A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Spade & Archer - Joe Gores

Joe Gores’ SPADE & ARCHER is a prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s THE MALTESE FALCON, one of the greatest – if not the greatest – private eye novels ever written. I have to admire anyone who would even attempt such a thing, let alone an author who could pull it off successfully. Thankfully, Gores does.

He starts with what I think is a brilliant decision to structure the novel in the form of three linked novellas, harkening back to Hammett’s novels RED HARVEST and THE DAIN CURSE. SPADE & ARCHER is a little different, of course, because its component parts were written to be published together, instead being published first as separate stories in BLACK MASK. Also, the time span of SPADE & ARCHER is longer than what you usually find in novels that were actually cobbled together from pulp yarns, since the three parts take place in 1921, 1925, and 1928. The first part begins with Sam Spade in Tacoma, working for the Continental Detective Agency (that’s right, he’s a Continental Op), but it’s not long before he moves to San Francisco and opens his own one-man agency, hiring a seventeen-year-old girl named Effie Perrine as his secretary. He investigates the theft of a small fortune in gold coins from a ship that arrives in San Francisco and also locates the runaway teenage son of a wealthy banker.

Those two plotlines crop up again in the second part, set four years later, which finds Spade investigating the death of another banker that might be natural causes, might be suicide, or might be murder. Gores continues weaving together strands from the first two parts in the concluding section, in which Spade takes on a partner, an old detective acquaintance named Miles Archer who happens to be married to a woman who was in love with Spade before he went off to fight in World War I. The newly-formed Spade & Archer agency investigates the theft of a large amount of cargo from the San Francisco docks, while Spade on his own tries to track down a quarter of a million dollars in buried treasure. Gores winds up tying everything together in a complex plot worthy of the pulp era.

That faithfulness to the roots of the hardboiled PI genre is this book’s greatest achievement, as far as I’m concerned. Other than a greater amount of frankness about the fact that Spade is sleeping with Iva Archer and with some of his female clients, SPADE & ARCHER really could have been written and published in the 1920s. Some authors these days, if they were trying to write a prequel to THE MALTESE FALCON, probably would have felt compelled to coarsen the language and make the sex and violence more graphic. Not Gores. He’s content to spin a pulp yarn and does a magnificent job of it.

Some readers are opposed to the concept of pastiches in general, and I can understand that. It would be pretty hypocritical of me to feel that way, however, since I’ve always made a large part of my living writing about characters created by other people. I do believe, though, that an author writing a pastiche ought to at least try to stay faithful to the spirit of the original creation. That’s what Joe Gores has done in SPADE & ARCHER. I’m sure a lot of you have read this book already, but if you haven’t, it gets my highest recommendation. It’s a wonderful novel, and probably the best thing I’ve read so far this year. And it really, really makes me want to reread some Hammett.

(Despite my good intentions [road to Hell paved with, etc., etc.] I don't recall reading anything else by Dashiell Hammett since this post originally appeared on May 1, 2009. I have, however, read Max Allan Collins' terrific RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON and highly recommend it as well. SPADE & ARCHER is still available in e-book and paperback editions, and if you're a private eye fan and haven't read it yet, you should grab a copy and remedy that.)

Review: The Gray Man - Mark Greaney

I’ve had this book for a number of years, and being in the mood for a thriller, I finally got around to reading it. It’s the first book in a very successful series that also led to Mark Greaney writing several books in the Tom Clancy franchise.

The title character is Courtland Gentry, who was a CIA agent until the Agency turned on him and forced him into a life as a professional assassin. With the CIA after him as well as the enemies he’s made along the way, it’s a very dangerous profession, but he’s the best at it. He also has a strict code of honor and won’t take on any jobs that conflict with it. As far as he’s concerned, he’s eliminating the bad guys, one by one.

All this is already established when the book begins. In a quest for revenge, the brother of one of Gentry’s targets leverages a giant international corporation into using all its assets to go after him. Billions of dollars are at stake. Hundreds of professional killers want to take him out as he makes his way across Europe, but he has to survive in order to reach the Normandy region of France and rescue some kidnapped innocents. Much action ensues.

That’s the plot of THE GRAY MAN. It’s not complicated at all, basically just one long chase/shootout in various locations against various enemies. To make that work, you have to be a pretty darned good writer, and thankfully, Mark Greaney is. The pace is relentless, the action scenes are top-notch, Court Gentry is a great protagonist, and Greaney gives the supporting cast enough personality that we care about them. Yes, the action is over the top, and suspending disbelief when it comes to Gentry still being able to function despite all the punishment he takes is a bit of a stretch. But as I always say, squint your eyes and hold your mouth just right, and it works. I raced through this book and had a good time reading it.

That said, at a little more than 400 pages, I thought it was maybe a hundred pages too long. Greaney himself seems to think it might be a little padded, because late in the book he has Gentry musing about how so much of what he’s done on his trek didn’t accomplish anything. Also, in the spirit of fairness, I think I might be letting my age and my reading history influence me here. Greaney writes so well I think this would have been a fantastic 160 page paperback . . . but that’s not what the publisher paid him to write, is it?

So I’m glad I finally got around to reading THE GRAY MAN. There are 15 more books in the series, but they all appear to be 500-600 pages long. If I thought this one was too long at 400 and change, I’m not sure when or if I’ll be ready to tackle the next one. But if you enjoy longer books, and I know some of you do, and you’re a fan of modern thrillers but haven’t checked out the Gray Man series, I highly recommend that you do so. It’s available in e-book and paperback editions from Amazon.

Review: Queen's Own - George C. Appell

I’d read several Western pulp stories by George C. Appell and enjoyed them, and I own some of his Western novels that I haven’t read yet, but I didn’t know he had written any historical novels until I came across this one, which was published as a paperback original by Dell in 1955 and never reprinted as far as I know. The great George Gross cover caught my eye immediately, and I was intrigued enough to go ahead and read it.

The story takes place in India during the 1897 uprising by the Afridis and the Pathans against British colonial rule. The nominal protagonist is Captain Ian Macleod, a Canadian/Scots officer in the lancer regiment tasked with keeping the peace in part of the Northwest Frontier. QUEEN’S OWN really has an ensemble cast, though, with characters ranging from its commanding officer to a younger officer who’s rivals with Macleod, a beautiful half-caste dancer who’s a spy, her gun-running father, the beautiful young American woman who’s engaged to Macleod’s rival, and the leader of the uprising who wants to wipe out the British.

If you’re thinking this sounds like it would have made a good movie, you’re right. I can easily imagine it as a fairly big budget production in the Forties or Fifties. You can cast it in your head as well as I can, according to your own preferences, except for the commanding officer who has to be C. Aubrey Smith. I won’t budge on that one.

But I was talking about the book. Well, Appell was a good writer. I always thought his style was a bit more literary than most Western pulpsters, and he gives that free reign here, creating a very vivid setting and inhabiting it with complex, fully developed characters. The problem with QUEEN’S OWN is that there’s very little action in it. The first two-thirds of the book is almost all political intrigue and soap opera. It’s well-written, no doubt about that, but even so, I was waiting for something else to happen.

The final third of the book is much more eventful, but even there, a frustratingly large amount of the action occurs off-screen. However, the ending is pretty satisfying, the characters are interesting, and the historical background is handled well. The whole thing just needed a little more oomph, I guess you could say.

I’m glad I read QUEEN’S OWN, and I think that overall it’s worthwhile, but if you’re going to give it a try, you should know it’s not quite the sexy, action-packed, historical adventure that the cover promises.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Far East Adventure Stories, January 1931

I don't know who painted the cover on this issue of FAR EAST ADVENTURE STORIES, but it's pretty eye-catching. That's a tough-looking Cossack. I assume he's the protagonist of Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's serial "The Red Cossack". This issue has a sterling lineup of authors that also includes H. Bedford-Jones, Hugh B. Cave, Lawrence G. Blochman, Chart Pitt, and Jack D'Arcy (D.L. Champion). Also on hand are W.C. Harding, better known under his pseudonym Anson Hard, along with H.C. Langer, real name Hedwig Langer (never heard of her), and newcomer H. DeWitt Thomason, who has no other credits in the Fictionmags Index, so his story here may well be the extent of his career. FAR EAST ADVENTURE STORIES didn't last long, only a dozen issues, but it published some good stuff.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Thrilling Ranch Stories, September 1948

I don't have any idea who painted this cover, but I like it fairly well. I've still never read an issue of THRILLING RANCH STORIES. I'm going to have to, one of these days. This issue features one of my favorite Western writers, Joseph Chadwick, as well as Clee Woods, Joe Archibald (best remembered, I suspect, as an aviation pulpster, but he wrote everything), Harold F. Cruickshank (definitely best remembered as an aviation pulpster), Bruce Douglas, and Marian O'Hearn, as well as lesser-known pulpster Monica Morton. Oh, wait! Monica Morton was really Johnston McCulley, so never mind. Not lesser-known at all. Chadwick and McCulley make this a worthwhile issue.

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today . . .

 

Still the love of my life and always will be.

Review: American Treasure Hunters: The Pirate and Alamo - Andrew M. Dare

I really enjoyed the first two books in the American Treasure Hunters series, THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD and THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY, but I’ve been especially looking forward to the third book, THE PIRATE AND THE ALAMO, since, as you can tell from the title, it takes place in Texas.

It’s safe to say I was not disappointed. At all.

This one finds our teenage protagonists, Ben Prescott, Porter Rockwell, and Latch McCrae, in San Antonio with Ben’s wealthy uncle, who plans to bid at an auction for a Corvette Stingray that once belonged to an astronaut. But of course things become more complicated than that when they come into possession of an antique powder horn that might have belonged to Jim Bowie. And, also of course, that powder horn has some sort of cipher etched into it and another secret lurking inside, as well. Before you know it, the guys are untangling a mystery that involves not only the battle of the Alamo but also the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte, and once again they find themselves in danger from forces that want to uncover the truth first, for their own nefarious ends.

I raced through this novel and had an absolutely great time reading it. The fast-paced prose and intricate plot from author Andrew M. Dare would have been very entertaining regardless of where the book was set, but having it take place in areas I know fairly well made it even more enjoyable. For example, when there’s a great chase scene along the River Walk, I couldn’t help but think of the time I had supper with Bill and Judy Crider at one of the restaurants right there by the river. I’ve been to the Alamo and inside the Menger Hotel many times. When the trail leads to the Lost Pines area in central Texas, I know what it looks like because I’ve driven through there many, many times (in a different location than the scenes in the book, but in the same stretch of pines that runs through that part of Texas). I always get a kick out of fiction set in places I know, and this book is a prime example of that. Andrew M. Dare, mentioned above, is actually a house-name, and the author of this one is David Afsharirad, a Texan his own self, so he knows what he's talking about.

Throw in the fact that the three protagonists are just so dang likable, and I can’t help but feel like THE PIRATE AND THE ALAMO is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. It’s available on Amazon in e-book, hardcover, and audio editions, and I give it a very high recommendation.

Movie Review: Far Haven (2023)

I’d never heard of this movie, but I’ll almost always take a chance on a Western, so when we came across a DVD of FAR HAVEN at the library, we picked it up. Turns out it was made for the INSP TV network, a digital network that specializes in classic Westerns and inspirational originals.

As such, you’d expect FAR HAVEN to be on the heart-warming side, and it is, although there’s some decent action, too. Former soldier Hunter Braddock, who spent two years in prison because he deserted rather than take part in the massacre of innocent Indian women and children, returns to his home in Arizona Territory to find that the settlers around the town of Far Haven have been suffering attacks from the Apaches. But are the Indians really to blame, or could it possibly be white outlaws pretending to be Indians? (I know, we’ve never seen that plot twist before, have we?) Braddock tries to get to the bottom of this while at the same time reconciling with his teenage kids and the parents of his late wife. Oh, and there’s a very mild romance with the local schoolmarm, too.

It would be very easy to get snarky about how everything in this movie is a very overdone cliché, but it’s made with such heartfelt sincerity that it kind of won me over despite its predictability. The production values aren’t bad. It was filmed in Mescal, Arizona, and at least it looks like a Western. (For a while a few years ago, it seemed like every independent Western was filmed in the same muddy, gloomy Canadian locations.) The cast is what’s going to make a movie like this either work or not, and by and large, it does, at least for me. Bailey Chase, who was in LONGMIRE, plays the stalwart Hunter Braddock. Martin Kove plays the main bad guy. (Really? Martin Kove playing a bad guy? Who’d’a thunk it?) Chris Mulkey is the corrupt sheriff. A. Martinez is the local blacksmith/stable owner. Bruce Boxleitner is a rancher and the father-in-law of Chase’s character. Jesse Kove, Martin’s son in real life, is a good-guy ranch hand and turns out to be a decent actor and an impressive physical presence. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in more movies. Don Most (yeah, Ralph Malph his own self) owns the general store, and when he tries to stir up a lynch mob against an innocent Indian prisoner who’s been wrongly tied to the massacres, it’s the most Ralph Malph thing ever. When it was all over, I said to Livia, “Neal McDonough must have been out of town that week, because everybody else is in this movie.” But everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, and there was a definite air of “Hey, let’s all go out in the desert and make a movie!”

Also when it was over, I made the comment that this is a BCI Western written by Lew Lacy, meaning it bears a distinct resemblance to the novels Lacy wrote for Book Creations Inc. back in the Eighties, including the Badge series as by Bill Reno and quite a few of the Stagecoach Station books under the house-name Hank Mitchum. Lacy, who also wrote under the names Al Lacy and Morgan Hill, was an evangelist in real life, and his BCI novels always featured quite a few gunfights and fistfights and a few moments touching lightly on religion. That’s a pretty good description of FAR HAVEN. Most of the reviews of it on-line either love it or hate it. My opinion comes down firmly in the middle. I enjoyed watching it, and I think they were honestly trying to make a good Western. Sometimes, that’s enough for me.

Review: Battleborn #1 - Sean C.W. Korsgaard, ed.

Right now, the sword-and-sorcery genre is in the best shape it’s been for long time. For further proof of that, look no further than the first issue of BATTLEBORN, a new magazine/anthology series that has launched with more than 200 pages of excellent work. I backed the Kickstarter for it and have been dipping into it for a while now. I’ve finished reading it and I’m happy to report that it’s a great debut.

The late Howard Andrew Jones, author of the Hanuvar Chronicles and other great novels, is listed as the Editor Emeritus, and fittingly, this first issue leads off with a Hanuvar short story by him. From there, we have these stories and poems:

“Blood of the Oni” by C.L. Werner

“Jaguar’s Children” by Gregory D. Mele

“Vengeance Vow” by TJ Marquis

“To Boast of Victory” by Erik Waag

“Temple of the River King” by Lee Patton

“The Fury’s Blade” by Robert Rhodes

“The Road of Kings” by Robert E. Howard

“Pearls of the Vampire Queen” by Michael Shea

THE LAST SPELL (Part 1 of 3) by Schuyler Hernstrom

Plus articles by Morgan Holmes on the origins of sword-and-sorcery, Jason M. Waltz on great opening lines, Jason Ray Carney on Michael Shea’s story, book reviews by Gregory D. Mele, and Sean C.W. Korsgaard on the Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood.

Every one of the stories is good, no doubt about that, but naturally I have some favorites. I was particularly partial to:

“Blood of the Oni” by C.L. Werner – This is a tale of Shintaro Oba, Werner’s wandering samurai series character. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of samurai fiction, but Werner always wins me over with these stories. Excellent action, appropriately creepy, and Shintaro Oba is a fine protagonist. I’ve read a couple of others in the series and really need to seek out the rest.

“To Boast of Victory” by Erik Waag – This story features Waag’s series character Skarde, a northern barbarian who serves as a mercenary soldier in the siege of a fortress. It’s fast-paced, funny, has some good action, and Skarde is a great character. He stars in several novels I’m eager to read, the first one of which is already waiting on my Kindle.

“Temple of the River King” by Lee Patton – Patton is a relatively new writer, but you’d never know it by this story, which reads like the polished work of an old pro. His protagonist, an undead mercenary known as Izrak the Deathless, has fought evil for centuries, and in this story he has to venture into a watery realm to rescue a princess. A standard plot, you say? Well, no, not in Patton’s hands. This is a beautifully written tale that lingers in the reader’s mind. It’s Izrak’s second appearance, and the first, the novella “A Valley of Shadow”, is also waiting on my Kindle.

My favorite story in this volume is “The Fury’s Blade” by Robert Rhodes, the debut tale of Gabriela de Quetar, a warrior nun (that’s ’way oversimplifying things) who’s sent with her mentor to an alternate version of the Spanish Main to recover a stolen religious icon, a cloak that makes the wearer invulnerable. This has the pace and color of a great historical novel, along with plenty of swashbuckling swordplay, and to make things even better, there’s a volcano looming in the background that just might be about to erupt . . . I love volcanoes in fiction. Maybe not quite as much as quicksand and fights on top of moving trains, but throw a good volcano eruption into a book and I’m happy. There are more stories about Gabriela de Quetar in the works, and I’m eager to read them.

Overall, BATTLEBORN #1 is a very impressive way to launch this series, and I plan to be on hand for every issue that comes out. Very highly recommended. The e-book edition is available on Amazon, and e-book and print editions appear to still be available on Indiegogo. If you’re a sword-and-sorcery fan, you need this one.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Sea Novel Magazine, November 1940

SEA NOVEL MAGAZINE was a Munsey pulp that lasted for only two issues. This is the first. You can't blame its brief run on Rudolph Belarski, who provided a great cover, and I'd be willing to bet that the novel by J. Allan Dunn that takes up almost the entire issue was pretty good, too, based on Dunn's track record. As far as I can tell, "Northwest to Mutiny" was never reprinted, and this issue doesn't appear to be posted anywhere on-line, so I doubt if I'll ever read the story, but dang, it sounds good, doesn't it? There are some poems and one short story in this issue, as well, by authors I've never heard of: Ethel Talbot Scheffauer, Bob Ferris, Thomas J. Murray, and William Slavens McNutt.