I mentioned down below that I did an article on Clifton Adams for Steve Lewis's Mystery*File. After the article was published, Bill Pronzini told Steve that Adams had done a novel for Berkley Books under the name "Nick Hudson." The title is THE VERY WICKED (1960), and since Bill said it was worth looking for, I naturally had to have a copy. Back in the Olden Days, I'd have looked in vain in little out-of-the-way used-book stores for years before finding one. In the Age of the Internet, all I had to do was go 0n-line, where I had several copies to choose from.
The book is very different from Adams's other crime novels. It's a noirish Jack-the-Ripper riff, in which a vice cop named Bill Creel goes over the edge and starts killing prostitutes. There's no gore, and no sensationalism, even though most of the book is told from the cop's point of view. We find out a lot about the cop and his attitudes toward women, and a lot about his unhealthy state of mind. We know, or suspect, that he's going to end badly, so the interest is in how long he can keep fooling people, and how many women he'll kill, before he slips up.
I didn't like this book quite as much as Adams's work for Gold Medal, but as an early entry in the serial killer category, it's worth a read. And it has a great redhead on the cover.
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