God bless Charles Ardai and Hard Case Crime, publishing not only some of the best contemporary hardboiled fiction (Christa Faust’s Choke Hold and Jack Clark’s Nobody's Angel are two of my recent favorites), and reprinting resurrection-worthy titles from the likes of Lawrence Block, Day Keene, Gil Brewer and Ed McBain, but for finding crackerjack unpublished work from past masters including whoa, are you serious James M. Cain? (Can NOT wait for The Cocktail Waitress). Two years ago they published the first last unpublished novel by Donald Westlake (Memory), but now they say they’ve found another  - The Comedy Is Finished, and before you say, 'but I went to the third Black Sabbath farewell tour and swore never again', lemme assure you it’s no flabby, posthumous cash-in by the estate throwing legacy under the bus for quick pay-day, it’s… much better than that.

Set in 1977 (and I’m assuming written about then too), the story concerns the kidnapping of an aging, Bob Hope-esque comic, Koo Davis, by a ragtag group of revolutionaries who seem a tad bit embarrassed to have been forgotten instead of imprisoned or killed like a good deal of their comrades from the sixties. They act without a distinct long-term vision, but hold Koo - the blandly patriotic, frequent USO touring, symbol of yes-man, mainstream complacency - captive demanding the release of several former brothers in arms from disparate radical groups from the glory days of armed dissent.

The revolutionaries aren’t the only ones having a hard time with the times. Everybody in the book seems to be suffering a crisis of decade. Once exactly what his captors perceive him as, Koo himself has been struggling under disillusionment from the last fifteen years of US history (especially the Viet Nam war), and Mike Wiskiel, the FBI agent in charge of the crisis, is working hard to dig his reputation and moral authority out from under the black mark of his role in the Watergate scandal. The authority figures are disgraced, their supporters disillusioned  or naïve, and the revolutionaries  - having pointed out the emperor’s nudity – have nothing more to contribute... which is why it’s such a lucky break that Westlake is more interested in the human dynamics of the story. The personal motives at play in this drama are surprisingly emotionally potent.

Ironically, as all the book's characters flounder in their identities due to the changing times, 1977 may be the year that the seventies finally became the seventies instead of 'not the sixties anymore'. Elvis Presley died, Sid Vicious joined the Sex Pistols, Star Wars broke out and Saturday Night Fever preserved a moment in amber. Of course, that's all just subtext, what, distracted blogger, is the super-text here? Fear not - we've got violence (shooting, knifing, choking - good stuff), sex (have you seen the cover? That's straight out of the book - really - sexy naked chick guarding and torturing poor Koo) and humor (it's about a comic, right? We're given access to all his barbs - delivered or kept internal - the good, the lame and the fugly, so we're alternately laughing with Koo, as in 'that Koo is a funny guy' and at him, as in 'that Koo is waaaay out of touch.')

I'm not sure why this one never found a home before, but it has now, and that’s a good thing. It made me wanna revisit Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy big time.

And while we're looking at reprints, a quick word about Perfect Crime Books who've got some goodies on the horizon. After releasing the first four of Max Allan Collins' Quarry series a couple years ago, they're doing six of his Nolan books in May and Robert Randisi's six Miles Jacoby books at once. Already this year they've printed Francis M. Nevins' two Milo Turner books as well. I really like the idea of reviving these short series altogether rather than farcing them out one at a time. (Though, I ain't complaining Overlook - thanks for the Jim Nesbits and hey Little Brown the world looks forward to having Daniel Woodrell's backlist back in print by year's end.)

Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.