SGT.JANUS - SPIRIT BREAKER

SGT.JANUS – Spirit Breaker

By Jim Beard

Airship 27 Productions

160 pages

Guest Reviewer – William Patrick Maynard

There is a longstanding tradition of occult detectives. Sheridan Le Fanu is generally considered the originator of the sub-genre with his chronicles of Dr. Martin Hesselius. Together with William Hodgson Hope’s Carnacki, Seabury Quinn’s Jules de Grandin, and Manly Wade Wellman’s John Thunstone, Dr. Hesselius’ cases are generally regarded as the finest examples of a continuing occult detective hero in the supernatural realm of mystery fiction.

Willie Meikle, Jim Butcher, and Simon R. Green are among the outstanding contemporary practitioners of the form. Now one may add Jim Beard and his creation of Sgt. Roman Janus to the list of occult detectives whose exploits are worthy of a larger audience. Beard is among the select group whose work is exclusively aimed at the niche market for New Pulp. Sgt. Janus, both as an original creation and as a literary work itself, raises the bar for Beard’s fellow authors to match the same exacting standard achieved here.

Janus, in Roman mythology, is the god of the gateway to the past and the future. So it is with Sgt. Janus, a character who provides the essential link between the astral plane and our own reality. The eight stories in this collection depict the character through the eyes of his clients. The device works brilliantly in giving the reader differing perspectives on the detective and his methods.

Consequently, one wonders why the conceit is not more commonly employed in genre fiction. One suspects that as appreciation of Beard’s talent grows, the device may become more common in certain quarters at least. As a testament to Beard’s plotting and characterization, I was unable to rank the stories in the collection as I found them to be uniformly excellent.

The book’s publisher, Airship 27 has deservedly made a name for itself among pulp-specialty houses for not only the writing talent they employ, but also the design of their books which is rarely short of stunning. It is no exaggeration to say that their titles place consistently among the best-looking on the market with cover and interior artwork of a surprisingly high caliber. Given the diversity of narrative viewpoints in the collection, it is perhaps only appropriate that artist Eric Johns delivered eight unique illustrations to grace each of the stories.

Johns’ stylistic range is surprisingly broad. The illustration for the first story, “The Portobello Cetacean” could be a Lynd Ward woodcut in the vividness of his depiction of the ethereal struggle between occult detective and spirit. While a Manga-style illustration is entirely appropriate for “This Unbroken Lock.” The lifelike quality of the highly-charged erotic illustration for “Lydia’s Lover” is likewise a perfect match. Johns employs an exaggerated Fumetti-style to depict the disturbed sexuality of “Sculpted Velvet” and one cannot imagine a more evocative choice.

As the description of the artwork suggests, Beard’s fiction is anything but pat and routine. While he may deliberately conjure the spirits of authors of Victorian and Edwardian occult fiction before him, Beard’s prose is fresh and entirely modern in his, at times, frank and unsettling tales of the wages of his characters’ past sins. Each story breezes by and like the best tales told round the campfire, it leaves the reader hungry for more. 

Not only does the changing narrative voice keep each story fresh and exciting, so does Beard’s decision to make Janus House, the detective’s residence an integral part of the formula. As Mervyn Peake ably demonstrated with Gormenghast and contemporary masters such as Neil Gaiman have proven to good effect time and again, treating a mysterious house as a character only adds to the narrator and the reader’s sense of disorientation. Where this genre is concerned, such a decision only serves to heighten the mystery and compel the reader and narrator to move forward with the story.

It is only fitting that by the time one reaches the shocking conclusion of the final tale, “The Unfinished Landscape,” Beard’s occult detective stays true to his name and passes through a portal few before him have dared to venture. As the entirely appropriate title of the final story suggests, the door is left open for more adventures from this timeless original in the classic tradition. I for one will be eager to let Roman Janus (and, by extension, Jim Beard) be my guide. Sgt. Janus, Spirit-Breaker come highly recommended.

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William Patrick Maynard was authorized to continue Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu thrillers beginning with The Terror of Fu Manchu (2009; Black Coat Press). A sequel, The Destiny of Fu Manchu was published earlier this year by Black Coat Press.  Next up is a collection of short stories featuring an Edwardian detective, The Occult Case Book of Shankar Hardwicke and a hardboiled detective novel, Lawhead. To see additional articles by William, visit his blog at SetiSays.blogspot.com

FOUR BULLETS FOR DILLON

FOUR BULLETS FOR DILLON

By Derrick Ferguson

PulpWork Press

142 pages

Over past few years several new pulp writers have created terrific heroes that easily compare with the classic characters of the 30s magazines. One of these is Dillon by the talented Derrick Ferguson.  Dillon is an African American modern day adventurer who travels the globe aiding people in desperate need of rescue and at the same time taking on insidious villains of every imaginable form.  The thing I absolutely love about Dillon is that even in the midst of the most dire situations, when death practically is assured its ultimate victory, he manages to retain his sense of humor making him the coolest pulp hero of them all.

After offering up a couple of fast paced novels which first introduced us to Dillon and his exploits, Ferguson this time collects four short tales that were published in various projects over the years and this fan is most grateful for this.  These four action packed thrillers display the range of settings and atypical missions our hero takes on, each is a fast, mile-a-second read that will leave blisters on your fingers.

“Dillon and the Bad Ass Belt Buckle,” finds our hero and his mentor, Eli Creed, in the jungles of Cambodia to rescue an American film actress.  Their mission is successful up to the point they lose their transportation and have to seek refuge in a fortified camp called Cheap Prayer. It is by a mercenary outlaw named Kudro Mayoka. I won’t spoil the fun with any more details except to add the plot revolves around Dillon challenging Kudro to a survival race with the winner becoming the enclave’s new leader and claiming a giant belt buckle studded with jewels and emblazoned with the words BAD ASS.  Honestly, I don’t think I stopped laughing once while reading this one.

“Dead Beat in La Esca,” is a real collector’s treasure as it was co-written by Joel Jenkins and has one of Joel’s pulp characters, guitar player Sly Ganlet meeting up with Dillon one night in a fancy nightclub.  Unbeknown to the both, they’ve been set up by a mysterious organization that wants them both out of the way.  The irony is both men may actually do the bad guys a favor by killing each other first.  A different kind of story and though worthwhile, was the weakest in this collection.  Guess I just like my Dillon flying solo.

“Dillon and the Escape From Tosegio,” is another one of those oddities.  It’s a rollicking, non-stop thrill ride which was penned as a prequel to the first Dillon novel.  It reminds one of those opening action prequels in the James Bond movie, done to set the stage and get the audience in the proper mood.  Having read “Dillon and the Voice of Odin,” when I came to the end of this short, I could easily envision the opening credits of the bigger movie.  Really happy to see this one in print for all Dillon fans.

Finally, Ferguson saves the best for last in “Dillon and the Judas Cup.”  Although I likened Dillon to action heroes like Bond, there’s also a great deal of Indiana Jones in his adventures and they revolve around arcane lore long forgotten in time.  Such is the plot of this yarn wherein a chalice made from the thirty pieces of silver paid Judas Iscariot for betraying Jesus, has survived through the ages bringing both power and tragedy to any who possess it.  Dillon is hired by a dying rich industrialist to procure the cup and once and for all hide away so that it can never again curse mankind.  To do so he must recruit two of his associates, a cat-burglar and a computer hacker.  Along with the industrialist beautiful daughter, they fly to the remote island where it is being held and launch their Mission Impossible-like plan to steal it.  Of course, like any other Dillon caper, things never go as smoothly as envisioned and soon all of them are racing for their lives to flee the atoll before its volcano erupts and sinks them all.  It’s a grand finale to a wonderful anthology.

If you’ve yet to meet Dillon, this the book is your invitation to a world of thrills and spills as delivered by a writer at the top of his game.  Ferguson’s love of action adventure explodes from every page and he always leaves his readers both satisfied and begging for more.  “Four Bullets For Dillon,” is a hands down winner and I’d be remiss not to mention it comes wrapped by a gorgeous cover by artist Anthony Castrillo.  What more could any pulp fan want?

WHY DOES BATMAN CARRY SHARK REPELLENT?

WHY DOES BATMAN CARRY SHARK REPELLENT?

By Brian Cronin

A Plume Book

Trivia/Pulp Culture/Comics

262 pages

What kind of book would you expect from a lawyer who is a true comic book geek? Brian Corbin writes a regular blog for Comic Book Resources which has brought him into contact with some of the leading professional writers and artists in the comic field, not to mention lots of enthusiastic die-hard fans along the way.

This collection of trivia lists is his follow up volume “Was Superman A Spy?” by the same company and it is absolutely wonderful.  With such bizarro lists such as Ten Crazy Items Found on Batman’s Utility Belt from which the book gets its title to such media related topics as Seven Bands That Got Their Names from Comics.  More and more comic cons are hosting all manner of comic trivia panels and contests and if you’ve ever entertained the idea of doing such, this little volume could prove invaluable.

My one critique is Cronin tends to spotlight the big two, Marvel & DC, overly much giving short shrift to lots of other great companies in the process.  An example found in his Six Cameos by Clark Kent and Lois Lane Outside of DC Comics. A little more research and he might have found the fan favorite scene in Now Comics “Sting of the Green Hornet” where Clark & Lois, circa 1940, are seen leaving after their interview with President Franklin Roosevelt.  Cronin is obviously unfamiliar with the scene and the series.  I’m not. You see, I wrote it. 

Again, a really fun book any comic fan would appreciate.

HELL IS EMPTY

HELL IS EMPTY

(A Walt Longmire Mystery)

By Craig Johnson

Penguin Books

309 pages

“Hell Is Empty” is as much about the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming as it is about the people who live within their shadows.  Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire is transporting several prisoners to an out of the way wilderness locale to unearth the remains of a slain Indian boy murdered by one of the convicts; a psychopath named Raynaud Shade.  Upon meeting Longmire for the first time, Shade tells him he hears ghosts and believes the sheriff possesses the same ability.  Longmire, having fulfilled his duty in getting this human monster to the site, packs it in and starts down the mountain.

Within hours of digging up the boy’s bones, the convicts, following a plan devised by Shade, escape; killing several federal agents and marshals in the process.  When the news reaches Longmire, he realizes he’s the only lawman left on the mountain able to give chase and sets out after the killers alone.  Thus begins his incredible journey that will ultimately test both his body and his spirit as a savage winter storm is descending on the mountains and becomes a deadly participant in the drama.

Johnson’s title; “Hell Is Empty,” is an homage to Dante’s classic fantasy, “Inferno,” where the lowest levels of hell are not hot but numbingly frozen over much like the very peaks Longmire must conquer to capture Shade and save the female marshal he holds  hostage.  Now a resident of Colorado, I am daily reminded of the power and majesty of these mountain ranges and threat they pose to any who venture into them naively without the proper outdoor skills.  This book is more an adventure odyssey than a mystery. Longmire must confront his own inner demons while climbing higher to reach the snow blanketed Cloud Peak which is Shade’s final destination where both will confront each other in a primal contest of good versus evil.

The book is multilayered and despite it Heminwayesque narrative style, Johnson adds a new twist by having his protagonist guided by a giant Crow warrior called Virgil White Buffalo; his version Dante’s Roman poet guide. There is a crucial connection between the giant Virgil and the fleeing killer that Longmire slowly uncovers as the pair make their way through the brutal storm.  Soon the physical suffering the sheriff has to endure begins playing tricks on his consciousness until the reader realizes his companion may simply be the hallucination of a fevered mind.

“Hell Is Empty,” is the seventh book in the Walt Longmire series by Johnson and a terrific, gripping read unlike anything else on the market today.  It is fresh with interesting characters and skillful in its economic storytelling.  As the book’s cover announces, the series has been turned into a new A & E television series that will soon premier on Sunday evening June 3^rd and features Australian actor Robert Taylor as Walt Longmire with Katee Sachofff of Battlestar Galactica fame as his chief deputy Victoria “Vic” Moretti and Lou Diamond Phillips as best friend, Henry Standing Bear. If the show is as much fun as this book, then we’re all in for a treat.

DOMINO LADY - ALL'S FAIR IN WAR

ALL’S FAIR IN WAR

A Domino Lady Audio-Book

Written by Rich Harvey

Directed by Lance Roger Axt

Engineered by Piper Payne

Recorded at Broken Radio Studios, San Francisco, CA

Post Production by The AudioComics Company

One of the truly wonderful and totally unexpected results of the new renaissance in pulp fiction has been the resurgence renewed interest in old time radio dramas.  And what better subject matter for these new audio outfits then the classic pulp heroes of the 1930s and 40s.  Several companies have started producing audio books from the original pulp magazines and now for the very first time pulp fans can “listen” to the adventures of the Spider, Secret Agent X and many others.

Of course as all pulp fans know, there were very few lady avengers and the clear cut leader of that small group was writer Lars Anderson’s Domino Lady.  Now Audio Comics out of San Francisco, directed by Lance Roger Axt, has produced a truly marvelous original Domino Lady radio drama written by Rich Harvey and acted by a truly inspired cast.

In San Diego for the new Pacific Coast Exposition, Ellen Patrick, daughter of the former State Attorney General, is only too willing to contribute financially to the mega event which will bring much needed revenue to the popular seacoast community.  When someone breaks into the aptly named Crime Does Not Pay pavilion and walks off with a unique one million bill printed by the Federal Reserve, it spells disaster for Mayor Benbough and his planning committee. Unless the bill can be recovered, the insurance company will demand restitution from the city and in the process bankrupt it.

Once again, the beautiful and audacious Miss Patrick dons her gown, cape and as the  Domino Mask slips into the fair grounds to do her own investigation.  She is nearly captured by her former paramour, private eye Roge McKane, on duty as the exposition’s chief of security.  The inter-change between these two is pure sauciness with double-entendres flying left and right and had this listener laughing aloud.

ALL’S FAIR IN WAR is a superb audio treat with great writing, perfect acting; especially by Karen Stillwell as Ellen Patrick/Domino Lady and Peter Carini as McKane.  The blues/jazz soundtrack is also a gem and easily sets the story’s atmosphere.  If we have one complaint is that this is only the opening chapter in the series and ends much too soon, leaving us wanting a whole lot more.  Axt and Audio Comics have produced a top-notch audio recording that is pure pulp goodness.  We recommend you order you copy now.  You thank us later.

Cast & Crew –

Karen Stilwell as Ellen Patrick/The Domino Lady

Peter Carini as Roge McKane

Mandy Brown as Dottie Jaster

Peter Papadopoulos as Dan Carley

Kevin Donnelly as "Moxie"

Bill Chessman as Samuel Benton

Lance Roger Axt as Mayor Benbough and your Narrator

Christine Marshall as your Announcer

Additional roles portrayed by the members of the Pulp Adventures Acting Company

www.audiocomicscompany.com is the URL for purchasing direct: also, we will have links to where All's Fair in War can be purchased via iTunes, Amazon Mp3, Zune, Rhapsody, Nokia, and eMusic starting next week (or I should say, when it's up on  iTunes, Amazon Mp3, Zune, Rhapsody, Nokia, and eMusic). Thanks!

www.audiocomics.wordpress.com

CREEPING DAWN - Rise of the Black Centipede

CREEPING DAWN

Rise of the Black Centipede

By Chuck Miller

Pro Se Productions

189 pages

Chuck Miller is emphatically one of the bright new voices in the New Pulp Fiction movement and last year burst on to the scene with this book.  It introduced the world to his truly mondo-bizarro hero, the Black Centipede.

Describing Miller’s twisted, odd and vibrant style is a challenge in itself.  Unlike traditional classic pulp writers, his work is a hodge-podge blend of history and fiction and told from way too many different perspectives.

Written in first person narrative, the Black Centipede is a young man who crosses paths with the infamous Lizzy Borden of Massachusetts and through her encounters a mysterious being calling herself “Bloody” Mary Jane Gallows; the supposed spiritual creation of Borden and Jack the Ripper.  If that wasn’t twisted enough, our hero is saved from being murdered when his own body is possessed by another alien entity representing itself in the shape of an ugly, creeping black centipede.  Once this merger occurs, he finds himself capable of many super human feats of strength.  He becomes, like Will Eisner’s Spirit, virtually impossible to kill.

From that point on his adventures have him crossing paths with real life figures such a gangster Frank Niti and newspaper tycoon, William Randoph Hearst who wants to turn the Centipede into a popular “real life” pulp hero in his own magazine.  Then there are villains like Doctor Almanac, voodoo fighter Baron Samedi who battle across Zenith City, each with his own perverse agenda and little regard for the citizenry caught in the middle.

It’s fanciful stuff indeed but this reviewer wishes Miller would make an attempt at sticking to one point of view.  Towards the end of this first outing, we are given an entire chapter told to us by a police officer who was on the scene.  Supposedly this is necessary because the Black Centipede was on the other side of town when the incident took place. Still paragraph after paragraph of hearsay is as deadly in a novel as it is in a court of law.  Writing rule of thumb, Mr.Miller, show us, don’t tell us.

Still as this is his first book, that one flaw is easily overlooked for the overabundance of originality infused in this book.  With “Creeping Dawn,” Chuck Miller clearly establishes himself as a voice to be reckoned with.  We predict a truly brilliant future for both creator and his one-of-a-kind hero.

SHERLOCK HOLMES -The Baron's Revenge

SHERLOCK HOLMES
(The Baron's Revenge)
By Gary Lovisi
Airship 27 Productions
Guest Reviewer Gordon Dymowski

When considering all the pastiches written involving Sherlock Holmes, it is rare to find one that is purely a sequel - most Sherlockian non-canon lore involves crossovers with other public domain characters, integration of science fiction and/or horror themes, or loose adaptations of the canon.

Gary Lovisi's Sherlock Holmes: The Baron's Revenge, published by Airship 27 Productions, is a rare novel - a straightforward sequel to a past Holmes story that manages to be a crackling good read.

The novel serves as a sequel to "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" from 1927's The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. Much like of Conan Doyle's later Holmes work, The Baron's Revenge shares a similar hard-boiled, almost pulp-flavored edge as it tells its tale. Thankfully, one does not have to read Conan Doyle's story in order to understand The Baron's Revenge, given various callbacks to the original tale.

It's also a daring book in that it is written (except for one chapter) from Holmes' perspective. Although it would have been easy to fall into cliche and write Holmes as exceptionally omniscient, Lovisi does Holmes a great service by writing the detective at the proper emotional tone. It is easy to "hear" Holmes narrating the story. Rob Davis' illustrations throughout the book provide it with the right sense of pace and atmosphere, almost making it seem like a "lost" edition of The Strand Magazine. (Thankfully, it is a relatively quick read - I finished it within two days while commuting back and forth to downtown Chicago).

The Baron's Revenge is one of those rare Holmes books - an unexpected sequel that is a very good read and well worth checking out. It is available through Airship 27 as well as Amazon.com.

This book is worth owning and reading. Repeatedly.

Editor's note: Gordon regularly covers the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the entertainment industry. You can also find him at Blog THIS, Pal! and Comic Related. 


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TEN-A-WEEK STEALE

TEN-A-WEEK STEALE

By Stephen Jared

Solstice Publishing

303 pages

In the early 1920s, former Army Lieutenant Walter Steale has returned to civilian life and settled down in Los Angeles amongst the glitz of the silent movie world.  His one ambition is to put the horrors of World War One behind him and get on with a normal, peaceful life. Unfortunately his brother, Sam, the state’s Lieutenant Governor, coerces him into working as hired muscle for his crooked boss, Governor Davies.  This leads Steale into brutal confrontations with crazy mob gangsters and a prostitution ring tied to several corrupt politicians.

When a gang boss is murdered in a bombing and then Steale himself is targeted in another, even in his wounded condition he is savvy enough to realize he’s been set up as a patsy by his own brother. To clear his name and stay out of jail, Steale must rely on the courage of Virginia “Ginny” Joy, a beautiful young movie actress whose star is on the rise. As unlucky a couple as can be imagined, Ginny has fallen hard for the veteran doughboy and is willing to jeopardize her own career to save his neck.

Author Stephen Jared is an accomplished film actor with a vast knowledge of early Hollywood history which he deftly employs here by creating a truly authentic background for his wonderfully crafted mystery.  Refusing to mimic classical noir settings, Jared presents a truly straight forward and original narrative that moves at its own leisurely pace.  Then when the reader least expects it, he delivers scenes of gut wrenching violence in such a cold, calculating style, this reviewer was reminded of the late Mickey Spillane’s work.

TEN-A-WEEK STEALE was a nice surprise in many ways, exceeding my own expectations and in the end delivers a better than average tale in a field overrun with cheap knock-offs.  Wally Steale and Ginny Joy make a nice team, let’s hope we get to see them again real soon.

CALL OF SHADOWS

CALL OF SHADOWS
By David C.Smith
Airship 27 Producitons
208 pgs.
Guest Reviewer - Joe Bonadonna

CALL OF SHADOWS is a tough, dark, very film noirish story. The main character is David Ehlert, a world-weary soul who comes to the aid of newly widowed Ava Beaudine, who is caught in a deadly game being played by her late husband's business partner, the slimy Tony Jasco. But what sets this modern-day thriller tale apart from your usual tale of gangsters and murder is that Ehlert is a powerful wizard born in 1886 but who looks to be in his mid-to-late 30s. And so, what you might think is going to be the usual web of intrigue and murderous intent, suddenly turns into an even nastier, sinister plot involving dark sorcery and one sick, twisted magician.

Ehlert is a haunted man, and the story behind the ghost who haunts him is a tale of true, heart-breaking tragedy. I can't talk too much about this novel without spoiling the surprises -- and boy, there are surprises on almost every page. Just when you think you have it all figured out, when you're sure you know where the story is going, Dave Smith makes a sharp turn to the left and takes you on a detour through the shadowy streets of magic, mystery, and mayhem. The wizard Ehlert is the kind of anti-hero we don't see too much of nowadays: elegant, quietly confident, and all-too dangerous. He's not an over-the-top, flamboyant pretty boy tossing off one-liners and worn-out cliches with a smarminess that would make Hollywood proud. Oh, no. His sense of humor is subtle and dry, but this guy is also as dark as he is unassuming. This is urban fantasy for adults. This is what Harry Potter might have grown up to become if he lived in a more realistic world and had tragedy scarred his soul, instead of his forehead. Ehlert stands right up there, shoulder to shoulder, with Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and all the great characters right out of Black Mask, Weird Tales, and the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction. Ehlert is a man with a past veiled in shadow, and a future that is just this side of grim: he's a man caught in a present that doesn't quite seem suited to him. And the tragedy of his life, the one thing that keeps him going, that gives his life purpose, is the soul of this novel.

But for me, the heart of this novel is the lovely, the endearing and unforgettable Ava Beaudine. Once you meet her, you'll never forget her. She'll steal your heart while Ehlert battles to keep evil forces from stealing her life, as well as her soul.

This is a taut, excellent thriller, with crisp dialogue, solid characterizations, hard-hitting prose, explosive and violent action, and a plot that'll keep you guessing and turning the pages. I'm reading it for the fourth time. Give it a shot -- you may find yourself reading it more than twice!

SAILOR

SAILOR

By Tom Epperson

Forge Books

352 pages

Tom Epperson is a stylist whose writing displays a truly unique sensibility rarely found in the field of modern thrillers before.  He writes about complex people both good and bad, each locked into a personal moral code that propels them to accomplish wonderful feats of heroism or disgusting acts of depravity.  When they collide through various unrelated chains of events the results are scenes of mesmerizing action.

Gina and her son Luke are on the run from her husband’s mob family in New York.  She had been living in the Witness Protection Program, after having testified and helped lock up her sadistic, cruel spouse.  The problem is her father-in-law wants his grandson and ultimately bribes one of the Marshals assigned to protect them.  By a miracle of quick thinking, she and Luke elude the assassin and flee westward ending up on the beaches of Southern California. Here they meet a quiet, likeable stranger named Gray who clearly has a secret past of his own.  All the while the crooked Marshall, a trio of his redneck pals and a pair of deadly Russian hit-men are all converging on them like the hot Santa Anna winds.

Imagine blending Elmore Leonard’s terse, economic prose with the fanciful poetry of a Ray Bradbury and you have “Sailor,” a truly beautifully crafted suspense thriller that plays across the reader’s imagination like the taut bow string of a mournful violin.  None of this comes as a surprise as Epperson also wrote the screenplays to two of finest noir films ever produced; “One False Move” and “The Gift.”  Like those two stories, “Sailor” is peopled by original, believable characters that inhabit a world both familiar and strange.  The tension, the violence and the hope infused in these characters is perfectly etched and by the book’s finale becomes a poignant reading experience you won’t soon forget.

SCARECROW

SCARECROW

By Matthew Reilly

St.Martin’s Paperbacks

457 pages

When this reviewer can chew through four hundred and fifty-seven pages of fiction as if it were a ball of yummy cotton-candy, you know there is lots of awesome action in those pages.  “Scarecrow” by Matthew Reilly is easily one of the fastest paced action thrillers I’ve ever had the pleasure of devouring.  From the very first page to the last, it takes off like a rocket ship cutting through one massive, terrorist style threat after another pitting our hero, Special Forces Marine Captain Shane Schofield against a veritable army of the deadliest professional killers in the world.

The plot is about as melodramatic as these kind of books can get.  A super secret group of arms dealers wish to create a second Cold War so that there will be a renewed demand for their product; a need that has lessened considerably since the collapse of the Soviet Union.  They plan elaborate missile strikes against the major cities of both the east and the west, using weaponry that can be traced back to specific nations and thus throw false blame on them. What the group doesn’t know is that amongst them is a psychopath who has no interest in a “cold” war, but rather this monster is intent on starting Armageddon and seeing the world destroyed.

The only thing that can foil this global scheme is the fact that all the missiles can be aborted by one universal “kill” code; a code that requires near super human reflexes to administer.  There are only fifteen men in the world, soldiers, who have such reflexes to properly activate this “kill” switch.  Thus the clandestine group puts a million dollar bounty on their heads, literally.  They also set a time-table as they want these targets eliminated before the launching of their insidious plan.  

Captain Shane Schofield, code name Scarecrow, is one of those targeted for execution.  Of course, he isn’t that easy to kill and when he escapes the first attempt on his life, he immediately begins to turn the tables on his hunters.  At the same time he is fleeing these crazed killers, he is using his Pentagon contacts to figure out what is actually going on and by the last quarter of the book, Scarecrow has unraveled the plot and begins racing against time to save the world.

Honestly, there were times when reading Reilly’s over-the-top outlandish action sequence where I was thought even Michael Bay couldn’t do justice to this gung-ho Road Runner cartoon brought to life.  There is more action in this one book than any other dozen bestselling thrillers on the market today.  Reilly is the quintessential New Pulp writer who understands the rules of break-neck pacing and the objective of entertaining the hell out of his readers.  He does both masterfully.  It is no wonder he has a huge fan following amongst action readers; this reviewer being the latest recruit.

Note, “Scarecrow” was written back in 2003 and the dog-eared copy I just read was sent to me last year by my Canadian colleague, Andrew Salmon, a long time Reilly convert who knew I’d get a bang out of it. I just couldn’t imagine just how big a bang it would be.

A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES

A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES

By Deborah Harkness

Penguin Books

579 pages

Guest Review by Nancy A. Hansen

I’m a busy writer and editor so I don’t get to read very often these days. For a large book like this one to hold my attention long enough to get to the end, it has to be well written and engaging. Happily, A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES is all that and more. It’s an absolutely enjoyable and finely detailed novel, and yet it only slows down long enough to reflect on what has occurred and set the stage for another unexpected turn of events.

The premise behind the story is an interesting twist on the vampire mania that has been sweeping the novel and movie worlds. Here we are told, there are four types of beings on earth, only one of which is mundane humanity. The vampires, daemons, and witches that live amongst us are all classified as ‘creatures’ in that they have preternatural abilities that at times get them into very deep trouble. There is a good blend of what might be considered canon for both witches and vampires along with some very intriguing new insights into their background and behavior. Daemons I didn’t feel were explained as fully, other than being incredibly quirky and highly intelligent. Witches were clearly detailed in their ability to cast spells and do other magical working; vampires have the legendary supernormal strength and agility as well as a consuming need to feed on blood. Beyond that, there was a considerable amount of innovative new traits added. Behind all of it though is a taboo against mingling between types, and this sets the tension for the story, in which both main characters—a long lived male vampire named Matthew Clairmont, and Diana Bishop, a highly educated female witch in denial of her considerable powers—have inexplicably fallen in love.

Yet this is far more than a gothic romance story. There is a sense of real and imminent danger from a vigilante controlling cartel of witches, daemons and vampires bent on keeping the bloodlines pure and unmixed. Also complicating matters are serious issues of personal tragedy in the backgrounds of these two diverse creatures that fate has brought together. The binding bit is Diana’s latent ability to call forth from an Oxford library archive a long lost and legendary alchemical tome named ‘Ashmole  782’. This is a manuscript that many of her fellow creatures covet for the knowledge of their origin it is believed to contain. That moment she held the book in her hands puts her life in grave danger and sends both her, Matthew, and a close knit group of relatives and trusted friends on a perilous course of discovery and ultimate rebellion.

This is a finely tooled tale of passion, danger, intrigue, and dark doings that skillfully weaves the trials of academic and family life in with the paranormal abilities of beings that have existed mostly incognito amongst the human race for millennia. The author’s background knowledge of history and literature allowed for a plausible rendering of past world events as well as great works of science and literature into the tale, giving it a richness and depth most fantasy books can’t emulate. I was especially impressed with her ability to smoothly transition from first to third person point-of-view, for while most of the book is told through Diana Bishop’s perspective, there are events that happen without her character involved that don’t suffer from an overbearing narrator explaining how she learned of this. That is not an easy shift to make even for an experienced fiction writer, yet it was seamless enough that it never felt jarring.

Overall, this is a very well done first novel from a new fiction writer. I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for something that effortlessly combines mature love and occult material fashioned around a heaping helping of eerie suspense. Since this is the first book of a trilogy and ends on sort of a cliffhanger note, I very much look forward to reading the sequel when it becomes available.

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Longtime writer and avid reader, Nancy A. Hansen is the author of the New Pulp fantasy novel FORTUNE’S PAWN as well as the anthology TALES OF THE VAGABOND BARDS. She is a staff writer and assistant editor for Pro Se Press, has her own imprint HANSEN’S WAY, and many of her short stories have appeared in Pro Se’s monthly magazines and digests. She also pens a biweekly column called SO… WHY PULP? for http://www.newpulpfiction.com/. Nancy currently resides in beautiful, rural northeastern Connecticut.

LADY, GO DIE

LADY, GO DIE

By Max Allan Collins & Mickey Spillane

Titan Books

241 pages

Available May 2012

After returning home from World War II, veteran Mickey Spillane was prepared to go back to his civilian job of writing comics.  But instead, he opted to take an idea for a new comic series and turn it into a private eye novel called, “I, The Jury.” Released in 1947, it was the first book to feature tough-as-nails Mike Hammer. (His last name pretty much defining everything he was about.)  The book was a phenomenal success and the publisher was eager to get Spillane to do more.  Three years later the first Mike Hammer sequel, “My Gun is Quick” appeared on the bookstore shelves and became as big a seller as the first.  Both Spillane and his creation were on their way to becoming literary icons.

When Spillane passed away several years ago, he left his notes and such to his friend and protégé, Max Allan Collins.  Among these files were bits and pieces of unfinished Mike Hammer mysteries.  Getting the green light from several excited publishers, Collins set about finishing these projects and getting them in print.  Thus far we’ve seen three; “The Goliath Bone” (2008), “The Big Bang” (2010) and last year’s “Kiss Her Goodbye.” Now comes the fourth and perhaps the most anxiously awaited of the entire lot.  You see, according to Collins’ prologue notes, “Lady, Go Die” is actually the original sequel Spillane had intended to follow “I, The Jury.”  Why he never finished it and instead completed and offered up “My Gun is Quick” is a puzzle no one will ever be able to fully solve.  Still, it adds a generous slice of real mystery to this story that was envisioned by one of the greatest writers of our times nearly seventy years ago.

Taking up where the first Hammer book left off, “Lady, Go Die” finds the irascible P.I. and his gorgeous brunette secretary, Velda, traveling to a little beach resort town in Long Island for some R & R.  Velda and Hammer’s cop pal, Det. Pat Chambers, think the emotional battering he suffered in his first case has left Hammer in need of some quiet time.  Alas, as they discover all too speedily, Hammer’s personal shadow is called Trouble.  No sooner does the couple arrive in Sidon, nearly deserted in its off-season, then they witness the brutal beating of a slow-witted drifter by three policemen, one known to Hammer as a dirty cop from the City.

Hammer steps in, pounds a few heads and rescues the helpless young man.  Within hours, he and Velda learn that the small community is in a tizzy, as its most popular citizen, a famous ex-dancer turned media celebrity has vanished without a trace.  Days later, her nude body is found draped over the stone statue of a horse in the park on the public beach.

Hammer smells the familiar odor of corruption and begins to investigate on his own. He soon learns the dead woman’s mansion was in actuality a secret gambling casino being fronted by a mob personality whose identity is carefully hidden.  As if that weren’t enough to keep Hammer and Velda busy, dodging lead and wrestling with gangster muscle, their inquiries also unearth other, supposedly unrelated murders; all of young women in neighboring towns and counties.  Now the savvy Hammer has to follow two different trails and decide if they connect or not.  Suddenly he’s confronting dangerous mob gunsels at the same time hunting a twisted serial killer who may be targeting his next victim.

“Lady, Go Die” is another terrific Mike Hammer caper that moves non-stop like a flying cheetah across the reader’s field of imagination and comes to a pouncing kill in a truly classic Spillane finale.  A big tip of the pulp fedora to this one, gents.

OUTLAW BLUES

OUTLAW BLUES

By Percival Constantine

Pulpwork Press

180 pages

Pulpwork Press is one of the leading New Pulp publishers and books like “Outlaw Blues” are fine examples of the fast-paced, action packed offerings they put forth.  This particular novel, by Percival Constantine is the second in a gritty spy-vs-spy type series labeled Infernum.  Infernum is an ultra secret organization of mercenary assassins operated by a shadowy spy-master called Dante.

Although I did like the first book, it had flaws common to most new writers.  This is Constantine’s second book since that review and it is all too evident that his innate talent is quickly maturing with each new effort.  I have no reservations in saying this is easily the best thing he has ever written.

“Outlaw Blues” tells the story of a former Army Special Forces vet who becomes a killer for hire after leaving the military.  His name is Carl Flint and during the formative stages of his new career, he manages to rationalize his actions with the belief that the world is an inherently bad place and he’s doing what he must to survive and prosper.  If Flint has a conscious, he’s found a way to bury it until that time he can take his ill gotten gains and retire to a more normal lifestyle.

Unfortunately life doesn’t always adhere to our plans and during a botched up assignment, he accidentally guns down a pregnant woman.  Later, when he learns her baby was saved in the hospital, his dormant decency breaks free and from that point on he becomes a haunted soul.  He goes into semi-retirement, opens a blues bar and proceeds to spend the rest of his days in an alcoholic daze.  Then one day, one of Dante’s stooges surfaces to recruit him for one more mission; a job that will pay him enough money to set up a trust fund for the little orphan girl whose mother he killed.  Flint takes the job, fulfills his contract and then, after setting up the trust fund, disappears into Mexico under a different identity.

Of course in all noire tales, the hero can never truly escape his fate and sure enough death and violence follow him to this sleepy town south of the border, compelling him to finally accept his fate.  Carl Flint is very much a Heminway-like protagonist whose bloody finale is was set from the first time he picked up a gun.  Constantine writes him with such clinical economy, never wasting a single adjective or paragraph of mindless exposition.  By allowing Flint to define himself by his actions, we are given an honest look into his soul and by the book’s end come to respect him, if we are still unable to condone him. 

The bible quote is, “He who lives by the sword, shall perish by the sword.”  Around that one single theme, Percival Constantine has given us a truly memorable character and powerful tale that proves his emergence as a genuine master of noire fiction. Even though intended as part of a series, let me assure you this is very much a stand-alone book that should be read for its own merits.  Not having read the first will not impeded your enjoyment in the slightest.  Whereas missing this book would be a real crime.

GIRL GENIOUS - Agatha Awakens

GIRL GENIOUS
(Agatha Awakens)

By Phil & Kaja Foglio

A 319 pg graphic novel.

Tor Books

One of the things I bemoan as a professional reviewer is the lack of graphic novels I’m sent to look at.  Note I did say, “look at.”  The fun of such material is that, when well done, it becomes both a literary and visual feast; a narrative told with both words and art.

The problem is that, even in our supposed enlightened times, most major publishers still do not appreciate or acknowledge graphic novels as legitimate and thus are not receptive to publishing them.  Those pioneer publishers who do are few and far apart.  Happily Tor Books is one of the leading pioneers in this acknowledgement and they deserve credit for not only publishing books such as the Foglios’ “Girl Genius” but also promoting them so heavily.

Since its inception as a webstrip many years ago, this manga inspired sci-fi steampunk comic about airships, monsters, half-humanoid beings and a magical talent called “the Spark,” has won three Hugo Awards and been nominated for both the Eisner & Eagle Awards; the best for American and British strips respectively.  It is a grand, over-the-top tale that showcases a world where machines are looked upon with fear by the average citizen and those scientist who can master them considered heroes of mythic proportions.

Agatha Clay, an orphan college student in Transylvania, is being raised by her aunt and uncle and has no knowledge that she possesses the Spark.  Her only clue being that she often awakens from deep sleeps in her uncle’s workshop surrounded by tools and bizarre, unfinished, “cranks.”  These are robot-like inventions that come in all sizes and shapes with a variety of functions.  Eventually, her secret ability begins to assert itself and she comes under the scrutiny of Baron Wulfenbach, one of the most powerful political scientist in all the world.  He ultimately brings her aboard his city-size airship and there she meets an assortment of characters, both human and half-human, along with a talking cat with attitude and the Baron’s handsome young son, Gilgamesh. 

The boy is keen enough to realize Agatha has the Spark and suspects her talents are greater than most others known to his father.  At the same time, the great ship is coming other attack by an alien entity from another dimension and in the end, there is a climatic battle wherein Agatha, using her gifts consciously for the first time, helps Gilgamesh save the day.  But not before she uncovers other mysteries of her past and her parents.  In the end she is forced to steal an airship and along with her pal, the feisty talking cat, makes good her escape, thus ending the first part of her saga.

At 319 pages, “Agatha Awakens” is a whopping chunk of madcap, graphic fun and action galore.  Although the first hundred pages display a roughness to the depiction of the characters, it is easy to reconcile this was the first year’s worth of pages and the artists were gradually beginning to know their characters.  By the second hundred pages, the art settles into an easy, cartoony style that is part manga, without being overly exaggerated, and typical Saturday morning fare.  I particularly liked the use of coloring, which has been redone for this collection.  It shifts from the duotone and sepia when detailing earthbound city scenes and then explodes with a vibrant rainbow palette upon arriving at the giant airships that cruise majestically through the sky.

Agatha and her supporting cast of characters are fresh, original and fun.  This beautifully produced hardcover is like nothing else I’ve read in graphic form and it truly impressed me a great deal.  If you are a fan of American manga, sci-fi or steampunk, you are going to love “Girl Genius – Agatha Awakens.”  Take my advice; get two copies, one for yourself and another for your pre-teen kids or grand kids. They’ll eat it up.

THE SPY

THE SPY

By Justin Scott & Clive Cussler

Berkley Novel

528 pages

The third adventure in this series created by Clive Cussler and taken over by Justin Scott is another fine entry relating the cases of Isaac Bell, the top agent of the Van Dorn Detective Agency.  When foreign spies from Japan and Germany launch acts of murder and sabotage aimed at crippling the Navy’s battleship program, the noted detective agency is brought into the case.  This happens at the request of a young lady whose father, a gun battery expert, is found to have committed suicide after taking a bribe. Incensed by this slur of her father’s good name, the woman begs the agency to dig deep and prove what she suspects; that her father was actually murdered and the charges against him false.

The start is slow going for Isaac Bell, but bit by bit, oddities in the case begin to surface while at the same time, supposedly unrelated accidents continue to plague the Navy’s shipyards on both the East and West coast until the pattern of these events is just too coincidental to be ignored.  Once on the case, Bell becomes the bulldog man-hunter we’ve come to enjoy in his previous outings and he soon comes to realize he is chasing a deviously cunningly spy with no loyalties to any single government.  This shadowy manipulator is in fact a mercenary attempted to create a world conflict that will line his own pockets with riches.  War is good business.

From the docks of the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the ports of California, Bell and his courageous team of agents find themselves racing against the clock to prevent the Spy Master’s ultimate coup, a terrorist attack that will set the country’s defense plans back by decades and leave American vulnerable to its enemies abroad. Once again Scott sets his suspense thriller against a backdrop of historical accuracy, detailing the emergence of a young republic about to claim its place on the world’s stage.  But will this Manifest Destiny end long before it is born?

Filled with colorful characters and a beautiful glimpse of another, more innocent time, THE SPY is a worthy addition to this already much acclaimed series.  Issac Bell is clearly the Nick Carter & James Bond of his times.

BLACKTHORN - Thunder on Mars

BLACKTHORN

Thunder on Mars

Edited by Van Allen Plexico

White Rocket Books

225 pages

Why on earth would a writer/editor like Van Plexico want to take a 1980 Saturday morning cartoon television show and meld it with a classic Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy series? The answer to that perplexing question is found in this book, which by the way, is the result of that odd pairing.  In the introduction, Plexico tells of his love for an old Jack Kirby created TV series called “Thundarr the Barbarian” and how, for whatever twists of the muses, it seemed to plague his thoughts over the years.  Enough so that he decided to one day do something with the concept, adding a new and fresh spin to the plot.  It would be another few years for that final element of this eclectic brew would reveal itself to him when one day he started thinking of Burroughs legendary Martian series. 

Just like that the pieces were suddenly all there and when he mentally assembled them in his ever wondrous imagination, there he beheld the story of an American General who, upon his death in the Middle East, awoke to find his soul had been replaced in a brand new body; a body locked in the lab of a mad sorcerer on the planet Mars.  Yet more revelations arise when this character, General John Blackthorn discovers his spirit has not only traveled through space but also time as this is a Terra-Formed Mars of the far-flung future.

Within minutes of his bizarre awakening in his younger, stronger body, Blackthorn manages to escape the sorcerer with several other soul-transplanted fellows.  In their flight, he eventually meets the beautiful, dark haired sorceress Aria and the fur skinned humanoid creature Oglok of the Mock Men.  It is this trio, once met, that join forces to travel the amazing, fantastic landscape that is a post-apocalyptic Mars.  Their further adventures are chronicled by a half dozen of the finest writers in new pulp today.

Mark Bousquet, Joe Crowe, Bobby Nash, James Palmer, Sean Taylor and I.A. Watson spin exciting, fast moving adventures that pit Blackthorn and his allies against lizard men, battling robots and an ocean wide haunted valley from which no one has ever returned to name a few.  Each story is a well crafted pearl in a thematic necklace of classical pulp sci-fi and brings Plexico’s dream to vibrant life before our eyes.

It is abundantly clear that Plexico has tapped the mother-lode of adventure fiction with John Blackthorn and I can guarantee you we haven’t seen the last of him, or Aria and Oglok.  One can only wait in breathless anticipation to see where on the giant Red Planet their travels take them next.

ANTIQUES DISPOSAL

ANTIQUES DISPOSAL

A Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery

Barbara Allan

Kensington Books

230 pages
Available May 2012

Vivian Borne is an eccentric antiques dealer who lives in Serenity, a small Midwestern  town situated on the banks of the Mississippi river.  She lives with her daughters, Peggy Sue and Brandy.  Together Vivian and Brandy solve murders that in one way or another deal with the business of antiquing.  Which is the simplest way to describe this series, of which this book is the sixth and has been described by other reviewers as being a “cozy” series if anyone really knows exactly what that means.

As a fan of hardboiled detective fiction, I’m assuming “cozy” refers to those mysteries wherein the protagonist is a little old lady ala Agatha Christie’s popular Miss Marple books or the old Angela Landsbury TV show, “Murder She Wrote.”  In other words, not my particular brand of tea; I prefer a headier beverage literature.  Still, every now and then one desires to try something different.  I decided I’d take a chance with “Antiques Disposal.”

It is probably one of the smartest things I’ve done in a while.  Why?  Well simply because the book is so damn funny, I honestly couldn’t put it down.  And the characters!  Oh, my God, is there a more dysfunctional group then the Borne girls?  Remember I said Brandy was Vivian’s youngest daughter?  Well she’s actually Peggy Sue’s daughter.  Yup.  Echoes of “Chinatown.”  You see Peggy Sue got herself “in trouble” as a young, unmarried girl and left her baby with her mother to raise figuring it was best for the child.  Did I mention Vivian suffers from a bi-polar disorder and is on medication?  Never mind that Brandy herself has a daughter….oh, forget it.  Its way too complicated for me to keep track of after only one visit with this eclectic bunch.  The thing is the writing is so clean and precise, even though you haven’t read those first five books  (something I hope to one day correct) the reader just goes with the flow.  There is a charm and decency to these characters that immediately grabbed me and had me caring for them from page one. 

Look, here’s what every true mystery fan knows as a fact, series fail or succeed not on how brilliant the crimes are staged and then solved, but on how appealing and original the heroes are.  Don’t believe me, give this some thought.   Early fans of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson came to demand more stories from Arthur Conan Doyle to read more about them and not the mysteries they dealt with, those became incidental.  The same can be said of every solid mystery series from Sam Spade, to Nero Wolfe and Nate Heller.  In fact one of those famous shamus plays a huge part in this book’s climatic dénouement finale in such a hilarious way, I will not spoil it for you.  It’s just too damn funny.

Okay, if you really need to know the plot, here it is.  Vivian and Brandy go to a storage unit auction, wherein the person who owned the unit stopped paying rental fees on it and the manager is legally free to sell its contents to recoup his or her loses.  These auctions have become very common among antique dealers and I believe there is even a reality show based on the practice.  So our two ladies end up winning the bid, begin transporting the boxed contents to their home and cataloguing them; everything perfectly normal and routine.  Until they return to the storage facility for their second trip and find the manager dead in the now empty unit.  The very next night someone breaks into Vivian’s home, attacks Peggy Sue leaving her unconscious and nearly kill’s Brandy’s loveable little blind poodle, Sushi.

From this point forward, both Vivian and Brandy are on the hunt for the killer and how they go about it so entertaining, pages simply fly by.  Sure, I was playing along and looking for clues too, but honestly, it was the ride I was enjoying to the max.  Bottom line, if all of the Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mysteries are as wonderful as “Antiques Disposal,” then sign me up for the long haul.

Hey, even if you end up not liking the book, did I mention there are recipes for chocolate brownies in it?  Now how can you go wrong with that?