Kindle
$6.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Paperback
$9.99
Mass Market Paperback
—
Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
Select delivery location
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Richard Aleas
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Songs of Innocence (John Blake) Mass Market Paperback – March 29, 2011

by Richard Aleas (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 392 ratings
See all formats and editions
LITTLE GIRL…FOUND.

Three years ago, detective John Blake solved a mystery that changed his life forever – and left a woman he loved dead.  Now Blake is back, to investigate the apparent suicide of Dorothy Louise Burke, a beautiful college student with a double life.  The secrets Blake uncovers could blow the lid off New York City’s sex trade…if they don’t kill him first.

Richard Aleas’ first novel, LITTLE GIRL LOST, was among the most celebrated crime novels of the year, receiving nominations for both the Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Shamus Award.  But nothing in John Blake’s first case could prepare you for the shocking conclusion of his second…
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 2
    Hard Case Crime
  2. Print length
    256 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Hard Case Crime
  5. Publication date
    March 29, 2011
  6. Dimensions
    4.2 x 0.7 x 6.8 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0857683586
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0857683588
  9. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Aleas is the pseudonym of an Edgar and Shamus Award-winning mystery writer and editor whose work has appeared in dozens of publications including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine as well as anthologies such as Best Mystery Stories of the Year and The Year’s Best Horror Stories.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hard Case Crime (March 29, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0857683586
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0857683588
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.2 x 0.7 x 6.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 392 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Richard Aleas

Richard Aleas

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Richard Aleas is a pseudonym of Edgar Award-winning author Charles Ardai, also founder and editor of Hard Case Crime.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
392 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Charles Chapman
5.0 out of 5 stars A bleak and brilliant deconstruction of the classic, hard-boiled detective novel that focuses on the detective's motivation.
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
A bleak and brilliant deconstruction of the classic, hard-boiled detective novel that focuses on the detective's motivation. Compared to other contemporary third person, multi-narrator (and even dog narrator), time-jumping detective novels, the use of first-person narration with a linear plot is powerful and even more impressive for what it accomplishes. The linear plot, use of first person narration, and the implied limitations on knowledge are crucial to the power, meaning, and theme of the book.

There are passages I highlighted and re-read because they were well-written or were very nice turns of phrase. There are passages, two in particular, that I highlighted, re-read, and will continue to re-read because of their devastating psychological insight. Insight that was quite frankly painful, but for that reason all the more significant.

Having said that, one caution. The book is depressing. Bleak. To be honest, in the future I will read all of the reviews of any new book by this author to look for warnings of the same. I will be torn and quite frankly tempted to NOT buy the book if I see such warnings. I'm at the point in my life where I don't need any more depression, bleakness or loss of hope. That is nothing against the author. On the contrary, it is a testament to the power of his writing. Oh, I will probably buy the book anyway because I like the author's writing and more importantly his insight, but you have been warned.
Helpful
 Report
Anastasia McPherson
4.0 out of 5 stars Hard Case Crime Brings Classic Noir with a Contemporary Edge
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2013
Verified Purchase
Noir is the literature of romantic nihilism. The lost, damaged and deranged wander American streets and countryside trying to recover from the blows of fate, many still holding on to the last vestiges of hope and decency in a world they never made that still holds pain and loss in store for those who have already had more than enough of both.

Such are the conventions of noir and pulp and Hard Case Crime brings those traditions into twenty-first century settings. It is a brilliant move, as are the lurid, retro covers. In Songs of Innocence, Richard Aleas returns to the mean streets of New York and the victims of the sex industry and his recurring character, John Blake. Here exploring massages with a happy ending and the women who provide them and are often forced to provide more by clients, bosses or circumstances. A classmate is dead in mysterious circumstances that look like a suicide, but this particular classmate was also Blake's lover and he knows that she didn't commit suicide - at least not the way it was staged.

What follows is a trip not only through organized crime, the minor sex industry and the mean streets of New York, filled as they are with the desperate whose only choices are bad, but limns the final descent of a single man into despair. It is a masterful portrait. John Blake already felt that he was responsible for the death of one woman, this time he is certain. In finding just where and how everything went wrong and what part he played, Richard Aleas gives us a masterful character portrait and a twisty, twisted plot that few readers will see coming.

I am a fan of the Hard Case Crime imprint, finding that not only have the contemporary offerings in this genre pushed the limits of exposure, but more importantly have mapped the genuine circumstances of the lost in our world. Hard Case reads like rocket ship pulp but leaves a lasting impression.
Little Girl Lost, the first in the series is another good read by Aleas featuring the same character. Recommended to fans of classic and contemporary noir and pulp.
Helpful
 Report
reerc
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2012
Verified Purchase
No spoiler here, but if you haven't bought this book yet - don't. I wish I'd saved the time and money. The prequel "Little Girl Lost" was pretty good, and I had high expectations for the sequel, "Songs of Innocence." The author lets the story line wander, and it pretty much get away from him, until he either can't or won't tie up all the loose ends; the ending is a cheap, easy cop-out. I was left very unsatisfied with the ending.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Dave Wilde
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for Songs of Innocence
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2013
Verified Purchase
Songs of Innocence is the second novel by Richard Aleas, the pen name of Charles Ardai, who is the founder and editor of Hard Case Crime. Ardai has also worked as a writer and producer for the tv show Haven. This book is paired with his earlier work, Little Girl Lost, although it is not necessary to read the first one before diving into this one. They are both great books and I highly recommend both for your reading enjoyment.

What is unique and different about these books in the crime fiction universe is that the protagonist of both books (meaning the main character) is not some tough, cynical, hard-boiled detective who wins nearly every fight, sweet talks every woman he meets, and has a clever quip ready for any occasion. Instead, Ardai chose to center his work around a soft-boiled center. The lead character, John Blake, is a Peter Parker type for those of you familiar with Spiderman. In other words, Blake is the superhero or super-detective's mild-manner alter ego. Blake is someone who looks young for his age. At 21, he looked 16 and, at 24, he looked 18. He appears to be an innocent hayseed from Nebraska or Iowa and isn't tough. It appears that using Blake as the hero of the story was a very conscious choice on the part of Ardai and Blake gives these stories a strong emotional center and moral focus.

In Little Girl Lost, Blake was a college dropout who joined an older retired police officer in a small insignificant detective agency. He chased down demons and ghosts of his past in that one. Songs of Innocence begins three years later. After the events of Little Girl Lost, Blake is disillusioned with the detective business and heartbroken. He returns to college and is a teaching assistant in a writing program. He has one close friend in the writing program: Dorrie. Dorrie is tall and so beautiful that every head turns as she walks by. As Ardai describes her, "she entered a classroom as if there was a curtain at one end and a row of photographers popping flashbulbs at the other. It wasn't something she did deliberately, but she did it nonetheless, and the rest of us all turned and watched as she found her way to an empty chair, . . ." "She was beautiful," he explains, "in a way you're accustomed to seeing on movie posters or the pages of a magazine but not in real life." "[Y]ou couldn't stop looking at her," he said.

John and Dorrie are practically inseparable. John also knows Dorrie's secret: that she moonlights from the writing program doing massages and other "tricks" for Johns. It pay her college tuition.

It is Blake who finds Dorrie's body in her bathtub, plastic bag pulled tight over her head and suicide book nearby. By pre-arrangement, he scours her apartment for things that her mother wouldn't be comfortable knowing about, i.e., all the outfits Dorrie used in her work and her computer. He also notices that her calendar and papers have all been shredded. After accessing her computer, he finds that someone erased all her e-mail. Dorrie's mother doesn't believe it was a suicide although how someone got in the locked apartment does not compute. John also realizes that things don't make sense and recalls that he and Dorrie had a pact that, if they ever had suicidal thoughts, they would call the other first and talk it out.

The investigation takes John into the underworld of massage parlors and Asian bathhouses. It pits him against Hungarian gangsters and chased into dark corners where only rats cold be found. John desperately tries to solve the mystery as a statewide manhunt ensues for him and the newspapers all shout headlines accusing him of vicious murder after vicious murder.

It's a quick read and hard to put down. Along the way, the reader sees innocence stripped from people as they feel forced to react to the events that occur. Although this takes place in the modern world of cell phones and computers, it is every bit as compelling as many classic noir tales. The darkness and despair can be felt throughout this book. I can't remember if the sun ever shined.

Read it.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Alberto Ziveri
4.0 out of 5 stars Bello
Reviewed in Italy on April 30, 2018
Verified Purchase
Pochi personaggi ma nel complesso un bel giallo che ti sa tenere in sospeso fino alla fine, i libri di questa serie, per ora, non mi hanno mai deluso.
Report
Graham of Watton
5.0 out of 5 stars Walk on the wild side
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2016
Verified Purchase
I bought 'Songs of Innocence' by Richard Aleas, not realising that it's his second story whose main character is former private investigator, John Blake. The story is told by Blake in the first person, and whilst there are several references to the events of the first story, these are incidental. In 'Songs of Innocence', Blake is working as a college tutor in New York and has befriended one of students, a beautiful girl called Dorrie. When Dorrie is found dead in her bath, everything points to suicide. Blake suspects murder but has no idea who would have a motive for killing his friend. His investigations take him to a hidden part of Dorrie's life and the fact that she was a part time sex-worker in a massage parlour. Bale's innocence rapidly evaporates as he gets caught up in a frightening world of murder and mayhem.
This is a terrific story with a complex and fast-moving plot and a dramatic ending. Although its descriptions of the twilight world of the sex industry are occasionally shocking, they are not gratuitously so.
I thoroughly enjoyed 'Songs of Innocence' and will now buy and read Mr Aleas's first story involving John Blake.
Report
Jl Adcock
4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written but bleakly predictable finale
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
Up to a point this is a well-written and pacy story that engages from start to finish. Perhaps best read after the first John Blake story as it makes references to a backstory I wasn't familiar with, but generally it's okay as a standalone crime read. Clearly a skilled practitioner of the craft, Aleas weaves his tale of suspected murder deftly enough, but the finale brings in a well-worn and bleakly familiar theme. It shocks, for sure, but somehow the book promised more in this regard.
Report
Nik Morton
3.0 out of 5 stars Dark heart in the Big Apple
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2008
Verified Purchase
This second outing for John Blake, following on from `Little Girl Lost', is the first Aleas book I've read. I was put off by the cover of the first - that girl's leg is way, way too long!

Blake teaches creative writing in New York, having retreated from PI work after getting a woman killed and another seriously wounded. Clearly, he's not particularly good. Unfortunately for him, one of his students takes his heart and bed and then her life. He - and her mother - are convinced it was murder. So he sets out to discover the truth.

In his search for answers, he delves into the sleaze and dirt of the sex industry, well manipulated by the Internet. There's a dark heart in the Big Apple - and probably most cities these days. Corruption, protection and drugs - the usual, but uncomfortably realised by Aleas.

His bitter and damaged investigator Blake is out of his depth and seems to carry death around like an evil aura. The ending is, as the publisher's blurb states, shocking in more ways than one.

Aleas has well captured the mood and tone of the lone investigator. I felt, however, that Blake himself would have excised a number of echo word repetitions; but for that I could not fault this dark brooding tale with no happy ending.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
GUTMAN
5.0 out of 5 stars Crime Noir at its best
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2023
Verified Purchase
Probably the best Crime Noir novel I have ever read.
A great pity that Aleas' output was so sparse.
Report