Fred Fellows #01 - Sleep Long, My Love

In the non-fiction book Hillary Waugh's Guide to Mysteries & Mystery Writing, Waugh, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, focuses the tenth chapter on police-procedural writing and some of the catalysts that drove him to write some of the best novels of that sub-genre. He says he was influenced and deeply moved by Charles Boswell's They All Died Young, which he remembers reading in 1949. He refers to books by Ed McBain, John Creasey, Roger West and Maj Sjowall and how the business of moving toward the police instead of away from the police was a radical shift in the character of the mystery story. Waugh's recognition of the police procedural genre, and it's creation, elevated his writing to the upper echelons among his contemporaries. Nothing exemplifies that more than his Fred Fellows series. 

I read the second installment of Waugh's Fred Fellows series in 2019, a book called Road Block. I remember liking it, but felt that it was too much of a procedure instead of a compelling narrative. Even though I gave the book a less-than-stellar review, I've always kept Fred Fellows in mind when I've read other police procedural books. No matter how many books I read that Fred fella just kept returning. After halfheartedly searching for more of the Fred Fellows novels I finally found some. I wanted to try Fellows again from the beginning with the series debut Sleep Long, My Love. It was originally published in 1959 and was later adapted into a British film titled Jigsaw (Pan reissued the book under that name in 1962). 

Fred Fellows is the Chief of Police in the small fictitious city of  Stockton, Connecticut. Not much is known about his background or personal life other than he is married, has a couple of sons, and only drinks his coffee with sugar and milk. His police force includes about 20 officers, of which the key characters being Fellows' right-hand man, Detective Sergeant Sidney Wilkes, as well as Sergeants Unger and Gorman. Fellows and his force sometimes work with the nearest big city, Bridgeport. 

In Sleep Long, My Love, Fellows and Wilkes investigate a possible tenant skipping out on a rental house lease. Upon investigation they discover body parts that were morbidly charred in the furnace as well as a human torso stuffed into a trunk. There are scummy blood stains in the bathtub and the remnants of a hacksaw and knife in the ashes of the fireplace. This is a 1959 novel that appears to be very modern based on the disturbing crime scene. The questions are two-fold: Who is the killer and who is the victim? That's the investigation that haunts the two men and the entire town of Stockton.

I've read my share of these procedural stories and I feel comfortable being thrust into the investigation. By having very little knowledge beyond what the police possess I was knee-deep in analyzing clues, evidence, suspects, and motive. The interesting part of the story is that there are two major mysteries here, who was killed and who's the killer. By having very little information the investigation has to comb a lot of streets, towns, and occupations to gather information. As tiny clues are presented the detective work eliminates them. Often I was left with at a dead end just like Fellows. Who was this girl? Why was she killed? The mystery was just so compelling and the various leads seemed so promising. 

This may be one of the better police procedural novels I've ever read. I love the Fellows and Wilkes characters and their system of bouncing ideas off of each other. Wilkes is the second-guess type and Fellows is a bit more diligent in never dismissing any little thread of detail. I couldn't put the book down and read it nearly in one sitting. After completion I thought more about why I didn't like the second installment, Road Block, as much. That novel is based on traffic and patterns of traffic after a heist places robbers somewhere on the real-life Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. I just found the “road work” dull and uninspiring where Sleep Long, My Love is a totally different type of narrative. If you love police procedural novels then look no further than this one. High recommendation. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 103

Today's episode examines the intriguing police procedural sub-genre of crime-fiction. Eric presents an exciting feature on one of the genre's most iconic authors, Hillary Waugh. In addition, Eric reviews the first installment of the vintage detective series Neil Hockaday and discusses some new book aquisitions. The episode also includes an audible story by crime-noir writer Jimmy McKimmey. Stream below or download the episode directly HERE. 

Listen to "Episode 103: Hillary Waugh" on Spreaker.

Paperback Warrior Primer - Doctor Death

The Doctor Death pulp character has a rather strange history. The first incarnation was in the pages of All Detective Magazine where the dastardly Doctor Death appeared in July through October of 1934 and again in January 1935. In these novels, the nemesis is Nibs Holloway, but that character actually debuted a year prior in the pages of Rapid-Fire Detective Stories. The 1934/1935 Doctor Death stories were authored by Edward P. Norris, although that could have been a pseudonym. No one really knows. After the January 1935 story, things change for the character.

All Detective Magazine folded with the January 1935 issue and that was the end of that particular version of Doctor Death. Then, February 1935 sees the shocking launch of Doctor Death Magazine with Norris replaced by prolific writer Harold Ward (using the bizarre pseudonym Zorro) and nemesis Nibs Holloway replaced by detective Jimmy Holm. This new version of Doctor Death debuts in the novel “12 Must Die”, the lead for the first issue. Then comes “The Gray Creatures” for the next issue followed by “The Shriveling Murders” for the very last issue of the magazine in April. That's it, February, March, April of 1935 – three total issues. Weird, right?

Thankfully, fans of the pulp got two additional novels that weren't originally published in the magazine - “Waves of Madness” and “The Red Mist of Murder”. These appeared in the 1980s in Nemesis Incorporated and Pulp Vault. Note that a publisher called Pulp Classics also reprinted at least one of the Doctor Death Magazine issues in 1979.

In 1966, a paperback publisher called Corinth Regency reprinted the three Doctor Death Magazine novels as paperbacks with amazing artwork by Robert Bonfils. These books were titled the same as the novels – 12 Must Die (CR118), The Gray Creatues (CR121), and The Shriveling Murders (CR125). But, the publisher also threw a fourth book in there titled Stories from Doctor Death and Other Terror Tales (CR129) which included the various shorts that were included in the three issues of the magazine.

In July, 2008 the Altus Press reprinted the Spring 1956 issue of Triple Detective Magazine. This issue featured a novel titled "Doctor Death Returns". It was authored by Steve Mitchell using the pseudonym Son of Zorro (clever). This same issue had also been reprinted in 2002 as Double Danger Tales #56.

But, wait..there's more. In 2009 Altus Press (now part of Steeger Books) published Doctor Death Vs The Secret Twelve Volume 1 which includes the three novels from Doctor Death Magazine with an awesome introduction by Will Murray. The same publisher released Doctor Death Vs The Secret Twelve Volume 2 which featured the two novels that were published in the 80s by Nemesis Incorporated and Pulp Vault. Then, there is also a combination of both volumes in one larger collection called The Complete Exploits of Doctor Death. In that edition there is also a treatment for an original comic strip that Harold Lamb had pitched.

What's Doctor Death all about? The backstory for the Doctor Death Magazine version of the character is that he is really a scientist named Rance Mandarin. He earned his education at Yale and became a Dean of Psychology there. But, somewhere along the way Rancine loses his mind and gets the notion that he himself is more superior to Albert Einstein. With his superior mental prowess he incorporates a fanatical religious crusade into an apocalyptic plan. As a mission from God – he claims – he will work to eliminate all of his contemporaries and completely destroy modern civilization. By returning Earth back to the Dark Age humanity can grow and evolve in different ways under his leadership.

To combat Doctor Death's attempts to destroy Earth with things like death rays and zombie armies the President of the United States forms a Secret Twelve committee made up of leading scientists, government leaders, and even the Mob boss. But, there are law-enforcement agents that do all of the heavy lifting.

Policeman Jimmy Holm is Doctor Death's main foe, an iron-fisted hero that reports to Inspector Ricks, a “policeman of the old school and head of the greatest body of manhunters in the world”. Holm is also engaged to Doctor Death's niece and former assistant Nina Fererra. There is also a psychic thrown in the mix named Elise Lando and the wealthiest man in America, Secretary Hallenberg.

If you are familiar with the “clearly good guy” versus the “clearly bad guy” then this pulp really isn't much different. It resembles many of the other villain-led pulps and stories of the time like Fu-Manchu. The Doctor Death novels are over-the-top and wildly entertaining if you simply suspend disbelief – which is the obligatory stance for reading any pulp material. You should know that if you've read this far. How does it rank with the pulp giants of the time? I'd say middle of the pack. There's nothing spectacular here, but nothing completely disposable. It serves the purpose of escaping our hectic troubled modern world and takes us back to more innocent times. Who can ask for anything more?

Murder's Old Maid

Donald Bayne Hobart (1898-1970) began his writing career in the pulps. He authored shorts for magazines like Popular Detective, Texas Rangers, Masked Rider Western, and The Phantom Detective. He also wrote filler stories for the mid-20th century comics like Thrilling Comics, The Black Terror, and Exciting Comics. He used pseudonyms like Lew Martin, Hobart Donbayne, Bayne Hobart and also house names like Jackson Cole. There is an excellent write-up on the author HERE. Anxious to read more Hobart, I found an online copy of Famous Detective's October 1956 issue which features his novel Murder's Old Maids. 

This sinister mystery stars Mark Creston, a doctor visiting an old-fashioned country hotel in New England in late September. Due to the tourist population's decrease, the hotel is nearly empty aside from a handful of characters. Creston is there to meet his wife Martha in hopes of repairing their strained marriage. The two have been separated for some time and Creston feels that Martha may have moved on to another lover.

Upon Creston's arrival things begin to unravel at a frantic pace. First, a man that Martha was boating with has died from a gunshot. Next, Creston discovers that the gun used in the murder has been deposited in a drawer in his guest room. The sickly hotel owner dies the night of Creston's arrival and a woman named Fern accuses Creston of physically mauling her in the nearby forest. Creston, dumbstruck by the insanity of the evening, begins to question three mysterious elderly women that live at the hotel.

Eventually the story enters the locked room mystery formula as Creston, the hotel's bellboy, and the county's Chief of Police begin a comprehensive investigation into the night's festivities and the short list of suspects. Who is behind the murders and why? Could Creston's wife be on a murderous rampage? The fascination is the obligatory unveiling of crime and motive, but the journey to get there is the real satisfaction. 

Creston is a likable character thrust into some really hard decisions that ultimately propel the narrative and central mystery. The writing is done in a way that the reader feels like a guest in the old hotel. The late summer season sets up a unique atmosphere that provides a gloomy isolation for the survivors. 

Needless to say these sort of Clue murder mysteries appear in hundreds of 20th century magazines and novels. What sets them apart is the originality of the story and the writer's prose. Hobart was a prolific author for a reason – he had a knack for the murder mystery no matter what genre he was writing. Murder's Old Maid is a terrific novel that buzzes with energy and showcases Hobart's ability to spin a gripping mystery.

You can read the novel online HERE or by streaming it below.

Dan Fortune #01 - Act of Fear

Dennis Lynds (1924-2005) was born in St. Louis, grew up in New York, and later earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his service during WWII. He became a full-time author in 1965 and wrote 80ish novels and hundreds of shorts. Using the pseudonym Michael Collins, Lynds created one of the most popular modern literary detectives, Dan Fortune. 

The Dan Fortune series began in 1967 with the novel Act of Fear, a work that earned Lynds the 1968 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The character's success led to 18 more installments until 1995. The background provided in the series debut is that Fortune's original name was Daniel Tadeusz Fortunowski of Polish-Lithuanian ancestry. His family's last name was shortened. Fortune, a 5'-10” 160-pounder, grew up in the Chelsea district of New York City and his father was a cop. Fortune would later live in places like London, Paris, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and Tokyo. He's worked as a seaman, waiter, tourist guide, farmhand, private cop, actor, and newspaperman. His best friend is bartender Joe Harris, a relationship that Fortune has kept since childhood. He also has a steady girlfriend, a showgirl named Marty.

When Fortune was a kid he straddled the line of criminality. With the help of Harris, Fortune tried looting a ship's hold but fell and broke his left arm. The appendage was shattered in so many places that the surgeons, working under a sense of urgency, had to amputate. Thankfully, Fortune is a really smart private-eye that is right-hand dominant. He isn't a knock'em sock'em type of hero, instead the author focuses more on Fortune's mental fortitude in solving challenging crimes.

In Act of Fear, Fortune is approached by a young man named Pete to find his buddy Jo-Jo, who has only been missing a day or so. Pete states that Jo-Jo would never leave their employer, an old garage specializing in fixing up cars and motorcycles, and that Jo-Jo was just obsessed with engines. No drugs, no girlfriends, no trouble. Fortune takes a mere $50 to help the kid out. 

As Fortune digs into the possible whereabouts of Jo-Jo he begins to suspect that Jo-Jo is on the run from a variety of likely suspects. The first clues may be two girls that were chasing after Jo-Jo. The other option is something related to a cop being mugged and his summons book, gun, and wallet all taken. But, there is also a local kingpin named Andy that Fortune ran around with as a kid. As the case changes from cloudy to clear, the investigation pushes Fortune into the backgrounds of two dead women. Oddly, Jo-Jo's family of fierce and proud Norwegians seem to hold the secret.

Fortune is extremely likable and I love the fact that Lynds doesn't incorporate some of the more stereotypical private-eye stuff from the mid 20th century – overly glib, heavy on satire, sarcastic dialogue from the hero, and the romancing of every damsel in distress. Fortune is a vulnerable hero who can't engage in too many fisticuffs with the bad guys. It also is a unique premise that Fortune already has a girl. These things are fresh ingredients for a late 1960s gumshoe novel. 

The lone stereotype I did enjoy was the “police pal”. Every private-eye has one. The law-enforcement officer that allows the detective a long leash to dig into cases and gain inside clues from the precinct house. Fortune has Captain Gazzo, an elderly veteran cop that likes and respects Fortune. Their chemistry together is something really special and often humorous. 

Act of Fear was an entertaining read that is well-equipped for the smarter PI audience. Brains over brawn is such a clique but it certainly describes this detective quite well. I loved Dan Fortune and I'm excited to wade into this series. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE  

Pleasure Ground

Orrie Hitt (1916-1975) was an Upstate New York author of sleaze paperbacks who made a living writing a lot of books very quickly. The upshot is that he became a very good author and often incorporated crime and noir among his PG-13 sex scenes. Pleasure Ground was a 1961 Kozy Book that has been reprinted as a Kindle release by Fiction Hunters Press. 

Our narrator is a 6’6” human giant named Bert Forbes, and he’s new in town looking for a fresh start as a farm worker after learning that his beloved wife was faithless and gave birth to another man’s child. After spending a year as a drifter, Bert lands a gig on Flint Collins’ farm. Old Man Collins is 50 and just met a much-younger woman on a cattle-buying trip and married her immediately. She will be arriving to the farm soon on a bus and the farmhands have been warned to keep their distance. 

With that set-up, the novel pretty much writes itself thereafter. Bert meets a beautiful, stacked girl at a community dance, and she lives next door to the Collins Ranch and refuses to sell her land. Bert sees her naked in the woodsy swimming pond adjacent to the farm (as depicted on the cover), and the two develop a sweet interest in one another. Meanwhile, the new Mrs. Collins arrives and her breasts are even bigger and more voluptuous than the reader anticipated. How can Bert resist?

The new lady of the house seems to have the hots for our hero, Bert. His boss is a dick (who gets worse as the novel progresses), so Bert isn’t too worried about the ethical dilemma. He just wants to get paid without becoming the victim of workplace violence. There are other women in his orbit and the horny farmhands make it quite a compelling little soap opera. There’s plenty of off-page sex as well. 

Hitt’s presentation of the lives of these broke-ass farm people felt like the author was channeling the down-and-out urban blight of his literary contemporary, David Goodis. Both writers did a fantastic job of portraying society’s losers and the circumstances that drive them into self-destructive behavior and criminality. 

There’s nothing in this paperback that you won’t see coming, but Hitt does an admirable job of making it compelling nonetheless. The violent crime that encompasses the novel’s non-sexual climax is well-developed and earned through careful character development. 

Hitt was the best at this type of book from the soft-core sleaze paperback era, and Pleasure Ground is one of his finest works. If you’ve never read one of his novels, this is a fine place to start. Buy a copy of the book HERE.

Railroad Stories #12: The Silver Switch Key

Railroad Stories #12: The Silver Switch Key was published by Bold Venture Press in late 2023. I've enjoyed the publisher's efforts on producing these compilation volumes containing vintage stories from the railroad pulps. The lead novel in this book is The Silver Switch Key, a serial that was originally published over a five-month period in the 1931 issues of Railroad Man's Magazine. It was authored by Wilson Wells, a writer that contributed five short stories to the magazine in 1931 along with the novel serial.

Protagonist Bob Martin is employed by Gila County as sheriff. But it's a job that Martin doesn't particularly enjoy or want. When the book begins Martin has been in the lawman role for four months watching fruit trains climb the two-percent grade out of town daily. The partial reason for Martin's dejection is that he was born a railroad man. For 15 years Martin rode the rails as an accomplished and experienced railroader. However, Martin was fired by the railroad committee after liquor was found in his possession. This event is the key element to the novel – Martin's ultimate redemption from being framed by a criminal.

Through a conversation with his friend Frank, Martin explains that he was in love with Janet, the daughter of the railroad's vice president. But, a wealthy land baron named  Thomas had his eyes on Janet in a way to politically attach himself to the lucrative railroad. By making a play for Janet while simultaneously framing and disgracing Martin, Thomas set himself up as Janet's fiance.

Martin receives word that Janet, Thomas, and his family are arriving in town on a private car. But, Janet sends word to Martin that she desperately needs to meet him on the train. Once the narrative gets steamrolling a murder mystery is unveiled involving a railroad detective and the passengers on the private car. With Martin's help, Janet hopes to learn more about Thomas and his family and who is killing who. It is Martin's chance to not only redeem himself by exposing Thomas as a criminal but also a new lease on life to reacquire his former lover and job.

I'm not sure how prolific Wells was as an author but he certainly had a talent for writing an interesting murder mystery. This long train ride is ripe with scandal, intrigue, and enough suspicion to fill an ocean. Martin's good-guy persona isn't overdone and the fact that his redemption is central to the story was a clever addition. I really enjoyed riding the rails with all of the characters and the frenzied race to uncover the secrets behind the prized silver switch key was well worth the price of admission. Recommended. Get a copy of it HERE.

Deadly Travelers

By 1980, New Zealand author Dorothy Eden (1912-1982) was considered one of the 10 best-selling novelists in the world. She specialized in suspense thrillers and gothic romance and served on the committee of the English Crime Writers Association. I own several of her paperbacks including The Deadly Travelers, printed by Ace in 1956 and disguised as a gothic.

London resident Kate Tempest has a really odd job. She works for an agency that employs her to do things like shopping for a birthday present for someone, reading a book to a client, or shopping for a customer. In this novel she has been assigned the task of traveling to Paris to retrieve a young child named Francesca. The child is involved in a divorce case. Kate is asked to simply pick up the child from her father's house in Paris, then travel with Francesca by train to London, and then to deliver the child to the mother. Simple, right? Well not so much if Francesca's existence is seemingly erased.

On the train, Kate and Francesca go to sleep in their small cabin. When Kate awakens she is shocked to discover another child is sleeping in the cabin and Francesca has vanished. After searching the train, Kate can't find any trace of Francesca other than the girl's tiny doll – which plays a large part in this book. 

Back in London, Kate is fed a story that Francesca rejoined her father during the night at a random train stop. But Kate isn't buying that story. She takes it upon herself to investigate Francesca's whereabouts and suddenly becomes entangled in a really bizarre mystery. Not only does Francesca's mother simply vanish from existence, the people that Kate remembers having contact with during the job have seemed to be erased from history. It seems that someone, or some agency, has erased all footprints of Francesca as well as Kate's efforts to retrieve the child in Paris.

At 230 pages, this book should have been trimmed down to a smooth and entertaining read at about 180ish. There are so many twists and turns that puts Kate back and forth from London to Paris. Along the way she has three men in her life – two of which seem to have nefarious motives. Repeatedly Kate manages to avoid being killed in random “accidents” while interviewing people that claim to have no knowledge of Francesca. Her only hope is the doll that proves she was really with the child that night on the train. 

Despite Ace's best efforts, including the traditional cover art with the one light shining in the darkness, this isn't a gothic novel. The story is void of mansions, family inheritances, and any genre tropes like mysterious paintings or supernatural vibes. The Deadly Travelers is an international mystery that dips both feet into the world of crime-fiction during the third act. 

If you enjoy the dense international flavoring of danger, intrigue, and death, then The Deadly Travelers is a winner. I enjoyed it and found Eden's writing superb. This was a mid-career entry for the author and my first experience with her. I'll be back for more. Recommended. Buy a copy of the book HERE.

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The Fetish Fighters

Francis Van Wyck Mason (1901-1978) was an American historian and author from Boston who was a World War One veteran and Harvard graduate. He started writing professionally in the 1920s finding success selling stories to pulp magazines, including fictional adventure tales of the French Foreign Legion appearing in Argosy. Four of these serialized novellas have been collected in a beautiful volume by Steeger Books, anchored by the 100-page The Fetish Fighters from 1931.

Our story begins in a Foreign Legion’s African outpost in Kouande, which is in modern-day Benin (next door to Nigeria). It was a French colony called French Dahomey beginning in 1892, but still largely populated by black Africans. Wikipedia is helpful in providing some historical and and geographic context - not that you really need it.

It’s also important to understand that the French Foreign Legion was a branch of the French Army that welcomed foreign nationals into the fighting force. They were highly retrained and well-paid soldiers who largely handled the muscle behind France’s occupation of African regions.

Our hero is muscular American Lem Frost who was just promoted to Seargeant within the Legion. However, Frost has no time to celebrate his promotion before word arrives that a bunch of native religious fanatics known as The Fetish Fighters, are putting on war paint and planning to attack the outpost. The African fighters are comprised of both male and female cannibal killers with a taste for colonizer blood.

You’ll need to set aside 21st century sensibilities and racial decorum while reading “The Fetish Fighters.” The N-word is bandied about casually and the African bushmen are of the non-subtle ooga-booga variety. But part of the fun of an adventure story from nearly 100 years ago is the antiquated stereotypes at play. You can either be offended or you can enjoy a fine adventure story and be happy about how far we’ve come as norms change over a century. Context is everything here.

With the sound of the war drums approaching and only 68 men at the French outpost, the Legionnaires need to work smarter, not harder. The tension and combat scenes are well-crafted. There are way too many characters for a modern reader to track, but you only need to be invested in the fates of a few. The interpersonal drama among the soldiers was a bit much, but you can probably skim over much of it. It’s pulp fiction, after all, and there’s no test at the end.

Overall, if the idea of a classic French Foreign Legion adventure sounds up your alley, The Fetish Fighters, as well as the other stories included in this volume, are an excellent way to go. Recommended. Buy a copy of the book HERE.

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 102

The Paperback Warrior Podcast is back! On this episode, Eric explains the show's new format while also presenting features on pulp author and screenwriter William L. Chester and the history of vintage paperback publisher Handi Books. Tom checks in from the road after browsing the third best bookstore in America. In addition, Eric reviews the 1971 suspenseful mystery paperback Crawlspace by Herbert Lieberman and sorts through a stack of new arrivals. Stream HERE, watch on YouTube HERE, play below, or download the episode HERE

Listen to "Episode 102: We're Back!" on Spreaker.

The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert E. Howard

Glenn Lord (1931-2011) became a literary agent for the Robert E. Howard estate in 1965, a role he served in for over 25 years. Lord was instrumental in the resurgence of Howard's work in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lord was able to amass hundreds of unpublished stories and poems and provided the source material for the author's contents to appear in media from 1965-1997. In 1976, Lord edited and compiled a 400-page reference book titled The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert E. Howard. Reviewing non-fiction and reference materials isn't really our style, so the below "review" is a loose description of the book's contents and why you should track it down.

The book's introduction is an informative and touching essay by E. Hoffmann Price, one of the only Howard contemporaries to have met the man. In this 16-page article, Price commends Howard as a natural storyteller and cites the author as one of his early influences. He also recalls meeting the author at his home in Cross Plains, TX. Following this introduction is a four-page Foreword from Lord outlining some of his references while explaining that The Last Celt is the outgrowth of 15 years of collecting "Howardiana".

"The Wandering Years" is a short autobiography that Howard began writing not long before his death. In this piece, Howard documents his family's history back to 1724. He documents his ancestors in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. He writes about his grandparents and parents. This is very minor stuff in the grand scheme of things. This is followed by the short half-page "An Autobiography", which Howard wrote while attending high school. 

In 1930, Howard chronicled a few events in history in a piece named "A Touch of Trivia". In it Howard writes about WWI, Jack Dempsey, the American Revolutionary War, and the great Potato Famine of 1842. 

Next is a letter written circa 1931 to Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright. The letter was never published and gathers more autobiographical contents from Howard. In it he recalls selling Wright his first story, "Spear and Fang", when he was just 18 years of age. The next section, titled "On Reading - And Writing" is another historical piece in which Howard applauds and criticizes literary works. The moral to the story is that Howard admits he would rather read Zane Grey the rest of his life than to read the popular American writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Jean Nathan, Mike Gold, and Floyd Dell. He also doesn't care much for French works. The final portion of this section is a collection of various letters written to a variety of correspondents. 

Alvin Earl Perry, a legendary fantasy fan and fellow Texan, offers up "A Biographical Sketch of Robert E. Howard". There are some arguments on whether Perry and Howard communicated, but this is a great two-pager describing the author, various payments he received, and that Howard loved Jack London's work. 

H.P. Lovecraft's "Robert Ervin Howard: A Memoriam" has been popularized and reprinted numerous times and it is included here. Lovecraft and Howard communicated through numerous letters, some now lost in the annals of time. This is a moving eulogy that describes Howard's stories and writing style. There is clearly a real admiration on display and Lovecraft captures that beautifully. 

The highlight of the book is Glenn Lord's "Lone Star Fictioneer", a detailed history and account of Howard's literary work and life beginning in 1906 through his tragic suicide in 1936. Howard's education, family life, work history, and early influences are all meticulously analyzed. The insight on his industry sales and receipts of payment was really compelling. I love the peek behind the typewriter to see what his stories sold for. 

"A Memory of R.E. Howard" is another piece written by E. Hoffmann Price, this one documenting his own writing history and correspondence with Howard through the years. The famed meeting between Price and Howard is described in detail and remains as fascinating today as it did then. It's as if Stephen King paid a visit to Clive Barker's house (which maybe he has and I just didn't know it). I love the reference to Howard's characters as a sort of rebuilding of his boyhood. Price speculates that some of the bravado and overcorrection on certain characters may have been a result of the men of Cross Plains belittling him for not having a "real" job. 

Harold Preece's "The Last Celt" is a written connection between Howard's writing and his interest in Celtica. He describes various conversations he had with Howard, both oral and written, as intellectual, passionate conversations about Celtica. 

The rest of the book serves as a massive bibliography detailing stories both published and unpublished as well as listings of poetry. There is also an index by character and the collections that existed upon the time of this book's publication. Whether this bibliography is still useful for Howard fans 50 years later is in the eye of the beholder. I still find some interesting tidbits gathered here and the story listings is really helpful. The bibliography finishes out with unfinished Howard books and stories, Conan pastiches, comics, and any other Howard related piece of literature. 

The last section of the book are photos of various letters, manuscripts, and a lot of the pulp magazine covers that published Howard stories. 

So, the question is do you really need this hardcover book? Yeah, I think so. It is a handy reference book that still connects in so many ways to the spirit, talent, and personality of one of the greatest pulp writers of all-time. There is enough information here to warrant a spot on your bookshelf. Recommended. Get it HERE

Awake and Die

According to Mysteryfile.com, there isn't a lot of information about author Robert Ames. Apparently Ames was a pseudonym used by Charles Clifford, not to be confused with the Charles L. Clifford that authored While the Bells Ran. As Ames, Clifford authored three novels for Fawcett Gold Medal – The Devil Drives (1952), The Dangerous One (1954), and today's subject, Awake and Die (1955). The Stark House Press imprint Black Gat Books published Awake and Die in a new edition in 2023 with the original cover painting by Clark Hulings.

Fans of crime-fiction either really love the “narrative from the deathhouse” stories and novels or they tend to really hate them. I personally don't enjoy parking in the lunatic lot with killers and thieves, but I can make exceptions when the stories are phenomenal, like a good James Cain tale. Jim Thompson, no thanks. If you aren't familiar with this style of storytelling, they are traditionally first-person narration from someone that explains a murder was committed and then provides scintillating details to the reader on the events that led up to the occurrence (hint: the events are always wearing high-heels). Readers assume the writer is wearing orange and sitting under a small window that has a terrific view of the trains if not for those pesky vertical bars. 

In this novel, a guy named Will, a Korean War veteran, begins his narration with, “The day of the killing was one of the most beautiful I ever spent on the water. I didn't know murder was going to be done that night, and done by me.” Simple. Effective. Will is a killer. Then he explains all of the events leading up to his present situation pushing the pen from somewhere. 

Up until Will sees Claire Grace his life is a peaceful one. He has a small boat and spends his day doing hard, but enjoyable, labor raking clams from sea beds before returning to his own three-room house on the river. He's his own man, his own boss. However, an alcoholic woman named Mae moved into his house months ago and she just won't leave. Will doesn't drink so Mae lifts two bottles each night to make up for it. As he begins his account, he has booted Mae to the curb and changed the locks. But, from the water he looks up to see stunning Claire Grace and it all goes to Hell.

Claire is the unhappy wife of a wealthy entrepreneur. When she makes eye contact with Will it is love at first sight. The two go out, dance, and then Claire goes back to her marriage and Will goes back to his empty bed. But, when he returns he finds Mae has broken the window and sits in a drunken bliss awaiting Will's return. In a rage, Will throttles her, breaks her neck, then throws her in the river. From that point it is the “cover up all tracks and smoothly go back to business as usual.” But, it never works that well. 

Will's murder of Mae leads to more murder just to cover up the original murder. Before long he's in deeper than Mae's bloated corpse bouncing off the river bed. When he pulls a young girl named Chris into his death-drama the events spiral completely out of control. But, when Claire knocks on his door, everything seems right as rain. If Will can just escape the cumbersome murders then Claire will leave her husband and the two lovers can sail to a banana country and live a happy existence. But, will Claire be the next corpse?

Charles Clifford or Robert Ames or whoever wrote this should be commended. Lots of authors do the femme fatale dance well, including star performers like Day Keene, Gil Brewer, and Charles Williams. Clifford/Ames certainly keeps pace with them. This wildly entertaining narrative goes into some crazy places that involve the demented elements of crime-fiction – murder, rage, adultery, and jealousy. Just when I thought it was wrapped up the author spins new life into the story and takes it into a different direction.

The highlights, other than Will being non compos mentis, is the extraordinary investigation conducted by a diligent police officer named Roberts. He's the bad good guy...if that makes sense. But, what I really loved about the novel is that the author uses alcohol as the culprit. Each character and violent end involves alcohol. That is a fixture here that remains prevalent as the narrative spins its hypnotic web.

If you love a great crime-noir then look no further than Awake and Die. It's the proverbial top-notch page-turner you are searching for and you can obtain it HERE.

Disturbance on Berry Hill

Elizabeth Jane Phillips, better known as her pseudonym Elizabeth Fenwick, authored three standard detective novels in the 1940s. In the following decade, Fenwick changed her writing style to feature flawed and vulnerable characters placed into high levels of distress drenched in tight-knit suspense. Often, the setting is a confined space with very little wiggle room to escape the impending doom. 

Like Fenwick's A Friend of Mary Rose (1961), which traps the reader and characters in an attic to contend with a home-invasion plot, or The Make-Believe Man (1963), which confines the compact narrative into a different type of home-invasion suburbia, Disturbance on Berry Hill (1968) has a similar set-up. 

In Fenwick's taut narrative, which she had perfected by this point in her career, the thrilling mystery lies in a small cluster of upscale homes on Berry Hill, a sub-division that was carved out of a sprawling farm in rural Connecticut. These seven homes are mostly owned by affluent, middle-aged couples that fit the mid 20th century mold – husbands journey off to daytime employers and wives remain behind to keep the home fires well lit. But, on Berry Hill someone else is staying behind as well, stalking and menacing these prosperous homes and providing white-knuckle fright for the ladies. 

The novel begins with Maggie Leavis recounting a frightening incident that occurred while she was in the bathtub. From inside the porcelain safety, Maggie hears someone enter the home, walk upstairs, and then methodically stand outside of the couple's bathroom – knowing Maggie is inside. Before you think Michael Myers, Maggie explains that this intruder, who she thinks was a mysterious man, didn't come in the bathroom and instead simply knocked a picture off the dresser and then slowly left the home. The author introduces readers to Berry Hill in a really significant way. Maggie's testimony is bone-chilling. 

When Maggie visits her female neighbors the next day she hears similar stories. In one account, this mysterious man closed a garage door behind a woman and then stood outside as if he (or it!) was daring the woman to open the door. In another incident, a woman is grabbed from behind and squeezed. The attacker then simply runs off. There are a few similar things, like a birthday cake flipped upside down or seeing someone near the creek behind the neighborhood. 

The neighbors all meet one night to discuss the intruder/prowler and what needs to happen next. Should they call the police? Ignore the rather innocent pranks? After the meeting, their concerns are met with an appalling revelation – one of the female neighbors is found dead near the creek. When the police arrive they discover it was foul play. Whoever has been gently plaguing Berry Hill has now escalated their game into cold-blooded murder.

Disturbance on Berry Hill is the proverbial page-turner. Fenwick's approach to the book's first half sets readers on edge with these disturbing intrusions into the sanctity and lives of these well-to-do Connecticut residents. As their white-collar emotional fencing caves, the flaws and vulnerability begin to show. One elderly neighbor is contending with dependency while another couple is dealing with depression and inadequacy. There are also the obvious early dismissals of the complaints by most of the men, who are either too busy to deal with the intrusions or simply believe these are daytime fantasies created by bored housewives. 

Fenwick knows when to increase the pace, tension, and atmosphere for the book's second half. After the murder, fingers begin pointing, accusations are made, and there is a real unnerving, unraveling of the neighborly ties that bind. Someone in the neighborhood is, or knows, the murderer. Through Maggie's experience, the readers delve into the mystery and eventually discover the identity of the killer. 

While the ending left me slightly deflated, Disturbance on Berry Hill was an extremely enjoyable read. The characters, the setting, and the slow atmospheric march to the murder really highlighted the book's opening half. As the book sped to the finish, fans of police procedural crime-fiction will enjoy the investigation and interviews.

Overall, Fenwick continues to impress. If you are wanting to explore her work look no further than Stark House Press's amazing preservation. They continue to focus on Fenwick, and her contemporaries in Jean Potts, Ruth Sawtell Wallis, and Nedra Tyre to name a few (I'm pushing on them to reprint Amber Dean!). You can get Disturbance on Berry Hill as a twofer with her 1961 thriller Night Run HERE. 

John Marshall Tanner #01 - Grave Error

Stephen Greenleaf (b. 1942) graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and earned a law degree from the University of California at Berkley. He enrolled in the University of Iowa's Program in Creative Writing in the late 1970s and at the age of 37 his debut book, Grave Error, was published. The novel, the first of the author's 14-book series of private-eye novels starring San Francisco resident John Marshall Tanner, was published by New English Library and The Dial Press in 1979. Since then, the book has been published by Ballantine (1982), New English Library (again in 1983), Bantam (1991), and now exists in paperback and ebook from Mysterious Press (2016).

John Marshall Tanner's brief history is recapped in this kick-off opener. Tanner is originally from Iowa and lost his parents when he was 19. He had a stint in the U.S. military, serving in the Korean War, before earning a law degree and becoming a hard-fighting attorney in San Francisco. Years ago, a client Tanner represented lost his life savings to a corrupt securities firm. When the equally corrupt Judge ruled against his client, Tanner pushed back by legally trying to oust the Judge from power. It backfired and the crooked justice system nearly jailed Tanner and forced him into a suspension of his law license. Rather than continue to fight in the courts, Tanner took to a private-eye career – a move that has mostly paid off. Tanner does well enough and has a secretary that balances his books, makes appointments, and stays out of his bed.

In Grave Error, Tanner takes an investigation to look into a client's husband, a man named Roland Nelson. Nelson is a wealthy entrepreneur that runs an equal rights and equal employer institute that brings the downfall and ridicule to public companies that break the rules. He's a power broker with a team of heavy-duty execs. But, Nelson's wife wants Tanner to look into a recent week-long disappearance Nelson experienced a few months ago. She feels that Nelson is being blackmailed and has signs of despondency and erratic behavior. 

As Tanner digs into the investigation he learns that Nelson's daughter has hired an investigator of her own, a colleague and good friend of Tanner's named Harry. Somewhere in Harry's investigation he uncovered too many secrets, a feat that earned him two fatal shots to the head. Tanner takes the murder personally and wants to learn what Nelson is hiding and also what Nelson's daughter hired Harry to investigate. It turns out they aren't necessarily related investigations. 

As the fires are lit and the tires are kicked Tanner finds himself mired in a 20-year mystery that stems from a small desert town in the valley. Here the combination of Nelson, his wife, and adopted child crash into a fiery intersection with a man who's been missing for decades, a mysterious birth, and a murder. This epic search leads to some really dark and dirty shenanigans within the Nelson family. And  death. Lots of death.

The Chicago Tribune described Stephen Greenleaf as “...the legitimate heir to the mantle of the late Ross MacDonald”. The John Marshall Tanner series generally receives positive reviews with comparisons made to the Lew Archer character, complete with the “West Coast” detective feel. I got a Loren Estleman (Amos Walker series) and Jonathan Valin (Harry Stoner series) vibe from Greenleaf's writing. One character describes Tanner as “too glib for his own good”, which is a great description. Tanner is mostly quiet and keeps to himself. He rarely discloses his purpose when interviewing suspects and he refrains from offering any key details to law-enforcement. The general theme is that Tanner pushes against authority, evident with his legal fight with the corrupt Judge and an “against-the-grain” unilateral investigation that defies a local town police force (the witty dialogue jabs with a Sergeant Cates are worth the price of admission). 

There's isn't a lot of action in Grave Error but there are other series titles that can provide more of that  (anything men's action-adventure by Belmont Tower in the 70s). Tanner and this series debut are about deep character studies and the familiar dissection of people, places, and things. If you love a great mystery and gumshoe journey look no further than Tanner and Grave Error. Greenleaf is simply awesome. 

Get the book HERE

Tales of the Zombie #1

If you have read, or want to read, my review of the Savage Sword of Conan #1, I point out the changing of the guard at Marvel in the early 1970s. When founding publisher Martin Goodman retired, Editor-In-Chief Stan Lee ushered in a new line of black and white magazines to compete with Warren's staple of Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella titles. These magazines were distributed by Curtis, an affiliated Marvel company. By releasing these comics in magazine format the company was able to leapfrog the Comics Code Authority. The newfound freedom allowed a bit more violence, a touch of nudity, and some mild profanity.

The first of the books was Savage Tales in 1971, followed by a Marvel Monster Group brand that consisted of titles like Dracula Lives!, Monsters Unleashed, Monster Madness, and the subject matter at hand, Tales of the Zombie. The black and white brand was arguably cemented by the long-running Savage Sword of Conan title that began in 1974.

Tales of the Zombie was the brainchild of Roy Thomas (Conan the Barbarian, Amazing Spider-Man, Doctor Strange), but the book's star character, Simon Garth, was created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett in the mid 20th century. The character and origin was originally presented in the Atlas Comics (pre-Marvel) title Menace #5 (July 1953). Both Thomas and Steve Gerber (Captain America, Man-Thing) wrote a 12-page prequel/retcon to the story and inserted it as the first story for Tales of the Zombie #1, published in August 1973. Then, they cleverly reprinted the Atlas Comics story as the second story in the first issue, making a smooth two-part introduction to kick off the debut and series. 

The first issue features an incredible painting by Boris Vallejo (Conan). The contents are:

"Altar of the Damned" - Steve Gerber & Roy Thomas/John Buscema & Tom Palmer
"Zombie!" - Stan Lee/Bill Everett
"Iron-Head" - Dick Ayers
"The Sensuous Zombie!" - Tony Isabella
"The Thing from the Bog!" - Kit Pearson & Marv Wolfman/Pablo Marcos
"The Mastermind" - Tom Sutton
"Night of the Walking Dead" - Steve Gerber/John Buscema & Syd Shores

In the opening pages of "Altar of the Damned", a Louisiana bayou is ripe with women dancing in a ritual as the Voodoo Queen appears holding a gleaming ceremonial blade. Her sacrifice is a tied and gagged Simon Garth, draped upon a smooth stone altar. As the knife whips upward into the air, Garth ponders the sounds of his final scream. But, miraculously the killer cuts his bonds and provides a warning for him to escape before his captors discover his absence. Garth runs into the dense swamp and hides behind a tree. The writers take this opportunity to bring readers up to speed on the events leading to Garth's capture.

Simon Garth is a wealthy businessman that runs a successful coffee company by exploiting the labor force and overworking them. One morning as he is leaving for the office, he engages in an argument with his daughter Laurie and his groundskeeper Gyps. Later, Garth catches Gyps, who is a short pudgy pervert, sneaking a peek at Laurie skinny dipping in the pool. Garth fires Gyps but is eventually blindsided by him, knocked unconscious, and then delivered and sold to a group of Hoodoos that pay well for human sacrifices. 

Full-circle back to the beginning of the story, Garth moves from behind the swamp tree and is attacked again by Gyps, only this time he is fatally stabbed with shears. Gyps and the Hoodoos bury a very dead Garth. However, Gyps wants the ultimate revenge and asks the Hoodoos to resurrect Garth's corpse so he can make him a slave. The Hoodoos honor Gyps' request and provide a necklace for Garth to wear and a controlling power through a magical coin that Gyps controls. "Altar of the Damned" ends with Garth seemingly a braindead slave-corpse. 

This second entry, "Zombie!", is the reprinting of the original 1953 story. The only changes made were to add longer hair for Garth to make a modern match with the prior story. In "Zombie!", Gyps summons Garth and makes him go to the city to steal gold. When Garth is found by the police he is shot repeatedly but doesn't die. Sometime later he returns to Gyps empty-handed. Gyps then orders Garth to go to a house and kidnap a girl that he is infatuated with. When Garth goes to the house and sees the targeted girl, some semblance of his old self kicks in and Garth refuses to get the girl. Instead, he goes back to Gyps and kills him before lying down in a grave. The narrator states at the end that the girl was really Garth's daughter. 

Let's face it. This is pure genius on the part of Thomas and Gerber to retcon this simple undead story from 1953 into a more intricate presentation of the proverbial riches-to-rags cautionary tale. The placement of the prequel before the original 1953 story was just an excellent concept. This origin tale is developed well and explains so much to the reader in 24 pages. The art layout and pencils from both Buscema and Palmer provide shadowy darkness behind Gyps, reiterating this is the bad guy being described in dialogue. I really enjoyed Gyps revealed as the narrator, the master controlling the slave. Also, there is a convincing subtext here of Garth molding his labor into lifeless blue-collar slaves and then role-reversal as Garth transforms from master to slave. Well done.

"Iron-Head" is a five-page short-story that features a grave robber killing someone. To escape authorities, the man gets a job on a private yacht doing deep-sea dives for a crew of treasure hunters. When they realize one more treasure chest remains, the man schemes a plan to go underwater in his iron diving suit after blowing up the boat. With the treasure hunters out of the way, the man gets the chest and then slow walks across the ocean floor to a nearby island. He plans to rest on the island and await a rescue crew. Instead, the island is filled with savage cannibals. His only way to survive is to pretend he is some sort of ironbound God inside the suit. However, he can't take the suit off or remove the helmet for fear the natives will discover his con. After days without food and water he finally....well I don't want to ruin it for you. It was a simple entertaining story. Nothing more, nothing less.

Tony Isabella presents an article on zombies at the movies. In "The Sensuos Zombie", Isabella documents the first zombie films from 1932's White Zombie and 1936's Revolt of the Zombies through the 1969 shocker Night of the Living Dead.

Pablo Marcos is one of my favorite artists and his illustrative style highlights "The Thing from the Bog!", authored by Marv Wolfman and Kit Pearson. The synopsis is that centuries ago a bog in the Northern Jutlands of Denmark was used to kill vile criminals. Two years before the story takes place a witch was tortured and sent to her death in the steaming waters of the bog. Her pact with the Devil allows her to return to life as an old hag. She finds a young child and then secretly becomes his "Witch Guardian". The boy and his stepfather are cutting peat in the area and unearth a corpse. One thing leads to another and soon the town is overran with zombies. The story has one too many flashbacks, and the plot is a bit scrambled, but again, Marcos is the real highlight here and his descriptive drawing of graveyards, skulls, witches and...death is simply awe-inspiring. 

"Mastermind" by Tom Sutton is a simple two-page story that has a mad scientist creating a Frankenstein creature called Manaak. 

The third Zombie (Simon Garth) installment, "Night of the Walking Dead", is a continuation of the first two stories of the issue. Garth's daughter Donna is at the morgue and identifies Gyps' corpse on the tray. She explains to a detective that a mysterious amulet/coin may have some connection with her father's murder. As she stares into the coin and talks the next page reveals that Garth is stirring in his dirt bed. 

A hunter is stalking the bayou as Garth rises from the grave. There's a bit of action here as Garth fights the hunter's hounds before going into the town to find Donna. As Donna is leaving the mortuary a druggie desperate for money mugs her. Garth shows up and shows a bit more intelligence while killing the mugger. As the story ends Garth is walking away, presumably back to his grave. 

Tales of the Zombie #1 was entertaining from cover to cover. The selection of writers and artists was the perfect combination to deliver some of the better horror tales you'll find in this era of Marvel black and white. While cautionary tales are always dominant in the horror comics, the idea of a "heroic" zombie playing the star is unique and edgy. Readers can sense the personal anguish and despair in the Garth character while also sharing Donna's grief over her murdered father. The satisfaction is delivered when the bad guys get their comeuppance. 

You can get still find copies of the Marvel Essentials trade paperback that collects the Garth stories. Buy a copy of the book HERE

Come Back for More

Al Fray is Pig Latin for “Ralph” and also the pseudonym of Californian Ralph Salaway (1913-1991) who authored five stand-alone crime-fiction novels between 1955 and 1960, including Come Back For More, released as a Dell paperback original in 1958.

Our story takes place in River City, population 60,000, and our narrator is a drifter named Swede Anderson. He wasn’t always a migratory worker. He used to be a bank teller in River City four years ago before he hopped on a freight train and began his new life as a hobo.

Before Swede’s abrupt departure, the bank was robbed at gunpoint by a five-man heist crew. The robbery went sideways and a bank guard was murdered at the scene. Swede witnessed a relevant piece of identifying information and was threatened by the robbery crew to forget what he saw.

In the face of threats from the Syndicate, Swede did the right thing and told the truth, resulting in the conviction of one of the bank robbers. This, of course, put Swede in the mob’s crosshairs causing him to hop a train and leave his cushy bank job and River City.

But that was four years ago and now Swede is back in River City. He’s no longer a pudgy banker but instead a muscled, hard-bodied laborer. His new facial scars, a broken nose, the weight loss and the passage of four years was every bit as good as plastic surgery for making Swede unrecognizable to the thugs in River City who want him dead.

“I knew why I was here. I knew what had to be done,” Swede informs the reader. Settle in for a violent man vs. mafia vendetta novel? I wish. Swede takes a job as a truck driver in River City and is pleased to find that no one who once knew him as Swede the banker recognizes him in his new persona and fake name.

Swede’s path into the underworld is through the trucking industry and the local Teamsters who apparently are completely mobbed up. The ins and outs of the trucking business take center stage in the novel and this is where the story slows down and becomes bogged down in the trucking drama details. Add to that a romantic interest with a single mother who has a baseball-loving little boy in search of a father figure and we are getting pretty far afield from the action novel you are craving.

You’ll need to suspend your disbelief that no one who knew Swede his entire life recognizes him after a weight loss and broken nose. If you can make that leap of faith, you’re in for a fairly decent read. It wasn’t exactly the violent war against the mafia I was hoping, but the author delivered a serviceable crime novel nonetheless.

Don’t spend a fortune acquiring this one, but if you have a copy yellowing on your shelf, you could do a lot worse. Buy a copy of this book HERE 

David Grant #01 - Death's Foot Forward

George Brown Mair (1914-?) was a Scottish medical doctor and world traveler who drew upon his vacations behind the Iron Curtain in his ten-book spy series starring NATO Secret Agent David Grant from the U.K. The entire series has been reprinted on Kindle for modern electronic paperback readers starting with 1965’s Death’s Foot Forward.

As the novel opens, Grant is in Moscow on a date with a Russian ballerina. Grant is a surgeon working for the World Health Organization as a cover for his secret NATO spy missions. In any case, the ballerina’s Soviet minders want Grant to stay away from their girl. He travelled to Moscow to see her after a fling in Paris, but the Soviet security service is now hell-bent on extinguishing this budding romance.

It doesn’t take long before Grant is released and he starts doing violent spy stuff. Grant is a legit badass with a hard-on who kills any Russian standing between him nailing this ballerina again.

Grant’s espionage assignment doesn’t emerge until deep into the paperback. Basically, the Soviets have developed a drug/bio-weapon that will open the door to world domination by the U.S.S.R. Grant is tasked with infiltrating the Kremlin, killing the scientist behind the bio-weapon, and smuggling a culture of the germs while leaving none behind for the Russians. Of course, he wants to get his ballerina out with the germ sample.

As James Bond knockoff paperbacks from the 1960s go, this one is pretty good. The spy gadgets thing was a bit overdone and the preparation for the Moscow mission seemed to take forever, but the hardboiled violence was graphic and a spot-on while the mission never veered into the cartoonish. Recommended. 

The Castle of Dark

British science-fiction and fantasy author Tanith Lee (1947-2015) debuted her first full-length novel, The Dragon Hoard, in 1971. She amassed a robust career that featured over 90 novels and 300 shorts. She was awarded both the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement in Horror as well as the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. I've picked up a few of her paperbacks over the years and wanted to sample her work. I chose The Castle of Dark, a fantasy/horror novel that was first published by Macmillan London in 1978 and then later in 1984 by Unwin Paperbacks, which is the version I reviewed.

The book is set in the Middle Ages with a narrative that revolves around two main characters, a young woman named Lilune and a minstrel (traveling musician) known as Lir. In the early chapters, the author introduces these characters in very different scenarios. As the book progresses, naturally these scenarios will clash, intertwine, and ultimately create a finale. Creative Writing 101.

Lilune's situation is right out of The Brothers Grimm fairy tales. She is being held captive by two old hags in the Castle of Dark. But, there are some unique offerings here that spin Brothers Grimm into Hammer Horror. Lilune sleeps in a casket during the day and prowls the castle and its barren surroundings at night. She burns in the sunlight and she doesn't eat food. Quacks like a duck, walks like a duck – bound to be a bloodsucking Vampire enchantress, right? But Lilune has a different type of curse that I won't spoil here.

Lir is a pretty good harp player and gets noticed by a wise old musician that may be the Devil. He informs Lir that he has a special musical talent and instructs him to create a new harp made from bone. Lir peddles around the graveyard and tombs to make his morbid instrument. He then feels a spiritual tug that leads him on a short journey to the Castle of Dark. Here's where things get really interesting. 

In the closest populated town the upstanding citizens encourage Lir to go to the castle (never mind those rumors of supernatural occurrences and dead people roaming at night) and check out a young girl that was taken there by her mother when she was a babe. Lir's arrival at the castle is met with abrasion (naturally) and he is led to free Lilune from her eternal imprisonment. But, be careful what you ask for. Little does he know that he is traveling with a....I can't give it away.

The Castle of Dark is a short read at just 178 pages, but the page count just breezes by. I was done in just a few reading hours and felt extremely satisfied with the character development, the central mystery regarding Lilune, and the “darkness” that envelopes the town. What I really enjoyed about the location is that near the castle is another town that is completely uninhabited - empty buildings to explore by moonlight. I felt like I was with Lilune as she would effortlessly glide through the fog into this little abandoned village. The hints at a vampire tale are steady, but for fantasy fans there is a good mix of action and adventure as Lir takes on the quest in true monomyth style...only he's brandishing a harp instead of a savage blade. 

If you want to read something really different, try Tanith Lee's The Castle of Dark. Get a copy HERE