Now Available: The Legend of Johnny Colt #3: Staked Plains Slaughter

The railroad has finally reached the Texas Panhandle, but not everyone is happy about it—in fact, there are some very bad people willing to slaughter a lot of folks to keep the railroad from advancing. Johnny Colt has faced down many killers before, but this mission might be his most dangerous--and last--assignment yet. When he crosses paths with a kill-crazy gang led by the murdering devil Billy Six-Ears, his undercover mission turns into a violent and blood-soaked fight for his life. With deadly gunfire erupting from all sides, Johnny Colt must rely on all his courage and sharpshooting skills to escape with his head still intact and bring these outlaws to justice…the kind of justice that swings from the end of a rope.

On the Staked Plains, death can come from anywhere. In this unrelenting, brutally violent fast-paced Western, Johnny Colt must once again put his life on the line to bring law and order to a terrifyingly violent American frontier, where bullets are cheap…and life is cheaper.

Bestselling western veteran author James Reasoner once more brings his gritty, take-no-prisoners depictions of the West in STAKED PLAINS SLAUGHTER.

PRAISE FOR JAMES REASONER:

"James Reasoner is a master of the Western. You can always depend on his work to excite and entertain." —Joe Lansdale

(This is one of the fastest-paced books I've ever written, and that's saying something. Johnny Colt's uncle, Texas Ranger Captain Esau "Brimstone" Parker, also known as the Hellfire Ranger, gets to play a pretty big part in this book. I love these characters and have really enjoyed writing the three books so far. I hope some of you wlll pick it up and enjoy it as well. The e-book edition is here, and it's available in a paperback edition, as well. Spread the word, and I'll greatly appreciate it!)

Review: The Adventures of Coffin Kirk - Arch Whitehouse

With my fondness for, shall we say, offbeat pulp stories, how in the world did I miss this series? The Coffin Kirk stories by Arch Whitehouse are unlike anything else I’ve ever read from the aviation/air war pulps. Thankfully, Age of Aces Books has reprinted them in THE ADVENTURES OF COFFIN KIRK, a very handsome trade paperback volume. (Warning: There are SPOILERS below.)

The first story, “Vultures’ Vortex”, is from the October 1937 issue of FLYING ACES. It mostly just serves as a set-up for the rest of the series as it introduces crack pilot Brian “Coffin” Kirk, so-called because of his expressionless, “dead-pan” face. When Kirk was a kid, his father was an allied intelligence agent working undercover in Berlin, and Kirk was there with him. Having witnessed his father’s murder at the hands of a vicious international arms cartel known as the Circle of Death, Kirk vows to avenge his father’s death someday, and now, with the clouds of war gathering once again in Europe and the Circle of Death still active, he launches his quest, aided by his faithful mechanic and tail gunner Tank. Now, here’s the thing about Tank, and yes, this is a SPOILER, but it’s revealed pretty early on in this first story: Tank is actually an extremely intelligent, highly trained gorilla who befriended Kirk when the boy hid out from his father’s murderers in the Berlin Zoo. Tank even talks! Well, not really. Kirk is actually a ventriloquist, but he uses the illusion of Tank speaking to fool the bad guys. Whitehouse establishes all this in the first story, which also features Kirk and Tank getting captured by some Circle of Death agents but escaping.

The duo don’t return until the June 1938 issue of FLYING ACES, which features the story “Sky Guns of Singapore”. Kirk and Tank are in the Far East in this one, trying to foil a Circle of Death plot to destroy a new British naval base and also wipe out Singapore with poison gas. Even though our heroes are successful, of course, the body count in this one almost rivals a Spider or Operator 5 novel. Those Circle of Death guys are really evil!

“Scourge of the Steel Eagles”, from FLYING ACES, October 1938, is a direct sequel to the previous story. Trying to fly back to Europe from Singapore, Kirk and Tank are attacked by some mysterious planes and forced to crash-land in the jungles of Borneo near an extinct volcano. After they find a village full of natives who have died from some unknown cause, they observe some of the planes that shot them down apparently flying into the side of the volcano. I’m not going to bother putting a spoiler notice because it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here: in a plot that could have cropped up years later in a yarn featuring James Bond, Napolean Solo and Illya Kuryakin, or Amos Burke, Secret Agent (how’s that for obscure?), the Circle of Death has a hidden airbase inside the volcano, from which they intend to spread poison gas all over Southeast Asia. But not if our boys Kirk and Tank have anything to say about it, right? I’m impressed by the way Whitehouse manages to cram a novel’s worth of plot and a high body count into these novelettes.

Kirk and Tank are still in the Far East in “Clue of the Breda Brood”, from the April 1939 issue of FLYING ACES. In fact, they’re still flying over Borneo, as hardly any time has passed since the conclusion of the previous story. Once again, their plane (a stolen Heinkel bomber this time; Whitehouse knows planes and doesn’t mind telling you all about them) is forced down. This time they find some hidden hangers full of Bredas, a Belgian plane I’d never heard of. The Bredas are instrumental in another chemical weapons attack by the Circle of Death, and this time Kirk teams up with a group of daredevil RAF pilots to foil it.

“Balloons for a Breda” appears in the August 1940 issue of FLYING ACES, and despite more than a year’s gap between stories, once again it’s a direct sequel to the previous story. There’s less aerial action in this one as it’s more of an espionage story with Kirk and a beautiful female intelligence agent teaming up to keep a Japanese spy from getting his hands on some vital defense plans. The plot isn’t as over the top as the earlier stories in the series, which is both good and bad. You don’t want to see an author writing basically the same story over and over again, but at the same time, I sort of missed the high stakes in what is a more grounded (no pun intended) yarn.

Almost a year goes by before we see Kirk and Tank again in the June 1941 issue of FLYING ACES, but despite that gap, “Fate Flies the Breda” picks up almost immediately after the end of the previous story. Our heroes are still trying to get those defense plans to an American admiral in Singapore when they’re shot down (yes, again) on an island where their survival depends on Tank being able to successfully impersonate a Nazi agent who’s pretending to be a Dutch official. Whitehouse really knows how to stretch a reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. But once again, our boys defeat the villains, and as the story ends, they’re back in the air, headed toward Singapore.

We can only assume they got there safely, because with this story, the Coffin Kirk series comes to an end. It’s a wild one, you can say that for it. The plots are repetitive, but the sheer audaciousness of the whole series carries the stories along successfully. Kirk is an okay hero, but Tank is just a great character, full of personality and honestly the more effective of the pair. He saves the day time after time. If you’re a fan of aviation/war pulp yarns and don’t mind a little goofiness, I highly recommend THE ADVENTURES OF COFFIN KIRK. I had a really good time reading it, and it’s not like anything else you’re likely to read any time soon, I can guarantee that.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Action Stories, May 1929

This issue of ACTION STORIES comes from the days when the magazine featured other kinds of adventure fiction along with Westerns. The cover featuring a tough-looking Foreign Legionnaire is by H.C. Murphy Jr. The story it illustrates is by Francis James, a pseudonym for James A. Goldthwaite, a prolific pulpster who wrote a lot of adventure, detective, Western, and Weird Menace stories. Speaking of prolific, Walt Coburn, Theodore Roscoe, T.W. Ford, and Eli Colter are on hand as well, as is Andrew A. Caffrey, the least-known author in this issue. It looks like a good one.  

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Top-Notch Western, August 1938

This issue of TOP-NOTCH WESTERN has a decent cover by H.W. Scott. The lead novella is by Norton L. James. I've read speculation that that's a pseudonym for Ray Nafziger, but it's never been confirmed and probably never will be. We do know for sure that Brad Buckner, who also has a story in this issue, was actually Ed Earl Repp. Repp doesn't have a story under his real name in this one, so I'm not sure why he used the Buckner pen-name. Also on hand are Rolland Lynch, a prolific Western pulpster who's forgotten these days, the even more obscure James W. Egan and Frank H. Richey, and house-name John Cannon. Not a top of the line Western pulp despite its name, but probably worth reading. I don't believe I've ever seen an actual issue of TOP-NOTCH WESTERN.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: I Should Have Stayed Home - Horace McCoy

(This post originally appeared on June 19, 2009, and it seemed like a good time to rerun it because one of my favorite publishers, Black Gat Books, has just brought out a well-deserved reprint of it.)

Cullen Gallagher mentioned this novel a couple of weeks ago on his blog, and since I happened to have a copy on hand, I thought I’d go ahead and read it. I’d never read any of McCoy’s novels before, although I’ve read several of his pulp stories and enjoyed them. Also, I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME is dedicated in part to Joseph T. Shaw, the famous editor of BLACK MASK, so I figured it might be worthwhile.

Which it certainly is, although it’s not a crime novel at all. A few minor crimes take place, but they’re hardly the focus of the book. Instead it’s a Hollywood novel set in the Thirties, narrated by Ralph Carston, a young would-be actor from Georgia who’s determined to make it big in the movies. As the book opens, he’s working sporadically as an extra and living, platonically, with a bit-part actress named Mona Matthews. Ralph makes the acquaintance of a wealthy widow known for throwing lavish Hollywood parties, and despite being rather naïve, he knows that she can help him advance his career if he goes along with what she wants, which is him.

Along with Ralph’s affair with the widow, the plot features a big star who turns out to be a lesbian, an interracial couple, some nights spent in jail, a suicide, and lots of boozing and sex. What makes I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME worth reading is McCoy’s bleak, fast-paced prose. The plot may be melodramatic, but the writing is pure hardboiled, with a grim, fatalistic tone that makes the book qualify as noir, as well. I’ll definitely have to get around to McCoy’s other novels, and in the meantime, if you like Hollywood novels, this one gets my recommendation.

(I second my own recommendation. You can find the Black Gat edition here.)

One More Reason I Love the Internet

This comment from Joseph Grieco was on my blog this morning, on a post from last year in which I reran my 2008 review of this novel:

It was a pleasure and a surprise to find your review of The Fast Buck. Your observations about this novel and its author hit home. You asked if anyone knew more information about the author. The book was written by my uncle, Joseph Rositani, under the pseudonym Ross Laurence. He used other names in his poems, short stories, articles and essays for magazines; but TFB was the first (and I believe only) Ross Laurence novel. As you might have guessed, he grew up in the gritty, Italian neighborhoods of Chicago. Though formal education beyond high school was cut short by the Third Army infantry/Europe/WWII, he was an energized writer until his tragic death as a passenger in a Los Angeles auto accident when he was about 40...I think that was 1960? While big money as a writer wasn't in the cards, he was a big deal in our family: our first writer...inspiring several of us to enter careers in which writing is central to our professions and our generational success. Thanks for covering his book.

Thank you for commenting, Joseph! I'm very happy you found the post about your uncle's book and could tell us about him. I love making contact with the friends and relatives of writers who have entertained so many of us in years past. It's a shame he passed away at such a young age. I think he could have had a fine career as a mystery novelist.

Review: Bullets on the Wind - D.B. Newton

Winter is closing in, and the last thing Jim Bannister is looking for is trouble. He’s already on the run from the law, unjustly convicted of murder, and toting around a $12,000 bounty on his head that has put a pair of killers on his trail. The last thing he needs is to get caught in a tangle of violence involving a wealthy cattle baron, his beautiful and much younger wife, her not-to-be-trusted brother, and a blackmailing saloon owner. But that’s where Bannister winds up anyway, trying to stay alive when there are folks who want him dead on all sides.

BULLETS ON THE WIND is the second novel in the Jim Bannister series by D.B. Newton, published originally as a paperback original by Berkley in 1964 and available these days in e-book and paperback editions from Piccadilly Publishing. I’ve been a fan of Newton’s work for a long time, and I really enjoyed the first novel in the Bannister series, ON THE DODGE. This one continues that streak. It’s an excellent hardboiled Western with lots of gritty action and a plot with enough twists to be interesting. Jim Bannister is a fine protagonist, and the young rancher he befriends is a top-notch supporting character. In another very nice touch, the cattle baron isn’t the villain in this book. Although a little rough around the edges, he’s actually a pretty sympathetic character.

I thoroughly enjoyed BULLETS ON THE WIND, and if you’re a fan of traditional Western novels, it gets a strong recommendation from me. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the Jim Bannister novels.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, October 1946

I think I'll start using this Malvin Singer cover as my author photo. There's a certain resemblance, and that's the way I feel a lot of days when I'm trying to write. By this point in its run, ADVENTURE featured a mix of well-known authors and others whose names aren't really familiar to me. This issue includes Sidney Herschell Small with a Koropok story (I have the collections of that series but have never read them), Nard Jones, who wrote some well-regarded historical novels and historical non-fiction, veteran pulpster Kenneth Perkins, Ted Stratton, who wrote paperbacks as Terry Spain, and Dave Grubb, who as Davis Grubb wrote the popular novels THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and FOOL'S PARADE, both of which were adapted into movies. Also on hand are R.G. Emery, Douglas F. Young, and Henry John Colyton, the authors who fall into the unfamiliar category for me.

Saturday Morning Western Pulps: Western Trails, March 1937

The cover on this issue of WESTERN TRAILS is by Ray Quigley. I don't know anything about him except that he painted a dozen or so pulp covers in the late Thirties and early Forties. The lineup of authors in this issue is a good one: L.P. Holmes, Carl McK. Saunders (really Philip Ketchum), Van Cort (really Wyatt Blassingame), Clyde A. Warden (with a Bert Little story), Robert E. Mahaffey, Andor de Soos (who did about 15 stories for various Western and gang pulps in the late Thirties), and Kenneth P. Wood. I've read and enjoyed all those authors except de Soos and Wood.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: The Midnight Room - Ed Gorman

I’ll admit, I’m not a big fan of serial killer novels. You can trust Ed Gorman to give you something different, though, even when he’s writing about a serial killer. Because he doesn’t just write about the person who’s murdering teenage girls in a small Midwestern city. In THE MIDNIGHT ROOM, he also gives you the team of police detectives looking for the killer, their friends and families, the family of a girl who has disappeared and is believed to have been abducted by the killer, the politicians, the news media, the ex-con looking for revenge, and the burglar who discovers the killer’s true identity . . . and decides to try his hand at a little blackmail.

Yes, there’s a lot packed into this book. The wonder of it is that while the plot never slows down for long, Ed also manages to include enough details to make all these characters come to vivid life. I think that may be one of the secrets to why his books are so good. In too many contemporary thrillers, the reader never learns much about the characters beyond what they need to know for the plot. In too much literary fiction, the author provides such an abundance of information about the characters that nothing ever happens; there’s no room for anything else. But Ed strikes a perfect balance in his work between the characters and the plot.

And speaking of plot . . . I thought I knew what was going to happen in this book, but then Ed surprised me not once but twice, changing the game part of the way through in a move that most writers wouldn’t even attempt, let alone pull off successfully. For me as a reader, being able to look at a book and say, “Huh. I didn’t see that coming,” is pure joy.

Obviously, objectivity goes out the window when I’m talking about Ed Gorman’s work, since he’s been one of my best friends for more years than I like to think about. Luckily, a lot of people who don’t even know him like his books. (That didn’t come out right, but you know what I mean.) Trust me on this. THE MIDNIGHT ROOM is really, really good, one of the best thrillers I’ve read in ages. Treat yourself and pick up a copy.

(And even though this post appeared originally on May 18, 2009, you can still follow the advice in the last line, because THE MIDNIGHT ROOM is still available in an e-book edition. I miss Ed. As I've mentioned before, he's partially responsible for me still being in this business, because numerous times when it looked like I was about to be out of work, Ed somehow knew and the phone would ring and he'd ask me to ghost a book for him or point me at somebody else who needed a book written. Not only that, he was just a great guy, and we could spend hours on the phone talking about anything and everything. We'll not see his like again. I say that about all too many people these days.)