This book starts strong and ends strong. A little doughy in the middle though, with what felt like a lot of details that were not necessary to the story. And overall, the whole book gave me a sense of deja vu, as though I'd read it before. But I hadn't. Weird.
The story is that of a publisher being offered the posthumous, last ever book by a world-famous author. And he gets that offer twice in the matter of 24 hours! But which offer is real, and is there an actual book written by that actual author at all? It's a muddle of a situation that Dick Sherman, the publisher, gets tangled in, and the untangling may very well be his undoing! ( )

When Dick Sherman is approached by a lovely woman to publish a manuscript by a recently deceased Author, he is not impressed. Shortly after another offer comes in, so he takes up the offer. Soon he is in over his head but will stop at nothing to find out the truth.

A fast paced case crime (story) originally written in 1950, true to the era with all the feels of vintage crime/drama. Likable characters, if a bit flawed, with plot twists and mystery. A great blend to hold your attention until the end. I recommend Blackmailer to those who enjoy hard-case crime. ( )

Reads well, but couldn't really work out why our humble crossword book publisher Dick Sherman had to keep his hand in the game. I mean sure, there's a book that might make you slightly richer than you are now, but people are getting killed here...

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't enjoy it, just didn't love it. There were some great scenes but I really just didn't feel it enough to give it more than three stars. ( )

Blackmailer was first published in 1952 and, if you didn't know that, you wouldn't have guessed it. The plot revolves around a publisher, Dick Sherman, of a small little-known publishing house, who often gets stuck entertaining authors' wives. Jean Dahl visits him and offers to sell him the last unpublished manuscript of a now-deceased but famous author, Charles Anstruther, who appears to be like Hemingway, a big game hunter, a traveler, a legend. Dahl "had thick, honey-colored blonde hair that she wore a little longer than this winter's styles dictated." She wore a beaver coat and a little black dress. Sherman thinks the whole thing is quite strange and thinks it over. An agent, Max Shriber, then sends him a letter offering to sell the same book. The whole thing is quite preposterous.
Turns out that Sherman ten years earlier, had dated Janet Whitney, who was now Hollywood's brightest, sexiest star. Between Whitney and Dahl, Sherman's head is spinning around. Ten years earlier, he had fallen for Whitney, but you know even then that she was going to be a big star. "She was a beautiful girl with soft, dark hair, greenish eyes, and a wide, exciting mouth" and "driving, compelling ambition." She had left him behind and never looked back.

It gets even crazier when two hoods follow Dahl to Sherman's apartment and tear the place apart looking for something. Tearing the place apart even includes stripsearching Dahl. With his head still spinning, Sherman sees both Dahl and Whitney at a party thrown at a mansion and bodies and blackmail start flying around.

Although it doesn't necessarily sound like much of a plot, it is a damn good book that is very hard to put down. The voice that Axelrod uses to narrate works quite well, an innocent man who can't quite comprehend what he has gotten mixed up in. Throw in movie starlets, mysterious dames, mean hoods, and rich people who have two-way mirrors and recording devices all over their houses and you have the makings of something real interesting. There are great fight scenes in the book and mysterious parlor games played at parties with the lights out. There is intrigue and mystery here. ( )

Another short and sweet reprint from Hard Case Crime, Blackmailer follows the machinations surrounding the last book by a Hemingway-like author who has recently died. Axelrod, who is perhaps better known for his work as a screenwriter ( The Seven Year Itch, The Manchurian Candidate, and Breakfast at Tiffany's) has a style that is almost entirely action and dialog. Blackmailer is notable among the Hard Case Crime for the use of several pieces of "spy equipment". By the time the reader reaches the end, they might start to feel a little bit cheated by the gimmicks Axelrod used to obfuscate the plot. Good for Hard Case Crime completists, but might be better passed over for better fare in the series from Block, Westlake, or Collins by casual readers. ( )