A hardboiled novel of luck and irony
You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up follows the wanderings of a Depression drifter (Dick) as he bums his way from Oklahoma to Los Angeles in search of his son and runaway wife. There he commits one crime, plans another, and is ironically arrested for something he didn't do.
Populated with memorable characters like the mad L.A. Deco, decadent film director Quentin Genter, divorcee Mamie, Patsy, who gilds her sandals with radiator paint and a string of crooks, shysters, and loopy saints - You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up was a bestseller when originally published in 1938, a lost noir classic.
