Cinderella Sims, originally published in 1958 as $20 Lust under the pen name Andrew Shaw, was one of Block's early forays into pulpy crime stories. Despite the original Shaw byline, this book fits with Block's crime fiction more than his softcore stuff that he churned out for Midwood and Nightstand.
It's a story that rests on a number of popular pulp themes -- the broken man whose wife left him and exchanged his vows with the bottle, the young innocent making a life in the big city and stumbling into the crime ring, the Helen of Troy who crosses the street and may be more femme fatale than girl next door, a bag of money (often a suitcase), and the gang of thieves on the protagonist's heels.
Sims is an easy and enjoyable read that combines all of these themes into a fairly short novel. It still feels like a late fifties work and doesn't have the hardboiled edge that Block went on to develop.
It is a fine read, but just misses being really good. There are a few points as the dynamic duo embark on their crime spree that could have used a little more development. The transition from Holden Caulfield innocent to cold-blooded criminal seems a little abrupt and Deadly Honeymoon seems to make that transition more smoothly. All in all, it was better than I anticipated and well worth diving into, particularly if you are interested in Block's early work.
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