Teleport City

In recent days both Lee Goldberg and Bill Crider have linked to an article about Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm in both movies and books. Well, I had to go read that article, of course, and it's very good. But the website where it can be found is also one of the most interesting I've run across. Where else are you going to read articles about the Nick Carter, Killmaster series, the Black Samurai novels from the Seventies, and Edward S. Aaron's Sam Durrell books, also, along with Matt Helm, one of the best espionage series around? Whoever writes these reviews doesn't take them too seriously. Discussing the way authors usually describe characters in espionage thrillers, he writes, "Men with strong jawlines generally hang out with women who have proud breasts". And describing the men who run the intelligence agencies which employ the heroes: " . . . your standard issue 'old guy in charge of the most elite secret agency in the United States.' These guys are always named Hawke or Arch Angel or Mr. Falcon. I've noticed that good guys are always named after the whole bird, and evil guys are always named after parts of the bird, like Talon or Klaw or Wings Hauser."

In addition to the humor, the author also makes some pretty perceptive comments about what makes these books work or not work. The site also contains material about music and movies. I haven't poked around on those pages yet, but I'd be willing to bet that they're pretty entertaining. So check out Teleport City if you're interested in this kind of stuff. (And I think that may be a record for most number of links in a post of mine.)