“Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through, Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through. He'd lay in bed 'til the morning came, but the devil'd visit him just the same. Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through.” ― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black. Based on a true story previously dramatized on the television anthology Unsolved Mysteries and then released in book form, the made-for-TV Sleeping with the Devil originally aired April 22, 1997.
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Ferron was big, tough and ruthless—he'd break your arm as soon as look at you. He had the morals of a tomcat and the instincts of a rattlesnake. But Ferron was sitting pretty. In New York City he had Lydia —a gorgeous redhead who loved him to distraction. Upstate he had Amy—lovely, virginal and wealthy; she could hardly wait till they were married. In the trunk of his batt...more
Published 1954 by Lion Books
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Alan Guthrie's 200 Noirs 105 books — 22 voters
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Jun 09, 2017Dave rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: prologue-books, have-nook, read-have, other-classic-pulp-crime
Sleep With the Devil is a great example of top-notch pulp fiction. It is the story of a small-time conman and loan shark enforcer who thinks he has the system beat and inexorably feels the walls closing in on him. Les Ferron is part Jim Thompson psychopath and part Orrie Hitt sharp-talking conman. Ferris has two parellel lives, two parallel cons, and a plan to hide out in plain sight as a bible salesman/ farmer in a Amish-like town outside of NYC. This book shows his psychopathic act forming and...more
Dec 21, 2014Steven rated it really liked it Shelves: daykeene, crime-noir, novels, goldmedal, crime-noir-1950s
So just who is our noir protagonist in this tight little gem? He is Les Ferron, who describes himself thus:
And when her father, sprinkling his conversation liberally with thees and thous had asked him what he did for a living, what could he tell the man? That he was a part-time male model who posed for the lurid pictures in true crime magazines; that he was a bit radio actor and small time gigolo; that he broke arms and legs, and backs if necessary, to keep a nasty little loan shark’s creditors...more
Very entertaining. I guess it is just fundamentally enjoyable to be shown the dark life of a criminal, to be involved (through reading/watching) with every 'sinful' step of stealing, killing etc... and then be completely satisfied when the story builds up to the bad guy suffering and being punished.
Jun 08, 2017Andy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
A real find, pure noir gold. The story about a Manhattan loan shark bully who doubles as a model for true detective magazines hatches a scheme to woo the upstate country virgin with the big bazooms and an even bigger inheritance waiting for her. If that wasn't enough larceny to please you he makes a play for the gorgeous black widow of the cop he 'accidentally' killed. Day Keene pulled out all the stops for this one!
Dec 29, 2017Kurt Reichenbaugh rated it really liked it
This is probably the best Day Keene novel I've read so far. We have a protagonist who finds a nice setup in a country virgin and her wealthy pops. He builds up a facade within the town, gaining trust and friendship throughout. Soon he'll be married to the beautiful girl and life will be a cherry pie. But first he has to disentangle himself from his violent past. And you know, things never go as planned. Excellent!
Jul 03, 2016Edwin rated it really liked it
'Sleep with the Devil' fits in the category of narrator/main character that is unreliable, or that is a sociopath/criminal, familiar territory of works from noted noir scribes like Thompson, Willeford, and Brewer. This novel is as good or better than most of them. The fascinating Les Ferron character is cooly intelligent and painstakingly calculating, and very capable of recovering nicely when he does fuck up. Nicely plotted with a couple of great twists. The novel might deserve five stars, but...more
Apr 13, 2008Jeff rated it really liked it
It doesn't get much better than this. I've read a few of Day Keene's books and this one is by far the best. Kind of reminds me of some of the better Gil Brewer and Charles Willeford novels. Here you have a protagonist almost devoid of conscience. It also had some elements of Davis Grub's Night of the Hunter.
Aug 13, 2015Dominick rated it really liked it · review of another edition
This is a dandy, tight little crime novel. There's no mystery here, as we follow our protagonist, Les Ferron, and watch him commit his crimes. Arguably, there is no real surprise here; this is a typical crime book, with the conscienceless (well, almost conscienceless, anyway) protagonist, the 'good' girl, the 'bad' girl, the escalation of the situation as each time the protagonist thinks he's in the clear something else happens to throw him into peril, and of course the twist at the end, after h...more
Oct 01, 2009Shannon rated it liked it
Well Day Keene can certainly write a twist ending.
Apr 30, 2013Mimi rated it it was amazing Shelves: contemporary, psychological-thriller, erotica
i really enjoyed the book ! the main character was defintely smart !! and the end was so unexpected for me ! the book was really enjoyable
Not my type, was a bad read really.
abdolla abdollay rated it it was amazing
Jun 19, 2008
Jun 19, 2008
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Day Keene, whose real name was Gunnar Hjerstedt, was one of the leading paperback mystery writers of the 1950s. Along with writing over 50 novels, he also wrote for radio, television, movies, and pulp magazines. Often his stories were set in South Florida or swamp towns in Louisiana, and included a man wrongly accused and on the run, determined to clear his name.
Quotes tagged as 'deal-with-the-devil' Showing 1-20 of 20
“Sometimes a deal with the devil is better than no deal at all.”
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“You obviously don't have my soul or you wouldn't be trying to make deals.”
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tags: controllability, deal-with-the-devil, humanity
“By Fortune's adverse buffets overborne
To solitude I fled, to wilds forlorn,
And not in utter loneliness to live,
Myself at last did to the Devil give!”
―
To solitude I fled, to wilds forlorn,
And not in utter loneliness to live,
Myself at last did to the Devil give!”
―
tags: deal-with-the-devil, fate, faust, goethe, loneliness
“In all those stories about people who sold their souls to the devil, I never quite understood why the devil was the bad guy, or why it was okay to screw him out of his soul. They got what they wanted: fame, money, love, whatever—though usually it turned out not to be what they really wanted or expected. Was that the devil's fault? I never thought so. Like John Wayne said, 'Life's tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid.”
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tags: be-careful-what-you-wish-for, deal-with-the-devil, devil, faustian, faustian-bargain, life, sold-my-soul, sold-your-soul, soul, stupid, wish
“Don't make a deal with the devil, if you do you will lose something important that you once had.”
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“The one plus side to demonic infestation is that children cannot be harmed by a demon. The sanctified aura of a child somehow repels the demon and they can only oppress them if the parent makes a contract allowing them to do so. Because they can be very clever in tricking people into agreeing to additional contracts, it is important to never converse with a demon. Either call in a priest or move out as soon as possible.”
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tags: child, children, contract, deal-with-the-devil, demon, demonic, ghost, ghosts, guide, haunted, haunting, home, house, house-spirit, infestation, possession, spirit, spirits, spiritual, spiritual-warfare, spiritualism
“Here's how I'll tell you what I think—if you see white smoke then you know I picked a new pope. And if I'm drinking a Snapple then you know I don't give a shit.”
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tags: appalachia, appalachian-fiction, deal-with-the-devil, jason-jack-miller, murder-ballads-and-whiskey, supernatural, the-devil-and-preston-black
“We're all Hitler inside. We're all Christ inside. I'm not keen on the idea, but it's true, isn't it? We've all got a little bit of the devil in us.”
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tags: appalachia, appalachian-fiction, deal-with-the-devil, jason-jack-miller, murder-ballads-and-whiskey, supernatural, the-devil-and-preston-black
“most people interpret silence as rejection!”
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“Many years later after the sell-outs, betrayals, and hatred which would tear us apart, when our brotherhood had been destroyed, I’d always look back and remember that night. That fucking wild night at the KeyClub, when the smoke stung my eyes but my world was full of nothing but blind hope. When life was not a mockery, but a very real fire which flamed through my veins like the most incredible drug... the night when Kelly-Lee Obann, drunk, high and barely 20 the time, looked out through his hair with a terrible nakedness and said to me;
“We’re not gonna make it out of this alive. You know that, right?”
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“We’re not gonna make it out of this alive. You know that, right?”
―
tags: best-friends, brothers, deal-with-the-devil, drugs, faustian, friendship, hollywood, music, music-business, sunset-strip
“They made a deal and they liked the deal, until they had to pay the price.”
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“Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through, Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through. He'd lay in bed 'til the morning came, but the devil'd visit him just the same. Preston Black couldn't sleep the whole night through.”
―
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tags: appalachia, appalachian-fiction, deal-with-the-devil, jason-jack-miller, murder-ballads-and-whiskey, supernatural, the-devil-and-preston-black
“You are not a handgun. More like a pellet gun. Maybe even a slingshot.”
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tags: appalachia, appalachian-fiction, deal-with-the-devil, jason-jack-miller, murder-ballads-and-whiskey, supernatural, the-devil-and-preston-black
“I'm sure you have drawers overflowing with panties the ladies throw at the stage. We saw you guys play down at Mon Brewing a few times. Way to keep the Nineties alive.”
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tags: appalachian-fiction, deal-with-the-devil, jason-jack-miller, murder-ballads-and-whiskey, supernatural, the-devil-and-preston-black
“I felt the back of my neck crawl. The crawling reached around to the corners of my jaw, then up to my temple, and across my cheeks.
I reached up to touch it. Splinters, small fingers, hooks. Scraping at my fingertips, gouging. Slowly reaching for my eyes, reaching for my remaining flesh.
Tiny, like the legs of spiders, pincers, fish hooks, they stabbed and set themselves into the flesh that remained, around my mouth, near my eyes, at my forehead. Then they stopped. Waited.
Asking. Offering. A deal with the devil, metaphorically speaking.
Give up your face if you truly want wings. Give up your eyes.
I could hear the dragon screech, not all that far away. This crisis I faced was removed from a very large, very real crisis that threatened people and Others I cared a great deal about.
Do it, and you can fly. Fly, and you might be able to do something to save them.”
―
I reached up to touch it. Splinters, small fingers, hooks. Scraping at my fingertips, gouging. Slowly reaching for my eyes, reaching for my remaining flesh.
Tiny, like the legs of spiders, pincers, fish hooks, they stabbed and set themselves into the flesh that remained, around my mouth, near my eyes, at my forehead. Then they stopped. Waited.
Asking. Offering. A deal with the devil, metaphorically speaking.
Give up your face if you truly want wings. Give up your eyes.
I could hear the dragon screech, not all that far away. This crisis I faced was removed from a very large, very real crisis that threatened people and Others I cared a great deal about.
Do it, and you can fly. Fly, and you might be able to do something to save them.”
―
tags: deal-with-the-devil, sacrifice, transformationss
“Music lets you write your own checks. Don't ever forget that.”
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tags: appalachia, appalachian-fiction, deal-with-the-devil, jason-jack-miller, murder-ballads-and-whiskey, supernatural, the-devil-and-preston-black
“O full and splendid Moon, whom I
Have, from this desk, seen climb the sky
So many a midnight,—would thy glow
For the last time beheld my woe!
Ever thine eye, most mournful friend,
O'er books and papers saw me bend;
But would that I, on mountains grand,
Amid thy blessed light could stand,
With spirits through mountain-caverns hover,
Float in thy twilight the meadows over,
And, freed from the fumes of lore that swathe me,
To health in thy dewy fountains bathe me!
Ah, me! this dungeon still I see.
This drear, accursed masonry,
Where even the welcome daylight strains
But duskly through the painted panes.”
―
Have, from this desk, seen climb the sky
So many a midnight,—would thy glow
For the last time beheld my woe!
Ever thine eye, most mournful friend,
O'er books and papers saw me bend;
But would that I, on mountains grand,
Amid thy blessed light could stand,
With spirits through mountain-caverns hover,
Float in thy twilight the meadows over,
And, freed from the fumes of lore that swathe me,
To health in thy dewy fountains bathe me!
Ah, me! this dungeon still I see.
This drear, accursed masonry,
Where even the welcome daylight strains
But duskly through the painted panes.”
―
“And even if there were souls, and there was a devil, he's not going around granting fame and fortune just for your soul in return. If he is, he's a fucking idiot. According to the standards of the Bible, most people are Hellbound anyway, so it ain't like Satan would be hurting for more souls, he's already got a shit-ton of souls. Satan going around granting fame and fortune just for Kanye West's soul would be like an apple farmer paying ten million dollars for a fucking apple.”
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“And do I ask, wherefore my heart
Falters, oppressed with unknown needs?
Why some inexplicable smart
All movement of my life impedes?
Alas! in living Nature’s stead,
Where God His human creature set,
In smoke and mould the fleshless dead
And bones of beasts surround me yet!”
―
Falters, oppressed with unknown needs?
Why some inexplicable smart
All movement of my life impedes?
Alas! in living Nature’s stead,
Where God His human creature set,
In smoke and mould the fleshless dead
And bones of beasts surround me yet!”
―
tags: alienation, curious, deal-with-the-devil, philosophy, plainness
“Vagueness is the kingdom of the devil and it is as such on purpose.' - On Vagueness”
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tags: big-picture, deal-with-the-devil, dealing-with-people, details-matter, need-to-know, paying-attention, vagueness, vagueness-of-language
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