Rebel Wench

Gardner F. Fox (1911-1986) began writing for the comic book industry in 1937. Throughout his prolific literary career, Fox authored over 4,000 comic books and helped create characters like Hawkman and Flash. While reaching an iconic level within comics, Fox also wrote over 150 paperback originals encompassing genres like science-fiction, fantasy, western, and romance. I recently purchased a Historical Fiction ebook bundle from the Gardner Francis Fox Library. Included was Rebel Wench, originally published by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1955. The book is also available as a paperback reprint and also exists in digital through Wildside Press.

Despite the book's cover, the protagonist of Rebel Wench is Billy Joe Stafford, a plantation owner embroiled in the American Revolutionary War in 1781. In the character's history, readers learn that he is a third generation farmer that was taught to hunt and survive at an early age by a Native American. Stafford is respected by the slaves, including his lifelong servant and friend, Old Gem. His marriage to Laura Lee developed a large rift in 1777 – Stafford joined the Continental Army to fight for independence and Laura became a Tory in support of Great Britain. 

The “rebel wench” of Fox's story is Deborah Treat, a beautiful spy working with the rebels under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. In the opening chapters, Stafford rescues Deborah from the clutches of an evil brawler, a villain that appears repeatedly throughout the narrative. After dismissing Deborah as a prostitute, he soon learns that she is a sharpshooter, a cunning strategist, and a fierce lover. As an aid to Morgan's Rifles, Stafford and Deborah team up to infiltrate British forces controlled by Cornwallis. 

Central to the plot is a striking love-hate relationship between Stafford and his wife Laura. Stafford wants Laura to join the rebellion, but she's in love with a British Colonel who hopes to take over the plantation once Stafford is killed. There's a bit of heated intrigue surrounding a lavish party where Stafford and Deborah pose as siblings to expose plans created by Cornwallis. In sultry style, Fox seduces readers with a few tepid sex scenes, most of which concern Laura's bedroom romps with both Stafford and the Colonel. My interest was the historical aspect and, for the most part, Fox fills the gaps with a great history lesson on battles and guerilla fighting between armies and divisions up and down America's Eastern Coast. 

Rebel Wench would have easily appealed to the 16 year old boy in the 1950s or American soldiers serving abroad. With plenty of gunfights, fisticuffs, beautiful women, and galloping horses, Gardner Fox absolutely knew his storytelling strengths and what his fans were expecting. If you control your own expectations, there's nothing to dislike about this fun adventure. Recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

The Art Studio Murders (aka Dark Memory)

Philadelphia native Edward S. Aarons was a graduate of Columbia University, a WW2 veteran, and successful author. He wrote nearly 100 short stories between 1930 through the 1950s, but he's recognized for the two phases of his career. The first is his early crime-fiction, 20 novels published by the likes of Graphic, Avon, Fawcett Gold Medal, and Phoenix. The second phase is the Assignment series starring CIA operative Sam Durrell. I've been steadily plowing through Aarons' crime-fiction novels, mostly written as Edward Ronns, which brings me to his 1950 original paperback The Art Studio Murders. It was also published with various cover art as Dark Memory.

Henry Dana is a painter living in an art studio in New York City. After attempting to take the subway back home, Dana plunges from the platform and is nearly killed. When he wakes, Dana feels like this was no accident and believes someone is trying to kill him. Later, he discovers that his paintings have been slashed and he's attacked by an unseen intruder in his studio. An acquaintance named Lori calls Dana one evening and tells him she knows the identity of his attacker. But, in a familiar genre trope, she dies before Dana can gain the name.

Like Aarons' own career, the book has two very different stages. The first act takes place in New York with Dana avoiding death while also acquiring a lower commission for a painting. These scenes involve Dana's agent and friends, and introduces a “fatal attraction” scenario where his married friend Kay tries to seduce him. There's the typical police angle where they think Dana is under a lot of mental stress and his paranoia is wreaking havoc on his social existence. 

The second stage is something I've talked about in numerous reviews of the author's work. This is all about location. In the second act, Dana decides to leave the city and head to Kettle Island, Connecticut to rekindle an old love affair with a recently divorced woman named Sarah. But, Dana's friends follow him to the island to enjoy a short vacation. Dana effectively brings his killer with him to the island. The author uses a harrowing thunderstorm to trap the characters on the island. Like most of his crime-noir novels,  Aarons' uses a waterfront setting as an integral part of the story – an abandoned lighthouse, windswept beaches, shoreline cottages. 

The Art Studio Murders works as a suspenseful stalker novel. In the city, Dana's experiences with the killer in the darkened studio was like a horror movie scene. Aarons ups the ante by recreating that suspense in the second act, only making it more atmospheric and frenzied. The only real issue I had with the book is there are too many characters. In the early chapters, there are eight characters to contend with. Thankfully, the book has been reprinted by Armchair Fiction and the publisher has a handy checklist with short descriptions of each character. 

The Armchair Fiction reprint is a twofer including The Art Studio Murders and an absolute gem by Mary Roberts Rinehart called The Case of Jennie Brice. I reviewed the latter work for Paperback Warrior HERE. There's no reason not to buy the reprint considering it's two great novels in one. At the time of this writing you can buy the reprint for $13 HERE. 

Champions Wear Purple

Oklahoma native Clifton Adams authored over 50 full-length novels and around 125 short stories for the magazines and digests. His first professional sale was the short story “Champions Wear Purple”, published in Adventure in January, 1947. Being a huge fan, I tracked down a copy of the magazine online and was surprised to find that it is an Oklahoma Wildcatter boxing story. Loving both boxing and Clifton Adams, it was a match made in Heaven.

In the story, an unnamed narrator tells the reader that he's an oil-rig worker on the Woodard Wildcat. With his throat as “dry as an Arizona test hole”, he strolls into Bert Harrison's Beer Hall to tip a few pints with his co-workers. While there, a young man walks into the bar carrying an Army duffel-bag. When he orders a glass of water, the narrator steps in and offers him a drink. But, the kid says he doesn't drink, but would like to locate a man named Winters.

The narrator takes a moment to explain to “The Kid” that Winters is the old guy sitting by himself at the bar reading an out of town newspaper. The narrator explains to the reader that Winters has never been known to say a nice thing and the only time he opens his mouth is to curse at someone. The Kid walks over to Winters and introduces himself as Lee Robertson. He explains to the old man that he was in France fighting the Germans with a guy named Pete. Before he died, Pete told Robertson to find Winters because he could make a fighter out of him. Winters, shocked and dismayed to learn that Pete was killed, yells at Robertson and told him to get out. 

The narrator, feeling sorry for Robertson, chases him down in the street and offers him a job on the oil-rig. While Roberson contemplates joining the crew, the narrator advises readers that Winters and Pete were like father and son, and that Winters was Pete's boxing trainer. Upon the verge of becoming the light-heavyweight champion of the world, the war came along and took Pete away. Now, Pete is dead and Winters is left to ponder what might have been. Robertson agrees to join the oil-rig crew, but also takes an offer to fight in the town's arena. 

Robertson becomes the local boxing hero and a real friend for the wildcatters. They make Robertson their new hero and he earns their accolades by knocking out the competition on regular Wednesday night fight cards. Winters on the other hand despises Robertson and won't offer a single word of encouragement to the young man. At the bar one night, the bets begin rolling when Winters finally says, “There's a man in Hobartsville he can't beat.” Winters bets all of them that Robertson will lose to the fighter. The match is then set and Robertson discovers that the Hobartsville fighter is a former pro that almost became a world champion. With his respect and fistfuls of cash on the line, will Robertson beat this seasoned, experienced opponent?

There was so much to enjoy about this story and I love how it all ties into a purple ring robe. In just a few pages, Adams forces the reader to care about these characters. There are a number of underlying elements that make this story exceptional. First and foremost, the idea that Winters only hates Robertson due to Pete dying. He nearly begs for it to have occurred the other way around with Pete living and Roberson dying. Second, I love that Robertson, despite being floored by Winters' disrespect, still soldiers on and continues his dream. The in-ring action was superb with a number of rounds described in great detail. If you love boxing, you will appreciate these swift scenes. 

From the narrator's cool, laid-back presentation to Robertson's fighting skills, "Champions Wear Purple" is a real treat. Despite it being his first published work, it is easy to spot Adams' storytelling talents. He was destined for greatness and this story is just a small preview of what was to come. You can read the entire Adventure issue, including this story, for free: 

Paperback Warrior Primer - Thomas B. Dewey

Paperback Confidential by Brian Ritt is my favorite reference book about vintage crime-fiction. In browsing the book (published by our good friends at Stark House Press), I was able to locate a lot of information about an underrated author named Thomas B. Dewey. He authored 36 novels and a handful of short stories between 1944 and 1969. He also wrote a number of stand-alone novels using the pseudonyms Thomas Brandt and Cord Wainer. For this Primer, I'm using the information I discovered in Ritt's book, so all credit goes to him.

Thomas B. Dewey was born in Ekhart, Indiana in 1915. Dewey graduated from Kansas State Teachers College in 1936 and attended grad school at the University of Iowa. After grad school, he moved to Hollywood to find his fortune working for a correspondence school called Storycraft. In 1942, he moved to Washington, DC to be an editorial assistant for the U.S. State Department during World War 2. While working as a writer and editor for the State Department, he began writing novels as a side hustle. 

Dewey's first published novel, Hue and Cry, was published in 1944. It was also released under the titles Room for Murder and The Murder of Marion Mason. The protagonist was a character named Singer Batts, a hotel owner and Skakespeare fan living in Preston, Ohio. He partners with his hotel manager, Joe Spinder, to solve the book's mystery. Dewey (or readers) liked the character so much that he wrote three other novels starring him - As Good As Dead (1946), Mourning After (1950), and Handle With Fear (1951). The books and character are similar to that of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series with Spinder serving as the narrator like Archie Goodwin's role in the Nero Wolfe books. You can obtain the four Singer Batts books through Wildside Press HERE. 

In 1945, Dewey leaves the State Department to go back to Los Angeles to work in advertising. It’s there that he marries his first wife, Maxine Morley Sorensen, in 1951. It was during his advertising years that he launched his most popular series starring a Chicago private eye named Mac – the reader never gets to know his full name. The first Mac book, Draw the Curtain Close, was published in 1947. It took Dewey six years before the second Mac installment was published, Every Bet's a Sure Thing. Our review of the book is HERE. Remarkably, the Mac series continued for 17 novels with the last installment being The Taurus Trap in 1970. 

Mac is often described as “The Compassionate Private Eye”, a true statement that also understates that Mac can, and does, kick some serious ass when called upon to do so. His compassion as a character really humanizes him in the body of his first person narration. But these books shouldn’t be confused with soft-boiled cozy mysteries. They are top-notch private eye stories. I’ll be reading and reviewing more Mac books here at Paperback Warrior, and he may turn out to be my favorite private-eye series. Wildside Press has reprinted most of these for $5 or less per book HERE.

Dewey quit his job in advertising to write full time in 1952, a steady gig he continued until 1971. In 1957, Dewey launched his third series character, a San Fernando Valley private-eye named Pete Schofield. The first book in the series was And Where She Stops (1957). That series continued for nine total installments through 1965’s Nude in Nevada.  The gist of the series is that Schoefield solves crimes with his adorable redhead wife Jeanne. Once again, Wildside Press has these available as well HERE. 

The usual trajectory of an author of this era is to write a lot of stand-alone novels, hone their craft, and then launch what they hope will be a successful series. Dewey did it backwards launching three successful series titles right out of the gate and keeping Mac and Pete Schofield alive at the same time.

He did write a handful of stand-alone novels – a couple under his own name - but he also deployed two pseudonyms in the 1950s. This was a pretty common way either to get some extra work on the side without your publisher knowing or to ensure that you aren’t flooding the market and hurting your own brand.

Dewey’s last novel was published in 1969, and then it appears he retired from writing fiction at the age of 54. In 1971, he became a professor of English at Arizona State university, where he taught writing. In 1972, he married his second wife Doris L. Smith, and the author died nine years later in 1981 at age 66.

Hollywood never adapted his work for the big screen, but two of his novels were made into TV episodes:

Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre
"Runaway" (1964)
Based on “A Sad Song Singing” 

Cannon
"Death's a Double-Cross" (1971).
Based on the novel Every Bet's a Sure Thing

The Burglar

As a career midpoint, The Burglar exemplifies everything we've grown to appreciate and admire about David Goodis. It was originally published as a paperback original by Lion Books and later reprinted by Black Lizard, Simon & Schuster, and a host of others. Goodis wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, making it Goodis' only solo authored screenplay to actually be produced. The film was released in 1957 and starred Dan Duryea and Jayne Mansfield. In 1971, the French continued their fascination with the author by remaking the film with Omar Sharif and Jean-Paul Belmondo in starring roles. 

In flashback sequences, readers learn that Harbin experienced a poverty-ridden childhood. After his mother and father both die, Harbin hits the road and is picked up by a professional thief named Gerald. Harbin learns to become a skilled burglar under Gerald's tutelage. After Gerald is killed, Harbin is left to raise Gerald's young daughter Gladden. Over 18 years, Hardin's role transforms from Gladden's older brother to father, bringing the novel to the present with Hardin at age 34 and Gladden now 24. 

The opening chapters is a suspenseful heist as Harbin and his crew (two men and Gladden) rob a large mansion on Philadelphia's Main Line. The take is a whopping $100K in emeralds. But, the robbery didn't go as planned due to Harbin being interviewed by police outside of the mansion. Harbin miraculously explains his way out of the situation, but the police take note of his whereabouts. 

Back at the crew's “home”, a place deemed The Spot, Harbin makes the decision to send Gladden to Atlantic City for a few days while their hot status cools down a bit. While wasting the days, Harbin strolls around Philly with no real destination in mind. He contemplates the next move and his relationship with Gladden. But, a knockout named Della approaches Harbin at a bar and the two immediately hit it off. 

After a few chapters, Harbin and Della are in love and have the proverbial “white picket fence” lifestyle planned in the Pennsylvania countryside. The problem is multifaceted – Harbin has a criminal background that he needs to share with Della, he has a complicated relationship with Gladden that needs unraveling, and he has to leave the burglary business and his crew. The first one is easy, the second is an emotional implosion and the third becomes central to the book's propulsive plot.

As always, Goodis is one of the masters of crime-noir storytelling (arguably the very best) and The Burglar is about as good as it gets. The characters are dynamic, with each one facing extreme adversity while carrying heavy burdens. Both Della and Gladden are in love with Harbin, but his decision to choose one not only has a lasting impact on his own life, it controls the fate of the heist crew. There is the obligatory “running from the law” plot threads that keep the narrative at a brisk pace.

I like the author's subtext that theft is like a drug. It brings these characters emotional peaks and valleys while insuring they avoid the rat-race of a 9-to-5 job. At one point Harbin admits he has nothing he wants or even desires. He can't locate any material objects to buy with his $7K in walk-around money. Much less, where to spend his share of $25K from the most recent heist. It's not about the money, it's the adrenaline rush. 

If you just love a great story, The Burglar is absolutely fantastic. As a mid 20th century crime-noir, it's sheer perfection. Tangled love, the burden of criminality, greed's fascinating tug-of-war, flawed justice, the price of happiness, these compelling, prevalent plot-points just go on and on. Excellent books create meaningful discussion and The Burglar does just that. Highest recommendation. 

Get the book HERE.

Two-Gun Law

Robert J. Hogan (1897-1963) is mostly associated with his creation of the pulp-aviation series G-8 and his Battle Aces. After serving in WWI, Hogan worked in the aviation industry while writing for the pulps from 1930 through 1957. It's hard to locate information about Hogan's work beyond G-8 or his Smoke Wade creation. But, Hogan wrote a number of original western paperbacks like Brand of Cain, Renegade Guns, and Two-Gun Law. Pageturner's Buckskin Editions imprint have reprinted six of Hogan's western novels as affordable ebooks including Two-Gun Law. It was originally released as Law for La Mesa, a complete novel featured in Giant Western October, 1950. Lancer later reprinted it in paperback as Two-Gun Law. 

Rod Gordon was born and raised in the southwestern frontier town of La Mesa. Growing into an adult, Gordon had become a fast gunman and a reckless youth. To stop Gordon's inevitable criminal path, his father sent him back east to study law. Maturing, and learning the mantra that “every man is innocent until proven guilty”, Gordon returns to La Mesa to begin his law practice. His first client is an elderly man named Blue Harmon.

Harmon explains to Gordon that his ranch is being seized by the town bank, specifically a man named Colonel Ball. Harmon has paid taxes and has the official rights to keep his ranch, but due to some crooked politics Ball has proven the tax receipts are missing, thus the delinquency. Harmon is now dispossessed of the ranch so Gordon takes the case pro bono. After talking with Ball, Gordon explains that Harmon simply misplaced the receipts and needs more time. Before Gordon is able to elevate the case, Harmon's foreclosure leads to a shootout. Harmon is killed and Gordon is furious.

As Gordon begins to dig into the town's most recent history, he learns that Ball has repossessed many of the ranches and farms. La Mesa's citizens have been misled, cheated, bullied, and forced into poverty due to Colonel Ball's criminality. But, Ball wants to work with Gordon and explain that the whole business is on the up and up. Further, Ball wants his beautiful daughter Maxine to marry a civilized, noble professional like an attorney. While Ball plays matchmaker for Gordon and Maxine, the town turns on Gordon. They think Gordon has sold out to Ball and is now a part of an evil criminal alliance.

Hogan's western falls into the genre's trope of “land baron takes over the town.” Hundreds of stories and books fall into this category, but Hogan's writing style is exceptional because he molds it into a compelling crime-noir. Two-Gun Law reads like a Clifton Adams novel (oddly Adams also has a western with the same title) with the traditional western formula laced with crime-fiction elements. There are some footprints of Hogan's pulp writing as the characters display a seemingly supernatural ability to shoot precisely. But, it never really interferes with the story. I love the little nuances that the author includes. 

When Gordon finds the corpse inside Harmon's house, a nearby neighbor named Loony is playing a mouth harp and singing "The Dying Cowboy" (also known as "Cowboy's Lament"). Readers immediately think the song represents Harmon's death. But, in brilliant foreshadowing, the song is really a prophetic tune for Loony himself. I also really liked that Gordon, the wild-and-woolly gunman turned attorney, hangs his six-guns on his office wall. As the town turmoil increases, Gordon retrieves the guns from the wall and reflects how heavy they seem now. It's a parallel to Gordon's heavy burden as town savior. 

If you have a Kindle, $3 is well worth the price of admission for Two-Gun Law. If you want paper, affordable copies of the Lancer version are still out there. As an introduction to Hogan's writing, I was really impressed with the book and I'm looking forward to reading more of these Buckskin Edition reprints. 

Buy the ebook HERE.

Men's Adventure Quarterly #04

Robert Deis and Bill  Cunningham have been doing God's work with their Men's Adventure Quarterly publication. It's an old-school throwback to the men's action-adventure magazines (MAMs) of the early to mid 20th century. The magazine's debut was in 2021 and featured westerns as the theme. The second issue focused on espionage and the third installment contained stories around vigilantes. This fourth installment is “The Jungle Girls Issue!” 

In the opening pages, Deis authors “It's a Jungle Girl Out There!”, a great article examining the origins of the “jungle girl” stories in fiction, magazines, and comics. Deis cites two of the genre's earliest works, H. Rider Haggard's 1886 novel She and William Henry Hudson's 1904 novel Green Mansions. I enjoyed the timeline Deis presents from these novels, including Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Girl in 1932 and the 1940s/1950s movie serials and comics starring Nyoka the Jungle Girl. The introduction expands into the variations and eras of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. It was a real education for me learning the concept of “jungle girl” and its place in literature and pop-culture.

The magazine dedicates 50+ pages to model, author, traveler, and icon, Jane Dolinger. Deis interviews Lawrence Abbott, author of the book Jane Dolinger: The Adventurous Life of an American Travel Writer. Throughout the interview, Abbott provides Dolinger's history from pin-up model to her books like The Head with the long Yellow Hair (1968) and Jaguar Princess (1964). It was interesting to learn her backstory, the travels, and about her marriage. Many of her articles and columns are reprinted, including "I Helped Shrink a Human Head" (Champion 09/1959), "I Found the Jaguar Princess" (Adventure 04/1965), and "The Jungle Killers Who Fight for Women" (All Man 05/1963). I found "Around the World with Jane and Camera" (Wildcat 07/1966) as a terrific insight into her traveling experiences in rural locations and hostile jungles. She led an incredible life and the magazine is loaded with gorgeous photos of her (NSFW).

Like prior issues, this issue is saturated with reprinted stories and art from vintage men's action-adventure magazines. First off is “The She-Wolf of Halmahera” (Spur 09/1959), a first-person account by Leonard Kelcey (not a real guy) who explains to readers his harrowing experiences in Indonesia tracking down a she-wolf/vampire seductress. “Yank Explorer Who Ruled Guatamala's Taboo Tribe” (For Men Only 08/1959) features cover art by the talented Mort Kunstler, which in itself is worth the price of admission, and interior art by one of my favorites, Gil Cohen. The story is written by Donald Honig, an author that Deis spotlights in the story's introduction page. Other stories include “Borneo's Topless Army” (True Adventures 10/1966, art by Vic Prezio and Basil Gogos) and “Forbidden Amazon Female Compound” (Stag 04/1968, art by Mort Kunstler).

The book includes pages upon pages of vintage MAM artwork, including a variety of stunning models from the era. There is also an article on Marion Michael, a German model and actress that starred in films like Liane, Jungle Goddess and Native Girl and the Slaver. The editors include lobby card and movie poster artwork featuring Michael as well as a number of photos. 

Men's Adventure Quarterly #04 looks absolutely fantastic on paper (wink wink). As an educational tool, Deis and Cunningham provide an academic approach to this genre and I learned a great deal more about the MAM industry and culture. Each issue of MAQ continues to improve and expand while also rekindling the same fires stoked by the legions of creators, artists, writers, publishers, and fans that came before it. Deis and Cunningham's collaboration is pure dedication to the spirit and heart of MAMs and I absolutely applaud their efforts. 

Get the book HERE.

The Stalker

In 1971, author Bill Pronzini's first two novels were published, The Snatch and The Stalker. The former was the first of Pronzini's successful and respected Nameless Detective series. The Stalker was the first of over 30 original, stand-alone novels. After positive Paperback Warrior reviews for Panic (1972) and Snowbound (1974), I was excited to re-enter Pronzini's early 1970s era of crime-fiction. I decided to retrace his steps and begin with The Stalker. 

The book begins in Granite City, Illinois in March of 1959. Six men successfully rob a Smithfield armored car transporting $750K in money from Mannerling Chemical. Aside from punching a guard, the heist is executed flawlessly and these six men become financially stable in less than 10-minutes. Readers are advised that the investigation into the robbery was unsuccessful in locating the men or the stolen money.

The next chapters feature newspaper articles from 1970 detailing the grisly deaths of three, seemingly unrelated men. These deaths appear to be random accidents, but in the book's compelling middle chapters, readers discover that these men were half of the 1959 heist crew. It's explained that three Army buddies – Conradin, Drexel, and the book's protagonist, Kilduf – planned the heist and are now the remaining members of a mysterious kill-list. 

Pronzini's plot development is exceptional as he leads readers into a dramatic mystery as these three men attempt to identify their stalker. Considering the heist was perfect with no fatalities, and that law-enforcement never located a single clue, the idea that someone has found them seems impossible. But, three of their crew is dead and the list has shortened. There is a tremendous amount of urgency, which Pronzini successfully balances with the slower pace of suspense and mystery. I won't ruin the surprise, but there is another character in the novel that adds some insight to the puzzle.

The Stalker is a short novel, but Pronzini is able to develop the characters at a quick pace that doesn't detract from the story's impact. I loved the relationships between Kilduf and his frustrated spouse, as well as the summarized backstory of these three characters and the wealth they spent or invested. Pronzini is able to create this mental anguish as the characters learn of their potential fates and how their criminal pasts may now extinguish their future. Was the money worth the guilt? Was the fortune worth the mental sacrifice? I love these questions as Pronzini violently shortens the kill-list one by one.

As either a murder mystery, a psychological suspense novel, or as crime-fiction, The Stalker is absolutely fantastic. Pronzini crafts a believable heist tale, but manages to reshape it into a thrill-ride. The end result makes it a mandatory read. Highly recommended! 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Girl on a Slay Ride

Louis Trimble (1917-1988) was a Seattle author that specialized in science-fiction, western, mystery, and espionage genres. He wrote under multiple pseudonyms and has been reprinted numerous times. In 2012, Prologue Books reprinted his crime-noir novel Girl on a Slay Ride, originally published by Avon in 1960. 

Cliff Mallory is employed as a salesman, but is described by another character as a high-class messenger. The term fits considering Mallory has a briefcase containing $40,000 in securities that he needs to deliver to his boss in Port Angeles, Washington. After the drop, Mallory is headed into the state's Olympic Mountains to enjoy his favorite pastime, camping and fishing. But, his plans take a detour when his ex-wife Denise calls asking for a favor.

After picking Denise up at the Portland airport, she advises Mallory that she's on the run from her husband and his Syndicate cronies. Her husband fears that she knows a little too much about his business dealings and wants to snuff her out. Denise called the only person she ever truly loved for help. Mallory and Denise head to the coast highway and follow it through the fog and dense forest to a small-town motel. After sensually making up for lost years, Mallory sees two men in the parking lot that he knows must be on to them. 

Back on the rural highway, Mallory and Denise are intercepted by a man calling himself Graef and two other guys. But, Mallory can't figure out if they are after Denise or trying to rob him of the $40K. The three thugs escort Mallory into a coffee shop where a newspaper shows Graef's photo and the ominous headlines that he is a rapist and kidnapper that has escaped from jail after killing a deputy. Quickly, Trimble's crime-noir escalates into a psychotic suspense thriller as Mallory and Denise try to escape this horrible scenario.

In some ways, I think Trimble combined a rugged, outdoor modern western with a crime-noir to create this very unique novel. It features a long chase through the pines and snow, with tracking, guns, and a survival element built in. But, the author isn't content with just that. Instead, he injects this frantic sense of suspense and mystery because everything isn't what it appears to be. I was thrown off by the story's twist and had to re-read certain chapters just to be sure I was clear on who's betraying whom. I applaud the originality and presentation, but there's a lot going on that requires some serious page dedication. 

Girl on a Slay Ride was a terrific, fast-paced narrative with plenty of action and intrigue. Trimble reads like John D. MacDonald here and I can't help but think he was slightly influenced by JDM's violent novel The Executioners (aka Cape Fear, 1957). It has the same intensity with one unforgettable character that is a repulsive, psychotic savage that preys on young girls. The original paperback's cover (Victor Kalion) conveys the emotional terror. What you see is exactly what you get. 

Recommended! Buy the ebook HERE.

Boy-Lover

Charles Boeckman (1920-2015), a celebrated jazz musician, authored short stories for the pulps and digests through the mid 20^th century. He also wrote paperbacks including mystery, western and suspense. In his autobiography, Pulp Jazz: The Charles Boeckman Story, Boeckman elaborates on the name Alex Carter, a pseudonym that he used to author a number of racy romance novels. In the book, he says he didn't want readers to connect these novels directly to him. He learned of Robert Turner, an author for the publisher Beacon, spending a night in jail for writing “pornography.” He didn't want to experience the same fate. It's a real shame that readers couldn't connect Boy-Lover to Boeckman considering its quality. It was published by Beacon in 1963 with a painted cover by Clement Micarelli.

Babs is in her late 20s, has a ravenous sexual appetite, and is mired in the suburbs with her tired, complacent husband Art. Instead of providing Babs hours of ecstasy, Art's idea of a good time is hosting tame neighborhood parties, discussing mechanical issues concerning  the couple's car, or just sleeping like a log. Babs is craving the sins of the flesh and has horny housewife eyes on a young mechanic named Jack.

Jack recently graduated high school and is now working at the local garage. When he delivers Bab's repaired car to her house, he is shocked to find her sunbathing in the nude while Art is at work. Babs slaps the seduction on thick as the experience increases from lemonade to dancing to bedroom antics as Jack loses his virginity to this gorgeous married woman in grand style. But, as you can imagine, Babs and Jack aren't fulfilled with just one encounter. Soon, they are sneaking out to do the nasty in abandoned parking lots, the closed mechanic's shop, and eventually into an apartment outside of town. It's here that Babs and Jack are shocked when their affair is revealed.

Boy-Lover isn't explicit by any stretch of the imagination. It's all PG-13 if it was released today. Boeckman's novel works exceptionally well as a character study – Jack as the inexperienced youth experiencing an accelerated maturity and Babs as the frustrated housewife that feels no purpose. The two need something from each other, but it isn't an emotional connection. Their responses to changes in their lives is met by sex – simply sex, nothing more and nothing less.

Boeckman takes readers through the rocky relationship that Jack and Babs feel. We feel Jack's frustration as a mechanic in a new town - the low wages, the impending poverty, the scorching cement – and sympathize. In many ways, this 1963 glimpse at the lower-class hasn't changed. It's timeless as these problems are eternal for generations of Americans. Jack contemplates the money left over on payday and has to decide if his last savings should be spent on a movie and popcorn. Alternatively, the upper middle-class Babs realizes what blue-collar money is worth. She is used to expensive cars, fine dining, and the ability to shop for high-quality wine and clothes. She faces a new awakening under Jack's small, but hard-earned, salary.

Boy-Lover is way better than it ever has a right to be. The cover is gorgeous, but it doesn't do the author or the publisher any real justice. This is just a fantastic novel that makes you feel a responsibility to the characters. On the last page I felt the impact of these two lovers and the impromptu life they led. I felt their emotional connection, their financial struggle, and the challenges they faced in an unconventional relationship. In a way, this is Boeckman's take on youth, the end of innocence, and the daunting threat of impending adulthood. I really enjoyed it and I think you will too. Recommended! 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Shotgun

William Wingate (1939-2012) was a South African born author responsible for seven novels and a non-fiction book about winning poker. His 1980 paperback Shotgun was released as Hardacre’s Way in England and later adapted into the crappy movie Malone starring Burt Reynolds. It remains available as an affordable ebook.

Our hero is John Hardacre, a tough guy who drifts into the remote Tennessee mountain town of Baptist’s Fire. Hardacre is first encountered pushing his broken Volkswagen Beetle into the town’s service station employing the novel’s affable narrator, a 15 year-old named Lou. About halfway through the novel, the author reveals something about Lou that will knock your socks off. I’m still laughing about how clever this revelation was.

The service station is owned by Lou’s pa, and he’s receiving pressure to sell from a wealthy mobster-turned-boss hog who’s buying up the town. As pa turns down these cash offers, the pressure becomes more coercive thanks to the developer’s henchmen. All of the town’s leaders, including the corrupt and feckless sheriff, are in the back pocket of this local bossman whose lackeys are beyond justice.

As the novel progresses, we see bullies in action targeting Hardacre for harassment on the street and the spontaneous outbursts of violence increase Hardacre’s profile as a target for the town establishment’s revenge. Hardacre’s unwillingness to bend in the face of bullies puts his hosts, Lou and Pa, squarely within the blast radius for more violence.

What we have here is a fairly typical western plot transported to 1980 Appalachia. Other critics have compared Shotgun to Shane by Jack Schaefer, but the influence of David Morrell’s First Blood also shines brightly. It’s established early in the paperback that Hardacre travels with a sawed-off shotgun and you just know the weapon will be a turning point later in the book when the inevitable violence erupts.

Fans of 1980s men’s adventure paperbacks should regard Shotgun as required reading. The story of a drifter being pushed beyond his tolerable limits by bullying authorities is timeless, and the author delivers the bloodbath that genre fans will love. 

Get the ebook HERE.

The Hit

After authoring westerns for a decade, Brian Francis Wynne Garfield began writing crime-fiction in the 1970s. His pinnacle may have been 1972's Death Wish, but books like Relentless and The Three-Persons Hunt were stellar genre entries. Based on my research, 1970's The Hit may have been Garfield's first traditional crime-fiction novel. 

At the relatively young age of 30, Simon Crane spends his days as an amateur geologist in the desert. Before his complacent lifestyle, Crane was an Army Intelligence Lieutenant, a collegiate baseball player, a newspaper reporter and a cop. On the beat, Crane was “accidentally” shot by his partner during a hardware store holdup. After taking two .357 bullets in the thigh, Crane is now on early retirement and disability, allowing plenty of time for rockhounding.

Crane's life is turned upside down when his former love interest, Joanne, shows up at his door with an incredible tale. She is employed as a secretary for one of the front businesses ran by the Aiello-Madonna-DeAngelo mob. Along with playing with Aiello's files, she occasionally allowed him to bed her down in his downtime. Due to the intimacy, Joanne knew that Aiello had over three-million dollars in his secure safe as well as incriminating evidence on lawmakers, politicians, mob members, and even herself. When she arrived at work that morning, Aiello was missing and his safe was open and empty. 

Shortly after explaining to Crane that she doesn't know what to do about her situation, two mob enforcers appear and search Crane's house for any evidence that Joanne may be hiding. Doing the smart thing, Crane and Joanne go to DeAngelo and Madonna and explain that they had absolutely nothing to do with Aiello's murder. DeAngelo doesn't believe them and feels that Joanne sold out the mob and now she's been fed to them as the scapegoat. DeAngelo issues a deadly deadline: 48 hours to either bring the money back or prove that they didn't kill Aiello.

Garfield's short novel contains gambling, mobsters, double-crosses, car chases, and the obligatory “body buried at a road construction site”, all main ingredients of any great crime-fiction dish. The mystery aspect could be the fact that Crane is attempting to find the answer to save his own life. This is a genre trope of many 1940s and 1950s original paperbacks.

The Hit showcases Garfield re-creating the magic of crime-noir and makes both Crane and Joanne likable heroes throughout the propulsive plot. While there are a lot of characters to remember, the storyline and development isn't overly complicated or convoluted. Instead, this is just another good Brian Garfield novel with enough gritty violence and perplexing mystery to satisfy seasoned genre fans. 

Get the ebook HERE.

Quarry #16 - Quarry's Blood

Max Allan Collins’ Quarry series about a paid assassin is probably the best series (still) going today. The books blend action, mystery, sex and humor in a perfect combination, so I was excited to read the 2022 installment, Quarry’s Blood.

As the novel opens, it’s 1983 and Quarry (age 31) is at a strip club in Biloxi, Mississippi re-connecting with a stripper he once knew named Luann (stage name: Lolita). If this rings a bell, that’s because Quarry’s Blood begins as a sequel of sorts to 2015’s Quarry’s Choice, although Collins does a good job getting the reader up to speed if you’ve never read the other novel or forgotten the particulars. Mostly, Collins is just bringing back a beloved former character and consider yourself lucky as Luann is a fan-favorite love interest for Quarry.

Anyway, Quarry used to be a normal hitman, but now he’s a hitman who gets paid by intended victims to kill other hitmen before they can kill the targets. If possible, he also investigates the situation to figure out who hired the hitman in the first place — because if you don’t do that, why bother? The upshot is that Quarry returns to Luann because his 1983 investigation indicates that a hitman is targeting his former stripper friend for extinction.

We also join Quarry in 2021 (age 69) looking back on his life and greatest hits over the years. He’s content with his life of retired solitude when a visitor comes-a-knocking. The visitor isn’t carrying a gun, but rather a notebook. She’s an author of true crime novels, and she’s pieced together who Quarry is - or was - and wants to interview him for a book. She’s aware that Quarry has over 40 kills to his name and other things about him that I won’t spoil here.

Quarry is also facing a problem of someone trying to kill him. Does it have something to do with his prolifically murderous past? Or maybe it’s connected with this true-crime journalist poking about? This leads to a lot of revisiting historical hits to learn the one that triggered the violence of the present. There’s a meta-fiction aspect the whole endeavor that will also delight series stalwarts - you’ll know it when you read it. Of course, Collins ties the past and the present together in a tidy and well-construction manner forming one multi-generational tale.

Quarry’s Blood is another excellent installment in the series, but probably not a great entry point for a new reader since there are so many references to other Quarry adventures. This one’s for the fans. There’s an afterward by the author implying that this may truly be the last Quarry novel. I’m calling on Hard Case Crime publisher Charles Ardai to figure out a way to put the screws to Max Allan Collins to ensure there are more installments forthcoming. Whatever it takes… 

Buy a copy of the book HERE

Bird in a Cage

Frederic Dard (1921-2000) has been called the Harry Whittington of France because he authored approximately 300 crime-noir paperbacks during the mid-20th century using his own name and a wide variety of pseudonyms. Readers may be familiar with his 175-installment San-Antonio police procedural series that received a sizable run of English translations. A London-based reprint publisher called Pushkin Vertigo has been reprinting many of Dard’s greatest hits with crisp, new translations for modern audiences, including his 1961 stand-alone paperback, Bird in a Cage (Le Monte-Charge).

Our narrator is Jerome and he has returned home to Paris on Christmas Eve after spending six years incarcerated for the murder of his girlfriend. Arriving at his childhood home is a melancholy experience since his mom died four years earlier when Jerome was in prison. Facing the crippling sadness of a Christmas alone, Jerome decides to treat himself to a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant.

At the restaurant, Jerome encounters a woman and follows her to a movie theater. He sits next to her and holds her hand in the dark providing the poor fellow with some much-needed human contact. After the show, they wander about Paris a bit and wind up at her place headed for a sexual encounter because they are French and that’s what the French do.

Just as Jerome is about to close the deal with this mysterious woman, they enter her parlor and lying underneath the tree is the girl’s estranged husband with his head blown off. Needless to say, this throws a monkey wrench in Jerome’s big plans to get laid after six years of forced celibacy. Moreover, Jerome is forced to disclose to this new widow that he’s a newly-released ex-con (and convicted murderer) and probably not her strongest alibi.

Jerome sets out to solve the murder, and seemingly impossible things begin to happen deepening the paperback’s mystery. The solution recalled the architectural misdirection often seen in a John Dickson Carr locked-room mystery in which a seemingly perfect crime is explained through elaborate planning and execution. As a mystery, the solution worked, but it didn’t make for a particularly edgy or hardboiled novel.

The writing (or rather the translation) was uniformly great making this an enjoyable 120-page quickie. The book’s final page was abrupt and confusing, but it didn’t impact the mystery itself. Overall, I enjoyed this foray into French noir and will probably come back for more. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE

Mourn the Hangman

Harry Whittington's second contemporary novel was 1951's Murder is my Mistress, published by Graphic as #41. One year later, Whittington was featured again by the publisher with Mourn the Hangman, Graphic #46. The book was reprinted by Prologue in 2012 in paperback and digital editions.

Steven Blake and Bruce Bricker own Confidential Investigations, a private-eye business based in Gulf City, Florida. Their most recent job placed Blake undercover as a laborer for Arrenhower, a manufacturer with a government contract to produce airplane parts. Blake's job was to infiltrate the company to discover evidence that the company is a contract profiteer (using government money to buy supplies to make products for a competitor). After Blake locates proof, he drives back to Gulf City and reports it to his partner. When Blake returns home, he finds his wife has been murdered. Instead of calling the police, Blake runs smack-dab into another crime-noir plot of “innocent man on the run from the police after finding a corpse.”  

In this average Whittington novel, Blake is determined to locate his wife's murderer. The suspect list includes his partner, his wife's former lover, and Arrenhower's CEO. As Blake dodges the law, he becomes the primary target for a motivated police lieutenant. When the net tightens, Blake runs to Jacksonville to escape hired gunmen. Fast cars, a seductress, an ex-fighter, and corporate fraud all prove to be real highlights of Whittington's plot. The emotional, moral centric theme is personal loss and sworn vengeance. 

At 150 pages, the book's pace is just too quick to really allow readers to settle into the story. Cheers to Whittington for keeping it breezy, but I wanted to learn more about Blake's involvement with Arrenhower and his backstory as a former homicide detective.

Mourn the Hangman proves that Whittington was still perfecting his storytelling skills in the early 1950s. By 1955, Whittington had nearly 20 full-length, original novels on his resume, including many written under pseudonyms. His catalog varies and this novel is just another Whittington book, nothing more, nothing less. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

The Big Bounce

Between 1953 and 1961, Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) authored his first five career novels and all were westerns. Leonard played his first hand of crime-fiction in 1966 with a relatively unknown novel called The Big Bounce. He shopped it to a variety of publishers and they all declined. In 1969, Fawcett Gold Medal published the book simply because it had been adapted to film the same year starring Ryan O'Neal and Leigh Taylor-Young. The movie was a flop, so Hollywood tried again in 2004 with a cast including Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, and Charlie Sheen. It was such a disaster that Leonard described it as the “second-worst movie ever made”, alluding to the fact that the first one was the worst. Despite the publication and theatrical horror associated with The Big Bounce, I decided to read it. I wish I had those hours back.

The book begins with three men watching a video tape of migrant worker Jack Ryan (no relation to Tom Clancy) executing a home-run swing with a baseball bat on his crew leader's face. Readers later learn that Ryan was a former Baseball Player and has now spiraled down the labor ladder to the position of Seasonal Picker of Cucumbers in a lakeside region of Michigan. Ryan and acquaintances (he never had friends) rob a lake-house and steal $750 from wallets and purses. Ryan fears that the other guys will get caught simply because the box they placed the wallets and purses could be found.

After being fired from his job for smashing the foreman with the bat, Ryan is hired as a Handyman by a resort owner named Mr. Majestyk (oddly, no relation to the character Leonard created five years later). Ryan spends time in his new position avoiding an average-looking female guest who desperately wants to get lai....wants to have her window fixed. Ryan hooks up with Nancy instead, a young seductress who is banging two men, one of which is the owner of the cucumber farm. Ryan and Nancy run around shooting glass objects while planning to steal the payroll money from the farm.

I have no Earthly idea why anyone in Hollywood wanted to make a film from this novel. Or, why anyone would want to attempt it again. The book is mindless with its lack of plot structure and features one of the most uninteresting protagonists I've read. I nearly gave up reading it twice, but just kept pushing onward out of respect for Elmore Leonard. There isn't anything remotely compelling about the story, the character development, pace, or dialogue. If you must read everything Leonard wrote, then I guess you owe it to yourself to experience the good and the bad. Beyond that, avoid this book!

Buy a copy of the book HERE

Innocent Wanton (aka Young Nurse Desmond/Student Nurse)

Peggy Gaddis Dern (Erolie Pearl Gaddis, 1895-1966) used pseudonyms like Georgia Craig, Joan Sherman, Perry Lindsay, and Peggy Gaddis to author romance novels and nurse fiction throughout the mid 20th century. Her first published work was erotic and racy novels printed by the lowly publisher Godwin in 1935. In the 1940s, she began to be published by Phoenix Press, Gramercy, and Arcadia. Prior to her death, Belmont and other publishers began reprinting her sexy romance novels to entice nurse-fiction fans. A great example is Young Nurse Desmond, published by Belmont in 1963. This novel was originally titled Innocent Wanton and published by Phoenix Press in 1950 under Dern's pseudonym, Gail Jordan. It was also printed under the title Student Nurse by Uni-Book as Digest Paperback #37.

Innocent Wanton is a sexy, juvenile delinquent style novel about a young girl named Martha that loses her virginity to a celebrity playwright named Jordan. Martha isn't a nurse, but works as a trainee in the Happy Valley Nursing Home. I'm not even sure the book discloses her last name as Desmond. After providing some pills to Jordan (who is there voluntarily), she learns that he is in this facility due to a drinking problem. Jordan immediately falls in love with Martha and desires to have her. After he begs Martha to have dinner with him, he is able to cajole her into the back seat where he takes her innocence on the cold vinyl seat. 

Later, Jordan proposes to Martha, she says yes, and the two move to a penthouse apartment in Manhattan. Martha quickly realizes that Jordan is a bit of a scumbag when she discovers that he has a girlfriend on the side. Risking the rewards of a robust alimony check, Martha bails on the marriage and rides a bus to the most overused locale in crime-noir history – the always reliable shore-front cottage in Small Town, Flordia. Her fierce independence doesn't last long when a man named Paul spots her bouncing out of the water. After “learning sex” from Jordan, Martha is determined to give her body to Paul in the most domineering way possible. However, Martha's problem is that Paul has a secret, a hidden connection to Jordan's past life. He is withholding information from her in hopes that she will be an easier lay. How can she escape these horny, secretive men and find true love?

The cover of Belmont's Young Nurse Desmond paperback, which again is the re-titled version of the earlier Innocent Wanton, states the book is about a young nurse's involvement with doctors, interns, and secret hospital affairs. The artwork clearly has the main character dressed as a nurse and leaving a general hospital. Does this sound like the same book? 

Unfortunately, Belmont and other publisher were notorious at cashing in on the hottest literary trends by reprinting prior novels. Dell probably made a great deal of money reprinting early mystery novels as Gothics in the 1960s and 1970s. In this case, Belmont is cashing in on nurse-fiction, a genre that Peggy Gaddis contributed to for 25+ years. By changing the author from Gail Jordan back to the marketable Peggy Gaddis name, and slapping a nurse on the cover, it probably swayed fans into believing this is a new release for the author.

This is my first experience with Peggy Dern and I mostly enjoyed the book. I have a tolerance for romance novels based on my love of Gothics and we've covered the romance-heavy slave Gothics (also known as plantation novels). The sex isn't graphic, but Martha was described in a voluptuous way that motivated me to learn more about her. Her torrid relationship with Jordan came to a satisfying conclusion and I genuinely enjoyed the rivalry between the lovers. I think if you enjoy juvenile delinquent-styled stories (Martha is 18-yrs of age) then you will probably find enough to like here. Innocent Wanton, aka Young Nurse Desmond, aka Student Nurse, is a lukewarm recommendation. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Barr Breed #02 - The Body Beautiful

While writing over 150 teleplays, Bill S. Ballinger (1912-1980) still had the opportunity to author nearly 30 novels. His crime-noir and detective fiction is still held in high regard, including two novels he wrote about a Chicago private-detective named Barr Breed. I read the first of these novels, The Body in the Bed (1948), and really enjoyed it. It was only a matter of time until I tracked down the sequel, The Body Beautiful. It was originally published by Signet in 1949 and was reprinted several times through the mid-1960s. 

As described in the first novel, Breed is a private-investigator that runs a staffing agency featuring detectives. His agency is employed by stores, banks, railroads, and any business or individual attempting to retrieve or prevent an economic loss. Often, these investigations eventually lead to murder. In The Body Beautiful, trouble lays its bothersome load right on Breed's front steps.

Breed and his friend Benny stop by the Marlowe Theater to view a traveling performance called The Golden Girls. Mostly, it's scantily clad beauties dancing while suspended in bird cages. After the titillating performance, Benny introduces Breed to one of the show's star performers, a knock-out named Coffee Stearns. During the awkward date, and subsequent awkward dates, Breed can't penetrate Coffee's social walls. But, once she realizes he's a detective, she lowers her guard and bra straps. The two kindle a relationship, but it's short-lived. During a performance, Coffee falls from one of the cages and plunges into the crowd. The cause of death? A knife in the back. 

Breed is torn up over the murder and wants to investigate free of charge. Like most of these crime-noir detective novels, Breed's police ally is Sergeant Cheenan with the Homicide Division. The two have a bitter relationship due to Breed's reckless abandonment outside of the law. But, Cheenan knows Breed is a relentless gumshoe, so he allows him a long leash. Before Breed starts the investigation, he receives a phone call from a man wanting to hire Breed. The job is worth $1,000 if Breed can confirm that Coffee Stearns was really a woman named Betty Anne Beals. Intrigued by the offer, Breed takes the case.

Ballinger was a tremendous talent and The Body Beautiful is another fine testament to his storytelling skills. I love this Breed character and the two-sided personality he possesses. Sometimes he's Mike Hammer screaming at everyone in the room and at other times he's just a wisecracking predecessor to 1950's Shell Scott. Like the first novel, Breed displays a ferocious fighting spirit, but prefers to rely on others to make mistakes or provide tiny clues that eventually lead to the mystery's resolution. 

While mostly saddled in Chicago, the book takes a jaunt to New York briefly. Through a cross-section of suspicious performers, Breed must interview everyone involved in the production and its past performances. I found the characters intriguing and the plot's twist and turns fascinating. The book's grand finale is a suspenseful chase scene through the empty theater as Breed is forced to match wits with the mysterious killer. 

If you enjoy these mid 20th century detective novels, then you will love The Body Beautiful. It's clever, suspenseful, funny, and hard-hitting. Unfortunately, this was the second and last appearance of this dynamic detective and that's a real shame. I wish Ballinger could have found a steady and consistent paycheck writing a series of Barr Breed novels. But, we only have these two works as a small glimpse of what might have been. 

Get the book HERE

Barge Girl

Stark House Press continues to reprint the original novels of New Jersey native Calvin Clements. During his life, Clements was in the Navy, served as a firefighter in New York City, and later perfected writing by contributing numerous scripts for television shows like Gunsmoke, How the West Was Won, and Dr. Kildare. Along with authoring short stories, he wrote four stand-alone paperbacks, two of which are paired together in a new Stark House two-in-one, Hell Ship to Kuma (1954) and Barge Girl (1953). I read and enjoyed Hell Ship to Kuma, as well as another of Clements' novels, Satan Takes the Helm (1952). Barge Girl was on my radar and thankfully has arrived in a gorgeous edition with an introduction by Timothy J. Lockhart (Smith, Pirates).

As a tugboat captain, Joe Baski tows barges around New York City. He's been on boats his whole life, including a sting as a quartermaster during WWII. But, his dream is to own a boat of his very own. Over the years, Baski has invested a few dollars every week to build what is ultimately a $50,000 boat. His next move is to quietly finish out his employment and then start his own charter business in the Florida Keys. Then came the “barge girl”, a married knockout named Stella.

When Joe first lays his eyes on Stella, he knows he must possess her. Stella's husband is much older, a weathered barge watchman that has become complacent with his boring existence. Stella wants more out of life, but feels an obligation to her husband. When she meets Joe, there is an instant attraction, a hot chemistry that refuses to burn out. Joe needs Stella for the next phase of his life and Stella wants to go, but is fighting an inner urge to be a devoted wife. 

Without spoiling your enjoyment, Clements successfully combines a love story with a suspenseful death, set against the backdrop of the 1950s shipping business. Like his prior novels, Clements still offers readers technical lessons on freighters and barges, but it doesn't distract from what amounts to be a thrilling narrative as Joe and Stella wade the waters of seduction and deceit. Fans of police procedural novels may enjoy the book's finale, complete with a pesky and thorough insurance investigator. 

Overall, Clements is simply masterful and remains one of the most frustrating authors of the mid 20th century. With only four novels to his name, readers deserved so much more than what he produced. Thankfully, I still have one more Clements novel to read, Dark Night of Love (1956) and at least 14 short-stories, all of which have been listed in the Clements bibliography at the back of Stark House's reprint. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE.

Woman Hunter

Lorenz Heller (1910-1965) wrote three books for a digest-size paperback house called Falcon Books using the pseudonym Laura Hale. Stark House Press has reprinted two of them, so I started with the 1952 dramatic heist novel, Woman Hunter.

Marty Doyle is a boxer who is hiding out in a fleabag apartment in Newark, New Jersey. A couple days earlier, he was supposed to take a dive in the ring but failed to do so. Now he has a pissed off mobster looking for his head, and the only thing that can make it square is to reimburse the mobster the $15,000 he lost betting on the fight.

Marty’s manager is an old-timer named Chuffy who knows a thing or two about both sides of the law. Chuffy wants to pay the mobster the fifteen grand to get Marty back in the ring and working toward a lucrative title shot. Chuffy doesn’t have many marketable skills, but he’s really, really good with guns.

Through his own underworld connections, Chuffy falls in with a heist crew looking to pull a big-money armored car job and lands Marty a gig as the getaway driver. The catch is that Chuffy and Marty need to hide out with the other crew members in a remote cabin before the job, so nothing goes sideways with any of the human resources.

As an author, Heller always puts a lot of energy into fully developing his characters. It was important to him that the reader understands everyone’s motivations. In a 180-page paperback, that can come at the expense of plot and action. That’s the problem with Woman Hunter. The set-up is super-interesting, but it quickly devolves into too much soapy romantic drama. A violent gun-filled conclusion was unable to save this snooze of a novel.

I stand by my assertion that Lorenz Heller is an unsung hero of crime fiction from the paperback-original era, but Woman Hunter isn’t the top-of-the-heap. Stark House is to be commended by bringing Heller’s work back to life, but this one can be safely skipped. 

Get the book HERE