The Original Black Lizard Crime Series of the 1980’s
Creative Arts Book Company was founded by Don Ellis in 1976 and Barry Gifford became a consultant/editor with the first Black Lizard imprint book being published in 1980 as Gifford’s Port Tropique. The story is that in 1983 Gifford, who was then in Paris, found a treasure trove of Jim Thompson novels (an even dozen). Gifford then took these nihilistic crime novels and used them as the foundation to establish or resurrect the Black Lizard imprint, which reintroduced America to the gritty psycho-noir crime novels of the Fifties and was best epitomized by Thompson’s wild and untamed prose. In 1990, Ellis sold Black Lizard (including the rights to 30 unprinted novels) to vintage books. These novels in the 1980’s with their lurid (matching covers) were part of a rebirth of the noir crime novel and noir movie world, which years later was intimated by Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime and other publishing houses.
After Dark, My Sweet, Jim Thompson
The Alcoholics, Jim Thompson
The Baby Doll Murders, James O. Causey
Black Mass of Brother Springer, Charles Willeford
Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction, Ed Gorman, ed.
Second Black Lizard Anthology, Ed Gorman, ed.
Blood Dance, Joe Landsdale (1986)
Blood on the Dining Room Floor, Gertrude Stein
Burnt Orange Heresy, Charles Willeford
Carny Kill, Robert Edmond Alter
Cockfighter, Charles Willeford
The Damned Don’t Die, Jim Nisbet
The Devil Wears Wings, Harry Whittington
Doctor Syntax, Michael Petracca
Fast One, Paul Cain
Fires That Destroy, Harry Whittington
Forgive Me Killer, Harry Whittington
The Getaway, Jim Thompson
The Golden Gizmo, Jim Thompson
Goodbye L.A., Murray Sinclair
The Grifters, Jim Thompson
A Hell of a Woman, Jim Thompson
His Name was Death, Fredric Brown
I Wake up Screaming, Steve Fisher
Jealous Woman, James M. Cain
Kill the Boss Goodbye, Peter Rabe
Man on the Run, Charles Williams
A Moment to Prey, Harry Whittington
The Name of the Game is Death, Dan J. Marlowe
Never Live Twice, Dan J. Marlowe
Nothing in Her Way, Charles Williams
Nothing More than Murder, Jim Thompson
Only in L.A., Murray Sinclair
The Root of his Evil, James M. Cain
Running of the Beasts, Bill Pronzini and Barry Malzberg
Seven Slayers, Paul Cain
Shoot the Piano Player, David Goodis
Silk Stalkings, Susan Thompson and Victoria Nichols
Sinful Woman, James M. Cain
Sing Me a Murder, Helen Nielsen
Street of No Return, David Goodis
Swamp Sister, Robert Edmond Alter
A Swell Looking Babe, Jim Thompson
A Ticket to Hell, Harry Whittington
Tough Luck L.A., Murray Sinclair
The Truth of the Matter, John Lutz
Web of Murder, Harry Whittington
You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up, Eric Knight
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Pulp, Crime, & Mystery Books 