Fuller, Samuel: Brainquake

I had not known that Samuel Fuller had been a novelist in the 1930s before turning to film after the
Second World War.   He then returned to writing novels later in life and this 'lost' novel was written
at the start of the 1990s.   In some ways this is a classic noir with a beautiful woman leading a man
astray but it is rather more than that.   The opening with a baby shooting its father startles and is an
unusual introduction to the two main characters.   Paul who suffers from blackouts, hence the title
of 'Brainquake' witnesses the shooting from the park bench where he has been in the habit of
watching the beautiful woman who is the baby's mother.   He is a bagman while she, unbeknownst
to him, is having an affair with the dead man's brother.   He has been delivering flowers to her which
he bought himself and, on one delivery, saves the baby's life which leads to an apparently idyllic and
passionate affair.   This is against the bagman 'code' but he ignores this, steals a large delivery and
flies, with his love, Michelle, and the baby to France.   She was raised there and is able to find refuge
with an old friend.   The mob, however, are after them with a Father Flanagan, their main enforcer
soon on their trail.   There are, however, many twists before the final chapter.   The writing is not
as spare and taut as that of some writers of noir but the additional words fill in the background an
the characters to make this a really fine example of the genre.