A review by jakewritesbooks
A Touch of Death by Charles Williams

4.0

I had read zero words written by Charles Williams before this one, but I'd already digested two or three articles lauding him as a great, underrated crime novelist. Finally decided to check him out for the monthly Hard Case Crime. This one starts out as a readable if unoriginal crime thriller and then morphs into a psychological suspense thriller that's noir as hell. A lot of male-written post-WWII crime fiction was written with male impotency undergirding the tale. This one has it too but in a more claustrophobic way. It messes with the lead's head in the same way it messes with the readers. A little too much exposition but a good read, nonetheless. I can see why people like Williams.