Lawrence Block isn’t the only author getting his Sixties soft-core porn novels reprinted these days. I just read a brand-new Pulpville Press edition of THE SEX LADDER by Anthony Gordon, originally published by Beacon Books in 1964, just like Block’s LUCKY AT CARDS. And as in the case of Block’s pseudonym “Sheldon Lord”, “Anthony Gordon” turns out to be an author best-known for his mysteries, too – Robert Leslie Bellem, the prolific creator of private eye Dan Turner.
Unfortunately, THE SEX LADDER isn’t up to the same standards as LUCKY AT CARDS. Instead of a noirish crime novel like Block’s book, THE SEX LADDER is pretty much a run-of-the-mill, fairly sordid soap opera about a young engineer and his ambitious girlfriend, who will do just about anything to help advance his career, if you know what I mean and I think you do, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It has none of the goofy charm of the Dan Turner stories or the other mystery and weird menace stories that Bellem turned out by the hundreds for the Spicy pulps during the Thirties and Forties. Bellem was a fine wordsmith and the writing here is certainly smooth enough, reading very fast, but it doesn’t seem to me that his heart was really in this job. There was at least one other Beacon Book by “Anthony Gordon”, DOCTOR OF LESBOS. I assume that Bellem wrote it, as well. There are a few listings for it on ABE, but Pulpville Press also plans to reprint it in the future. Despite my reservations about THE SEX LADDER, I’ll probably read DOCTOR OF LESBOS, too. That’s just the kind of guy I am.
(UPDATE: No, I never got around to reading DOCTOR OF LESBOS, and I probably won't. You can still find used copies of the reprint, but even they're too pricey for me. So more than likely, I'll do without that one.)
For a while, though, it looks as if Gardner will be able to put his lawless
past behind him. He takes on a new identity, marries, and settles down. But
there are bounty hunters and private detectives after him, hired by a man who
wants vengeance, and Gardner has to go on the run again. Then, in a very nice
twist, this former outlaw winds up as the marshal of a small logging town in
Oregon, only to run afoul of the ambitions of a brutal, ruthless timber
magnate.
Ned Oaks has written a very good traditional Western in KILL GARDNER!, his
latest novel, taking several compelling plotlines and mixing them together in
expert fashion. Not everything turns out quite the way you might expect,
either, which is always welcome. Garrett Gardner is a flawed but ultimately
sympathetic protagonist, and Oaks keeps the story moving along in a brisk,
action-packed fashion.
Full disclosure: “Ned Oaks” is the pseudonym of a friend of mine who has
written half a dozen Western novels, but KILL GARDNER! is the first one I’ve
read. I have all the others, though, and look forward to reading them, because
this one is very entertaining. If you’re a fan of traditional Westerns, you should
check out KILL GARDNER! and the other books by Ned Oaks.
As you might guess from the title, EXECUTIVE BOUDOIR is a mixture of corporate
warfare and sexy, soap operatic romance. Jim Sloane is the hard-charging
executive vice-president of Canady Industries. He’s in love with beautiful Lisa
Canady, daughter of company president Mart Canady, who commits the company to a
bad deal by buying a failing company and then immediately dying. Lisa takes
over as president, she and Jim clash, both turn to other lovers for comfort,
and Canady Industries teeters on the brink of ruin.
While there aren’t any plot twists in this book you won’t see coming, Haas
spins the yarn with such great skill it doesn’t matter. He worked in the steel
industry, and it shows, as the book has a real air of authenticity about it.
There’s a good balance between the sexy romantic element and the corporate
in-fighting element. Haas also has a sure hand with his characters and pacing.
I stayed up later than I normally do to finish this one, that’s how much I was
enjoying it. I recommend it, and I plan to read more of the books from this
part of Haas’s career in the near future.
The biography section, while not exhaustive, provides a good background on
Jacobi’s personal life but focuses primarily on his career as a writer, which
isn’t surprising that Jacobi’s life really centered on that aspect. He was a
reasonably successful author of pulp stories in several different
genres—horror, science fiction, mystery, and adventure—but was never very
prolific because of the time he spent researching and revising his stories. As
a result, he never made his living as a full-time writer except for brief
stretches, but his stories are well-regarded and I have several collections of
them on hand to read. He was persistent, too, staying with the writing game,
off and on, from the Twenties up into the Eighties, when he sold a few stories
to Chuck Fritch at MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE during the same era when I was
writing for MSMM. I probably read those yarns, although I have no memory of
them, and if I did, it’s unlikely I would have connected that Carl Jacobi with
the same one who wrote for the pulps.
Smith rounds out this volume with an excellent bibliography of Jacobi’s work
and a section of letters to Jacobi from various writers and editors, including
Cave, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith, and Farnsworth
Wright. Overall, LOST IN THE RENTHARPIAN HILLS is an excellent book, probably more
so if you’re already a fan of Jacobi’s work, but I found it very entertaining,
as well.
Of course, “entertaining” is a relative term. This book left me with the same
feeling about Jacobi that Cave’s memoir did, a mixture of admiration and
sympathy. He doesn’t really seem to have been cut out to be a pulp writer, and
yet that was where he found his most success, and then only for a relatively
short amount of time. Never married, spending a big chunk of his adult years
taking care of his parents, unable to adjust to changing markets, beset by
physical ills and a variety of mishaps, but still trying to write even though
he had limited success at it in his later years . . . I have to give him credit
for his determination. I wish he’d had more luck.
But his stories remain, and I hope to get to some of them soon.
In recent years, a lot of Sexton Blake stories have been reprinted, and I’ve
picked up quite a few of them but haven’t read any until now. I started with
SEXTON BLAKE AND THE GREAT WAR, a collection of three novellas set before and
during World War I.
This volume begins with “The Case of the Naval Manoeuvres”, written by Norman
Goddard and published originally in the story paper UNION JACK #253 in 1908.
The British navy is engaged in some top-secret practice in the North Sea, but
the Prime Minister thinks that some foreign power may be spying on them, so he
enlists Sexton Blake’s help and sends the Great Detective to the Shetland
Islands to find out what’s what. Pedro the bloodhound doesn’t appear in this
story, although he’s mentioned, but Tinker is on hand and so is Inspector
Spearing of Scotland Yard, who also helps out Blake from time to time. It
doesn’t take Blake long to discover that not only is Germany behind the spying,
but Wilhelm II, Kaiser Bill his own self, is on hand to boss the operation,
which involves a zeppelin and a secret air base in the Shetlands.
That’s probably enough for a novella by itself, but Goddard actually disposes
of the threat fairly quickly and instead sets up a chase through England as
Blake and his allies try to capture the Kaiser and deliver him to London so
that a diplomatic solution to the mess can be worked out without the necessity of
having to go to war. Not only are German agents trying to rescue their leader,
but other groups with their own agendas try to get their hands on the Kaiser.
The plot in this yarn is driven almost entirely by coincidence, and for a Great
Detective, Blake sure does some dumb stuff now and then when the writer needs
him to in order to keep things moving. But move they do, as Goddard delivers a
surprisingly fast-paced and exciting tale in prose that doesn’t often read as
if it were written more than 110 years ago. Blake is pretty likable, and there
are a couple of great action scenes, so overall, despite its stodgy title, I
enjoyed “The Case of the Naval Manoeuvres” quite a bit.
England was actually at war with Germany by the time the next novella in this
collection was published. “On War Service; or, Sexton Blake’s Secret Mission”
is from UNION JACK #645, published in 1916. The author is Cecil Hayter, who,
according to editor Mark Hodder, is best remembered for chronicling some of
Blake’s adventures that take place in Africa. The setting in this one is far
from the Dark Continent, however. It’s very much a wartime espionage yarn, as
Sexton Blake and Tinker are sent to Holland, where they’re supposed to
slip into German-occupied Belgium and deliver an important document to someone
there who’s working for the British. They have some harrowing adventures just
reaching their contact, and when they get there, he’s on the verge of death,
having just been attacked by German agents who’ve discovered his identity. He
lives long enough to tell Blake and Tinker where the message is supposed to go,
and they’re off again, knowing that even if they manage to get the document
into the right hands, they’ll still face an incredible amount of danger getting
back out of Belgium.
As before, there’s quite a bit of coincidence and deus ex machina in
this plot, but Hayter keeps things moving along at a very nice pace. His
version of Blake is a little more hardboiled than Goddard’s, and the story is
grittier, not as much high adventure. I didn’t like it quite as much as the
first one, but it’s still very enjoyable.
The final novella in this collection backtracks a year to 1915. William Murray
Graydon’s “Private Tinker—A.S.C.” was published originally in UNION JACK #589. Through
a series of odd circumstances, Tinker winds up enlisting in the army under
another young man’s name and is sent to the front to fight the Germans. Sexton
Blake, upset over Tinker’s disappearance, gets drawn into an assignment that
takes him to the front. Naturally, they’re both going to have adventures
and then run into each other, which is exactly what happens. Yet again, we get
a plot that’s driven by coincidence, but along the way, we also get some decent
action and a spectacular scene where Tinker and another young soldier take over
a German supply train. Graydon does a great job in this section.
Overall, I enjoyed SEXTON BLAKE AND THE GREAT WAR quite a bit. Blake is a good
character, and I want to see him in action again. As editor Mark Hodder points
out in his introduction and story notes, after World War I, the villains in the
series become more colorful and bizarre and the stakes become higher. I look
forward to reading some of those yarns.
Following closely on the events of the previous book, former gunfighter and Wells Fargo detective Caleb York, currently a lawman in Trinidad, New Mexico, finds himself caught up in the clash between two strong women: Willa Cullen, the beautiful young ranch owner York wants to marry, and Victoria Hammond, newly arrived in the territory and determined to start a cattle empire built on rustling, intimidation, and outright murder if that's what it takes. The fight over water rights between Willa and Victoria expands to include a number of hired gunmen on both sides and plenty of blood being spilled.
Collins never lets up on the pace in this book. It races along with plenty of action and characterization and occasional bits of humor. In Victoria Hammond, it also has one of the most despicable villains I've encountered lately, willing to sacrifice her own flesh and blood to gain what she wants and a more than worthy adversary for York. The regular supporting characters show up, too, including York's scruffy sidekick/deputy Jonathan P. Tulley (in my head, he's always played by the great Al "Fuzzy" St. John) and saloon owner Rita Filley, part of an uneasy romantic triangle with York and Willa. (If you ask me, and nobody did, York should pick Rita.)
In his acknowledgments, Collins also has a nice mention of the Western Fictioneers for the research help the group provided. It's always good to see WF get a little publicity.
I hope Collins finds time in his schedule to continue this series. I've really enjoyed it. I think I've compared them before to the Amos Flagg series by Clifton Adams writing as Clay Randall. If you're a fan of traditional Western action novels, I give the Caleb York books a very high recommendation.
This novel begins with a fairly simple premise: Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield is on
the trail of a train robber and killer known as the Sonora Kid. That trail
leads him to the Tenido Barrier, an escarpment in far West Texas, beyond which
is a fertile (for the region) valley that was once part of a Spanish land
grant. The family of hacendados that has controlled this area for more
than a hundred years still owns the ranch that takes up most of the valley, but
the spread is being plagued by rustlers. Before you know it, Hatfield has
rescued the rancher’s beautiful daughter from a wild bull, befriended the man’s
son who has just returned from school in Mexico City, clashed with the local
sheriff and deputy, who seem to have an agenda other than keeping the peace,
and uncovered a link between the man he’s pursuing and a band of
revolutionaries headquartered just across the border in Mexico, where they’re
awaiting a shipment of smuggled rifles before starting a bloody rebellion.
In other words, Germano, who always wrote in a terse, hardboiled style, packs
plenty of plot and characters into this short novel (35,000 words or so, I’m
guessing). There’s so much going on that it’s a little hard to keep up with,
and Hatfield has his hands full untangling everything and surviving numerous
fistfights and shootouts. Germano really keeps things moving. I think “Beyond
the Tenido Barrier” would have been a little better if it was longer, and
that’s something I hardly ever say. The plot could have used a bit more room to
develop and wouldn’t have seemed so rushed. That said, I still enjoyed this
yarn a great deal. I’ve never read a Hatfield novel by Germano that wasn’t
exciting and entertaining.
Next up is the short story “The Wrong Guess” by Lauran Paine. In addition to
being a fairly prolific pulpster, Paine wrote close to a thousand Western
novels under dozens of different pseudonyms, most of them published only in
England even though Paine was an American and lived in the Pacific Northwest. He
found his niche and wrote the heck out of it. Late in his career, he wrote a
number of hardback Western novels for Walker & Company and paperback
originals for Ballantine under his own name and the pseudonym Richard Clarke,
one of which was made into the movie OPEN RANGE. I’ve never read much by him,
and what I have read didn’t impress me much, but in this case, “The Wrong
Guess” is a terrific short story. It’s a vengeance yarn featuring an old
rancher, but to say anything else about the plot would be giving away too much.
This is easily the best thing I’ve read by Paine, though.
I don’t know anything about Phillip Morgan other than the fact that he
published approximately 50 stories in the pulps during the 1950s, mostly
Westerns but with a few detective yarns mixed in. If he ever published a novel
under his name, I couldn’t find any mention of it. He’s the author of the short
story “Prairie Town” in this issue, and it’s a good one. This is a town tamer
yarn, of the sort that finds an aging lawman questioning the life he leads.
It’s a low-key, character-driven tale without much action, but Morgan writes so
well that it’s a compelling story anyway. I’ll be on the lookout for his name
in other pulps.
Steuart M. Emery had a career as a pulp writer that lasted almost 40 years,
beginning in 1919. For the first three decades of that career, he produced
mostly war and aviation stories, but during the Fifties he turned to Westerns
and specialized in cavalry stories, appearing often in TEXAS RANGERS, usually
with novelettes, such as the one in this issue, “Paddlewheel Fort”. This is a
great story about a stalwart cavalry lieutenant battling not only Apaches in
Arizona but also a by-the-book colonel and a spit-and-polish rival for the
colonel’s beautiful daughter. As you might guess from the title, there’s a
riverboat involved, too. You might think that’s really out of place in Arizona,
but steamboats were used quite a bit on the Colorado River. There are some
fantastic battle scenes in this one, and it would have made a fine 1950s movie
with, say, Rod Cameron in the lead.
Philip Ketchum was a prolific, widely respected pulpster, known for Westerns,
historicals, and detective yarns written under his own name and the pseudonym
Carl McK. Saunders. And after the pulp era, he went on to a long career as an
author of paperback Westerns, all the way up into the Seventies. His story in
this issue, “Skin Deep”, is something of an oddity for him. There’s no action
at all. Instead, it’s a quiet, sweet tale of a cowboy courting a rancher’s
daughter who, for a change, isn’t beautiful . . . or is she? It’s the sort of
story I don’t usually enjoy, but Ketchum’s fine writing saves it, and I wound
up liking it quite a bit.
Herbert D. Kastle isn’t really a name I expected to run into in a Western pulp,
but his story “The Slow Draw” rounds out this issue. As it turns out, a check
of the Fictionmags Index reveals that Kastle wrote several stories for various
Western pulps in the mid-Fifties, along with science fiction and detective stories
for the digests, before going on to a long career as a paperback author of
glitzy bestsellers and dark suspense novels. “The Slow Draw” is a little
predictable with its story of a man who seeks out gunfights despite not being
fast on the draw, but it’s enjoyable anyway.
Overall, this is a very good issue of TEXAS RANGERS, with a solid Hatfield
novel and not a bad story in the bunch among the backups. Steuart Emery’s novelette
is the best story by him that I’ve read so far, and that’s saying something
since I really like his work. If you have a copy of this one in your
collection, it’s well worth pulling out and reading.
