Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Review: The Gunslinger - Lorraine Heath


There was some discussion recently on the WesternPulps email group about Western romances, particularly Western romance novels published in recent decades rather than the Western romance pulps. I read a number of Western romance novels from the Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties back when Livia was writing in that genre and enjoyed many of them. The conversation on WesternPulps put me in the mood to read one again.

The one I picked was THE GUNSLINGER by Lorraine Heath, a novella that’s available as an e-book on Amazon. This is a revised version of a story originally published under the title “Long Stretch of Lonesome” in an anthology. That’s a much better title, to be honest. I believe I met Lorraine Heath at least once at a mass book signing, but we’re not really acquainted and I don’t recall ever reading any of her books until now.

THE GUNSLINGER’s plot is pretty straightforward: a gunman with a reputation as a ruthless, cold-blooded killer is hired by a cattle baron to get rid of a smaller rancher who owns some land the cattle baron wants. But when he arrives to take the job, he discovers that the person his employer wants run off and/or killed is a beautiful young woman who is trying to run the ranch with the help of her little brother. Naturally, our protagonist is conflicted, and gradually it’s revealed that almost nothing about this situation is what it appears to be at first. I always like it when an author peels back the layers of a plot like that, little by little. Of course, things eventually lead up to a showdown, but it’s maybe not the one you might have expected.

This plot would have worked just fine in a 1950s issue of RANCH ROMANCES, although there would have been some definite differences. There would have been more gunfights and probably a brutal fistfight in a pulp version, and the story would have ended with the hero and heroine having done no more than embracing and kissing. The action is played down in THE GUNSLINGER. There are several gunfights, but they’re over with quickly. The romance angle occupies more of the story and there’s one sex scene, although it’s not particularly graphic. And of course, the characters brood more and think about their feelings a lot.

Don’t get me wrong, though. The hero and the heroine, as well as the heroine’s brother, are all very likable characters and I got caught up in the story and wanted to know what was going to happen to them. I honestly didn’t mind a more emotional approach for a change. The book’s biggest flaw, in my opinion, is that the villain just isn’t despicable enough, leading to an ending that’s considerably less dramatic than it could have been. This has been a problem with a lot of the romance novels I’ve read. The authors set up some great conflicts but draw back at the last moment. The heroes are usually the fastest gun/deadliest swordsman/biggest badass in the county, but when it comes time to burn powder or hack and slash or kick some varmint’s butt, the author shoehorns in a way for the guy to sit and talk with his enemies instead and resolve things peacefully. There’s a little of that in THE GUNSLINGER.

But hey, am I the target audience for these books? No. No, I am not. But all the romance writers I’ve met and talked with over the years have been smart, skillful writers who know what they’re doing. The books work for their readers. A guy like me, dipping his toe into those waters, can’t expect a book written to his taste. But he can find books that are well-written and entertaining, like THE GUNSLINGER, if he knows where to look.

Monday, November 11, 2024

Review: No Harp for My Angel - Carter Brown (Alan G. Yates)


NO HARP FOR MY ANGEL is the fourth novel in the long-running Al Wheeler mystery series by Carter Brown (Alan G. Yates). It’s one that was never published in the United States after its original appearance in Australia in 1956 until a few years ago when Stark House included it in the second volume of its Al Wheeler series. As a long-time Carter Brown fan, it’s great that Stark House is making it possible for us to read, or in some cases reread, these very entertaining novels.

Al Wheeler is a homicide detective in Pine City, California, but in this novel, he’s on the other side of the country, taking a well-deserved vacation in Ocean Beach, Florida. Naturally, things can’t go smoothly while he’s there, and before you know it, he’s doing a favor for a local cop and going undercover to investigate the disappearances of several beautiful female tourists. In order to do this, he has to pretend to be a gangster from Chicago, and of course, things go from bad to worse when some real gangsters show up.


Al’s first-person, wisecracking narration is fast and funny, as usual. There’s a murder in this one, but it’s not a typical whodunit as the tone of this novel is much more that of a thriller. Between getting hit on the head and taken for a ride and bantering with luscious babes, Al doesn’t have much time for actual detection. It’s all a lot of breathless fun, and NO HARP FOR MY ANGEL is also historically important because this is the book where Al acquires his Austin-Healy sports car that he’ll drive for the rest of the series. I’m a little surprised that Signet didn’t reprint this one during the Fifties and Sixties when the Carter Brown books were so popular. Maybe they didn’t because it’s not as much of a traditional mystery as some of the others.

It's certainly worth reading, though. If you’re a Carter Brown/Al Wheeler fan, you’ll enjoy it, I don’t doubt that at all. The Stark House reprint, which includes two more Al Wheeler novels, by the way, is available on Amazon in print and e-book editions. Recommended.


Sunday, November 10, 2024

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Short Stories, April 10, 1929


SHORT STORIES must have been the most instantly recognizable pulp with its Red Sun covers, and this issue sports a particularly good one by Edgar F. Wittmack. And a Pith Helmet Alert, to boot! The best-known authors inside are W.C. Tuttle and Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. Henry Herbert Knibbs was pretty well-known in those days, I believe, but mostly forgotten now. Also in this issue are stories by Weed Dickinson (great name!), Homer King Gordon, Willard K. Smith, E.S. Pladwell, Russell Hays, Melvin Lostutter, and Larry Barreto, and if you're familiar with any of those guys and their work, you're ahead of me. But dang, that's a nice cover, and I'll bet most of the stories are pretty good, too.

Saturday, November 09, 2024

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Fiction Monthly, March 1936


I like the J.W. Scott cover on this issue of a little-remembered Western pulp that ran for about five years in the mid-to-late Thirties with a few name changes along the way, starting as WESTERN FICTION MAGAZINE, becoming WESTERN FICTION MONTHLY, then going back to WESTERN FICTION MAGAZINE and finally ending up as WESTERN FICTION. I don't own any of them and don't think I've ever laid eyes on an issue. But they had decent covers and plenty of good writers appeared in their pages. In this particular issue are stories by William MacLeod Raine, Alan LeMay, Harold Channing Wire, Hugh Pendexter, and the lesser-known Forrest R. Brown. I'm sure the readers who picked it up back then enjoyed it. 

Friday, November 08, 2024

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: King of the World's Edge - H. Warner Munn


Originally serialized in the September through December 1939 issues of WEIRD TALES, H. Warner Munn’s KING OF THE WORLD’S EDGE was a prime candidate for reprinting in the Sixties paperback fantasy boom sparked by Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and J.R.R. Tolkien. It features swordplay, magic, and lost civilizations. What else do you need?

Well, an Arthurian angle doesn’t hurt. There’s also a nice framing sequence in which a mysterious bronze cylinder is discovered in Key West following a hurricane, and inside the cylinder there’s an ancient document purportedly written by one Ventidius Varro, a Roman legionnaire posted in Britain at the time of Arthur’s rise to power. Like Jack Whyte’s Camulod novels and the movies THE LAST LEGION and KING ARTHUR, KING OF THE WORLD’S EDGE is set during the last days of Roman occupation in Britain, when most of the Roman soldiers are actually second- or third-generation Britons. Ventidius Varro is one of them. Cut off from Rome, these hold-out legionnaires align themselves with Arthur and the enigmatic mage Myrdhinn in order to oppose the invading Saxons and unite the various British tribes. After Arthur’s efforts are crushed and he himself is mortally wounded in battle, Myrdhinn places him in what amounts to suspended animation, hides his body, and then sets sail with a band of legionnaires commanded by Varro in search of a place where they can regroup and figure out a way to retake Britain.

Things don’t work out that way, however. Instead, Myrdhinn and the rest of these British adventurers wind up in a new world far to the west, across the ocean, where they are captured by, escape from, and wind up doing battle with various groups of native tribes. Along the way Varro becomes the staunch ally of a native leader named Hayonwatha, founds his own empire in the new world, and battles to overthrow the evil Mia, who have extended their grasp over the entire continent.

Part of the fun of a book like this is seeing the way Munn comes up with new explanations for all the history and legends of early North America, from Florida up to the Great Lakes, across the continent to the Rocky Mountains and down to Texas. Varro, Myrdhinn, and their friends wander all over and have numerous adventures. The pace is a little slow at times and the writing style is old-fashioned, but after all, the story is being told by Ventidius Varro in a letter intended to be carried back to whatever emperor is currently in power in Rome.

Though it lacks the storytelling power of a yarn by Howard or Burroughs, KING OF THE WORLD’S EDGE is an entertaining, inventive novel with quite a bit of action. Getting the book back in print from Ace was enough to prompt the never prolific Munn to write a sequel, THE SHIP FROM ATLANTIS, almost thirty years after the original. I have that one, too, and hope to read it soon. (I believe both novels were also issued in a combined volume called MERLIN’S GODSON, from Del Rey in the Eighties, but I have the Ace editions.)

Update: Don Herron informs me that there's a third book in the series, MERLIN'S RING, and refers to it as Munn's masterpiece. He also recommends Munn's historical novel THE LOST LEGION. There's two more books for me to look for!

(I'm sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that despite what it says above, I haven't read another word by H. Warner Munn since this post first appeared almost exactly fifteen years ago on November 6, 2009. Will I read more by him in the future? No way of knowing for sure, but at this late date, I wouldn't bet a hat on it.) 

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

Review: Up the China Sea - H. Bedford-Jones


When I reviewed Edmond Hamilton’s “The World With a Thousand Moons”, I mentioned that it reminded me of some of the nautical adventure yarns written by H. Bedford-Jones. That put me in the mood to actually read one of those stories by HB-J, and the one I picked was “Up the China Sea”, a novella originally published in the July 10, 1923 issue of the iconic pulp ADVENTURE and available as a stand-alone e-book on Amazon, the edition I read. (Ignore the old-fashioned pirate on the e-book cover; this is a modern-day yarn.)

The protagonist of this story is a stalwart sailor named Bracken, who’s the first officer of a steamer called the Fengshui. (I have to admit, the ship’s name is a bit of a distraction at first, but I soon forgot about it.) The steamer leaves Singapore and heads up the coast to salvage the cargo off a ship that wrecked. Bracken doesn’t fully trust the captain and suspects there’s more going on than he knows about, and of course, he’s right. The wreck holds secrets that involve the attractive widow of its late captain, and Bracken and his crewmates aren’t the only ones after them.

Bedford-Jones doesn’t keep the plot twists secret for very long since the bulk of the story is devoted to scenes of chasing and fighting and cold-blooded murder, of capture and escape and daring rescues. All the stuff of classic pulp adventure yarns, in other words. Bedford-Jones keeps things racing along to an exciting, bullet-flying climax.

I always enjoy stories like this, and “Up the China Sea” is no exception. I really like the way Bedford-Jones writes, and that clean, propulsive style makes a story like this—which is just a tad bit by the numbers, to be honest—very entertaining to read. If you’re a fan of his work, it’s very much worth reading. If you’ve never sampled one of his yarns before, it wouldn’t be a bad place to start since it’s an example of the type of story that Bedford-Jones did better than just about anybody else.

Monday, November 04, 2024

Review: The World With a Thousand Moons - Edmond Hamilton


Edmond Hamilton continues to be one of my favorite authors of the sort of action-packed adventure science fiction I really enjoy. This novella originally appeared in the December 1942 issue of AMAZING STORIES. There’s a free e-book edition available on Amazon, which is where I read it.

This yarn is set in our solar system, no deep space or space opera in this one. Instead, it has a gritty, hardboiled tone as meteor miner Lance Kenniston (a pulp hero name if I ever saw one) and his hulking Jovian partner trick a group of rich, thrill-seeking space tourists from Earth into helping them try to recover a fortune in loot from a crashed spaceship that belonged to a notorious space pirate. The wrecked ship is on Vesta, the second-largest body in the Asteroid Belt, and since it’s surrounded by smaller asteroids, that makes it the World With a Thousand Moons, according to the title.

Just navigating through those orbiting obstacles and getting there is enough of a challenge, but Vesta is also inhabited by mysterious, deadly creatures that are feared throughout the solar system. Throw in the complication that not everything is as it appears to be at first, and you’ve got the makings of a fast-paced, exciting tale.

It occurred to me as I was reading this novella that it’s the science fiction equivalent of the sort of adventure stories H. Bedford-Jones was so good at. You’ve got a two-fisted sailor (spaceman) protagonist, a beautiful girl, a treasure to be salvaged, treachery all around, and despicable bad guys. I always enjoy this plot when Bedford-Jones uses it, and in Hamilton’s hands, it’s almost as good.

I had a fine time reading THE WORLD WITH A THOUSAND MOONS. If you’re a fan of classic-style science fiction, there’s a good chance you would, too. Recommended.

Sunday, November 03, 2024

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, April 21, 1934


I haven't featured an issue of ARGOSY in a while, and this one sports a nice dramatic cover by Paul Stahr, whose covers I nearly always enjoy. As usual, there are some fine writers inside this issue: Erle Stanley Gardner, Max Brand, Fred MacIsaac, J.D. Newsom, Karl Detzer, and the lesser-known Anson Hatch and Howard Ellis Davis. The Brand, MacIsaac, and Detzer stories are all serial installments, but if I had a copy of this one (I don't) I'd be happy to read the novelettes by Gardner and Newsom.

Saturday, November 02, 2024

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Double Action Western, September 1950


Since posting my review of Harry Sinclair Drago's novel APACHE CROSSING earlier this week, I've discovered that the novel also appeared in the September 1950 issue of DOUBLE ACTION WESTERN, also under the Will Ermine name. I don't have that issue so I can't compare the texts, but the book is fairly short in the Popular Library paperback edition, 160 pages, and the pulp version runs 68 double-columned pages of, I assume, fairly small type, so it may or may not have been expanded for book publication. Also in this issue are a short story by Lee Floren and a short-short by W.G. Wyatt, who has only two credits in the Fictionmags Index, the other one being a novella in the May 1950 issue of BLUE RIBBON WESTERN. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the W.G. Wyatt name was a pseudonym, maybe for editor Robert W. Lowndes. That's pure speculation on my part, though. I think the pulp cover is by A. Leslie Ross, but it's hard to be sure because the hombre doesn't have a hat on. Ross's hats are unmistakable.

Friday, November 01, 2024

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Secret Agent X: Faceless Fury - Brant House (G.T. Fleming-Roberts)


I’ve been in a pulpish mood lately, and one of the things I’ve read is the Secret Agent X novel FACELESS FURY, from the April 1936 issue of the Secret Agent X pulp.

This series ran for 41 issues, and I’ve probably read more than half the novels. One of the consistent problems with Secret Agent X is that, as you might guess from his name, he’s pretty much of a cipher. We never learn his real name or much about his background. We don’t even know what he really looks like because he’s always in disguise. He could be anybody. And yet the novels are usually entertaining because of the bizarre plots and fast pacing.

In FACELESS FURY, which was written by G.T. Fleming-Roberts under the house-name Brant House, the bizarre elements are certainly in place. You’ve got a criminal mastermind with his head completely covered in bandages except for the eyes, which, oh by the way, shoot out an acid so powerful that it’ll completely eat away a man’s face in seconds; you’ve got a similarly bandaged amnesia victim in a sanitarium who may or may not be the mastermind; and you’ve got multiple murder victims found clutching children’s toy blocks in their hands. Not to mention forgers, gentleman jewel thieves, dope fiends, and beautiful actresses with sinister secrets. For a while this seems like a kitchen sink novel, with Fleming-Roberts throwing in every wild thing he can think of whether it makes any sense or not, but by the end of the novel he succeeds it tying it all together fairly neatly. It’s very easy to figure out who the killer really is, but you don’t read this kind of story for the mystery angle, anyway. At least I don’t.

Although Fleming-Roberts didn’t create the Secret Agent X character, he wrote more of the novels than anyone else and is considered by some pulp fans to be the series’ best author. I sort of prefer the stories by Paul Chadwick, the creator of the character, but I like Fleming-Roberts’ work, too, and FACELESS FURY is one of his best entries, well worth checking out if you’re a fan of the hero pulps. Not a bad place to start if you’re a pulp fan and have never read a Secret Agent X novel, either.

(This post originally appeared in a somewhat different form on December 18, 2007. Altus Press has reprinted the entire Secret Agent X series in a series of beautiful trade paperback volumes. "Faceless Fury" is available on Amazon in Volume 6 of that series.)