THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER

THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER
By Carol McCleary
Forge Books
364 pages

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

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

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

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

THE BIG BANG

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

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

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

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

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

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

HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RECKLESS

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

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

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

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

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

ODD HOURS

ODD HOURS
By Dean Koontz
Bantam Books
397 pages

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEVENTH DAUGHTER

SEVENTH DAUGHTER
By Ronnie Seagreen
Flying Pen Press
301 pages

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE BOOK OF LIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

CASINO MOON

CASINO MOON
By Peter Blauner
Hard Case Crime
333 pages

The world of professional boxing has historically been tainted by organized crime on many occasions. There are those who believe even when completely legitimate, the sport lends itself to same kind of conspiratorial greed and immorality that make up the mob. Writer Peter Blauner holds up these twin mirror reflections as the backdrop to his noir-like story of Anthony Russo, a struggling young man wanting to severe his ties to one of these worlds and escape into the other. By the time the tale spins itself to its inevitable conclusion, the realization that both are same in their cold-blooded ruthlessness is Anthony’s tragic epiphany.

Living in Atlantic City, Anthony is married, has two kids and his wife, Carla, and is pregnant with a third. Anthony’s father, Michael, mysteriously disappeared when he was a child and his mother remarried Vincent Russo, the right-hand man of gang boss Teddy Morino. Although he loves his stepfather, Anthony wants no part of his Mafia brotherhood and this remains a point of contention between them. Add the fact that Carla is Morino’s niece and the friction between Anthony and mobsters continues to intensify. When his construction business beings to fail, he finds himself in debt to aging, obese mobster.

Afraid his life will imitate that of Vin’s, Anthony hatches a desperate scheme to become a fight promoter for a washed out ex-champ at the local casino. Envisioning a payout in millions, Anthony must learn the ins and outs of professional boxing while at the same time keeping Teddy and his cronies in the dark. When he learns his plan requires a great deal of cash before anyone will take him seriously, he goes to a loan shark and digs himself in deeper. There are palms to be greased at every step of the process, from crocked to commissioners to promoters and casino officials, all of them demanding a piece of the action. Anthony’s pot of gold at the end of his wishful rainbow begins to dwindle long before the actual fight is even scheduled.

A man obsessed with changing his fate no matter the cost, a once beautiful showgirl willing to be used to save herself and her daughter, and a soulless, pathetic gangster dying of prostate cancer believing he is owed respect and tribute. These are only a few of the intense and complicated characters that Blauner lets loose in a setting that is all phony glitter disguising an underbelly of relentless despair. CASION MOON is a mesmerizing drama that will draw you in and hold you captive until the final bell, where the only winners are those smart enough not to bet against the house.

IMARO - The Trail of Bohu

IMARO
(The Trail of Bohu)
By Charles R. Saunders
Sword & Soul Media
212 pages

This is one of those remarkable books that completely justify the recent popularity of the print-on-demand phenomena of self-publishing. For without that avenue, it is doubtful we would be enjoying the continuation of this ground-breaking fantasy saga. Saunders created Imaro and the mythological Africa in which his story is told back in the 1970s after the paperback revival of the later Robert E.Howard’s Conan stories. These tales had first been published in the 1930s. Howard’s bulldog style of action writing combined with painter Frank Frazetta’s garishly envisioned cover masterpieces helped create a new interest in this fantasy subgenre known as sword and sorcery. A young writer coming into his own at the time, Saunders, himself an African-American, recognized a glaring short coming in these gritty tales that reflected much of Western societies mores and historical leanings; the blatant omission of black heroes.

It was bad enough that people of color had been cruelly robbed of their place in our history as a nation, but to see this same injustice arising out of the literary field was inexcusable. Especially when locked within the history of the Africa was a veritable treasure of exotic myths and legends that had never been fully mined. Saunders set about creating a mystical Africa of the past called Nyumbani. It is filled with all manner of peoples, nations and empires as rich and intricate as anything conceived by Western imaginations. Against this vibrant tapestry he began to saga of Imaro, a mighty and noble warrior cursed to wander the land in constant battle with both human and magical foes. Early in the series, we discover Imaro possesses unusual strength capable of defeating the Mashataan, demon gods from another dimension who plot the domination of our world via their human wizard servants, the Erriten.

The Trail of Bohu picks up Imaro’s life several years after the events related in Vol. Two, The Quest For Cush. Living comfortably in the civilized Kingdom of Cush, he’s married and has a son; at the same time learning the skills of a blacksmith. Still, the warrior blood that runs through his veins remains unsettled, out of place in a routine that verges on boring. Unbeknown to him, the Erriten are about to launch their greatest assault of conquest. To insure Imaro will not pose a threat to their machinations, they send an assassin named Bohu to murder his family and frame him for the crimes. Incensed with anger, overcome by a blind lust for vengeance, Imaro departs Cush to find this merciless killer. But he does not travel alone, as the Queen of Cush, a powerful mage named Kandisa, sends along his pygmy friend, Pomphis and the rugged sea captain, Rabir to accompany him.

It is a journey into darkness, as the trio soon realizes they are mere pawns in a grander game being played by the forces of good and evil. At the center of this contest, Imaro, who while seeking retribution, unwittingly unlocks the mysteries of his own unique and turbulent past. The revelations he uncovers set the stage for the future of his amazing destiny. IMARO – The Trail of Bohu is a grand, original adventure filled with action and adventure, exotic locales and memorable figures that will soon have you cheering. It ends all too quickly, leaving us anxious for the next chapter in this fantastic series by a truly gifted storyteller.

YOU CAN'T STOP ME

YOU CAN’T STOP ME
By Max Allan Collins & Matthew Clemens
Pinnacle Books
363 pages
Available in March

Every time Max Collins delivers a new crime thriller, I buckle up in my favorite chair, pour myself a cup of coffee and prepare myself for an exhilarating ride. The guy never disappoints and this new book is no exception. It is a fast paced page turner that moves like a semi down a mountain road with the brakes burned out.

J.C.Harrow is a small town sheriff with a loving family and a fairly decent life. One day he comes homes from work to a horror beyond his imagining; a horror that sets his life on a different path. Several years later he is living in Los Angeles, the star of a new crime watch reality show called Crime Seen. Himself a victim, Harrow, coldly exploits his new found star status to blackmail the studio heads into bankrolling a very audacious plan. He sets out to assemble the best forensic criminologists in the country and make them his personal team with one goal; to find the monster who robbed him of his family.

Now the hunt is on in front of the eyes of millions of devoted TV viewers. As the team comes together, bit by bit new clues arise and begin to define the patterns of a cunning serial killer whose body count may much more than anyone ever expected. The hunt leads them across the country from the warm temps of Florida to the Heartland of the Midwest. Attempting to balance the demands of his studio bosses with the legal restrictions of a public criminal investigation, the wily Harrow soon realizes his scheme may in the end jeopardize the very thing he wants. He is all too aware that one of those viewers in TV-land might be the very prey they are pursuing. How much does he dare divulge in his weekly broadcasts?

Exploring new territory between the mechanics of police work and the circus atmosphere of today’s Big-Brother media, YOU CAN’T STOP ME is a riveting, original spin on crime thrillers. It is an adventure in suspense that will have you up till the wee hours of the night. You’d better buckle up too.

THE ROOK - Vol. Four

THE ROOK – Vol.Four
By Barry Reese
161 pages
Wildcat Books

He’s back, the daring pulp avenger from Atlanta, Ga., in six new, thrilling tales of mystery and mayhem. Keeping with his horror themed exploits, Reese pits the ever stalwart Max Davies and his allies against a group of Nazis vampires, a long dead pirate ghost and an old enemy who crosses paths with the Frankenstein monster.

Each of these stories is filled with colorful classic pulp heroes such as the Black Bat and Domino Lady, to their arch enemies like the red-garbed Doctor Satan. The real fun is how Reese adds to this melodramatic stage his own creations starting with the Rook and then including such iconic figures as a Russian-style Doc Savage and a female version of the Phantom all without skipping a beat.

When reading these books, it’s a real joy to see old nemesis’s return time and time again like the Warlike Manchu, who at one time had been Max’s mentor. When he revealed his true villainous nature and attempted to recruit the hero to his world conquering cause, it immediately launched a furious war between the two. And like all true pulps, even death cannot stop these monsters from coming back time and time again.

So why does the Rook do it? Why does he constantly put his life, and those of his family and friends, in jeopardy? Because, like all true heroes, he has no other choice. His soul has been cast in a timeworn mold of nobility and courage, he is a defender of the weak and the powerless and on many occasions, all that stands between the world and total destruction. Tired, weary, scarred and haunted, he presses on, fighting the good, but never ending fight and in the process delivering these amazing, fun-filled page turners that are not to be missed.

Reese and the Rook are now four for four and that’s saying a lot. We can’t wait to see what Volume Five will bring.

A PRINCESS OF MARS

A PRINCESS OF MARS
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
White Rocket Books
208 pages

When Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote his interplanetary adventure back in the early days of the 20th century, knowledge of our solar system and the planets that made it up was limited. Most scientist of the time subscribed to the theories of astronomer Percival Lowell who speculated that Mars had at one time been vibrant with life much like our own Earth. He believed that over a period of millions of years Mars’ oceans had receded turning the planet’s surface into an arid, dying landscape. Lowell also speculated that the supposed Martians had built canals thousands of miles long to bring water from the polar caps to irrigate the remaining arable land.

Such fanciful visions of the Red Planet would have clearly fueled Burroughs imagination and in 1911, at the age of 35, he began writing the exploits of a unique ex-Confederate officer named John Carter. Carter, while prospecting for gold in the Arizona desert, dies and his spirit is magically transported to the dying planet of Mars where he is given a second life; one of fantastic adventures among the varied races of Mars. Burroughs imagined two distinct intelligent races vying for control of the world they called Barsoom.

The first of these that Carter confronts are the green men, standing an average of eight feet tall, possessing four arms and having huge tusks and bug-like eyes. Among these humanoids, Carter allies himself with the mighty warlord, Tars Tarkas and the soft hearted female, Sola. It is Tars and his clan who indoctrinate him into the savage society he has miraculously stumbled upon. No sooner does the ex-soldier learn the Martian tongue and the ways of the green men, then he meets the more human-like red men, who are identical to Earthlings save for their deep red coloring. Among these, Carter meets the beautiful Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, one of the major principalities of the red men. The two quickly fall in love and Carter pledges his life to saving her from the green men and returning her safely to her people.

A PRINCESS OF MARS is by no means a science fiction novel, although it has been labeled such ever since its debut in All-Story Magazine Feb. 1912. It is a planetary romance, which is more a fantasy and usually includes lots of sword fighting and swashbuckling activity. I first encountered this book and its sequels as a teen-ager, which is when most readers generally discover Burroughs’ works. At that time I saw a great deal of romantic chivalry imbued throughout these Barsoomian tales, wherein Carter was a noble warrior who lived by a strict code of honor reminiscent of medieval knights. They are still lots of fun to read even though modern astronomy has long since dispelled most of the Red Planet’s mysteries. Robotic Rovers have found no evidence of ancient civilizations of any hue. Still, the fantasy those adventures weave still entertain.

It was by sheer coincidence that at the same time I was rediscovering Burrough’s antiquated romances, that James Cameron’s block-buster science fiction film AVATAR exploded on the cinematic scene. Sitting in an I-Max theater, watching this wholesale creation of the alien world of Pandora, I couldn’t help but think of Burrough’s Barsoom and smile. Cameron and Burroughs are souls cut from the same cloth, dreamers who looked at the heavens and were not content with the limits of science. They both dared to venture beyond and wonder what if? A PRINCESS OF MARS is a classic well worth revisiting. Kudos to publisher Van Plexico for releasing these new, wonderful designed editions from White Rocket Books.

SHERLOCK HOLMES - CONSULTING DETECTIVE

Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective. Vol. One.
Edited by Ron Fortier
Airship 27 Productions
Cornerstone Book Publishers
183 pgs.

Review by Philip K. Jones

This anthology consists of five new tales, each followed by an author’s commentary, and an Afterward by the editor, Ron Fortier.

The first tale, The Massachusetts Affair,” is a novella by Aaron Smith that suffers from an excess of Americanisms, both in language and in viewpoint. This is somewhat eased because most of the principal characters are American, but it is still quite noticable as it opens the book. The mechanics of the tale are difficult to accept, but the characters are believable and Holmes and Watson are relatively comfortable presences.

The second tale, “The Problem at Stamford Bridge,” is another novella, this time by Van Allen Plexico. It introduces Dr. Watson and the audience to the world of professional Soccer in late Victorian England. Unfortunately, that world shares many traits with professional sports in the 21st Century, which include felonies, player violence and professional jealousy. I suspect the same was true of the gladiators in the Roman Coliseum. Sherlock Holmes manages to adapt himself seamlessly into the milieu and comes up with the proper solutions while Dr. Watson plays his ususal ‘catch-up’ game.

The third tale, “The Adventure of the Locked Room,” is another novella, this time by Andrew Salmon. There is some confusion about the timing of this tale as it is supposed to occur after “A Study in Scarlet” but only a fortnight or so after Holmes and Watson move into the rooms in Baker St.. If the timing factor is ignored, this becomes an interesting little mystery, with a couple of neat twists. Further, the door is left open for additional complexities in future, so this is a reasonably satisfying visit to our old friends in their new abode.

The fourth tale, “The Adventure of the Tuvan Delegate,” is a long short story that involves additional Sherlockian characters, Mycroft Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Take one peace conference in London, add the Professor causing trouble, mix in Mycroft trying to keep order, Sherlock investigating an apparently unrelated event and stir well. The result is written here. This is an amusing tale, full of action and adventure, with little deduction and not much mystery.

The final tale, “Dead Man’s Manuscript,” is a novella by I. A. Watson. It contains enough mystery and exotic background for any Holmes tale as well as several well-drawn supporting cast. It is a classic mystery, with all needed clues included but obscured and it is a ‘fun’ read. Dr. Watson exhibits his better qualities, Holmes astounds his audiences and all’s right with the world, even if villains are about their business.

The “Vol. #1” designation on this book declares the publisher’s intent to follow with more of the same (or better?). A sequel may be worth looking for.

(It has always been my policy to not review books I have either written or edited in this column. Thus I wish to thank Philip Jones for the surprise and grateful offer of this review of this book. Note, should you be interested in picking up a copy of this or any other Airship 27 Prod. title, simply click on to our new Amazon store link to the right of this column; The Airship 27 Emporium.)

THE SENTINELS : FORTUNES OF WAR

THE SENTINELS – FORTUNES OF WAR
By Gordon Zuckerman
Greenleaf Book Group Press
296 pages

Having majored in Business Administration while in college, I know just how dry and boring subjects like Economics and Financing can be, which is why finding a modern day pulp thriller set in World War II and dealing with a group of young bankers out to save the world from fascism was a marvelous surprise. Even more so that it works extremely well.

In the early 30s a group of idealist young men and women, six in all, join forces at the University of Berkeley to hypothesize a new economic theory they call the Power Cycle. It is their idea that leading world industrialists are shaping social events and becoming the true powers behind international governments, including Germany. The six, all heirs to wealthy banking families, decide to become an economic watch group and call themselves the Sentinels. Their primary mission, to recognize large monetary shifts indicative of an emerging Power Cycles and then disrupt them using applied banking practices. Practices they tweak via illegal forgeries to stymie their opponents. This charismatic group is led by Frenchmen Jacques Roth and American Mike Stone.

As the war wages in Europe, it comes as no surprise to the Sentinels when they discover that the same German Industrialist who helped manipulate the birth of the Third Reich, are attempting to funnel their personal wealth out of the country in order to ensure it’s safety should Germany lose. The implied threat to the Sentinels is all too real. By protecting their lucrative assets, these men could easily launch a new Reich from the ashes of the old. The Sentinels are not about to let that happen and begin devising a scheme to steal the money from them.

Part spy thriller, part social-economic dissertation, FORTUNES OF WAR is a captivating new twist on the modern thriller. Not since Ian Fleming’s early James Bond books has there been such a deft handling of real world settings married to a group of daring-do heroes. The Sentinels are all well defined and make a great team. This is modern pulp at its finest and I can’t wait for the next Sentinels adventure.

THE VALLEY OF FEAR

THE VALLEY OF FEAR
By A.C. Doyle
Hard Case Crime
224 pages.

It is no secret that I’ve been a huge supporter of Hard Case Crime and their truly marvelous line of new and classic noire crime thrillers. So imagine my utter surprise when I learned they were going to be presenting, in their usually garish pulp packaging, a Sherlock Holmes book. The idea seemed completely insane and I thought it was a mere marketing ploy to cash in on the release of the new movie blockbuster currently in theaters starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr.Watson.

Well, believe it or not, gimmick or not, this bizarre little suspense thriller actually fits Hard Case Crime’s line-up. It is a pulp crime tale from start to finish and one in which the Great Detective ends up playing a secondary role by the book’s end. That it is told in two halves is also unique and Doyle is clearly aping the early pop-boilers which were often focused on evil secret organizations. In this case, they are an American coal mining union whose brotherhood has taken to using criminal means to gain the power they desire.

Into their midst comes a new “member” eager to rise in the brotherhood. As the group plots one act of brutal terrorism after another against any and all that would oppose them, the character’s descent into a living hell becomes intense and incredibly suspenseful. Whereas all this so called back-story comes in the book’s second half, long after Sherlock Holmes has already solved a particularly ingenious murder. How the two halves are reconciled and the grim denouement at the end make this one of Doyle’s bleakest tales. One I might never have bothered to read had it not been for this very original packaging.

We tip our fedora to Charles Ardai’s and a very cool idea.

SHE MURDERED ME WITH SCIENCE

SHE MURDERED ME WITH SCIENCE
By David Boop
Flying Pen Press
282 pages

The joy of pulps is how some are so hard to categorize, case in point this terrific novel set in an alternate 1950s. It’s part detective story, Hitchcock chase thriller and all out pulp adventure all rolled into one.

Noel Glass is a disgraced scientist whose experiments with microwaves went horribly awry and killed six of his colleagues, including the woman he loved. Disgraced and banished from the scientific community, Glass, fifteen years later, is self-employed in Chicago as a private detective; a rather unique gumshoe in that he uses his genius intellect to help the police with difficult cases. Keeping in mind the setting is the 50s before forensic sciences were even known, let alone available. Glass is very much the science-detective to his small number of associates.

When a wealthy industrialist approaches him and reveals that tragedy that ruined his life was no accident, but a manipulated murder, Glass is propelled into the most important case of his career. In the process he becomes framed for murder and branded a spy and traitor. Suddenly he’s being hunted by the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the Army as one of the most dangerous men in country. The only positive note in the entire affair is the fact that he not alone in his dilemma. Accompanying him as he races across the South West attempting to evade the authorities, are a Japanese entrepreneur with extraordinary martial arts skill named Wan Lee and a gorilla of gunman named Vincent.

Before their journey is reaches its conclusion, these three will deal with Russian sleeper agents, the assignation of Joseph Stalin and the many tentacles of a super secret organization bent on destroying the world so as to rebuild it into some technocratic utopia. Oh, and there’s also a beautiful femme fatale songstress somehow involved with it all. Talk about throwing in the kitchen sink, this book has it all and then some.

The writing is brisk, peppered throughout with colorful slang true to the era. It’s pacing is very Saturday matinee cliff-hanger, as Glass is forever falling into one dangerous situation after another and having to extricate himself any way he can, either with sheer brute strength or his exemplary mental prowess. All the while trying to solve the riddle of his past.

This is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read this year and David Boop is a writer you need to put on your radar. He’s fresh, original and laces his work with a spirit of zany, madcap fun that is truly infectious. Be good to yourself this Christmas season and pick up a copy of SHE MURDERED ME WITH SCIENCE. You can thank me later.

SORRY, NO E-BOOKS

Quick little note here, as we've recently been approached by several authors on this matter. Sadly, we do not review e-books. Bottom line is we spend way too much time in front of this monitor as is with our own writing and editing projects. When we read novels, both for our enjoyment and then these reviews, we want the old fashion joy of sitting back in a nice easy chair and having a real book in our hands. We don't think that's too much to ask. So, with no disrespect intended here, if your book is only available to read on-line, we're going to pass on it. Thanks, and a Happy Holiday to all of you out there in book-land.
Ron

FRANKENSTEIN - DEAD AND ALIVE

FRANKENSTEIN – DEAD AND ALIVE
By Dean Koontz
Bantam Books
352 pages

Once again reviewing the last book in a series is often times a fruitless enterprise.
Then again, if you may have passed over this trilogy, allow me to point out the error of your ways with this brief encapsulation of what occurred in the first two books; FRANKENSTEIN - PRODIGAL SON and FRANKENSTEIN - CITY OF NIGHT.

Both Victor Frankenstein and the man he created from spare parts survived throughout the ages. The mad doctor, after centuries of working with other egomaniacs like Hitler and his kind, ends up in New Orleans as Victor Helios, a wealthy man with a reputation as a philanthropist. What no one is aware of is the fact that Helios has perfected the scientific process of cloning and is busy making what he calls the New Race. Built in cloning vats, they are faster, stronger and more durable than mere humans, the Old Race. Helios’ plan is the complete and utter annihilation of the Old Race, replacing it with his artificial people.

The only things standing in his way are two street savvy detectives, Michael Madison and his partner/lover, Carson O’Connor and Helios’ original creation, still alive and calling himself Deucalion. Over the centuries, Deucaulion has become a philosopher and realizes the true horror that is Victor Frankenstein. He has vowed to stop his creator and end his mad dream once and for all.

In the first two books, Decaulion and the two detectives began to unravel Helios’ master plan and learned that many of the city’s officials and law enforcement chiefs had been murdered and replaced by Helio’s cloned replicants. In this the third and final chapter, Decaulion sets out to infiltrate Helio’s clone factory and his ultra secret laboratories to destroy them. But to do so, he and his allies will have to face unimaginable horrors. At stake the very survival of mankind.

Spinning the old Mary Shelley classic on its head, Koontz has a grand time making the “monster” his noble hero and the scientist the immoral, heartless villain. He does this with amazing skill as it is one of the hallmarks of his fiction, inventing heartless, sadistic sociopaths who are worst than any monstrosity Hollywood could ever invent. Koontz understands that in a world of sinners and saints, we don’t need special effects to make monsters. Too many of them walk among us every day. FRANKENSTEIN – DEAD AND ALIVE may be a pulp an outlandish pulp nightmare, but its good versus evil theme is all too believable and scary as hell.

ARIEL

ARIEL
By Steven R. Boyett
Ace Fantasy
389 pages

I generally tend to shy away from most fantasy novels as they seem frivolous and lightweight. It’s like having a vegetarian meal of tofu and other assorted veggies, when what you are really craving is meat and potatoes. Steven R.Boyett’s ARIEL is clearly a meat and potatoes variety of a fantasy adventure. There is nothing fanciful in his apocalyptic setting wherein the world we know, the world of science and technology, one day simply ceases to function. Just like that, all the laws of science are no longer valid and replacing them is the magic of ancient mythology.

Then one day the protagonist, a young man named Peter Garey, encounters a unicorn in his travels through this lonely, silent landscape. The snow-white unicorn’s name is Ariel and she an immature creature seeking direction and guidance. She is intelligent and can talk, able to learn from Pete. Thus the two quickly come to learn they need each other if they are to survive in this wasteland aftermath of what Pete calls the Change. Underlying the entire narrative is the sexual tension created by the fact that Pete can touch Ariel and share a bond with her because he is still a virgin. Ariel is purity personified and only virgins can make contact with her; others are painfully burned.

And that’s the entire set up. What makes it unique and original is putting such a fantasy pairing into a gray, foreboding world. Along their journey, they meet a sword wielding philosopher named Malachi Lee who warns them that a necromancer has set up shop in the ruins of New York and should he learn of Ariel, will make every effort to capture her for the magical properties of her horn. No sooner is this warning given then they are set upon by agents of that evil magician and blood flows.

Boyett, himself a student of martial arts, describes violent encounters with a clinical precision that is based on his actual fight training. There are some glorious sword duels throughout and when Ariel is eventually captured by the villain, Pete and Malachi lead a rag-tag army of Washington based survivors in an attack on the necromancer’s stronghold, the Empire State Building. This is not your kid sister’s fantasy, but a fast paced, thrill ride that culminates in a page-turning battle amidst the cramped halls and offices of this iconic landmark.

ARIEL was Boyett’s first novel and was released way back in 1983. It launched his career and became a cult favorite amongst sci-fi and fantasy readers. The book wraps up on an open-ended line that indicated there would be more adventures to come. Now, after twenty-six, a sequel has been delivered in hardback called ELEGY BEACH occasioning the re-lease of this new paperback edition of ARIEL. I’m eager to get to it, as ARIEL is truly a remarkable, entertaining adventure book that doesn’t disappoint. If you’ve passed it over all these years, undecided whether to give it a go, hesitate no longer. ARIEL is simply a terrific book.

THE ROOK - Vol. Three

THE ROOK Vol. Three
By Barry Reese
Wild Cat Books
168 pages

He’s back, Atlanta’s own original pulp hero as created by Barry Reese, in another collection of six very exciting new adventures. The fun of Reese’s creation is how he is constantly pairing his beak-nosed avenger with classic pulp heroes from the golden days of the pulps. In this volume the Rook teams up with the Black Bat and criminologist Ascott Keane to take on the villainy of the red-garbed Dr.Satan.

Although the stories stand individually, they do form a narrative chain and in this volume the Rook takes on the growing threat of Hitler’s new super soldiers, each with his own unique scientifically altered abilities. But it is his confrontations with Dr.Satan that proved to me the most of fun this third outing. Reese clearly has fun with how he handles these old time baddies, giving each an obsessive drive to succeed in whatever their nefarious plans might be. They jump off the page and are truly part of the charm of his fiction.

There’s also plenty of action in the way of gun fights and knock-down, battering slug-fests between the minions of evil and the Rook and his own colorful allies. With this volume, Reese is three for three in the win column. His prose gets leaner and more confident with each new story he weaves, the sign of a real talent. Here’s hoping there are a lot more Rook adventures coming our way.

CROMWELL DIXON'S SKY-CYCLE

CROMWELL DIXON’S SKY CYCLE
By John Abbott Nez
P.G.Putnam’s Sons
Illustrated 31 pages

Since the Wright brothers first took to the air, the history of aviation in America has revolved around unique individuals. All of them possessed indomitable courage which gave them the impetus to reach for the clouds and the annals of flight are filled with their names and exploits from Amelia Earhart to Charles Lindbergh.

Recently all of us were duped by a balloon-boy hoax that was cooked up by a warped, celebrity craving couple from Colorado. No sooner was this story plastered all over the news, then I received this marvelous book about the “real” balloon boy, Cromwell Dixon.
It is a beautiful illustrated children’s book that relates how, in 1907, a fourteen year old Cromwell, in wanting to emulate his flying heroes, decided to build a flying bicycle and ride it in competition over the streets of Columbus, Ohio.

After a few setbacks, to include a disastrous fire that destroyed his first lighter-than-air balloon, Cromwell, with the loving support of his mother, finally triumphed. He actually affixed a modified bicycle to a giant balloon and flew it. So successful was he that eventually the newspapers tagged him, “America’s Boy Aeronaut.” Now, thanks to the extremely talented John Abbott Nez, who has over fifty children’s books to his credit, this long forgotten story of Cromwell Dixon is finally retold. There is even a photo of Cromwell and his mother in their garage in the book’s special epilogue.

Everything in this marvelous adventure book is true. If you’ve any young readers in your family eager to experience the early years of flight through the eyes of one of their own, you should pick up a copy of this book. It is truly inspiring.

BOILERPLATE

BOILERPLATE
History’s Mechanical Marvel
By Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett
Abrams Image
163 pages

Bogus documentaries have been a comedy stable of the film industry for many years now. In 1983, Woody Allen, using state of art the trick photography, invented a fictional biography of a fellow named Zelig; a living chameleon who was present at some of the major political events of the 20th Century. The film was so flawless in its special effects it helped coin a new word, mockumentary. Later Roger Zemeckis employed the same movie magic interweaving the life of the fictional Forrest Gump with real, historical personalities such as John F.Kennedy and John Lennon.

Now, thanks to the amazing work of graphic artists Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, we have this wonderful oversized coffee-table book detailing the history of the most famous mechanical man ever created, Boilerplate. Through the use of archival pictures, we are shown the histories of inventor Archibald “Archie” Campion and his sister, Lily, at the end of the 19th Century. Both siblings are pioneers for social revolution and deeply affected by the constant scourge of warfare that continues to take thousands of lives throughout the world in various global conflicts. Thus, in 1893, Archie builds Boilerplate to be a robot soldier, his dream being that one day governments will adopt his philosophy, and employ only armies made up of mechanical warriors.

In the process of promoting his grandiose vision, Archie and Lily travel the world with Boilerplate and thus find themselves intimately involved with some of the most monumental events of the late 19th and early 20th Century. From charging up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, to saving the life of Mexican revolutionist, Pancho Villa and battling with Lawrence of Arabia against the Turks in World War One, Boilerplate and the Campions move through history in an amazing visual Odyssey beautiful detailed in hundreds of authentic (hmmm) black and white photos and colorful pictorial essays of the time.

The fun of this volume is captured on every beautiful laid out page and even though the entire conceit is adult make-believe, let me make one thing extremely clear, Guinan and Bennett have done their homework and the history they present framing their fanciful tale, is true and absolutely just as fascinating. You can read BOILERPLATE for the sheer audacity of its gimmickry, but will also come away with a vast knowledge of little known historical data that is nearly worth the price of the book itself. Now that’s a double treat for any real lover of history, bogus or not.

SENTINELS - The Shiva Advent

SENTINELS – The Shiva Advent
By Van Allen Plexico
White Rocket Books
238 pages

Van Allen Plexico seems determined to create a new sub-genre of adventure fiction I like to call tekno-pulp. The link between the roots of American pulps and comics books are so intertwined, it would take a Solomon to untangle them. At the height of their popularity in the late 20s and early 30s, hero pulps were the main course for imagination starved kids in this country. They feasted on tales the Shadow, Doc Savage and the Spider with unabashed relish, and then they grew up to create their own heroes; Sueprman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, etc.etc. And thus as the pulps died out, at the end of World War II, the superhero comics easily stepped in and took their place in the hearts and minds of the new post-war generations.

Over the subsequent decades, many writers have made cursory attempts to bring the excitement and wonder of super-hero sagas into the prose field. Few have had limited success. Which is why this series by an avowed comic-book lover, is finally breaching that gap between the two formats and doing it brilliantly. Plexico, inspired completely by the Marvel and DC books he read as a child in the 70s, has invented his own super-hero team, the Sentinels, and they are clearly his homage to those comics. But with a truly wonderful difference in his understanding of prose and the potential it offers to dig deeper into the psyches of his spandex-wearing characters. His gift of storytelling is razor sharp and he captures the reader’s interest from the first chapter to the last, never allowing the action to flag once.

SENTINELS – The Shiva Advent is Plexico’s fourth book in this series, taking up where he left off with his first Warlord Trilogy. Resting on their laurels from having the saved the world in that first series of books, the Sentinels are attacked by an alien robot of unbelievable power and their leader, the mighty Ultraa, is kidnapped. Now it’s up to super scientist, Esro Brachis, the armor clad champion, to lead the team and not only rescue Ultraa, but learn the secret of their new foe. At the same time, Plexico begins to delve into Ultraa’s mysterious past as the layers of his amnesia slowly begin to peel away to reveal an amazing history filled with alien visitors to earth during the time of the American Revolution.

Using the classic pulp styling of weaving in and out of several plots, Plexico delivers a gripping adventure that is so much fun, I hated to see it come to end. But be forewarned, this is only the first of a trilogy and the climax is a mind-blowing cliff-hangar of gargantuan proportion, leaving the fate of the world in jeopardy. If you are one of those readers who enjoyed comics growing up and have since put them away because of some ill conceived idea that they are no longer relevant, here’s your answer in recapturing that old magic, but in a brand new, clearly sophisticated adult approach. This is pure tekno-pulp heaven!

THE NUCLEAR SUITCASE

THE NUCLEAR SUITCASE
By Joel Jenkins
PulpWork Press
303 pages.

The year is 1987 and the world is grappling with the economic collapse of the Soviet Union and end of Russian Communism . Fritz, Sly, Matthias, Mitz and Otto are the Gantlet brothers, a family rock group with a rather dramatic past. Born in East Germany, the five boldly escaped over the Berlin Wall to freedom years earlier. In the process, they acquired certain skills which, once relocated to the United States, they found commercially beneficial to their survival. To fund their music career, the brothers hire themselves out as bodyguard/security experts. This in turn leads to them into various adventures conducted in the shadowy alleyways of global espionage.

As this story beings, we learn that a disgruntled former KGB general is determined to see the Hammer & Sickle returned to its former glory. To achieve this end, he and his fanatical followers, hatch a plot to smuggle three nuclear bombs into the U.S. in small, harmless looking suitcases. It is only by chance that Sly and Fritz Gantlet discover the plot and are soon working hand in hand with the C.I.A. to find the three deadly containers and disarm them before the mad Russian can start World War III.

From the Agean Ocean to London, New York, Seattle and San Francisco’s Chinatown, the brothers find themselves propelled into a tense race against time, with only their wits and reckless courage to see them through. And as if three nuclear suitcases weren’t enough to deal with, a former German adversary turned mercenary appears with his own personal vendetta to settle against the brothers. And then there’s the beautiful female rock star who Sly finds himself enamored with. But is she one of the good guys or a double agent sent to destroy them?

Jenkins is a capable storyteller who is clearly having fun with this old fashion thriller. He has created a marvelous cast of characters unlike any others we’ve encountered in action fiction before and the sibling dynamics is a truly fresh approach to the genre. This is clearly modern pulp and worth your attention and support. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of the Gantlet Brothers.

THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU

THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU
By William Patrick Maynard
Black Coat Press
242 pages


One of the most popular pulp villains of all time was Sax Rohmer’s Chinese mastermind, Dr. Fu Manchu. Rohmer was the penname of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, a prolific British novelist born in 1883 and died in 1959. Rohmer’s first introduced the character in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, which ran as a magazine serial between 1912-13. It was an immediate success with its fast paced action centered on Sir Denis Nayland Smith and his companion, Dr. Petrie, taking on the world wide conspiracy of the “Yellow Peril.” The character went on to be featured in motion pictures and television with such notable actors as Warner Oland, Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee in the menacing role.

Now for the first time in many, many years we have a brand new, authorized adventure by William Patrick Maynard and it is a gem. Maynard’s style perfectly captures the voice of Dr.Petrie, the stiff-lipped hero/chronicler who battles valiantly alongside his courageous boyhood pal, Nayland Smith. Maynard has clearly done his homework and he peppers the narrative with many references to the duo’s past sorties against the fiendish leader of the Si Fan, the Chinese secret society devoted to world domination and the destruction of the British Empire.

This particular case revolves around a retired cleric whose autobiography contains the whereabouts of a precious, long lost ancient artifact said to contain powers that could destroy all of mankind. As Smith and Petrie take up the hunt, they quickly find themselves not only battling Fu Manchu and his Si Fan, but a second mysterious organization, one steeped in the occult and devil worship. Amidst this contest between two equally deadly groups, our heroes must win out or the civilization is doomed. From London to Paris, the action moves at a breakneck pace with a marvelous collection of truly memorable characters, both good and evil.

I particularly liked how deftly Fu Manchu was described, Maynard opting to give the figure a subtle, devious villainy and not turn him into a cardboard stereotype. In doing so he has delivered one of the finest pulp novels of the year and a worthy addition to the canon of Sax Rohmer’s thrilling saga. If you’ve never read a Fu Manchu tale, this is a terrific place to get started. This is pulp at its best.

TRUST ME

TRUST ME
By Peter Leonard
Minotaur Books
290 pages

If you are an avid reader, then you are well aware of writer Elmore Leonard and his rise from an obscure pulp writer in the 40s and 50s to one of the country’s bestselling crime novelist. Although in those early years, Leonard was quite successful as a western writer, it was his shift to oddball crime stories that cemented his popularity among critics and readers alike. Of course it didn’t hurt that brash, innovative filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino adapted Leonard’s work to the movies as well.

Now I bring this all up to introduce this, the second novel by Elmore’s son, Peter Leonard. According to the book’s front and back cover blurbs, this is his second book and the first, called QUIVER, seems to have elicited much critical praise. Having not read that book, I can’t opine one way or the other. Rather it is TRUST ME that has now introduced me to Peter Leonard and I have mixed feelings about it.

No surprise that he would write a twisted, noir crime tale in the same vein as his father. This acorn has really not fallen very far from the tree, I only wish it was much more grounded like the originating timber. Karen Delaney is a beautiful, Detroit based model, who has been ripped off by her former boyfriend, a thuggish Chaldean immigrant named Samir. She foolishly hands him $300,000 to invest for her. When they break up, after he physically abuses her, she finds herself unable to get the money back. Desperate, Karen decides to hire local thugs to steal the money back. Of course once she sets this scheme into motion, it quickly goes awry. Within twenty four hours of the theft, two people are dead and Karen is running for her life with an eclectic bunch of hoods on her tail to include two Iraqi veterans of Saddam’s Royal Guard and an ex-Detroit cop name O’Clair, who is one tough dude.

Half way through the book, I found myself both enjoying and being annoyed by it. The story’s premise is fine and the action moves at a really fast pace. All too the good, but lost in the process is any real characterization, save for the two principle characters, Karen and O’Clair, everyone else seems totally one-dimensional and sometimes hard to tell apart. Then the writer starts playing footloose with the narrative’s time, much like those Tarantino movies I mentioned earlier. Which definitely did not work here and really stopped the flow of story like an unexpected detour roadblock. An example, in one scene a character is brutally murdered and dumped in a hotel closet, then in the very next scene appears at Karen’s door, very much alive. Huh? It took this reader a few minutes to realize Leonard had gone back in time for the second scene.

Sorry, but what works on the big silver screen was never intended for the pages of a book. That’s the lesson he needs to learn. If he wants to write screenplays, I say go for it, but books don’t work this way. In the end, TRUST ME, is a freshmen work by a writer with a lot of talent. Here’s hoping future efforts will improve and not repeat these early miscues.

QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE

QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE
By Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime
208 pages
Available 27 Oct.

First up let’s have no misunderstandings here, the release of a new Quarry novel is always cause for celebration amongst mystery and crime readers. Max Allan Collins’s prose is lean and mean in the best pulp sense. So a few chapters into this one, I suddenly find myself chuckling, “Shades of Yojimbo!!”

Back in 1961, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa dropped the film world on its derrier with an outlandish period drama called Yojimbo. In the movie a masterless samurai, played by Toshiro Mifune, arrives in a small town where competing crime lords make their money from gambling. He convinces each crime lord to hire him as protection from the other. By the time this conniving swordsman is done, he’s manipulated both gangs in wiping each other. He then cleans up the remnants with his lightning fast sword.

The film was such a huge international hti. Kurosawa said in later interviews that he was inspired by the American film noir classic, The Glass Key, based on a story by Dashiel Hammett’s 1931 novel. It is obvious there is something about this particular plot that fires the imagination of both writers and artist because, after seeing Yojimbo, in 1964 Italian director Sergio Leone remade it as the western A Fist Full of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood and then in 1996, director Walter Hill took his shot, filming it as The Last Man Standing. This time it’s a Depression Era gangster theme, almost bringing it full circle with Hammett’s original tale.

And now we have QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE, the title itself being a tip off that we are about to revisit this classic plot, but in a very fresh and nasty way. Quarry, the enigmatic hero of the book finds himself in the river town of Hadee’s Port, having trailed another assassin there. In previous books, Quarry had stopped working for others and become an independent contractor. Once in the little burg, he quickly learns it is a wide open gambling town run by two gangs with strong connections to the Chicago mob, each annoyed by the other and each trying to get the upper hand.

Quarry waste no time in playing both sides against the middle, at the same dealing with the hired gun. He maneuvers himself into a position of trust with the expatriate Brit, Richard Cornell, running the high class casino. Once Quarry proves to Cornell that someone on the other side is trying to take him down, Cornell waste no time hiring him to discover who has put out a contract on him and then take them out. It’s a dangerous cat and mouse game, particularly when there are a lot of the felines and only one rodent. Bodies start to fall like dominos and eventually Quarry’s impromptu game of cards falls apart leaving him exposed, beaten to an inch of his life and about to buy the dirt farm of eternity.

This book, like all Quarry tales, is as addictive as a jar of salted nuts. Once you’ve eaten one, you know damn well the entire bowl is going to get emptied before you’re done. So pour yourself a tall cold one, grab that bag of nuts and kick your shoes off. QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE is an audacious ride over familiar territory, but delivered in a knee-to-the-groin kick that is just too damn much fun. Nobody does it better than Collins!

THE WINDS OF DUNE

THE WINDS OF DUNE
By Brian Herbert & Kevin J.Anderson
Tor Books
448 pages

Within every revolution, there exist the seeds of its own destruction. This is the overriding message of this new chapter in the Dune saga begun back in 60s with the release of Frank Herbert’s amazing novel, DUNE. Herbert was a farseeing visionary who extrapolated on the future of mankind, interweaving the politics, religions and economic factors that would shape our tomorrows. His vision was brilliant in that it foresaw our ultimate dependency on fossil fuels as a race and our slow, burgeoning awareness that the health of our very planet was tied to the abuses of that hunger. Only he made it all happen on a world called Arrakis and the oil there was something called spice.

During his lifetime, Herbert wrote five sequels to his bestselling book, ending with CHAPTERHOUSE : DUNE. In 1999, Herbert son’s Brian, and writer Kevin J.Anderson, working from notes left by the author, began a new series of prequel novels that would tell the saga of this universe before the events of DUNE. Since that time they have completed more than a half dozen such books. But with THE WINDS OF DUNE, the two have come back to the original series and taken on the challenging task of filling in some missing gaps left in those early books.

Herbert’s second and third sequels were DUNE MESSIAH and CHILDREN OF DUNE respectively. At the end of the first, young Paul Atriedes, known as the Fremen Prophet Muab’ Dib, has come to realize his empire is corrupt and his own legend a major element of that corruption. Blinded by an assassin’s bomb, Paul makes the hard decision to exit the stage of history and walks off into the deep desert of Arrakis to die, leaving behind his younger sister, the insane Alia, to take control of the empire and the raising of his twin babies, Chani, their mother having died in childbirth. When Herbert returned to the saga with CHILDREN OF DUNE, many years had passed and the twins were young adults, being cared for by Princess Irulan and Paul’s own mother, the Lady Jessica.

It was an abrupt change that left many unanswered questions as to the events that took place immediately after Paul’s exodus and fans have long wondered about those early months following the end of DUNE OF MESSIAH. Now, with this book, they have their answers, as it attempts to fill in that missing time and explain some of the dramatic, early repercussions of the Prophet’s death.

Alia is manic in her desire to protect and preserve everything her brother had created, to the point of obsessive cruelty to all who would dare stand in her way. Hearing of her son’s death, Lady Jessica travels to Arrakis to be of assistance and soon begins to fathom the true moral decay that has infected her son’s regime and the savage legacy Alia is attempting to maintain. The main plot centers about Alia’s attempts to capture a former ally of Paul’s, one Bronso, who has begun writing critical essays denouncing Paul’s godhood and exposing his myth for the fraud it always was. But Lady Jessica is not of the same mind, having been entrusted long ago by her son with a secret so profound, it would destroy any who learned of it. Thus she must somehow honor her son’s memory and fulfill her obligation to him, even if it means conspiring against her own daughter.

THE WINDS OF DUNE is filled with the same psychological complexities that were a hallmark of Frank Herbert’s books. It twists and turns on matters of trust, loyalty and the meaning of honor. Familiar characters are brought back to life with poignant clarity and the suspense and tension never let up. Even knowing what comes next in CHILDREN OF DUNE, I was hooked by this tale and enjoyed it immensely. It is a worthy addition to the DUNE saga.

HELL ISLAND

HELL ISLAND
By Matthew Reilly
Pan Macmillan Australia
108 pages

The biggest criticism labeled at today’s most successful thriller writers is how long their books are. Most critics, and readers, are well aware that today’s writers are coerced by the publishers to deliver big, fat books to help justify the $8 to $10 price tag they then affix these mass market paperbacks. So, because of economic reasons, we readers have to dig through pages and pages of padding not vital to the actual plot of these action orientated pot-boilers.

Which is why discovering Australian writer Matthew Reilly was like a breath of fresh.
Reilly’s writing is totally reminiscent of the best of the old pulp scribes. His books are short, lean and simply the purest form of pulp writing on the market today. He doesn’t waste a single sentence, let alone a page, on telling us the characters’ thoughts, emotions, backgrounds or anything else for that matter that stands in the way of the action. Reading his stuff is like eating the leanest hamburger you’ve ever had. It’s not steak by any means, but it’s damn good regardless.

In HELL HOUND, a government weapons experiment on a secret island in the South Pacific has gone horribly awry. When the aircraft carrier Nimitz goes to investigate, it suddenly goes off the Pentagon’s radar, along with the six hundred marines on board. The military quickly sends in four crack recon teams made up of various units from Seals to Airborne Rangers to discover what has happened on Hell Island. The second these squads arrive, they are attacked by a horror beyond imagination and soon are battling for their lives.

The Marine team is lead by Captain named Shane Schofield, nicknamed the Scarecrow. He's the toughest badass in the world and he’s not about to go down without a fight, no matter how overwhelming the odds against him and his team. At 108 pages, this is a book you will most likely devour in one sitting. Then again, once you’ve begun, I dare you to put it down. In Australia these are called Short Novels, and if most of them are as much fun as this one, it’s a format I wish American publishers would consider adopting.

There’s no padding in HELL ISLAND. Only action, 108 pages of it. That should be cause of enough for you to find a copy. Amazon and other major book distributors handle it, and other Reilly titles. Then buckle up for a real thrill ride.

VANISHED

VANISHED
A Greywalker Novel
By Kat Richardson
ROC Books
351 pages

Harper Blaine is a Seattle based private eye. She is murdered and then resuscitated, i.e. brought back from the land of the dead. But upon reawakening to the world of the living, Blaine discovers her death-experience has left her with the unique ability to walk through the grey realities that exist between life and death, ergo she has become a Greywalker. From that point on, her life is never the same and she soon begins encountering all kinds of devilish creatures both among the dead and the living, ala zombies, vampires and other assorted monsters. Who ever thought Seattle could be such a ghoulish center of activity.

Honestly, this series is simply a terrific, well envisioned saga that moves from novel to novel with a growing essence of urgency surrounding Blaine and the people who inhabit her strange world. Perhaps it is the book’s one and only flaw that it is an integral part of a series and if you haven’t picked up the first three, you might find yourself in over your head. Understandable. On the other hand there is so much to relish and savor in this book, you just might want to go out and find those other three.

VANISHED opens with Blaine being confronted with ghostly apparitions warning her about her past and the secrets held by her deceased father. She’s soon on a plane winging her way to Los Angeles to visit her mother and begin the process of unraveling both her father’s death and the true origins of her own abilities. Somehow the two are tied together in a twisted, complex mystery and her trip only confirms without providing any substantial answers. Just when she’s reached the end of her limited clues, Blaine is summoned back to Seattle by Edward Kammerling, the head of the city’s vampire colony. Although they are old allies from previous adventures, Blaine doesn’t trust the businessman bloodsucker and is wary of his demands.

Kammerling confesses that his financial holdings in London are being threatened by unknown forces and that his vampiric agent there has disappeared without a trace. Leary of sending one of his own kind, who would be recognized immediately, the crafty vampire wants Blaine to take on the assignment. It is a request she would have easily declined days earlier, but on the flight back home, Blaine experienced a horrifying dream wherein her old boyfriend, Will Novak, is in mortal danger by demonic forces. Will currently resides in London with his younger brother. Not believing in coincidences, when Kammerling explains his troubles and puts forth his offer, Blaine is convinced she has to go to London if only to find Novak and make sure he is safe.

Of course the dream is prophetic and by the time Blaine sets foot on British soil, all hell breaks lose and the action kicks into high gear and never once lets up. Richardson’s work is always straightforward, like a razor blade slash, clean and deadly. She creates amazing situations, forever putting Blaine through one harrowing challenge after another, yet controlling the plot with a truly deft imagination. From water born demons to a blind old Greywalker and a fiendish super-vampire whipped up by a Jewish sorcerer, VANISHED packs more action in one book than do many others in five. It’s a roller-coaster ride that will have you cheering and turning pages until your fingertips have blisters.

And the bloody prize at the end is the book is just a prelude for lots more to come in the life of Harper Blaine, Greywalker. I’m signing on now. You should too.