EditorThe Lowestoft Chronicle editor reviewed Roadside Night by Erwin S. Nistler and Gerry P. Broderick for the Lancashire Post this week. A snippet is below:
In this moody, hard-edged noir – teeming with deception and sexual tension – a battle-weary ex-Marine is drawn by a beguiling stranger into a spiral of robbery and murder along the California coast where each shadow harbours treachery and every promise comes at a price.
Roadside Night is the work of Erwin S. Nistler and Gerry P. Broderick, two virtually unknown writers. Broderick, a Canadian, earned renown as the controller for Mike Todd Productions, a company instrumental in the evolution of widescreen cinema, before taking his own life aged just forty-three in 1955 midway through the making of the Oscar-winning Around the World in 80 Days. First published in 1951 by Pyramid Books and reissued this month, the novel carries the same air of mystery and tragedy that enveloped its authors.
Set on the Southern California coast, this lean and gritty tale is narrated by Buck Randall, a 28-year-old former Marine who is trying to eke out a living on the edge of the Pacific where he runs a dilapidated motel and bar, aided only by Dominic, ‘an old drifter who came by one day and stayed on.’
At once bleak and atmospheric, Roadside Night is a taut, character-driven page-turner, brimming with biting wit and electrifying passions and, in the tradition of the best noir thrillers, it is also deeply and unforgettably human.”
The full review can be found in the Lancashire Post and syndicated to these UK newspapers: Blackpool Gazette, Burnley Express, Lancaster Guardian, Sheffield Star, Wigan Today (Wigan Post; Wigan Observer), and Yorkshire Evening Post. Archived online access to these reviews as they originally appeared on September 2, 2025, can be found at these weblinks:
Blackpool Gazette, Burnley Express, Lancashire Post, Lancaster Guardian, Sheffield Star, Wigan Today, Yorkshire Evening Post.
