic, and beautifully so.
I loved everything about Always the Dead, it’s violent and it’s dark and it’s beautiful, and the protagonist is portrayed in such a way that you can’t help but care about him, no matter his criminal ways. If you’re looking for a hard-hitting crime noir novel, be sure to check out Always the Dead!
The one highlight of Scott’s life is his relationship with Jean Spangler, whom he loves more than he dares admit. The name might ring a bell because this is where Always the Dead is based on actual facts and events: in 1947 an actress by the name of Jean Spangler went missing and a dozen theories have been voiced about her disappearance. Always the Dead tells her story from the viewpoint of her lover Scott Kelly.
Always the Dead evokes memories of the black and white gangster movies of yore, where blood flows darkly and gunshots ring through the night, where the men are tough and the women are beautiful, albeit perhaps slightly ditzy. It doesn’t get any more noir than this.
There’s just something about Stephen J. Golds’ writing that never fails to draw me in, something that seems to cast a spell over me. He is the absolute master of rather short books that pack an enormous punch written in a prose that is pitch-black and anything but flowery, yet strangely poetic, and beautifully so.
I loved everything about Always the Dead, it’s violent and it’s dark and it’s beautiful, and the protagonist is portrayed in such a way that you can’t help but care about him, no matter his criminal ways. If you’re looking for a hard-hitting crime noir novel, be sure to check out Always the Dead!
writermattphillips's review
5.0
Golds writes another authentic throwback here. Though the language and approach render this story modern somehow. Deep dark noir faithful to the casual tropes, but rendered authentic by unique characterization. A writer of great skill—yet another modern noir writer who deserves a bigger readership. Move over Westlake, Collins, Block...
storyman's review
5.0
Stephen J. Golds' Always the Dead has a touch of Lehane in its prose and James Ellroy in its setting. Set in post WW2, the book follows Scott Kelly's mental swings from obsession with a woman he can't quite grasp, to recollections of the Pacific War's knee-deep bloodiness which formed his character.
Golds has a way of painting a picture to suck you right into his world, a world you'll want to escape, but can't quite pull yourself from because the writing is so good.
This is dark stuff. The men and women are all flawed, lost, brutal, and you would side-eye them in a bar and sidle away in hope they wouldn't talk to you. But in this novel, you'll watch them through a pin-hole, googly-eyed at the rocks they crash themselves on.
Great stuff.
Golds has a way of painting a picture to suck you right into his world, a world you'll want to escape, but can't quite pull yourself from because the writing is so good.
This is dark stuff. The men and women are all flawed, lost, brutal, and you would side-eye them in a bar and sidle away in hope they wouldn't talk to you. But in this novel, you'll watch them through a pin-hole, googly-eyed at the rocks they crash themselves on.
Great stuff.
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