I think the only thing keeping it from being a perfect read for me are the long, often tedious and repetitive scenes among the gangsters in this book, but otherwise, it's nearly perfect. I haven't seen the movie based on this book ("Out of the Past") yet, but it's on tonight's schedule. This book is chock full of betrayals, double crosses and murder making for a hell of a good straight crime read, but it can certainly also stand on its literary merits.PI Peter "Red" Markham and his partner Jack Fisher have taken on their last case together. They are called to the home of Whit Sterling, who hired them to find his missing girl, Mumsie McGonigle and the fifty-six thousand dollars she ran away with. The case takes Markham to Mexico, where he locates Mumsie who swears she never took the cash -- only enough to get by on. Unfortunately, as it turns out, Red falls hard for Mumsie. He still has to report to Sterling, though, so the two of them return to California, where Markham gives his client the news that he couldn't find her. When he thinks he's in the clear, the two of them move to a little cabin up near Lake Tahoe, planning to stay there "until the snow flies," then move on to Reno so that Red can open an office there. As plans go it's a good one, but that particular future just isn't in the cards. Flash forward ten years into the future and Red Markham has become Red Bailey. He's left the PI business behind for a gas station that he owns in little Bridgeport, California, and has an entirely new life. He spends his time off fishing, and has fallen for a much-younger little blonde named Ann. But underneath his quiet life in this quiet town, Red is just biding his time waiting for his past to catch up with him, which it does in the form of a summons to Reno. From there, Bailey is sent to New York to do a job, and he has no choice but to comply. It's only after he gets there that he realizes that he's been duped -- and that there may be no way out.Past the initial setup, once the trap has been sprung, Build My Gallows High is the story of Red trying to find a way out the snare that has been very carefully set for him. It moves in and out of the past, as well as back and forth between the small Northern California town of Bridgeport and the streets of New York, making its way back to Red's current situation as he tries to take control of things and clear himself. It's extremely well crafted -- double crosses and betrayals abound as the figurative noose around Bailey's neck gets tighter with each turn of events. If the novel rested entirely on its plot, it would be a very good read, but there's much more to it than simply story. For example, there is such a keen sense of place here as the author moves back and forth contrasting hard, edgy New York -- its streets filled with young hooligans, cabbies who ply their trade and know when to keep their mouths shut, and gangsters who have no qualms about killing -- with the natural beauty of small Bridgeport, with its flowing streams, quiet fishing spots, tree-lined mountains and people living a good and wholesome life.What I find the most interesting about this book, though, is not so much the action, but rather the focus on the characters. Without the time or space to go into them all, the standouts begin with Bailey, who's just been waiting for the day the past comes knocking on his door to reclaim him and who knows that the decisions he's made in the past will circle back to haunt him some day. He is the poster boy for "if only," thinking about how to get out of his present dilemma so that he and Ann might just be free to start the new life both of them really want, one that he's constantly deferring because he lives in this constant state of purgatory. Then there's Caldwell, the local Bridgeport game keeper, who is in love with Ann and has dreams of the two of them together in his cabin in the woods -- he also makes a decision that may come to haunt him as well -- but it's a moral one he feels he must make. Ann is a quiet beauty, blonde, small, willing to please and trying to do what's right by everyone, but there's a very strong-willed woman underneath her quiet veneer. She is contrasted with the two femme fatales of this book -- Mumsie and another woman named Meta Carson (in New York), both seductive and charming, but each as deadly as the other. Build My Gallows High is such a fine example of true noir goodness that it's easy to recommend it to anyone who is into the genre but hasn't had the good fortune of reading this book yet. It is as dark as dark can be, and reveals that present and future are both inextricably bound by the choices we make. The more I stop and think about it, the more it grows on me, and the more in love with this book I become.
A nasty little tale which is quite a complicated read . Must keep your mind on the book. Think I will try and catch up with the Mitchum film "out of the past" to see if I like it better. Not that this is anything other than totally noir but there are a few superfluous characters that you try to keep in your head only to find they aren't important in the greater scheme of things and also I read this straight after the vengeful virgin by Gil brewer that was just brilliant so it had a lot to live up to.
What do You think about Build My Gallows High (2001)?
Hidden between the high Nevada mountain slumbers a quiet town called Bridgewater. Retired private eye Red Bailey wastes his days away fishing and mending his gas station, until one day a man shows up at his job and introduces Red to one final job to solve. An assignment that started ten years ago with a suitcase filled with cash and a beautiful woman on the run for a powerful mobster. There was no way Red could’ve brought the affair to a successful ending then and he’ll have to be as cunning as he ever was to escape with his life this time around.The novel ‘Build My Gallows High’ is known nowadays mostly because of the brilliant if unfortunately little known movie ‘Out of the Past’ from 1946. Having said that, ‘Build My Gallows High’ is a tragic murder mystery that works perfectly well in its own right. At its core it’s a detective novel in the likes of Chandler and Cain, with its short, sharp and fast pacing and dialogue. All the archetypical characters are here; the antihero with a troubled past, the femme fatale and the villainous puppet master hiding in the shadows. But here, the P.I. hardly stalks around alleyways in some big metropolis on the west coast - most of the action takes place in the secluded village of Bridgewater with its roaring mountain creeks and high peaks turning red as the sun goes down.This backdrop accentuates ‘Gallows’’ romantic nature. There is obsessive love to be found within these pages, regret and hope for a better future. It seems all too clear from the very first pages that its plot is doomladen and whatever victories may arise during its plot course are only all too short and bittersweet to be thoroughly enjoyed. There is the righteous warden fighting for the love of a young woman, who has lost her heart to the old detective. Relationships evolve that couldn’t possibly work, yet those involved are willing to put their lives on the line because they so deeply care about each other. It’s during those glorious moments where the story rises above its tired genre required murder plot, when the relationships and dynamics between the characters take front and center stage. And make ‘Build My Gallows High’ something unique to be treasured.
—Willem van den Oever
