The Short Stories of John M. Sitan

 A recent Facebook posting in one of my book groups wondered if John M. Sitan was an alias of another writer, such as Jonathan Craig or Gil Brewer, also writing stories for Manhunt at the same time. I had no idea myself, so I did some homework to find out more about this shadowy author.

By way of background, Sitan authored only three short stories in Manhunt and then disappeared as a writer. According to The Manhunt Companion by Peter Enfantino and Jeff Vorzimmer, Sitan wrote the following stories for Manhunt in three consecutive months during 1954:

“My Enemy, My Father” – June 1954
“Confession” – July 1954
“Accident” – August 1954

Enfantino and Vorzimmer review all three stories favorably in the guide, but they single out “Confession” as something special. The story of a serial sniper (reviewed below) was selected by editor David C. Cooke for inclusion in his 1955 Best Detective Stories of the Year anthology. Vorzimmer later featured the story in his curated The Best of Manhunt 2 compilation from Stark House Press released in 2020.

I searched far and wide for any indication that Sitan’s work was ever published elsewhere and found nothing. The guy apparently sold three stories to Manhunt and then nothing else, so it’s not crazy to wonder if he was a pseudonym or a house name.

As fun as it would have been to unmask the pen-name of John M. Sitan, a few minutes of internet sleuthing revealed that he was, in fact, a real guy.

John McElroy Sitan was born on May 1, 1925 in Longview, Washington. He served in the U.S. Army during World War 2 from 1943 to 1946. Upon his return to Washington State, he began a 30-year career as a technical writer for Boeing. It was while he was gainfully-employed by Boeing that he decided to do some non-technical writing for the top hardboiled crime digest at the time, Manhunt.

For reasons unclear to me, he never caught the bug to continue his side-hustle as a fiction writer. Instead, he and his wife Hazel focused on getaways to a cabin John built himself on Mount Index and traveling the world on vacations following his retirement. The couple never had children, and John died on November 9, 2012. His limited contributions to the world of hardboiled crime fiction would have been lost to the ages but for a renewed interest in Manhunt spurred on by Stark House Books, Enfantino, Vorzimmer, and Paperback Warrior.

Copies of Manhunt are rare and prohibitively expensive, so mere mortals are forced to leverage modern short story anthologies that reprint the greatest hits from the legendary digest. As such, I’m left with only one resource to read Sitan’s work - the second volume of The Best of Manhunt from Stark House Books, where I found Sitan’s only enduring story, “Confession” from July 1954.

“Confession” is the story of a sniper named John Egan. As the story opens, Egan is pulling the trigger on his scoped and silenced rifle that results in a nurse’s head exploding as the round penetrates her skull on the street below. Egan is not a paid assassin. He’s a factory worker who happens to be a crackerjack shot with a long gun. He’s basically a serial killer before there was a term for such things.

When he takes to the road, the reader gains insight into Egan’s real motivations. Sadly, our modern society has become accustomed to mass killers without conscience. However, when Manhunt published Sitan’s story, it must have been a chilling peek behind the curtain of a remorseless psychopath. The ending was a bit abrupt to me, but it was a satisfying story in line with the dark fiction that made Manhunt great.

Despite his minimal contribution to the catalog of American crime fiction, John M. Sitan was a unique voice who deserves to be remembered. It would be nice to see his other two stories find a modern audience in a future anthology.

Buy The Manhunt Companion HERE:
Buy The Best of Manhunt 2 HERE:

Sin in Their Blood

Sin in Their Blood is a 1952 hardboiled crime paperback by under-appreciated author Ed Lacy (real name: Leonard Zinberg, 1911-1968) that remains available today as a reprint. 

Our narrator is Matt Ranzino. He’s a musclebound former boxer, cop and tough-guy private detective who set his practice aside to fight in the Korean War. While serving overseas, he suffered a head wound that almost killed him and contracted a case of tuberculosis that landed him in a hospital bed for 11 months. He’s now back in his unnamed hometown looking to rebuild his life with no money or job. 

His first stop is to visit his old PI partner, Harry. While Matt was overseas, Harry’s business really took off when Harry discovered the lucrative business of blackmailing businesses into allowing Harry to screen their employees for Commies. Harry offers Matt a job with his new Red-Scare firm, but Matt declines. 

Matt’s time in the hospital left him with a scarred lung that could burst open and kill him if he gets involved with any rough stuff, so he really wants to take it easy and live off his military pension. Because that wouldn’t make for much of a mystery novel, Matt finds himself at a crime scene where he is cajoled into investigating the murder of a dead socialite for a lofty fee of $50 per day. 

Once Matt has the gig, we have a rather typical private eye mystery - albeit with a rather exhausted and fragile hero at the helm. Ed Lacy was at the top of his writing game in 1952 when he authored Sin in Their Blood. The story moves along at a great clip, and the characters are all vividly drawn and interesting. It’s a conventional mystery tale, but it’s also the story of a shattered war hero regaining his confidence after the trauma of combat. 

There’s also a damn fine love story featuring a unique female character among the tough-guy patter and fisticuffs. I’ve enjoyed the romantic elements in other Lacy books, but this one is the tops. 

Overall, we have a fairly perfect private-eye yarn that deserves to be remembered. I’m happy to do my part by reviewing it. Now go do yours by reading it. 

Buy a copy HERE

Phantom Manor

Author William Edward Daniel Ross (1912-1995) specialized in gothic paperbacks of the 60s and 70s. Using a variety of pseudonyms, the Canadian writer authored over 50 stand-alone gothics as well as an abundance of novels related to the television show Dark Shadows. My experience with the author is the gothic titles written under the pseudonym Marilyn Ross. After enjoying his 1965 novel Fog Island, I decided to read Phantom Manor. It was published just a year later by Paperback Library with the allure of another vulnerable beauty trapped in a mansion shrouded in evil. 

Phantom Manor is set in the late 1800s and stars a Philadelphia woman named Jan. She finds herself financially strapped when her sick father passes away. Her immediate relative is a grandfather living in England, an aggressive man that had an estranged relationship with Jan's mother. Before Jan's mother died, she swore that she would never return to her family's fog-shrouded Phantom Manor. But, Jan wants to know more about her family and sends a letter to her grandfather explaining her father’s recent passing. Her grandfather responds with an urgent invitation for Jan to finally visit her family home.

The family's robust estate is a coastline manor situated on a small peninsula. When the tide rises, the only road leading from the estate to the village is enveloped in seawater. This is an important part of the book's finale and also lends some isolation to the book's narrative. Upon Jan's arrival at the manor, she discovers that her grandfather had died from health complications prior to her visit. She also learns that one of her uncles is now deceased and another has ran off to Australia chasing women and good fortune. He hasn't been heard from in decades and most fear he is now dead. Remaining is the estate's staff, the dead uncle's widow, her disabled son, and a distant cousin that serves as the manager of the manor. With no immediate relatives available, the grandfather named Jan as the sole heiress of Phantom Manor. 

Jan learned that years ago (and recapped in the book's prologue) that her grandfather and a nearby monk order had feuded over land rights. It was rumored that the feud led to the death of a monk named Francis. Supposedly, Phantom Manor's third floor is haunted by the monk's vengeful ghost. Oddly, the estate staff has Jan's lodgings on the third floor. Needless to say, she's immediately attacked by this skeleton specter. Later, she falls to an unseen attacker in the house's wine cellar and is also nearly crushed by a large falling stone outside. After multiple attempts on her life, she begins to align herself with the family attorney. Together, the two suspects that the dashing and handsome distant cousin (the only family member remaining alive) could be the mysterious attacker (you think!?!).

Phantom Manor is rather dull with a bulk of the narrative spent on Jan's relationship with the distant cousin and her new role as the manor's sole heir – learning the staff, new instructions for the staff, fighting with the staff, firing the staff, etc. It's like reading a human resources guide on running a mansion. I didn't find any of it particularly spooky and mostly it was missing the atmospheric touches that made Ross's Fog Island work so well. I did enjoy the crime-mystery aspect of the book's closing finale, but I had already figured it out in the book's opening chapters.  

Overall, there are hundreds and hundreds of these gothic paperbacks. There's no reason to spend any of your precious time reading this. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

The Cooler

George Markstein (1926-1987) was a Canadian-born British journalist and television writer best known for his work scripting the TV show The Prisoner. He was also an author of espionage thrillers, including his first novel, The Cooler, from 1974.

The Cooler takes place during World War 2 in 1944 England. The British employ an obscure spy agency known as the Inter Services Research Bureau for incursions into Nazi territory - mostly France - for assassinations and sabotage. The novel follows three spies - two Brits and one German. Here are the players:

James Loach is a seasoned spy in London. The day before he is to embark on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France, he learns that his team, already there, has largely disappeared. The last message that London receives from the team’s radio operator instructs Loach not to join them because of the imminent danger. As such, Loach is sidelined in London awaiting word on the fate of his team, and he gets into some trouble at home. Weird trouble. Kinky trouble. Sending a violent sex maniac like Loach on another mission in France just isn’t an option.

We also meet Claire. She’s a sexy trainee in the secret agent saboteur program learning how to infiltrate, fight and kill Germans with Ninja-like skills. Her training sequences were among the best I’ve read in adventure fiction. The problem is that maybe Claire is just a little too violent and unsuitable for the subtle work of spy tradecraft. Until the agency figures out how to use her, she is also benched. That’s where she meets Loach - in a remote holding facility for wayward spies called The Cooler.

Finally, we meet a German spy named Grau operating in London with false identity papers. His mission in London — I won’t spoil it here — is really, really clever. Any reader of spy fiction will be able to appreciate the ingenuity of the author’s inclusion of this storyline.

Markstein takes his sweet time introducing the principals and putting them in their places before the plot takes shape. That’s the problem. It takes forever for a storyline to develop. For what it’s worth, I was never bored because the characters were all vividly-drawn, seriously-flawed intel officers. But at some point, all these great characters need to actually do something, and that doesn’t happen until the very end.

It turns out there is someone spying for Germany from inside The Cooler, and the book quickly becomes a whodunnit. None of this really worked very well despite some fine writing. The ending felt rushed, and the solution was anticlimactic. I’m not giving up on Markstein as an author, but this debut needed some serious reworking before it was released for public consumption.

Bottom Line: Time is a precious commodity. Don’t bother with this one. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

By Her Own Hand

Los Angeles native Frank Bonham (1914-1988) specialized in westerns, young adult fiction, and television scripts. Between 1941 and 1952, Bonham honed his skills by writing for the pulps. He authored only three crime-noir novels, including By Her Own Hand. It was originally released in 1963 by Monarch Books. 

In an undisclosed California city, Captain Chilton is taking over the Plaza Division police station. Before Chilton, the department had spiraled into a rather chaotic, under utilized precinct. This portion of the city reflects the old guard and braces for the new. Caught in the transition are two Vice Squad Sergeants Skip Kawano and Lou Michikowski. Both are feeling the heat as Chilton increases the pressure to clean up the streets.

Like most traditional police precincts, the way to topple the top echelon of crime is through prostitutes. They are the perfect informants and mostly the police lay off their profession in exchange for valuable bits of information on criminal rings. The same thing occurs here as both Kawano and Michikowski utilize prostitutes to gain valuable intel. In turn, other precincts rely on these same prostitute informants to minimize crime waves. But, Chilton doesn't see it that way. 

At 126 pages, Bonham's novel is more like a quick novella. Mostly, the action is around an investigation into a murdered prostitute to determine what information she was withholding. Chilton's department faces intense opposition for arresting the prostitutes and removing them from the streets. Included in the investigation is a side-story that leads into the porno movie business. For a 1963 novel, Bonham doesn't pull any punches in terms of explicit imagery. This side-story involves a gangbang that's recorded in an after hours park. The scenery, time of day, and skill of the photographer allows the investigation to branch off into some unusual places. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this quick read and found it to be slightly ahead of its time. Also, the characters and plot are soaked in realism due to Bonham's involvement in youth gangs and urban violence. He advocated for peace and was often riding along in police cars to learn firsthand the negative influences affecting California's youth. To my knowledge, By Her Own Hand has never been reprinted, but affordable used copies are still available. It's worth your time. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Steve Holland: The World's Greatest Illustration Art Model

On the Paperback Warrior Podcast, and on this very blog, I've often reminisced about my early childhood and my father's love of 20th century paperbacks. I can still remember summer days walking up our creaky staircase, hoping to discover something new or exciting about my humble, and often very quiet, father. In an unfinished guest bedroom, there were leaning stacks of welding manuals and plastic bins of old bolts. There were also stacks of boxes spilling over with western paperbacks. Occasionally, I would read one just to break up the monotony of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, but sifting through the books was the real pleasure for me at that age. Thumbing through the stacks, I began to think the vivid gun-slinging character depicted on the covers was actually the same hero, but was just calling himself Buchanan, Nevada Jim or some other tough-as-nails sounding name to fit the book. It wasn't until many years later that I discovered it was the same hero, only his real name was Steve Holland.

In a new coffee-table book called Steve Holland: The World's Greatest Illustration Art Model, author Michael Stradford reveals that he had a similar experience in the 1960s when he discovered Doc Savage in a Cleveland book store. In this visual and informative book, Stradford delves into the life and career of Holland, the most iconic male model of 20th century literature. My softcover version weighs in at over 200 pages and features hundreds of paperback covers, exclusive photos, and larger than life paintings that honor the man that launched a thousand paperbacks. 

The book's introduction is written by Jason Savas, a friend of mine that inherited Holland's crown in the 1980s. Savas, a former model employed by the esteemed Wilhelmina Model Agency, has been featured on a 1,000 book covers himself. Savas details his experiences in the industry working with Holland, a man he deemed “the consummate pro.” Stradford includes a biography of Savas, featuring a handful of stirring, action-adventure book cover scans as well as the beautiful Steve Assel painting The Iron Marshall (Louis L'Amour) that Savas posed for. 

Stradford's layout is divided into sections dedicated to various eras of Holland's career. For example, numerous pages detailing his paperback career are divided into genres like action, adventure, romance, western, sci-fi, etc. There is a complete section focusing on just the men's adventure magazine paintings, the Doc Savage era, and various advertisements featuring Holland's face or likeness. There is a biography on Holland, and a detailed interview with Holland's daughter Nicole and third wife Jean. Also, author Will Murray's expanded interview with Holland from Starlog is expanded and exclusively included. Murray has been the primary contributor to the Doc Savage series for decades. 

I really enjoyed artists Bob Larkin (Conan, Iron Fist, Hulk) and Bob Caras (The Avenger) discussing their experiences painting Holland. There are so many amazing artists and photographers interviewed for the book, including Alex Ross, Frank Reilly, Joe DeVito, Robert Osonitsch, and Jack Faragasso. It was personally rewarding to learn how humble and kind Holland was as described by his peers, friends and family. I never needed validity, but the real life Holland seemed to parallel the admirable, heroic characters he became on canvas.

Steve Hollad: The World's Greatest Illustration Art Model is absolutely a mandatory reference for anyone fascinated by 20th century paperbacks, magazines and male-oriented advertisements. I was enthralled for days just researching the paperbacks and building my shopping list based on these incredibly vivid covers. More than 20 years after his death, Holland's face is still selling publications. That is a testament to his phenomenal physique, likable face and ability to provide the perfect likeness for all of these amazing visuals. Stradford has honored Holland in such a beautiful way and I can't thank him enough for his labors in creating it. 

Get the book HERE

Danger in Paradise

Stark House Press continues to reprint the literary work of A.S. Fleischman. The talented Navy veteran, magician, and author began writing genre paperbacks in 1948, a career that led into his more prominent role as a children's storyteller. Among his westerns, movie novelizations, and crime-fiction, the genre that most feel was Fleischman's strong suit was exotic adventure. Novels like Shanghai Flame, Counterspy Express, Malay Woman, and Blood Alley are set in and around Asian locations. In 2018, Stark House reprinted Fleischman's Malay Woman and Danger in Paradise as a two-in-one with an introduction by David Laurence Wilson. Having read, reviewed, and enjoyed Malay Woman, I was excited to read 1953's Danger in Paradise to experience more of the author's thrilling exotic adventures.

Jefferson Cape is a Montana native that works as an international geologist in the Far East. After a long voyage across the Java Sea with a crazy Australian captain, Cape is happy for a day stop in Buleleng, Indonesia. The temperature is red hot, the beer is hotter, and the mosquitoes are like a thick drapery of disease and despair. But, Cape is on dry land, at a bar, enjoying these tiny moments when a beautiful woman approaches him for an unusual request.

The woman explains that she has a very tiny package that she needs to export out of Buleleng. It's a business card with Russian wording on the back. She explains that this has to do with terrorists in the country and arms trading. She wants him to carry it back to the states and deliver it to the CIA. Unfortunately Cape agrees and his entire world comes crashing down. The woman seemingly disappears and Cape finds himself stranded and on the run from a Chinese gunman, a powerful businessman, and terrorists as his ship sails away. His only ally is a sexy, mysterious woman, but she somehow knows the lady from the bar and is connected to this whole deadly fiasco. 

Danger in Paradise wasn't as entertaining as I had hoped. I felt that Fleischman had too many ideas and couldn't really flesh them out in a uniform way. In fact, in the first couple of pages, Cape looks at the woman in the bar and says, “Okay, I'll bite.” I felt like this was Fleischman after writing a couple of the early pages for a plot he hadn't quite constructed yet. He's reminding himself that he has this American man in a bar meeting a mysterious woman. Where can he take this rudimentary idea? Unfortunately, he takes it too far.

At 160 pages, the narrative is saturated in chase sequences that left me bewildered about which characters were after each other. I wanted the story to be explained quickly so I could enjoy the twists and turns, but once it was unveiled, I needed some story elements concealed to keep it interesting. Gunrunning, terrorists, exotic locales and shady ladies should be an easy story to tell. But, Danger in Paradise drowns in the details and becomes a convoluted chore. Of course, Fleischman can write his tail off, but the end result left me exhausted. Get the book HERE.

House of Dark Illusions

There are over 30 gothic novels authored by Caroline Farr between the mid-1960s and 1970s. Most of these books were originally published in Australia by Horwitz Publications and then reprinted in the US by Signet with vivid, traditional painted covers of beautiful women fleeing from gloomy mansions and castles. Depending on who you ask, the Caroline Farr name is a pseudonym for a revolving door of authors. The most consistent author associated with the Farr name is Richard Wilkes-Hunter, a New South Wales native that also authored books under pseudonyms like Alex Crane and Tod Conrad. 

Another name associated with the Caroline Farr novels is that of Allan Geoffrey Yates, the popular author that became a household name by writing crime-fiction as Carter Brown. My sources close to the Yates estate confirm that he did author some Farr novels, but the titles are unknown. There is also another Australian author closely associated with the Farr name, Lee Pattinson. According to papers held by the National Library of Australia, Pattinson was employed as a writer with Horwitz and authored romance novels under names like Teri Lester, Noni Arden, Kerry Mitchell, and Caroline Farr. 

The conclusion is that Caroline Farr was a house name used by at least three different authors that were published by Horwitz. Most recently, I gained a couple of these Signet reprints of Farr novels and I decided to try one out – House of Dark Illusions. It was originally published in 1973 and begins with a familiar gothic genre trope, a young woman learning of her inheritance. 

In the opening pages of House of Dark Illusions, young Megan has just experienced the loss of her father. She's a student at Boston College and lives in an apartment on Boston's North Shore. With her father's death, Megan fears she won't have enough financial support to remain in college. Thankfully, Megan receives a letter from her Aunt Lissi with a tantalizing offer. Lissi invites Megan to the family's coastal mansion in Nova Scotia, Canada. 

In the backstory, readers learn that Megan's mother is a descendant from a wealthy Canadian family. Unfortunately, she died when Megan was very young. The family never liked Megan's father so he left the family behind and raised Megan as a struggling single father in Boston. Megan debates returning to her childhood home, but feels that enough time has passed and it's important that she visit the only remaining family left, Aunt Lissie.

When Megan arrives at the spacious shoreline estate, she learns that her mother possessed telekinetic powers – the ability to move inanimate objects with her mind. Lissie feels that Megan has the same talents as well, but needs help discovering them. Lissie insists on having a séance so that Megan can harness her own hidden energy and possibly connect psychically with her dead mother. Additionally, the séance will include two distant cousins, a medium, and two doctors. But, when the séance begins, Megan begins seeing visions of an Indian prince being murdered in a palace. How does any of this connect to the story? 

At 140 pages of large font, House of Dark Illusions reads more like a short story. There isn't really enough time to delve too far into these characters to properly introduce them. I felt the narrative was missing huge chunks of importance or simply shortened to meet a publishing deadline. The entire story does play out, including answers to Megan's questions about her family and inheritance, but it feels like a rushed job. The book's finale left something to be desired, but possessed a fitting conclusion to the average plot. Whoever crafted the book used foggy roads, the misty coastline, and the cavernous house as atmospheric plot enhancers, but even the spook factor wasn't enough to save the book. I'd recommend passing on this unless you really love the artwork of these old books and must possess everything. Otherwise, just move on to much better books.

Brad Dolan #01 - Back Country

William Fuller worked on freighters and farms, served as a newspaper reporter, and was an infantryman during WWII. It was during the early 1940s through the 1950s that Fuller's short stories were purchased by the likes of Sky Aces, Adventure, and Argosy. Like Steve Fisher, Fuller found success in the slick magazines like Collier's, McCall's and even Esquire. With the onset of paperback publishing, Fuller began writing full-length novels in the 1950s, beginning with 1954's Back Country. It was an enormous success for Dell and Fuller. 

The novel, the first of six to star a vagabond hero named Brad Dolan, sold a half-million copies. Long out of print, Stark House Press has resurrected Back Country as part of their Black Gat Book imprint. The reprint features a comprehensive and insightful look at the series by esteemed scholar and author Bill Pronzini. As a fan of Fuller's Brad Dolan character and his only stand-alone novel, The Pace That Kills, I was excited to learn that Back Country was being reintroduced to modern readers.

Brad Dolan served in both WW2 and Korea, an experience that led to harsh imprisonment in a German camp as a prisoner-of-war. Banged up after the wars, Dolan is driving across inland Florida en route to the southern beaches of Miami. Along the way, his car gives out and he becomes stranded in a small, fictional Florida town called Cartersville. It is one of those map dots that features a war monument, a dusty park or two, the obligatory noisy railroad, and old men playing shuffleboard until they die. Dolan reminds readers and himself, “This is the Florida the tourists never see. This is small town anywhere.”

In a sweltering bar, Dolan downs a cold brew and offers to buy a woman a drink. After a minor scuffle, Dolan is hit with a sap. He then finds himself crawling through a Japanese jungle and raking fire across huts. He then wakes up and realizes he's still in the one-horse town, only he now sees it on the wrong side of iron bars. The Cartersville police then beat him up and he spends days in a daze. Eventually, the one horse that owns the town shows up – Mr. Rand Ringo. 

Ringo reviews Dolan's past and realizes his operation could benefit from his talents. He pays Dolan a wad of cash, provides lodging, and tells him to just hang around until he needs him. The hanging around part just so happens to involve Ringo's wife in Dolan's new bed. If that isn't enough grief, Dolan befriends Ringo's sexy twenty-something daughter. But, eventually the rubber hits the road and Dolan is asked to bounce on an African-American named Sam Foster. Ringo lets Foster run some illegal gambling in the black section of town, but all the games are rigged. Sam has been tinkering with the scam and trying to earn an honest living. After Dolan talks with Sam, he realizes Ringo is a toxic influence on Cartersville. It's a criminal infestation that has to stop.

Fuller's novel is a product of the times and is filled with a lot of racist comments and attitudes. But, as Pronzini points out in the introduction, Dolan and the author aren't endorsing racism or that attitude.  Dolan's nemesis...Cartersville's nemesis...is the racist law-enforcement controlled and created by Ringo. In the book's furious finale, Dolan and Sam are forced into the street to face a mob of angry white people Hellbent on a hanging. Dolan's wits, determination, and cool factor win the day, but it's a memorable fight. 

Back Country's first half is cloudy with a lot of dialogue about God, the purpose of life and social philosophy. These conversations place Dolan on an intellectual plane that ran counter to what my beliefs and expectations were of the book. But, the price of admission is well worth it. The novel's second half is a whirlwind of emotion and violence, saturated in Fuller's scrappy storytelling. It isn't pretty, but it doesn't have to be. Back Country isn't a main street crime-noir. It lives up to its name. Back Country is a crossroads of dastardly villains, despicable authority, and a lot of lyin' and cheatin' no good son of a guns. Thankfully, Brad Dolan is back in the house.

Steve Bentley #03 - The House on Q Street

Many fans point to the Steve Bentley series as the best representation of E. Howard Hunt's literary work. Hunt, a former CIA operative and convicted Watergate conspirator, authored over 70 novels using a variety of pseudonyms. The Steve Bentley series was written under the name Robert Dietrich between 1957 through 1962, with one additional novel penned in 1999. I've previously read the first two installments and thoroughly enjoyed them. The books were originally published by Dell and have recently been reprinted by Cutting Edge Books. Savoring the series, it's been 20 months since I've visited the character. Continuing in series order, I'm picking up with the third installment, 1959's The House on Q Street. 

Steve Bentley is a Korean War veteran that was once employed by the U.S. Treasury Department to break up black market rings internationally. Now, he is employed as a busy tax accountant surrounded by the I-495 beltway in Washington, D.C. In The House on Q Street, Bentley is referred by a friend to Major General Walter Ferrand Ballou, U.S.M.C. Retired. The desired meeting is for Bentley to possibly replace Ballou's recently deceased accountant. But, when the two meet face to face, it's a rather unusual discussion. 

Ballou's family is immensely wealthy based on old Washington money. Ballou is quite the war hero, fighting in WW2's Pacific Theater and earning his fruit salad the hard way. In a cavalier approach, Ballou never cashed his paychecks because he felt it was his duty to serve America. Ballou retired and then served as Chief of State Police before later declining a bid for governor. Bentley, respecting Ballou, asks how he can assist the retired general. Without stating the obvious, Ballou needs Bentley to hide a $100,000 payout to a blackmailer by creating a corporation and providing various write-offs and losses. The secrecy is to protect both his son and daughter from noticing the withdraw from their eventual lucrative trust. 

By creating the corporation, Bentley learns that Ballou's daughter Francie is a drop-dead knockout that's divorced and flirty. Her brother Winston is a screw-up that dabbles in horse racing and slowly whittles away his trust funds. Upon a return visit to Ballou's house, Bentley tackles an intruder and then notifies the police. The next day, Bentley learns that a former state police officer that Ballou had previously fired had been shot to death. What's interesting is that the dead man's wife shows up to bail out Ballou's intruder from jail. How are these connected? When Bentley discovers that this same woman was married to a doctor eight years earlier, he finds out that the man was murdered as well. Two husbands. Two murders. The link turns out to be way more than Bentley bargained for.

There is a lot to unpack in The House on Q Street, but it's never too convoluted for its own good. I read the novel in nearly one sitting and absolutely loved the pace and the influx of clues as each chapter scurried by. Hunt sometimes floundered in the “literary hack” echelon of crime-noir and espionage writers. But, with these Steve Bentley thrillers, he absolutely nails it every time. Bentley's probing into the murders leads to a missing gun, a mysterious nurse, the General's secrets, and a high-level criminal in Baltimore. Of course, the hero still has time for the Scotch and Ballou's hot daughter.

The House on Q Street is another D.C. thriller, complete with a twisty mystery and compelling characters. Steve Bentley remains a competent paperback hero that rubs shoulders with politicians while also digging into their darkened past to expose hidden truths. The combination of romance, intrigue, violence, and scandal makes it an absolute pleasure to read. Get a copy of the book HERE.

Whip of Desire

March Hastings was one of a number of pseudonyms used by author Sally Singer (b. 1930). The New York native specialized in erotic fiction and wrote over 20 novels between 1958 to 1976. These vintage paperbacks have become collector's items and often fetch prices over $100. Thankfully, Cutting Edge has been reprinting Singer's work as affordable paperbacks and ebooks. I read her 1961 lesbian novel The Outcasts and found it enjoyable enough to warrant a revisit of the author's work. I chose the Cutting Edge reprint of Whip of Desire. It was originally published by Midwood in 1962.

The book stars Fred Boyer, a 28 year old man originally from Alaska. He now lives in New York, plays the piano and has a pregnant wife named Mindy. In the opening chapter, Fred is at an employment agency hoping to find work. He's provided instructions to a theater ran by a gorgeous woman named Eve. Instantly, Fred and Eve connect and in a matter of days they establish a business that's funded by Eve's wealthy father. Fred will compose and perform music and Eve will put together a stage act. 

Later, readers learn that Eve's father crashed the family plane years ago, an accident that killed Eve's sister and injured her. Eve feels she is somehow responsible for her sister's death and harms herself frequently – pain as her penance for surviving. As Fred soon realizes, Eve craves rough sex and demands to be dominated. Eventually, Fred's heated desires for Eve erupts in a frenzy of pleasure and pain. He's liberated from the financial stress of being a husband and an expectant father by forcefully taking Eve. She pleasurably gains the abuse she feels she deserves while he is freed from life's cumbersome shackles by becoming her lover. But, Fred learns there is another man in Eve's life, a man so abusive that he leaves Eve broken, bloody, and nearly dead.

As an intriguing romance novel of the 1960s, Whip of Desire introduces some surprising elements. Both Fred and Eve were dynamic characters and the story was serviceable enough. I think Singer is a terrific writer, but she really finds her element in the sex scenes. Her descriptions are never graphic, but really convey the emotions and physical collision between these lovers. Mindy's mistrust in Fred, Eve's backstory, the business venture, and Eve's domineering “other man” made for a propulsive, fully developed story that I found entertaining. 

If you enjoy heated, erotic mid-20th century romance novels, then Whip of Desire will surely be a real pleasure to read. Recommended. Buy a copy HERE.

Target of Terror

Gerry Powell was a popular pulp and paperback artist that created covers for the likes of Signet, Fawcett Gold Medal, Dell, and Pyramid. It was striking cover art that led me to one of his paperback covers at a local used bookstore. The novel is Target for Terror, authored by S.A. Martinez and published by Major Books in 1976. I could find nothing online that identified the author, so that information remains a mystery. But, the contents of this old paperback are what truly matters. Intrigued by the book's premise, I dove in.

Mark and his wife Claire live in an older, three-level house on the shoreline cliffs of Malibu, California. Mark is a writer, Claire is an actress, and their marriage is falling apart. Through an employment agency, Claire has hired a new house cleaner named Leyla. While she's in New York, she notifies Mark that Leyla should be arriving in the coming days. Mark, despondent over his recent writing failures, droops around the house and spends time talking to his chatty, snooty friend Jamie.

In the opening chapters, young Leyla hitchhikes to Mark's house and arrives on a rainy, stormy night two days ahead of schedule. Readers will immediately realize that something is amiss with Leyla. She is paranoid someone is following her and she's carrying a small canvas bag and a tambourine. To his surprise, Mark finds Leyla on his doorstep in the middle of the night and ushers her inside. Anyone who has read a Gil Brewer novel knows where this is headed. 

Lonely and horny, Mark chases Leyla around the mansion hoping to get laid. Leyla just wants shelter from the night and the ability to hide from whatever deep and dark past is chasing her. After Mark becomes physical, Leyla runs up the stairs to escape. Backing away from her attacker, Leyla falls from the crumbling balcony and dies. 

The book's first 50 pages is Mark's hurried efforts to clean the crime scene – dispose of her clothes, conceal his scratch marks, eliminate her presence from the house. Thinking that her body would wash up on a northern shore, he is shocked to find her body below his house the next morning. The book's narrative then focuses on his efforts to relocate the corpse somewhere else. But, Target of Terror isn't just a tale of murder. Mark finds that he is now the target of whoever was hunting Leyla. They think he killed Leyla to obtain the valuable thing they want. When detectives, Claire, and Jamie become involved, the whole narrative twists and turns into a cat and mouse chase over Leyla's secret treasure.

You have to realize, this novel was published by Major Books. They were a lowly 1970s publisher with terrible editing and equally terrible books. Due to the publisher, Target for Terror reads like a play or a rough draft. The dialogue isn't natural, the pacing is a little off, and the characters are mostly one-dimensional. The main villain is stereotypical and there's very little backstory that suggests Mark is capable of rape and murder. But, despite the abysmal editing job, I can say I enjoyed the book. Martinez's writing is serviceable enough and I had the foresight to realize the finished product would be a hack job. In the hands of a capable editor, the book would have been a real treat. Unfortunately, what's left here is just another average paperback collecting dust bunnies in a basement zoo.

A Taste for Sin

Gil Brewer (1922-1983) was a prolific author of paperback original crime novels in the mid-20th century before his life was consumed with alcohol and personal demons. He was at the top of his game in 1961 when he wrote A Taste for Sin, a novel that’s been reprinted by Stark House Press. 

Our narrator is Jim Phalen, an employee at the Happytime Liquor Store.  As the novel opens, he’s been invited to the house of a horny local housewife for some afternoon delight. Her name is Felice, and her unwitting husband works at the local bank. She’s a conniving and kinky bitch — more on that later. 

Phalen is not a good and honorable person either. He rents a room in a dilapidated lodge with a toilet that barely functions, and he can barely afford those spartan accommodations on his meager salary. He recounts his brutally-violent past, and, man, it’s something else. Brace yourself for some insane violence throughout this book. Anyway, it’s clear that Phalen’s intention is to somehow leverage the rich, married lady he’s banging to change the direction of his life.

Meanwhile, Phalen is dealing with the fallout of a petty crime he committed that spun out of control. He needs to be deceptively clever to avoid getting caught. Felice learns about Phalen’s money troubles and pressures him into a scheme to rip off the bank and kill her husband. 

What we have here is a femme fatale heist novel and a rather excellent one at that. A Taste for Sin showcases some of the best actual prose writing I’ve ever read from Brewer. The sex scenes are more graphic than usual for 1961, and the action scenes are a genuine bloodbath. I’ve always cited The Vengeful Virgin and 13 French Street as Brewer’s masterworks, but A Taste For Sin is the new top-of-the-heap. Highest recommendation. 

John Blake #01 - Little Girl Lost

Charles Ardai is the founder and publisher of the Hard Case Crime paperback imprint. Using the pseudonym Richard Aleas, he wrote two original, contemporary mystery novels starring a New York private eye named John Blake for Hard Case Crime. The first Blake novel, Little Girl Lost (2004), was nominated for an Edgar Award and remains available today in all formats.

The paperback opens with Blake remembering Miranda Sugarman, the sweet neighborhood girl who took his virginity years ago. She left Blake behind after high school to attend a university with a goal to become a doctor. Blake learns of her death from an exploitive newspaper headline reading, “Stripper Murdered.” Without a client, he decided to investigate her death and gain a better understanding of his former friend’s life and death.

One of my favorite elements of the set-up is Blake’s boss in the PI firm, a much older ex-cop named Leo, who plucked Blake out of college and mentored him in the investigation racket. He’s the perfect, world-weary antithesis to Blake’s youthful idealism and quest for justice. He’s also well-connected within the NYPD and a great asset to Blake’s side.

The trail to the truth takes Blake into the behind-the-scenes world of seedy NYC strip clubs. It’s a fascinating look behind the curtain as Blake encounters a conspiracy of dope, missing college girls and much more. Blake is a fallible hero who takes more than a few beatings, but is always smart, capable and upbeat. His narration moves the plot forward at a good pace and is never boring.

Ardai is a much better writer than I was expecting, and Little Girl Lost was a solid, workmanlike private eye mystery with plenty of twists leading to the satisfying solution. It’s an easy recommendation, and I look forward to reading the sequel, Songs of Innocence, from 2011.

Steve Savage #02 - The Omega Assignment

David Lewis, real name Patton D. Lewis, authored a two book series of spy novels for Pinnacle in 1976. In my research, I couldn't locate anything about Lewis other than a lot of Google hits on the western writer Lewis B. Patten. The series stars part-time British Secret Intelligence Agent Steve Savage. The first novel is The Andromeda Assignment and the follow-up is The Omega Assignment. In working backwards, I'm reading and reviewing The Omega Assignment. 

Savage's origin tale, printed on the back of each novel, advises readers that he joined a freighter at the age of 14. He was later degraded by the Captain and beaten for six straight weeks. He managed to escape into Hong Kong and learned martial arts in exchange for cleaning a gym. He then returned to London and trained as a photographer. He has covered war and fighting throughout the world, including Vietnam, the Middle East and Belfast. His agent, Gregor de Freitas, operates as an SIS frontman after escaping the Soviet Union. Savage's capabilities to enter communist countries as a photographer allows him to work part-time as a secret agent under Freitas' guidance. Lewis warns readers that “This man is dangerous!”

In The Omega Assignment, a multi-millionaire German man named Braeder frequently entertains politicians and members of NATO on an ocean liner called Clytherea. On board, Braeder provides sadistic thrills that includes various types of sex, S&M, rape, and torture. Braeder “liberates” these sick leaders and allows them to engage in their wildest fantasies. But, he records all of this on video tape in an elaborate ruse. Here's how it works:

Braeder sinks Clytherea and uses the recorded tape as blackmail to obtain a small hydrogen bomb that fits into a suitcase. He then trades this bomb to Middle East fanatics for an extremely large supply of heroin. He then makes connections with the largest mafia families in America to become their chief supplier. With a surplus of heroin, he slowly begins to reduce the supply to the mob. To free up the supply chain, Braeder demands more money for the drug. Thus, Braeder begins raking in the dough and makes himself...king of the world?

While I don't know exactly what Braeder hopes to accomplish with all of his money, the narrative outlining all of this was a real pleasure to read. Savage becomes involved as an underwater photographer gaining footage exploring the sunken Clytherea. Lewis writes the underwater exploration portion so well. He thrusts the reader into these gloomy, dark hallways and rooms as Savage explores the ship. There are floating corpses and a plethora of art and jewels to photograph, but Savage is placed in peril when his diving partner is killed by a booby trap inside the ship.

Without ruining the fun, Savage teams up with an American female narcotics agent named Destiny, while assisting the CIA and British intelligence. The explosive narrative has Savage facing a variety of criminals on land, air and sea. Most of the plot develops in Cyprus and culminates in Destiny being captured and taken to Braeder's enormous beach-side fortress. Savage purposefully becomes captured in an effort to free her from the inside. He also teams up with an older Greek paramilitary unit known as EOKA for the finale. 

I felt that the first two acts of The Omega Assignment was a lot of fun and read like a B version of a Jack Higgins novel. The last act was really over the top with Savage forced to fight in the nude gladiator style against Braeder's “strong guy.” I thought that this final battle was more like a Richard Blade adventure complete with zany antics that made the conclusion a bit cartoonish. If you love action-packed adventure and espionage, then The Omega Assignment is an entertaining read. I liked it enough to search for the first book online. To my knowledge, these books have never been reprinted, but remain fairly affordable as used paperbacks.

Note: Thanks to Spy, Guys, and Gals for additional information about this series.

Vee Brown - The Complete Cases #01

Vee Brown starred in 18 violent mini-novels between 1932 and 1936 in the pages of Dime Detective Magazine. The stories were authored by Carroll John Daly, the inventor of hardboiled crime fiction and his popular Race Williams character. Steeger Books has released two volumes of Vee Brown novellas comprising the entire series run. I sampled two of the stories from the first compilation to get a taste for the character. 

Vee is a violent gun-toting police detective who is also a mild-mannered and educated Tin-Pan Alley songwriter of sentimental tunes — a secret side-hustle that brings the supercop tremendous wealth. Think Cole Porter or George Gershwin with a taste for justice and criminal blood. The Vee Brown stories are narrated by a newspaper reporter named Dean Condon who shadows Vee on the job and writes about his adventures for the paper.  

“The Crime Machine”

I started at the beginning with the first Vee Brown adventure - a short story called “The Crime Machine” from 1932. 

As the novella opens, reporter Dean Condon is preparing to meet Vee and ride-along with him for a newspaper article. Condon is nervous because Vee has earned a reputation as the most relentless hunter and killer of criminals on the police force. When Vee and Condon meet face-to-face, they make the connection that the two knew one another back in college as passing acquaintances. 

Because “The Crime Machine” is the series intro, it exists to establish the Holmes-Watson relationship between the crime-fighter and his sidekick documentarian - a dynamic that persists throughout the entire series. As such, the plot is rather thin - like a TV series pilot episode. 

On their first outing together, they are hunting Killer Regan, who shot up a theater during a robbery murdering a female cashier. Vee’s orders from the District Attorney’s office is to produce Regan dead or alive. On the prowl, Vee is stealthy as The Shadow — seeming to disappear while infiltrating the criminal’s lair with a perpetually-amazed Condon in-tow. 

There’s plenty of tough talk and violent pulpy action to enjoy - as well as the big reveal where Condon learns that the deadly hero is also “The Master of Melody” who publishes popular sheet music under his given name of Vivian. Despite the simplicity of the plot, the short-story was a total blast and left the reader hungry for more. 

“The Price of Silence”

The ninth Vee Brown adventure is “The Price of Silence", the final story in Volume One of the Steeger Books collection. It’s a 50-page novella from 1933 published when Daly had hit his stride with the series. 

The story opens with the crime scene investigation of a wealthy woman stabbed in the chest in her own home while her husband slept upstairs. Because it’s 1933, a police inspector comments that such things are to be expected in the city’s Italian neighborhood, but not in the victim’s upscale community. 

Fortunately, the killer left behind a calling card identifying himself as “The Black Death” which seems like a decent lead for Vee to launch his investigation. He quickly deduces that the victim was likely a blackmail victim who failed to pay off her tormenter resulting in death. 

Vee quickly identifies a suspect for the murder - a society dandy behind a gang of racketeers handling the dirty work of shaking down the blackmail victims. Vee’s plan is to squeeze the henchmen with death threats until they identify their boss. 

As the narrator, Condon finds himself at the center of the action when he is held captive by the thugs awaiting Vee’s return. When they reunite, Vee and Condon follow leads through a rather convoluted mystery plot leading to the exciting confrontation you always knew was coming. 

I enjoyed these two Vee Brown stories enough to continue with the series in the future. Steeger Books have released a second volume compiling the final nine novellas. I’m looking forward to checking them out. Recommended. Get your copy HERE.

Arrow #01 - Wine, Women...and Death

According to his website, Walter Deptula Jr. graduated from Columbia University and became both a Naval Aviator and an educator at California community colleges. Along with acting, writing, and producing community theater, Deptula also authored a six book series of men's action-adventure novels in the 1970s. The Arrow series stars Franco Arronelli, known as Frank Arrow, as a professional thief living in Hawaii. The debut, Wine, Women...and Death was published by Curtis Books (a subsidiary of CBS) in 1974. 

As a young man, Arrow worked the beat in Staten Island as a patrol officer. During a bank heist, Arrow is shot in the leg while fatally shooting the thief. During the struggle, Arrow swiped $4,000 from the bank drawer. Being wet behind the ears, Arrow buys a new car and is eventually kicked from the force. Arrow then develops a long career as a self-employed thief. He is paid by clients and insurance companies to steal back stolen goods – a thief of thieves. 

In the backstory, readers learn of Arrow's most recent undertaking, but it's only later in the novel that the events are explained in detail. A criminal named Serranto, possibly working for someone, robs a prominent jewelry store. After the successful heist, Serranto hides the jewels in a tomb on a large New York estate. The insurance company hires Arrow to find the jewels and agrees to his 25% commission fee. But, Arrow learns that some of the jewels are ancient relics traced back to an early English empire. If he can retrieve the jewels, his commission will be an extremely lucrative payout. 

Deptula's middle chapters are dedicated to Arrow's preparation and planning to retrieve the stolen jewels. These chapters were written so well and reminded me of great mid-20th century heist fiction by the likes of Dan Marlowe and Lionel White. In these chapters, Deptula absolutely shines. I loved the setup, planning, disguises, team players, and ultimately the execution. It's not imitation, but clearly the author was influenced by the crime-noir masters.

Surprisingly, Wine, Women...and Death isn't just a heist novel. Instead, the events of the heist lead Arrow into an underworld of bloody violence. Someone on Arrow's team sells him out to Serranto and his fiance is murdered. In a desperate bid for revenge, Arrow must not only find and kill Serranto, but also discover who the real mastermind is. It's this part of the book that is simply a product of its time. This is straight-laced, 1970s gritty action that is probably spawned by Mack Bolan and countless other paperback vigilantes of the era. 

I loved all of the little nuances that are associated with the character. Arrow lives in a beach-side mansion and possesses all of the luxuries one would expect – private plane, helicopter, employees, a compound and a pet shark (which plays into the book's finale). While not completely over the top with gunplay, the book still packs a serious punch in terms of action-oriented fight scenes. The author's presentation of Arrow and his fiance was really important and added a personal investment for me. I wanted Arrow to kill the SOBs that tortured and killed his lover. The book made me feel something, and that's always an important factor.

While this series mostly receives lukewarm reviews online, I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed the debut. I hope to borrow or buy the final installments. In reading the author's online comments about the series, I learned that six total books were written, but CBS shut down Curtis Books after Arrow #3 was published. The remaining books are now manuscripts that I'm sure Deptula is still hoping to publish someday. Anyone interested in releasing this trio of original novels, plus three unpublished works?

Company Man

Joseph Finder is a Boston-based bestselling author of modern contemporary thrillers. His books sell like hotcakes and are readily available at your local airport newsstand near the $25 neck pillows. My first exposure to his work is his 600-page paperback behemoth from 2005 titled Company Man, also released as No Hiding Place in the U.K.

Our protagonist is Nick Conover, the CEO of a giant office furniture manufacturer whose resistance to outsourcing production to China has resulted in major layoffs at home. The Michigan-based corporation is owned by shadowy venture capitalists from Boston who are looking for a better return on their investment than current conditions will allow. Nick’s also a widower raising two kids on his own.

The novel wastes no time propelling Nick and the reader into a whirlwind of anxiety. Lately, someone has been breaking into his empty, gated community McMansion and spray-painting veiled threats on the walls. Nick assumes the stalker/vandal is yet another disgruntled former employee pissed about a prior or pending round of layoffs. The stalker’s menace escalates with the slaughter of the family dog, and the local cops are being less-than-helpful to the guy responsible for the small-town’s rising unemployment rates.

Identifying the stalker is easy business, but things are more complicated than they seem. A bad decision in dealing with the stalker situation puts Nick in serious peril and legal jeopardy. This escalates into some high-stakes corporate skullduggery with so many plot twists that neither Nick nor the reader knows who to trust. A dogged and likable female police detective is thrown into the mix as a co-protagonist.

The author delivers the narrative in a smooth and readable style similar to John Grisham or Harlan Coben. The chapters are short and punchy with a big typeface and ample space between lines, making 600 pages feel like 400 — less than a modern doorstop paperback but still way too long for the novel’s relevant content. I recognize that big books allow a publisher to overcharge for a paperback, but the novel made me repeatedly mutter, “Get on with it, already.”

Pro-Tip: If you skip or skim all of the sections regarding Nick’s kids and dead wife and eliminate the sections about the female police officer’s family, you’ll cut out a lot of completely extraneous filler and be left with a decent thriller.

There is some good white-collar crime, corporate stuff in this paperback along with a credible police procedural crime story. The ending of the novel has a plot twist that I didn’t find completely believable, and I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters. Overall, I enjoyed Company Man enough to give the book a tepid recommendation. Get the book HERE

Dark Planet

John Thomas Phillifent (1916-1976) used the pseudonym John Rackham to author a number of science-fiction and fantasy novels. Under his real name he also wrote three novels related to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Along with 20 stand-alone novels, he also wrote two series titles, Space Puppet (1954-1955) and Chappie Jones (1960-1963). I recently acquired a crate of Ace Doubles that included a few novels under the Rackham name. Looking for adventure in a galaxy far, far away, I chose to read his 1971 novel Dark Planet.

In the future, war has enveloped the entire galaxy. Earth discovered an inhospitable planet deemed Step Two as a stopping point for vessels to re-supply and re-energize. The planet's atmosphere will eat materials like plastic and metal. Due to the acidic air, a specially designed dome was placed over a portion of the planet that functions as a military installation.

The book's protagonist, Query, has upended his military career and now finds himself doing labor as punishment on the planet of Step Two. Being a rebel at heart, Query continues to wander outside of the dome using a special space suit. In the opening pages, Query sees a figure in the distance and realizes the planet is inhabited by some sort of people.

Captain Evans and his daughter Christine arrive in Step Two and find Query. The war has escalated and their team needs an experienced ship mechanic, one of Query's many skills. The three of them fly out of the dome on an adventure to save the galaxy. But, the ship malfunctions and they free fall from 15-miles up, crash landing in Step Two's far-flung, unexplored reaches. Together, they must learn how to survive in an atmosphere that literally eats everything.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot that really happens in Dark Planet. Inevitably, the three find the bizarre people that live on the planet and they must learn from them how to survive and communicate. It's a fish out of water adventure, complete with giant worms and tree people. The hope that Rackham would write a stirring action novel was quickly dissolved by Query's romantic chemistry with one of the inhabiting females. If long conversations about the purpose of our existence is your thing, then this novel may entertain you. If not, turn the light off on Dark Planet.

The Haunting of Ashburn House

In 2012, author Darcy Coates self-published an e-book horror novella titled Once Returned. This kick-started a self-publishing career that lasted 22 novels. She eventually signed with mystery imprint Poisoned Pen Press, which bought up the rights to all of her self-published work and made her bank account swell. Her novels mostly consist of young characters in their 20s dealing with the supernatural, often in a haunted place. From a sky level view, she is capitalizing on the 1960s and 1970s gothic suspense novels for atmosphere and imagery. But unlike those vintage “women running from houses” books, Coates switches out the romantic angle for a scarier approach. I was curious about her brand of horror after seeing stacks of her novels at my local Barnes & Noble. But, instead of laying down a hard-earned $15, I borrowed a friend's copy of The Haunting of Ashburn House. It was originally self-published in 2016 and now exists in multiple formats through Poisoned Pen Press.

Like a William Ross novel, the book begins with a familiar genre trope. Financially strapped, young Adrienne learns that her mother's grandmother's sister's daughter Edith Ashburn (that's a great aunt for those constructing an org chart) has bequeathed a large Victorian house to her. Adrienne, nicknamed Addy, arrives in a very small town with her cat Wolfgang and $50. Upon entering the little province, she finds a lot of staring eyes. Later, she learns that the house she has inherited is believed to be haunted and many of the town's citizens believed the prior owner was wacko. 

Addy's new home is 10-miles outside of town and nestled in a deep blend of forest and fields. Only the first floor has power and there is no cell coverage (and 20-yr old Addy doesn't own a phone). The upstairs is rather spooky with a lot of rooms and darkened halls due to the lack of electricity. Perhaps the strangest thing is that Edith has carved bizarre messages into the walls like, “Is it Friday, Light the Candle” or “No Mirrors”. Needless to say, strange things begin happening immediately. The power downstairs is shut off numerous times in the night, portraits seemingly come alive, and a new acquaintance is nearly killed. Oh, and zombies. 

If you've watched the cult horror flick Evil Dead 2, then you'll love your 350-page stay in Ashburn House. The wacky scenes of a corpse doing bizarre things reminded me of the unusual movements performed by Sam Raimi's characters. But, it's not designed to be funny. At least I don't think it is. The mystery is compelling with a backstory that kept me motivated to flip the pages. I didn't particularly like Abby and chastised myself for hoping she would be injured or hurt more. Coates makes her too vulnerable and weak when faced with stiff opposition. Sure, she's the hero, and by the book's end, she's a real sweetheart, but her judgment and behavior left me a bit deflated. 

I'll probably try another of Darcy Coates' books in the near future. I'm hoping there is a better result than this one. Haunting of Ashburn House is just below average when it comes to a spooky haunted house novel. But, I would imagine it is appealing to the young adult crowd. As an introduction, this is a training bra in preparation for more visceral horror ahead. It's a catchy cover and title, and God knows there are stacks of her books in the retail shops to pave the way to King, Keene, Malfi, Bates, etc. Cheers to that. 

Get the book HERE