DILLON AND THE VOICE OF ODIN

DILLON AND THE VOICE OF ODIN
by Derrick Ferguson
Frontier Publishing
171 pages

Every now and then a writer delivers a book that is just so pure pulp, you want to clap your hands and shout hallelujah. Derrick Ferguson as a writer is cut from the same cloth as Walter Gibson, Lester Dent, Ian Fleming and Clive Cussler. He’s a pulp wordsmith who spins a rollicking adventure yarn that never lets up from the first page to the last. It is clear to see in his black hero, Dillon, that Ferguson knows this genre inside out. He not only relishes it, he finds way to enhance it by upping the ante constantly.

Dillon encounters one familiar cliff-hanger threat after another in his battles against Odin, the criminal mastermind. But it is how he manages to escape each and every one of these death-traps that is fun, ingenious and totally captivating. I haven’t had this much fun reading a book in a long time.

Who is Dillon? Where does he come from and how did he become such a skilled, daring, near super human hero of justice? Well, would you believe he was raised in a hidden martial arts temple hidden in the mountains of Tibet? Of course you would, if you are a true believer. Or that he possesses such arcane skills as the ability to lower his body metabolism to appear dead, only to be comfortable resting in a deep, meditative trance.

Ferguson also provides a terrific supporting cast of absolutely larger-than life, eccentric characters both good and evil such as the old Eli Creed, Dillon’s one-time mentor and Chew Mi (pronounced me), a sexy oriental femme fatale whose single goal is to give him a glorious death. Add exotic locales from small English hamlets to the jungles of South America and you have a rollicking adventure romp that is highly cinematic in its orchestration.

Sadly this book was handled by a very small publisher and received very little notice or distribution when it was released in 2003. It is my fervent hope that this review will help correct that wrong and help bring it to the wider audience is so richly warrants. If you love action adventure novels with verve and imagination, you will not do better than
DILLON AND THE VOICE OF ODIN.

THE APOCALYSE PARABLE: A CONSPIRACY OF WEEDS

The Apocalypse Parable:
A Conspiracy of Weeds
by Brian Kaufman
Last Knight Publishing Co.
287 pages

One of the joys of doing this column is discovering books published by small outfits that rarely get wide distribution. Such is the case with this novel by Colorado resident, Brian Kaufman. It is also one of those books difficult to slap a genre label on. It is part mystery, part thriller with a good dose of philosophical debate thrown in for good measure.

When widower Daniel Bain is hired by reclusive millionaire, Mordecai Ryan, to find Jesus, he at first thinks the dying old man is orchestrating some sick-twisted hoax at his expense. Bain is a skip-tracer who locates missing people, primarily through the use of computers and the internet. He’s as far from being a private investigator as a counter clerk is being the head of a bank. Still, the obscene amount of money Ryan dangles under his nose is too much to resist and he reluctantly takes the job.

From that point on Bain’s life is systematically turned upside as he experiences one bizarre event after another like a cosmic chain of good and bad luck interwoven together to confuse the hell out of him. Years earlier Bain’s wife had run off to be with another man. She took their baby daughter with her and then both of them died when their car hit a patch of winter ice and flipped off the road. Bain’s grief became so mixed up with his anger at her betrayal, he’s become an emotional zombie and cynic.

Now his search for Mordecai Ryan’s Jesus leads him to a nineteen year girl who sells pornographic tapes and pictures of herself over the internet. Like Bain, she too is a wounded soul and they instantly find a kinship together. Neither is aware of just how strong that bond is until a stalker threatens the girl’s life and Bain finds himself cast in the role of her protector. All the while he finds himself getting closer and closer to find Ryan’s lost Messiah.

Kaufman writes with courage in tackling spiritual themes. He clearly recognizes the human condition for its broken state, but through Bain he refuses to accept the tired old platitudes that come from a thousand year old gospel. The book’s gruesome climax hints at a begrudging acceptance of the greatest mystery of them all, love. This is a well written book with weighty themes. If you aren’t afraid to think about the big questions, then this is a book you should seek out and read. Whether in the end, you agree or disagree with Daniel Bain, you won’t easily forget him.

RETIEF'S PEACE

RETIEF’S PEACE
by William H. Keith
Baen Books
374 pages

When I was a high school student back in the early 1960s, I discovered science fiction through the pages of a marvelous monthly magazine called Worlds of If. It was edited by writer Frederic Pohl and often carried series fiction featuring reoccurring heroes. One of my favorite such series were the Retief short stories written by Keith Laumer. Jame Retied is an undersecretary in the Diplomatic Corp set against the backdrop of a galactic universe where man has encountered hundreds of alien races.

According to his bio, Laumer had himself done service in various British Embassies around the world and used his own personal experiences to enliven Retief’s adventures. For the most part, his tales pitted him no so much against physical threats and the
inane stupidity of corrupt government, including his own superiors. Laumer used his tales to satirize the illogic of most world politics as he saw it and for that reason they were particularly fun. Predating both Star Trek and Dr. Who, the Retief stories were a wonderful blend of space opera hijinks and pun-filled comedy. Laumer had a way of mangling the language as an added barb to his jousting literary lance.

Imagine my elated joy when I discovered this new book starring the irascible and ever loving Jame Retief on a bookstore shelf. Apparently someone has licensed the rights to the character and now he’s off on a brand new set of exploits. I’m very happy to report that William H. Keith, like Laumer, is no slouch in the satire department and he cleverly weaves a story fanciful story of intergalactic intrigue and deception that is a laugh fest from start to end.

Retief, as always, finds himself in the middle of an age old conflict between two races, a criminal operation organized by his old enemies, the Groaci (think Ferengis from Star Trek) and a group of space hippies involved with a planet wide peace demonstration. Of course Retief’s is the only sound intellect in the entire bunch and it falls to him to uncover the Machiavellian doings before three planets erupt in catastrophic warfare. Is he up to the task? Or better yet, was there ever a doubt our daring, ingenious hero would come through in the end? Nope.

RETIEF’S PEACE was a most delightful reacquainting for this writer. It’s also a very good place for those of you who have never encountered Jame Retied before. In a field too often filled with overly dramatic, weighty themes, he is a breath of true fresh air. Do yourselves a big favor and pick this one up.

THE LIMEHOUSE TEXT

THE LIMEHOUSE TEXT
by Will Thomas
A Touchstone Book
337 pages

Limehouse is the name the Brits gave to the Chinatown section of old Victorian London. Thus it is the primary locale for most of the action in this, the third case of Inquiry Agent, Cyrus Barker. In the first book of this series, SOME DANGER INVOLVED, Welsh clerk, Thomas Llewelyn came to work for Barker after answering a classified ad. He was summarily informed that Barker’s former assistant, Mr. Quong, had been murdered, shot between the eyes and his body dumped in the river. Barker, a former sea captain with a brilliant intellect like his contemporary, Sherlock Holmes, is unable to solve the crime nor find Quong’s murderer.

Now it is two years later and Barker is informed by a local constable that, before his death, Quong had something left at a pawn shop. No sooner do Barker and Llewelyn retrieve the item in question, a small Chinese text book on martial arts, then the officer is gunned down in front of them; a bullet between the eyes. Barker identifies the text as having been stolen from an ancient Chinese monastery because of the deadly killing techniques it teaches.

Once again Thomas sends his pair of heroes on a quest throughout as yet another fascinating part of Victorian England as he did in his two previous outings. The world of the Chinese population in London is well defined with all its ramifications for the future of the British Colonial Empire. Thomas also reveals many of Barker’s mysterious history which he only alluded to in those earlier adventures. Within only a few chapters the plot is well set. A deadly assassin from China has traveled half-way around the world to find the unique little book and will kill anyone who gets in his way. The suspects begin to add up with a casts of colorful characters both foreign and domestic, to include a pompous secretary of the Foreign Office who’s hobby is illegal bare-knuckles fighting.

I also appreciated how the relationship between the shy and inexperienced Llewelyn and the stoic, supremely egoistical Barker continues to evolve, each learning to respect and trust the other with each new case. By the end of THE LIMEHOUSE TEXT, the young Welshman learns to value his own intuition and value to the remarkable man he has come to work for. THE LIMEHOUSE TEXT is another fine entry in a really fun series and I for one am looking forward to number four.

POLAR SHIFT

POLAR SHIFT
by Clive Cussler & Paul Kemprecos
Berkley Novel
494 pages

During the Golden Age of the pulps, the most popular adventure title on the newsstands was DOC SAVAGE as written by Kenneth Robeson. Robeson was a Street & Smith housename and the majority of the Man of Bronze’s exploits were written by Lester Dent. Unlike the mysterious, pistol-packing avengers the Shadow and the Spider, Doc was a full blown public figure who traveled the world with a loyal group of compatriots.

It is no wonder that the minute Clive Cussler introduced the world to his seafaring hero, Dirk Pitt, pulp fans were only too ready to welcome him. The similarities between Doc and Dirk are many and Cussler has rightly inherited the mantle left by Dent in creating over-the-top, globe spanning adventures. Sadly, Cussler chose to age Pitt as if he were a real person and as he grew older, so did his creation. Eventually this resulted in having a hero too old to go adventuring.

Cussler solved this problem in two ways. The first, and most bizarre, was when he whipped up a fully grown Dirk Pitt Junior on his readers. He and his writing buddies have done two books with this father and son team and although they are fun to read, it still seems an awkward fit. Whereas Cussler’s second ploy, one I’ve always assumed was foisted on him by his publisher to fatten the cash cow, was to invent a spin-off series featuring another NUMA agent, Kirk Austin. Although not physically identical to Pitt, Austin is very much cut from the same chivalrous mold and is a handsome, daring, modern day Galahad. This particular series has produced some terrific books and POLAR SHIFT is no exception.

The story starts in Europe during World War II with a Hungarian scientist named Kovacs fleeing both the Nazis and Soviets. Protecting him is a mysterious German agent who works for a secret organization aware of the professor’s importance to the future. Kovacs has developed a process by which ultrasonic waves can be made to disrupt the Earth’s magnetic poles. Were such knowledge to fall into the wrong hands, the power wielded could destroy the world. The agent, Schroeder, manages to save Kovacs and get him safely to America where he changes his name and disappears into academic obscurity. Thus ends the action packed prologue.

Jump ahead to the present and a group of well financed anarchist have uncovered papers left by Novacs detailing his theories. They set about creating giant dynamos and begin to experiment on the open seas. One such trial results in the sinking of massive ocean cargo ship by rogue waves well over a hundred feet high. Thus NUMA is alerted and enter Dirk Pitt and his team of scientist/adventurers. By the time Dirk learns the mystery behind the freakish polar shifts, he will have traveled to the Artic and uncovered a lost city within a dead volcano, discovered a herd of dwarf wooly mammoths and been chased through the highways of Washington DC. in an old Stanley Steamer pursued by a gang of machine gun wielding thugs wearing Civil War uniforms. All in a day’s work for the intrepid Kurt Austin. Oh, and there is of course a beautiful lady in distress to be rescued. This time is she is the late Dr. Kovacs’ granddaughter, who holds the mathematical key to stopping the polar shift.

No one writes better pulp fiction than Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. POLAR SHIFT is another feather in their caps. Like popcorn at a Saturday afternoon matinee, it’s almost too good to describe.

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.