Publisher Hard Case Crime is making a name for itself with hard-boiled, throwback fiction — pulp pocket books whose sales have as much to do with steamy cover art as breakneck crime stories. "The Last Match" by David Dodge is a recent entry in the Hard Case all-star line-up (www.hardcasecrime.com), a posthumously published novel (32 years posthumous) by the author of "To Catch a Thief."

The pulp market flourished in the '40s and '50s, read by World War II GIs who grew up on comic books, cliffhangers and combat. And that's how they took their entertainment — two-fisted and unapologetic.

True to the genre, "The Last Match" starts with a jolt and ends with a lightning strike. In between, the story holds a scattergun plot, but fluid prose engages to the end. Dodge knows how to pluck emotions and play a shell game where readers forget about the plot and focus on the vivid description of the characters: "The concierge pointed the wife out to me, a so-so number with orange hair and a figure that had seen better days." The language is pithy yet comforting. Readers don't expect a primrose — they expect unsentimental crime, violence and sex.

The novel's narrator is a self-described "bunco-steerer" who fleeces matronly widows and unattended wives with his handsome looks and roguish charm. He stays one step ahead of the law (mostly), globe-trotting from the beaches of the French Riviera to the casinos of Monaco, the streets of Tangier and the jungles of Brazil — to name a few. There are a dizzying number of sex pots, crooks and tragic schemes. There's also a love-hate story of sorts, as the anti-hero tangles with an heiress determined to undo him.

Readers root for him, however, because of his credo — he's a cad and he knows it, damn the consequences — and because a sentimental side shines through at unlikely moments. That's the appeal of Dodge's writing and the genre. People like their heroes to be outlaws.

With its exotic locations and larger than life characters, "The Last Match" echoes "To Catch a Thief," and — in a lesser way — Trevanian's "The Eiger Sanction" and Flemming's James Bond series. It's less ambitious, less … romantic, but ironically more predecessor than successor (Dodge was publishing as early as 1941, Trevanina 1972 and Flemming 1953). As first trumps better in art and the American mindset, we can forgive the faults.

In the end, we're left a bit empty and guilty, as "The Last Match" is more style than substance. It doesn't cross over to mainstream literature. Few thrillers do. But despite its lightweight literary status, or because of it, the novel hits us on a gut level, with a punch that's all heavyweight.

Grade: 4 out of 5

Want to talk books with Jed? E-mail him at [email protected].