The Arm

Clark Howard authored short-stories for digest magazines like Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock. Beginning in 1967, Howard began writing full-length novels of crime-fiction and action-adventure. As a big fan of Howard's writing, I was anxious to learn that his literature has been reprinted in digital format by Mysterious Press. After reading several of his mid-career novels, I wanted to check out his first book to see how they compare. I purchased The Arm, a crime-noir novel originally published in hardcover in 1967 and then later reprinted as a Fawcett Gold Medal paperback in 1970. In 1987, the novel was adapted into a film called The Big Town starring Matt Dillon, Tommy Lee Jones and Diane Lane.

J.C. Cullen, nicknamed "Cully", is a hayseed plow boy from Evansville, Indiana. In the book's opening pages, Cully arrives at a Chicago bus terminal with a battered briefcase and a curiosity for the big city lights. You see, Cully has what the gambling industry likes to refer to as "the arm". He's a craps thrower that can seemingly control the dice and make them dance. After racking up small town money, a retired gambler named Hooker refers Cully to a gambling racket in Chi-Town. Upon arrival, Cully follows his directions to a man named Ferguson.

In a room in the back of a bar, Cully learns that Mrs. Ferguson runs a craps gambling racket. The way it works is that Cully is provided a few hundred dollars each afternoon and it is his responsibility to play that money in illegal craps games all over the city. Why does Cully need Ferguson or a racket? Because Ferguson, and her blind husband (more on him in a moment), know where all the craps games are played and they have protection from the police to look the other way. In return, Cully has free money to bet, but his take of all winnings is 20%. The Fergusons keep 70% and 10% goes to Hooker, the referral source.

After just a few nights, Cully begins winning nearly every game and soon earns thousands of dollars. While Cully is working for the Fergusons, he's free to play games on his days off. Cully begins ascending through various levels of entry and intermediate level play. Eventually, Cully begins playing at a professional level, again illegally, where his peers are just as talented as he is. With a unique method of quick mathematical deduction, Cully starts winning tens of thousands of dollars in his free time. And seriously pissing off Chicago's finest craps shooters.

Remember Mr. Ferguson? His story is that he was once as good as Cully. But, a poor sport threw a pan of acid at him after a sizable loss. The incident burned Mr. Ferguson's eyes and permanently blinded him. The attacking player ran off and since then Mr. Ferguson has paid $100,000 to detectives and players hoping to locate him for some much needed payback. The only clue was that this man possessed a heart tattoo on his inner wrist. This ties into Cully because he meets a player that matches Mr. Ferguson's attacker. This revelation brings Cully to a crossroads - does he need favors and credit with Mr. Ferguson enough to sentence this seemingly nice player to death?

Beyond the narrative's grimy expose on backroom gambling and Cully's important decision making is...sex. Cully's fiercest rival is a man named Cole. His main squeeze is a knockout stripper named Lorry. Cully becomes infatuated with the woman and soon finds himself in a dangerous, heated affair that elevates his competition with Cole. But when she pitches a murder scheme on him, Cully must decide if Lorry's love is worth the price of murder.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I loved this book. The Arm has so many crime-fiction elements, but also ties in a familiar genre trope with illegal gambling. Clark Howard's biography stated that he loved watching the craps shooters in and around Memphis and other parts of the deep south. His affection for the game bleeds onto the pages, from the pool halls and bars to the mental dynamics of dice rolling. I found myself down the YouTube rabbit hole learning more about craps shooting and its history.

Cully's evolution from poor country boy to rich city slicker was just a real pleasure to read. Like any fish out of water story, there's the inevitable downfall. When Howard reverses Cully's fortunes, it's done in a way that is similar to the author's future literary works - violent and unrestrained. In many ways, this could be Howard's best novel. That's surprising considering it was his full-length debut. 

If you love crime-fiction or just an abstract rags to riches story, The Arm delivers in spades. It's probably one of the better books I've read this year. I urge you to track down a used paperback or just snag the affordable digital version. You won't regret it.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Searching For The D.C. Man: A Paperback Warrior Investigation

Was it possible that a Roman Catholic priest was secretly writing sexy spy novels on the side under a fake name during the 1970s? The search for answers brought me down a wormhole to one of the strangest – and most satisfying – searches for authorship that I’ve ever encountered.

In 1974 and 1975, Berkley Medallion released four books in a Men’s Adventure series called The D.C. Man by James P. Cody. The series hero is Brian Peterson, a former military intelligence operative who becomes a D.C. lobbyist. After a personal tragedy, his lobbying business floundered, and he reinvented himself as a gun-toting troubleshooter for elected officials with sensitive problems. If you need someone to stick a gun in the mouth of a blackmailer targeting a Senator, Brian’s your man. If a subcommittee discreetly needs to know who is leaking secrets to foreign powers, give Brian a call. The books have a nice balance of political intrigue, hard-boiled detective work, and sexy espionage action. 

When reading The D.C. Man paperbacks, the reader’s first impression is that the books are extremely well written. The first-person narration flows smoothly and conversationally, and Brian’s observations about life inside the beltway are astute and mature. They read more like Donald Hamilton’s early Matt Helm novels than, say, a disposable Nick Carter: Killmaster book. Although Berkley packaged and sold these short novels as cheap James Bond knock-offs, it’s clear that the author took real care in crafting these stories. They weren’t rush jobs written for a quick paycheck.

All of which begs the question: Who the heck was James P. Cody?

Google and Amazon searches weren’t much help initially. There was no indication that Cody wrote anything else. The D.C. Man series also never received much coverage from the various go-to blogs or Facebook groups that obsess over vintage Men’s Adventure fiction. The series just wasn’t commercially successful enough to garner much love or nostalgia 40+ years later. 

As with many mysteries, the answer of authorship was right under my nose: the copyright page of The D.C. Man paperbacks credits Peter T. Rohrbach as the writer. This was also confirmed by an entry in the 1974 Catalog of Copyright Entries: Cody was a pseudonym, and Rohrbach was the author.

In that case, who the heck was Peter T. Rohrbach?

The confusion intensified with a simple search for the name “Peter T. Rohrbach” on Amazon. That search revealed a handful of academic books about historical Roman Catholic figures and religious orders written by someone named “Peter Thomas Rohrbach.” Books such as Conversations With Christ and Journey to Carith stood in sharp contrast to the breezy covers on The D.C. Man books by James P. Cody. However, it wasn’t impossible to imagine a non-fiction writer trying to make a few extra bucks by tossing off some cheapo spy novels during the heyday of the espionage paperback original.

However, the “About the Author” in Conversations with Christ lead me to conclude that the two Rohrbachs were most likely different people:

The Rev. Father Peter Thomas Rohrbach, O.C.D., is a Carmelite priest and author. Born in 1926 and based in Washington, D.C., he has also served as an editor for the Catholic quarterly Spiritual Life. His Conversation with Christ, dedicated to our Lady of Mount Carmel, was first published in 1956 by Fides Publisher, Illinois, with the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur. Father Rohrbach's work was also printed by TAN in 2010.

There’s a lot to unpack in this short bio. The first thing was that the Rohrbach who wrote the religious books was, in fact, a Catholic priest of the Carmelite Order whose specialty is cloistered and contemplative prayer. Apparently, Father Rohrbach was a big deal in the world of Catholic academic scholarship as receiving a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur for a book is tantamount to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from the Vatican. It’s like a Super Bowl ring for a Catholic author.

I telephoned the Carmelite rectory in Washington, D.C. on the off chance that Father Rohrbach may still be alive at age 91. The priest who answered the phone remembered Father Rohrbach and informed me that he had died several years ago. The priest was kind but informed me that no one remained whose memories of Father Rohrbach would be vivid enough to answer my questions. I dashed off an email to the Carmelites’ publishing arm on the off chance that someone there might have a lead for me.

I also spoke to author and publisher Lee Goldberg, who is no stranger to pseudonyms in adventure fiction. Goldberg began his career in the 1980s writing the .357 Vigilante series under the name Ian Ludlow and currently reprints vintage paperbacks under his Brash Books publishing arm. Goldberg was also a fan of The D.C. Man series. “I looked at these three years ago as possible Brash reprints and put our P.I. on it to find out who now had the rights. I don’t think she got any farther than you did before I had her stop and look into a different author, and we never circled back.”

A search of the 1980 edition of Writers Directory and the 2004 edition of International Who’s Who of Authors and Writers provided both clarity and confusion. The brief biographies confirmed that Peter Thomas Rohrbach also wrote as James P. Cody and was born in 1926. Both the religious books and The D.C. Man books are credited to Rohrbach in the bibliographies. The Who’s Who listing indicates that Rohrbach married a woman named Sheila Sheehan in September 1970, and neither directory mentioned Rohrbach being a Catholic priest. While it’s not completely impossible for a Catholic priest to have a wife and kids at some point, it is exceedingly rare. 

The 1980 Writers Directory listed a street address for Rohrbach in suburban Washington, D.C., and some online reverse directory searches located his wife and a daughter named Sarah, who was born in 1974 – the year of The D.C. Man’s debut. Some further searches led me to Sarah’s cell phone number, and I promptly left her a rambling voicemail asking her to call me back.

Two lucky breaks happened almost simultaneously: Sarah called me back, and a monk named Brother Bryan from the Carmelite publishing arm responded to my email. Together, they provided a portrait of the two lives of Father Peter T. Rohrbach, also known as espionage author, James P. Cody. 

First, the solution to the mystery of the seemingly married priest: Father Rohrbach left the priesthood in 1966 at the age of 40. He married Sheila in 1970, and she gave birth to Sarah a few years later. 

The pseudonym of James P. Cody has an interesting origin story. Rohrbach was actually born with the name James P. Cody, after his own father. His parents died, and young James was adopted by the Rohrbach family. “So James Cody legally changed his name to James Rohrbach,” Sarah explained. “He chose the name Peter Thomas while in the priesthood. He said it was common for priests to pick a new name.”

“He was a New York City boy to the core. He used to play stickball in the streets,” Brother Bryan recalled.  He joined the Carmelites in 1948 and was ordained as a priest in 1952. By the 1960s, Father Rohrbach found himself the “superior” of a tight group of 20 Carmelite priests and monks living, praying, and working in a Washington, D.C. rectory. 

From my dialogue with Brother Bryan, I got the feeling that Father Rohrbach was fun-loving – and maybe a tad rebellious – compared to the solemn and silent Carmelite stereotype. “One very difficult day, he knocked on my door very late at night and said ‘Let’s go to a movie.’ We did. It was “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, and the only seats at that popular show were in the first row, up front. So there we were, almost on our backs looking up at Audrey Hepburn!”

I broached the subject of Father Rohrbach’s separation from the priesthood gingerly with Brother Bryan, braced for a salacious story of a man, a woman, and forbidden love - something like The Thorn Birds. “It is not for me to conjecture,” he said. “All of us live by our decisions.” Apparently, it was a cordial separation, and Rohrbach kept in touch with his Carmelite friends long after he left the priesthood. His history of the Order, Journey to Carith, was released by the Carmelite’s publishing imprint in 1966, the same year he departed the rectory. “He left one caveat: do not change the text,” Brother Bryan said. “He seemed to love his writing.”

When I asked Sarah about her father leaving the priesthood behind, she simply said, “He told me he just wanted the intellectual freedom to write.” I found this answer interesting since the Carmelites clearly had no problem with Father Rohrbach cranking out intellectually-rigorous books about prayer and the lives of saints. Maybe he wanted to write about other things (i.e. sexy spy novels) but knew that this wouldn’t fly with the Carmelite Mothership.

Brother Bryan seemed to share my theory. “We all have our fatal attractions,” he said. “I think his was that he wanted to be a famous novelist.”

Whatever his reasons, Rohrbach quickly fell into a normal secular life. He married in 1970 and took a job teaching American History. He continued to edit a prestigious Catholic quarterly publication for years following his departure from the contemplative life. Sarah’s mother remembers Rohrbach writing The D.C. Man books when Sarah was a baby in 1974.

The D.C. Man books were published without much fanfare, and it doesn’t appear that he ever returned to genre fiction. I told Sarah that I was hoping to uncover a story about a Roman Catholic priest secretly writing sexy spy novels under a fake name, but the real story was far more complex. “I still think that may be the truth, though,” Sarah said. “He was likely at least working on them.”

Rohrbach rarely spoke to his family about The D.C. Man. The colorful paperbacks must have stuck out like sore thumbs as they sat on his home office bookshelf among the 16 books he wrote before his 2004 death. He went on to write non-fiction books about stagecoach travel and the Wright brothers, but he never returned to Men’s Adventure fiction. 

Early in The D.C. Man #1: Top Secret Kill, our hero Brian Peterson recounts his own personal trauma that informed his life thereafter. His wife and young daughter were killed in an auto accident by two teenagers hot-rodding down the street. The accident broke Brian’s spirit and The D.C. Man series can be seen as a larger story of Brian trying to recover from this trauma and regain his own humanity from the grip of intense grief. As an author, Rohrbach could have chosen any life-changing trauma he wanted for Brian, but instead he chose the loss of a wife and daughter. 

Bear in mind that this novel was written and released the same year as the birth of his own daughter to a wife that he was only able to marry because he was brave enough to deny one set of vows to take on another. It’s almost as if Rohrbach included this backstory as a message to a future Sheila and Sarah to tell them how much he loved them. That they were everything to him. That he would be lost without them.

Sarah told me that she’s only read one of The D.C. Man books, and I encouraged her to read the other novels in the series. I told her that her father really was a fine writer.

“Yes,” she said, “He was lovely with words.” 

Update

Thanks to the relentless efforts of Paperback Warrior's Tom Simon, a retired F.B.I. agent, the entire four-book series of The D.C. Man novels have been published in new editions courtesy of Brash Books. The series debut, Top Secret Kill, features an introduction by Tom Simon. You can obtain the books HERE.

Titus Gamble

A freed slave returns to his East Texas hometown as the town’s new lawman. Will the townsfolk be able to set aside their prejudices and allow the black constable to keep the peace? No, this is not a novelization of “Blazing Saddles” but rather the 1977 Fawcett Gold Medal paperback original, “Titus Gamble” by Peter Gentry, a pseudonym of collaborators Frank Schaefer and Kerry Newcomb.

Titus Gamble began his freedom as a teenage runaway slave fleeing the Shannon Plantation in Brennanburg, Texas after a sexual encounter with the master’s comely daughter. Hungry and exhausted, Titus stumbles upon a Union encampment with a small regiment of black soldiers among them. Titus figures this is the best way to create distance between himself and his pursuers and joins the Union Army to fight the rebs.

The action then cuts four years later, and we meet the Brennan family, owners of the Shannon Plantation. The Civil War is over and the plantation’s black servants are no longer regarded as slaves. Drium is the Brennan patriarch, and his two sons - Rury and Dub - have returned from the war where they fought for the Confederacy. Dub got the worst of it and returned from the war with one fewer arm than when he enlisted. Finally, we meet Fianna, the red-haired Irish-American daughter who has taken on the role of matriarch since her mother’s death.

Early in the paperback, the reader is given clues that the Brennan family is a dysfunctional bunch. For starters, Fiona seems to get her kicks by traipsing around the mansion wearing next to nothing and staging nipple slips to drive her one-armed brother crazy with incestuous lust. Then there’s Rury whose idea of a good time is to ride over to Shreveport and murder freed slaves in their sleep.

The black laborers on the Shannon Plantation continue to work despite their freedom in exchange for food, clothing, housing, and small wages. This dependency arrangement barely sustains life for the newly-freed and serves to keep them in their place as sure a whip did when they were another man’s property. Other blacks survive by subsistence farming on plots of land forcibly taken from plantation owners by Union soldiers and provided to freed slaves to give them a fresh start as homesteaders. You can imagine that the plantation owners whose lands were seized in this arrangement aren’t thrilled with their new neighbors.

Due to a Civil War casualty, the town of Brennanburg is in need of a lawman to keep the peace. The military governor of the State of Texas names black (actually mulatto, but same difference to the local whites) war hero Titus for the position. The town residents aren’t enthusiastic about this appointment, and this is where the book shifts into the familiar territory of a Western novel. Titus strives to wrangle lawless poor blacks in the shantytown by the river while avoiding a lynching by the town’s conniving whites loyal to the wicked Shannon Plantation.

“Titus Gamble” is a plantation drama in addition to a Western novel, and it treads on well-established ground for the slavery gothic paperbacks. The shame and secrets that arise from forbidden interracial sex is the fuel that drives much of the interpersonal conflicts. There is also a good bit of violence and intrigue among the characters. It’s clear that the authors studied the ‘Blackoaks’ and ‘Falconhurst’ novels of Harry Whittington (writing as Ashley Carter), and they do a great job of re-creating that story structure. Like Whittington’s books, the writing here is superb and the plotting is compelling and easy to follow.

The plantation gothic paperbacks provide modern readers a prurient glimpse into the ghastly culture of American slavery in a manner that never glorifies or belittles the horror inflicted on the victims. “Titus Gamble” uniquely shines a light on the difficulties that southerners - white and black - had while adjusting to the new normal in the early days of reconstruction after the Civil War settled the issue of slavery’s legality.

This was a good novel but not a perfect one. The authors’ habit of writing the black dialogue phonetically (“He got hisse’f a followin’ a’ rowdies an’ de lahk, campin’ down by de riber...) made for a cumbersome read at times. The authors also tended to use a lot of tortured metaphors in the perfectly graphic sex scenes (“The delicate umber forest of her womanhood...His tumescent shaft...,” etc.).

Meanwhile, the action scenes are vivid and brutal - filled with gunplay, knife-fighting, and bare-knuckle brawling. The novel really succeeds as a Western about a new constable working to civilize a lawless town against great adversity.

“Titus Gamble” is an entertaining page-turner by a highly-talented writing pair. I was never bored, and I learned quite a bit about the era. This isn’t a masterwork of historical fiction, but you won’t regret the time you spend reading about the adventures of this unlikely hero. Recommended.

Postscript:

“Titus Gamble” is available to buy on the Amazon Kindle or borrow via the Kindle Unlimited program under the authors’ real names. You lose the vivid 1977 cover art, but you’ll avoid the awkward glances from people around you. Your call.

Buy a copy of "Titus Gamble" HERE

To the Stars #02 - Wheelworld

Harry Harrison was a popular science-fiction author that created a number of memorable series titles and characters. His most popular works are those involving the Stainless Steel Rat and Bill, the Galactic Hero. While I haven't explored those titles yet, I did enjoy my first foray into the author's To the Stars trilogy, Homeworld, originally published in 1980. Needless to say, I continued my space-travels with the second installment, Wheelworld, published one year later.

This trilogy, which has nothing to do with another of Harrison's works called Deathworld, is fairly easy to understand and enjoy, so those of you loosely reading science-fiction should be tall enough for this ride. In Homeworld, readers learn that in the 23rd century, Earth is ran by a one-world government administered by the United Nations. The rich make up a conglomerate of authority that rules the proles, the other class of humans that simply exist as slaves in manufacturing and service. Earth's rich and powerful controls the outlying planets and moons, creating slave planets that simply manufacture goods to ship to Earth. The people on these planets live a life of labor, void of any knowledge of human history.

Jan (male), the series hero, is a microchip whiz that lives a life of luxury on Earth. He figures out the whole conspiracy that forces the proles into servitude and tries to stop it. By teaming with the Israelis, the only country that isn't part of the one-world government, Jan learns about the hushed human history, the plight of mankind, and the big lie fed to the world by “big brother”. By the end of Homeworld, Jan is captured, his sister is murdered, and he is sentenced to life as a slave on a farming planet. 

As Wheelworld begins, readers learn that four years have passed since Homeworld's final page. Jan is living on the agriculture planet Halvmork. Here's the deal on this planet, because it is an integral part of the story. The planet, which is much smaller than Earth, is off-tilt by a few degrees which creates one massive season every four years. On this planet, there is twilight on one side of the planet and temperatures hovering around 80s degrees for four consecutive years. Jan, and the other harvesters, grow corn during this time. After four years, the weather shifts on that part of the planet to 150 degrees and nonstop sunlight. So, after four years, Jan and the others await ships to arrive to take the corn back to Earth. Then, via mobilized transports (like large tanks), the entire population travels thousands of miles to the other side of the planet to take advantage of the four year period that is twilight and 80 degrees there. Cool, right?

This population of slavers has its own governing body, an old woman who is antiquated in her ways and butts heads with the forward-thinking hero. Jan is in a romantic relationship with the old woman's daughter Alzbetta, and the two want to become married but it is forbidden. This is a splendid side-story that propels the book's central plot. As the book begins, it is harvest time and the four years is coming to an end. The sun is beginning to shine and the forecast is heating up. But, the ships don't arrive, which is a major problem. 

Jan makes the decision to take all of the corn on the motorized trek across the planet. His reasoning is that the ships may arrive on the other side of the planet and the corn will be needed there. But, the old woman refuses to do this so Jan has to strong-arm her family to do the right thing. This creates a physical fight between Jan and a family enforcer, which leads to a riveting trial and execution thing at the book's end. But, the real pleasure of Wheelworld is the “wheeling” across the planet as the team fights through volcanic ash, huge crevices in the Earth, swarms of insects, and the human turmoil and factions that develop on the road trip. 

Honestly, Wheelworld can work perfectly as a stand-alone novel. It is a road trip adventure as Jan and the team work their way from Point A to Point B to avoid natural disasters. In some ways, the book reminded me of Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny as a futuristic obstacle course pressed for time. In the trilogy, this is really the hinge that gets from the Earth action in Homeworld to the Earth War story in Starworld. But, regardless of your approach, Wheelworld is a fantastic novel and a great reading experience. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

Friday the 13th - Friday the 13th Part 3

In one of the more bizarre occurrences in paperback history, two film novelizations occurred for Paramount's Friday the 13th Part 3 (often listed with III). The first was authored by Michael Avallone, a crime-fiction author that wrote the popular Ed Noon series of detective fiction as well as early installments in the Nick Carter: Killmaster series. Avallone wasn't a complete stranger to spookville. He also wrote gothic romance novels that possessed a familiar supernatural scent that appealed to 1970s readers. His F13 novelization was timed perfectly for the release of the film to theaters in 1982. However, Signet hired Simon Hawke, who had previously penned the prior two Friday the 13th novelizations, to write his own novelization of Friday the 13th Part 3 in 1988. Weird, right?

I like Avallone's writing so I chose to read his take on the film first. As a kid, I rented Friday the 13th films so much that the tapes were at my house more than the rental store. I also camped in front of cable television in the late 80s watching the USA Network air the films every Saturday on the Captain USA show or their Saturday Nightmares prime-time spot. Needless to say, I knew what the next page was going to offer. 

Avallone mostly sticks to the script for 90% of the book. If you haven't seen the film, this one has Jason attacking teen visitors at a nearby farm called Higgins Haven, which is adjacent to the Camp Crystal Lake original battleground. Many fans call this film “the barn one” because the action and body count intensifies in that dwelling. Plus, there's plenty of sharp things in there to penetrate soft bodies.

The hero of the film/book is Chris, a young woman that lived a horrifying ordeal as a child when she saw Jason Voorhees face to face in the woods. While she's dealing with repressed memories of that night, she orchestrates an outing to visit the lake where the murders occurred. She brings friends along that just make for easy slasher fodder – two potheads, a horny couple, a creepy lunatic nerd, and another sensible girl. She also brings her boyfriend Andy along for the massacre as well.

Jason begins hacking his way through the characters, including three black bikers, until Chris is the proverbial last girl. Avallone's writing borders on satire at times as if he is secretly rolling his eyes at the ludicrous concept of the undead killer killing...again and again. The perfect example is his take on the imbecile police in the third chapter, aptly titled “Give Him the Axe!”. Avallone is such a great storyteller that he is able to draw out some of the tension and cat-and-mouse intrigue to heights that even rival Harry Manfredini's intense musical score. 

The book's ending drifts into a different version than what is seen on film. In this book's ending Chris completely decapitates Jason whereas in the film she simply cleaves him in the head with an axe. Big difference. She also awakens in bed with the doctors and police outside in the hallway questioning her sanity. She escapes the room and journeys back to the barn to search for clues that the murders actually happened. She wants to prove that she didn't make all of this up. She finds a leg, a foot, and an arm in the hay before Jason decapitates her. The police then go check on Chris and find her still in bed. The whole scene was a nightmare. 

In the film, one of the best segments is when Chris escapes to the canoe and at dawn she sees Jason peering from a window before Mrs. Voorhees corpse erupts out of the water, which is later proved to just be a nightmare. Avallone omits this segment. I took a peek at Simon Hawke's treatment and he kept his novelization strictly to the film version, which may be why he was hired to do another novelization of the film in the first place. 

I love the Friday the 13th films in the same way that any old timer will tell you they loved all of the Hammer and Universal horror films when they were a kid. Jason, Michael, Freddy, and Leatherface have become the new Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy. This book is a nostalgic trip through time but also showcases a superb writer doing the most he can with an unrealistic story. For that, I applaud the effort. This is an entertaining read.

Super Secret Agent Philis #01 - The Fall Guy

Between 1972 and 1985, Ritchie Perry (born 1942) wrote a 13-book series starring a British Intelligence agent named Philis (a dude) battling international criminals who pose a national security threat to Great Britain. In the U.S., the paperbacks were published by Ballantine, but many of them have been released as ebooks which should save you some time hunting them down. Start with the 1972 opening installment, The Fall Guy.

The British Intelligence arm in the series is SR(2) with the initials standing for “Special Responsibilities.” The group is designed to do things the police are not able to - namely assassinate threats without the blessing of a judge or jury. In this series debut, Scotland Yard wants SR(2)’s help in neutralizing the South American end of a cocaine trafficking operation, while the cops handle the domestic arm in the U.K. After an SR(2) sleeper agent in Brazil goes missing during the investigation of a drug exporter, a new operative is needed in the region. Enter Philis.

The Fall Guy serves as an origin story for Agent Philis - the hero of the 13 book series. When we meet him, he is a small-time British smuggler of booze and cigarettes working a beach town in Brazil. After a lengthy prologue giving the readers a third-person view of the intel agency’s mission and its challenges, the narrative abruptly switches to first person with charming and humorous Philis telling the story.

Philis is a wisecracking playboy who is kidnapped by SR(2) operatives who convince him to search for the missing SR(2) agent in a Brazilian beach town. Nearly the entire paperback takes place on the Brazilian coastline, and the author, who has also written a non-fiction book about Brazil, makes the culture and topography come alive. It’s a great setting for a thrilling adventure. As Philis gets closer to the truth about the missing spy, the author ratchets up the intensity and extreme violence. Consider yourself warned.

Where does the Super Secret Agent Philis series fall among its spy-fiction cohorts? It’s not as dense as a Robert Ludlum novel, but it’s way smarter and better-written than a Nick Carter: Killmaster volume. The cheeky first-person narration reminds me of Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm series, and the well-written Britishness of the whole affair recalls Adam Hall’s Quiller books. In any case, it’s a way smarter book than the illustration on the paperback cover would have you believe.

In short, I haven’t been this excited to start a new espionage series in a long time. Hopefully, the later installments keep up the same level of high quality on display in The Fall Guy.

Series Order:

As is often the case, the American publisher renumbered the series differently for the domestic reprints. However, with the exception of the first installment, I’m told that adhering to strict series order is not required. The series order below is the best that the Spy Guys and Gals website could discern given the available data:

1. The Fall Guy (1972)
2. A Hard Man to Kill / Nowhere Man (1973)
3. Ticket to Ride (1973)
4. Holiday with a Vengeance (1974)
5. Your Money and Your Wife (1975)
6. One Good Death Deserves Another (1976)
7. Dead End (1977)
8. Dutch Courage (1978)
9. Bishop’s Pawn (1979)
10. Grand Slam (1980)
11. Fool’s Mate (1981)
12. Foul Up (1982)
13. Kolwezi (1985)

The author also published a 1991 novel called Comeback that many sources list as the 14th book in the Super Secret Agent Philis series. My research shows that the book stars an entirely different lead character who may or may not exist in the same universe. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Raker #01 - Raker

Have you ever started a men’s adventure paperback just knowing it’s going to suck? The ‘Raker’ series was a failed, two-books outing from Pinnacle published in 1982 under the pseudonym of Don Scott. The actual author was Lee Hays, whose prior claim to fame was writing TV tie-in novels for ‘Columbo’ and ‘The Partridge Family,’ so he must have thought that landing an original Pinnacle series was his ticket to the big time.

The cover art for the paperback did nothing to instill confidence as it depicts a very Aryan looking Raker exchanging gunfire with black people under the tag-line, “The American Hero Who Believes in America First.” Presumably, the lady with the bullet headed for her Afro is from Canada or Sweden. The plot synopsis on the back did little to assuage the sickening feeling as I opened the big-font, humongous margins, 185-page novel.

Raker works for a shadowy organization called The Company - sometimes called The Department - in New York City. It’s not clear if this is a governmental entity or a private outfit. He receives his assignments and a briefcase full of cash with an unnecessary level of spy tradecraft. The current assignment is to investigate the ambush murders of several police officers across the nation over the past five months. All of the murders have occurred in black neighborhoods, so at least we are starting with a promising lead. Raker’s job is to investigate the killings and neutralize the almost certainly black threat.

The author may or may not have been personally a bigot, but he sure wrote a book for that audience. In Raker’s universe, the “coloreds” live like animals. A wrong number to Raker’s phone sounds like a “fruit,” and Raker imagines the caller wearing a tight t-shirt, a bracelet, and an earring. On his commute to work, Raker notices a “Jap with a camera.” Chinese-Americans are “chinks” and probably reds. Raker is basically Archie Bunker meets Charles Bronson. Could this have been intended as parody? Somehow I doubt it. Parody books have some element of fun, and “Raker” is just a loathsome drag.

Raker does have a college-educated - Harvard, in fact - black man who serves as his partner or informant - the business relationship isn’t clear. His name is Lawson, and it’s explained to the reader that he’s a real Oreo - black on the outside but white on the inside. Lawson is the perfect partner for Raker because he can “talk black, speak jive” but otherwise he’s without black “speech, gait, or behavior.” Lawson’s theory is that the police assassinations are the work of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), and Raker tells him to hit the streets and uncover the truth. A better author would have made the BLA thing a red herring and developed a clever twist at the end, but that would have involved way too much effort for the untalented Mr. Hays.

Raker is a badass, and the reader is reminded of this fact several times in the first few chapters. If I were writing the book, I might have shown the reader how tough and cool Raker is by having him do some tough and cool stuff, but that’s not how this author rolls. In order to anticipate the time and location of the next cop killing, Raker does some guesswork coupled with social engineering in which he places some calls to police stations pretending to be a black man while talking like Amos-n-Andy.

The novel is essentially a parade of liberal and minority strawmen for Raker to hate and occasionally kill. A flashback to his college years depicts anti-war protestors as flag burning domestic terrorists looking to “off some pigs” and smoke reefer. All this is done without the gentle nuance and subtlety that William W. Johnstone’s ghost writers bring to the right-wish fulfillment school of men’s adventure fiction.

Here’s the thing: even if “Raker” wasn’t filled with tone-deaf racial tropes, the paperback would still suck. The action sequences were lame and tired, and the pacing of the novel was an abomination. Raker spends the majority of the paperback driving around, meeting with potential sources with pages upon pages of talk, talk, talk to fill out this paltry, crappy book. Every now and then, he gets to break a mugger’s arm, but those scenes felt like they were added in later drafts to appease Pinnacle editors dumb enough to pay Mr. Hays for an action novel.

“Raker” was easily the worst book I’ve ever read to completion. We read a lot of cheesy, bad books at Paperback Warrior, but I can’t recall one as joyless as this piece of literary excrement. There was a sequel published - also in 1982 - called “Raker #2: Tijuana Traffic.” However, I’d rather jog home from my own vasectomy than read a single word of it. You’re on your own.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Nick Carter: Killmaster #211 - Mercenary Mountain

Dennis Lynds (1924-2005) authored nearly 80 novels in his career, achieving an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Primarily a mystery fiction writer, Lynds found his most successful character to be 'Dan Fortune', a private detective series that produced 19 installments from 1967 until 1995. As William Arden, Lynds created the 'Kane Jackson' series and as Mark Sadler, the 'Paul Shaw' novels. Surprisingly, my first taste of Lynds talents isn't an acclaimed detective series.

Lynds wrote nine volumes of the 'Nick Carter: Killmaster' series, beginning in 1974 with #91: “The N3 Conspiracy” and concluding with #222: “Blood of the Falcon” in 1987. In 1984, his spouse Gale Lynds, a successful author in her own right, made it a family affair by penning four novels in the series beginning with #190: “Day of the Mahdi”. The subject of this review is Dennis Lynds' 1986 series entry #211: “Mercenary Mountain”.

The novel's opening chapters feature a ragged villager falling into the dusty Ethiopian dirt. After a small dispatch of Ethiopian soldiers pass, the villager stands and rapidly ascends a dense hillside. Assembling a sniper rifle, the villager spots his target - a civilian wearing a U.N. emblem. The soldiers then drag a weak and clearly tortured victim into the clearing and the civilian fatally shoots him. The villager then shoots and kills the U.N. disguised civilian before soldiers begin their pursuit. Eliminating enemies as they approach the hillside, the fearful General calls off the search and the squad departs. The villager, who we now realize is Nick Carter, removes a small cylinder from the civilian's arm and then realizes the tortured man was a CIA operative. In the dirt, the operative had scrawled a clue: “MAMBA”.

Carter telephones AXE's David Hawk to report his findings, including the message and the murder of the CIA man. Hawk asks Carter to investigate, and this leads to a whirlwind of action as Carter teams with a mysterious band of aged fighters, a leftover WW2 French brigade that's part gangster, part thief and part hero. The narrative's focal point is Carter's investigation of multiple thefts of American aid. Who's stealing the supplies destined for the Ethiopian people? Who are the thieves selling the aid to? The clues all point to a grand army of mercenaries operating in Africa under the name The Black Mamba Brigade.

I'm not one to flock to the Killmaster series, but there's no denying Dennis Lynds is a tremendous talent. He goes to great lengths to really push this novel into a sweeping, epic adventure. Carter's weary alliance with the resistance group kept me fully engaged, including his love interest with fighting beauty Chantal. With a nearly nonstop action approach, Lynds propels the team throughout Africa while fighting jailers, mercenaries, Ethiopian soldiers and the criminal network. While the climactic finish retained some pulp flavor, it wasn't completely over the top theatrics.

If you are new to the series, or just simply a casual fan like myself, seek out the Dennis Lynds series novels. You won't be disappointed.

Dennis Lynds:

91: The N3 Conspiracy (1974)
103: The Green Wolf Connection (1976)
113: Triple Cross (1976)
206: The Execution Exchange (1985)
211: Mercenary Mountain (1986)
213: The Cyclops Conspiracy (1986)
215: The Samurai Kill (1986)
219: The Master Assassin (1986)
222: Blood of the Falcon (1987)

Gale Lynds:

190: Day of the Mahdi
194: The Mayan Connection
199: Pursuit of the Eagle
203: White Death 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Reid Bennett #01 - Dead in the Water

Author Ted Wood (1931-2019) was born as Edward John Wood in Shoreham, Sussex, England. He joined the RAF Coastal Command and in 1954 he immigrated to Canada. Wood worked as a Toronto police officer for three years and then became a creative director for an advertising firm. As a writer, he scripted radio, stage plays, and television dramas including Encounter (1952) and the CBC Show of the Week (1964). 

In 1983, Wood tried his hand at writing full-length original novels. His debut, Dead in the Water, was published by Scribner in hardcover and later as a paperback by Bantam in 1984 (cover by Steve Gorman). Thankfully, the book was a hit due in part to a likable Chief of Police named Reid Bennett. Wood wrote a total of 10 books in the series from 1983 to 1995. I always like to start at the beginning, so I dove in for Dead in the Water to get the proper introduction to Wood's hero. 

The opening paragraphs of the book hit like a ton of bricks and instantly reminded me of tight-fisted characters from a Max Allan Collins or Mickey Spillane novel:

“Three of them were working on the girl. The biggest was zipping his fly and laughing while the other two took over, trying for the two-at-once trick. I was off duty. My gun was locked in the safe at the station and I'd changed into plain clothes, so they didn't even know I was a policeman. It wouldn't have mattered to the big one, anyway. He went six four, maybe two eighty. He figured he was Superman. Until I stuck two fingers into his throat. It could have ended there, with one dead, if the second one hadn't come at me. I pinned him but the third one didn't take the hit and so I had to break the arm on the one I was holding and put the third one down. He had a knife so I hurt him.”

It's a deadpan narrative, but it is extremely effective when combined with Wood's stellar, cool-as-ice writing style. His prose is short and to the point, presented in third-person narrative from Bennett. 

As the opening chapter continues, readers learn that Bennett was arrested and found innocent of any wrongdoing. But, the press and city pounded him to the ground and the effect ruined his marriage. Bennett packed up and went where no one could bother him, a small drinking village with a fishing problem called Murphy's Harbour in Ontario. Bennett accepts the role as the coastal town's sole police officer. Sure, he gets a little help from a makeshift deputy, an old WWII veteran with a bum-leg and a yellow hide. But his real assistance comes by way of an obedient German Shepherd named Sam. The dog plays a huge role in the book. 

The book's mystery involves Bennett investigating the disappearance of three men who were originally with a woman named Angela. She reports them missing but initially refuses to provide any details on what the men were doing in the middle of nowhere in a boat at 10PM at night. When one of the men washes up Bennett is surprised to learn he works for a security agency. Someone killed him and then made off with the other two, or they conspired to kill the agent to further their agenda. Bennett and readers need answers.

As a debut novel, Wood works his ass off providing just enough details to keep the case both mysterious and compelling. I read the book in one sitting and found myself rallying behind the Reid Bennett character. He's short on words, has a keen eye for details, and does some really interesting things to get people talking. Part of his action-oriented, fisticuffs experience is presented in short remembrance of his time as U.S. Marine in the Vietnam War. But, his history on the police force really delves into the criminal psyche. I learned a few new tidbits of criminality that have been lost to me over the last 250 crime-fiction novels I've read. Additionally, the chemistry between Sam, the good police dog, and Reid was a welcome change of pace. Reid developed certain key words that instruct Sam on what to do when there is danger. This is no Timmy-Lassie affair. Wood hammers in the violence when necessary and I really enjoyed the mix of savageness and procedural-fiction. 

Dead in the Water was just fantastic and I can't wait to pick up Bennett's next case with Murder on Ice (1984). I may also try the author's other hero, a bodyguard named John Locke that lasted three novels under Wood's pseudonym of Jack Barnao.

Monster Man

In 2011, authors Paul Bishop (Lie Catchers, Penalty Shot) and Mel Odom (The Executioner, Hellgate) each wrote and self-published a pulp-styled boxing novella. The books were so well received, a brand was created called Fight Card. Various authors would try their hand at crafting a 25,000-30,000 word novella centralized around boxing in the 1940s and 1950s. The ebooks were published under a house name of Jack Tunny with physical editions printed with the author's real name. The brand created spin-offs like Fight Card MMA, Fight Card Now, Fight Card Luchadors, and even Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes. 

My introduction to the Fight Card series is an installment called Monster Man. It was authored by Jason Chirevas and published in 2014. It has also been included in a three-book omnibus titled Under the Lights and Heat, a collection of three connected Fight Card novellas written by Chirevas. In 2019, Chirevas contributed a short story to Paul Bishop's collection Bandit Territory: Ten New Tales of Murder & Mayhem and he created and authored the western series Ames & Fyre. 

Monster Man, set in 1953, stars a talented young boxer named Ben Harman. He grew up an orphan in St. Vincent's home for boys in Chicago. After the Army, Ben found that he was a gifted and natural boxer. Rising in the ranks of the fight game, Ben meets an unlikely fate one night in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His powerful right hand fatally injures his opponent in the ring. The death leads to Ben's removal from the big-time fight game. 

The narrative then moves to Toronto and readers learn that Ben is now paired with his old friend Pete. Together, the two are running a fight scam from city to city. The gimmick is that Ben fights in amateur bouts and he either takes a dive (pretending to be knocked out so he loses) or he runs a hustle and fakes that he is brand new in the fight business, then proceeds to knock out the city's local champ. Either way, Pete makes the bets depending on the scam, and the two pocket the money evenly. The catch is that they can't be seen together and they have to conduct business east of New Mexico so no one will recognize Ben as a former pro. But, where does “Monster Man” fit in?

Ben is suffering from the early onslaught of acromegaly, a disease in which an individual's hands, feet, forehead, nose, and jaw grow disproportionately due to an increased hormone growth. You may remember WWE Hall of Fame legend Andre the Giant as the most famous human to have acromegaly. But, there was also 1933 world heavyweight boxing champion Primo Carnera, which influenced the author's decision to write the main character in this way. Throughout the story, Ben researches the disease in all of the town libraries he visits. He also reads up on Carnera's condition. Ultimately, Ben begins to suffer severe pain in his wrists and hands and he fully understands what his future entails.

Monster Man absolutely shines like a classic mid-century crime-noir, fitting in the most rudimentary staples that the genre possesses – gambling, criminals, romance, money and an examination of the average human condition. Like Clark Howard's masterful 1967 crime-fiction novel The Arm, Monster Man emphasizes the gambling addiction – bad, worse, and worst – but introduces a love interest that steadily begins to chip away at the criminality factor. The “monster” isn't Ben, it's the game. In a clever twist, Ben falls for a prostitute named Vicky, a once beautiful, aspiring actress that now has a physical flaw. Ben and Vicky share the same imperfections, and they are both caught up in a life of crime. 

I read a lot of fiction, from the greats to the aspiring authors that still have some rows to ho. In my experience as a reader, Jason Chirevas proves that he is truly something special. He has a unique talent to convey so much emotion and drama in his wording. I felt invested in the characters and sympathized with their predicament. There's no easy way out, and Chirevas' doesn't short-change anything. 

Monster Man is gritty, entertaining, and wildly unpredictable. It caters to boxing fans, crime-fiction readers, and anyone that just loves an engrossing story. While I hung on to the ending for dear life, I'm relieved to know that Ben and Vicky's story continues in the 2015 follow-up Job Girl. Look for my review of that in the coming days. 

You can buy Monster Man as a Kindle stand-alone ebook HERE or the omnibus Under the Lights and Heat as digital or physical HERE.

Canyon O'Grady #01 - Dead Men's Trails

Writing as Jon Sharpe, author Jon Messman was the primary architect and ghostwriter behind the popular adult western series, ‘The Trailsman.’ In 1989, Signet Books launched a new series called ‘Canyon O’Grady’ also using the Jon Sharpe house name, so it only made sense to have Messman pen the inaugural installment.

The premise of the Canyon O’Grady books is pretty interesting, and it’s quite similar in structure to Longarm. Canyon is a “U.S. Government Agent” who gets his investigative assignments directly from U.S. President James Buchanan. For instance, in Book 2, POTUS asks Canyon to protect the man working on a new invention called “the machine gun” before the device falls into the wrong hands. Book 5 finds Canyon working double duty to protect political rivals Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln from terrorists seeking to disrupt the next U.S. presidential election.

When asked the difference between a federal marshal and a U.S. Government agent, Canyon explains: “A federal marshal arrests people and brings them in. Sometimes he does some law-keeping. Mostly, though, he’s the arresting arm of the federal government. A government agent tracks down trouble and troublemakers anywhere and everywhere. Federal marshals have a territory. I go anywhere the trail takes me.”

The first book in the series takes place along the wild and lawless Kentucky-Tennessee border in 1859 where Canyon is undercover on a special assignment from the President involving the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis of Lewis & Clark fame 50 years earlier - a cold-case homicide that becomes a manhunt and a treasure hunt.

Shortly after his arrival into a small Kentucky town, Canyon witnesses a targeted murder of a man who might have some answers regarding Lewis’ death. It turns out that the victim is one of several close associates suffering assassinations at the hands of hired hit squads because of a shared secret in their past. Only one of the group has survived and his comely daughter wants Canyon to find her reclusive and hidden father before it’s too late.

Because this is an adult western, you can count on regular breaks in the action for some mandatory graphic sex scenes. It took 37 pages for Canyon to get laid in the debut, so you know the author was really committed to the main plot. However, never fear - there’s also a substantial amount of cinematic and grizzly violence to keep the pages flying by.

Messman includes lots of details and backstory regarding our hero. Canyon was conceived in Ireland and born in the U.S. His father was an Irish revolutionary fleeing British rule with a price on his head. Canyon was classically educated by wise and learned Catholic friars and often quotes ancient Greek poets and sings Irish folk songs. He rides a beautiful palomino horse named Cormac after the Irish king of the 8th Century.

A fair amount of the novel is Canyon traveling through the wilderness accompanied by a beautiful girl in search of her father. They encounter many obstacles along the way requiring Canyon to save the girl’s bacon from mountain lions and rapey fur trappers. At times, the intensity of the violence approaches the level of the Edge series when the bullets begin to fly and the blood starts to flow. Meanwhile, the central mystery regarding the assassinations is remarkably compelling for a pulpy paperback.

The Canyon O’Grady series lasted for 25 books before folding in 1993. The authors changed hands with Chet Cunningham writing several and Robert Randisi delivering the final eight books. Canyon O’Grady and Skye “Trailsman” Fargo actually team up in Trailsman #100. As for this first episode, it’s an outstanding debut that makes the reader want to dig deeper into this fascinating hero. Recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Last Ranger 01 - The Last Ranger

The Last Ranger series was published in 1986 through Popular Library. As a post-apocalyptic series, it's a monomyth as protagonist Martin Stone roams the wastelands of America searching for his missing sister April. The series ran a total of ten installments from 1986 through 1989 and was authored by Jan Stacy using the pseudonym Craig Sargent. Some may remember Stacy as one-half of the duo that contributed to the more popular Doomsday Warrior series of post-apocalyptic adventures. 

The opening chapters of this eponymous Last Ranger debut centers around Major Clayton Stone, the father of series hero Martin Stone. The author presents Clayton's early life as well as his exploits as an Army Ranger in Vietnam. Clayton is described as a menacing, mountain of a man, a war hero and survivalist. In fear of the looming Soviet threat (an 80s staple in pop-culture), Clayton creates an enormous fallout shelter inside of a Colorado mountain range,  supplying it with decades of power, food, water and every type of military weapon conceived by man.

Martin Stone is the exact opposite of his father. Before the inevitable nuclear attack, Stone marched in peace rallies, maintained many girlfriends and his claim to fame was being the captain of his school's swim team. Martin Stone was the stereotypical precursor to an ivy school, sweater-wearing yuppy. The two often disagreed on a variety of topics and, in 1989, come to blows after Clayton forces the family into the Colorado shelter before the Soviets bomb America into the stone ages. Father knows best indeed.

The family live in the fallout shelter for about a decade and Clayton teaches his son the tactics to stay alive. For years the two train in martial arts, explosives, various shooting styles and hundreds of different weapons from turret styled machine guns to revolvers and rifles. Clayton turns his son into Rambo while mom and sister serve as quiet spectators.

As the first half of the narrative closes, Clayton dies of a heart attack. Stone dismisses years of training and decides to leave the safety of the shelter. Using an RV, and carrying only a shotgun, Stone and his mother and sister journey into the desert where they are immediately mauled by biker gangs. Apparently, the 80s vision of apocalypse always features the most vial criminal element riding a motorcycle. Thus the enemy of Stone is a moto-psycho group called Hell's Guardians. After killing Stone's mom, the bikers kidnap his sister April and leave Stone broken and battered in the desert.

The novel's second half premise begins with Stone being rescued by Native Americans. Apparently they have returned to the ways of the land, hunting animals and worshiping Earth spirits. In a scene taken right out of a Man Called Horse, Stone is hefted up on hooks through his chest and suspended in mid-air for the night. This painful journey into the spirit world deems Stone a true warrior. He beds a beautiful tribe chick and then returns to his shelter to arm himself for war; a motorcycle with a .50 caliber machine gun turret on handlebars and enough guns and ammo to supply Israel for a weekend.

I thought this was a solid series debut. Clayton's introduction at the beginning was necessary to validate Stone's ascension as the heir apparent. I think the transition from chump to champ was an entertaining read and the eventual story-line of April's disappearance is a good through-story that treads through each of the series' installments. As the series progresses, more of the story will begin to parallel Jan Stacy's own life. You can learn more on author Jan Stacy in our Paperback Warrior Podcast Episode 38 HERE. 

Buy a copy of the Last Ranger debut HERE.

Sgt. Hawk #01 - Sgt. Hawk

The first “Sgt Hawk” paperback was published by Belmont Tower in 1979. The novel features a heroic, gruff US Marine Sergeant leading soldiers in the South Pacific Theater of World War 2. Not much is known about author Patrick Clay, but the book was apparently successful enough to warrant three sequels - “Return of Sgt Hawk” (1980), “Under Attack” (1981), and “Tiger Island” (1982). I'm a sucker for Belmont's military fiction and “Sgt Hawk” generally receives positive reviews. I'm digging in.

Like Len Levinson's 'Rat Bastards', Sgt Hawk's platoon is made up of hardened, battle-scarred grunts with vulgar mouths. Hawk is a country boy from Mississippi, thrust into leadership by wielding an uncanny fighting spirit. In many ways, Hawk could be a misplaced western hero superimposed onto war-torn Japanese Islands. He's a lovable character with a deep accent, an attribute that helps calm the civilian population while also motivating his troops. When readers are first introduced to Hawk, he's a monumental workhorse leading his men through dense foliage to destroy a pillbox. He takes the hardest route himself before risking his soldier's lives. Hawk's that kinda guy.

After an early skirmish, Hawk and fifteen troops are offered a special assignment. As the US pinches the eastern portion of the island, US intelligence fears that the Japanese will retreat to the northwest quadrant. Hawk's role is to protect a Dutch rubber plantation, an asset being utilized by the Allies. Once Hawk arrives at the plantation, the narrative settles into the cusp of the story – Hawk's interaction with the plantation's wealthy owner and family while trying to solve...a murder mystery.

The Van Speer family have owned and operated the plantation for fifteen years and don't immediately welcome Hawk and his men. Cut-off from the rest of Europe, the Van Speers don't fully grasp the war's impact. The family's oldest daughter, Gretchen, is smitten with Hawk and the two form a budding romance over the course of a few weeks. While Hawk and his men await the inevitable conflict, they appear to have an enemy on the farm. The platoon is slowly picked off one-by-one in a macabre “Ten Little Indians” series of murders. Could one of Hawk's men be a traitor? Or, is it an early advance of Japanese forces?

Patrick Clay does a tremendous job in maintaining the suspense until the very end. I had an early theory that panned out, but it kept me guessing for the majority of the book. The author propels the narrative in a multitude of ways. The romance between Hawk and Gretchen adds depth to these characters and allows the rock-solid Hawk character to become soft for readers. The murder mystery is slowly developed and adds a touch of eerie isolation. But, when the action hits, it's non-stop brutality that comes in waves.

“Sgt Hawk” delivers a gritty, violent war tale with a unique murder mystery as an added touch. The sequels are fairly pricey and, to my knowledge, aren't available as ebooks. In particular, the third book seems to be the rarest, pitching a double-digit prices online. Against my better judgement, I spent and arm and a leg to buy the remaining books. This is an exciting series with a ton of potential, and I'm excited to review the batch.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Johnny Killain #01 - Doorway to Death

Before reaching the highest echelon with his 'Earl Drake' series of the 60s and 70s, Marlowe began his career with another series – 'Johnny Killain'. The series and author debut, “Doorway to Death”, was released by Avon in 1957. It was followed by four more titles over the course of  a two year period, all starring hotel strongman/detective Johnny Killain. 

Killain works the night shift at the Hotel Duarte in New York City. We learn about halfway through the book that Killain worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the early version of what we now call the CIA. Along with the hotel's owner, Willie Martin, the two scoured Europe in WWII working various espionage and wartime assignments. Later, the two joined a Partisan group working in France, Italy and Spain. After, Willie retired and invested in the Hotel Duarte and hired Killain to be the strongman of the place as a favor for pulling his ass out of the fire on missions. Aside from that, Marlowe really doesn't provide many other details about Killain or his past.

With muscles, good looks and a sense of mystery...the man rarely sleeps alone. His main squeeze is the hotel's switchboard operator, Sally. She's a loveable, innocent character who apparently lives to serve Killain at the hotel. Frequently she's behind the calls, listening for details and danger and reporting it to Killain. While not as strong or cunning, in some ways she's the predecessor for Earl Drake's love interest Hazel. This relationship is imperative because Killain can't be everywhere at once, and even the most valiant hero needs an ally. 

The narrative explores criminal activity that is encroaching on the hotel. In one remarkable scene, Killain is confronted in an elevator by two pimps wanting to run goods through the business. They strong-arm Killain into a close quarters fight in the cab. He dumps them in an alleyway, only to receive more threats and violence. After being blindsided by a couple of enforcers, Killain begins to unravel who's behind the intrusion and how the hotel's owner and guests factor into the deal. While Killain is disposing of the threats and refusing the bribes, the police offer a deal – join their cause and work as an informant. Killain refuses, but soon finds assistance from Lieutenant Dameron, a character that I hope will return in future books. 

With corpses in the kitchen and freezer, Killain eventually goes from bouncer to detective, prowling around hallways and rooms, staking out various suspects and piecing together clues to determine what sort of transaction is going down. It's this part of the narrative where the book excels. The action is sparse but really well written. It doesn't reach the heights of the 'Earl Drake' books, but most will agree this series is inferior to those books. The cast of characters are diverse and aren't all together needy or reliant on Killain. The character, coupled with Sally, is very enjoyable and provides just enough mystery to keep it intriguing. 

“Doorway to Death” is a compelling story brought to life by a true master of the genre. I continue to be in awe of Marlowe.

Kid Crimson #01 - Gunpowder Mountain

According to his bio, Jarret Keene is an assistant professor in the Department of English at UNLV where he teaches American literature and the graphic novel. His published books include Hammer of the Dogs, and the middle grade books Decade and Survive: The Attack on Pearl Harbor and Heroes of World War II: 25 True Stories of Unsung Heroes Who Fought for Freedom. His newest venture is a series of westerns starring a Nevada fighting man deemed Kid Crimson. The series debut sports the explosive title of Gunpowder Mountain.

Needless to say, I've read my fair share of action-adventure books. Occassionally I'll find one line in a book or novel that describes the intensity of both the story and the character. Keene places this literary gem in the middle of the pages:

"I'd never fought for my life outnumbered during an evening windstorm alongside a stone killer with only one good arm."

This quote from Kid Crimson speaks volumes and loosely summarizes one of the more harrowing scenes in the book. 

Keene introduces Crimson to readers by providing dark snippets of his childhood in Georgia. His father is described as a ruthless adversary (I'm anticipating an epic future showdown) that taught him that violence was the only language spoken. Due to Crimson's harsh upbringing, he now serves as a gun-for-hire in Virginia City, a westward mining town.  To know Crimson also means you know his colorful friends, the townspeople he is sworn to protect, and his lover.

First, the closest thing Crimson has to a real father is the town's undertaker, an older man named Grover. Crimson sleeps in Grover's storage shed and enjoys reading Homer's Iliad by the dim light of a kerosene lamp. His friend is a Native-American warrior named Snake. His lover is Poppy, a businesswoman who gently cures illness at an opium den (aptly titled Sure Cure) she owns and operates. Crimson is like a father to a young shoeshine boy named Ezra. Crimson's lifegoal is to save enough money so he can bring Poppy and Ezra to California to buy an orchard and peacefully grow fruit for the rest of his life. But, there's plenty of blood and bullets before that goal is reached. Crimson's Colt Army Model 1860 and a Sharps 50 will bring the pain.

The debut novel's central plot has the town preparing for the surprising arrival of President Lincoln. His appearance in town is to motivate the miners and community to work harder supplying more silver - more silver means more Union guns. While Lincoln will supply his own guard complete with U.S. Marshals, the town's premier businessman has hired Crimson to employ his own small task force to provide additional security on the street. This will hopefully extinguish any potential security breaches. Thankfully, Keene provides those security breaches to allow Crimson plenty of iron-fisted action. 

However, Gunpowder Mountain is stuffed with another exciting plot. Before Lincoln's arrival, another businessman has hired Crimson to be a stagecoach agent. But, this isn't any ordinary stagecoach. This is a hydrogen-generating inflation wagon that the man hopes to use with a giant balloon. In an interesting history lesson, it's explained that the balloon was a failed project by the Confederacy to enhance their spy intelligence. Their failure will now generate a lucrative entertainment industry by providing balloon rides to paying customers. But, as you can imagine, things don't go as planned and Crimson ends up teaming with a sadistic nemesis to retrieve the wagon from outlaws. 

As much as the term "action-packed" is strewn around, I have to utilize the term here as a valid description of the book.  It isn't the traditional western, but more of a Wild Wild West televison theme crossed with Ben Haas's Fargo. I believe that is the best approach considering the restraints and redundancy of the common 125-year old genre tropes. This series debut is one long action sequence from beginning to end. Whether Crimson is fighting drunks at the Bloody Nugget, firing off a unique bow-and-grappling hook weapon to retrieve a speeding wagon, or diffusing explosive devices set to topple a rugged mountain, Keene's combination of lovable characters and dastardly villains makes for a rip-roar reading experience. This one is highly recommended.

Get your copy HERE.