Pulp Novel Review #1 - Shaft's Big Score (1972) author Ernest Tidyman

Shaft's big score is a novelization of the film of the same name. If you've seen the film, it's worth a watch, and this book directly follows the plot. Shaft attempts to find out who murdered his friend Cal Asby, a man in the insurance and funeral coffin business. Cal might have been involved with the Italian mob and ended up being blown to bits by a load of dynamite placed under his office desk. It's a great read - I would rate it three stars out of five. Pulp fiction lovers can't help but root for Shaft. He's a bad mother (shut your mouth) but I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft.

The lowdown: Rated on a scale from 1 to 10.

Misogyny Level - 10 - Holy crap Shaft doesn't value women much beyond sexual comfort. There's a section where he leads a grieving widow to her room while thinking the best thing he could do for her would be to have sex with her. He decides not to seduce her at the last moment in an attempt to make the reader think highly of his values.
Violence Level - 5 - There's nothing too gristly in the book. Basic shootings and fist fights.
Language Level  - 10 - In the PC world we live in this book would be buried. N***er, mother***er, pu**y...this list goes on - and that's just the first couple of pages.