Tag Archives: Gil Brewer

This week’s Pulp Friday offering is for all the hardcore noir fans out there, Gil Brewer’s The Brat.

Brewer really is the aspiring pulp writer’s pulp writer. The author of dozens of sleazy sex/crime/psychological thrillers, he began his career writing for Gold Medal Books in the early fifties, also wrote under the Ellery Queen by-line, as well as using the pseudonyms Eric Fitzgerald, Bailey Morgan and Elaine Evans.

He kept up a punishing work schedule, once writing a book in three days. Between books he churned out hundreds of short stories for mystery and pulp magazines.

He died in 1983, after years of alcoholism, mental health problems and financial stress. Like most of the most accomplished pulp novelists, he only gained critical attention well after his death.

There’s a great site about Brewer, done by his estate, which includes full listings of his work, bio details and some great photographs. It’s called Gil Brewer, Noir Fiction Writer.

The Brat was first published in 1957. The edition above is 1958 and appears to be an overseas in-print judging from the currency denomination on the top right of the cover.

The Brat features femme fatale Evis Helling. The narrator, Lee Sullivan, is in for one hell of a surprise when marries Evis.… Read more