Popular Library 1967
There wasn’t much about Bernard online but I did find an interesting article on the Paperback Film Projector Blog from 2012 about the movie Hangup aka Super Dude which was based on this novel The Face of Night. Except they changed the race of all of the characters and turned it into a blacksploitation film.
He wrote a book called The Golden Children about an interracial couple fighting the bigotry of the 60s. He wrote a football book called Six Days to Sunday and a book called Uranium!
(video review at bottom of this post)
The basic premise: Straight shooter Southside Chicago detective Fred Ramsey takes on crooked cops, drug dealers and his inner demons.
This book contains a glossary of words and expressions used by narcotics addicts at the back of the book.
We start in the South Side of Chicago, 1967. It’s snowing and we’re in the ghetto. Another woman has died from an overdose. Someone gave her a hot shot because she’s an informant. There are two detectives investigating. One is a complete racist asshole. The other is thoughtful and compassionate, and he is our hero, Fred Ramsey.
Ramsey is worried about his other informant Kitty. Not only is Kitty one of his pigeons but she was also his high school crush. He is still smitten but she’s deep in the skag. It breaks his heart to see her like this but at the same time he needs intel on these dealers so he gets her to help him make a bust. He is, after all, saving her life from the stoolie slayer.
Also on Ramsey’s fight card for the book is the exoneration of the lone black detective on his squad, Tillman. There is a crooked cop named Heffner who sets Tillman up to take a fall for something he did. Tillman is arrested. Ramsey knows better and is on it.
Right off, this book gives off the mood of a mix between L.A. Confidential and The Untouchables. Obviously, Ramsey is going to be the one straight cop who is going to plow through this world of corruption and degradation to set things right. Right?
Yes and no. Here is where this book gets complex.
At a dinner at the Tillman’s apartment in the hood, Ramsey is having some issues as he pulls into the neighborhood. Some racism is creeping into his inner monologue. He argues with himself. And then at dinner when Tillman’s wife mixes up the glasses after a refill and Ramsey politely corrects her. The look on Tillman’s wife’s face says, “typical”. It seems some of that racism is creeping out. But he would say the same thing if they were white, right?
Now he’s in a bad mood so he visits Kitty whom he earlier had threatened to charge with possession if she didn’t give up her dealer. He’s going to lean on her but is surprised when he gets there and sees Kitty is trying to kick and now, she is ready to name names.
Ramsey goes undercover. All he wants is to bust this dealer of Kitty’s whom he is blaming her entire addiction on. Plus, he knows she had sex with him for drugs. And he’s black. No wait, that last part doesn’t matter, it’s just about him being a drug dealer. In his desperation, Ramsey breaks the rules to make the case.
More shade is thrown upon our hero’s integrity. It’s like Ramsey is walking through the field hitting every moral landmine possible. Everything he thought he was and stood for is crumbling.
Tillman becomes his partner and gives him the yes’m treatment. Ramsey is frustrated but he knows these are all misunderstandings and he isn’t racist. And then in a court room scene he tells a defense lawyer who happens to be Jewish to go back to Jerusalem.
Kitty is now clean and he starts dating her. But in Ramsey’s eye she’s still a junkie and he is disgusted by it. And himself. But he loves her. Or does he love the high school idea of her?
Each snippet of drama and action sinks Ramsey further into the pit but he feels like he’s on the right path and morally perfect. The world keeps telling him otherwise.
This isn’t just a run-of-the-mill sleazy 70s crime novel with a clear and concise plot. This is the complete and utter psychological destruction of the main character. I can’t help but wonder what the author was trying to say here. He obviously was opposed to racism as his next book was the Golden Children about an interracial couple fighting to stay together in a bigot filled world but it’s almost as if this book is saying, no matter what you do or how you act, there is a demon inside of you that will come out. Like, is this how the author felt about himself? Are these his inner demons? Is this book saying that racism will always exist? I wish I had read this one with someone else, because I am at a loss.
That being said it was still completely enjoyable. You become so engrossed in where the plot is going and why. There are plenty of moments of crime, hookers, drug dealers, violence tough talk, bitterness, despair, junkies, redemption, hell there is even a court room scene. This is one cop novel that is unlike any other I’ve ever read.
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