SPIDERWEB

Side B
SPIDERWEB
By Robert Bloch
Hard Case Crime
160 pages

(As promised, this week I’m reviewing the “other” side of the new Hard Case Crime double flip book. For my comments on Side A, see my preview entry below.)

Eddie Haines is a small time dreamer from Iowa who comes to Hollywood in hopes of hitting the big time with his good looks and radio trained voice. He wants to be TV announcer. When the harsh reality of Tinsel Town comes crashing down on him, he is left battered, penniless and completely disillusioned. Refusing to return home a failure, Haines opts to take a more final solution to his problems.

Just as he is about to commit suicide, someone slips a hundred dollar bill under his door. The owner of that C note is a small, fat and bald little German fellow calling himself the Professor. At first Haines thinks the odd fellow his lucky angel because the Professor has come to recruit him with the promise of immense fame, glory and riches. It is temptation the dejected young man cannot possible resist.

He soon learns that his mentor is a sophisticated confidence man with an amazing intellect; all of which is put to use robbing the wealthy. A polished manipulator with a silver tongue, the Professor convinces Haines that their activities are no more immoral than toothpaste commercials on television. If the rich are so gullible as to part with their money on any brightly packaged gimmick, then why shouldn’t they partake in the harvest?

The Professor sets about creating a fictional persona for Haines, turning into a psychological guru named Judson Roberts. The idea is for Haines/Roberts, to become an indispensable crutch to the varied Hollywood neurotics thus being allowed into their personal lives to learn their most intimate secrets. Secrets which the Professor then uses to blackmail them. By the time Haines realized just how evil his teacher is, he is eyeball deep in extortion and murder. He has become nothing but another sucker caught in his mater’s bloody web. Can he escape, or is he doomed to a life of crime?

SPIDERWEB is an intense, taut thriller that completely engrossed me from the first page. It is clearly one of Block’s finest works and a real joy to read. Combined with SHOOTING STAR, this double-book package is a real treasure for any fan of crime fiction.

SHOOTING STAR

Side A
SHOOTING STAR
By Robert Bloch
Hard Case Crime
154 pages

As a teenager in the early 1960s, one of my fondest memories is of the Ace Doubles. I don’t pretend to know the exact history of these paperback flip books, only that I bought many of them in all kinds of genres. Why the idea came up, again, I haven’t a clue. Maybe it was a marketing ploy to give the readers twice as much bang for their bucks. What they did was print two books together, usually by different authors, back to back in reverse with two separate covers. Thus if you held one side of the book, the second half would be upside down. Once you finished reading one novel, you merely “flipped” the book over to read the second.

Hard Case Crime has brought back this nifty little gimmick with two crime thrillers from the pen of Robert Bloch, the author famous for having written the film PSYCHO for Alfred Hitchcock. Each of the two books has its own cover and is printed back to back. My initial thought was to read both before doing my reviews, but I realized that wasn’t fair. Each novel should stand on its own despite the other it is paired with in this package. To that end, here’s my first review of what I’m calling side A. Next week some time, after I’ve finished it, come back to see my review for Side B.

In SHOOTING STAR, Block makes good use of his intimate knowledge of Hollywood and its eccentric citizenry by setting it as the backdrop to a story of murder and drugs. Mark Clayburn is a one-eyed literary agent who has fallen on hard times. All of which is explained as the narrative moves along. Clayburn, for his own personal reasons, also possesses a private investigator’s license and that is what snares him into an affair he really had no business getting involved with.

A famous western star named Dick Ryan was shot to death in his trailer out on the ranch set of his latest movie. In the process of investigating the case, the police find marijuana and suddenly Ryan’s name is sullied by this association with drugs. Which is where one-time producer Harry Bannock comes into story. Bannock tells Clayburn that he has bought the rights to all of Ryan’s old western melodramas and stands to make a fortune if he can package them for television distribution. The trouble is because of the drug connection, none of the major TV houses want to associate themselves with the late actor. Thus Bannock hires Clayburn not so much to find out who killed the star, but rather to prove his was not a drug addict and clean up his reputation.

Of course the second the eye-patch wearing Clayburn begins poking his nose on the month old case, he starts getting anonymous phone threats to drop the case. Then a beautiful young starlet is murdered shortly after telling Clayburn she has information for him. Soon the bodies are piling up, the cops are becoming very, very annoyed with the agent turned private eye and a twisted killer is still free and most likely ready to make him the next corpse.

Robert Bloch was an accomplished writer and his style is always entertaining. He plays loose with the entire noire genre, having fun with his hero at the same time delivering a really good mystery that kept me guessing until the final pages. SHOOTING STAR delivers on all fronts. Here’s hoping Side B is just as good.

DRAGONS WILD

DRAGON’S WILD
By Robert Aspirin
Ace Books
360 pages

(Well it’s been a month since my surgery and we’re back. Thanks to all of you who sent along cards, well wishes and most of all, your prayers. I really missed doing this column and sharing new and old books with you. So enough prattle and on to our latest review.)

Griffen McCandles has just graduated from college and is not overly concerned about his future. Griffen is a card sharp, having picked up the game early in his school career and discovered he has a talent for gambling. He is surprised by a summon from his uncle, a successful business man who raised Griffen and his sister, Valerie, when they were orphaned at a young age. The story his uncle tells him at this meeting is so fantastic, the new graduate begins to question the old man’s sanity.

Griffen is informed that shape-shifting dragons still roam our world. They are not myths but real beings who had to disguise their presence from humans as a matter of self preservation. What’s even more incredible is that Griffen and his sister are also dragons and will soon reach a stage in their lives when their latent nature will make itself known. He is also told that because they are from a lineage of very powerful dragons, there are other dragon clans very concerned with their development. Some will feel threatened by them and go to any means to nullify that threat, to include murder. While others will seek their alliance and support.

Griffen leaves the meeting convinced his uncle needs psychiatric help. Then he is approached by a well known senator wanting to know where his allegiance lies. Confused, Griffen attempts to confide in his long time girlfriend, only to discover she is actually aware of his supposed dragon nature. Before he can question her further, she disappears. Frantic to reclaim his grip on reality, Griffen decides to find Valerie and share his unbelievable tale with her in hopes she can make some sense out of it. On the road to her college, he is set upon by two assailants in pick-up trucks who attempt to run him off the road. Surviving the encounter, Griffen is more determined then ever to get to the bottom of things.

The early part of this adventure moves well but the plot really kicks into high gear when Griffen, via the advice of an old friend, goes to New Orleans, accompanied by Valerie, to meet an old black man named Mose. Mose is also a dragon and he manages an illegal gambling organization. He wants Griffen to take it over and become the new boss. Soon Mose is Griffen’s mentor and teacher and the young man begins to learn the amazing destiny he has inherited. Aspirin’s description of the city, in particular its notorious French Quarter completely charmed me and I really enjoyed following Griffen on his journey to self-dragon-discovery.

His relationship with Valerie is also a fun and Aspirin creates marvelous supporting characters that inhabit Griffen’s new Cajun world. So well, in fact, you can almost hear the jazz and smell the gumbo on every page. DRAGONS WILD is a fresh, innovative fantasy and a wonderful opening chapter to what is planned as a series. It builds a world I truly enjoyed visiting and very much want to go back to again really soon. Put it on your short list right now. You’ll be glad you did.

A LITTLE R & R

Dear faithful readers, please bear with me while I do a little Rest & Recuperation. I was in the hospital all of last week for a little lung surgery. No worries, I came through with flying colors. Now I'm home healing, and hope to get back to reading, and reviews, as soon as possible. Thanks
ever, Ron.

ZERO COOL

ZERO COOL
By John Lange
Hard Case Crime
221 pages

In reading through this excellent thriller, I couldn’t help but bemoan the fact that filmmaker, Alfred Hitchcock, is no longer with us. This would have been a terrific book for him to translate to film. ZERO COOL has all the elements of a classic Hitchcock experience. The protagonist is an educated, professional who inadvertently is sucked into a criminal enterprise and against his will, soon finds himself the target of several groups all intent upon bringing about his demise.

Radiologist, Peter Ross, is on a much needed vacation in southern Spain when he’s approached by a mysterious group of men to perform an autopsy on a body that has to be shipped to the United States for burial. Ross does his best to put them off, but when they threaten him, he relinquishes and performs the illegal procedure. Illegal because he is told to put a wrapped package into the cadaver’s chest before sewing it shut. Now he knows these criminals are attempting to smuggle an unknown object into the states.

Again, classic Hitchcock, in that whatever the mystery object is exactly is completely unimportant to the story as its very existence as a plot device to endanger our protagonist is only real purpose of being there. Soon poor Dr. Ross finds himself, beaten, shanghaied to Paris where meets another group of unsavory characters and then once again returned to Spain for shady adventures. All the while accompanied by a beautiful woman who, because of their flirtatious tryst, finds herself entangled in his dilemma.

ZERO COOL is a really fun thriller that has its share of surprises and twists, all done with a deft hand that never allows the pacing to lag. By the book’s finale, in a rather well known Spanish landmark, another nod to Mr. Hitchcock, I had been thoroughly entertained from start to finish. What more can you want from any book?

SPACE VULTURE

SPACE VULTURE
By Gary K. Wolf &
Archbishop John J. Myers
Tor Books
327 pages

When people ask me why, after a life time of reading, I still enjoy it so much, I am never hard pressed to answer them. All I have to do is hand them a book like this one. Born in 1946, I grew up in the 50s, when newspapers still carried the Flash Gordon strip and early television was offering up classic science fiction adventure melodramas like Tom Corbett; Space Cadet, Captain Midnight and Commando Cody; Sky Marshall of the Universe. It was a rich time for any kid with a vivid imagination.

Keep in mind this was not what fans would call “hard” science fiction that was being practiced by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein. Nope, this was pure, unadulterated space opera on a grand scale; the kind George Lucas would return to amazing popularity in the 70s with his debut of the Star Wars saga.

SPACE VULTURE harkens back to those early days when heroes were chiseled jaw, noble and always ready to come the rescue and villains were dastardly scoundrels capable of the most monstrous acts without blinking an eye. Such is the culprit in this wonderful, exuberant adventure. Space Vulture considers himself the epitome of the human race. He is the handsomest, smartest, most talented individual ever born and by that irrefutable logic, he should be the supreme ruler of the universe. Petty laws made for lesser beings should not impede his efforts towards that lofty goal and they don’t. He robs, pillages and destroys to his heart’s content, completely oblivious to the suffering he causes others.

When Space Vulture, and his zombie soldiers, raid a small farming colony on the fringes of the galactic empire, he not only nets hundreds of healthy, fit men and women to sell in the slave markets of unscrupulous worlds, he also, by sheer accident, captures his most ardent nemesis, Marshal Captain Victor Corsaire, the most famous and successful lawman known throughout the stars. Also among his prize catch is the beautiful widowed foreman of the colony, Cali Russell. By some quick thinking, Cali manages to hide her two sons, eleven year old Eliot and seven year old Regin, so that when the Space Vulture lifts off with his human cargo, they are left behind, still free.

The boys soon discover the insidious villain has left one other behind, a small time space con-artist and thief, Gil Terry. Terry’s only desire, having somehow managed to escape the Vulture’s clutches, is to find a spaceship and go his way, having no problem deserting the two helpless boys to whatever fate awaits them. Unfortunately for Terry, the boys aren’t as helpless and he believes and they trick him into accompanying them on a mission to find the Space Vulture and rescue their mother.

The book is filled with non-stop action and adventure as the boys, with the supposedly heartless Terry, manage to overcome and survive one disaster after another while chasing after the Space Vulture. With each new victory, the thief’s stoic nature slowly begins to thaw as he gradually comes to care for these likeable lads and against all his criminal rationale, he actually finds himself becoming their true ally and protector.

Meanwhile, aboard the Space Vulture’s magnificent spaceship, Cali and Captain Corsaire join forces to plot their own escape and somehow find a way to thwart the Vulture’s plans. In the process, Corsaire, a man dedicated to lady justice, begins to recognize in Cali Russell and exceptional woman as she stirs strange, new emotions in his lonely heart.

Believe me when I say Wolf and Myers pull out all the stops here and have woven a grand tale destined to be a hailed as a classic in the genre. It is bold in its unsophisticated narration, painted with the broadest strokes imaginable, yet deftly giving us characters so true to life, they become real from the moment you meet them. I love space operas and SPACE VULTURE is one of the finest I have ever read. It deserves to win awards, but more importantly, to find a huge audience, as I’m sure it will. Do not miss this one, that would be the biggest crime of all!!

NO QUARTER

NO QUARTER
By Everette Bell
Creative Guy Publishing
52 pages

NO QUARTER is gritty short story. It calls itself a novella and is printed as a chapter book, but with only 52 short pages, it is really a short story. Having said that, it is one hell of a terrific, in your teeth explosion of drama and violence that displays a very strong writing talent. Three men rob a bank, killing several people in the process and then attempt to flee in a stolen vehicle. They are stopped by the cops and forced to take shelter in a tattoo parlor, where once again they unleash a storm of cold blooded violence.

Ace is the punk of the trio, wanting to get to this brother and apologize for turning his sister-in-law into a crack whore. Cuz is the white giant who simply wants to inflict as much pain as he can before he is gunned down. Finally there’s the black man, Juice, who although educated, sees his life as tragedy predetermined by the fates long before he committed his first misdemeanor.

Opposing them is veteran police sergeant James, himself a tough, professional with no illusions about life and the great beyond. James takes the bad with the good and in his confrontation with the three desperate killers, arrives at his own moment of truth.

NO QUARTER is a hard slap to the face that entertains more than its slim package would suggest. Sadly it comes and goes like so much fast food, leaving the reader truly hungry for much, much more. Bell should be honing those storytelling muscles and tackling novels. He has a lot to offer crime fans. Let’s hope he realizes his own potential soon.

NO QUARTER is available on-line at (http://www.creativepublishinguy.com)