Fast One is possibly the toughest tough-guy and most brutal gangster story ever written. Set in Depression Los Angeles it has a surreal quality that is positively hypnotic. It is the saga of gunman-gambler Gerry Kells and his dipso lover S. Granquist (she has no first name), who rearrange the LA underworld and ‘disappear’ in an explosive climax that matches their first appearance. The pace is incredible and relentless and the complex plot with its twists and turns defies summary. One Los Angeles reviewer called the book 'a ceaseless welter of bloodshed'; while the Saturday Review of Literature thought it 'the hardest-boiled yarn of a decade.'
Fast One was originally a collection of stories featuring the gambler/gunman Kells. The tales ran in Black Mask magazine from 1931-1932
About the author
‘Paul Cain’ was the pseudonym George Carrol Sims, who also used the name Peter Ruric for his screenwriting work. He grew up on the rough streets of Chicago and claimed to have travelled extensively in his early life through central and South America, Europe and north Africa, but little concrete information is available about him apart from the fact that he dated Hollywood actress Gertrude Michael, upon whom the character of Granquist in Fast One is based.
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