BLACK HATS

BLACK HATS

Max Allan Collins

Brash Books

264 pgs

Wyatt Earp, the famous western lawman, is in his seventies enjoying semi-retirement living in Los Angeles with his wife Sadie. He does a little detective work every so often between acting as a consultant for the movie folks cranking horse operas by the hundreds. Among his Hollywood friends are William S. Hart and Tom Mix. In other words, his life isn’t that bad at all.

Of course there’s always calm before any storm and Earp’s dark clouds arrive with a visit from Doc Holliday’s widow, “Big Nose” Kate Elder. She surprises the ex-marshal by revealing that before he died, Doc fathered a son who he never got to see. She named the boy John and told him his deceased father had been a dentist; a good and decent fellow. She purposely omitted any mention of his having been a notorious gambler and gun-fighter. Later, when tragedy strikes young Johnny, he turns to drinking and learns the truth about his heritage. Angry and hurt, Junior packs his bags and heads for the lights of New York City to open a fancy nightclub.

Prohibition is in full swing and various criminal mobs are all vying for their share of the profits from illegal booze and speakeasies. One particular group has its eyes on Johnny’s operations. Its representative is a street savvy thug named Al Capone.

Thus Kate’s request of Earp; go to Manhattan and bring her son home safely before it’s too late. Although reluctant, Earp’s loyalty to his old friend wins out and he agrees to take the job. From that point forward, “Black Hat” becomes a history buff’s delight. As ever, Collins shines in his showcasing well known historical figures mixing them deftly through his tale as if he is simply recording facts.

Wyatt Earp vs. Al Capone. Just the idea alone had this reviewer clapping his hands in outrageous delight. Like the author, we too are fans of the old west legends and none is more widely known than that of Wyatt Earp. As always happens in any culture, certain events seem to strike a universal chord that speaks to the soul of a nation. Whereas England had King Arthur and Robin Hood, we Americans shaped our mythologies on the plains of the great frontier. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral is easily one of the most retold stories in all of American folklore. That it really happened is irrefutable and still in the retelling, its facts have been hammered and reshaped to fit a grandiose stage of heroic proportions.

In his post essay, Collins discusses the challenge to writers having to find the facts buried under years of exaggeration in hopes of spinning fairly accurate yarns. To a point that is. As John Ford told us at the finale of his classic film, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “…when facts don’t mesh with the legend, print the legend.”

Kudos to Collins for exercising restraint and giving us a glimpse at the human side of these legends. Both Earp and Capone are portrayed with a great deal of insight as he imagines one man’s journey reaching its twilight crossing paths with another whose own brutal career is just beginning.

“Black Hats” is gold plated gift to all of us who love tall tales.

SNAPSHOT

SNAPSHOT

By Dale Cozort

Chisel and Stone Publishing

262 pgs

There have been all kinds of science fiction stories using either time travel or alternate dimensions. What writer Dale Cozort has done here is combined both elements into a truly unique set-up which in itself is hard to describe. But being a reviewer, there is really no way to get around that. So please follow along as best you can.

We start with some truly powerful, God-like aliens who have come to experiment with mankind in a strange bizarre way. Part of mysterious plan demands they recreate segments of our history and various cultures in different time-frames. For an example, the aliens, referred to as the Tourists, take a “snapshot” of Europe in 1938. Now this sample is in effect the entire continent and every single living being on it, humans, plants and animals. Now they take this sample and encase it in a giant all encompassing globe. With me so far?  Good. Now keep in mind, no one back in the 1938 Europe is even aware this “snapshot” was taken…and they simply go on with their lives. Meanwhile the copies (all the creatures of the now 1938 Europe globe snapshot) are well aware they are no longer on the actual planet Earth.

Of course you can‘t have an experiment with only one sampling. You need others to explore new dynamics, so the Tourists whip up a giant version of the island of Madagascar and set the 1938 Europe snapshot globe on it. Then they take more snapshots from various times and locations, ala United States 1953, Germany 1942, making more and more snapshots…which they then line up one after the other in what appears to be random fashion. Still with me? Hang in there, we’re almost done. Next the Tourists create two vents in each globe so that the people in that snapshot can actually fly into the next globe by going through a rather dense piece of atmosphere called the Babble Zone. That way members of one snapshot can enter another snapshot, etc. etc. etc.

And that’s the Snapshot Universe of Dale Cozort.  Note, nowhere in this first novel, published in 2014, do we ever learn anything at all about the aliens save what we’ve just told you. Rather Cozort centers his tale on several characters living in the various snapshot zones. One is an American rancher named McNeil. Another is a female Prussian pilot Captain Steiner and the last an American Middle Eastern Analyst named Greg Dunne. Now both McNeil and Steiner have were born and raised in various snapshots, whereas Dunne is the newbie who at the book’s beginning, is yanked out of his 2014 USA continent and plunked smack dab into the new 2014 USA Snapshot. Thing is when the event transpired, his wife was in Hawaii on a vacation and so she wasn’t snapped. Meaning Greg is alone in his snapshot world without her and other family loved ones while the original Greg Dunne is still back on Earth none the wiser.

By now, dear readers, you are asking yourselves, “If this thing is that convoluted to start with, why should I even bother to pick it up and read it?” The answer is simple enough, because despite its eleaborate background, “Snapshot” is a good book. Not only because its an original and fresh take on old sci-fi stuff, but because Cozort can write truly complex and believable characters. All of which have psychological problems and hang ups. Rancher McNeil hides a dark secret that if exposed will ruin him. And yet this secret haunts him to the point of madness. Pilot Steiner also carries within her a hidden obsession that can only be satisfied by cold cruel vengeance. And finally Greg Dunne grapples with a brand new life he never wanted or asked for.

How these characters confront their personal demons and survive is what propels the narrative in such a unique and fascinating way. “Snapshot” is like no other book you’ve ever read before and very much worth your time and effort. In the end, you’ll be happy you took the ride.

PIRATES

PIRATES

By Timothy J. Lockhart

Stark House Press

210 pgs

Having been severely wounded and disfigured in Iraq, former Navy Seal Hal Morgan has learned to make peace with his scars, both physically and emotionally. Now living in Puerto Rica, all he wants is a quiet life of sailing and fishing. All of that comes to a shattering end when he rescues a lovely Cuban woman from a sinking boat in the middle of the ocean. Ana is the mistress of a vicious mobster and has fled the man’s clutches along with half million dollars of his money. Now the island gangster will do anything to retrieve her and the cash; including kill anyone who stands in his way.

The question is, does the war weary Morgan have the strength and will for one last campaign?

Writer Timothy Lockhart delivers a straight forward, action thriller without frills. His protagonists are both noble and flawed. Their interwoven fate propels them into a life and death struggle they can only survive by trusting each other. “Pirates” is one hell of an adventure.