QUARRY'S RETURN

 

QUARRY’S RETURN

By Max Allan Collins

Hard Case Crime

213 pgs

 

One has to wonder at the twists and turns of fate when a writer of the baby-boomer generation (post World War II for you youngsters) is still writing about a hired gun well into his seventies. That’s Quarry, one of three series Collins whipped up a long…long…long time ago. That it is still around, never mind getting better like aged bourbon, is no small literary feat. Our best guess as to why; two things. One, Collins is such a damn good writer and two, his loyal readers know it and aren’t going anywhere.

In his last novel featuring his Quarry tale, Collins introduced his Vietnam veteran protagonist to the adult daughter he’d never known. After an awkward start, filial emotions rose to the surface when they were forced to save each other’s lives from some very bad people. In this follow up tale, Quarry learns Susan, his crime-writer daughter, has disappeared while doing research on a serial killer. This he learns from an old lover-colleague, a beautiful Japanese gal named Lu; his equal in death-dealing. The two of them make Bonnie and Clyde look like Hansel and Gretel.

It becomes obvious that Susan has run afoul of the very fiend behind the so-called Cheerleader Murders she is investigating. Unless Quarry and Lu can find her quickly, Susan will become the killer’s fourth victim. Collins weaves a fast-paced tale as his wonderfully mature couple question and shoot their way through a twisted puzzle, each well aware that the stamina and zeal of their youth exist only in melancholy backward glances.  

“Quarry’s Return” continues the quality of this series offering up both the drama and action we’ve come to expect from a master storyteller now at the height of his craft. Oh, if only more writers weren’t afraid of growing old.

THE COZYVILLE WEREWOLF

 

THE COZYVILLE WEREWOLF

Ghost Squad # 1

By Darryle Purcell

Strange Particle Press

171 pgs

 

Lots of old English high school teachers were heard telling their students to “write what you know.” In this, the kick-off to his newest series of pulp adventures, writer Darryle Purcell takes that admonish to heart in delivering editor/opinion writer Mike Scott. Mike’s a happily married Vietnam veteran employed as the editor of a small newspaper in a pleasant Arizona community. That’s a mirror image of the author, whereas the adventure that ensues is purely the product of Mr. Purcell’s active imagination. 

For Mike, everything seems fine, until the day the new publisher, a radical woke liberal arrives and fires him. Adding insult to injury, within several days, his own mystery-writing aunt is given his editor’s job as her politics echo those of the new publisher. To drown his woes, Mike goes to a local riverside bar only to find himself in a ghost-bar tended to by the late silent screen star, Douglas Fairbanks. Also present in this weird watering-hole are Peter Lorre and Jean Harlow among others ghost celebrities. By now poor Mike is beginning to think he’s losing his mind.

It doesn’t help that soon after, his spiteful aunt is found murdered in her office, cause of death, drowning. Immediately Fairbanks offers to help Mike solve the murder and learn who is behind all the weird things happening in Cozyville. Phony psychics are involved, the chamber of commerce is attending seances and a bizarre bull-headed demon is after Mike and his allies.

Once again, Purcell lets loose the craziness in a comedy thriller that is just plain fun. He has a comedic sense that never wavers and through the chills and spills, nary a bad joke is wasted. We really like Doug Fairbanks and the Ghost Squad. We’ll be anxious to see what they, and Scott, get into next.

TINY TIME MACHINE

 

TINY TIME Machine

The Complete Trilogy

By John E. Stith

An Amazing Selects Edition

486 pgs

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DJ3M6JBH

https://amazingstories.com/store/

 

Every now and then a science fiction book comes along that is simply fun to read. Most  of these are science fantasies or space operas and not what is labelled Hard Science. It is rare that one finds a rollicking, fun sf adventure under the Hard Science umbrella. This is clearly one of those treasures.  

Meg Vauntage’s mother died when she was a young teenager. Now, a rebellious young woman, she’s constantly butting heads with her widowed father who rarely pays her any attention. What Meg doesn’t realize is that her father is obsessed with inventing a time machine that will allow him to go back in time and save Meg’s mother.  

As the book opens, Meg, and a young man named Josh, are wanted by the San Francisco police for misdemeanor crimes against corporations who poison the environment. Fleeing to her father’s lab, they arrive to find him dying of a gunshot wound. With his last breath, he tells Meg to guard his cell-phone. Confused by this cryptic order, Meg, with Josh’s help, examines the phone and discovers it is a functioning time-machine that will allow them to travel to the future.  

“Tiny Time Machine,” was first written as three novellas. Now they have been collected in this omnibus edition. The first tale has Meg and Josh discovering a devastating end of the world scenario in the future and are challenged to prevent it. In the second tale, they, with the help of a futuristic AI entity, manage to travel backwards into the past, their goal, to save Meg’s father. And finally, with the third chapter, Meg explores the possibility of being able to save her mother. 

The action, from page one, is nonstop. Meg and Josh, and the supporting cast are beautiful realized and a joy to accompany in their wild escapades. “Tiny Time Machine” is a gem by a truly gifted writer. Pick it up, we think you’ll love it.