Pulp Fiction Reviews

ERROL FLYNN - The Life & Career

2012-01-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

ERROL FLYNN

The Life & Career

By Thomas McNulty

McFarland & Company, Inc.

369 pages

Yes, I know the title of this review column is Pulp Fiction and this review is straying off that thematic path. I beg your indulgences, as this particular subject matter is near and dear to my heart thus influential in my own taste for action adventure literature. It will allow you a small glimpse of what shaped this reviewer in his youth.

Growing up in the 1950s, with the advent of television, I was a fortunate member of that generation that had access to old Hollywood movies in the comfort of my own living room. Television was pretty much our story telling electronic babysitter and it was before it that I discovered the greatest cinematic swashbuckler of them all, Errol Flynn.

To this day I consider his 1938 “The Adventures of Robin Hood” one the all time great adventure romances ever made. From the splendor of its Technicolor hues to the fast paced script and direction, the beautiful Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, the dastardly charming Basil Rathbone as the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham and of course Flynn as the quintessential Robin Hood. You can imagine a preteen young boy being mesmerized by such a tale of action and adventure all propelled by a brutally handsome rogue who, against all odds, would win both his cause and the hand of the fair lady. It was heady stuff; the same stuff that all adolescent dreams are made of.

Over those formative years, I would soon come to enjoy and applaud Flynn in his other great swashbuckling sagas such as “Captain Blood”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “They Died With Their Boots On” and another personal favorite, “The Sea Hawk.” That he was the idol of millions of young men around the world should come as no surprise to anyone who loves movies. But like all fabrications, the older I became, the more fact, as delivered by the gossip rags, began to intrude on fiction and the real person of Tasmanian born Errol Flynn began to emerge in my awareness. Learning the harsh reality that the actor was but a poor reflection of the heroes he portrayed on the silver screen was one of life’s bitter lessons to be learned. Yet, despite these “truths” my fascination and admiration of his films never lessened. After he passed away at a relatively young age in 1959, I often wondered who Errol Flynn really was. Thanks to biographer Thomas McNulty, we now have the answer to that question in this remarkable, exhaustively researched book.

At last we have a complete telling of the man’s life, from his early days in Tasmania to his struggling school years in England and finally his return to the Land Down Under and the fateful meetings that ultimately led him to a career in action. And as his personal journey zig-zags across the globe, so did Flynn’s love the sea and traveling. We learn that throughout both his successes and failures, it was forever the siren call of the horizon that forever propelled him onward, always eager and curious to find that strange and exotic land beyond. He was a self-taught philosopher, the talented writer and the cold and heartless womanizer all rolled into one complicated psyche. He would spend his entire life trying to self-analyze and fathom that mystery until, in the end, he was resigned himself to truth that whatever answers exist, they are not revealed to us in this life.

As a biographer, McNulty accepts his responsibility to tell us the entire story of the man, not the screen legend. He does so unerringly, often times clearly uncomfortable with the facts he is relating such the FBI’s voluminous files on Flynn and J. Edgar Hoover’s personal disdain for Flynn’s immorality. Here are the stories of his alcoholism and even worst self-destructive drug addiction to heroin. And yet this same lost soul remains a loving father devoted to his children. At the same time McNulty dispels the countless myths and fabrications that were created by Flynn’s enemies while also denouncing the actor’s own tall-tales with which he often used as a shield against the ever intruding press reporters. Here was a man who both desired and then despised his own celebrity.

“Errol Flynn – The Life and Career” is a truly amazing biography worthy of a place in any true film lover’s library. Errol Flynn was arguably one of the greatest romantic actors ever to shine on that giant silver screen and his place in cinematic history has been shamefully underrated. McNulty’s book goes a long way in correcting that wrong and argues soundly that more critical attention demands to be focused on this truly unique and talented man. Let’s hope the academic community is listening.

JUST BEFORE THE DAWN

2012-01-17T18:59:00.000-08:00

JUST BEFORE THE DAWN

By Bonnie Kozek

Legacy Publishing LLC

177 pages

A while back I read a book called THRESHOLD that impressed me greatly. It was modern day, grunge thriller written by a truly fearless writer. Kozek’s prose, like her protagonist, Honey McGuiness, is not for the faint of heart. Honey is a broken soul, abused constantly by her father as a child, tossed from one foster home to another; her life has been nothing but a constant swim through the sewers of society. In that first outing, Honey, with the help of a selfless, naïve police officer, helped topple a corrupt administration and almost got both of them killed in the process. By the book’s end, she was packing it up for parts unknown.

Which, as it turned out, became an out of the way burg called Pie Town. As this sequel opens, Honey is working in a restaurant/bar in the small hamlet and slowly getting accustomed to the eccentricities of the colorful locals. Still there is a recurring oddity about Pie Town, all its young people run off the second they finish high school, leaving the town to children and seniors. But Honey isn’t a private eye and solving mysteries really isn’t her thing. Getting by is and as a expert survivor who has taken the worst this world can dish out, she’s lulled herself into thinking Pie Town is a safe, boring corner into which she can crawl and disappear.

Sadly that assumption is the furthest from the truth. Pie Town harbors a dark and unholy secret and when Honey is kidnapped by a psycho killer operating a sex cult in the nearby woods, she begins a descent into a drug induced hell that is both horrifying and mind-numbing. Kozek doesn’t spare any of the details of Honey’s sexual degradation and continues to explore her twisted, wounded psyche every painful step of the way. This book is one woman’s personal journey to that hell and the writing is as sharp and brutal as a razor blade. It cuts…often. Still, it is never sensationalized and believe me, that is incredible. Oh, I am positive there will be readers and critics who will decry it as such, calling the shock-value a gimmick. They’re wrong. Like any exploration of the human condition, one has to peel away the layers to find then gristle and bone beneath. That process is never pretty. It is real.

And despite its in-your-face portrayal of abject cruelty, JUST BEFORE THE DAWN manages to find a glimmer of hope and salvation at its conclusion. It may be fragile at best, but then again, in the real world, there are no guarantees. Each of us gets by, if we’re lucky, with a little help from our friends. Honey McGuinness is one of the most memorable characters you will ever encounter, if you’ve got the fortitude to take the trip.

Good luck.

CHICAGO LIGHTNING

2011-12-31T10:16:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO LIGHTNING

The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories

By Max Allan Collins

Thomas & Mercer

373 pages

Sixty three year old Max Collins has been at this writing game for a while coming onto the mystery private-eye scene with his 1994 Shamus Award winning “True Detective,” published the year before. Since that monumental debut, Collins has gone on to produce several continuing series both in comics and prose; these include his comic book female P.I. Ms. Tree and the morally ambiguous hit-man, Quarry. The one fictional character Collins is most recognized for is Nathan Heller from his historical crime novels. Heller is a Chicago based investigator who over the course of his career rubs shoulders with personalities such as Al Capone and Eliot Ness and worked on such mysteries as the Lindberg baby kidnapping and the disappearance of aviatrix Amelia Earhart. His most recent Heller case was the critically acclaimed “Bye Bye Baby” wherein the fiftyish shamus becames involved with the death of Marilyn Monroe. All of these books are excellent and worthy of your time and attention.

Over the years Collins, at the request of anthology editors, also penned short stories featuring Heller. With the assistance of his research colleague, George Hagenauer, Collins adapted true crime stories and then wove his tough guy hero into their fabric so that the history and fiction elements become indistinguishable. This volume has taken that baker’s dozen and for the very first time presented them in chronological order from the first which occurs in 1933 to the last set in 1949. The settings range from Chicago to Cleveland and Hollywood. Here is a sampling of what is included between the covers.

“Kaddish for the Kid,” Heller is hired to protect a retailer from a crooked union scam in reality a protection racket. During a street shootout, his young partner is killed and the angry private dick goes after the killers with a vengeance.

“The Blonde Tigress,” has Heller investigating a trio of stick-up artists led by a female boss who tries to manipulate him into aiding her escape justice.

“Private Consultation,” has a well known Chicago doctor accused for murdering her daughter-in-law and her son hires Heller to investigate. What he uncovers is a sad testimony to a loveless marriage where none of the participants are innocent of wrong doing.

The Perfect Crime,” finds Heller in Los Angeles to help a friend. Before he can pack up and head home, he’s hired by the beautiful blonde star, Thelma Todd to act as her bodyguard. Miss Todd suspects mobsters wish to do her harm for refusing to allow Lucky Luciano to use the top floors of her famous restaurant as a casino. When she is found dead in her garage from carbon monoxide poisoning, Heller knows the coroner’s accidental death ruling is pure bunk. He decides to extend his trip to catch a killer.

In “House Call” a caring doctor is brutally murdered while answering a night summons to aid a sick child. This time Heller joins forces with the Chicago P.D. to hunt down the vicious killers and bring them to justice.

“Marble Mildred” tells the story of woman trapped for fourteen years in a loveless marriage who discovers a humiliating secret which she’d rather go to the electric chair rather than having it made public. A tragedy Heller is helpless to prevent.

“The Strawberry Teardrop” is based on the case of Cleveland serial killer, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run and how he was finally caught by the famous lawman Eliot Ness.

There is not a lemon in the batch. Collins writing style is terse and economically efficient. He uses words like a scalpel carving up the psychological motivations that induce people to do bad things. All the while Nathan Heller is his surgeon, meting out equal doses of justice and compassion. The title, “Chicago Lightning,” is gangster slang for gunfire and is only fitting as this book comes heavily loaded with pure pulp pizzaz. Don’t miss it.

HUGH MONN - Private Detective

2011-12-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

HUGH MONN –Private Detective

By Lee Houston, Jr.

Pro Se Press

176 pages

Genre blending has always been a staple of pulp fiction and there have been many sci-fi based private eye creations over the years. Writer Lee Houston Jr. isn’t breaking any new ground with this collection. What is his doing is adding to it with a truly sympathetic character in Hugh Monn, a human residing on the planet of Frontera. For background, we are told that there was an intergalactic war between isolationist who opposed species interaction and the allied worlds who favored it both for moral and economic reasons. The isolationist lost although remnants survive in bands of outlawed terrorist. Monn is a battle weary veteran of the campaign having fought with the allies. Now he’s settled down in his one man private investigations business and the eight cases in this volume have him mixing with various humanoid species also inhabiting the city island of Galveston 2. Each is well done and adds in creating a fascinating supporting cast.

“Dineena’s Dilemna,” in which a disinherited son attempts to frame his cousin for the murder of his own mother. Alas, private detective Hugh Moon is on the case and spots enough clues to free his client and bring the murderous heir to justice.

In “Shortages” Monn is hired by a docking outfit to solve the theft of merchandise from a highly secured storage facility. It looks like an inside job and evidence implicates one of the alien employees unless Monn can figure out how the thieves are working their operations.

In “Law and Order,” Monn is retained by a Felinoid lawyer named Mau to help clear her client from an armed robbery charge. The problem is the store’s video tapes clearly show the defendant committing the crime. Moon has to prove that even the eyes can be deceived by digital chicanery.

With “The Siege,” Houston gives us his version of the move “Die Hard,” with Monn going up against group of ant-like terrorist secretly taking over a major business tower at the heart of the island where he resides. Super rifle in hand, the gutsy private eye takes on this squad of trained commandos single handed.

“Where Can I Get A Witness?” Monn is hired to subpoena an elusive witness in a motor vehicle accident case. In the process he stumbles over the case of popular female singer who mysteriously vanished decades earlier. What’s the connection being that disappearance and the old man becomes the puzzle he must solve before someone dies.

Then a paternity issue results in a kidnapping and ends with Monn trapping an embezzler who became too greedy, all in the story, “For The Benefit Of Master Tyke.” This one gives us more of the detective’s character and sensitivity as he tries to keep a family from falling apart. While “At What Price Gloria?” Monn helps an old acquaintance from an earlier case outwit foreign blackmailers and foil an assassination plot.

Finally the book ends with our hero attempting to have spend, “A Day At The Beach,” only to end up solving a brutal murder with the help of a few other beach goers.

What is particularly refreshing in these tales is that Houston wisely opts not to make his hero a hard-boiled, typically cynical type. Hugh Monn is a genuinely nice guy who likes people and aliens alike and is sincere in trying to make his world a better place for all to live in. He’s a good guy I liked meeting and hope to see him again real soon.

GIDEON'S SWORD

2011-12-14T12:12:00.001-08:00

GIDEON’S SWORD

Preston & Child

Vision

380 pages

In 1995, thriller specialist Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child joined forces to write a best selling novel titled, “The Relic.” In the process, they created one of the most popular action suspense heroes ever to appear on the printed page; FBI Special Agent Pendergast. Although the book was a big success and later adapted to film, it was the creation of Pendergast that would be remembered. It has always been my personal belief that the character’s instant popularity surprised the two and they wasted no time in bringing him back in further adventures. Enough so that with each new Pendergast book, his fame among action devotees continued to spread and today he has a huge, loyal following.

When the pair announced, last year, that they had created a brand new series hero and would be releasing his first book in 2011, the news spread like wildfire across the book world. Eager fans soon learned the new character was named Gideon Crew and the authors had clearly set out to make him as different from Agent Pendergast as they could. We were also informed, via their website, that a major Hollywood studio had optioned the film rights from the galleys alone. Obviously the marketing machines were moving in high gear. The hardback arrived earlier this year to resounding critical acclaim and as of a few weeks ago the paperback edition which is what I’ve just finished reading.

Unless one has never read a Preston & Child Pendergast book, it would be impossible for anyone to read “Gideon’s Sword” without constantly comparing the two fictional heroes. What I appreciated immediately was how the writers set about breaking convention and actually giving this premier outing not one but two separate stories. If the casual reader picks up the title based solely on the back cover blurb, he or she is going to expect to find a typical revenge drama wherein Gideon Crew goes after the people responsible for his father’s death when he was only a child. This entire opening section of the novel serves brilliantly in defining our protagonist and giving us a complete origin history. In a few chapters we learn who he is, what he has done with his life and where those choices have taken him.

But when that first plot is resolved effectively in the first quarter of the book, I found myself both surprised and delighted. Suddenly the book seemed to take a detour down an entirely different road, one that led to the unknown and unexpected. Crew is recruited by a unique organization in the employ of the government to become an independent spy.

The logic, according to this top secret “engineering” outfit is Crew’s own anonymity in the world of espionage is his greatest asset, one that will give him the advantage over competing foreign agencies.

His first assignment is to retrieve an important formula from a supposedly defecting Chinese scientist. But when that fellow is murdered upon his arrival in New York, Crew finds himself locked in a deadly race with a merciless assassin to retrieve the mysterious data. Adding to the puzzle is no one knows what the secret really is. At this point, Preston & Child do what they do best and that is amp up the pacing so that the story and action begin to accelerate exponentially from chapter to chapter until their over-the-top climax arrives, leaving this reviewer with finger blisters from turning the pages so fast.

“Gideon’s Sword” is a top-notch pulp thriller worthy of any fans attention and support. As to whether Gideon Crew lives up to his predecessor’s well earned status among loyal readers is another matter. There were many things I liked about Crew, but again this was only a first meeting and I’m going to reserve the thumbs up or down until at least one more book. There is a rather important plot element regarding the character’s future that I’ve purposely avoided detailing here. It is one you need to discover for yourself. I won’t spoil it for you. Read the book and then we’ll talk.

GLAMOUR JOB

2011-12-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

GLAMOUR JOB

By Doug Farrell

BookSurge Publishing

484 pages

Every now and then, I trip over a book that’s really hard to describe genre-wise and this is such a case. It’s a madcap adventure that falls somewhere between fantasy, slapstick comedy and social satire. That all these elements mix effectively and in the end produce a heady concoction of genuine adult delight is a testament to Farrell’s own imagination in brewing what he aptly describes as “A Fairy-tale for Grown-ups.”

The set up deals with a fairy war that occurred in another dimension wherein the goblin race lost and was forced to flee to our world, arriving in 1947, two years after the end of World War II. Convincing certain human scientist to help them, the goblins invented special disguises that allowed them to go undetected in our world and for decades walked among humans, some even interbreeding with them. Ultimately the same scientists who developed these sophisticated camouflages saw the potential for monetary wealth by using the same formulas to create beauty aids for human women. They create Glamorine, a Chicago based million dollar cosmetic empire built on the results of these techniques and certain globin magics.

The book’s theme plays with duel definitions of the word glamour. The first being a quality of fascinating, alluring, or attracting, especially by a combination of charm and good looks. It also means magic or enchantment; spell; witchery.

The protagonist is super model and the face of Glamorine, Laurie Morgan, whose grandfather was one of the scientist who created the company. As the story opens Laurie has become disillusioned by her near perfect life and is in the process of divorcing her loving husband, Nick. Laurie is suffering from ennui unable to explain her own dissatisfaction and believes she’s become trapped in a dull, boring routine of existence. No sooner is the divorce granted then she is contacted by a blue gnome name Hawley disguised as a little girl. He warns Laurie that her life is in danger. As if confronting an actual blue dwarf weren’t enough, Laurie begins to running into women throughout Chicago who looked exactly like her.

As paranoia begins to set in, Hawley explains that there is a goblin revolution in the works. After decades of living in secrecy amongst mankind, a group of goblin leaders have concocted a scheme to take control of Glamorine and replace its board of directors, including Laurie and her grandfather, with phony disguised goblins. Once they’ve achieved this end, they plan on poisoning the cosmetics produced to Glamorine to eliminate all of mankind and take over the Earth.

Needless to say having an army of vicious goblins out to do her in is more than enough motivation to snap Laurie out of her malaise and back into living at full tilt if only to stay alive. Before the book’s conclusion arrives, she will have been held prisoner in an underwater complex below Lake Michigan, met and been devoured by a fire breathing dragon and allied herself with tiny pig-fairies only she can see. “Glamour Job” is a rollicking tale that never lets up and is filled with satirical jabs at how we treasure a make-believe beauty that is simply an illusion devised by Fifth Avenue to milk millions from starry eyed little girls all wanting to grow up and become runway princesses. But do be warned, this is only the first chapter in a trilogy and the ending does come somewhat abruptly.

We also note by the print date that “Glamour Job” is four years old. All the more reason to seek it out as it might have flown under your radar. Urban fantasy isn’t one of this reviewer’s most favorite genres, but “Glamour Job” has enough action muscle to sustain it for even the most jaded pulp reader. If you are looking for something truly different and fun, you would be hard press to do much better than this book.

MERKABAH RIDER - The Mensch With No Name

2011-11-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

MERKABAH RIDER

The Mensch With No Name

By Edward M. Erdelac

Damanation Books, LLC

218 pages

Perhaps the most popular sub-genre in the resurgence of new pulp fiction is that of the weird western. It seems everywhere one turns these days; another publisher is coming out with another anthology which combines the cowboy classic setting with all manner of bizarre and horrible trappings. None is more effective and original than Edward M. Erdelac’s Merkabh Rider series. In his first book, “Tales of a High Plains Drifter” we were introduced to the Rider, last of an order of Jewish mystics searching a demon infested west on the trail of his teacher, who betrayed and massacred the order known as the Sons of Essenes. In this second volume, the Rider’s travails continue through four new adventures.

In “The Infernal Napoleon”, the Rider finds himself in an out of the way watering hole used by freight haulers. Here, in this desolate way station he’s set upon by a vengeance seeking demonic dwarf who controls a satanic canon and is willing to destroy dozens of innocent lives to achieve his ends. But in all things, there is a balance and the aid of a young Samson-like strongman may tilt the odds in the Rider’s favor. The action is fast and brutal and sets the tone for the entire book.

Next is “The Damned Dingus.” During a train robbery by a group of dim witted varmints, the Rider’s unique Volcanic pistol is stolen. With the aid of the famous gunfighter, Doc Holiday, and an experienced deputy marshal, the Rider travels to an abandoned mine in the high country and encounters the savage menace of an invisible monster capable of ripping men and horses to pieces. What is it the creature is protecting and what is its connection to his old teacher’s twisted plans?

Leaving Arizona, the Rider learns he has been labeled a wanted outlaw with a bounty on his head. Fleeing into New Mexico, he encounters a band of Apaches battling an age old horror that dwells beneath the earth. Here Erdelac takes a page from H. P. Lovecrafts’ canon in using the evil Old Ones from beyond the stars as the threat and only the Rider and his arcane skills can free the territory of the vile and corrupted She-Demon in the episode called appropriately, “The Outlaw Gods.” Before it is finished, the Rider will have led an army of Spanish ghosts in an epic battle across the astral plane.

Finally, still assailed by Queen Lilith’s invisible sprites that are draining away his life essence, the Rider is found by Kabede; a Merkabah Rider from a secret Ethiopian sect of the Sons of Essenes. Kabede convinces the Rider that the answers to Adon’s diabolical plan, the meaning behind the so called Hour of Incursion, can only be answered by the Prince of Hell, Satan and they must travel to Hell in astral form. Erdelac’s depiction of the various levels of Gehena are as evocative as Milton’s own “Paradise Lost” and deftly combine Judeo/Christian tradition with other prehistoric myths. In the end, he weaves a complicated but amazing tapestry of mankind’s ongoing quest to explain the meaning of creation and the eternal conflict between faith and hopelessness. By the end of this final chapter, the Rider and his new companion have set into motion actions which will either lead to their defeat at the hands of Adon and his minions, or a miraculous victory against the forces of alien damnation. Calling this finale a cliffhanger is a major understatement.

“MERKABAH RIDER – The Mensch With No Name” is a terrific continuation of an exciting saga this reviewer imagines will culminate in a third and final volume. This is easily some of the finest western/horror/action writing on the market today and comes highly recommended. The Merkabah Rider is truly a pulp hero like no other.

HARDLUCK HANNIGAN - The Golden Scorpion

2011-11-17T14:33:00.000-08:00

The Fantastic Adventures of

HARDLUCK HANNIGAN

The Golden Scorpion

By Bill Craig

Cover by Laura Givens

Ever since starting this column, I’ve reviewed many small independent books but all of them were in one fashion or another associated with either a publishing group or writers’ organization. They all had ISBN numbers, a website or link as to where their books could be purchased. Bill Craig’s offering here has neither, no ISBN, no website address and no page numbering. I can’t even tell you how many pages there are in this great little book. This book exemplifies self-publishing to the maximum understanding of that process. This book was written, assembled and printed by Bill Craig. Happily, I’m informed that all of Craig’s books are available at Amazon.

Despite the book’s amateurish production values, Craig is really a very competent writer who excels at fast paced action. He is most assuredly a new pulp writer worthy of your attention and one of the most prolific working today. The Hardluck Hannigan series is only one of several he has invented and continues to pump out at a rather remarkable rate. Understand, Craig’s purple prose is masculine and he waste no time jumping into each book’s plot with little fanfare as to who these characters are or where they’ve been up to this point in their lives.

The Golden Scorpion opens with Michael Hardluck Hannigan in Cairo having just completed an adventure in Africa. At the bequest of his Russian buddy, Gregor Shotsky, they go to meet an unscrupulous dealer in antiquities who has information on the whereabouts of an ancient mystical artifact known as the Golden Scorpion. The Golden Scorpion supposedly is a powerful arcane weapon of some kind said to be buried deep in the sands of the Sahara. Within minutes of meeting this fellow, Hannigan and Gregor are attacked by Tureg warriors, the merchant is killed and they escape with their lives and a new ally, a lovely American secret agent named Chas Ridings.

As I said before, the action never lets up and all too quickly we learn Hannigan is being pursued by a secret cult of desert warriors, a Chinese master criminal and members of the Illuminati based in England. A great deal of Craig’s writing is reminiscent of Lester Dent’s classic Doc Savage stories in that Hannigan seems to be always accompanied by an eclectic group of aides made up of assassins, soldiers of fortune and brilliant scientists answering the siren song of adventure. Throughout their madcap race across the burning sands, battling both human and inhuman foes, Hannigan and company press on while Craig occasionally drops information concerning their previous exploits that led to their current predicament. It is both frustrating and intriguing at the same time.

The Golden Scorpion is a quick read that left me wanting a whole lot more. If you haven’t heard of Bill Craig before, then you need to remedy that. He’s a damn awesome pulp writer who knows how to spin a yarn.

MODERN MARVELS VIKTORIANA

2011-11-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

MODERN MARVELS –

Victoriana

By Wayne Reinagel

Knight Raven Studios

440 pages

Several years ago, writer Wayne Reinagle burst upon the pulp fiction world with a self published tome that was the pulp equivalent of “Gone With the Wind.” PULP HEROES – MORE THAN MORTAL was a giant white elephant of a clunker that was not well written and appeared to be stitched together by a fan boy who was irrevocably addicted to the classic pulp heroes of the 1930s & 40s. Still, as badly exceuted as that book was, the poor mechanics could not disguise the genuine love and enthusiasm Reinagel possessed for these iconic heroes and how much fun he had playing with them. You see, the audacity of the man is he put practically every single major ( & minor ) pulp hero in that one giant volume. Here were Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Spider, the Avenger etc.etc., albeit all with new names to avoid legal repercussions from the rights holders, though readers knew exactly who each was. Despite its literary flaws, the book is also important in that it was the beginning of Reinagel’s super saga that would invariably use every major literary hero and villain from both the 19^th and 20^th Centuries spread across an historical roadmap of herculean breath and girth.

Somewhere in all this Reinagel came to an unexplainable decision in regards to his pulp magnus opus; he’d inadvertently begun it in the middle. After the subsequent release of MORE THAN MORTALS, he was plagued with plot threads that could only be rationalized by going backwards in time, rather than forward. Thus the second book in the trilogy was actually the first chronologically: PULP HEROES – KHAN DYNASTY. It went back decades to give us the origins of the people who would ultimately sire the pulp heroes of the Great Depression. Asserting his genuine talent, Reinagel’s prose is much improved with this book though it still suffered the same affliction as its predecessor; massive dumps of historical data were dropped helter skelter through the narrative even in the middle of some balls-out action sequences. Again, Reinagel is not a man of moderations, he wants to give his readers ( & himself ) more and more. Some times to the detriment of his tale. Still KHAN DYNASTY was a major improvement and contained the portent of better things to come.

This reviewer is very happy to declare that literary promise has at long last been realized in Reinagel’s third book, MODERN MARVELS – VIKTORIANA. Clocking in at an impressive 440 pages, it adds proof that the guy simply cannot write a short piece but it also loudly proclaims his arrival as a sophisticated storyteller. This is the work of a craftsman who judiciously balances both action and characterizations and even though there are still many researched historical facts, they are kept concise and only used when propelling the action forward. That this is the writer’s fastest paced, most colorful and grandiose book is blatantly obvious from the first page to last.

Once again, the author propels us backward to lay the foundation of heroic fiction in a brilliant twist that is pure nectar of the gods to any reader who grew up enjoying the fantastic literature of the 19^th Century. The heroes of this volume are the writers who produced those amazing works all of us encountered along the road to maturity and adulthood; the English classics with a few mongrel relatives thrown in for good measure.

The plot is simple enough. The planet’s are about to align in a unique positioning only witnessed every thousand years and two insidious fiends, Varney the Vampire and his stooge, a teenage Aleister Crowley, plan to use the stellar phenomenon to their own twisted ends. They wish to open a hole to another dimension; one filled with demons eager to crossover and destroy the earth. But to do so, Varney requires nine special magical tablets or else his insane plot will fail.

Guarding those arcane items are the most famous and courageous souls of their times; H.R. Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Nikola Tesla, and an aged Edgar Allen Poe accompanied by a teenage magician named Harry Houdini. They are led by an enigmatic, seemingly immortal beauty, Mary Shelly. Now if that isn’t a Who’s Who list of the most influential writers in English Literature during the late 19^th Century, then I’d be at a loss to compile another. The exuberant bravado of Reinagel is his fearlessness in employing this stellar cast and bringing them to wonderful life in his glorious adventure. Their interaction amongst themselves, the romance between Haggard and the ever dangerous lovely Miss Shelley, the good-old-boys camaraderie between Doyle and Stoker is simply endearing and believable.

Wayne Reinagel clearly possesses one of the grandest imaginations ever unleashed on the printed page. His dreams and his fiction know no bounds when after adventure of the highest order and he delivers it beyond measure in this book. Every one of his books is an experience with so many surprises in store for the reader but none have so entertained and delighted this reviewer as MODERN MARVELS VIKTORIANA. Mark my words, pulp fans, your lives will be enriched for the better after reading this pure pulp odyssey by a truly one of a kind maser storyteller. Bravo, Wayne Reinagel, bravo!

CHOKE HOLD

2011-10-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

CHOKE HOLD

By Christa Faust

Hard Case Crime

251 pages

Christa Faust, Hard Case Crime’s only female writer returns with a brutal, hard hitting sequel to her first Angel Dare story, “Money Shot.” Dare is a former porn star who in the first novel found herself mixed up with a group of Croatian mobsters running a sex-slave operation. By the end of that story, Dare had destroyed their organization, freed the captive girls and was on the wrong side of a sadistic criminal mob.

As “Choke Hold” begins, we learn Dare had gone into the government’s Witness Protection program and been given a new identity in rural New England. Somehow the revenge seeking killers learned of her whereabouts and by sheer luck she manages to elude them and escape, this time completely on her own. Eventually she stops running somewhere in the Arizona desert where she becomes a waitress in a run down, out of the way diner until she can afford enough cash to pay for new counterfeit identity papers.

Then the whimsies of fate intervene and into the place walks one of Dare’s old lovers, a former porn actor known as Thick Vic Ventura. He is there to meet his estranged eighteen year old son, a mixed martial arts fighter who he has never met before. No sooner do the two men greet each other then the joint is invaded by a trio of gun wielding Hispanics who shoot Ventura and attempt to kill his son. By the time the lead has stopped flying, there are several corpses on the floor and Dare is fleeing out the back door with Cody Noon, Vic’s son, in tow. He takes her to his mentor, a famous ex-fighter named Hank who is more than a little punch-drunk.

Dare begins to suspect Cody was the real target of the attack at the diner and by the time she and Hank can fathom the cause, the boy is grabbed by several goons who work for a local Mexican crime boss. It seems of the mob’s cocaine stash had been pilfered and Cody is the prime suspect. Having promised Vic, as he lay dying, that she would protect his son, Dare feels obligated to save him, she and Hank, who has become enamored with her, head south on an ill-planned rescue mission.

“Choke Hold” is a chase novel that weaves its way from the barren Arizona badlands to the illegal fighting rings of Mexico and comes to a gun-blazing, bullet rain of destruction in the glitzy American Mecca of Los Vegas. It is classic noir in that the characters, both good and bad, are lost souls without an ounce of hope between them. Life has kicked Hank in the head so many times, he has serious medical issues, Cody is pursuing a naïve dream without the slightest idea of the dangerous world he inhabits and Dare is a tired porn queen on the lam from obsessed foreign killers barely able to keep one ahead of them from one day to the next.

Had there been some concrete resolution to any of these characters, the ending would have been a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately from the first page to the last, “Choke Hold” is a one way trip down a railroad track to meet the oncoming train of death head on and thus offers up no surprises.

Angel Dare is a well envisioned protagonist and in “Money Shot” there was progression in her development as a character. That is totally missing in “Choke Hold” and thus questions the books very purpose for being, save to watch her run around being chased by killers. Noir fiction is not easy to write and nearly impossible in a first person narrative when from the very first “I”, you know the hero will survive. “Choke Hold” feels like a bad sequel and if there is to be a third Angel Dare book, here’s hoping it has a real finish.

STRANGE GODS OF THE DIRE PLANET

2011-09-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

STRANGE GOD

OF THE DIRE PLANET

By Joel Jenkins

Pulp Work Press

263 pages

Writer Joel Jenkins is one of the most prolific, exciting and talented members of the New Pulp movement today. Through his association with Pulp Work Press, an outfit he started with fellow writers Joshua Reynolds and Derrick Ferguson, Jenkins has produced some of the most amazing, fast-paced pulp adventures ever to hit print. The originator of several series in various traditional genres, STRANGE GODS OF THE DIRE PLANET, is the fourth book in this homage to Edgar Rice Burrough’s classic Martian books.

Having not read the previous three, I really appreciated Jenkins’ understanding that new readers would need a little extra background exposition to bring them up to speed on where the action was taking place and who all these characters were; while at the same time moving the story along at a breakneck pace to satisfy those fans who had been along for the ride from the beginning. That he accomplishes this wonderfully is no small achievement and a big reason I enjoyed the book so much.

Here’s what any new reader will learn upon entering Garvey Dire’s world. Dire is a modern NASA astronaut who, by some cosmic snafu, had his space craft hurled through an anomaly that sent him back in time millions of years to a Mars inhabited by humans like himself and all manner of beasts and fauna. Realizing this is a one way trip; Dire accepts his fate and sets about making a new life for himself amongst the female dominated tribes of the giant red planet. Jenkins has created a truly exotic social background that is fascinating with paying scrupulous attention to what each of these customs means to the entire culture he has created.

On Dire’s Mars, men are in short supply so they are protected and treasured and it is the abundant female sex that handles the affairs of state, commerce and warfare. Obviously this is a different world than Dire is comfortable with, especially when adapting he realizes he must accept polygamy and marry several women to assume an active role in this society. Like Burrough’s books, Jenkins’ Martian civilization is crumpling and the population struggling daily against both the forces of nature and time to survive.

The crux of this fourth volume centers about a long kept secret of an occult group of fanatics known as the Technopriests and Dire and his allies attempt to uncover it. There is bloodshed galore, non-stop action and great heroic characters battling against truly beautifully crafted background. It also ends on one of the most dramatic cliffhangers this reader has ever encountered. Over the many years since Burroughs created his interplanetary pulp classics there have been dozens of imitators who have attempted to recapture the magic he wielded but none has ever come as close as Jenkins with the Dire Planet books. These books are rock!

GRIOTS

2011-09-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

GRIOTS

Edited by Milton Davis & Charles Saunders

MV Media LLC.

284 pages

This reviewer has often made it known that he enjoys anthologies for two reasons; the first being the concept of similarly themed tales from various writers collected between two cover is just plain fun. The second is the continued encouragement of the short story format. For many years academics were decrying the extinction of this form with the loss of so many monthly literary magazines and they were right to do so. But thanks to the emergence of genre themed anthologies, the short story has truly had a strong resurgence in popularity over the past decade.

Now comes this truly unique book which heralds the supposed creation of yet another fiction genre, that of “sword and soul.” In the opening introduction, editors Davis and Saunders, both African Americans and leading writers in the field of fantasy adventure, detail a history of the genre first established by pulp writer Robert E. Howard when he invented sword and sorcery with his well known Conan adventures. Whereas Saunders entered the field in the 1970s with the creation of his own barbaric warrior hero, Imaro and later Davis followed suit, each imbuing this fantasy sub-genre with what they believe is a clearly felt African sensibility. Davis argues this is a new, original evolution of the well established sword and sorcery theme. Are they correct, or simply trying to sell us something old with a new coat of paint?

As always, reviewing an anthology to determine its entertainment worth is pure mathematics. You simply count how many stories are in the volume and then during the course of reading label those which are exceptional, those which are simply mediocre and those that are ineffective. At the end, whichever way the scales tip, you have your verdict. GRIOTS, that’s a French word for African storytellers, collects fourteen tales of exotic action and adventure all presented by African American writers. Here are my favorite six in this collection.

“Changeling” by Carole McDonnell is my favorite of the bunch. It tells the story of three sisters and their fates in a poignant tale of human emotions from the noble self-scarifying nature of true love to the petty ugliness of greed and jealousy. Three princesses, each cast in a different mold confront the meanings of their lives and truth while resigning themselves to destiny proving the age old adage that a leopard can’t change its spots. McDonnell is a gifted writer and she lays out her plot with an efficiency of words that mesmerize and paint images long remembered after the reading.

“The Three Faced One,” by Charles Saunders was no surprise as my second favorite here in that it is us another great tale of the wandering warrior, Imaro, the hero of several of Saunders’ novels. This story finds Imaro coming to the aid of a tribe of cattle herders being taken abused by a three-faced demon. Once more the powerful hero must pit his muscles against the forces of evil sorcery. This is pure Imaro gold and worth the price of admission by itself.

“Skin Magic” by P.Djeli Clark is a gripping, original action piece about the victim of a dying sorcerer’s curse. A young thief must live with moving tattoos etched his chest that are actual portals to other worlds and the monsters that live there. How he comes to deal with this horrid fate is a very gripping and exciting entry.

Whereas co-editor Milton Davis’s own “Captured Beauty” is the rollicking action tale of Changa, who despises slavery and risks his own position with his sympathetic employer to find a kidnapped maiden and rescue her from a cruel master who wields black magic.

Another winner is “The Demon in the Wall,” by Stafford L.Battle featuring beautiful Makhulu and her warrior grandson Zende. Together they must rescue their captured family from the demoness Swallow and her human ally, the rich and fat Fabu. Together they are an unbeatable combination of sorcery and strength.

In “The Queen, The Demon & The Mercenary,” by Ronald T. Jones, Queen Zara’s land is besieged by an evil demon warrior and her salvation lies in the hands of an enigmatic mercenary with a cocky air of self-confidence.

The above half dozen are extremely well done and highly recommended. At the same time honorable mention goes to “Awakening” by Valjeanne Jeffers, “Lost Son” by Maurice Broaddus, “The General’s Daughter” by Anthony Kwamu and “The Leopard Walks Alone,” by Melvin Carter.

The remaining four failed to impress me and one was so convoluted in its prose, I re-read it twice and still couldn’t decipher what exactly was going in the story. You may have a different opinion. Still six truly well crafted adventures and four equally well told make GRIOTS a winning anthology unlike most of the fantasy found on today’s book shelves. Is it really a new genre? I leave that for you to decide, me, I just enjoyed the stories regardless of what anyone wishes to label them.

Review Postscript – I do have one final critique concerning GRIOTS, but as it does not concern its literary contents, I felt it best to set this issue apart from my main review. Many readers do not give much attention to the accompanying artwork in such volumes but they are, at least to this reviewer, an integral part of the book’s overall presentation. Following the tradition of classic pulp fiction, GRIOTS, besides its lovely cover painting, also showcases fourteen black and white interior illustrations, one for each of the stories.

And therein is my frustration as the art is delivered by half a dozen artists. At their basic core, anthologies are diverse stories all connected by a central theme. Nothing helps cement that theme more than one artist bringing his or her talent to a book, giving it a visual cohesiveness that is crucial to the overall feel of the tome. But when a reader is confronted by multiple art pieces done in a variety of styles with differing levels of quality that unifying thread is shattered.

Consider this analogy if you will. Imagine being invited to a fancy, hip hop dance with lively modern music. You’re out on the dance floor have a grand time when suddenly you have to hold up because every new track being played has to be handled by a new D.J. All too soon what was once a fun time is now a discordant mess. A single, talented D.J. can clearly leave his or her personality imprint on such a party, a single illustrator for GRIOTS would have left the same kind of visual oneness.

I would strongly urge the editors to consider using only one interior artist for their follow up sequels. And just so you do not think I’m anti artists, let me finish with saying I really liked the work of Stanley Weaver, John Jennings, Paul Davey and Shawn Alleyne found in this book.

THE CONSUMMATA

2011-09-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

THE CONSUMMATA

By Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

Hard Case Crime

247 pages

Release Date - 4 Oct. 2011

In 1967 popular mystery writer, Mickey Spillane, sought to cash in the James Bond spy craze sweeping the world of literary fiction. He created a Florida based government agent named Morgan the Raider; obviously referencing the famous pirate with the same name. The book was titled THE DELTA FACTOR and the plot revolved around Morgan and a beautiful female agent, Kim Stacy, going to a South American island to rescue a scientist being held by terrorists. Spillane had begun work on a sequel when THE DELTA FACTOR was made into a rather bland, lackluster movie in 1971 and disheartened by that film; he shelved the new book and never completed it.

Forty-four years later, thanks to Spillane’s good friend and protégé, crime novelist, Max Allan Collins, fans can now enjoy that sequel, THE CONSUMMATA. The story takes places only a few months after the events in the first book, with Morgan now a felon having been framed for an armored car hold up that netted the thieves forty million dollars. Although innocent, the only way he can prove his innocent is to find the stolen loot and return it, all the while eluding both local and government agents.

As if that isn’t trouble enough, he finds himself entangled with a group of Cuban exile patriots living in Miami who have become victims of a lowlife named Jamie Halaquez; a spy for dictator, Fidel Castro. Halaquez has stolen the rebels’ war chest containing seventy-five thousand dollars; money intended to fund the group’s activities and help other refugees flee Cuba. Owing them a debt of honor, Morgan volunteers to find Halaquez and return their money.

Less than twenty four hours later, a bomb destroys the hotel room in which Morgan was to have set up his base of operations. Only through a sixth sense honed through years of espionage work does Morgan avoid being killed but at the same time is made aware that there is another spy in his new circle of friends. Now things are really complicated, in a very deadly way. At the same time he is playing detective in the seamy world of Miami’s sex clubs, unknown killers are dogging his trail.

THE CONSUMMATA is a typical pedal-to-metal Spillane thriller that zips along at a fast, gut tightening pace filled with lots of sexy and dangerous women and a true exotic mix of colorful supporting characters from both sides of the law. There are always a few critics who will claim they can discern where Spillane left off and where Collins took over the yarn. This reviewer is happy to say he is not one of those. This is a seamless adventure that moves smoothly from chapter to chapter with one clear and exciting voice, echoing the bullet-blasting tales of a true Mystery Grandmaster.

THE WRECKER

2011-09-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

THE WRECKER

By Justin Scott (&Clive Cussler)

Berkley Books

562 pages

Several years ago best selling writer Clive Cussler created a new turn of the century hero in Isaac Bell, an operative for the Van Dorn Detective Agency in the early 1900s. Bell appeared in Cussler’s excellent novel, “The Chase.” It is the one and only Isaac Bell adventure Cussler has ever written, although there are two more currently on the market with a fourth on the way all bearing his name on the covers. But then again, as most book lovers know, covers do lie.

So here’s more pulp history. Publishers would create characters then hire writers to spin their adventures. Aware their demands for monthly stories would be too much of any one scribe to produce, they would hire several and print their work under a house pseudonym. That’s why all of Walter Gibson’s great Shadow novels were published under the by-line of Maxwell Grant, because he did not write all the Shadow adventures. Likewise, even though Lester Dent did write the majority of Doc Savage tales, he did not write them all. But they were published under the bogus house name of Kenneth Robeson. This was an established practice of the times and as long as their checks didn’t bounce, most pulp writers never quibbled about such aesthetics as fame and glory.

Jump ahead to the early 1980s and this established deceitful tradition was suddenly given a new spin by the publishers’ marketing departments when they realized certain bestselling authors’ names have what is commonly referred in the advertising game as Brand Recognition. That simply means that over a period of time these writers (Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler to name a few) have created, via their books, an army of loyal fans numbering in the thousands. Fans who will buy anything with their names on it, regardless of the plots, themes, genres etc. If it says Clive Cussler on the cover, X number of thousands of copies are guaranteed to sell. Thus for Cussler’s publisher the logical next step was to get him to write more books every year to keep those sales coming in on an annual basis. After all the book business is no different than any other, the bottom line isn’t art, its profits.

Unfortunately they soon discovered that poor Cussler didn’t want to be chained to his PC twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The guy very much wanted to eat, drink, sleep, spend time with his loved ones and actually have a life. What’s the point of making all this money if he couldn’t have time to enjoy it? Such an awful dilemma to have. So what’s was the solution that placated both the writer and the publisher’s needs at the same? The answer, most likely first originated by some truly ingenious marketing manager, was to use the famous author’s name but hire someone else to do the actual writing. We are not talking about co-writing here, although that is what these money hungry publishers would like you to assume. Oh, no, they went out and hired other writers to take over the series created by the big name authors and then let them write them solo.

Of course not being privy to these inside machinations, we can only speculate. As a reviewer who does enjoy Cussler’s work, I’d like to believe that when he first began whipping up all these spin-off series from his Dirk Pitt books, he did take some time in overseeing the creation of these new concepts and did investigate, as much as time would allow him, who these new writers would be. He may even have contributed an occasional plot or two in the beginning. But that’s it, readers. At present Cussler has his name on a total of five on-going series and I’m guessing the only one he actually does any writing on are the Dirk Pitt books which he now co-authors with his son Dirk Cussler.

The Kurt Austin adventures, the Fargo Adventures, the Oregon Files and now the Isaac Bell adventures are handled entirely by hired guns. If the books are still good, is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. But it remains a deceitful trade practice this reviewer is getting more and more tired of because it does rob the real authors from the full praise they deserve. Thus, I for one, will from this point on list the names of the true writers over those of the “brand name” celebrity. That said, let’s look at “The Wrecker” by Justin Scott.

The year is 1907 and Southern Pacific Railroad is on the verge of completing the last section of its Cascades express line. It is a project the company is heavily invested in and should it fail would mean their ruin. When a brilliant saboteur known as the Wrecker is wreaking havoc and destruction on the line, causing multiple deaths in the process, the company is thrown into turmoil. Finally the president and owner, Osgood Hennessy, hires the famous Van Dorn Detective agency to hunt down Wrecker and bring him to justice before he totally destroys their operations. Because of the prestige status of his client, Joe Van Dorn assigns his best agent, Isaac Bell, to the case and thus the hunt is on.

This book is a fast paced thriller pitting two cunning intellects against each other, with the Wrecker having the advantage as his true identity is unknown to the determined investigator. From one end of the sprawling continent to the other, Bell and the Wrecker play a deadly cat and mouse game like Grandmasters at a chess tournament, each moving his pieces skillfully with deadly intent. Soon both are aware there can only be one victor in this contest; only to who will survive their final conflict. “The Wrecker” is a truly magnificent historical adventure with a relentless pace as speedy as the trains it describes populated by noble heroes and dastardly villains. If you enjoy solid adventure with an authentic historical background, this is one book you do not want to miss. Kudos to Mr.Justin Scott, we can’t wait to read the next book in this entertaining series.

SENTINELS - Stellarax

2011-08-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

SENTINELS – Stellarax

By Van Allen Plexico

White Rocket Books

311 pages

When Van Allen Plexico first introduced us to the world of the Sentinels way back in book number one “When Strikes The Warlord,” I doubt any of us had a clue what a wild ride he was about to take us all on. And before we get too deeply into this review, here’s a fact you need to be aware of; “Sentinels – Stellarax” is the sixth book in a series and yes, it is necessary to have read the first five to both understand and enjoy this book. So those of you who have not read those earlier books, you may want to forego this review altogether. But again, be forewarned, I am about to rant and rave about how much fun this volume is and you may find yourself tempted to dig into your piggy banks and go out and buy those other five books. As well you should.

Don’t get me wrong here, continuing series have been a part of science fiction since it first appeared back in the early days of the pulps. E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series comes to mind immediately, then there was Asimov’s Foundation books, Richard Adams Horseclan Saga and most recently, Peter David’s New Frontier Star Trek paperbacks. All of them series, all of them dependent on readers starting from the beginning to keep abreast of each new chapter and plot evolution. The Sentinels is no different than those classics and honestly just as imaginative and wonderful.

Plexico’s conceit was to take the super heroics he had found as a child in comic books and bring that same wild and crazy out-of-this-world action to prose. That he does so effortlessly is evidence of his genuine skills as a writer and with each new book he delivers, he only gets better.

Now for you loyal readers who have been following along, you are well aware that when we left our merry band of Earth super-heroes and their alien allies, they were assembled on a massive platform in orbit over the planet Earth as it was being confronted by four of the most powerful entities in the universe, known as the Rivals. Each of these god-like beings had similar twin goals, to vanquish the other three and conquer the Earth. It was up to our gang of heroes to defeat them and save the day. It was the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers and I could not wait to dig into this, the final book of this second overriding story arc to see what happened next.

Led by genius industrial inventor, Esro Brachis, the Sentinels include Pulsar, a lovely young woman Asian American with amazing powers, Captain Mondrian, a tall, red-skinned alien member of the Elite Kur-Bai Starfleet, Shiva, a one time British agent now the embodiment of the Hindu god wielding a Trident of Destruction and a teen boy who has inherited the powerful golden armor of a Star Knight. Of course there are other members of the cast, but for the most part these are the focus of this adventure and how they manage to outwit the overwhelming superiority of the four Rivals is simply ingenious and a joy to behold. Plexico’s ability to keep the action moving at hyper-speed while every so often offering up an important flashback sequence is akin the juggler hurling a half-dozen chainsaws over his head. One slip…and oops, the end. That he continues to keep every character in place at the same time answering questions posed in the early books is simply fantastic.

From unstoppable blue foam known as the Blight that consumes everything in its path to space born zombies raining down on the Earth, “Sentinels – Stellarax” is action packed. It is easily the best book in the series and that’s no small achievement. When any reader invest so much time with such a continuing saga, there is a natural expectation that the pay-offs at the end had better to be spectacular. Plexico delivers nothing less each and every time. I, for one, can’t wait for the next one. Long live the Sentinels!

QUARRY'S EX

2011-08-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

QUARRY’S EX

By Max Allan Collins

Hard Case Crime

211 pages

Available Sept.20, 2011

Max Allan Collins started writing his Quarry books back in 1976 with The Broker. It was the first time we were introduced to the Vietnam vet turned paid assassin. In that tale, we learned how Quarry, not his real name of course, came home to find his wife in bed with another man. He murders the guy by dropping a car on him and then, because of his service record as a war hero, is acquitted by jury. Shortly thereafter he is recruited by a man known only as the Broker to become a professional killer.

In the books that have appeared since that stellar debut, that opening scenario has often been retold many times to bring the new readers up to speed. Recently, since becoming affiliated with Hard Case Crime, Collins has begun filling in specific details of Quarry’s life, each more compelling than the last. In this particular book, we are told what happened to Quarry’s ex-wife after they divorced and parted. But Quarry’s personal life is, as always case, only the subplot of the story.

Quarry has come to a small Arizona town where a movie studio is shooting an action B movie. When he discovers that the director of the film is the target of a hit, Quarry approaches the man and offers his own lethal services to both eliminate the threat and discover who put out the contract in the first place. It is this neat little twist combination of mystery and crime thriller that makes this series so original and fun. Quarry is no knight-in-shining armor private eye out to save the world. He’s a killer who makes a good living taking out other killers.

Once the first part of his contract has been efficiently resolved, Quarry is a master of death-dealing, he then becomes a detective chasing down the person who put out the contract on the moviemaker. As always, there are plenty of juicy suspects from the mob boss who is financing the project to the director’s wife who inherits all if he dies. The problem is the woman is Quarry’s ex-wife. The second he lays eyes on her, old familiar feelings he thought long dead begin to resurface, complicating an already precarious situation.

Paying homage to the potboilers of the 40s and 50s, Collins laces his tale with the most outrageous sexual encounters; all done with a sly, sharp wit that is ingratiating. At the same time he balances that adult humor with explosive violence that is as mesmerizing as it is ugly. His prose falls into place with the deft touch of a contemporary poet, each line awakening a new possibility in how we see the world. Reading Quarry is an education in human psychology taught from the barrel of a silenced automatic.

(Postscript – This review was written and posted last year when the book was first published by Dorchester Press. Shortly thereafter Hard Case Crime parted company with that firm and this new edition is now being released by their new British publisher, Titan Books.)

GETTING OFF

2011-08-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

GETTING OFF

By Lawrence Block

(Writing as Jill Emerson)

Hard Case Crime

335 pages

Release Date 20 Sept 2011

One of the classic traits of a noire crime story is the protagonist being an unsympathetic character. The history of American literature took a sharp left turn when this new genre came into its own, evolving from the hardcore crime pulps of the 1930s. Till then, the majority of books generally portrayed the central figures as worthy of the readers’ admiration when they behaved in true heroic style, or sympathetic when they did not. But either way, one was able to identify with the characters.

Noire changed all that and GETTING OFF is a truly fitting example of the genre as the lead character is a female sociopath without a conscience. Early in the tale we learn that Kit Tolliver was sexually abused by her father from a very young age. But whether that abuse caused her unrelenting psychosis is not argued in the slightest, as her personal response to it is to coldly murder total strangers. Block does make it clear that Kit is in some bizarre mentally deranged way killing her father over and over again with each new man she sleeps with. What he does not do his judge her for it and therein lies the perspective that is truly unsettling.

At times the book’s heavy handedness slips into black comedy territory and the prevailing humor is twisted in its perversity. Along Kit’s journey of life, and death-dealing, she logically encounters partners who are just as sick as she is. In those scenes it is all too easy to start rooting for her as if she is somehow more worthy of survival then the other monsters she has crossed paths with. The last noire thriller to have bothered me this much was Jim Thompson’s classic THE KILLER INSIDE ME. And like that book, this one is not for the faint of heart.

In the end, GETTING OFF is a cautionary tale about the sexual mores of our times and the dangerous waters singles, and cheaters, swim in. Let them read GETTING OFF and I guarantee you they will think twice about their next plunge into those dark depths where the toothy sharks prowl.

THE ROOK - Volume Six.

2011-08-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

THE ROOK

(Volume 6)

By Barry Reese

Pro-Se Productions

186 pgs

Like many of the Rook’s dedicated fans, I’ve been very anxious to read the latest volume in this marvelous new pulp series; especially since it is the first such debuting from Reese’s new publisher, Pro-Se Productions. Shifts from one publisher to another can produce some bumps in the road but I was very happy to see this transition was handled smoothly. In fact this may be the best Rook collection ever produced.

Allow me to add that the author himself has publicly stated he was not completely satisfiend with his recent outings as his large supporting cast somehow began to take over the center spotlight away from the series’ star, crime-busting avenger, Max Davies. Davies, for those of you just now becoming acquainted with this series, is a wealthy, Atlanta based business man who leads a secret life as the avenger known world wide as the Rook. Through the previous five volumes published via Wild Cat Books, we’ve learned of Davies’ history, the murder of his father and subsequent haunting that propelled him into his career as a vigilante. We’ve met his closest friends, hero allies and a gang of some of the most dastardly villains ever to grace a pulp yarn.

With this latest entry in the Rook saga, we’re given three exceptional stories that move at lightning speed and offer up thrills galore. The first and longest tale has the Rook going up against a classic German pulp hero from the 1930s, Sun Koh, a Prince from Atlantis who time travels from the past to the 30s in an effort to save his people and the Aryan race. Sun Koh was an authentic pulp character whose exploits were ended when the Nazis regime, who despised the fanciful literature of the pulps, became threatened by his popularity. The battle between these two unyielding giants is a real clash of titans, never mind that Reese also throws in three very saucy female Axis agents known as the Furies. (The cover alone says it all.)

The second and shortest story is a weird outing about a haunted western town and the curse put upon. The opportunity to see the Rook as a “cowboy” works extremely well and is a real hoot. Finally the volume closes with the Rook teaming up with as yet another Reese creation, Lazarus Gray and his Sovereign City team known as Assistance Unlimited. They are Reese’s tip of the pulp fedora to the Avenger and his Justice, Inc. In this auspicious meeting, the Rook and Gray hunt a lunatic serial killer who is under the influence of a spectral being calling herself Lady Death.

Barry Reese’s Rook series is one of the major highlights of the New Pulp Fiction movement sweeping the American literary scene. If you are not reading them yet, it’s time you got caught up on the fun.

CONAN - The Barbarian

2011-07-27T11:51:00.001-07:00

CONAN THE BARBARIAN

By Michael Stackpole

Berkeley Boulevard

Movie Tie-In

292 pages

It appears you just can’t keep a good barbarian down. Conan the Barbarian is a hero and well known iconic figure in American fantasy. He was created by writer Robert E.Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy stories sold to Weird Tales Magazine. Howard was born and raised in Texas and spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains. As a boy he dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction but was not successful until the age of twenty-three.

Howard’s Conan is a character whose literary imprint has been compared to such fiction greats as Tarzan, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. With Conan, Howard created the genre known as sword and sorcery, inspiring a legion of imitators and giving him an influence in the fantasy field rivaled only by J.R.R. Tolkein. On the eve of publishing his first novel, he committed suicide at the age of thirty. That he remains a highly read author, with his best works continuously reprinted speaks volumes for his place in the ranks of American masters.

As for Conan, he has appeared in hundreds of licensed paperbacks, Marvel comics, films, television programs, video games, roleplaying games, and even a board game. In 1982 he came to big screen portrayed by bodybuilding champion turned actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger who recreated the role in the sequel several years later. Producer John Milius had planned a trilogy, but the proposed third film, Conan the Conqueror was never produced. Now, almost three decades later, the famous Cimmerian warrior from the mythological Hyborian age once again comes to the silver screen in a brand new production from Millenium Films, Lionsgate, and Paradox Entertainment. And to promote what they hope will be a huge summer blockbuster, their marketing department commissioned a novelization of the screenplay by Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer and Sean Hood. The writer given the job was Michael Stackpole.

Many book lovers detest such novelizations believing them to be mere carbon copy retellings form the screenplays with nothing new to offer readers who plan on seeing the movie. In many cases, that is exactly all they get. On the other hand, when such a task is given to a true fan of the material, then what results is something much deeper and more complete than the screen treatment. Stackpole is a gifted professional who clearly knows Conan and his original exploits as chronicled by Howard. He not only tells the story laid out by the screenplay, but at the same time enriches it scene upon scene with authentic references to the Conan canon which totally elevates the narrative beyond being a mere reflection of the movie.

Born on a battlefield, young Conan grows up amongst the mountain people of Cimmeria and is taught to be a warrior from the day he can hold and wield a sword. But as he matures, his father relates how his unique birth is regarded by seers as a powerful portent of the fate that awaits Conan. Not only will he be a great fighter amongst his people, but there are signs that he will one day be known throughout the civilized nations as mighty hero of unrivaled strength and daring.

As always, we have to assume that there will be people picking up this book who have absolutely no idea of who Conan is or Robert E.Howard, but have seen the trailers for the movie and are curious about it. For them, this is as good an introduction to Conan as any other that has come along in the past thirty years. The book is fun and does its job well; it makes you want to go see the film. So please, save me the aisle seat.

FRANKENSTEIN - The Dead Town

2011-07-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

FRANKENSTEIN

The Dead Town

By Dean Koontz

Bantam Books

402 pages

Seems like there is a new trend in wrapping up great, fantastic literary journeys. The folks at Warner Brothers wisely split the last J.K. Rowling Harry Potter book, “The Deathly Hollows” into two truly amazing movies, the finale now showing in theaters everywhere is a superb adaptation of the book’s climatic ending.

Likewise writer Dean Koontz went deliriously overboard in relating the final conflict between the mad scientist Victor Frankenstein and his pathos filled creation, the so called “monster” now known as Deaucalion and offered it to his legion of fans in two parts. “Frankenstein: The Dead Town” is a truly fitting resolution to not only the first part of the narrative, “Lost Souls” but the entire five book series.

One of the common traits of most successful pulp writers today is that they are prolific. The tons of words they produce daily is staggering and would make the old pulp writers proud. Koontz is no exception in this ability. Whereas being fast does not assure quality, only a professional competency his readers have come to expect. Of all his series, the new Frankenstein books are easily some of his most enjoyable action heavy offerings yet.

In part four, “Lost Souls,” the town of Rainbow Falls, Montana, was being invaded by clones created with super nano-technology in a hidden missile silo long abandoned by the military. The twisted genius behind this assault on humanity was the surviving clone of the first Victor Frankenstein; his goal, the complete eradication of all life, human, plant and animal, on the planet. Battling him at every step is Deucalion, that stitched together protagonist. Whereas in this series, he is a near indestructible superman who has developed a truly beautiful soul and is determined to fowl his mad creator and save the world.

The fun of this, and the previous volume, is the eclectic band of town citizens, all of them unique, eccentric characters in their own right, who ultimately band together as Deucalion’s army and bravely aid him this apocalyptic battle that has the fate of all mankind resting on its outcome. Koontz is truly a master tale spinner and in “Frankenstein – The Dead Town,” he is at his best. And that’s saying a lot!

PULP!

2011-07-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

PULP!

Edited by Chris Gabrysch

Twit Publishing LLC

213 pages

I make no bones about loving anthologies as I’m a huge fan of the short story format. And with pulp anthologies of this kind you are bound to find some really amazing nuggets as well as an assortment of lesser quality entries. Overall, if the number of excellent, fun tales outweighs the bad, you’re in good hands. Which is why it is easy for me to recommend this book edited by Chris Gabrysch as the majority of the twelve included within are truly worth your perusal.

My favorite was easily “A Shot in the Dark” by Peter Michael Rosenberg which features a marvelous protagonist in Cairo based Chief Inspector Walaa Yousesef. This Egyptian Hercules Poirot won me over from his first appearance revolving around the body of an English photojournalist found crammed in an old cabinet in her hotel room. I hope Rosenberg writes many more cases for this unique detective.

Another enjoyable entry was “Balalaika” by Jennifer Loring. It deals with vengeful vampire stalking the citizens of an isolated Russian village. It is well written and haunting in its depiction of rural Russian settlement and the horror visited upon it. Whereas “The Schitzel Connection” by Cyril C. Young Jr. had me in stitches. It’s a cautionary tale wherein we are warned evolution can easily go backwards instead of forward depending on how much pretzels and beer one consumes. If you can’t chuckle after reading this, there’s something totally wrong with you.

“Install” by Drew Wilcox is a scary tale of a cable guy’s visit to a very bad address. Horror shorts are hard to do but Wilcox pulls it off and this one really had me flipping pages to get to the end. Noire crime stories were also well represented with two nifty yarns. “Smooth as Sharkskin,” by Slade Grayson is a classic crime pulp story and delivers as neatly as its title portents while “My Date with Red,” by Tom Swoffer, is an oddball, highly readable story of a drug dealer scared witless done in a Quentin Tarrentino style.

As this collection is eclectic in subject matter, I was pleased to find “Montana Jack” by Dave P. Fisher, a no-frills classic western tale; truly superb writing. Another contender for my favorite in this book. Fisher really should stretch his writing muscles and try a full length western novel. He’s that good.

And finally there is the fantasy comedy “Whatever Happened to the Dark Lord?” by Frank R. Sjodin that has some really hilarious moments and twists nicely on its own logic.

The remaining four stories did nothing for me at all; obviously not my cup of tea. One, a long crime piece, “Double Take,” by Chris O’Grady was competently written, but in his attempt to mimic other successful hard boiled writers, he completely homogenized his tale so that it comes across bland and spiritless. Even the toughest, most cynical writers of this genre know you need to inject some melodrama to grease the plot wheels.

So eight out of twelve gives this collection a big thumbs up in my accounting. Try a copy and let me know if you agree with me. Or not?

BYE BYE, BABY

2011-07-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

BYE BYE, BABY

By Max Allan Collins

Forge Books

326 pages

Release Date 16 Aug. 2011

Sometimes it’s all too personal. Or so Chicago based private eye, Nathan Heller discovers when he’s asked by his friend, Hollywood sex symbol and superstar Marilyn Monroe to help her in her battle with Twentieth Century Fox. The year is 1962 and the famous blond is in a contractual contest with the studio that is facing financial ruins. When the entire energies of the studio’s marketing staff begin attacking her reputation and credibility, Marilyn retaliates. Fearing the contest will end in court, she asks Heller to tap her phones thus providing her with physical evidence to present a judge. Heller, now in his mid-50s and a highly successful entrepreneur with offices in New York, Chicago and Hollywood, gladly accepts the job unaware his client is deeply embroiled in a sex scandal that could rip the country apart.

Heller soon learns that Marilyn’s sexual escapades with Jack and Bobby Kennedy have attracted a hive of dangerous bees to include the C.I.A., FBI, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa and underworld figure Sam Giancana. All of them have a vested interest in keeping the blond bombshell quiet. When she dies only a few months later of a drug overdose, the usually unflappable Heller is shocked by the inept police investigation that follows. It reeks of a cover up and Heller is convinced the depressed film actress was murdered. Now comes the tough part, proving it.

“Bye Bye, Baby,” is the fifteenth Nate Heller mystery, Collins’ longest running series and his most acclaimed. So meticulous is the research that goes into each book, one gets both a fast paced thriller and a history at the same time. Talk about more bang for your bucks. Throughout the series, Heller has crossed paths with such personalities as Orson Welles, Frank Nitti, Sally Rand and Charles Lindberg. He’s very much the detective version of a Forrest Gump. Yet in all these past cases, he has never been more human or vulnerable. This is due in large part to the events taking place in a time writer Collins is personally familiar with and it is that intimate connection that infuses itself into the character’s perceptions.

Norma Jean Baker, born June 1^st, 1926, came to Hollywood as a model and became Marilyn Monroe. She landed her first film contract in 1946 and went on to become the most popular screen sex goddess since Jean Harlow. By 1953, she had progressed to leading roles and shaken off her “dumb blonde” image, winning the coveted Golden Globe Award in 1959 for her role in “Some Like It Hot.” The true circumstances of her death sparked an avalanche of conspiracy theories still bandied about today.

Collins’ genius is taking the dozens of convoluted records and few remaining pieces of evidence to describe one possible scenario on how Marilyn was murdered. In the end the story is a gut wrenching tragedy and perhaps Collin’s finest book ever. It is one this reviewer was emotionally involved with from beginning to end. I can remember all too easily being a fifteen year old fan when Marilyn Monroe died and the sadness I felt. You see, Max, I loved her too.

THE MYTH HUNTER

2011-06-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

THE MYTH HUNTER

By Percival Constantine

Pulpwork Press

192 pages

What happens when you put the best parts of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft together then mix them up with a little bit of Modesty Blaise? Answer, you get Percival Constantine’s coolest new pulp hero, Elisa Hill. From the opening action sequence to the last climatic battle with a cruel and vicious assassin, “The Myth Hunter” is a super charged thriller that never lets up.

Even when dealing with exposition scenes, Constantine shines in this adventure. His writing has matured greatly since his last book and “The Myth Hunter” captures the reader’s interest with a fluid ease of storytelling that is both polished and suspenseful. Learning that a little is often better than more, he gives us bits and pieces of Elisa’s past, when she was a mercenary tomb raider, seeking out the world’s ancient treasures solely for personal gains. Yet somewhere along the way, echoes from her parents’ teachings take root and she learns to value the non material treasures of the world, particularly honor, loyalty and courage.

Now she is out to discover the secret to the whereabouts of the fable lost Lemuria with the help of her university allies and a truly bizarre Japanese changeling. But there are also dark forces gathered against her such as the secret society known as the Order and their roguish agent, Lucas Davalos. Davalos and Elisa were once partners, now they are on opposite sides and a victory for one could mean death to the other.

“The Myth Hunter” is a solid, masterful thriller by a young writer realizing his tremendous potential. Another publishing note, “The Myth Hunter” is the first book from any publisher to bear the New Pulp logo brand signifying a very exciting movement in the field. Based on the classics of old, new pulp thrillers like “The Myth Hunter” are blazing into the future to thrill and excite an entire new generation of readers. Isn’t it time you bought a ticket on this train?

BLOOD OF THE REICH

2011-06-27T09:22:00.001-07:00

BLOOD OF THE REICH

By William Dietrich

Harper Books

417 pages

Available July 2011

You realize there are books reviewers are predisposed to like by the title alone. When the good folks at the New York Journal of Books offered to send me this book, it was because I’d already reviewed an earlier book by the same author and liked it a great deal. But being brutally honest here, I’d forgotten what that title was until they showed me the cover image to “Blood of the Reich.” Ah, yes, William Dietrich, I thought, the fellow who created that Revolutionary version of Indiana Jones in his first book, “Napoleon’s Hero.” Yes, I had enjoyed that historical romp and was curious as to what this new stand alone offering might contain in the way of a fun reading experience.

Once I read the marketing copy, I was hooked. Nazis scientists racing to Tibet in hopes of finding a hidden mystical power in the lost city of Shambhala. These plot elements scream pulp pleasure and I knew immediately this was my kind of book. Dietrich’s background as a naturalist and historian allow him to create outlandish plots against authentic, real world settings and it is that richness of historical data that catapults “Blood of the Reich” into action from page one.

In 1938 Kurt Raeder, a German archeologist, is given an assignment by Hitler’s personal advisor, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler. Raeder and a handful of loyal Nazis scientists are to travel to Tibet, seek out the lost city of Shambhala and there retrieve an ancient power known as Vril. Himmler and the members of the arcane Thule Society believe this Vril could tip the balance of the coming war in Germany’s favor and fulfill Hitler’s mad dreams of a Third Reich world conquest.

Raeder is an intellectual sadist and the temptation to achieve personal glory, maybe even immortality, through the success of such an undertaking is much too great for him to resist. And so the mission is launched. At the same time, American intelligence agencies discover Raeder’s purpose and recruit their own academic agent, zoologist Benjamin Hood, to go after the Nazis and beat them at their own game. Failing that, he is to sabotage their efforts and assure Vril never becomes a German weapon.

Now this rollicking race across the world is exciting enough but Deitrich ups the ante by creating a second storyline; this one taking place today. Rominy Pickett is a computer publicist living in Seattle when she is kidnapped by a mysterious, handsome journalist, who claims her life is in danger from Neo-Nazis. They believe her to be the great granddaughter of Benjamin Hood. These want-to-be Nazis have uncovered the records of Raeder’s Tibetan mission and hope Rominy will lead them to rediscover what was found in those rugged mountains back in 1938. Thus is a smart, witty, normal young woman suddenly hurled head first into a life-or-death race around the globe accompanied by a charismatic stranger who appears to be a physical embodiment of all her romantic fantasies. But is he really her knight-in-shining armor or someone with ulterior motives using her to achieve his own dark agenda?

“Blood of the Reich” is a barn-storming novel that sets its sights high and never fails to deliver on them. My singular criticism is that the convoluted mystery of Rominy’s past and her evolution from frightened victim to pistol toting survivalist challenged even my willing suspension of disbelief. Deitrich’s prose is much more accomplished when dealing with the 30s whereas his modern sequences aren’t as assured. Still, this book has so much pulp goodness within its pages, I can’t help but recommend it enthusiastically. It would make one hell of a great film.

FEVER DREAM

2011-06-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

FEVER DREAM

By Preston & Child

Vision Books

540 pages

Since creating their unique modern pulp hero, FBI Special Agent Pendergast, writers Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have miserly doled out small pieces of his background history. The highlight of which seemed to be the monumental trilogy that depicted the battle with his demented brother, Diogenes. Still there remains missing elements and with FEVER DREAM, the tenth book in the series, the pair once again sets about filling in those pieces. At the offset we are introduced to Helen Esterhazy, the beautiful and brilliant woman who would be Mrs. Pendergast for an all too brief time only to die in a horrible hunting accident while on safari in Africa.

Now, twelve years after that tragic event, Pendergast uncovers irrefutable evidence that Helen’s death was not an accident but murder, the result of a well orchestrated scheme but a merciless killer. A man of obsessive passions, once this information comes to light, Pendergast becomes a living dynamo set upon a singular quest; to discover the murderers and wreak his vengeance upon them. To accomplish this, he recruits his long time friend and ally, New York police detective, Vincent D’Agosta much to the frustration of the cop’s lover, Chief Laura Hayward. Hayward doesn’t trust Pendergast because of his unorthodox methods and is forever worried his recklessness will jeopardize D’Agosta career or worse, get him killed.

This time her fears are almost realized as the pair begin traveling the globe unaware their inquiries into this decades old mystery has made them the targets of a ruthless, professional killer. The non-stop action moves from the African bush to the bayou swamplands of the south making FEVER DREAM another solid entry into what has become this reviewer’s favorite modern pulp series. As I’ve always preferred paperback editions to the hardbacks, my apologies for these reviews being somewhat late. If you love great characters and truly bizarre story plots, the Special Agent Pendergast books should be on your must-read list. Believe me, you will not be disappointed.

CRUSADERS OF THE SALTIER

2011-06-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

CRUSADERS OF SALTIER

By William Speir

Strategic Book Group

230 pages

Last year William Speir introduced the world to a super secret organization known as the Knights of the Saltier; a group of patriotic men and women dedicated to helping the legal authorities of the world maintain law and order. Into this highly complex organization he set his protagonist, Tom Anderson, a former military officer looking to find meaning in his life beyond the normal goals of career and monetary success. By the end of that first volume, Anderson had joined the Knights and discovered his own father was one of the Grand Masters.

At the time I reviewed KNIGHTS OF THE SALTIER, I made a point of applauding it’s originality in giving pulp fans something new and fresh. Whereas with this second entry in the saga, Speir has inadvertently gone down a very popular plot path considered to be one of the most remembered in the history of the genre. In 1934 Popular Publications launched OPERATOR 5, the adventures of a Secret Service agent named Jimmy Christopher. The stories were penned by veteran pulp scribes Frederick C. Davis and Paul Tepperman. Tepperman was responsible for the 13 interconnected novels that make up The Purple Invasion, a series in which the Purple Empire (an unnamed European power) conquers the United States after conquering the rest of the world. Jimmy then led the insurgency against them. The saga is often referred to as the War and Peace of pulps.

In CRUSADERS OF SALTIER, Speir has America conquered but not from an outside force. Rather it is seized from within by a corrupt Washington Administration led by a megalomaniac President set on a course of tyranny and using his power to illegally circumvent the Constitution. When dissenting Americans begin mysteriously disappearing without due process, the Knights of Saltier must confront their greatest challenge ever, how to battle corrupt government agencies and restore the country to the rightful rule of the people.

This is an intense thriller with a fascinating, and very chilling plot line, extremely well realized. Speir balances the action sequences with the more mundane occurrences in Anderson’s life, ala his meeting a lovely young woman and falling in love all the while caught up in the Knights’ struggles to save the government. His skills as a storyteller are growing exponentially with each new book. Once again I heartily recommend this to pulp fans looking for a new twist on action-adventure prose. CRUSDAERS OF THE SALTIER is a terrific chapter in a truly excellent series.

TREASURE OF KHAN

2011-06-13T15:52:00.001-07:00

TREASURE OF KHAN

By Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler)

Berkeley Books

604 pages

In this, the 19^th book in the Dirk Pitt adventure series, the head of Numa and his loyal sidekick, Al Giordano find themselves in the wilds of Mongolia battling a descendant of the world conqueror Genghis Khan who has harnessed a machine capable of creating earthquakes. These he uses to disrupt the world’s fuel distribution. Once again, Cussler’s modern day pulp hero faces overwhelming obstacles to thwart the villain and in the end discover the long lost graves of both Genghis and Kublai Khan.

This is the second Pitt adventure Cussler has co-written with his son Dirk and comforts a legion of fans in knowing the character will most likely continue long after his creator had retired. For those who believe the pulps died out long ago, pick up any Dirk Pitt title and get ready for a truly amazing ride.

JACK AND THE JUNGLE LION

2011-06-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

JACK AND THE JUNGLE LION

By Stephen Jared

(www.jackandthejunglelion.com)

115 pages

This little book is such a breath of fresh air, I was delighted with it from page one to the end. Many of today’s action thrillers take themselves way too seriously. Actor, writer Stephen Jared knows how to blend slapstick with flying fists and this adventure truly has the feel and charm of an Indiana Jones flick.

The hero is Jack Hunter, known around the world for starring in B-Movie actioners. He’s on his way to South America to film yet another jungle potboiler and everything seems routine. Even better, aboard his chartered flight is a gorgeous animal trainer named Maxine “Max” Daniels accompanied by her orphaned niece and nephew, Lindy & Tyler.

But when the pilot has a heart attack and the plane goes down in the Ecuadorian wilderness, Jack quickly learns everything isn’t exactly like a movie script.

Jack, Max, the kids and tag-along co-pilot Clancy, have to brave wild animals and savage head-hunters to survive their all too real ordeal and along the way, Jack learns what it is to be a real hero, to put others before his own interests and to discover the meaning of true love.

JACK AND THE JUNGLE LION may not win any literary awards, but it’s amusing, rollicking tale will make you nostalgic for the old days of glitzy Hollywood when fantasy and reality where often too close to tell apart. Pick this book up, it’s just plain fun.

REX RIDERS

2011-05-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

REX RIDERS

By J.P.Carlson

432 pages

Monstrostities Books
Available June 21, 2011

It was somewhere between the ages of twelve and thirteen that I discovered the classic pulp heroes of old through paperback reprints. Here were 1930s urban heroes such as the Shadow and Doc Savage while primal, wilderness characters were represented by Robert E.Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. I also discovered one of the greatest pulp authors of all time, Edgar Rice Burroughs. My entry into Burroughs fantastic worlds was through his Tarzan books like most of the readers of my generation. Having already become familiar with the Ape Man via movies, it was both a treat and surprise to discover the actual character in Burrough’s purple prose.

Becoming addicted to his work, it was a logical next step to pick up his equally popular John Carter of Mars series starting with “A Princess of Mars.” On the off chance there is someone reading this that has never had that pleasure, here is a quick recap. The series tells of an ex Confederate officer named John Carter, who, while mining for gold in the Arizona badlands, is somehow magically transported through space to the red planet Mars. There he finds it inhabited by all manner of beings and monstrous creatures that refer to their world as Barsoom. Carter has one glorious adventure after another, finds his love, the beautiful princess Theja Thoris, and goes on to become the Warlord of Mars.

I devoured those books. I’d never encountered anything else so filled with action, exotic characters and unabashed imagination as displayed in that amazing series. Of course the popularity of Burroughs alien tales inspired hundreds of writers to follow in his footsteps, many attempting to duplicate the verve and grandeur of his Barsoom titles. None ever came close, until now.

From the first chapter of J.P. Carlson’s book, “Rex Riders” that same magical what-if that Burroughs so effortlessly created is evident here. Set in the sleepy Texas town of Dos Locus, post Civil War, what Carlson brilliantly does is turn the tables on the Carter device and brings an alien romantic hero to Earth in the form of the Rex Rider.

The book’s protagonist is fifteen year old orphan, Zeke Calhoun, who is being raised on his Uncle Jesse McCain’s ranch. His two best friends are Bull, McCain’s loyal ranch hand and Stumpy, the old cantankerous and wise ranch cook. Growing up to be a cowboy is not an easy life and Zeke is constantly butting heads with his uncle, their ability to communicate strained by their ages. Having never married or had children, McCain finds bringing up a rambunctious teenage boy much more complicated than herding cattle.

Then one day a live triceratops comes charging down Dos Locos’ main street attacking the arriving stagecoach. After toppling the coach, the confused, armored beast then goes on a rampage and destroys several of the town’s stores before it is shot by McCain. Before anyone can even attempt to explain the creature’s presence, let alone existence, the area’s most powerful landowner, Dante D’Allesandro comes along, offers to pay for the damages and whisks the carcass away. No one gives the incident a second thought. I give much credit to Carlson’s depiction of good, decent and simple people who would react exactly as he writes them.

Months later, while riding through a nearby valley, Zeke and Stumpy come across a truly bizarre scene. An alien humanoid lying comatose on the ground, having been shot, and standing over him protectively is a baby Tyrannosaurs Rex with a saddle strapped to its back. With much effort, the two manage to haul the eight foot rider onto the back of his dangerous looking mount and get them back safely to McCain’s ranch. After the town doctor removes half a dozen bullets from the purple hued alien and he recovers, he relates a fantastic tale to McCain and his crew.

Slim, the name Stumpy gives the alien rider, is from a planet called Ismalis where millions of years ago his ancestors, using amazing transporters, rescued large numbers of the Earth’s dinosaurs when they saw they were in danger of becoming extinct. Now they thrive on Ismalis and as a Rex Rider, it is Slim’s duty to see they continue to do so. Unfortunately D’Allesandro has learned that it was via one these transporter platforms, hidden in a nearby mountain cave, that the runaway tryke traveled from Ismalis to Earth. D’Allesandro then begins to transport a group of cowboys to that alien world to build a camp from which they can rustle hundreds of trykes and bring them back to our world. When Slim attempts to stop him, warning that his scheme can only end in disaster for all involved, D’Allesandro’s hired gun, Caleb Cooper, attempts to kill him and his T-rex mount, called Hellfire.

McCain immediately sees the folly of D’Allesandro’s plan and offers his support to the Rex Rider, along with Zeke, Bull & Stumpy. Together these new allies have to travel to that strange and dangerous world and set things right. “The Rex Riders” is a deft blend of action, humor and wall-to-wall adventure in a truly original setting. Reading it was nothing short pure joy, easily recapturing the fun I’d had when first discovering the John Carter of Mars books. And if that isn’t a cause for celebration amongst today’s pulp readers, I don’t know what is. In fact, I love this book so much, I’m giving it to my grandson, Alex, assured it will set him on a path I first walked over fifty years ago. Thanks, J.P. Carlson. With your first book, you’ve made a loyal fan that is very, very anxious for the sequels.

YESTERYEAR

2011-05-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

YESTERYEAR

By Tommy Hancock

Pro Se Press

180 pages

One of the most widely recognized facts regarding American comic book heroes is that they actually evolved out of the Depression Era pulp magazines. Fans of both media are well aware that the likes of Batman and Superman were the literary children of characters such as the Shadow and Doc Savage. Tommy Hancock employs this historical theory against which to set his first novel, “Yesteryear.” Hancock, the winner of this year’s Pulp Ark Award for Best New Writer, had earned that title based on his short fiction. Now with this novel length drama, he cements that position soundly with a work of deft imagination heralding past days of American glory.

J.C.Smithernson is a one time crime fighting boy detective who has grown up to become a writer and publisher. He has put his hero days behind him, though his good friend, Detective Donovan Bradley, suspects he still harbors longings to get back into the fray. Then one day a mysterious package is left on Smitherson’s steps containing the journal of newspaper man, Ramsey Long, who was part of the Golden Age of Heroes back in the 30s and 40s. Thought to be a myth, Ramsey’s musings are said to be a tell-all book that honestly rips aside the veil of public relation mumb-jumbo to detail the true history and exploits of those early mystery men and women.

Which is why when it is learned that Smitherson possesses the book, factions both political and private, begin targeting him and his loved ones to guarantee the journal never sees the light of day. For J.C., it is an eye-opening revelation that some of the people he once admired are flawed enough to want to destroy him rather then have their human failings exposed publicly. Still, he is determined that the truth will be told regardless of the consequences.

“Yesteryear,” is a marvelous homage to all those great pulp characters and golden age comic heroes who followed in their footsteps wonderfully told with a true sense of time and place. Hancock knows his history and the richness with which he paints the times adds much to the books plot and appeal. So on a purely literary basis, I recommend this book highly, it was tons of fun to read.

But I do have one criticism and it deals with the book’s packaging, not the story. I don’t often make mention of actual production values but in this case felt compelled to do so because in the end, it did lessen my overall enjoyment of “Yesteryear.” Hancock is also the book’s producer and he’s filled many of its pages with some truly fantastic drawings of many of the fabulous characters described in the text. All to the good. Alas, that’s where his design musings should have stopped.

Instead he also chose to change the fonts and styling of the text throughout the entire book so that the reader is confronted with bold type, cursive scribbles, light, thin fonts constantly changing, many difficult to adjust to after finishing a chapter presented in an entirely different way. I understand the concept he was trying to achieve with this mixing, but it does not work and instead becomes a physical flaw to an otherwise stellar offering. Hopefully his next book will have a more conservative presentation.

FRANKENSTEIN - Lost Souls

2011-05-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

FRANKENSTEIN – Lost Souls

By Dean Koontz

Bantaam Books

381 pages

Horror fantasist, Dean Koontz continues his best selling series about the never ending war between Mary Shelly’s mad scientist Victor Frankenstein and his immortal creation, the Monster; now known in these books as Deucalion. This is the fourth book in the saga and the beginning of a brand new story arc. In the opening trilogy, which took place in New Orleans, the four hundred year old obsessed genius set about creating an army of super clones who would ultimately replace imperfect humans as the new dominant species on Earth.

He was foiled by Deucalion and two brave police detectives, Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison. By the third book’s climax, they believed he had been killed and the world saved. What they were not aware of was Frankenstein had cloned himself and this doppelganger came to life upon the death of the original.

“Lost Souls” opens two years later after the first conflict to find Carson and Michael have married, moved to San Francisco, opened a private detective agency and had a child, a beautiful baby girl named Scout. For the most part their lives couldn’t be any happier. This is why Deucalion’s reappearance bodes ill tides. He has learned that his creator is still alive and hiding in the small town of Rainbow Falls, Montana. What the patchwork warrior does not know is that his cloned nemesis is completely insane and unlike his predecessor, has but one goal, the total annihilation of all mankind, both originals and replicants. He dreams of Armageddon.

“Frankenstein - Lost Souls” is Koontz’ most audacious pulp novel to date. It is a bold, raucous narrative that moves at lightning pacing. Horror upon horror is visited on the small, peaceful town of Rainbow Falls and Koontz never once spares his readers with his lean and brutal prose. His fans are going to devour this latest chapter in what has become a truly classic pulp series. New readers need not have read the first trilogy, although it would add much to their enjoyment of this entry. And be aware, this is book is only the first part of the story and ends with a suspense laden cliffhanger. Wherein the only real sour note is we now have to wait for several months for part two. Now that’s torture at its most sophisticated.

GHOSTS OF WAR

2011-05-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

GHOSTS OF WAR

By George Mann

Pyr Books

231 pages

Available July 2011

Hot on the heels of earning a Pulp Factory Award nomination for Best Pulp Novel of 2010 for GHOST OF MANHATTAN, writer George Mann unleashes the second novel in this steampunk series. Although considering the archetype pulp trappings these books are totally saturated with, one would suggest labeling them steampulp.

This new adventure of Gabriel Cross, the haunted veteran of World War One who protects New York City as the rocket-boot propelled, black garbed vigilante known as the Ghost, begins only a few weeks after the end of his last, horrific case. He is still emotionally wounded having witnessed his lover, Celeste, sacrifice herself to save mankind from outer-dimensional monsters.

When a new threat to his city arises, he gratefully dons his Ghost garb and goes into action. Weird hybrid mechanical flying creatures called Raptors are swooping out of the night sky and randomly kidnapping people with no apparent pattern or purpose other than to cause city wide terror. The Ghost sets about catching one of these horrible monstrosities with the help of his friend, Inspector Felix Donovan, who shares his secret identity.

At the same time, Donovan is given the task of hunting down a British spy by his superiors. He is told the secret agent is a catalyst with information that will ignite a war between England and America. When elements from both assignments suddenly come together, the Ghost and Donovan begin to suspect a much darker plot with tendrils leading to corruption among the highest ranks of City Hall. In the end the Ghost allows himself to be captured by the raptors and taken to their hidden lair. It is his one chance to uncover the evil mastermind behind the attacks and discover the true horror that awaits all mankind unless he and his small band of allies can save the day.

Hideous creatures from another dimension, a mad scientist more machine than man, an armed, massive airship on a mission of doom and more thrill-a-minute action than any other ten, oversized thrillers on the market today. GHOSTS OF WAR is even better then its predecessor as Mann is truly warming up to this alternate world and his remarkable, colorful and appealing cast of characters that populate it. This is new pulp fiction at its finest and I’m predicting there’s another Pulp Factory Award nod in its future. Long live the Ghost!

LAKE CHARLES

2011-05-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

LAKE CHARLES

By Ed Lynskey

Wildside Press

191 Pages
Availablen July 2011

One of the hallmarks of classic pulp noir fiction is a protagonist over his head in a convoluted life or death dilemma. In “Lake Charles,” Ed Lynskey has invented such a figure in Brendan Fishback.

Brendan is out on bail, after being implicated in the drug overdose death of a lovely young lady named Ashleigh Sizemore, daughter of the wealthiest man in Umpire, Tennessee. To help get his mind off his problems, his best friend, Cobb Kuzawa, suggest they go fishing on secluded Lake Charles up in the mountains. At the last minute Brendan’s twin sister, and Cobb’s ex-wife, Edna, decides to tag along. She harbors some hope she and Cobb can reconcile.

Friction between Edna and Cobb threatens to ruin the trip. Then Edna mysteriously disappears without a trace, after having zipped across to the other side of the lake on her jet-ski. Frantic to find her, Brendan and Cobb begin combing the lake on their small one man bass boats. When that proves fruitless, they begin searching the lake’s perimeter on foot. Things get decidedly worst when they are attacked by gunmen who are growing marijuana in the surrounding backwoods fields and glens. They fight back; killing one of their assailants in the process and their untenable situation continues to escalate, pulling them along to even deadlier encounters.

Lynskey’s stacks his deck with brutal characters, both good and bad, each trying to escape a lackluster existence. Brendan is a rudderless soul, cast adrift when his father, Angus, deserted the family and wandered up to Valdez, Alaska to work on the oil pipeline. His own job at the local printing press is a boring, dead end and he dreams of following his father’s trail to a better place until his drinking and pot smoking put him in the extreme wrong place at the wrong time. Ultimately he comes to suspect Edna has been kidnapped by the men growing the illegal weed and his only hope of saving her lies with Cobb’s eccentric, Korean vet father, Mr.Kuzawa. Mr.Kuzawa is a John Wayne take-no-prisoners type and the second he enters the story, the action and suspense rev up to maximum overdrive.

As Brendan and his gun-toting mentor crisscross the rural Tennessee landscape, bodies start dropping. What surprises the confused lad is in the midst of their violent Odyssey, clues are uncovered that connect Ashleigh’s death with the mysterious crime kingpin controlling the county’s drug trade. Are Brendan and his sister only pawns in a much bigger game? And if so, we’ll he survive long enough to find Edna and uncover the truth? Or will he fail and become another unexplained mystery surrounding the foul waters of Lake Charles?

“Lake Charles” is a gripping, crime thriller that portrays a world of tough, desperate people and creates a suspenseful mystery that will have you guessing to the final page. The genius of the book is that its messy image of the world is a whole lot closer to reality than most of us would care to admit. Brendan Fisback is someone we’ve all met before, maybe when looking in the mirror.

IMARO - The Naama War

2011-04-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

IMARO :The Naama War

By Charles Saunders

Sword & Soul Media

331 pages

Available Only at (www.Lulu.com)

There are times when a review must, by necessity, become more than mere words praising or critiquing a literary work. When a reviewer recognizes a monumental injustice, then there arises a moral obligation to sound a clarion call in the hopes of shedding light on the issue. This is such a case. Read on.

Over twenty-five years ago, writer Charles Saunders created a new sword and sorcery hero whose roots and adventures were set in the mythological past of the African continent. For the first time ever, a writer had eschewed the dominant overshadowing umbrella of Western-European culture for an untapped history that was totally unique to its corner of the world. From this unbelievably rich untapped mythological tapestry came Imaro, a mixed blood outcast raised by the grasslands warrior people known as the Ilyassai after his mother abandoned him. He grows up bitter and resentful, his own salvation being that he is bigger, stronger and faster than anyone in the village. Once having achieved manhood, he leaves the tribe to seek out his destiny and perhaps learn the reasons why his mother gave him up as a child.

In the subsequent short stories and novels, Saunders took us on a fantastic journey through this rich and original African landscape. Along the way we discovered Imaro was in fact an unwilling pawn in a cosmic struggle between the forces of good, represented by the Cloud Striders, and evil, alien beings known as the Mashtaan. For centuries, the Mashtaan had been manipulating their earthly agents, wizards known as the Erriten, towards their ultimate goal of ripping apart the dimensional barrier between their world and ours, thus allowing them access to invade Earth. To stop them, the Cloud Striders set in play two remarkable humans, both touched by their celestial powers while still in the womb; the first was the sorceress queen Kandisa and the second, Imaro.

As he states in his afterword, Saunders initially planned to tell this saga as a trilogy, but the more he wrote of Imaro’s travels and adventures, the more the epic scope of his story continued to swell until he had no recourse but to continue on to a fourth, concluding chapter. This writer is damn happy he did. At the end of book three, “Imaro – The Trail of Bohu,” Imaro’s wife and young son had been brutally murdered by the demigod fiend, Bohu, working as an agent of the Eritten. Incensed by the crime, Imaro, along with a few loyal allies, sets out to hunt down Bohu and destroy him.

It was then that Kandisa revealed to him that all the hardships of his life had been orchestrated by the Mashtaan because of their fear of him. A war was coming that would encompass all the known kingdoms in a final contest between the gods with Imaro being the deciding factor. Imaro’s anger was only increased by this revelation that he had been manipulated as a mere pawn, that he was not the true master of his own fate. It was only Kandisa’s heartfelt persuasions that convinced him to reluctantly accept his role in the coming conflagration. Still he continued his hunt for Bohu. By the end of this third volume, he and his party found themselves in the land of Maguvurunde ruled by the powerful knosi (king) Mkwayo and his beautiful queen, Katisa. It is then revealed that they are Imaro’s parents. Talk about a cliffhanger ending.

“IMARO – The Naama War,” picks up where the last book ended and quickly begins the final events of this ground-breaking epic. Coming to grips with his new found family and heritage, the stoic Imaro begins to accept the supernatural abilities the Cloud Striders had bestowed upon him. He gradually assumes responsibility befitting his new role as a prince. With each new conflict he is drawn like a magnet to the cataclysmic confrontation Kandisa had predicted between the great armies and the Northern Highland and those of the Eritten controlled lowlands. Imaro takes his place alongside his father, warrior-chieftain uncle and courageous cousin to lead their forces and in doing so accepts his destiny.

Saunders writes the most gripping, complex and thrilling battles sequences since Homer’s tales of the Trojan War. His pen wields legions of humans and their nightmarish creature allies with a feverish skill that is unequalled in fantasy adventure and in the middle of it all, is Imaro, the greatest warrior ever to take up spear and shield and pit himself against the forces of the evil. But like all great stories, Imaro’s victory comes with a price that cuts deep into his soul and leaves him spiritually wounded. Though he saves mankind, he ironically remains the fates’ most tragic victim.

Charles Saunders is Robert E. Howard’s one true literary heir. He is the finest fantasy adventure writer of the past twenty-five years. This is no exaggeration. No other fantasist on the bestseller lists today, Robert Jordan, David Eddings, George R.R. Martin, etc. etc. comes close to equaling the raw power of his stories, his sweeping imagination and the grace and grandeur of his tales. And yet he is relegated to self-publishing his own material because no publisher in either America or Canada has been smart enough to sign him to a contract. Rather it is his hundreds of fans, on-line reviewers and true aficionados of the genre who recognize his greatness and continue to support his career.

When Saunders first created Imaro, his earlier books were published by DAW paperbacks. This was the early to mid 70s and sadly the books, for whatever reason, failed to find a large audience. Maybe readers simply weren’t ready for a black fantasy hero. It is this reviewer's hope that today that is no longer the issue, but rather the world at large is simply not aware of this magnificent epic and it has gotten lost on the larger digital stage. It is high time it was rediscovered. Both “Imaro – The Trail of Bohu” and “Imaro – The Naama War” are available at (www.Lulu.com). I would urge my readers not only to purchase both immediately, but to also tell all their friends and associates who love great fantasy adventure. Maybe together we can bring Imaro back to the prominence he and his creator truly deserve.

HEXXEN HAMMERS -Graphic Novel

2011-04-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

HEXEN HAMMERS

Written by Ben Fisher

Pencils by Mike Henderson

Inks Eric Layton

Colors Adam Guzowski

Letters Charles Turpin

Publisher – Arcana Studios

102 pgs approximate

I’ve a passion for reading graphic novels, much more so than the traditional monthly magazines. The opportunity to sit down and read a big, whopping graphic story in one package is still a treat for this fan. Thus, when “Hexen Hammers” arrived in the mail yesterday, I was thrilled and within minutes was seated comfortably in my office recliner and digging right into this wonderful, action horror fest from the good folks at Arcana.

Ben Fisher is a capable writer and he knows how to set up both characters and situations smoothly so one follows another effortlessly. Still, one of the speed-bumps in this tale was the time anachronisms. We’re told the year is 1685 in Salem, Massachusetts and yet several of the main characters wield revolvers and other hand guns that wouldn’t exist for another hundred and fifty years. Now that is both confusing and jarring. Yet the story is compelling enough to make me shrug of that discrepancy and plow on. Hell, this could be an alternate Earth, so I chose to ignore the weapons out of time and concentrate on the plot.

Hexen Hammers’ are four distinctly different men who have banded together, under the guidance of the Catholic church, to seek out and destroy all manner of demons, witches and other assorted evil monsters. They are very, very good at their job. Pike is a cold hearted mercenary only loyal to money and the other three. Father Zachary Porter is a Catholic priest unlike any you’ve ever met before and Richard King is a genius inventor who hears voices. They are led by a haunted, driven soul named John Hathaway whose sole purpose in life is to destroy demons. The camaraderie and loyalty of these men to each other, despite their individual natures is handled extremely well and one of the biggest assets of the book itself.

The plot itself is direct and straight forward, they are sent to a small New England town to pick up a witch and bring her back to the Church leaders for trial. Of course nothing happens as it should and soon the Hammers are finding themselves besieged by horrific creatures everywhere they turn until it becomes clear they have been duped and sent on a fool’s quest by a traitor working for the enemy.

The artwork in this book is stellar, although Mike Henderson’s style of sharp angles and features take a few pages to adjust to. But once I did, I began to appreciate it for its energy and impact. His action sequences are powerful and beautifully rendered, as are his characters throughout. He does an especially nice job on the creepy crawlers. Visually this book could give you nightmares. Henderson is aptly assisted by inker Eric Layton and colorist Adam Guzowski, both of which bring added levels to the art. Guzowksi’s choice of color palette was perfect for this adventure and brings to it a moody mystery feel the story requires.

The weak link in the creative chain is the lettering. Not so much Chris Turpin’s skills, they are adequate enough here. But rather in the production phase, the word balloons are transparent so that the artwork behind them comes through. A truly annoying flaw as it often makes reading the damn words difficult when they get lost in the dark colors of the art on which they are laid. If this process was intentional, then it was a huge mistake on someone’s editorial judgment. Lettering is a separate art form and deserves to be handled with as much care and attention as any other element in a graphic novel. In this case it was terribly mis-handled.

Despite the few critiques mentioned, “Hexen Hammers” is a truly powerful, dramatic reading experience that easily won me over. If you are looking for something new, original and different in a graphic novel experience; something with a solid bite, then you really need to seek this out and pick up a copy. Arcana has a solid winner here. Don’t miss it.

THE BONUS

2011-03-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

THE BONUS

By Georgia Lowe

Lucky Dime Press

398 pages

The trouble with most history books is that they are generally impersonal. They offer up the facts and then focus solely on the public figures who actually shaped events. What is omitted, save for the grainy black and white photos of yesterday, are the tales of the average people who experienced those moments; days now slowly morphing into ghostly images of a past all too soon forgotten. In choosing to read and review Georgia Lowe’s powerful retelling of the Bonus March, I purposely stepped away from this column’s focus on pulp fiction. Why? Because too many of us who love this unique brand of fiction some times need to be reminded of the times in which it was born. To better appreciate those exciting and colorful tales of escapist fancy, we should be aware that they were created during a time of national pain and suffering; the Great Depression.

Sadly there have been too few novels set in this time of social upheaval, economic tragedy and hopelessness. Not that there haven’t been many competent historical text, several of which the author mentions in her own lists of references, still it takes a fiction writer to make history personal. John Steinbeck did it with his “Grapes of Wrath” and now, first time novelist, Georgia Lowe achieves the same emotional impact with “The Bonus.” This is not an easy book to read for any American who loves his or her country. Its honest depiction of the Hoover administration and the cavalier, egotistical attitude of its chief participants from the President on down to his Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur is deplorable, to say the least.

In 1924, several years after the end of the War to End All Wars, America’s veterans were promised a bonus payment for their service. The country’s representatives spend the next five years debating on what form and amount this “bonus” will be in. Then comes the Wall Street crash of 1929 sending the economy into an unparalleled nosedive. Unemployment rises to 25%, banks collapse like dominoes, home foreclosures are rampant. On top of all this, Mother Nature delivers the second knock out punch in the form of a far reaching drought that devastates America’s central farmlands, turning abundant fields of wheat and corn into arid wastelands soon to be known as the Dust Bowl. The end result, Congress votes to defer the Bonus until 1945.

Three years later, in the Spring of 1932, thousands of veterans, feeling betrayed by their own government, began to organize throughout the country. As the news of their discontent and public gatherings spread, the idea of a united march on the Capitol is born and eagerly approved. Charismatic leaders among the various groups like the VFW arise and by the start of summer, they are leading thousands of desperate veterans to Washington in every mode of travel possible from automobile caravans to train boxcars filled with weary travelers. Their one unifying goal, to force Congress into giving them their money now.

We experience this historical pilgrimage through the yes of several characters including Will Hardy, a reporter for a Los Angeles tabloid, himself a veteran still enduring the effects of “shellshock,” and his lovely girlfriend, Bonnie. Bonnie, enjoying her life as a Hollywood extra is naively unaware of the country’s ailing condition until she embarks on this odyssey with her girlfriend Myrna to rendezvous with their men. By the time she arrives in Washington, she and Will become eye-witnesses to the monumental injustice perpetrated by President Hoover and his cronies. Not only does Hoover publicly ignore the peaceful petitions and demonstrations of the Bonus marchers, in the end, he has them attacked and driven out by Army troops under the command of General McArthur.

“The Bonus” is one of the finest historical novels I’ve ever read and it left me emotional drained. It is clearly a cautionary tale of what happens to a people when its elected officials allow themselves to become disassociated with their constituents. It is a story of governmental betrayal at its worst and a timely warning considering our nation’s current situation. It is also a fine work of fiction with moving, believable characters that any reader will quickly recognize as each is driven to find their own piece of the American promise. We tip our pulp fedora to Georgia Lowe and we thank her deeply for reminding us all what happened that summer in 1932. It is up to each and every one of us to make sure it never happens again.

THE DAMN THING

2011-03-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

THE DAMNED THING

By Barry Reese

Wild Cat Books Digest

152 pages

Pulp writer Reese takes a stab at turning Dashiel Hammetts’ classic “The Maltese Falcon” into an occult thriller with delightful results. Instead of tough guy private eye, Sam Spade, he gives us tough gal, Violet Cambridge. She’s a widow whose husband, Walter Cambridge, was killed on a case and rather than seeing the offices of Cambridge and Knopf shut down, she assumes his position in the company. Violet has no qualms about shooting first and asking questions later. Always dressing in mourning black, she is a femme fatale who is perfectly at ease using her feminine wiles to achieve her ends; a true Black Widow in way.

When her partner is cruelly murdered by an occult sect in search of an ancient artifact said to possess immeasurable power, Violet takes up the hunt for “The Damn Thing” to solve his death and bring them to justice. Along with way she soon discovers there are several other factions competing with her.

There’s a religious order, dedicated to finding the cursed statue for the sole purpose of destroying it while the world famous occultist, Aleister Crowley, represents those seeking to possess it for their own twisted ends. During this danger laden hunt Violet discovers it was this very affair that led to her husband’s murder. From that point on, the case becomes a personal vendetta and nothing is going to stop this Atlanta based, strong willed investigator from uncovering the truth, no matter who she has to shoot to do so.

A fan of Reese’s work for several years now, this reader believes “The Damn Thing” is by far his most polished story. As a writer he continues to grow and the prose here is smooth, economic and effective. There’s no wastage of words to get the tale across with as much power and drama as it requires with not a superfluous sentence more. It’s fun, suspenseful and introduces one of the classiest dames in fiction since Honey West. Here’s hoping there’s lot more Violet Cambridge in all our futures.

MERKABAH RIDER

2011-02-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

MERKABAH RIDER

By Edward M. Erdelac

Damnation Books LLC

278 pages

Although the straight forward, no frills western genre seems to exist only in today’s paperback market, the proliferation of the “weird” western tableau is visible everywhere. Comics and prose anthologies have been expanding this pulp theme strongly and recently Hollywood has joined in with films such as “Jonah Hex” (a cowboy who can speak to the dead), “The Warrior’s Way” (pitting Japanese Ninja’s against cowboys) and the soon to be released blockbuster, “Cowboys VS Aliens,” (the name says it all).

Up until a few weeks ago, I’d pretty much thought there was nothing else to be done with bizarre westerns. Happily Edward Erdelac has proven me wrong with his “Merkabah Rider – Tales of a High Planes Drifter.” The giveaway is in the spelling of the word planes. For you see, the hero of this book is a Hasidic Jew mystic known as a Merkabah Rider because of his ability to travel out of his body and explore the higher and lower realms of heaven and hell. In fact the Rider, as he prefers to be called, actually travels the post Civil War southwest on foot, pulling a dirty white onager behind. An onager is an Asiatic wild ass. I had to look that up too.

Through the four stories in this volume, we learn that the San Francisco born Rider interrupted his religious studies to serve in the Union Army during the war between the states; a decision that turned many of the elders of his order against him. He returns home to discover all the members of this enclave, known as the Sons of Essenes, have been murdered by his renegade teacher, a man known only as Adon. Feeling spiritually tarnished by his association with Adon, the Rider begins his quest to seek him out and exact vengeance. In the process he travels the globe until his quest brings him full circle back to American desert lands of the southwest.

Which is where this first book begins. In the quartet of adventures collected here, the Rider battles a foul Demon sacrificing children in an Arizona mining town, combats a dust devil that animates a hellish windmill in a Mexican border town, goes up against a cursed gunman who slaughters entire towns and confronts a powerful, alluring succubus said to be the first wife of Adam. Through these travails, the Rider learns that Adon is conspiring with the demon world to bring about an earthly holocaust which will herald the end of all mankind. Unless he, alone, can stop him.

“Merkabah Rider,” is a terrific read that captivated me from the first page to the last. The exhilaration of discovering something new and vibrant in an old setting provided this reviewer with complete and unabashed entertainment. The Rider is the most original western hero since Clint Eastwood’s Man-With-No-Name and his background in the exotic magic of ancient Hebraic mysticism make him a character this reader will not forget any time soon.

KISS HER GOODBYE

2011-02-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

KISS HER GOODBYE

By Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

270 pages

Available 25 May 2011

This book, the third Mike Hammer thriller begun by the late Spillane and completed by his protégé Collins, takes place in the mid 1970s. Hammer is in sunny Florida recuperating from several bullet wounds; the results of a shoot-out on the New York City docks with the crazy son of a mob boss. Emotionally wounded as well as physically, Hammer has fled the Big Bad Apple, deserting his friends and most importantly the one truly love of his life, Velda. He is determined to spend the rest of his days basking in the sun and deep sea fishing. But when his pal, Detective Pat Chambers calls with the news that his old mentor, Inspector Doolan is dead, an apparent suicide, Hammer has no choice but to pack it up and return to the asphalt jungle.

So begins one of the most convoluted mysteries the tough-as-nails Hammer has ever confronted. Doolan had been diagnosed with cancer and his days were numbered. Everyone, including the coroner, is convinced he shot himself in the heart before the end became too painful to endure. Hammer doesn’t buy it, even though the evidence is stacked against him. It doesn’t feel right. His love of the old war horse tells him Doolan would never have succumbed to what he always referred to as “the coward’s” way out.

No sooner does Hammer start poking around, visiting Doolan’s friends and a few of his enemies, then he and Pat stumble on the body of a young waitress stabbed to death only a few blocks from the funeral service for Doolan. Is it random coincident; just another senseless death on the mean streets of the city? If so, then why does the newly appointed, highly ambitious assistant district attorney show up at the crime scene? What is her interest in a supposedly routine slaying? With each passing hour, Hammer uncovers facts that on the surface appear totally unconnected. From a former gangland heir operating the city’s fanciest disco for the rich and famous to a legendary jewel with ties to Nazis war criminals living in South America.

Couple this with Hammer’s own confused emotions about being back in the steel canyons he both loves and hates and the stage is set for a slam-bang adventure unlike any the savvy gumshoe has ever encountered. This book is packed with fast guns and dames and plenty of punches all culminating in a shootout that makes the Gunfight at the OK Corral look like a picnic! In a world that has become soft and compromised with the corruption of “political correctness,” having Mike Hammer back to plow through the BS and uncover the truth, no matter the cost, is a jolt of clear headed sanity we all need lots more of.

SIX-GUNS STRAIGTH FROM HELL

2011-01-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

SIX-GUNS STRAIGHT FROM HELL

Edited by David B.Riley & Laura Givens

Science Fiction Trails Publishing

284 pages

I’ve made it a habit that after reading and reviewing a whopping big novel, I like to follow it up with an anthology. Sort of allowing my literary palette to enjoy smaller treats after having digested a weighty tome. With anthologies one can read them at a leisurely pace, choosing one or two tales every few days and not worry about remembering a single narrative over a long period of time. This I picked up “Six-Guns Straight From Hell,” a collection of weird western stories produced locally here in Colorado by editors David Riley and Laura Givens.

Now deciding whether any anthology is good or bad is simply a matter of mathematics. If the collection has more good stories than bad ones, it’s a good book and just the opposite if the clunkers outnumber the decent yarns. This volume contained a total of twenty stories and in the end the break down was four truly great pieces, ten good ones and six duds. Ergo, an excellent package all around, to include Laura Given’s humorous cover which tips its Stetson to the old TV series, the Wild Wild West.

Among the stellar quartet was “Chin Song Ping & the Fifty Three Thieves” by editor Givens. It’s the first story and my personal favorite. A Chinese rift on the Arabian legend of Ali Baba with a little Jackie Chan kung fu humor thrown in for good measure. Original, surprising and fun, it has all the elements to make you glad you picked this book up. Whereas “The Road to Bodie” is a sensitive drama about a young Mexican woman caught between two untenable situations, desperate to take her widowed mother and flee to a better life in Texas. And then there’s “The Enterprising Necromancer,” about a shrewd fellow whose business is raising the dead. A deliciously twisted fable that had me chuckling aloud. The final gem is “Snake Oil” by Jennifer Campbell Hicks about an elixir salesmen who arrives in town in a new, fancy dirigible.

Without listing all the other ten tales that I liked, let me add honorable mentions to David Boop’s “Bleeding the Bank Dry,” “The Last Defenders,” by Carol Hightshoe, “Smile” by Kit Voker and “A Specter in the Light,” by David Lee Summers. Coupled with the others, these adventures into the strange and scary west all proved to be entertaining. As for those I labeled duds, you’ll just have to pick those out yourself. All art is subjective and who knows, maybe one of them will tickle your particular fancy.

The bottom line here is “Six-Guns Straight From Hell” is a solid, marvelous anthology for those of you who like to mix your genres. So grab a copy, load your six-shooters and saddle up for some macabre adventures. It’s one “Hell” of a ride.

PULP HEROES - KHAN DYNASTY

2011-01-09T12:38:00.001-08:00

PULP HEROES – KHAN DYNASTY

By Wayne Reinagel

566 pages

Knightraven Studios

Calling this thick hunk of book the “Gone With The Wind” of pulps would be no exaggeration at all. Detailing, and intertwining the lives of dozens of heroes and villains from both the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Wayne Reinagel has delivered a book that is pure treasure chest of action and adventure delights.

With KHAN DYNASTY, Reinagel takes a jump backward in time to showcase the birth of America’s most famous pulp and comic book heroes of the 1930s. To do so he weaves such classic figures as Jekyll and Hyde, Sherlock Holmes and Fu Manchu together in an incredible globe spanning saga; although some have their names changed due to licensing restrictions. Still the acute pulp fan will easily identify such stalwarts as Doc Titan and his five loyal companions, the Darkness, the warrior who fights in the shadows and the deadly Scorpion, who’s automatics blaze a trail of death and destruction in meting justice to evil doers. These were the same characters we were first introduced to in PULP HEROES – MORE THAN MORTAL, his first entry in this mammoth trilogy; although it is the second chapter of the saga.

We personally wish he would have launched this Magnus Opus with this volume for several reasons. The obvious would have been the natural progression of the characters’ history would have made following events a whole lot easier. Secondly, as much as we enjoyed MORE THAN MORTAL, it had many narrative bumps. We were thrilled to see these gone in KHAN DYNASTY as Reinagel’s earlier amateurish style and awkward phrasing have been replaced by a smooth, easy and very professional writing competency. This bodes very well for his proposed third volume due out later this year.

No one does historical research better than Reinagel and his books are clearly the results of hours of meticulous study. Having embraced the late Philip Jose Farmer’s wonderful Wold Newton concept of classic heroes and villains being somehow related to each other via one amazing family tree, Reinagel takes that supposition one giant step further and details every single minutia on every single branch of that tree. Which is also the book’s clear weakness in that he is easily tempted by factual history and spends way too many pages relating little known historical data that have absolutely no relevancy on the book’s plot. This volume could have trimmed fifty pages of such fat and moved things along at a faster clip. But don’t get me wrong, there’s still tons of action and adventure packed into this story, more then enough for any ten regular pulp novels.

Clearly, books like KHAN DYNASTY are not for the casual reader just discovering pulps. Whereas, if you are a true fan who has rudimentary knowledge of this unique literary genre and its more famous characters, then it would behoove you to pick this up. It will provide you with a reading experience unlike any you’ve ever enjoyed before. Bravo, Mr.Reinagel. Bravo!

GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN

2010-12-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN

By George Mann

Pyr Books

236 pages

If anyone doubts there is a major renaissance in pulp fiction going on today, then let them pick up this old fashion thriller. George Mann has delivered a very typical pulp avenger story with an added twist of steampunk. If you are unfamiliar with the term, steampunk refers to a technology based on steam power as was first developed in the 19^th century focusing in large part to Victorian Era Britain. It is a subgenre of science fiction and often used in alternate world settings.

The year is 1926, shortly after World War One. All transportation is steam powered including automobiles. Tesla coils light up cities and viewing tube-telephones are familiar household appliances. Police dirigibles patrol Manhattan’s canyons and bi-planes docked on rooftop rocket launchers are part of the city’s skyline silhouette.

Gabriel Cross is a disillusioned, wealthy veteran living on his vast estate on Long Island. Bored with his life and the shallow social circles he inhibits, Cross dons special night goggles, rocket boots, a dark trench coat and slouch hat and becomes the urban vigilante known as the Ghost. It would be impossible for any pulp fan not to recognize the Ghost’s pedigree, he is an heir to such classic pulp avengers as the Shadow and the Spider and dozens of others who emerged from pages saturated in purple prose.

Of course you can’t have a good pulp hero without an equally impressive pulp villain. In this tale he is a mysterious fiend known as the Roman. The police christened such because he leaves Roman coins on the eyes of his victims, all of whom are prominent public figures. As the Ghost begins his hunt for the Roman, he finds himself distracted by two other players in the game. One is the tenacious police detective Felix Donovan who has been charged to apprehend both the Ghost and the Roman. The other is a beautiful jazz singer named Celeste Parker with whom Cross is enamored.

At first Celeste appears to be merely a love interest whose insight into Cross’ wounded soul slowly begins to heal him. But when a group of the Roman’s henchmen attempt to kidnap her one night, the Ghost is dealt another mystery. Who is she really and what is her importance to the Roman? These are but a few of the elements that add cleverly written layers of suspense to an action packed adventure.

GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN, with its colorful steampunk setting, wonderfully echoes the exuberant fun of the original pulps. In the end it is a romantic tip of the fedora to those times long passed but never forgotten.

DRACULA LIVES!

2010-11-28T09:31:00.000-08:00

DRACULA LIVES

By Joshua Reynolds

Pulp Work Press

171 pages

Jonas Cream is a former British spy who now works for himself, selling his deadly services the highest bidder. When an old colleague named Harry Lime offers him a lucrative job of collecting a wooden box from a Rumanian auction house, Cream, although weary, accepts the assignment. Shortly thereafter he is approached by the Psychic Branch of the British Secret Service. They want Cream to act as a double agent, carrying out his mission for Lime while actually obtaining the box for them instead. Then he is attacked by a group of foreign assassins known as the Order of the Dragon. They make it quite clear they do not want him to succeed, let alone continue breathing.

The first half of Joshua Reynolds’ fast paced thriller reads very much like any modern day spy versus spy novel with all the traditional elements of a Robert Ludlum and John LeCarre espionage mystery. Then it gradually begins to morph into a horror tale as Cream learns exactly what it is all these different factions are after. The box contains the skull of Vlad the Impaler, better known as Dracula. Now Cream finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly tug-of-war between those who want to see the skull destroyed and those who believe, through black magic, the Lord of the Vampires can be brought back to unholy life.

Reynolds keeps the action moving at hyper-speed and clearly has fun toying with his all too familiar cast of characters. It takes a great deal of panache to swipe a character from a classic movie. For the uninitiated, actor Orson Wells portrayed American spy Harry Lime in the film THE THIRD MAN. Which is why he is portrayed on the book’s cover, a really wonderful painting by M.D. Jackson. Other players in this book are also named for well known literary spies while others like Ms. Harker are taken from the original DRACULA novel by Bram Stoker.

The only weak part of this thoroughly enjoyable book is the fact that it is but the first in a series and the conclusion doesn’t end the story. In fact one could look at the entire novel as only the first chapter in the larger saga Reynolds has planned for the blood-sucking Count. Readers not fond of continued series would do well to avoid this book. As for the rest of us willing to invest our time in an original, gripping horror adventure, I say bravo Mr.Reynolds and where’s book number two?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2010-11-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post a Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers here at PFR. I wish you and your families a glorious, fun day. We are all blessed by God in more ways than we can count. It is fitting we take just one day out of the entire year to pause, consider those blessings and give thanks.

And as this is the start of the Christmas season, allow me to suggest something to help your gift giving. Give books as gifts. If you've devoted readers in your life, then make them smile with the gift of a book by one of their favorite writers, or better yet, if you know their taste, help introduce them to a new writer. And let's not forget the little ones. Giving a child a book and helping them discover the joys of reading will enrich their lives for years to come. Reading is the one habit I want everyone to have. Again, Happy Holidays to you all, and God Bless.

Ron

EEREY TOCSIN ON THE UNDERWATER ISLAND

2010-11-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

EEREY TOCSIN ON THE UNDERWATER ISLAND

By Kevin Noel Olson

Cornerstone Book Publishers

153 pgs

Several years ago, Kevin Noel Olson wrote one of the most imaginative Young Adult book I’d ever read, “Eerey Tocsin in the Cryptoid Zoo.” In it the world met Eridona “Eerey” Tocsin, a precocious red headed girl with a knack for meeting and making friends with all manner of weird creatures. From her black widow spider, Eight Ball, to the Loofah, the half centaur/half orangutan, this girl was a magnet for some truly amazing adventures.

Olson has since written two sequels that have been sitting on my To-Read stack for some time now. Sadly we reviewers do not spend all day reading, as much as we’d like to. There are things like gas and light bills to pay, i.e. the regular obligations of life. Whereas ever day more and more books arrive and that stack never seems to dwindle at all. So it is just matter of spacing out titles and offering myself and you a diverse line-up of reading experiences. It was time for Eerey’s second book.

At the end of that first tale, Eerey and her strange companions were flying off to try and locate her missing parents. Along with them was her cousin Edict, a boy covered with hair and Guy, the invisible lad who buzzes whenever he comes under harsh lights. They crash land near a dormant volcano in the middle of the ocean and soon find it leads to the underwater city of Kanute. There, the group is caught up in a battle between the green skinned humanoid Kanutians and the amphibious Ottermen.

Once again, Olson delivers a completely original story filled with giant robot sharks and an even bigger, miles long crustacean known as the Kraken. The action never stops as Eerey and her pals find themselves in one cliff-hanger peril after another, all the while relying on their courage and friendship to see them through. Which is the true heart of these adventures; that no matter how amazing or frightening life can be, we all do succeed with a little help from our friends.

Today’s Young Adult book market is overflowing with hundreds of titles but very few are as creative, exciting, original and as much fun as this little known series. It truly deserves a much greater audience and hopefully this review will guide more readers to it. I’ve already purchased a second set of all three as a gift to one of my granddaughters for Christmas. If you’ve dedicated young readers in your family, you’d be smart to do the same. They’ll thank you for it. Finally, with a little luck and free time during the holidays, I’ll be digging into that third volume, “Eerey Tocsin and the Invisible Tower.”

KNIGHTS OF THE SALTIER

2010-11-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

KNIGHTS OF THE SALTIER

By William Speir

Eloquent Books

214 pages

In the past five years, since I started to examine and review the pulp genre field, it soon became clear that there were only two really different types of pulp stories. The first is that of the lone avenger/vigilante who works outside the law to battle the bad guys. The second is the team approach wherein we are given a group of characters who act in unison to achieve the same noble goals. Generally, when reading a new pulp title, I can easily drop it into one of these two branches. It is not often that a book comes along that doesn’t fit in either of those molds as much a break them completely and provide us with a brand new spin on things. KNIGHTS OF THE SALTIER is such book and thus an eye opening pleasure for this reviewer. It is something new under the pulp umbrella and extremely well realized.

Secret fraternal organizations ala the Masons have been around for hundreds of years and have been the fodder for many a pulp adventure. From the Illuminati to the Harvard Skull and Crossbones club, the idea of a group working in the shadows to bring about political and social change has been a well worn plot device to entice paranoiac readers of every generation. What Saltier proposes in this, the first of a trilogy, is that a modern secret society has come into existence with the sole purpose of aiding the police in helping to bring criminals to justice. The group is based on the old English order of chivalry and its members, called Knights and Dames, take an oath of loyalty and secrecy to the group when being inducted. At one point in the story, the Grand Master explains to the protagonist that the only way the group can exist, per its own ideals of civilized jurisprudence is to support the legal system and never usurp the goals and authority of the police. To do so would make them no better than the people they investigate and capture. Their role is to gather evidence, behind the scenes, that will convict the law breakers, then apprehend them and deliver them, along with that data to the police.

Thus the public remains totally unaware of their existence and operations, continuing to believe that the established legal system works as it should. Thus the secrecy element is crucial as is their group loyalty. No single individual is unique or exceptional, each Knight and Dame is a vital component of the group. Which is why this particular concept is original to pulps and cleverly thought out. The philosophy behind the Knights of the Saltier (a symbolic cross shaped like the letter X) is central to the book’s plot and the hero’s reaction to it.

Tom Anderson is an ex-military engineer looking for a cause to give his life purpose. It isn’t enough to work, get paid and socialize with friends. Anderson, in part due to his inherent patriotism, believes he has more to give his country, but as a civilian is stymied in finding an answer to his moral quest. When he is approached by the Knights, he is reasonably suspicious of them and their stated mission. Most secret organizations are radical in nature, which is why the Knight’s tempered existence intrigues him and he ultimately comes to accept their offer. Once an active member of the Knights, Anderson also discovers the groups singular vulnerably, their exposure to the criminal world that they are helping the police combat.

When one of their members turns traitor and gives up the Knights to a brutal mob boss, Anderson and his new found brothers find themselves in a pitched battle for survival. The repercussions are savage and their very struggle to survive challenges the Knights with their greatest dilemma of becoming the very things they abhor.

KNIGHTS OF THE SALTIER is a fascinating book. Speir’s writing is competent enough, although I hope as it matures; it will take on more color and verve that comes with confidence. I sense he is still feeling his way down this new literary path he’s taken on. I strongly recommend KNIGHTS OF THE SALTIER to all pulp fans. It’s not often we get something this original in the genre, don’t let it pass you by.

TEXAS STANDOFF

2010-11-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

TEXAS STANDOFF

By Elmer Kelton

Forge Books

284 pages

The writing in this book is so lean, it becomes a literary illusion as it packs so much story in those economic words. That is the hallmark of a veteran writer who has truly mastered his craft of storytelling. Whereas I do not read many westerns, it is both a joy and sad event to come to this dance late, as Kelton passed away in 2009 at the age of 83 with over fifty novels to his credit, among them seven winners of the prestigious Spur Award.

TEXAS STANDOFF is one of two books being posthumously published. It is marvelous example of excellence in the genre. The authenticity of the setting, the language of the characters and their laconic, leather tough personalities open a window to a way of life and culture that forever shaped this country’s identity.

Veteran Rangers Andy Pickard and Logan Daggett are sent to a small town in the central Texas country to investigate an increasingly dangerous feud building up between two cattle ranchers, the Teals and McIntoshs. The patriarchs were old foes in the Civil War and remain stubbornly unwilling to put their past prejudices aside, each accusing the other of starting the ruckus with the intent of driving out the competition. The two Rangers soon discover a volatile atmosphere in which the smallest spark could ignite a bloody range war that would decimate both families and kill many innocent bystanders caught in the middle.

No sooner do Pickard and Daggett start nosing around when a series of violent attacks by hooded riders known “regulators” begin targeting both ranches. Both sides vehemently accuse the other of these raids whereas Pickard begins to suspect a third group is actually manipulating events to pit the cattle ranchers against each other. Pickard, the younger of the two lawmen, is the thinker, slow to act but nonetheless lethal with deadly marksmanship when required. Daggett is older and a bulldog of man who believes in swift and permanent justice to all outlaws, no matter the severity of their crimes. His philosophy is hang them all and make room for the decent folks to settle the land. Much of the fun here is seeing how both men, despite their differences, have to learn to work together in completing their assignment and uncovering the truth behind the entire affair.

TEXAS STANDOFF echoes classic westerns such as the Virginian and Lonesome Dove but it also brands itself with a fresh, honest originality by portraying these characters as the true, tough and independent pioneers they were. If you’ve a hankering for an easy paced western that delivers so much more, then saddle up and enjoy the ride. This one has your brand on it.

THE ROOK Vol. Five

2010-11-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

THE ROOK (Vol Five)

By Barry Reese

Wild Cat Books

303 pgs

This is easily one of my favorite on-going pulp series. The Rook, an Atlanta based avenger a new pulp hero who, over the course of his four previous outings, has battled some classic pulp villains and teamed up with well known 30s heroes along the way.

Note, this is not a novel, as the Rook’s adventures generally run in lengths of ten to fifteen thousand words and each volume is a collection of four or five of these long tales.

This one follows that format and offers up four new Rook thrillers and wraps with a bonus story by writer Stacy Dooks. I’m going to “hazard” a guess and say this is the first Rook story ever penned by someone other than Reese and it’s really very good, adhering a great deal the established style Reese created for this series.

The recurring theme of this collection focuses on the Rook establishing a new team of heroes he christens the Claws of the Rook, and they include a pastiche female Phantom type warrior known as the Revenant, who leads them. Others include a master of the mystic arts, ala Doctor Strange, the Frankenstein monster who is, in this incarnation, a decent fellow named Vincent and the Golden Age comic book battler, the Black Terror, to name a few. During the course of the book they go up against some of the Rook’s old foes such the Warlike Manchu and Doctor Satan while being challenged by new evils ala a wooden fiend known as the Stickman and a resurrected vampire Hitler seeking to rebuild the Third Reich.

As you can see by these colorful personages, these are off-the-wall pulp exploits in the finest sense. There are times when Reese spends a little more time on the new team then he does with his principle hero and all too often, despite their myriad talents and powers, the group can’t seem to win any decisive battle without his coming to their rescue. Obvious the challenge here is when to shine the light on the Max Davies, the Rook’s secret identity, and when to actually let him take a back seat. The few times this doesn’t work properly makes for awkward sections that slow down the pacing a bit. But that’s a truly minor flaw in what is another excellent entry into this fun series.

And Dooks tale starring the Rook Jr. is a really nice bonus to the entire package. If you are a Rook fan, you won’t be disappointed. If you aren’t, then time to get on the pulp bandwagon and discover this truly excellent series.

STILL KICKING

2010-10-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. Just wanted to post a quick message here to apologize for the lack of new reviews here. The move from New Hampshire to Colorado was a radical operation and although we've settled in nicely to our new Fort Collins home, I'm still playing catch up with most of writing obligations and thus my own personal reading has taken a back seat. Sorry about that. I'm currently reading Barry Reese's fifth ROOK adventures and will post a review soon as I can wrap it up. In the meanwhile, one of my own stories has just been released in Moonstone's new GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES. I hope you'll pick it up, as aside my humble entry, it truly has some memorable tales of the verdant clad hero and his kung-fu sidekick, Kato. Thanks for stopping by as always and Happy Halloween.
Ron

HARD CASE CRIME RETURNS

2010-10-20T11:39:00.001-07:00

PRESS RELEASE -

Hard Case Crime Returns!

Titan Books to Relaunch

Acclaimed Pulp Paperback Series

“Wickedly voluptuous.”

--Janet Maslin, New York Times

“Hard Case may be the best new American publisher to appear in the last decade.”

-- Neal Pollack, The Stranger

“One hell of a concept. Those covers brought me right back to the good old days.”

-- Mickey Spillane

New York, NY; London, UK (October 19, 2010) – Titan Books and series creator Charles Ardai announced today that they are teaming up to relaunch the popular Hard Case Crime series of paperback crime novels. Nominated five times in five years for the Edgar Allan Poe award, the mystery genre’s highest honor, Hard Case Crime has published such luminaries as Stephen King (the book that was the basis for the new TV series “Haven”), Mickey Spillane, Ed McBain, Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, Pete Hamill, Max Allan Collins, Madison Smartt Bell and Roger Zelazny, to name just a few. Each book features new cover art in the classic pulp style, including covers painted by Robert McGinnis, the legendary illustrator who painted the original James Bond movie posters.

Hard Case Crime has won praise from dozens of major publications ranging from Time, Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly to Entertainment Weekly, Playboy and Reader’s Digest, and has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Fresh Air, and in every major newspaper in America (including repeated coverage in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and USA Today).

First launched in 2004, Hard Case Crime published 66 titles through August 2010, at which time its long-time publisher, Dorchester Publishing, announced it was exiting the mass market paperback publishing business after nearly 40 years. After receiving offers from five other publishers (including two of the largest in the world) to continue the line, Charles Ardai selected UK-based Titan Publishing as Hard Case Crime’s new home.

“Titan has an extraordinary record of creating beautiful, exciting books with exactly the pop culture sensibility that Hard Case Crime exists to celebrate,” said Charles Ardai, founder and editor of Hard Case Crime and an Edgar Award-winning mystery writer himself. “Titan is one of the few publishers that loves pulp fiction as much as we do.”

Titan’s first new Hard Case Crime titles, scheduled to come out in September and October 2011, include QUARRY’S EX, a new installment in the popular series of hit man novels by “Road to Perdition” creator Max Allan Collins; CHOKE HOLD, Christa Faust’s sequel to her Edgar Award-nominated Hard Case Crime novel MONEY SHOT; and two never-before-published novels by major authors in the crime genre (both recipients of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America).

Additionally, Titan plans to acquire all existing stock of Hard Case Crime’s backlist titles from Dorchester Publishing and resume shipping those titles to stores immediately.

“Hard Case Crime has done a remarkable job in a very short time of building a brand known for outstanding crime fiction and stunning artwork,” said Nick Landau, Publisher of Titan Books and CEO of the Titan Publishing Group. “We are thrilled to partner with Charles and look forward to bringing Hard Case Crime to a wider audience around the world, not only through the novels themselves but also through an innovative merchandise program.”

For more information, call Hard Case Crime on 646-205-2181 or e-mail media@hardcasecrime.com; call Titan (US media) on 914-788-1005 or email ktc2000@aol.com; or call Titan (UK media) on +44 (0)20 7803 1906 or email sophie.calder@titanemail.com.

About Hard Case Crime

Charles Ardai founded Hard Case Crime in 2004 through Winterfall LLC, a privately owned media company responsible for a variety of print, film, and television projects. The series has been nominated for and/or won numerous awards since its inception including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Anthony, the Barry, and the Spinetingler Award. The series’ bestselling title of all time, The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, was the basis for the current SyFy television series “Haven,” on which Charles Ardai works as a writer and producer. There have also been a number of feature film deals involving Hard Case Crime books, including “The Last Lullaby,” based on The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins and starring Tom Sizemore as the titular hit man, and more recently Universal Pictures’ purchase of the film rights to Little Girl Lost and Songs of Innocence by Richard Aleas.

About Titan Publishing Group

Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. The company is based at offices in London, but operates worldwide, with sales and distribution in the US & Canada being handled by Random House. Titan Publishing Group has three divisions: Titan Books, Titan Magazines/Comics and Titan Merchandise. In addition to fiction, including novelizations of films such as Terminator Salvation, original novels based on TV shows such as Primeval and Supernatural and the popular computer game Runescape, and the celebrated Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of novels launched in 2009, Titan Books also publishes an extensive line of media- and pop culture-related non-fiction, graphic novels, art and music books.

THE BLACK HAND

2010-10-15T12:44:00.001-07:00

THE BLACK HAND
(A Barker & Llewelyn Novel)
By Will Thomas
Touchstone Books
289 pages

When a notorious Italian assassin and his wife are found stuffed in a barrel and floating down the Thames River, Scotland Yard puts out a call to Inquiry Agent Cyrus Barker to assist them in foiling a bloody gang war for the control of the London docks. A new criminal element has arrived from Sicily known as the Mafia and they want nothing less than complete control the entire London underworld.

THE BLACK HAND is the fifth in this series of mystery adventures starring the enigmatic Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn. Like the others that preceded it, the joy of this volume is the amount of historical research Thomas embellishes the background. He has a fondness for history and it shines throughout the book, as his accurate depiction of London during Victoria’s reign is vibrant and mesmerizing. He relishes offering up tidbits of long forgotten lore that adds a true richness to the world in which our heroes operate.

From the first time Llewelyn met Barker, he has been slowly piecing together his employer’s colorful and mysterious background as a ship’s captain in the Far East. In this book more is revealed about Barker’s past, filling in the gaps to a man who is clearly Sherlock Holmes’ equal and not some half-baked copy. Both Llewelyn and Barker are original characters and their exploits a joy to read. This time the body count mount quickly as the mysterious unknown agents of the Black Hand attack ruthlessly, brutally eliminating anyone in their path. In the end Barker must form a coalition of London gangs to challenge the Sicilians and put an end to their vicious threat.

If you’ve yet to pick up this series, I would urge you to do so immediately. Historical mysteries simply do not get any better than the Barker & Llewelyn books. I cannot wait for number six.

OUT OF THE DARK

2010-10-11T16:05:00.001-07:00

OUT OF THE DARK
By David Weber
Tor Books
381 pages

Alien invasions are nothing new to both the science fiction and fantasy genres. Books like H.G.Wells WAR OF THE WORDS and Ron L.Hubbard BATTLEFIELD EARTH have all demonstrated the horrors of such a catastrophic event. In reading David Weber’s OUT OF THE DARK, it is impossible not to recall these previous exercises in intergalactic terror and the penultimate B-movie experience of INDEPENDENCE DAY.
They are all evoked wonderfully throughout this gripping adventure.

The plot is direct enough. The setting is the very near future, by only a few years. A warrior race known as the Shongairi have been given the permission of a space United Nations known as the Galactic Hemegony to invade and subjugate the Earth, based on early exploratory by other races of the Hemegony. Their reports indicated the planet’s inhabitants were a savage race and as the majority of the alien council was made up of peace loving beings, the Shongairi seemed the perfect choice to handle the Earth situation. Early on in the story, the commanding officer of the invading fleet espouses his own theories on the politics behind his people having been granted this so called privilege. He full suspects the Hemegony are hoping the Earthlings will prove difficult to the point of inflicting enough damage to weaken the Shongairi thus making them easier to handle. The Hemegony are all too aware of the Shongairi’s unbridled ambitions to expand their empire.

Of course the commander and his officers consider this a ridiculous idea as their own hubris is blinding them to the fact that all their previous victories were of Class One civilizations with no technology to speak of. Whereas the Shongairi scouting probes report the Earth has developed to a Class Two status to include nuclear capabilities that suggest other technological advances, particularly in military fields. Still, having never known defeat, the Shongairi launch their invasion by bombarding the Earth’s major capitol cities and within hours decimate a quarter of the world’s population.

Weber is a skilled military writer and he describes the destruction from outer space clearly and economically. Then he begins to introduce us to several strong willed individuals throughout the world who will be the book’s protagonists. A couple of former marine survivalists living in the mountains of South Carolina, an African American Marine Sergeant trapped in Romania with a handful of soldiers, a Russian engineer from Moscow and a U.S. Navy fighter pilot who manages to shoot down the Shongairi troop shuttles within mere hours of their attack. It is his actions that set the tempo for the remainder of the book, as his effective retaliation is the first actual loss the enemy aliens have ever encountered and all too soon pockets of human resistance begin popping up everywhere, striking back at the invaders with effective armament the likes of which they had never encountered before.

Weber lays it on fast and furious all of which leads to a dead road culmination for the Shongairi. If they cannot successfully defeat the human race, then they will merely retreat and bomb the planet to oblivion. The question then becomes, will the humans survive and is there any way they can possibly turn the tables and actual defeat the invaders? Therein lays the resolution that caught me by surprise because for the most part the book is science fiction and Weber’s solution strays afar into that other genre we alluded to earlier. In a way that some readers may not appreciate and I can sympathize with them. On the other hand, I was delighted with it and applaud Weber for having the literary bravado to pull it off, particularly in his being able to subtlety play on the book’s very title with that particular climax.

Bottom line, OUT OF THE DARK is a terrific read that had me from the first page and kept me enthralled to the very last. If you are willing to have fun with fiction of this type, then hang on and enjoy the ride. It’s a wild one.

THE GREEN HORNET - YEAR ONE

2010-09-17T09:12:00.001-07:00

GREEN HORNET – YEAR ONE
Dynamite Comics
Writer Matt Wagner
Artist Aaron Campbell

In the three years I’ve written Pulp Fiction Reviews, I’ve never bothered to shine a light on comics. I am making an exception here because of the quality and pulp strings attached to this marvelous title from Dynamite Comics. Okay, so the Green Hornet was never a pulp hero, having been born on the radio along about the same time as the Shadow and other great melodramatic heroes. He would also make the jump to the movie serials and comics casting him clearly in the same mold as the glorious pulp characters of his day.

Earlier this year Dynamite opened the Green Hornet floodgates and inundated the comic world with more Green Hornet titles than ever put by a single publisher before. There was Kevin Smith’s supposed old unused movie script and individual books featuring the various Katos etc.etc. For the most part most of these are lackluster affairs truly not worth any fans time or hard earned coins.

Almost lost amongst this plethora of mediocre fare was one singular gem, GREEN HORNET – YEAR ONE. Conceived and written by veteran scribe Matt Wagner, it tells the story of the original verdant clad avenger and his Asian side-kick in a historically accurate time frame. It is the late 1930s and Germany and Japan are dicing up the world map to their own gratification and dreams of empire building. Against this background, Britt Reid, the bored, educated son of a Chicago newspaper publisher, decides to answer the call of wanderlust and go traipsing around the globe. He wants to have one big glorious adventure before he resigns himself to filling his father’s shoes and spending the next twenty years of his life behind a desk.

Meanwhile in the Land of the Rising Son, Hiyashi Kato has been raised by his noble sire to be a modern Samurai and live by their strict code of martial honor. When he is summarily drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army and becomes part of the invasion of China, he witnesses acts of brutal atrocity that challenge his very moral core. He deserts, choosing in the course of right and ultimately crosses paths with the young American, who saves his life in a freakish accident. Kato vows to accompany Reid and be his companion until his debt his repaid.

Wagner, realizing today’s audiences need action, jumps back and forth between these events and those occurring after the duo’s return to Chicago. Here they discover Reid Senior has died and left the running of the Daily Sentinel to his son. Once in this lofty position, Britt will come to understand the dept of the corruption infecting his beloved city by the criminal gangs, all of which will lead him to become a masked crime fighter with his loyal Kato ever at his side in the livery of a masked chauffeur.

Aaron Campbell’s art is so evocative of the times this story unfolds in, one has to wonder if he doesn’t spend every waking second in a library reference hall. His work captures not only the look but the atmosphere of these unsettling days when America, having just survived the Great Depression is on the brink another world conflict, unsure if the future spells doom or glory for the brash young country.

GREEN HORNET – YEAR ONE is a terrific comic series and does justice above and beyond to one of the great classic radio heroes of all time. Any pulp fan worth his fedora would be wise to pick it up.

BLACK ORDER

2010-09-15T07:42:00.001-07:00

BLACK ORDER
By James Rollins
Harper Books
506 pages

When a book mixes science, religious philosophy and secret societies dating back to the Nazis, you can expect a real spicy pulp stew. Veterinarian turned thriller novelist James Rollins delivers just that and the meal is absolutely scrumptious for the first page bite to the last closing line morsel. Easily one of the best modern pulp adventures I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

The adventure opens during the closing days of World War II when allied forces are racing against each other to lay claim to Germany’s scientific innovations developed during the war to include everything from rocket propulsion to medical experimentation.
Amidst this chaos, one German commando unit is attempting to flee the invaders and smuggle out the results of an amazing breakthrough in quantum physics that could alter the shape of mankind forever. Along with these papers and artifacts is a baby unlike any other in the world; the first of a race of true supermen.

Like any good thriller writer, Rollins then jumps ahead in time to the present where members of a special Washington based group known as Sigma Force are involved with what they believe to two distinct missions. The first is an antique book auction being held in Copenhagen and the second is a distress call from a Tibetan monk residing in a monastery located deep in the Himalayas. Commander Gray Pierce follows the European case which centers around a group of killers eager to get their hands on Darwin’s Bible. It supposedly contains secret runes put their by a former German scientist involved with a secret project known only as the Bell. At the same time, Sigma Director Painter Crowe arrives in Tibet, only to find the monks have somehow gone insane and murdered each other. No sooner does he uncover this horror then he is captured and taken to a hidden mountain lair operated by the descendants of the very same German researchers who developed this mysterious Bell.

Rollins’ genius is that he keeps both plot threads moving at breakneck speed, constantly putting Pierce and Crowe in cliffhanger perils and then deftly jumping from one to the other. Thus the action seems to flow non-stop, scene after exciting scene. He also glues these action set pieces with thought provoking debates on what is evolution and where do science and religion meet in its process. Is there a grand design and will quantum physics someday open the blueprint to creation? That these weighty dissertations occur while men are being shot at, mountains exploding and mutated monsters roam the jungles of South Africa is all part of the roller-coaster ride BLACK ORDER delivers.

Recently a friend wrote asking me to passing along names of people I considered to be top-notch modern day pulp writers. James Rollins was at the top of the list I passed along and BLACK ORDER reaffirms that choice beautifully.

RABBIT HEART

2010-09-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

RABBIT HEART
By Barry Reese
Wild Cat Books
149 pgs.

Modern day pulp writer, Barry Reese, eschews the traditional hero avenger fare for something much darker and violent with this thriller that borders on the sensational. One has to imagine he dove into this adult orientated tale with both trepidation and a palpable sense of unfettered freedom. There is plenty of gore, sexual brutality and blatant acts of depravity all meticulously embellished with not a gruesome detail omitted. If you’ve the stomach for it, Rabbit Heart is a savage reading experience but it is not for the timid.

The adventure begins with the death of the protagonist, a young girl named Fiona Chapman. She’s murdered by an outdoor serial killer who fancies himself the next Jason from the Friday the 13th movies. But Fiona doesn’t die, or at least in the same way normal people expire. Instead she somehow biologically evolves into another state of being, one in which she is incredibly strong and powerful. She soon learns that she is one of a handful of mythological spirits who have roamed the world for centuries known as the Furious Hosts.

These semi immortal deities exist only to kill and be killed. They are all players in a bizarre, savage game known as the Hunt. Each is filled with an unquenchable lust compelling them satiate their dark passions by preying on innocent humans while at the same time battling each other until eventually only one will remain. This is of course reminiscent of the Highlander movie series, but with a neat twist. When a Furious Host is killed by another, he or she will be reborn into another body at a later date to resume the contest. Thus killing them permanently is a problem.

Fiona, whose archetype figure she becomes when fighting is that of a sexy bad-girl warrior, is different in that she is actually repulsed by her new supernatural identity. She truly wants to no part of it but doesn’t know how to escape her fate. Then she meets an occult detective from the past who has been tracking the activities of the Furious Host and has come to her with an offer. His name is Ascott Keane and he wants to help Fiona take on the task of finding and destroying all the Hunters, ridding the world of them once and for all.

RABBIT HEART is by far the most accomplished of Reese’s writing to date. Unlike his earlier, fanciful pulp adventures, there is a steadier prose here that is precise and confident. The excess sex and violence is never gratuitous, serves the plot and avoids being pornographic by that masterful writing. I strongly recommend this book to my adult readers looking for something new. Final warning, this is a superior effort but NOT for the squeamish.

NAPOLEON'S PYRAMIDS

2010-08-22T18:14:00.001-07:00

NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS
By William Dietrich
Harper Fiction
380 pages

In the year 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in an obsessive wish to make himself a modern day Alexander the Great. What he did was not so much a great military achievement as much as it an academic watermark for history. As writer William Dietrich marvelously depicts, Napoleon actually help create the archeological science of Egyptology.

It is against these world altering events that Ethan Gage, the protagonist, finds himself ensnared and sent on the adventure of a lifetime. A former protégé of the late Benjamin Franklin, young Gage, a one-time frontiersman, returns to Paris as an entrepreneur with the goal of makingt himself rich. He is acting as an agent between various companies in both the newly independent colonies and their ally France. But this France is one still governed in post-revolution chaos, the memories of the blood stained guillotine still fresh in every citizens’ thoughts.

When Gage wins a very odd looking medallion of Egyptian origin from a luckless soldier in a card game, he soon finds himself the target of deadly, mysterious factions. His favorite brothel mistress is murdered and evidence planted to indict him. A journalist companion suggests he join a group of scientist traveling with Napoleon to Egypt for the grand invasion and Gage is only too eager to accept the protection of the little corporal to evade the Paris police.

Once in the land of the Pharaohs, he becomes even more ensnared in the mystery of the medallion and that of an exotic beauty who may hold the key to its meaning. But is she a friend or foe? Does the medallion contain the means of unlocking the power of the great pyramids and if so, can this power be harnessed by human will? NAPOLEON’S PYRAMID is a wonderful historical adventure and Ethan Gage, surviving by his wits and courage, proves to be a bona fide colonial version of Indiana Jones. The story is a mystery, thriller and historical travelogue all rolled into one glorious package. It is a fun read that delivers what the title promises; an original, one of a kind adventure.

SUPERHERO'S WELCOME

2010-08-13T13:10:00.001-07:00

SUPERHERO’S WELCOME
By Dan Schwartz
(www.banocanut.com)
142 pages

This is easily one of the funniest and most original takes on superheroes I’ve ever read. Dan Schwartz, in this little self-published gem, delivers a twisted tale of heroics, dastardly villainy and outrageous puns that had me crying in tears.

In the wondrous city of Utopolis, crime has all but vanished completely thanks the Seven Deadlies, a super hero team formed by the mental wizard, Mind Manners. And it is the most eclectic group of costumed characters ever assembled, from Tidal Rush who controls water, to the genius British caveman Shrunk or the hermaphrodite Shocking Parts, a gorgeous woman…then again not. Her name says it all.

And as much as the comedy is prevalent, the action and mystery are equally realized. When a mysterious villain appears on the scene and begins to target the members of the Seven Deadlies, the suspense cranks up a notch. This new threat is one by one murdering the superheroes with apparent ease and the key to his insidious plot is tied to his true identity. By the time it is revealed, the plot takes a whole new twist. One that left me shaking my head and thanking the stars that I came upon this truly unique book.

SUPERHERO’S WELCOME isn’t for everyone. But if, like me, you grew up addicted to comics, this book is going to make you laugh and maybe even think a little. Dan Schwartz is a talented writer. One you should really get to know.

ST NEW FRONTIER - TREASON

2010-08-04T14:04:00.001-07:00

TREASON
Star Trek-New Frontier
By Peter David
Pocket Books
436 pages

The only problem I ever have with Peter David’s unique and original Star Trek paperback series is that they appear too infrequently. Of all the literary spin-off series based on the late Gene Roddenberry’s science-fiction adventure television series, New Frontier is simply the best. All due to David’s easy style of writing and his marvelous ability to interweave characters from the other media with his own creations, chief of amongst which is Captain McKenzie Calhoun of the starship Excalibur.

At the end of the last book in this series, MISSING IN ACTION, we discovered that Xy, the half-breed son of Vulcan medical officer, Selar, suffered from a rare malady that caused accelerated growth and within weeks of his birth he had become a fully matured adult. The obvious implications being that he would reach old age quickly and die. As this new novel begins, Selar is contacted telepathically by an unknown race of aliens who claim to have the ability to slow down Xy’s metabolism and thereby save him. But they will only share this knowledge with her if she will kidnap another baby of mix heritage and bring it to them. The child they want is the half human/Thallian son of the late Si Cwan, ruler of New Thallon and his widow, former Star Fleet officer, Robin Lefler.

And if this wasn’t enough drama, once Selar flees with the baby aboard an ultra sophisticated Romulan spy ship, the ghost of Si Cwan somehow possesses the body of his young sister Kalinda and begins to advise Calhoun on how to pursue the renegade Vulcan and reclaim the stolen heir. The pacing is frantic and as always, David brings his colorful cast to life, injecting each with a truly singular personality that makes them stand out. Because he subtly allows us to see their inner motivations, dreams and fears, we become instantly invested in their predicaments when the action heats ups. Which is quite often in this runaway sci-fi thriller. As always, he delivers such a solid reading experience, the ending arrives too soon, even after four hundred pages, and has us wanting lots more.

Even if the Star Trek franchise is not your reading cup of tea, I still recommend you sample New Frontier. It’s truly a cut about the others and one of the finest continuing sci-fi series on the market today.

ARTIC DRIFT

2010-07-23T17:47:00.001-07:00

ARTIC DRIFT
A Dirk Pitt Novel
By Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler
Berkley Novel
593 pages

Once again civilization is on the brink of collapse. Global warming is increasing to the detriment of the environment and all life on the planet. When an American research scientist discovers a way to artificially create photosynthesis, the process by which plants transform harmful carbon dioxide into oxygen and water, a glimmer of hope is found. But this amazing planet saving solution depends entirely on a rare mineral known as ruthenium which then becomes the treasure target of an unscrupulous Canadian businessman who controls most of the gas and oil production in the northern latitudes.

Through the use of government bribes, murder and extortion, this greedy megalomaniac is willing to let mankind face global destructions rather than give up his bloody wealth.
He devilishly orchestrates a conflict between Canada and America which soon has both suspecting the other of harboring militaristic goals. Into this convoluted plot of evil twists and turns arrive the brave men and women of NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, led by Dirk Pitt; the most popular pulp hero of current literature.

Created in 1973, Dirk Pitt and his NUMA crew have traveled the seas of the world battling some of the most colorful villains ever invented all in defense of mankind and the world. It is no wonder that ARTIC DRIFT, their twentieth outing is a big, fat, rollicking adventure set against the topical themes of global warming and the world’s oil and gas addiction. Leave it to a master storyteller like Cussler to inject a real world crisis into an over-the-top thriller that had me whipping through the pages non-stop. There is plenty of action, death-defying escapes from impossible traps and an ancient sea mystery to be solved before the final chapter is closed.

This is also the third collaboration between the senior author and his son, Dirk, who shares the same name as his dad’s enduring hero. I have no idea what their routine is like but Dirk Pitt fans should take heart that their seamless prose melding should herald the continuation of the series long after Clive hangs up his thesaurus. And that, for pulp fiction fans, is the best news ever.

HAPPY 75th TO PENGUIN BOOKS

2010-07-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

One of the most respected publishing companies in the world is celebrating it's 75th anniversary with a truly wonderful contest. Go to the on-line site and register and you can win 75 old and new classics from this distinguished house. Tell them Pulp Fiction Reviews sent you. (http://www.penguinbooks75.com/)
Ron

LOVE & BULLETS

2010-07-13T07:28:00.001-07:00

LOVE & BULLETS
By Percival Constantine
Pulpwork Press
210 pages

When this book first arrived, I was really eager to dig into it as I’ve generally enjoyed most of the titles put out by this loose outfit of writers. Sadly the book disappointed me greatly and the first warning it would do so was in the introduction wherein the writer gives us a detailed history of the book and how it came to be and how much he loves these characters. In the future, allow the readers to make their own judgments and leave the histories, if you feel they are warranted, to the end of the book as an afterward.

Only in science fiction movies and comics do characters die and then come back again and again and again. It has become such a trite norm all of us have come to expect it in these medias. But not in literature, which truly should be held to a high standard than a B movie gone direct to video.

LOVE & BULLETS takes place in the world of super secret, deadly assassins who are suppose to be the most elite killers in the world. Angela Lockhart, described as "beautiful, deadly and cunning" is the best of the best. We are given a few glimpses into her training with Agency, another ultra-secret government group, and she excels in all facets of mayhem. Her teachers claim she is not only the most adept assassin they have ever trained, but her intelligence IQ borders on genius. Angela is the perfect killing machine. If all this sounds a wee bit cliché, that’s because it all is and had it actually been realized as a comic book, would have worked extremely well. But this isn’t a comic.

When Angela’s husband is murdered, the Agency refuses to help her investigate his death and punish his unknown killers. Angela quits the Agency to go solo and find the bad guys all on her own. But before she can do so, she immediately comes under the radar of a colorful, master villain known as Dante. Dante offers her assistance in finding her husband’s killers if she in turn will come to work for his ultra-secret organization known as the Infernum. If this sounds a little bit like Spy vs Spy, well, that’s perfectly legitimate as espionage thrillers have always stretched credulity to the max.

Unfortunately Constantine seems unable to resist the temptations of making Dante all things in one. A man of mystery, a man of the arts, an expert on pop culture, a movie fanastic, oh, and a deadly martial artist. All the while being this mysterious spy master with a world wide network under his command. A little would have gone a long way here, but that’s not what we get. These characters are exaggerations and when they begin to act illogically, one can only sigh with resignation.

We are told Angela has a brilliant mind but from the first page to the last she is completely manipulated, first by Dante, then by the Agency spy who falls in love with her and then again by Dante. Brilliant, hardly. Naïve, completely.

Throughout the book it is made blatantly clear that Angela and Dante will invariably have to fight each other to the death. Which is as good a point as any to applaud Constantine’s technical writing skills. He is a good writer in that his prose is precise, economic with excellent dialogue and creates some truly amazing action sequences. For this he gets top marks, but that cannot save his unimaginative storytelling. Once again he eschews logic and commits the final, major sin with the outcome of that battle royal.

Following the book’s own logic, Dante is a superior fighter and should kill Angela with little difficulty. But she’s the protagonist and we hope she will figure a way to survive. This is classic thriller suspense, rooting for the underdog. And that’s exactly what happens, in that Angela manages one final trick and gets the drop on Dante and stabs him in the back with his own Katana blade. At which point, she would have then found a pistol and put two slugs into his head to make sure he is truly dead. Kaput. That’s the cold, methodical professional we are told she is. But Constantine doesn’t want Dante to be dead and so Angela simply walks away from his body, steals some money and flees. In other words she acts totally uncharacteristically.

The final chapter arrives and lo and behold Dante walks out of a hospital all smiles and good cheer. Surprise. Hardly. Good writing is about discovering who your characters are and then being faithful to them, regardless of how painful the outcome. The lack of this realism is evident on every page and like Angela, we readers are manipulated with a heavy hand that serves no one but the writer. Despite this misstep, Constantine is talented and it is my hope he’ll forgo any plans for a sequel and instead challenge himself to give us something totally new.

CEMETERY DANCE

2010-07-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

CEMETARY DANCE
By Preston & Child
Vision (Hatchette Book Group)
566 pages

Here is a reviewer’s riddle. When is a big book like a little book? Answer; when it’s so well written you breeze through it in no time at all. Which is what happens with each new Speical Agent Pendergast novel from the extraordinary imaginations of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Individually both are extremely popular and talented thriller writers, but when they join forces to chronicle the adventures of the FBI’s most brilliant sleuth, the prose rises to an entirely new level of excellence.

When a famous New York City journalist is brutally murdered in his own apartment, it is cause of enough to stir up both the police and the press. But when the overwhelming evidence gathered points to the perpetrator being a fellow who died two weeks earlier, things suddenly take a turn for the macabre. Enter Special Agent Pendergast and his long time friend and colleague, Lt. Detective Vincent D’Agosta of the NYPD.

Are there zombie killers loose in the city and if so, what are their connections to a secretive cult that meets in an abandoned old church in the woods at the north end of Manhattan? As Pendergast and D’Agosta dig deeper into history of the area known as the Ville, they uncover allegations of voodoo and ritualistic animal slayings. But what was the dead man’s connection to the cult and the motive for his grisly slaying? Before any of these questions can be answered, the body of the slain journalist vanishes from the city morgue. Several days later it reappears at a Press Club function and in front of hundreds of witnesses, stabs a young woman to death on the stage before escaping through a backdoor exit.

The city is locked in a grip of fear, as the news of the walking dead begins to spread and Pendergast and D’Agosta find themselves in a desperate race to solve this bizarre puzzle before others are targeted by the undead. CEMETERY DANCE is the thirteenth Pendergast thriller and I consider this the finest modern pulp series being written today.
Typical of the classic pulps, they feature a colorful, nearly super human hero pitted time and time against the most exotic crimes by fiendish masterminds of villainy.

Were Walter Gibson, creator of the Shadow, alive today, these are the kinds of stories he would be writing. Here’s a big tip of the pulp fedora to Misters Preston & Child and there amazing Special Agent Pendergast and here’s hoping he’s around for another lucky thirteen.

SUN-KOH Heir of Atlantis

2010-07-02T08:16:00.001-07:00

SUN-KOH (Heir of Atlantis)
By Dr.Art Sippo
Age of Adventure Press

Dedicated pulp fans are aware of the fact that the concept of hero pulps was not limited to the United States. During the 30s and 40s, pulp magazines were popular all over the world and there were hundreds of original crime fighting heroes created in England, France and Germany. One such foreign star was Sun-Koh, Heir of Atlantis written by German writer Paul Muller and clearly intended to be an Aryan version of America’s Doc Savage. Like Savage he was larger than life and throughout his hundreds of adventurers was accompanied by a group of loyal, unique individuals.

Beside the similarities there were also major differences and these were what have created an on-going controversy over this character. Whereas Doc Savage was a man of science and his companions all experts in various technical fields, Sun-Koh was slanted towards mythology and magic. He was supposedly a time-traveler from the sunken continent of Atlantis, a member of the royal family and master of mystic abilities. And although there was plenty of super scientific gizmos in his adventures, it was the magic that took center stage. His aides were also magicians, immortals and religious Hindu assassins. Quite an eclectic mix.

Still the biggest divergent was Sun-Koh’s political philosophy. It reflects the superman philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Muller easily adapted it into his character, a near perfect specimen of man. Yet these stories were being written at the same time Adolf Hitler and his Socialist Democratic Party were manipulating the philosophy to suit their own claims that pure blood Aryan supremacy was destined to rule the world. Initially the pulp writer and the new German administration were raising the same platform but in the end, unable to make allowances for anything they did not consider intellectual superiority, the Nazis shut down the flamboyant pulps for being cheap entertainment. Thus ended Sun-Koh’s adventures.

Today’s pulp fan have a natural disdain for the Sun-Kon tales and it is to Dr.Sippo’s credit that he chose to bring this volatile character back in this new collection. Sippo believes there were real ideological differences between Muller’s creation and Hitler’s Aryan propaganda and this is what he explores further in his own original adventures. SUN KOH-HEIR OF ATLANTIS features five of Sippo's original Sun-Koh tales, the first three had been published previously and set up the series and introduce this marvelous cast and the last two are brand new, continuing the adventures. The transfer is seamless and I was very impressed in how Sippo captured the over-the-top plotting of classic pulp writing. There is nothing small in these adventures, from invisible super planes run on cold fusion, to super-powered armored warriors battling each other like the knights of old.

There’s also a very large dose of violent Tantric sex thrown in which is brutal and savage and not for the timid. This is adult fare and although not lascivious in any way, the reader should be wary that these tales are not sanitized for some PG rating. In the end, this is a truly remarkable book and one no true pulp fan should pass up. Sun-Koh remains one of pulp history’s most remarkable figures and now, thanks to Dr.Sippo and Age of Adventure, all of us are discovering him for the very first time.

QUARRY'S EX

2010-06-24T17:36:00.001-07:00

QUARRY’S EX
By Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime
210 pages
Available Sept.28

Max Allan Collins started writing his Quarry books back in 1976 with The Broker. It was the first time we were introduced to the Vietnam vet turned paid assassin. In that tale, we learned how Quarry, not his real name of course, came home to find his wife in bed with another man. He murders the guy by dropping a car on him and then, because of his service record as a war hero, is acquitted by jury. Shortly thereafter he is recruited by a man known only as the Broker to become a professional killer.

In the books that have appeared since that stellar debut, that opening scenario has often been retold many times to bring the new readers up to speed. Recently, since becoming affiliated with Hard Case Crime, Collins has begun filling in specific details of Quarry’s life, each more compelling than the last. In this particular book, we are told what happened to Quarry’s ex-wife after they divorced and parted. But Quarry’s personal life is, as always case, only the subplot of the story.

Quarry has come to a small Arizona town where a movie studio is shooting an action B movie. When he discovers that the director of the film is the target of a hit, Quarry approaches the man and offers his own lethal services to both eliminate the threat and discover who put out the contract in the first place. It is this neat little twist combination of mystery and crime thriller that makes this series so original and fun. Quarry is no knight-in-shining armor private eye out to save the world. He’s a killer who makes a good living taking out other killers.

Once the first part of his contract has been efficiently resolved, Quarry is a master of death-dealing, he then becomes a detective chasing down the person who put out the contract on the moviemaker. As always, there are plenty of juicy suspects from the mob boss who is financing the project to the director’s wife who inherits all if he dies. The problem is the woman is Quarry’s ex-wife. The second he lays eyes on her, old familiar feelings he thought long dead begin to resurface, complicating an already precarious situation.

Paying homage to the potboilers of the 40s and 50s, Collins laces his tale with the most outrageous sexual encounters; all done with a sly, sharp wit that is ingratiating. At the same time he balances that adult humor with explosive violence that is as mesmerizing as it is ugly. His prose falls into place with the deft touch of a contemporary poet, each line awakening a new possibility in how we see the world. Reading Quarry is an education in human psychology taught from the barrel of a silenced automatic.

SENTINELS - WORLDMIND

2010-06-21T08:00:00.001-07:00

SENTINELS – WORLDMIND
By Van Allen Plexico
White Rocket Books
252 pages

The planet Earth is under attack by a mechanical space faring super entity known as the Worldmind. The only thing between us and total annihilation is a group of super powered humans and their android allies known as the Sentinels. But before the group can deal with the Worldmind, they discover it is but one of three god-like space conquerors known as the Three Rivals and the other two are in fact on their way to our Solar System to do battle with the Worldmind.

So even if the Sentinels can miraculously defeat the Worldmind, it still leaves them with two other equally powerful threats to defeat. All of which are almost impossible for this brash young band of heroes, considering their own leader, the tactically brilliant Ultraa has been kidnapped and is now facing something known as the Galactic Council to defend the existences of the human race.

If all of this strikes you as cosmic melodrama, you are totally right, as Plexico’s continuing Sentinels saga was inspired by the outlandish, imagination rich comic books he read as a child. Here are all the colorful characters with their amazing abilities. Here are noble alien beings and dastardly, soulless foes that devour worlds as if they were on a fast food menu. There is absolutely nothing reserved or moderate about these over-the-top adventures and they are bloody addictive.

SENTINELS – WORLDMIND is the fifth book in this fun series and as such suffers the same weakness in being totally dependent on those volumes that came before it. Oh, sure, a reader might be able to understand some of the conflicts that occur in this book but in the end confusion will reign. Plexico’s cast of characters is extensive and each is unique and captivating story in themselves, ergo he could possibly recap all of them with each new chapter or the books would become thousands of pages long. I am particularly taken with the teen-age boy from Tennessee who has been grafted into an alien suit of armor to become the Star Knight.

Still, if you truly love wild space action, terrific characters and nail biting suspense, you must read these books. They are like nothing in heroic fiction ever done before. And let me add this incentive. Like all true talented writers, Plexico’s storytelling skills get better and better with each new book so that by the time you reach WORLDMIND, you are in for a tremendous, satisfying experience. THE SENTINELS is a truly wonderful homage to the comics we all grew up and should not be missed.

STARTLING ADVENTURES MAGAZINE

2010-06-13T14:41:00.001-07:00

STARTLING ADVENTURES MAGAZINE
Editor Daniel Werneck
Poeira Books
118 pages

In its glory days, the pulp fiction monthly magazines were the repositories of thousands of fantastic short stories. It was a time unparalleled in America when reading was a national pastime, long before television and computers captured our imagination. Editor Daniel Werneck expresses this feeling aptly in his end of the book essay which is a nice concise history of the pulps, past, present and future. It is Werneck’s love the genre that propelled him to create his own homage to those long ago mags.

Startling Adventure Magazines contains an editorial, the previously mentioned essay, and five pieces of fiction. They are all short and the entire book/mag can be read in a leisurely ninety-minutes. The stories are as diverse as the originals which they wish to mirror and although the quality of each is evident, the effects are a mixed bag.

Vic’s Night Out by Anthony Abelaye seemed pointless. My high school English drummed the basic rules of writing into our heads long-long ago. For it to be a “real” story, it has to have brought about change by the tale’s ending, something that does not happen here. We meet two losers about to go out on the town. They go to a club, one of them starts a fight. They meet an old prostitute and take her home. She begins an affair with one of the two losers, leaving the other alone in a neighborhood bar feeling sorry for his pal. In others words they were sorry losers when the story started and remain so when it ends. Abelaye has a funky, modernistic prose he should use on something a whole lot more substantial.

Atha and the Green Tower by Eric Orchard is clearly the best action entry here and he delivers a quick, fast moving story much like the old pulps. This one should have been longer. Still my favorite is easily Werneck’s own Automatic Lives which tells the story of DVL-54, worker robot who makes guitars. One day he is informed that the government is transferring him to a factory that produces machine guns. Following DVL-54 as he comes to grip with this change and his bizarre sadness at losing his old job is a very poignant drama that was skillfully handled. This writer had much to offer.

The remainder of this slim volume contains another sci-fi entry, Summer by Colin Peters which is also extremely well done and a neat little one act play entitled Mama’s Boy by Jonathan Wallace where in a gay Devil plays a game of chance with a bar patron with disastrous results. If done on stage, the ending would certainly make folks sit up and take notice.

And there you have volume number of Startling Adventures Magazine. A tip of the pulp fedora to Daniel Werneck and company. This little book isn’t about to conquer the world, but it does entertain and in the end, isn’t that what the pulps were really all about?

DILLON & THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN BELL

2010-06-09T14:16:00.001-07:00

DILLON & THE LEGEND
OF THE GOLDEN BELL
By Derrick Ferguson
Pulpwork Press
280 pages

A few years ago I read and reviewed an adventure novel called DILLON AND THE VOICE OF ODIN. It was my introduction to Derrick Ferguson’s larger than life action hero, Dillon. I recall liking the book a great deal and giving it a major thumbs up in my review. Well here comes the sequel and I have to admit it caught me completely by surprise. I fully expected to enjoy it and I have, just much more than I ever expected. This book is truly leaps and bounds a better read than its predecessor and Ferguson has truly grown as a writer. His prose was always clean, but now he brings a new sense of confidence to every sentence as if he’s finally gotten comfortable with this character and is now just having fun spinning his incredible exploits.

And incredible they certainly are. Dillon, a big strapping African American mercenary adventurer, is asked by his old mentor, Eli Creed, to help save the troubled monarchy of Xonira. A civil war has broken out between a wise and benevolent ruler and a cruel, twisted usurper who is in league with demonic forces beyond this world. The Lord Chancellor hires Dillon and Creed to enter an ancient death-maze known as the Blagdasen Citadel and there retrieve the Golden Bell, an artifact that will hopefully reunite the divided land and bring back peace. It’s a noble undertaking, but accomplishing it proves to be the most daring, dangerous and fool hardy mission Dillon has ever undertaken. Accompanied by the cantankerous Creed, a lovely Xoniran agent named Dagna Summers and Brandon, a specially gifted young man, Dillon sets out to do the impossible.

Believe me when I say Ferguson is a master pulp writer and he lays on the action thick and heavy from page to page. It is a break-neck pace that never slows down from rocket-pack raiders in Manhattan, advanced dirigible warships soaring over foreign lands, to a genetically altered female assassin. He dishes out the jaw-dropping wonders with every new chapter. There’s more action and thrills in this one book than a half-dozen other pulp thrillers I’ve read of late.

One of the sad truths of the old pulp era was its exclusion of minorities by both color and gender. There simply were no major black or female pulp writers, if any at all. Now Derrick Ferguson is among an elite group setting the ship alright, and he does so with a genuine flair and love of the genre. Dillon is part Indiana Jones, part James Bond and a whole lot of Imaro. And one of my personal favorite pulp heroes. He should be one of yours too.

HOUSE DICK

2010-05-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

HOUSE DICK
By E. Howard Hunt
Hard Case Crime
206 pages

Long before professional spy, E.Howard Hunt became famous as a member of Richard Nixon’s “plumbers,” he was a talented writer known for his mysteries and thrillers written under various pseudonyms. In 1946 he won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his writing. Hunt was one of the architects of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Castro’s communist Cuba and after that debacle, he and many of his colleagues, were relegated to minor desk jobs in the intelligence community.

He later went to work for President Nixon as a security specialist and along with G.Gordon Liddy and others, was one of a secret team charged with fixing “leaks.” Hunt engineered the first Watergate burglary and in the follow up Watergate Scandal, was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison.

HOUSE DICK was published in 1961 under the pen name Gordon Davis and is set in a fancy Washington D.C. hotel (no, not that one). When a rich woman’s jewels are stolen, it becomes Pete Novak’s job to handle the affair. Novak is the hotel’s security manager. When the woman’s husband convinces him there was no burglary and then later turns up dead in the room of occupied by his mistress, matters quickly spiral out of control. The case turns out to be a whole lot more complicated than Novak expected.

Add to the mix a blond femme fatale up her beautiful lips in blackmail, a violent mobster ex-husband just out of prison and wanting his cut and soon things at the Tilden Hotel are really jumping. Yet Novak manages to keep one step ahead of events, as he manipulates both the police and the suspects until he can solve the mystery and return his life to a comfortable status quo. Although not an exceptional work, HOUSE DICK is a competent example of the paperback thrillers that flooded the drugstore spin racks of the 1960s. It remains an entertaining read from a writer whose real life exploits were far more interesting than any of his fiction.

THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER

2010-05-19T11:21:00.001-07:00

THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER
By Carol McCleary
Forge Books
364 pages

Nellie Bly was the pen name of pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She is most famous for two daring feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne, and an expose in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. Now, firs-time novelist, Carol McCleary, using these two historical events as bookends, weaves a remarkable suspense thriller wherein Nellie crosses the globe in search of a sadistic killer.

The adventure begins in Blackwell Island’s Lunatic Asylum where the intrepid reporter crosses path with Dr.Blum, a monster who murders several of the female patients in his private laboratory as part of some twisted anatomical experiments. Before Nellie can expose him, he fakes his own death and flees to England with the determined journalist hot on his trail. In London he resurfaces publicly earning the name, Jack the Ripper. More than ever Nellie is obsessed with seeing him captured and brought to justice.

Alas the elusive fiend escapes again; this time to Paris, the City of Lights, then in the midst of the grand 1889 World’s Fair. Aware of her own vulnerability in this strange setting, Nellie convinces the famous writer Jules Verne to join the hunt. Soon they are racing to and fro across the great metropolitan city coming in contact with such illustrious figures as Oscar Wilde, Toulouse Lautrec and Louis Pasteur. The duo’s efforts ultimately reveal a grander evil behind the mad killer’s goals, one that will set loose a deadly biological plague capable of wiping out the entire population of the city before spreading throughout the world.

McLeary’s research is impeccable and she marvelously captures atmosphere and mores of the times as the Industrial Revolution was rapidly igniting a class struggle throughout the world. Anarchist of every flag were all too ready to blow things up. It was also a time when the role of women in society had begun to evolve with women like Nellie setting the course. Yet the joy in this depiction is that McLeary doesn’t fall to the temptation of making the feisty reporter a larger-than-life feminist amazon. Instead she brings forth a winning, loveable soul eager to explore all that life has to offer. Her Nellie is both a daring pioneer and at the same time a true product of her times and upbringing. It is this tough-sweetness that comes through and makes THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER a very gratifying experience in so many different ways.

THE BIG BANG

2010-05-02T10:01:00.001-07:00

THE BIG BANG
A Mike Hammer novel
By Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
An Otto Penzler Book
246 pages

The cover tag to this book reads, “The Lost Mike Hammer Sixties Novel.” It’s an appropriate definition as The Big Bang is set smack dab in the middle of that rocking decade when free love ruled, hippies and peaceniks protested the Vietnam War and the British musical invasion was on thanks to the Beatles.

There was also another war raging on the streets of our of country, one we could not afford to lose. Illegal drugs, spurred by the open door attitudes that made marijuana harmless and LSD the “cool” way to trip, were flooding the mean streets and an epidemic of lost souls was in the making. Into this tsunami of heroine and cocaine, private eye Mike Hammer innocently stumbles when he comes to rescue of an unarmed young man being assaulted by three dope-heads. Hammer leaves two dead and the third in serious condition, much to the chagrin of his pal, Detective Captain Pat Chambers and the new Assistant D.A. Hammer’s reputation is a liability, as the second he becomes involved with anything, a violent bloodbath of some kind always ensues.

Hammer discovers the boy he saved, Billy Blue, worked part time at a local hospital and the thugs who attacked him did so because he refused to steal drugs for them from that facility’s pharmacy supplies. That in itself is nothing extraordinary, still Hammer has a nose for trouble even when it buries itself under such minor misdemeanors. In this case the rash attack on Billy was instigated because, for some unknown reason, the illegal drug market on the streets had dried up and pushers and junkies were getting frantic to score their next fix.

All of which exposes a turf war in progress between the head of an old Mafia clan and a young, hippie club owner called the Snowbird, each vying to control the lucrative drug trade. It doesn’t take Hammer’s nosing around very long to attract attention and soon assailants are coming after him with knives and silenced automatics. Which is exactly how the tough guy works, stirring up a ruckus to see what shakes loose.

Spillane’s writing was always infused with a brash humor filled with sexual innuendos and the more he wrote, the more prevalent it became. It was his literary version of the magician’s sleight of hand; get the audience to focus on one hand while the other performs the hat trick. His protégé, Collins, deftly adapts this style so that the transition between them is unnoticeable and delivers another marvelous Hammer tale. The end was both expected and satisfying as it remained true to the character. Mike Hammer isn’t a social worker, he’s an exterminator with a talent for dealing with human vermin. It’s fun to see him in action again.

HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD

2010-04-18T19:00:00.001-07:00

HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD
Edited by Russ Anderson Jr.
Pulpwork Press
152 pages

There have been those critics who have been lamenting the supposed death of the “short story” in American literature. I would argue their alarm is a bit premature, as lately short pulp fiction (i.e. popular fiction of all genres) has not only been surviving quite well, but with books like this one, actual been getting strong. Gathered here are nine fun, extremely well written tales of the Wild West, all with a touch of the macabre. Some are better than others, but the fun of any anthology is that very potential inherent in multiple writers and their varied offering.

“Camazotz” by Josh Reynolds suffers a fatal flaw in that it’s too short and one wonders why it was even included. It’s a nifty idea of a cowboy trying to get out of Mexico with an Aztec mummy. Unfortunately no sooner does it get going then it’s over. Makes me wish the editor would have pestered Reynolds to expand it to a more satisfying length.

“Wyrm Over Diablo” by Joel Jenkins features a colorful pair of heroes that were so much fun to see in action, I’m hoping he had plans to use them again in the future. This was a non-stop action piece pitting a Native American gunfighter against a Cthulhu type monster that was thrilling stuff.

“Don Cuevo’s Curative” by Thomas Deja is my favorite. Deja’s tale of a spooky, thoughtful exorcist who is hired by a town to save a young possessed farm boy was skillfully laid out with intriguing, sympathetic characters. Deja’s style is laconic in that it doesn’t rush the story, pacing it carefully to a very rewarding finale. He’s a writer worth watching.

“The Town With No Name,” by Mike McGee is a comedic entry that never takes itself seriously. An emotional scarred outlaw is recruited to be the sacrificial lamb to the Devil on behalf of a dusty town of lost souls. How he accepts his role in their grand scheme and confronts Lucifer is reminiscent of the finer O’Henry tales.

“Sins Of The Past,” by Barry Reese features a 2oth Century masked avenger traveling back into time to put to rest a trouble spirit that is the cause behind a genuine “ghost town.”

“You Need To Know What’s Coming,” by Ian Mileham is easily the most frightening story in the collection, with a really creepy ending.

“Of All The Plague A Lover Bears,” by Derrick Ferguson not only has the most original title, it also presents the pulpiest tale in which a mystic gunslinger is hired to clean out a town full of flesh-eating zombies. This is the kind of gem I read anthologies for.

The book has two remaining stories, but quite honestly, neither belongs here. One features asteroid miners in space and the other about a small town handy man who meets the Devil on Halloween eve. They are both well written and enjoyable, but I take umbrage that when you set a theme for an anthology, stick to it. Just because the space cowboy wears a Stetson does not make it a “western”. Likewise the other tale, whose setting has no distinctiveness, could easily have taken place in the woods of Maine. Which is why I cry foul. Neither of these is a real “western.”

That said, HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD, is a grand collection that is extremely entertaining and worth your support. In fact, I’m hoping it does well enough to warrant another volume. These are too much fun to end with just one outing.

RECKLESS

2010-04-13T11:09:00.001-07:00

RECKLESS
By Andrew Gross
William Morrow
416 pages
Available April 23rd

A gripping suspense novel deftly plotted so as to move along at an easy exhilarating pace that never once feels contrived. Each scene seems perfectly set in sequence so that the plot falls together like a series of well lined-up dominoes. All too often, lesser writers are forced to invent outlandish events to justify their heroes’ brilliant deductions. It’s what separates the master scribes from the wannabes, that ability to lay out a plot that unfolds naturally. The pieces fit perfectly, thus allowing the reader to enter the scenario and become invested with the protagonists.

Ty Hauck is a respected ex-detective working as an investigative manager for a prestigious global security outfit. When a former lover, April Glassman, is brutally murdered along with her husband and oldest daughter in a supposedly botched home robbery, Hauck gets involved. His cop instincts telling him it was more than a home invasion gone sour. April’s husband was the chief equities trader for a large Manhattan investment bank and several days after his murder, auditors learn that he leveraged the firm beyond its assets. When it collapses, it sends catastrophic ripples throughout the economic community. Then, within days of these events, a second big money trader commits suicide and once again another reputable institution is brought down. Savvy cops have an aversion to coincidences and Hauck is no exception. He begins to suspect there is a connection between these two untimely deaths and continues his probing until he finds himself the target of a sadistic ex-Army Ranger sent to terminate his investigation.

All the while, in Washington D.C. a low level Treasury Agent named Naomi Blum is discovering similar threads that connect the two dead Walls Street brokers. She begins to suspect they were mere pawns in a larger conspiracy to topple to the U.S. Economy. When she learns of an ex-cop who has gotten himself embroiled in the affair, Blum travels to New York and arranges a secret meeting with Hauck. Once they realize their cases are intertwined, they agree to join forces in unraveling the plot and following it back to its sources.

Soon they are in Serbia tracking down a fugitive war criminal, all too aware that their own lives are also at risk with every move they make. Gross balances wonderful characterization with taut action sequences that are both exciting and credible. Ty Hauck is no James Bond, he’s just a good man looking for the truth while possessing the moral courage to find it no matter where the trail leads, even to the highest offices of the U.S. Government. RECKLESS is an intricately plotted, top-notch thriller and with it Gross easily steps to the head of the class in this already crowded school.

ODD HOURS

2010-03-30T08:03:00.001-07:00

ODD HOURS
By Dean Koontz
Bantam Books
397 pages

Lest you think book reviewers live isolated lives untouched by the normal ups and downs of daily life, then you should be aware that the simple act of reading can often times be a complicated affair requiring well thought out choices. Case in point, in the past few weeks I’ve been dealing with lower back pain; most likely a bruised disc. At the same time my mother-in-law, who lives with us, has been suffering ill health brought on by bronchitis which in turn led to congestive heart failure and in the past two weeks has been in and out of the hospital four times, three by ambulance. Even as I write these words, she is a patient there. All because her flu/bronchitis forced a change in her routine meds which now is unbalanced and causing her undue lethargic collapse. And there’s not a thing we can do until the medical folks re-calibrate what her proper med-cocktail should be now.

Why do you need to know all this? Only because I had not planned to read this particular book next after finishing Ronnie Seagreen’s SEVENTH DAUGHTER. Sitting on atop my to-read-and-review stack was a publisher’s advance reading copy of a new book by Andrew Gross. So when my mother-in-law collapsed the other night, for the second time in four days and my wife was calling 9-1-1 and all of us were gearing up for our next trip to the hospital and emergency room, I realized I needed to bring a “fast” book with me, one that would help me wile away long hours of waiting. What’s a “fast” book as opposed to a “slow” book? Easy answer. We all have writers we enjoy and have read over and over. Enough so that we know that they do, on most occasions, entertain us, whereas new writers pose a mystery that cannot be unraveled until we’ve allotted them time to get to know them.

Whereas I have never read any of Gross’ work, I was not about to drag it along with me on the chance it would be a good read. If it were not, then I’d be trapped in that hospital lobby, watching time slowly crawl along with a book I did not enjoy. Not why any of us read. So, preparing to dash out the door once the ambulance had rolled away, I opted to grab a book from a writer whose past work has entertained consistently, thus making it a “fast” read. One that would take my mind off a less than pleasant time in our lives. And thus I picked up ODD HOURS. Note the irony of the title itself because dear readers, there are no odder hours spent in this world than in a hospital waiting room. Now on to our regularly scheduled review.

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ODD HOURS is Koontz’s fourth thriller starring his psychic hero, Odd Thomas. He was to be named Todd, but a misprint on his birth certificate left him with a unique name to match his unique talents. Odd can see the dead, or those who still linger for whatever reasons beyond this world and the next. He can also sense future events but only those that portent some catastrophic destruction.
As this particular episode in Odd’s life opens, he’s living on the California coast, in a small hamlet as the live-in housekeeper to a retired Hollywood actor. It’s a good job and considering the experiences he has endured and survived in his previous adventures, Odd is more than satisfied with the ho-humdrums of life. Sadly the cosmos is not about to let him have too much R & R and all too quickly Odd is neck deep into another life-or-death adventure.

He has a dream involving a nuclear disaster and soon learns this vision is tied to several men employed by the town’s harbor authority. Then, upon meeting a mysterious young pregnant woman on the public docks, Odd is set upon by a trio of thugs who somehow recognize him as a threat to their evil plans, whatever those might be. Odd is running for his life, attempting to elude these merciless killer while at the same time uncovering whatever their evil plot is.

Along the way, as is always the case with Odd’s exploits, and Koontz’s writing, he stumbles on an eccentric assortment of colorful characters who serendipitously come to his rescue like the proverbial cavalry; just in the nick of time. Among these are young woman horribly disfigured by her drunken father, a kind widow who drives around the fog-shrouded streets at all hours of the night looking souls in need of help and the ghost of Frank Sinatra. That last one provides several memorable scenes that are some of the funniest Koontz’s has ever invented.

All in all, you know Odd is going to somehow manage to save the day and good will triumph, but the ride to that finale is a treat, one to relish. ODD HOURS, like most of Koontz’s work, is the literal equivalency of comfort food. It never fails to satisfy.

SEVENTH DAUGHTER

2010-03-24T08:09:00.001-07:00

SEVENTH DAUGHTER
By Ronnie Seagreen
Flying Pen Press
301 pages

Some people are destined from birth to do great things. Gil Orlov is born at the zenith of a full solar eclipse, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. She is the end goal of a carefully planned genealogy begun by her predecessors hundreds of years earlier, all women of remarkable psychic abilities. Through this family history a prophecy has evolved which predicts the end of civilization will occur in the mid-twentieth century unless a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter can forestall it.

In 1937 Gil is a college student ready to begin her monumental journey to a holy site high in the Peruvian Andes known as Killichaka, the Bridge to the Moon. She and her six older sisters must be must find an ancient ruins and there perform a holy ritual at the height of yet another eclipse. If completed, Gil will be gifted with amazing powers which will allow her to manipulate world events and prevent the global disaster her ancestors have warned of. Since childhood she has had horrible visions of a world consumed in nuclear fire and with the advent of another world war, Gill is convinced those visions vindicate the family prophecy.

What Gil and her sisters are unaware of is that they are being shadowed by someone with an all-consuming hatred for their family; an abandoned eight daughter. Gamella is Gil’s identical twin, born only minutes after her sister. Her surprise birth set into motion a deep dark secret that now threatens to unravel Gil’s mission and bring about chaos and destruction.

Amidst this frantic race for Killichaka between the two groups arises a third and crucial figure, Gil’s former economics professor, Galen Williams. To complete the sacred ritual, a guardian is needed to protect the candidate of power and Gil, before leaving the campus, invites Galen to assume that role without being completely forthcoming with him about her mission. When he finds himself alone and lost in Lima, he is easily duped and recruited by the evil Gamella, believing her to be Gil. She sets about seducing him with offers of wealth and power if he will assist her in becoming the ritual candidate.

SEVENTH DAUGHTER is one of the most original and mesmerizing adventure plots to come along in a long-long time. Ronnie Seagreen spins her story with the perfect balance of action and characterization. No easy task with such a large cast, but she does so effortlessly and all of Gil’s sisters come to life with their own distinct personalities and traits. She is also to be applauded for her brilliant, authentic depiction of the locales so that the reader is pulled along with every hard breath and body ache required to survive in such a harsh, high altitude world. The book’s final quarter had me turning pages frantically wanting to keep up with the action, it culminating in a rewarding and powerful climax that will leave you as drained as the characters.

This is a brilliant first novel by a writer of tremendous talent not to be missed. Move over Clive Cussler, Ronnie Seagreen has arrived.

THE BOOK OF LIES

2010-03-12T11:08:00.000-08:00

THE BOOK OF LIES
By Brad Meltzer
Grand Central Publishing
432 pages

With what weapon did Cain murder his brother Abel? The first crime, as described in the bible strangely omits that particular detail, focusing instead on the moral outrage of the act itself. Could that unknown instrument still exist today? If so, it would easily become one of the most sought after prizes of the archeological community, not counting fanatical religious groups who would most likely imbue the object with arcane properties. This is only the first of writer Brad Meltzer’s outrageous plot lines in this convoluted thriller. The second is no less fantastic.

Calvin Harper works for homeless shelters in Ft.Lauderdale Beach, Florida. He and his partner, an ex-black minister, drive around the community picking up society’s forgotten souls and doing whatever they can to make their lives a little better. One night, in response to a police call, they find a man covered in blood from a gun shot wound, in a deserted park. That man is Cal’s father, Lloyd, whom he hadn’t seen in over ten years. Lloyd had been imprisoned for manslaughter, having accidentally killed Cal’s mother when Cal was only nine.

Which is where this pretzel of a plot twists again. It seems the bullet that wounded Lloyd Harper came from the same gun that in 1932 killed a Cleveland tailor named Mitchell Siegel. It was Siegel’s son, Jerry, who a few years later would create, with the help of his artist pal, Joe Schuster, the greatest comic book icon of all time, Superman. Once the details of this earlier crime, which was never solved, begin to surface, Cal finds himself lost in an historical maze of seemingly unrelated events.

Did someone actually discover Cain’s weapon? Did that same person kill Jerry Seigel’s father in 1932 and why are they now trying to eliminate Cal’s father? Like all decent thrillers, no sooner is Cal embroiled in this phenomenal mystery then he becomes a target of a psychotic killer working for an ancient occult secret society. From Florida to Cleveland, the Harpers race frantically attempting to solve the riddle at the same staying alive in the process.

THE BOOK OF LIES is a captivating flight of fancy that offers up wonderful moments of acute emotional insights into why we need heroes in an imperfect world. If you’ve ever picked up a comic as a kid and wondered what if, this book will pluck long lost musical notes in the attic of your memories. Give it a try, you might uncover something you’d thought gone forever.