"What Are You Going to Kill Ole Andreson For?"

"The Killers."
By Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961).
First appearance: Scribner's, March 1927.
Reprinted numerous times, including EQMM, June 1947.
Online HERE and HERE (Scribner's 1937 reprint).

Ernest Hemingway's terse classic of crime and retribution, the story works on many levels—but not as many as Hollywood has managed to add to it over the years. While we feel Hemingway's influence on American literature has been all out of proportion to his abilities, his telegraphic style does seem to work to best effect in crime fiction:

. . . "What are you going to kill Ole Andreson for? What did he ever do to you?"

"He never had a chance to do anything to us. He never even seen us."

"And he's only going to see us once," Al said from the kitchen.  . . .

Resources:
- A quite lengthy Wikipedia article about our author is HERE, a linked list of films adapted from his works is HERE, information about the 1946 film version is HERE and the 1964 remake is HERE.

Category: Crime fiction (revenge department)