KILL NOW, PAY LATER

KILL NOW, PAY LATER
by Robert Terrall
Hard Case Crime
220 pages

Back in the early late 1950s, my Uncle Ray use to go through books like this one as if he were eating salted peanuts. Many was the night, after dinner, that I’d race across the back yard to his house to hook up with my cousin, David, to see if he was up to a game of baseball or football in the neighborhood field depending on what season it was. I’d find Aunt Winnie in the kitchen cleaning up the dishes, while in the living room there would be Uncle Ray, a Navy Yard welder, stretched out on his favorite sofa, in his stocking feet, the black and white television on and a cheap, Gold Medal mystery novel in his hands. Ray could both read through one of those gaudy covered thrillers in one evening, at the same time be tuned in to the evening broadcasts. The guy simply amazed me.

And so did those wonderful paperbacks. Of the army of tough-guy private eyes to grace the pages of those drugstore rack thrillers, Robert Terrall’s Ben Gates was one of the finest. Gates, like many of his counterparts, was a New York City based gumshoe with fast fists for the bad guys and charm aplenty for the sexy ladies, of which there were many. KILL NOW, PAY LATER is typical of his cases, wherein he’s hired by an insurance company to protect the wedding gifts of a wealthy Long Island socialite. A simple enough case until somebody spikes the coffee he’s drinking and by the time he comes to, someone has been scared to death during an abortive robbery and the perpetrator gunned down.

It all seems like a very open and shut case. Unfortunately it also makes Gates look like an incompetent accomplice. Knowing the only way to clear his name, and reputation, is to unravel the caper on his own, very much to the ire of the State Tropper Captain in charge. Along the way, our witty, cigar-smoking shamus tangles with no less than four stunning, sexy beauties all with various motives. The only thing they have in common is getting him in bed. Even though Terrall was excellent at creating a light, satirical atmosphere to his mysteries, Gates is very much a real detective and by the end of the book his efforts expose a poignant, family tragedy.

All in all a dandy pulp mystery Uncle Ray would have enjoyed immensely. In fact, considering he read hundreds of these, he probably actually did. I hope you will too.

DARK DELICACIES

DARK DELICACIES
Edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelb
Ace Horror
339 pages

Often times while at conventions chatting with my colleagues, one of the topics that seems to reoccur frequently is the death of short fiction in American literature. Oh, I know, you can all make an argument for this or that foundation or magazine that still promotes the art of short story writing. But if you are brutally honest, you will also concede that these are mere oasis in a vast desert where the format is all but forgotten and extinct.

Except for one particular genre; horror. The field of short horror fiction is as vibrant and alive today as when I first discovered it as a teenager in high school with my introduction to the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is without a doubt the founding root of American short fiction, and that the one genre he so excelled in, that of the horrifying, thrives today says something for our national psyche as a whole. Without going into all the psychological underpinnings of why we like to be frightened, the truth remains that all of us, at one time or another in our lives nurture a dark desire to peek into the black bedroom closet, almost wishing to find a lurking monster within. Today’s horror writers serve that primal need by offering up the monsters our imaginations crave.

That said, the strength and weakness of any anthology is always going to be its diversity. DARK DELICACIES, we are told in the preface, came about because there is an actual bookstore with that name located somewhere in Southern California and it caters to horror fiction. Thus did one of the owners and a fellow writer come up with the idea of producing a yearly anthology series showcasing today’s premier writers of the macabre. With this first volume, they hit a bulls-eye in winning the prestigious Bram Stoke Award.

On the whole, DARK DELICACIES does deliver its promise to put forth the scariest tales ever. Some of course miss the mark by very little while others sadly don’t even belong in this collection. But again, with a mixed bag, that is always to be expected. Ray Bradbury’s entry is a token affair. Had his little noir romance been submitted by an unknown, it would most likely have been rejected on the spot.

My favorites are Nancy Holder’s OUT TWELVE-STEPPIN’, SUMMER OF AA, about two rock stars in L.A. who happen to be cannibals and are trying to quit. It’s both chilling and funny as hell. Likewise John Farris’ BLOODY MARY MORNING which delivers a wonderful, twisted finale. The most haunting, and justifiably so, is THE DIVING GIRL by the recently deceased Richard Laymon. Laymon was a truly unique voice in the world of horror fiction and reading this touching story, I was once again reminded of how much he will be missed.

Other notables worthy of your attention are; HAECKEL’S TALE by Clive Barker, THE PYRE AND OTHERS by David J. Schow, BLACK MILL COVE by Lisa Morton and THE BANDIT OF SANITY by Roberta Lannes.

There are a few other so-so pieces. Finally, since I’ve applauded the best in this gathering, it is only fair I skewer the worst. That honor goes to KADDISH by Whitley Streiber. His story is a distasteful anti-religion piece of science fiction extrapolation on what would happen if the Christian Right were to control the country. One of the tenets of true Christianity is that all people are allowed to live their own lives and make their own religious choices. Maybe Streiber has never met a real Christian before. His vision is sophomoric at best, hateful at worst. Too bad it had to be included in this otherwise stellar collection.

Pick up DARK DELICACIES, wait for a lonely, foggy night and sit back and enjoy, But keep one eye on those shadows in the corner. They seem to be moving, don’t they?

FRIGHT

FRIGHT
by Cornell Woolrich
Hard Case Crime
254 pages

Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was born in 1903 and died in 1968. During his life he wrote twenty-seven novels, the last, INTO THE NIGHT, was unfinished at his death and completed by Lawrence Block. So successful were his novels and short stories that twenty-five features were made based on them to include Francois Truffaut’s THE BRIDE WORE BLACK and Alfred Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW.

Cornell’s work was the essence of noir drama, centered around the psychological traumas suffered by his characters. FRIGHT, originally published in 1950, under his George Hopley pseudonym, is a prime example of this kind of gripping thriller.

Set in the early 1900s, a young business man, Prescott Marshall, is about to marry the girl of his dreams; a young socialite named Marjorie Worth. A few weeks before the wedding, Marshall goes out on the two with several of his pals and ends up having a dalliance with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. When the girl comes to him several days later and asks for money to keep her silence about their tryst, he is more angry with himself for having let down his moral guard, then he is with the bimbo. He pays her and thinks that’s the end of it, but alas he soon learns otherwise.

On the morning of his wedding, the blonde shows up and demands an even larger sum. This time she threatens to disrupt the wedding and tell Majorie the entire sordid tale. Pushed to his limit, Marshall strangles the girl in a fit of passion and hides the body in his closet. He somehow manages to go through with the wedding, but all the while his mind is caught up in a merry-go-round of fevered terror he cannot escape.

Woolrich’s genius is taking us into Marshall’s fragile mind and watching as every single event in his life from that point onward becomes a threat to him. He convinces Marjorie, after their honeymoon, to flee New York and go live in the Midwest. Yet he’s not safe from his paranoia even there. For as any psychologist would understand, the one person Prescott Marshall cannot ever elude is himself. His spiraling descent into madness and ultimately other murders is an amazing tour-de-force that held me until the very last, astonishing page. Woolrich had a gift for language that is all too rare in modern writers and he employs it throughout this novel with an artist’s deftness.

FRIGHT is one book I will not soon forget. Lastly, a big tip of the fedora to cover artist, Arthur Suydam. This is one of his best efforts to date and a fitting companion to this terrific Woolrich classic.

ARMOR

ARMOR
by John Steakley
Daw Books
426 pages

I have an affinity for science fiction military novels. Two years ago a friend of mine urged me to find a book he had read long ago called ARMOR. He ranted and raved about how brutal was its depiction of warfare and how much the book had awed him. Considering it was well over ten years since he’d read it, I was willing to accept his recommendation. For a book to having such a lasting effect suggested it was truly something special. Two weeks ago, while browsing a mall bookstore, I found ARMOR. It is copyright 1984. I have no clue what printing this paperback is, and I don’t really care. I’m just damn happy it is still being reissued.

ARMOR tells the story of a mysterious man named Felix who joints the Fleet Navy to escape a painful past. During basic training, he is found to have unique warrior skills, ala a remarkable adaptability to combat situations and an incredible, almost superhuman will to live. Felix is made a Scout and given the standard, fully armored battle suit, complete with the latest computer controlled technology to provide him with the most up impressive firepower of any soldier in the known universe.

He and his fellow warriors are going to need all of that weaponry. Mankind has gone to war with an alien race so lethal, they engender fear even by the mention of their earthly description, Ants. On a savagely hostile desert world, where the air is poisonous and rivers of acid flow, millions of these huge, four-armed killing machines breed every single day with one hive-like goal, the complete destruction of the human race. This nightmarish planet is called Banshee and that is where Felix and thousands of his comrades are deployed.

From the start Navy intelligence gives proof to its own oxymoronic nature as Felix and his group arrive dead center in midst of a swarming ant pile. Thousands upon thousands of ants, their pincer-like hands clawing and cutting through the plastisteel of Fleet armor and gutting into soft human flesh beneath. But Felix isn’t one of these terrified victims. Somehow the essence of the suit comes alive at the moment of contact and suddenly he finds himself being controlled by a powerful killing-frenzy he later identifies as the Engine. It will not allow him to die. Felix kills everything in his path, breaks through the ant-swarm and escapes…to fight another day. And another day, again, and again, and again.

Who is Felix really? What secrets lie in his past life and how has he become the only soldier able to merge with his battle suit and become the Engine? This book has been rightly hailed as a classic by sci-fi literary critics and I add my voice to theirs. If you have ever wondered at the nature of the beast that resides in all things under nature’s skies, then ARMOR will raise some uncomfortable issues. Just keep telling yourself it’s only a book. I did. And a damn good one at that.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

The Book of the Dead
by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Warner Books
597 pages

I make no bones about the fact that after reading THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, I became an immediate fan of this series. If there is a more traditional classic pulp hero than Special Agent Pendergast, I’ve yet to encounter him. Whereas Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt gets my vote for being a modern Doc Savage, Pendergast is the heir apparent to both the Shadow and Mandrake the Magician. What else can you say about a thin, gaunt F.B.I. agent who is rich, a genius and can time travel in his mind. That latter ability a trick he picked up in an ancient Tibetan monastery. See, I told you he was pulp eccentric. And of course he is the penultimate good guy.

Special Agent Pendergast first appeared in this team’s first work together, THE RELIC, but it wasn’t until THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES that he took center stage and instantly captivated a readership hungry for this kind of literary action. That was followed up with the equally brilliant STILL LIFE WITH CROWS. Then came BRIMSTONE, and we Pendergast fans were shocked to discover the super agent did indeed have a deadly nemesis his equal in all things; his own younger brother, the twisted Diogenes Pendergast.

BRIMSTONE, much to our delight, was in fact the first book in a Diogenes trilogy that was quickly followed by THE DANCE OF DEATH. Here, for the second time in so many months, Pendergast, aided by his good friend, police Lieutenant Vincent D’Agosta, barely managed to foil Diogenes latest sinister plot. But Diogenes, in his own brilliant way, had outwitted our hero and in the book’s startling finale, successfully framed Pendergast for a series of murders he himself had committed. Thus the cliffhanger ending found our stalwart hero locked up in a maximum security federal prison while the psychotic Diogenes was still at large and planning his most evil crime yet. This last year, awaiting the release of THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, has been rough.

So, here it is, the final chapter. It is a winner from the opening page to the last, propelling the reader on a high speed roller coaster ride of wild, imaginative suspense and thrills. Diogenes, in a clever disguise, has made himself a staff member of the New York Museum of Natural History. It is here he plans a heinous mass murder the likes of which this city has never seen. Meanwhile, D’Agosta, along with the help of wheelchair bound computer wunderkind, Eli Glinn, orchestrates a fantastic, complex prison break that will free Pendergast; hopefully in time to thwart his insane brother. This chapter in the series also provided, for the first time, an intimate look back into Pendergast’s past, something Preston and Child have skillfully withheld up until now. The revelations in this section are powerful and add much to the character’s layered, and unique personality.

Granted, most books should stand on their own, and in that regard THE BOOK OF THE DEAD will clearly confuse any new readers who have not read the previous two volumes. If, on the other hand, you make the effort to hunt them up and read them all, I guarantee you a truly exciting reading experience. There are just too few thrillers these days that are this much fun. Here’s hoping Special Agent Pendergast is around for a long, long time.

THE ACCIDENTAL TIME MACHINE

The Accidental Time Machine
by Joe Haldeman
Ace Books
276 pages

Ever since H.G.Wells set forth the idea of traveling through time, dozens of writers have found the challenge of playing with time irresistible. This includes followers of both hard science fiction like Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein and practitioners of the not-so hard sci-fi, poet scribes ala Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson among these. Hugo Award winner Joe Haldeman’s work is clearly of the former camp.

Matt Fuller is a research assistant at MIT who discovers the calibrator machine he is working on has somehow become a time machine that leaps into the future every time he presses the ON button. At first, it is only gone for a few seconds, but Fuller begins to calculate that with each jump, the machine expands it reach by a factor of twelve. Keeping the discovery to himself, he then manages to connect the small calibrator time machine box to an automobile. This allows him to jump into the future with the next push of the button. So begins Matt Fuller’s adventure and ours.

Thankfully Haldeman then sets the spotlight on the socio-economic goings on of future America rather then getting too involved with the technical requirements for a real time machine. He does cover the usual paradoxes inherent with messing with history, but it is his deft eye on the evolution of social mores that is the fun of this book. He imagines first a world where right wing Christian fundamentalist have taken control of a ravaged country and set about building a society the Amish would find stifling. When Matt jumps again, he finds himself on the west coast where interaction between people is limited strictly to the internet and Los Angeles is operated by a sentient computer who appears as an attractive woman, sort of an electronic between an all knowing mother-hen and a guardian angel.

The book is breezy, fun and yes, thought provoking. I think H.G. Wells would have enjoyed it as much as I did.

DEADLY BELOVED

Deadly Beloved
A Ms.Tree Novel
by Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime
194 pages
(Available 27 Nov.)

Back in the heyday of independent comics, writer Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beaty created one of the most memorable characters to ever grace the pages of graphic literature; Private Eye Ms.Tree. The sexy brunette with the page boy cut and the square shouldered blue trenchcoat stuck around for fifteen years, moving from publisher to publisher as she delivered some of the best, slam-bang action mystery stories ever produced for any media. The barrel of her .45 was always hot as this dame had no qualms about giving the bad guys a lead send-off when the situated warranted. Which was quite often, much to our satisfaction. She was no Agatha Christie type puzzle-solver, although Michael Tree (her dad wanted a boy) was sharp as any tack on the board. She preferred to play in the tough-guys’ sandbox and the lady was every bit their equal in the wit and bravado departments.

At the time, we fans knew Collins was also an accomplished mystery writer and dreamed of the day when he would give us an honest-to-goodness Ms. Tree novel. That day has come, thanks in large part to publisher/editor Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime. This is the book all of us clamored for and now that it’s here, it delivers on all cylinders.

The wife of a well known accountant catches her husband in bed with a hooker and blows them both to kingdom come. What should be an open and shut case is anything but to the homicide detective Lt. Valer. Everything about the crime is too set-up, too convenient. Through the woman’s lawyer, Ms. Tree is brought into the case. Valer believes the mob has recruited a murder specialist who covers up his hits by duping others into carry them. The idea of such a nefarious puppeteer seems outlandish, until Ms. Tree learns her client suffers from schizophrenia and that someone had switched her medication which kept her rational, with placebos.

And if that wasn’t enough to get the plot rolling, Valer then suggest the murder of her own husband, ex-cop Michael Tree, a year earlier on their wedding day, may have been another of the death planner’s contracts. Soon Tree and her associate, Dan Green, are knee deep in killers and assassins and the body count starts to climb. The hallmark of the Ms. Tree comics was their intensity and rapid fire pacing; DEADLY BELOVED is no exception. Collins also earns his mystery stripes as he plays fair and peppers his tale with more than enough clues for the astute reader to figure who done it. He also manages to provide a clever hat trick at the end that had me grinning like a kid exiting the carnival Fun House.

How many times can you tell the same story? In Collins’ case, there is no limit. The joy of DEADLY BELOVED is that it is very much the origin story of Michael Tree that all of us read and enjoyed so many years ago in the comics. And then again, it is told in an exciting new way that is completely accessible to the first time reader unaware of the character’s history. That is nothing short of brilliant. DEALY BELOVED is by far the best mystery I’ve read this year. Collins states, in his informative afterward, that future Ms. Tree novels with depend in large part to the reception of this first book. Max, please consider this a huge thumbs up and a heartfelt plea for more.

THE LAST LEGION

The Last Legion
by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Washington Square Press
429 pages

Some times you just get lucky. Which is what happened to me a few weeks ago when I received an e-mail promotion from Barnes & Noble on-line that they were having an inventory clearing sale. Several hundred titles were marked down to ridiculously low prices, in some cases with savings of 80% or more. If you love reading as I do, then there is no way you are going to pass this up. I bought five books from them, four of which were by writers I was unfamiliar with.

I chose THE LAST LEGION because of the cover and the book’s write-up. It clearly appeared to be a sword and sandal adventure and I do like these, if they are well done. The writer was an Italian historian and the text was translated into English. I decided to take a gamble and am so happy I did.

The Roman Empire is crumbling and the barbarian hordes have conquered most their once proud civilization. As the book opens, the barbarian Chief, Odoacer, sends his war captain, the vicious Wulfila, to murder the last regent of Rome and kidnap his thirteen year old son, Romulus, the rightful emperor. Wulfila not only accomplishes this assignment, but his troops also massacre the last true Roman Legion that has been secretly assembled by Romulus’ father to act as his personal soldiers. A handful of these brave men are spared and sold into slavery, whereas one of them actually escapes and attempts to warn the regent of Odoacer’s treachery. He is Captain Aurelias, a man with a haunted past.

When Aurelias realizes he is too late to save the emperor and his family, he makes a reckless attempt to rescue the young Ceasar and his teacher, a wise man named Ambrosinus, from Wulfila’s clutches. The attempt fails and he is severely wounded making his escape. He then comes in contact with a beautiful Roman refugee warrior woman named Livia. She hides Aurelias, nurses him back to health and together they hatch a daring plan to free the exiled Romulus from his prison on the island of Capris. Aurelias seeks out those comrades from his legion, rescues them from the slavers and offers them the chance to redeem their honor by joining him and Livia on their foolhardy mission.

The Last Legion is extremely fast paced and wonderfully written. Manfredi knows his subject matter inside out and he brings an ancient world to vivid life. The story, once the young emperor is rescued, becomes a thrilling chase through a European landscape on the cusp of the Dark Ages. All of which ends in Brittania, where Manfredi’s real surprise is revealed in the final pages of the book. Ambrosinus is actually Merlin, the druid priest, and Romulus is the first ruler of this new island kingdom, taking the title of Son of the Dragon, or if you will, Pendragon. As the book closes, Ambrosinus tells us Romulus is a good king, he’s wed and has a son. The boy is named Arthur.

Two days after I received THE LAST LEGION in the mail, I was in a local movie house and spotted a poster on the wall with this title. I was stunned. Moving closer, I saw that it indeed was heralding a major Hollywood epic based on this very book. I’ve always enjoyed King Arthur books and movie, so I was thrilled to have found this book even by accident. If the movie is half as good, it should be lots of fun. The book certainly is.

DEAD STREET

Dead Street
by Mickey Spillane
Hard Case Crime
Available 30 Oct.
209 pages

At the time of his death, last year, writer Mickey Spillane left four unfinished manuscripts. Two were Mike Hammer stories, one was an adventure yarn and the fourth was this hard-nose cop thriller. Spillane’s long time friend and protégé, Max Allan Collins assembled and produced the finished book with the use of the late writer’s notes. It is fitting that this truly terrific mystery should be published by Hard Case Crime, a publisher Spillane applauded for recapturing the excitement and fun of the old post-war paperback pulps.

Whenever reviewing such a posthumous effort, the temptation is to spend time praising the life and career of the deceased. I’m going to do my best to avoid that snare, as there are plenty of other, more capable reviewers to do that. But I will add my own personal observations relating to this specific title at the end.

After twenty years on the force, New York City detective, Jack Stang, is retiring and his plans the future are vague. A visit from a stranger turns Stang’s life upside down with the news that the woman he loved and thought dead is still alive. Thus unfolds a bizarre story that Stang, although stunned by its revelations, knows instinctively is gospel. Tweny years earlier, his girlfriend, Bettie, had come across sensitive mob documents in her work for a computer company. For that, the mob attempted to kidnap her. During the ensuing high speed chase with the cops, the van Bettie was in plunged over a bridge into the Hudson river. Although her body was never recovered, it was assumed to have been washed out to sea.

Now Stang learns Bettie is not only alive, but the accident induced both blindness and amnesia. Through the benevolence of the people who rescued her on a New Jersey shore, Bettie was kept safe and out of harms way all these years. Now she has been settled in a retirement community for policemen and fire fighters in the sunny state of Florida. Trouble is the mob has also learned she is among the living and still a threat to their operations. Stang rushes to complex and establishes himself as a friendly neighbor.

We sympathize instantly for at the emotional roller-coaster Stang endures in Bettie’s presence. He can’t come out and reveal their amorous past for fear of frightening her, yet he must find a way to rekindle her memories before it is too late. This is a taut, fast pace thriller with allegories aplenty. Spillane was aware that the book might be his last and he takes advantage of every scene to communicate with his legion of readers what a good and righteous battle is all about. It is a terrific farewell from one hell of a pulp writer.

In THE SHOOTIST, John Wayne’s last movie role was of an aged gunfighter dying of cancer. It was obvious to all that the Duke was playing himself and saying so long to all his fans. Reading through DEAD STREET, I couldn’t help but think Mickey was doing the same thing with the character of Jack Stang. That he ended it with the ex-cop and his lady love reunited and happy was very much his final tip of the fedora to all of us. Rest in peace, tough guy.

CINNAMON KISS

Cinnamon Kiss
An Easy Rawlins Novel
by Walter Mosley
Warner Books
313 pages

The joy of having favorite authors is whenever a new book comes out, you feel as if you are about to get together with old friends. That’s exactly how I feel every time a new Easy Rawlins novel arrives. Walter Mosley has created the best California based private eye series since Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled Philip Marlowe stories. Whereas Easy is more southern fried. He’s a black man born and raised in Texas and ends up in Los Angeles after World War II.

The series, of which this is the tenth book, begins in 1947 and works its way to the mid-60s. The previous entry, LITTLE SCARLET (reviewed here) dealt with the Watts Riots and their aftermath. CINNAMON KISS takes place a few months later when things have started to settle down on the streets.

Easy’s daughter, Flower, has become ill with a rare blood disease. Easy’s lover, Bonnie, a stewardess, informs him of a clinic in Switzerland that can save Flower’s life. But the cost will be far beyond Easy’s current monetary situation. Easy is so desperate to save the child, he contemplates joining his psychotic friend, Alexander “Mouse” Raymond in robbing an armored truck. Luckily for our hero, before he can make that decision, he is offered a case by colleague. There is an eccentric, very famous private detective in San Francisco who requiring the services of a black investigator.

Easy and Saul, the friend who recruited him, fly to the city by the bay and meet the short but flamboyant Robert E. Lee. Lee has been hired by very powerful man to find a lawyer named Axel and his African American secretary, Cinnamon. Axel has come into possession of highly sensitive documents that Mr. Lee’s client want returned to them without any publicity. Axel and the girl have disappeared. His trail has gone cold but Lee has learned that Philomena Cargil, Cinnamon’s real name, is from Los Angeles; the black part of L.A. His needs of a black detective to take over the hunt.

Suspecting Lee to be a racist at heart, Easy is reluctant to take the job, but the money offered is enough to pay for Flower’s trip to the overseas hospital. He really has no choice. And once again Mosley sets us on a journey that is both entertaining and thought provoking. Before returning to his home turf, Easy spends a few days in Frisco and gets a quick schooling in the hippie movement and free love. To say it’s a cultural shock to his core beliefs would be an understatement. Rawlins is not a cynic, but he seen enough of life’s sour side to realizing the movement hasn’t a prayer of permanently altering American mores.

Mosley, like Chandler before him, is a social commentator and whether you agree with his politics or not, he presents them deftly with a writer’s subtle skills weaving them throughout the narrative. By the time Easy finds Cinnamon, he has uncovered a dead body and the reality that his simple case is a lot more complicated than presented to him. The missing papers are Nazis Bearer Bonds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and the reputation of an elite San Francisco family. These are dirty secrets that only cold blooded murder can bury. Easy’s job is to find the missing girl without stopping a bullet first.

CINNAMON KISS delivers much more than you expect from a good mystery. Much, much more. Give yourself a treat and pick it up.

52 The Novel

52
(Based on the DC Comic Series)
by Greg Cox
Ace Books
359 pages

Comic book heroes are by necessity larger than life. The visual identity of the graphic story lends itself to modern myth building as laid out by a particular artist. Whereas a novel will explore the world of the fantastic through the use of pure imagination. For years comic fans have argued the relative value of each element and its importance to the whole. What is more important, the story or the art?

With Greg Cox’s novelization of DC’s mega series, 52, we are given an entirely different interpretation of a once told tale. It is an interpretation I found both insightful and wonderfully entertaining. Having not seen the year long comic series it was based on, I was able to enjoy this book on its merits alone. Thus is my review aimed and not on the comics.

For reasons explained in a previous storyline, the world’s three most famous superheroes, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, have taken a self-imposed leave of absence.
Their sabbatical is public knowledge and the criminal elements of the world seize upon this as a golden opportunity. One such villain, mobster Bruno Mannheim, using stolen alien weapons and black magic, launches a two-fold diabolical scheme. The first is to gain control of Gotham City. The second, more grandiose plot, is to recruit the god-like Arab dictator, Black Adam and turn his country of Kahdaq into a haven for criminals and terrorists. Meanwhile something strange is happening to the very fabric of time that threatens to destroy the universe.

These threats are met and challenged by three very different and unique heroes. Booster Gold, himself a time-traveler from the future, is perfectly suited to take on the enigma plaguing the time continuum. In doing so he encounters a brand new hero calling himself Supernova. At first Booster believes the new mystery man to be an ally, but events soon transpire that lead him to wonder if this new player is really the true menace he is attempting to uncover.

Meanwhile, a former Gotham City detective, Renee Montoya, is recruited, against her wishes, by a faceless entity in a trench coat and fedora known as the Question. It is this noirish truth-seeker who reveals to her Boss Mannheim’s plot to take over the city. No sooner do they begin their attack on the gangster’s beast-men soldiers then they are joined by a startling new fighter in an all too familiar get-up. Enter the beautiful and dangerous Batwoman, who Montoya soon learns is her former lesbian lover, socialite Katherine Kane.

At the same time, over in Kahdaq, Black Adam, a one-time foe of Captain Marvel, is undergoing tremendous psychological changes. He falls in love with a slave girl who is then transformed into the hero, Isis. Then he and Isis save her brother from the same slavers and the boy is transformed into a junior version of Black Adam, calling himself Osiris. For the first time in his immortal existence, Black Adam believes he has found true happiness. But his joy is short-lived when his new family becomes the target of a group of super-villain scientists under Mannheim’s employ.

To his credit, Cox juggles these complex and intertwining plots like so many glass balls, always keeping them moving and spinning at the same time without a single misstep. His handling of each of the many characters in this mega-saga is true to their illustrious backgrounds. He propels the action with an economy of words that I appreciated and what looks like a big book is easily devoured in no time. 52 is a terrific adaptation and stands on its own merits as a powerful tale of good versus evil. In the end, isn’t that what all good superhero adventures are all about?

SENTINELS : A DISTANT STAR

SENTINELS
(A Distant Star)
by Van Allen Plexico
White Rocket Books
311 pages

I generally wait at least a month before I return to a particular series. Whereas I had so much fun reading (& reviewing) the first book in this superhero saga, I decided to forego the usual hiatus and jump right into volume two.

A Distant Star does take up where When Strikes the Warlord left off. Earth’s mightiest heroes, Ultraa, Esro Brachis and Pulsar, are dealing with the aftermaths of their first encounter with the Warlord. The Warlord is a powerful entity from a parallel universe set upon the conquest of our universe. He almost succeeded but for the bravery of the Sentinels in a battle that took the life of one of their members. The team was also left with a sentient robot warrior calling itself Vanadium. Bachis, the genius scientist of the group, is still trying to unravel the mystery of this powerful alien machine man.

Immediately they find themselves in the middle of an Earth-side space war. A race of advanced spacefarers known as the Kur-Bai have come to Earth to save it from utter destruction at the hands of a giant killer robot called Xorex. No sooner has the battle started then Xorex attempts to flee and one of the Kur-Bai soldiers, a beautiful red-skinned fighter named Mondrian, flies in pursuit in Kur-Bai shuttle accompanied by armor wearing Esro Bachis. They are instantly thrown into a wormhole and vanish.

Meanwhile Vanadium, who supposedly is an ally of the Sentinels, found itself completely immobilized at the sight of Xorex. It becomes functional only after the threat has ended, much to the chagrin of Ultraa and Pulsar. And if all these issues weren’t enough to keep our heroes busy, the government agent, Jameson, has secretly begun assembling a new group of metahumans to replace the Sentinels.

A Distant Star is more space opera than superhero adventure and I appreciated the shift. It is also the second part of a trilogy, so I didn’t expect a neat wrap up at the end. Still, there are way too many subplots involving various godlike beings throughout the book that became confusing. Too many enemies, as the movie people discovered, can be a bad idea. The book works best when Esro and Mondrian take center stage as they attempt to escape a fantastic space station upon which they have become trapped. Their interaction and budding romance is humorous and made up for the multiple subplots. Still I’m hoping with book three, Plexico will clean house a bit and eliminates some of those unnecessary plot elements.

It would be difficult to enjoy this volume without having read the first, but again, it is a solid continuation of that mega story and lays the ground work for what looks to be an epoch making climax. Bring it on, Sentinels. I’m ready and waiting.

PURITY OF BLOOD

PURITY OF BLOOD
by Arturo Perez-Reverte
A Plume Book
267 pages

In this day and age there are far too few swashbuckling adventures available. I can remember growing up in the 60s being able to watch old Errol Flynn movies, or read wonderful costume classics like Dumas’s The Three Musketeers or The Man in the Iron Mask and the more modern pirate tales of Raphael Sabbatini. It seemed like the only such costume fiction being produced these days were those sugar-sweet Harlequin Romances. Thus I was overjoyed to discover this novel by Spanish writer, Arturo Perez-Reverte.

It is one of series featuring a master swordsman named Captain Diego Alatriste. This veteran of the Flanders War earns a peacetime living as a hired sword to whoever can pay him. Perez-Reverte does an excellent job of recreating historical Madrid and he populates it with both real and fictional figures equally well. Sometimes when a book is translated from its original language, its tempo and atmosphere suffer. That is not the case here, as translator Margaret Sayers Peden offers up a skillful interpretation which maintains the poetic ebb and flow of Perez-Reverte’s narrative.

In this adventure, Captain Alatriste is employed to help rescue a young woman from a nunnery where she is being sexually abused. Because of a debt of honor, Alatriste reluctantly accepts the assignment, despite his intuitive misgivings. Sure enough, during the execution of the mission, he and his companions are betrayed. Although he manages to escape, his ward, the thirteen year old Inigo Balboa, is not so lucky. The boy is captured by one of Alatriste’s deadliest foes and delivered into the hands of the Holy Inquisition. Locked in the dank dungeons of the Toledo by sadistic priests, the lad is framed and convicted of being Jewish; a crime punishable by death.

When Alatriste learns of his fate, he must call upon certain allies in high places to help him save Inigo. Unless he can produce a miracle within a few short days, the boy will be burned at the stake in the town square. PURITY OF BLOOD is a rollicking, old fashion adventure done with a new twist and set in an intriguing time and background. There are plenty of sword fights, back alley ambushes and cunning conspiracies at every turn. All of which test Alatriste mettle to the brink of death.

If you too long for these kind of long forgotten thrills, I strongly urge you to pick up PURITY BLOOD. I can almost guarantee, once you do, you will soon be hunting up the earlier books in this series. Just like me.

BLACKMAILER

BLACKMAILER
by George Axelrod
Hard Case Crime
202 pages

The covers on this book informed us that writer, George Axelrod, wrote some fairly well known movie scripts; The Manchurian Candidate, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the Seven Year Itch. When I first read this, I wondered at the disparity of the genres. Consider they range from tense, no-nonsense political thriller to a lighthearted romance and an off-the-wall, goof-ball comedy.

What happens with Blackmailer is that Axelrod incorporates many of these unlikely elements and the result is a disappointing stew with little to recommend it. As a murder mystery, it begins well and introduces us to some colorful, New York socialites who may or may not be crooked. A Hemingway-esque author has died leaving behind one last, unpublished novel. Now a former gangster, a Hollywood movie sexpot and social dilettante all want to get their hands on it for one reason or another. Enter Dick Sherman, publisher and would be detective.

The pacing of the book is quick and it is an easy read, if unconvincing one. There are several problems with Blackmailer that are unredeemable. The book is terribly dated. Mysteries like this back in the 50s were common and figuring out who-done-it doesn’t require any effort at all. Never mind that that book’s actual cover serves to offer that solution immediately. Consider the tag line, “She Was Born Bad.” Since there are only two female characters in the plot, one blonde and the other a brunette…well. Were this a femme-fatale offering, that could be forgiven, but it is not. In this case it’s window dressing to disguise a lackluster offering.

It is extremely rare that any Hard Case Crime will miss the bulls-eye, bad sadly Blackmailer does.

SENTINELS - WHEN STRIKES THE WARLORD

THE SENTINELS
(When Strikes the Warlord)
by Van Allen Plexico
White Rocket Books
224 pages
Available from (www.whiterocketbooks.com/)

It is not often you find a book that is filled with exuberance for its subject matter. Such is the case with this amazing novel. That writer Plexico has a deep and abiding love for comic book superheroes is evident on every single page of this action packed look into the lives of a team of modern champions. In meeting the Sentinels, the heroes of this super powered adventure, I was instantly reminded of the early days of Stan Lee’s the Avengers.

Plexico is not so much interested in psychological terrain as he is in action, cause and effect. Much like the early golden age of comics, the characters of his cast come through when they are going toe to toe with the villains. In this particular case, a mysterious warlord from another dimension and a super android herald come to destroy our world.

It’s all grandiose storytelling done with gusto and panache and it captivated me. From Ultra, the powerful hero who has no memory of his past to Esro Brachis, the eccentric inventor who builds all the marvelous weapons used by the Sentinels, to Pulsar, a young college student suddenly thrust into this do or die world of the super fantastic.

As a opening chapter to a larger canvas, When Strikes the Warlord is a fantastic read and I am looking for to starting the second book in the saga. If you’ve fond memories of reading Justice League of America, X-Men or any other such team comics as a child, you would be very wise to pick this up. It’s very much like a long, overdue trip home.

SLIDE

SLIDE
by Ken Bruen & Jason Starr
Hard Case Books
224 pages (Available in Oct.)

This is a sequel to this team’s first collaborative effort. In that book, BUST, we were introduced to Max Fisher, a shiftless businessman who operated a small computer software outfit. He plotted with his secretary, a gorgeous blonde schemer named Angela Petrakos, half-Irish and Greek, to have his wife murdered so they could collect her inheritance.

Without going into details, the wife did end up dead, but so did Angela’s psycho killer boyfriend who did the dirty deed, as well a New York city detective who stumbled on the pair by accident. At then end of BUST, Max somehow managed to convince the authorities he was innocent and was set free. Meanwhile, Angela had fled to Ireland.

SLIDE picks up months later, and nothing much has really changed for both of them. Angela has unwittingly ended up living with as yet another sociopath serial killer and Max finds himself penniless in a seedy southern motel with no clues as to how he got there. The genius of Bruen and Starr is their ability to invent some of the most memorable characters you’ve ever met this side of Quentin Tarrentino territory, with a heavy dose of Elmore Leonard thrown in for good measure.

By the time Max returns to New York with a scheme to become a big time crack dealer and Angela flies home with her Irish pscho in tow, you know damn well the bodies are going to start piling faster than you can turn the pages. And they do, with such cold-blooded, black humor, you can’t help but laugh aloud with each new gunshot, razor slash and rocket launcher explosion. SLIDE is a masterpiece of dark comedy taken to side-splitting limits that left this reviewer dizzy with glee. Not to be missed if you like your noir flavored with a heavy dose of wry comedy.

TO KINGDOM COME

TO KINGDOM COME
by Will Thomas
Touchstone
275 pages

I love Sherlock Holmes and have enjoyed not only the original Conan Doyle stories but the hundreds of pastiches written over the years by various authors. What I have not relished are all the Holmes imitations that have tried to copy Doyle’s format. Several years ago I discovered a novel set in Victorian London that dealt with another Holmes’ contemporary but was refreshingly original. The book was SOME DANGER INVOLVED by Will Thomas and it was the beginning of a new detective series starring Cyrus Barker, agent of inquiry, and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn.

It was a terrific book and the character of Barker a joy to discover. A former sea captain with a mysterious past, Barker always wears sunglasses, is a student of martial arts, eastern philosophy and enjoys gourmet foods. Alike the more cerebral Holmes, Barker relishes action and is not afraid to get his fists dirty in a good scuffle for queen and country.

In this, the second volume in the series, Scotland Yard is bombed by Irish terrorists and the Home Office wants the culprits found and brought to justice at the soonest possible opportunity. To that end, the Home Secretary opts to hire an independent investigator, Cyrus Barker, whose underworld connections are well known throughout the intelligence community. It is hoped that Barker’s expertise and radical methods will prove more successful over the more traditional police agencies.

Barker’s gambit is to disguise himself as a famous German bomb-maker, with Llewelyn, posing as his young, Welsh apprentice and then manipulate circumstances whereby they cross paths with the Irish sympathizers in Liverpool. His plan goes off like clock-work and soon he and Thomas found themselves part of a grandiose plot to simultaneously blow up half a dozen famous London landmarks, including the private residents of the Prince of Wales.

It is a suspenseful adventure, as Barker and Llewelyn must never let down their guard for a second, as they carry out their subterfuge in hopes they will have enough time to foil the bombings before the attack is launched. During the mission, Thomas finds himself falling in love with one of the Irish terrorist’s beautiful sister, and finds his own loyalties questioned. Is his duty to England greater than his love for this winsome, Irish lovely? And can he possibly save her when the final confrontation?

TO KINGDOM COME is a fun new chapter in this series and one I enjoyed from start to finish. There is a third in print and I will be eagerly picking it up soon. So, as stated earlier, if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes and would like to meet one of his more original peers, you can do no better than reading TO KINGDOM COME. Cyrus Barker is a man the great detective would have certainly called an equal.

MISSING IN ACTION

MISSING IN ACTION
by Peter David
Pocket Books
392 pages

This is the 19^th book in the New Frontier series created and written by Peter David. It is without doubt the finest Star Trek book series ever produced thanks to David’s overwhelming passion Star Trek and his talent in telling great adventure stories. New Frontier centers around the exploits of the Starship Excalibur and her captain, the roguish former warlord, Mackenzie Calhoun and his populated by such a diverse supporting cast from so many Trek sources it is almost impossible to remember them all.

The only true flaw with the New Frontier books is the fact that they represent an on-going series and very few can stand alone. David writes in long, sweeping, and yes, epic, story arcs that some times take at least two or more books to complete. MISSING IN ACTION is the second half of a plot begun in AFTER THE FALL. So, if you wish to truly appreciated the complexities of this particular chapter, I would strongly recommend running out and picking up that first half.

Meanwhile, let me continue by commenting on the new book’s two strongest points. Over the course of his career, Peter David, has demonstrated a very poetic ability to create and write memorable female characters. In MISSING IN ACTION, this particular talent crystallizes when the action being played out comes to spotlight all the New Frontier’s unique and remarkable female cast. They are Admiral Elizabeth Shelby, Calhoun’s wife, to Kathrine Mueller, Captain of the Starship Ship, Robin Lefler, a Federation officer married to Si Cwan, ruler of an alien empire, Soleta, half Valcan/Romulan Captain of the Romulan spyship the Specter to name the major players. There are others.

When a bloody civil war erupts in Thallonian space, Calhoun suspects outside interference and attempts to uncover its source. In the process his ship is hurled into another dimension where he and his crew must deal with truly bizarre creatures to find a way home. Meanwhile, Admiral Shelby, and the others mentioned, are left having to deal with the escalating war. In the process, one of the New Frontier’s most endearing characters is killed. This single act brings the entire series to a new level of maturity and drama that loyal fans, though stunned by it, will come to applaud. David has proven he is not afraid to take Calhoun and the Excalibur to places no other Star Trek enterprise has ever gone before. Bravo!

MISSING IN ACTION is a terrific addition to what has become my all time favorite science fiction series. If Hollywood ever hopes to re-energize the Trek franchise, they need look no further than the New Frontier.

THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN

THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN
by David Goodis
Hard Case Crime
252 pages

In our modern world where no intimate subject is taboo, it is routine to see television commercials about erectile dysfunction or prescription drugs to whatever ails us from clinical depression to enlarged prostates. Although these same conditions were present in 1955, they certainly were not considered polite topics of social discussion. Which is why David Goodis’ writing is so bold and daring. Goodis was not afraid to confront social taboos and expose them for what they were, all too familiar traits of frail, imperfect people.

James and Cora Bevan are having serious marital problems. Soon after their marriage, he discovers his beautiful young wife is sexually frigid. Again, one has to remember, these were the 50s, and what happened in a couple’s bedroom was sacred. There were no therapists or marriage counselors ready, willing and eager to help solve these destructive, psychological quirks. Unable to cope with the problem, James finds himself having an affair with a timid streetwalker that ultimately gets out of hand. When Cora discovers the arrangement, James, not wanting to end his marriage, breaks it off. A few weeks later he discovers his mistress has committed suicide. Because he blames himself, and Cora is still no more affectionate than before, he begins to fall apart, verging on a complete mental breakdown. He seeks help from a doctor and is told to take a trip, a vacation from his normal routine.

The estranged couple travel to the sunny Jamaica, where their situation is no closer to be resolved than before. One night, while out drinking in the slums of Kingston, Bevan is attacked and in the process of defending himself, kills the mugger. Dazed and confused, he comes back to the hotel and the next morning confesses all to Cora. Before they can reach any kind of decision on what to do next, they are approached by a native who witnessed the crime and wants to blackmail them to keep his silence.

THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN moves at a relatively slow pace, which in this case serves it perfectly. Each scene seems to build one after another until what emerges is a very powerful tale of two lost souls struggling to find love in a world that is all too often cold and unsympathetic. How both James and Cora find redemption and each other is a poignant tale I will soon not forget. Kudos to Hard Case Crime for unearthing as yet another classic crime thriller.

BROTHER ODD

BROTHER ODD
by Dean Koontz
Bantam Books
364 pages

This is the third Koontz’s thriller starring the psychic fry-cook, Odd Thomas. He continues to be one of his best, most original characters and one with unlimited potential story-wise. Odd Thomas can see the dead, those spirits somehow still trapped in this reality and for whatever reasons, unable to move on to the next. All too often these visitations coincide with some horrendous evil about to occur and Odd finds himself racing the clock to both discover the threat and then thwart it.

In the first book, ODD THOMAS, it was a terrorist attack on a shopping mall. In the follow up sequel, FOREVER ODD, he dealt with a group of hippie Satanist who wanted to exploit his psychic abilities for their own ends. Now, months after that last adventure, Odd has sequestered himself in a bucolic monastery located high in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. He’s trying to get away from the world and his past in hopes of
coming to grips with the loss of his one true love. The monastery is also home to a mission school for disabled children run by a group of self-less nuns. It seems an isolated oasis far removed from his past, dark experiences.

Sadly, Odd simply cannot outdistance his own fate and when one of the brothers commits suicide by hanging himself from the bell tower, ominous signs begin to surface that can only spell something truly bad is on its way. Once again Odd is faced with discovering the source of impending doom, fully aware it is centered about the lives of the innocent children of the mission. Things go from bad to worse when a severe winter storm blankets the mountain top retreat trapping everyone. Odd, the monks and sisters, find themselves cut off from succor and having to relay on their own courage and faith to battle an unbelievable evil. Koontz’s villain is a truly bizarre and twisted creature with delusions of godhood; the veritable snake in the Garden of Eden.

BROTHER ODD is a suspenseful, expertly paced thriller that will satisfy even the most jaded reader. Personally, I’ve become addicted to young Odd and hope that a fourth chapter in his incredible life is soon to come our way.