January 2, 2012
Crisp, straightforward prose propels this tough-guy novella from multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winner Silverberg (To Open the Sky), originally published pseudonymously in the magazine Trapped in 1962 as Too Much Blood on the Mink. Nick, an agent for an unnamed federal agency, assumes the identity of a West Coast crime figure, Vic Lowney, in order to deal with Philadelphia counterfeiter Henry Klaus and his gang, who are producing top quality $5 and $10 bills. Other gangsters create complications, as do a number of curvaceous dames. While Nick negotiates traps and ambushes, he runs a scam of his own to try to bring down all the bad guys at once. Two short stories, “Dangerous Doll” and “One Night of Violence,” round out a volume sure to be a treat for Silverberg completists as well as fans of pulp crime fiction.