EL TIGRE AZUL - Three Witches

 

EL TIGRE AZUL

Three Witches

By Duane Spurlock

Interrobang Tales

214 pgs

 

It’s the 1970 and El Tigre Azul (the Blue Tiger) is a professional Mexican masked wrestler better known as a luchador. Aside from his ring career, he is also famous for fighting evil supernatural threats wherever they arise. In this first-in-print collection, Spurlock’s fun hero battles three over-the-top villains from Mexico to Paris, France. Thus the “Three Witches” sub-title. 

In the first tale, El Tigre Azul confronts a Mexican witch who has mesmerized a young wrestler to do her bidding. With his help, she turns an average game-cock into a giant, monster chicken that destroys the gambling den in a wild rampage. How El Tigre defeats it is wild and fantastic. This is followed by his trip to Paris where he confronts a water-witch living in the Seine River and callously drowns her victims. The Mexican warrior has his hands full when he seeks her out in her underwater lair. 

The final, and most amazing adventure has the Blue Tiger taking on an ageless elemental being without shape or form. It attempts to kill him by casting him back in time. To survive he has to continue fighting his way through one era after another. It is a grand, pulp adventure and a great finale to what is a truly wonderful book. Kudos, Duane Spurlock and please, give us more El Tigre Azul!

WARBIRDS OF MARS - Beast Incarnate

WARBIRDS OF MARS

Beast Incarnate

By Chris Samson

Paperstreet Entretainment LLC

214 Pages

 

From the popular science fiction action/adventure webcomic series created by Scott “Doc” Vaugn comes this terrific stand alone novel by Chris Samson. The set up involves Martians invading Earth during the middle of World War II amping the chaos and slaughter across the globe. Eventually, pockets of resistance spring up everywhere. In the United States, the freedom fighters are led by a team known as the Martian Killer made up Jack Paris, pilot, Josie Taylor, a nightclub singer/spy, Hunter Noir, a gun toting avenger right out of the pulps and lastly a half-breed martial arts master known as Mr. Mask. 

That’s the comic series which then led to a really fun prose anthology series of short stories. And now we have “Beast Incarnate.” 

In this tale, it is discovered that other half-breeds like Mask, has come together as a fighting force and are causing havoc within the Martian conquered territories. A sadistic Martian Command Officer, Kalen Tengel, known as the Fallen Angel, has been ordered to nullify this new army before it can ally itself with the human resistance. Obviously, the Martian Killers want the exact opposite. What ensues is a speeding action-infused thriller that never lets up. Samson’s battle scenes, especially the one aboard the underground bullet train are mesmerizing. He adds a great deal of drama to an already well established adventure pulp franchise. We’re hoping he has sequels in mind. Pulp fans, you don’t want to miss this one.

 

FACE OFF

FACE OFF

Edited by David Baldacci

Simon and Schuster

356 pgs

 

After reviewing the first ever fictional private-eyes crossover last time, we thought it only fitting to follow with this team-up anthology produced by the International Thriller Writers dated 2014. It is a collection of eleven stories wherein two heroes from various thriller series meet as written by their creators. As Richard S. Prather and Stephen Marlowe proved back in 1960, it really is a very cool idea as twenty-two writers agreed in this collection of eleven top-notch stories.   

It's been our belief that today’s thriller writers are our modern pulp scribes and these twenty-two cement that fact emphatically with their fast paced, action-crammed gems. We don’t claim to be familiar with all of them, but characters like Jack Reacher, Special Agent Pendergast and Detective Harry Bosch are extremely well known.  

When Michael Connelly’s Bosch shows up in Bean Town and crosses paths with Dennis Lehane’s cop, Patrick Kenzie, you know something unusual is going to happen. Then just a few short tales later, Preston and Child’s Special Agent Pendergast finds himself confronting R.L. Stine’s Goosebump world and the eerie Ventriloquist Dummy Slappy. That one is guaranteed to give you nightmares. Of course everyone’s taste is different but not to worry. In this collection, there is a pairing to delight every one of you thriller affectionatos. 

Our personal favorite was the last entry, “Good and Valuable Consideration” wherein Lee Child’s Jack Reacher ends up in a Boston sports bar to watch a Yankees vs Red Sox baseball game and runs into Joseph Finder’s Nick Heller.  Reacher’s a Yankee fan, Heller roots for the Sox. Then there’s the poor slob caught in the middle of them. Easily one of the best, and funniest short stories we’ve ever read. This book is at Amazon, folks. Go grab a copy…now!