The Squeeze by Gil Brewer

The Squeeze was originally published in 1955 as one half of an Ace Double. The other being Love Me to Death by Frank Diamond.

In this here 2025 reprint from Stark House The Squeeze is paired with another Gil Brewer noir, And the Girl Screamed.

Cover art for the original edition and the Stark House reprint by Harry Barton.

Gil Brewer was born in 1922 to an air adventure pulp fiction writer also named Gil Brewer. He was a World War 2 veteran who left the cold of upstate New York winters for sunny St. Petersburg, Florida. His first novel Gun the Dame Down was published by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1951 which started him on his career of pulpy paperback royalty. He unfortunately was a lifelong alcoholic. He died in 1983.

Written review below. Video review here:

Our protagonist is Joe Maule and he is an everyday Joe. He once had a good job and a good girl with a promising life ahead of him. Then one day he stopped by an illegal gambling house run by syndicate man Victor Jarnigan. In a four-night gambling binge Joe lost twelve thousand dollars. He had to sell his house. His lady left him. He lost his job and now lives in a shack on a Tampa beach.

One evening he is visited by Fritz, Jarnigan’s muscle and told his presence is requested at Jarnigan’s home.

Maule has no choice but to attend. He still owes the hood money. With interest.

Jarnigan lets him know there is only one way out of his financial predicament and that is to do what he’s told. He tells him a story of a career thief who accidently killed a guard on a job. He was caught and executed. The two hundred thousand that the thief saved is still out there. The only person who knows its whereabouts is the thief’s straight friend who lives with his wife and her sister. But the man lives a life of a shut-in, and the house has the latest high-tech security. Maule’s job? He is given the serendipitous task of seducing the sister Caroline to get her to lead them to the money. Lucky for him, she’s a smoking hot red head.

Joe stops by a bar she is known to frequent. He makes his moves but she has her guard up. Within a couple days has precured the much coveted single guy salvation, the phone number.

He calls Caroline up for a date. She wants to go swimming at 6am. A deal breaker for me but Joe doesn’t have much of a choice, he has to get into that house. Luckily for him, after the swim she invites him back to the house for breakfast. There he meets the married couple. The wife is an obnoxious drunk. The husband is edgy and not thrilled about seeing this strange man in his fortress.

A week goes by and the waves of love have washed them out to…love sea.

Without even being prompted she asks Joe to help her get the money away from her brother in-law.

Everything seems to be going well for Joe until Jarnigan’s hoods show up on his door. He’s taking too long and not following instructions. They pummel his face. Caroline stops by to see him and upon seeing Joe’s black and blue face wants to know what happened.

He comes clean about Jarnigan, his debts and what he has been tasked to do. Instead of being mad, she comes up with a plan.

Why can Joe trust? It’s a classic noir story. Is she a femme fatale leading Joe to even further detriment or is she true? Is she working for Jarnigan? Will Jarnigan even square up if Joe can recover the money? And that glorious stack of cash. There still is the obstacle of her brother in-law. This story was worthy of the black and white movie treatment. Or maybe even cooler, a story that would appear in EC Comics Crime series.

The writing style and storytelling here are incredibly smooth. It’s bare bones but not boring or bloated. All muscle, no fat. Punchy and clear. It’s a book where you can pick it up after a couple days and not need to skim the previous chapter for a refresher.

At times it can even be humorous but in a dark way. There is a scene in particular that reminded me of the episode of the Sopranos where Pauly and Chris are lost in the woods. Five stars.