Congo

Athwill William Baker (1925-1991) was an Irish author, editor, and publisher that used the pseudonyms W. Howard Baker, W.A. Ballinger, Peter Saxon, and Sexton Blake to write series titles like The Guardians, Sexton Blake, Danger Man, and Jonathan Quintain. I've amassed a collection of his books and I'm slowly working my way through them. I decided to try his action-adventure novel Congo, originally published as a Mayflower Original paperback in 1970.

The book begins with General Alphonse of the Force Publique, one of the vilest villains in my recent memory, arriving at a small village in the Congo Free State. They begin a brutal slaughter and systematically begin raping every female. A young American girl named Kristine is there working as a nurse to assist Father Julian. She is raped repeatedly by Alphonse's men and left to die. Thankfully, she survives and manages to crawl to a river and get help from an old man.

The book's protagonist, Hugo Norcott, arrives outside of this terror zone to interview for a mercenary job. The Province of Katanga, an independent state, is expecting an invasion by General Alphonse and Force Publique. They want Norcott to lead a group of mercenaries into a nearby province to retrieve four trucks filled with weapons and a few armored cars and jeeps. This equipment will be valuable to them and can help repel this anticipated invasion alongside the mercenaries assistance. Norcott signs the dotted line because he's there for cash. No allegiance – just the cabbage. 

Congo proves to be a reliable action-filled narrative that reads like a slightly more technical version of a Ralph Hayes/Peter McCurtin Soldier of Fortune installment. Norcott gets the gig and begins to whip up his mercenary force – the unexperienced – into a formidable fighting unit. The mission eventually spins back to Kristine's survival as she is caught in the crossfire between the arriving Force Publique rapist madmen (again!) and Norcott's saving grace. The goal to get to the weapons and get back is a perilous road trip packed with adventure.

The most interesting aspect to Congo is the book's central purpose – the question of divinity. There's an amazing subtext concerning a village priest and his staying power to remain with his people as as the slaughter descends. There's heinous torture involved to provoke the priest to denounce his faith. The priest and Norcott have a number of conversations around God and why things like the Force Publique even exist under His watchful eyes. The book's final chapters has one of the most unique endings I've experienced in a men's action-adventure novel. Norcott is forced to make a crucial decision based on the priest's unwavering faith. At times these scenes remind me of the real-life events documented in John Foxe's excellent Book of Martyrs (1563).

Congo is an excellent book that not only entertains but also leaves you questioning a lot of things. A book that makes you feel something is always a good read. This one is recommended.

You can get many Ballinger books HERE.

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 117

The Paperback Warrior sets their investigate eye on the mysteriously named publishing phenom simply referred to as "The Stratemeyer Syndicate". Will courage and curiosity overcome the Warrior when he faces danger and peril reviewing the haunted happenings of "The Secret of Terror Castle"? Also in this exciting edition is an investigation of mysterious events happening on the moon and a madman stalking a Texas football game. Listen to this retro-themed episode today! Stream below or download HERE. You can also listen on YouTube HERE.

Listen to "Episode 117: The Stratemeyer Syndicate" on Spreaker.

The Iron Tiger

The Iron Tiger was Jack Higgins' (Henry Patterson) 18th career effort. The book was written, along with A Candle for the Dead, in between the author's Paul Chavasse series of spy-fiction installments. The novel was published in hardcover by John Long in 1966 under the name Harry Patterson. It was later published in paperback by Fawcett Gold Medal under the Higgins household name.

The book stars Jack Drummond as a WW2 veteran that served the British Navy as a pilot. He was dismissed from service after receiving an incorrect location for bombing that led to the deaths of a number of Allied personnel. He secretly works for British intelligence flying missions over the border in Tibet. His job is twofold: He smuggles in arms for the resistance fighters to repel the Chinese Communists while also relaying strategic locations of red forces. However, the author introduces a new schematic to Drummond's mission. 

The Khan of Balpur (I don't know, just go with it) has a son that was recently injured in an accident. His eye needs surgery that he can only obtain in a Chicago hospital. A nurse named Janet has just left a two-year tour of service in the Vietnam War and has now been asked by a charity organization to accompany the Khan's son to Chicago by airplane. The issue is getting Janet into Balpur under the influence and occupation of Chinese forces will be a real burden. Getting out of Balpur will be equally dangerous. One guy can do it – Jack Drummond. 

A Higgins book for me is like a western fan reading Louis L'Amour. You just know it will be a breezy easy read with huge upside, enjoyment, and a plot that is mostly tangle free. Higgins easy prose, high-adventure setting, and admirable heroes makes his books so damn exhilarating to read. The Iron Tiger is no different. Higgins places Janet and Jack against formidable opponents while dealing with the loss of transportation. Both become stranded with a religious missionary group. The road to safety is a daunting gauntlet of enemy forces, spies, double-crosses, and death. The group must safely cross the border into the arms of India. That's where the bulk of the narrative lies and readers must journey with these likable characters on a deadly road trip that winds through the book's 160 pages.

Higgins was just so good and The Iron Tiger is another must-read high-adventure novel. Recommended. Get it HERE.

Note - A novel by Jon Cleary titled Pulse of Danger seems to have this same plot. The book was published in 1968.

The Couples Trip

Ulf Kvensler is a Swedish actor, screenwriter, comedian and author who broke through in the U.S. market with his award-winning 2022 thriller, Couples Trip. It’s a wilderness adventure survival thriller with a good buzz on social media.

The novel opens in Stockholm during the summer of 2019 while most of the residents are on vacation elsewhere. The narrative toggles between the first person flashback narrative of a 31 year-old hard-working attorney named Anna and police interviews after an awful incident occurred wherein Anna survived and others did not.

The incident is the titular couples trip, and the couples are Anna & Henrik (engaged) and Milena & Jacob (newly-dating). The girls and Henrik have known one another for years, and three-person adventure vacations are the norm.

This time, Jacob will be the largely unknown fourth wheel.

The trip is a rock climbing, camping and hiking week in a dense and giant Swedish National Park - a mountainous winter wasteland stretching for miles. When they meet Jacob, he’s easy to like and seems like an avid outdoorsman. Nevertheless, there are some early clues that Jacob is not who he claims to be. Only after it’s too late do we learn what a psychopath Jacob appears to be.

The novel takes the reader on a wild ride through the frigid Swedish wilderness. Fear of heights? There’s some scary stuff here for you. Terrified of freezing to death? This novel has you covered. There’s a lot of great Woman vs. Nature survival content here - along with evading and avoiding a psycho traveling companion - like a modern, Swedish Deliverance.

The twisty ending left me wanting something a bit more definitive, but the ride to get there was a thrilling, icy adventure making this contemporary novel an easy recommendation. Get it HERE.

Conversations - Jackie L. Hatfield, Jr.

In this exclusive video, Eric sits down with Jack Hatfield, the direct descendant of "Devil Anse" Hatfield, one of the most iconic participants in the infamous and violent Hatfield McCoy feud. Jack talks about a new publication titled "An American Vendetta: Legend of the Hatfield McCoy Feud" and its original format in 1889. Additionally, Jack explains his family's bloody roots, the rivalry between West Virginia and Kentucky, the key instigator Frank Phillips, and the Hatfield McCoy Foundation and Museum. Stream the audio only portion HERE or any streaming platform. Download audio HERE. You can watch the video interview below or on YT HERE.

Men's Adventure Quarterly #11

Believe it or not, Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham are all the way up to issue 11 now of their Men's Adventure Quarterly Magazine. They just keep churning these books out and each one of them is just a real masterpiece of vintage fiction from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. This new issue is available now and I thankfully have my copy. I love the whole UFO and alien thing. I've been following that stuff since I was a little kid watching Unsolved Mysteries on NBC each week and from watching the Sightings show on Fox. Of course, I love the X-Files as well. So, I was happy to see that this new publication is the UFO Issue. 

In the book's introduction, Bob Deis explains the connection between UFO pop-culture and the Men's Adventure-Magazines, which honestly I didn't even realize until I saw this issue was coming out. Deis explains how he grew up in Dayton, Ohio, home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where the Project Blue Book was headquartered (the U.S. government's official investigation into UFO sightings). Deis traces the public's interest, and awareness, of UFOs to magazine format in the Spring 1948 issue of Fate.  Later, the 1950 issue of True contains one of the most significant stories on UFOs, authored by Major Donald E. Keyhoe, which Deis examines in detail. This issue contains that article in its entirety, which is just fascinating. Deis goes on to outline UFO articles that appeared in Real, Man's Magazine, Saga, and Argosy among others. 

There are amazing magazine covers of various issues of True Strange, an odd men's adventure magazine, with an introduction by Deis for the article "Are They Hiding the Truth About Flying Saucers?" by Frank Edwards. 

Gary Lovisi, who's an amazing voice of vintage fiction, has an article titled "Space Sploitation", which examines the Flying Saucer phenomena as it relates to paperbacks published by the likes of Popular Library, Panther, and Fawcett Gold Medal. 

"The Way-Out World of Mr. Adamski" is an article by W. Douglas Lansford. It first appeared in Climax in October 1961. That article is in its entirety in this issue with an introduction by Deis explaining the history of George Adamski, a man who released a photo of a cigar-shaped UFO to the press in 1947. He claimed he saw 184 UFOs fly over California's Palomar Observatory. 

This book is chock-full of UFO articles, including "UFO Agents of Terror" from an October 1967 issue of Saga which discusses the government's attempts at silencing people that speak out about UFO phenomenon. Another interesting one is "The New Menace of U.S.O.'s" in the November 1974 issue of Male. This talks about the frequent sightings of UFOs being seen underwater. 

Popular British paperback collector Jules Burt has an article in this issue about Gerry Anderson's UFO TV series. He goes into the history of the show and the extension into paperback fiction, comics, and movies. There's also a gallery of actresses from the show. Plus this issue's gallery pages captures a lot of beautiful women that have performed in science-fiction movies like Forbidden Planet, Devil Girl from Mars, and Tarantula.

There is just so much to enjoy in this issue even if you aren't a UFO fan or believer. The vintage artwork, magazine covers, movie posters, actress pin-ups. I mean what's not to like? This is another solid issue and I highly recommend it. 

Get the issue HERE

Worm on a Hook

Although I don't know Vern's real name he is an online film critic that boasts a solid and dedicated following since 1999.  His blog Vern's Reviews is updated almost daily with new film reviews or tidbits of social commentary. He has authored articles and columns for The Ain't It Cool News, Thrillist, and CliNT Magazine. In 2004 he began writing non-fiction books about film and his book Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal was published by Titan Books in 2008. In 2014 his first work of fiction appeared, Niketown, that blends social satire with crime-fiction. 

My first experience with Vern is his 2020 novel Worm on a Hook. A PW fan reached out and advised me that the book should appeal to my outrageous literary taste. He was kind enough to gift me this 366-page trade paperback and I read it in about two days. 

The book is presented in a non-linear timeline with events jumping back and forth in time. As the book begins, construction workers disturb an underground tunnel system that is used by a legendary hook-handed slasher named Stoneback. With his newfound unearthing the good citizens of rural Iskum Island, a fictional retreat off the coast of Washington, are in for a slaughter. The reader's interest lies within a handful of characters that have arrived on the island for a beer festival. 

Worm on a Hook is an obvious homage to the blood-soaked slasher cinema that haunted Kodak 5247 film stock in the 1970s and 80s. But, I actually found the book to be more like a Marvel mash-up of Black Widow fighting Deadpool. There's more action than horror with the book's unique approach to character development presented as various life events for both the main character, the ultimate final girl Florence, and the legendary killer himself, Stoneback. Their personal histories and various collisions made for an entertaining reading experience that propelled the central narrative at a brisk pace. 

If you enjoy an over-the-top beat 'em up or the mystique of a hook-handed mauler then Worm on a Hook should wiggle its way into your heart. It is nostalgic, action-packed, and a refreshing take on a horror formula. Recommended! Get it HERE.

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 116

It's another brand new episode of the Paperback Warrior Podcast! On this episode Eric recaps the recent gifs he received from fans and readers and looks at all of the happenings on the podcast and YouTube channel this month. In addition, a feature is presented on Pat Frank, a mid-20th century writer that is considered one of the first post-apocalyptic fiction authors to emerge after WW2. Also, a feature is presented on Armed Services Editions paperbacks and the history behind this patriotic and monumental printing mission in the 1940s. Listen on any streaming platform, play below, download HERE, or view directly on YouTube HERE.

Listen to "Episode 116: Pat Frank and the Birth of Doomsday Fiction" on Spreaker.

Backfire

Backfire was a 1959 crime novel by Florida author Charles L. Burgess (1907-1967) that was only ever published in Australia until it was recently unearthed and reprinted by Stark House along with several of his non-fiction true crime magazine pieces.

Martin and Angela Powers are the perfect suburban newlywed couple. He’s a salesman for a cosmetics company and he’s about to learn that someone is trying to kill him. Who would want him dead? He’s not connected to anything shady at all, right?

Martin survives the first attempt on his life from the “pockmarked man” and begins some sincere soul searching to determine the motive for the killer. The police aren’t much help at all, so this is Martin’s mystery to solve.

The author reveals the solution to the reader (but not to Martin) of who is trying to kill him pretty early in the paperback, but the killer’s motivation remains unclear. For his part, Martin hits the road alone to search for answers in his own past that may provide some clues as to his assassin’s motivations.

Backfire is a journey of self-discovery for Martin as he attempts to get closer and closer to the truth of who he is and subsequently the truth of who wants him dead. There are good action set-pieces along the way and Martin trods a logical path. Overall, it read like a an extended crime story from Manhunt with a tidy solution.

Burgess was a talented author of his era with limited fiction output. Thank heavens for Stark House for keeping his work alive and available. 

Get the book HERE.

Bill Easter #02 - Mister Brown's Bodies

Last month I stumbled upon a 1973 hardcover by British novelist John Blackburn titled Deep Among the Dead Men. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's triumphant trifecta of combining a murder mystery and a nautical adventure into the confines of a rowdy spy-fiction episode. While researching the author I discovered that a sequel was published as well, the 1975 book Mister Brown's Bodies. I was anxious to reunite with this character and author so I dove in.

Mister Brown's Bodies is a sequel in the truest sense. The novel picks up just hours after the events in Deep Among the Dead Men. Rambunctious adventurer-for-hire Bill Easter is floundering in the ocean with his partner Peggy Tey. Their prior ship sunk and now the two are starving and dehydrated on a dinghy. There's a comical exchange between the two (Bill hates Peggy) when they spot an ancient ship.

Climbing aboard the two discover the crew are all bald-headed monks under the drugged supervision of a criminal named Mister Brown. He explains to Bill and Peggy that he freed prisoners sentenced to die in a third-world country. These prisoners are global targets that would fetch high dollars from various governments. Instead of seeing them waste away under a firing squad Brown is able to drug and load them on a concealed ship that was headed to London. "Was" being the key word.

Brown has successfully brainwashed the criminals, with heavy drugs, to obey his every command in a quest to reach Heaven. But, the ship broke down and is now lifeless on the ocean. Brown makes a deal with Bill that if he can get the ship moving again he will pay him a commission based on the bounties the criminals will bring. Bill agrees and then everything descends into chaos. There's a broken ship, a jailbreak, fisticuffs, a murder plot to kill hundreds, and a conspiracy led by religious dissatisfaction.  

I mostly enjoyed Mister Brown's Bodies but felt it inferior to the predecessor. Like most sequels I feel as though the author consumed most of his originality and enjoyment writing the first novel. This book seems to possess a lot of cutting room floor ideas that just didn't make the final edit in Deep Among the Dead Men. The witty dialogue and barbs were amusing and the Easter character is a delight but the end result seemed a bit unnecessary. Tepid recommendation. If you read the first book then you might as well read this one too. 

Paperback Warrior Hits Music City, USA

Is there more than just country music in Music City? Nashville, TN will never be the same when Eric hits an antique mall, Half Price Books, and Landmark Booksellers in search of rare paperbacks. There's book covers, authors, novel history, world famous hot chicken, the iconic Grand 'Ole Opry, and the fake Parthenon in this must-see shopping spree! View below or directly on the YouTube channel HERE.

Annalisa

Forbes Rydell was a pseudonym for crime-fiction author Deloris Stanton Forbes (1923-2013) and Helen B. Rydell. The two collaborated on four novels including Annalisa, originally published in 1959 in hardcover. Thanks to Cutting Edge Books, the book is finally back in print 63 years later as both an ebook and paperback. 

Dana Hebert takes a leave from the military to return to his hometown in Louisiana. His younger brother Claude is marrying a childhood friend named Annalisa. It is Dana's hopes that he can convince Claude and the family to cancel the wedding to secure his brother's safety and sanity. But, what does Annalisa possess that could create such a deep harboring resent within Dana's tortured soul?

Through murky flashbacks, readers learn that Dana and Claude's parents were murdered by Annalisa's mother in a jealous rage. The two brothers were raised in a grand estate owned by Annalisa's Grand'mere. It is here in this half-castle that the two befriended young Annalisa and the three grew up together. 

Dana's reunion is met with stiff opposition from Claude, a frustrated young man that feels Dana is in love with Annalisa. Grand'mere seems to know more about the brothers' past but has withheld murderous secrets from the family. Additionally, Grand'mere's sister Celia warns Dana that a killer is stalking the halls of Bon Plaisir. As the wedding grows nearer, Dana and Claude return to their parent's derelict abandoned mansion to search for answers regarding Annalisa and who may have really been behind the smoking gun that night. 

Annalisa is a well-written, patient Southern Gothic that dangles all of the answers just a few inches from captivated readers. As the narrative unfolds, the mysteries of Dana and Claude's family is unveiled in a rewarding fashion. The old cemetery, cavernous mansion, and sweeping Spanish moss provides enough rainy day atmosphere to enhance this enjoyable mystery. If you love Mignon G. Eberhart, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, and Elizabeth Fenwick then Annalisa is sure to please. Recommended. Get it HERE.

Ranking February Reads

On this special episode, Paperback Warrior ranks the best reads of February, 2025. It's a countdown from worst to first as Eric offers capsule reviews and recaps for all 17 reads from the month of February. Stream below, download HERE, or watch the video presentation complete with book covers on YouTube HERE.

Listen to "Ranking: February 2025" on Spreaker.

The Final Gate

Encyclopocalypse Publications offers a tantalizing assortment of cult cinema novelizations or film tie-in books. But, the publisher also sports a robust catalog of original novels featuring horror, action, and science-fiction themes. I stumbled upon their 2021 horror publication The Final Gate in the Kindle store. The book is authored by Wesley Southard (Cruel Summer, Try Again) and Lucas Mangum (Saint Sadist, Gods of the Dark Web) and remains in both ebook and paperback editions. 

The book opens with an introduction, “Seas of Darkness, Gates of Hell”, written by Ryan Harding (The Night Stockers, Sixty-Five Stirrup Iron Road) explaining that The Final Gate is a type of homage or continuation of Lucio Fulci's iconic 1970s and 80s Italian cinematic horror. He cites influences like Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead, and The Beyond as catalysts for both authors to achieve cinematic horror on the written page. This introduction serves as a hellish welcome to what awaits readers in The Final Gate. 

This 136-page novel mostly takes place in an eerie orphanage called St. Lukes. The facility, in need of serious funding, sits above a fiery chasm that serves as one of a handful of global doorways to hell. One of the facility's managers (no spoilers!) is sacrificing children in an effort to unleash an apocalypse of the undead. As bodies are ripped and torn they become eyeless lifeless killing machines that vomit black bile while feasting on human flesh. There's even some references to the George Romero/Dario Argento co-production Dawn of the Dead as if those events actually occurred. 

The main character is a girl named Jillian who ends up at the orphanage searching for her boyfriend. He went missing while searching for the whereabouts of his younger brother. The search leads to a conspiracy regarding the orphanage leaders, human trafficking, and the obligatory sacrifices to the flame-broiled behemoth slithering in the bowels of Earth. It isn't overly complicated, cosmic, or labor intensive in storytelling. See zombies? Run. Shoot. Fight. Survive.

If you enjoy the retroactive horror scene – the authors and books that pay tribute to 70s, 80s, and even 90s horror and fantasy cinema – then The Final Gate is another solid entry. I enjoyed the fast pace, the assortment of characters, and the lack of any real plot entanglements. This is popcorn fun that never pretends to be anything else. Recommended. Get it HERE.

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 115

It's another investigative Paperback Warrior episode! In this feature, Eric delves into the murky life and career of crime-fiction, science-fiction, and western writer Louis Trimble. The noir author wrote over 80 novels and dozens of stories for the pulp magazines in the 1940s, but was mostly known in Europe for a controversial book celebrated by the Soviets. Plus, Eric reviews a creepy 1959 Southern Gothic novel titled Annalisa and reviews one of his favorite YouTube channels. Stream the episode below or on YT HERE. Also, you can download HERE. 

Listen to "Episode 115: Louis Trimble" on Spreaker.

Bill Easter #01 - Deep Among the Dead Men

John Blackburn (1923-1993) authored nearly 20 thrillers and at least 10 novels of horror during his writing career. The British novelist experienced literary success with his unique blend of using detective, horror, and even nautical adventure tropes to propel his stories. His novels The Gaunt Woman, Destiny of a Spy, and Nothing But the Night were adapted to film and his debut, A Scent of New-Mown Hay was adapted by BBC Radio 2. Scholars often compare him to John Buchan and Geoffrey Household. 

My first experience with Blackburn's writing is the 1973 novel Deep Among the Dead Men. It was published in England in hardcover by The Chaucer Press. While enjoying the book I took a quick detour to learn more about the author and discovered Blackburn wrote a sequel to the book as well, the 1975 hardcover Mister Brown's Bodies. It was published by in England by Northumberland Press.

Like an episode of South Park, Blackburn doesn't reserve his prejudice for any particular race or people. No one escapes the thunder as Blackburn humorously prods and pokes Christians, minorities, and women while subjecting his male protagonist to non-heroic exploits that seem to defy the British thriller standards of spy-fiction. In other words, Blackburn finds fault with everything on the planet, but does have a warm place in his heart for animals. 

Deep Among the Dead Men stars Bill Easter, an adventurer who will stop at nothing to earn a buck. Throughout the book readers learn that he was booted from school after several altercations with the education system. He advanced his education by becoming a smuggler, gun-runner, oilman, gangster, assassin, bodyguard, and a type of mercenary. As I alluded to earlier, Easter isn't a traditional macho-man. While tough as nails, he doesn't possess the talents of a fighting man. Often he is beaten, outgunned, or simply left to die a miserable death. 

As the book begins readers catch up on Easter's current happenings. He's fallen in love with a woman named Kate and has teamed with her and her father, an ambitious anthropologist, to locate a treasure lying in just 100 feet of water off the coast of a fictional West African country called Leonia (probably based on Sierra Leone). To get the goods they must convince a strict Captain and his crew to honorably split the loot. The only thing stopping the plan is a dictator named Asmonda, the newest entry in the revolving door of “here and gone” crime-lords. Asmonda overthrew a General to gain power. To get the treasure Asmonda must be killed and replaced with the previous leader – who will also share in the wealth.

Deep Among the Dead Men was an exhilarating nautical adventure that mostly contains the tropes of spy-fiction. Easter's quest to find and assassinate the dictator is worth the price of admission. Everything else is like a triple-feature combining the nautical adventure with a mystery involving a killer on board the salvage unit. Easter must find the killer, eliminate the dictator, and help prop up the next puppet government while attempting to land his girlfriend in the sack. She won't give up the goods until he gets the goods. The horror!

If you love dry British humor loaded with satire and diatribes not for the easily offended then this book is for you. Deep Among the Dead Men is a surefire winner. High recommendation.

Dark Justice

Dark Justice, authored by J.L. Hughes, is a new crime-fiction novel starring NYPD homicide detective Jade Carmichael. The book is published by Rough Edges Press in March of 2025 and you can pre-order now. 

Veteran Carmichael and her partner Kane serve in a small Upstate New York town called Shadow Hook. It is here that Carmichael, years ago, was found at a gruesome murder scene. A serial killer known as The Redeemer targeted and killed her mother and was later captured. Years later Carmichael and her team are faced with copycat murders that resemble the bloodletting associated with the horrendous crimes of The Redeemer.

At over 400 pages, Dark Justice is appropriately fluffy and padded for a modern suspense thriller. But, the hefty volume possesses a gripping intensity laced with the strong character development of the lead. Carmichael is an intelligent, challenged hero that reminded me of Lee Goldberg's iron-clad Los Angeles heroin Eve Ronin. She is often pushed against the grain in pursuit of the killer and finds herself at odds with a roguish officer. 

The author's inclusion of a highly respected criminal profiler, a bewildering psychiatrist, and a dark conspiracy among the top brass elevates and enhances the narrative. The mystery of who the killer is, his next target, and the close-knit relationship with Carmichael are worth the price of admission.

Dark Justice is darkly delightful. If you enjoy modern suspense thrillers then J.L. Hughes should be your next read. Get it HERE.

The Hangman's Forest

According to his website, William Joseph was born and raised in New Jersey and in an internationally published photographer and graphic designer. As an author, his first novel, This is War was published in 2017 as a three part series. Since then he has authored 14 novels of horror, young-adult fantasy, and romance. I borrowed his crime-fiction novella The Hangman's Forest from a friend. It was independently published in 2023.

Detective Iokua Sanne, half-Hawaiin and half-German, arrives in a rural unnamed town to restart his career. After an incident while working for a Chicago police force, Sanne is happy turn the page and begin anew. In a meet and greet with his new department readers learn that Sanne is a recovering alcoholic. He is then introduced to his new partner, Detective Hill. The two will be busy.

In alternating chapters, a serial killer named Daniel is capturing young women. He ties their hands and ankles and then secures a noose around the victims' throats. While pleasing himself Daniel slowly lifts the victims into a treetop where they suffocate. His little funeral forest has quite a few bodies swinging in the wind. 

As Daniel continues to capture and kill women both Sanne and Hill get to work on studying recovered tapes form a nearby store that shows a victim being attacked. Together the two lead an investigation to locate the killer before he strikes again.

The Hangman's Forest is only 120 pages and reminds me of a more violent type of novella or novelette found in a mystery magazine like Ellery Queen or Mike Shayne. There isn't a lot of character development because the pace is so quick. It worked well for me and I was mostly pleased with this brisk crime-fiction tale and the hunt for the killer. Recommended. Get it HERE.

The Sister of Cain

Mary Collins (1908-1979) was born in St. Louis and studied at Miss Burke's School in San Francisco and the University of California. After selling a few short stories to the magazine The Passing Show, Collins took to writing novels. During her short writing career she authored six mysteries from 1941 through 1949. In 2024, Stark House Press began reprinting her books with Only the Good. A year later the publisher has reprinted The Sister of Cain, complete with the original artwork. It is available in both physical and digital editions with an introduction by the always informative Curtis Evans.

Young Hilda is experiencing some domestic changes in her life. She and her husband are expecting their first child. However, David is away serving the U.S. Navy during WW2. In his absence he has urged Hilda to travel to San Francisco to stay with his family in their large house. David's parents are deceased but he has five sisters and they all live together. But, not happily ever after.

After meeting the family's grumpy housekeeper, Hilda meets with the oldest sister, Pauline. She is firmly etched into the family dynamic as the overseer of the family trust and the smothering motherly figure for the four women. During a turbulent dinner it is revealed that Pauline is forbidding one of them from dating a local druggist. After a few days Hilda discovers that Pauline has also placed unnecessary obstacles to block other sisters from marrying, gaining employment, and even dating. 

When Pauline's body is found in her bedroom with a knife in the back the narrative begins a slow character study and analysis of the many motives and suspects. Beyond just the sisters presence there's also the housekeeper and the family friend. The only male character is the homicide detective Cassidy, who soon joins with Hilda to learn who the killer is. The author explains the pairing by elaborating that the police force is severely understaffed.

Collins' The Sister of Cain is a tight suspense thriller that works like any traditional murder mystery. Each suspect is carefully considered and the obligatory secrets are answered that delve into the family's murky past. I never became bored with the plotting and found it affected me in the same fashion as Margaret Miller's excellent The Iron Gates, published in 1948 and two years after Collins' novel. Both books examine young women with emotional distress and mental health issues. The sleuth in that book, Inspector Sands, is similar to Cassidy in this novel. Both are open to the investigation and never paint themselves into a corner with a quick judgment. 

Overbearing family members living in the same dwelling makes for excellent storytelling even without the murder. With a corpse (or three) readers will find the plot development, characterization, and pacing a perfect balance for this 200-page whodunit. The Sister of Cain is recommended. Get it HERE.

Fiction Firefight

Eric hits the used book store shelves in central Florida and finds hundreds of action-adventure paperbacks. Check out the book covers, series titles, authors, and publishing history! Watch the video below or stream it on the YT channel HERE.