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.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Big-Book Western Magazine, February 1949

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my battered copy in the scan. I thought at first the rather garish cover was by Robert Stanley, but the more I look at it, the less sure I am of that. The initials PKH are carved into the bar, and I’m wondering if those are the artist’s initials or if they’re there for some other reason. If they do belong to the artist, I can’t figure out who it is. But whoever painted it, it’s an action-packed, eye-catching cover.

Those four big novels mentioned on the cover are actually more like novelettes. The first one is “Colt-Cure for Woolly Fever” by Peter Dawson, who was actually Jonathan Glidden, brother of Fred Glidden, who was better known as Luke Short. Jon Glidden was an excellent Western author and has been one of my favorites for a long time. I believe I was in seventh grade when I first read one of his novels. Anyway, as you’re expect from the title, this story is a cattlemen-vs-sheepmen yarn, but that’s the only thing about it that’s standard. Instead of a range war tale, this is actually a clever bank heist story complete with multiple double-crosses and hidden identities, told in a fast-paced, breezy style that’s more humorous than most of the Peter Dawson stories. I figured this one would be good, but it’s even better than that. It’s a terrific story, one of the best I’ve read by Jonathan Glidden.

Everett M. Webber collaborated on some well-regarded historical novels with his wife Olga but also wrote quite a few Western, detective, and general fiction stories for the pulps and slicks. His story in this issue, “Those Who Have Eyes—” is about a small-town sheriff trying to solve a robbery in order to protect his friend, a Chinese man who owns a restaurant. There’s not much to it, but it’s reasonably well-written.

Clifton Adams is another long-time favorite of mine. Many of his stories are set in Oklahoma, where he lived, and deal with the oil business in the early days of the territory, as is the case with “Blood Buys a Black-Gold Empire”. (As I’ve mentioned before, I figure the editors at Popular Publications came up with many of these story titles.) In this story, a range detective from Texas rides north to Oklahoma in answer to a summons from an old friend, a sheriff who has more troubles than he can handle in an oidfield boomtown. Unfortunately, somebody tries to bushwhack our protagonist on his way there, and when he does arrive, it’s just as the sheriff is being murdered, a crime for which the Texan is framed. Convicted and sentenced to hang, he has to break out of jail in order to find out what’s really going on and clear his name. This is a top-notch Adams yarn, well-written, full of action and interesting characters, and I always enjoy oilfield stories. This is a very good one.

“Hell-on-the-Law!” by prolific Western pulpster Tom Roan is also a bank robbery story, and it’s pretty clever in its setup, too. But once the job is pulled, it becomes a really nice chase story as a veteran lawman with a secret of his own goes after the robbers. Roan’s work can be hit-or-miss with me, but this one has excellent characters, plenty of action, and a compelling pace. Another top-notch story in what’s shaping up to be a very good issue.

“Stranger on the Dodge” by Walker A. Tompkins, another old favorite of mine, is actually billed as a novelette, and it’s a good one. A fugitive from a bogus murder charge rides into the middle of a war between sodbusters and cattlemen. It’s a standard plot, but Tompkins puts the familiar elements into play with such skill that the story is a pure pleasure to read.

John Jo Carpenter was the pseudonym of John Reese, who went on to write a number of well-regarded Western and crime novels under his own name, several of which were filmed. His story in this issue, “Last of the Wild Fayettes”, is a romance in which an ambitious young cowboy clashes with a cattle baron over the rancher’s beautiful daughter. Despite being a little on the lighthearted side, there are a couple of brutal, well-written fistfights. This is very much in the vein of such John Wayne movies as McCLINTOCK! and NORTH TO ALASKA, and if it had more plot, it would have made a good movie, too.

William R. Cox was the author of the very first grown-up paperback I ever bought, the Gold Medal Western BIGGER THAN TEXAS, so I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for his work. His town-tamer novelette in this issue, “Hot Time at End-of-Track”, seems to have been loosely based on the early careers of Wild Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson, even though both of those historical characters are mentioned in the story. Marshal John Steel takes on the Texas trail drivers who have Wichita “treed”. For a fairly simple plot, Cox really gives this tale an epic feeling. John Steel, cool under fire but haunted by past tragedy, is a superb protagonist. This is just a great story with complex, well-developed characters.

I always think of Talmage Powell as a crime and detective writer, but he did a bunch of Westerns, as well. “Smoky Lesson” in this issue is about an old gunfighter who visits the town where the woman he once loved is buried, only to find himself mixed up in a war between a crooked saloon owner and a crusading young newspaperman. The twist in this one is pretty obvious but still effective, and Powell’s hardboiled prose is excellent, as usual.

This issue wraps up with the novelette “King of the Washoe Outcasts” by another old favorite, Harry F. Olmsted. This is set in Nevada during the silver boom and about a young, down-on-his-luck miner who decides to turn owlhoot, only to discover that he’s not ready to cross that line. Based on some actual history, this story features a lot of double dealing and characters with actual shades of gray to their personalities, as well as plenty of well-written action. This is another really good story in an issue full of good stories.

In fact, this issue of BIG-BOOK WESTERN MAGAZINE is one of the best Western pulps I’ve ever read. There’s not a bad story in the bunch, and several of them are in the top ranks of work I’ve encountered from their authors. If you happen to own a copy and haven’t read it yet, I give it a very high recommendation.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Hot Cargo - Orrie Hitt

HOT CARGO is a very different sort of book from PUSHOVER, the first Orrie Hitt novel I read. It’s the story of Hank Storms, a tough American sailor working on a boat that’s dredging out a channel in the river flowing through a port city in a Pacific island nation that seems to be loosely based on the Philippines. At one time, Hank was the captain of the boat, but he’s been replaced and demoted because of an accident that occurred while he was in charge.

That’s not all he has going on, though. It seems that there was a recent coup in the island’s government, and Hank is also smuggling guns to the followers of the deposed leader, who plans to stage a counter-revolution. Plus there’s the mistress of the guy who replaced Hank as captain. She’s actually more interested in Hank, and doesn’t mind proving it. And the beautiful native girl he meets in a bar who claims to be a virgin. And the mistress of the island’s current dictator, who’s also involved in the counter-revolution. And Hank’s beautiful but estranged wife, who shows up unexpectedly with a suitcase full of money. Throw in a sinister Dutchman, drug smuggling, pornography, blackmail, a lot of boozing, and a hurricane, and you can see that Hitt’s packed a heck of a lot into this yarn.

And “yarn” is a good description of this book. It’s definitely larger-than-life, an updated version of the sort of story that might have appeared in the pulp SPICY ADVENTURE during the Thirties. As such, although it’s plenty gritty, it lacks some of the realistic edge that can be found in PUSHOVER. However, the style is faster-paced and has a really nice terse rhythm to it, making it a prime example of what I’ve started calling hardboiled sleaze. Hank is a fine character, tough and definitely amoral about 99% of the time . . . but there’s that one per cent when he finds that he does have a sort of code after all and has to do the right thing even though he doesn’t really want to.

Several fans of Hitt’s work have told me that this isn’t one of his better books, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. That’s just me, of course. I have a fondness for South Seas yarns to start with, and a story can’t get too pulpy for my taste. From what I’ve seen, HOT CARGO isn’t really typical of most of Hitt’s novels, and it’s true that the ending isn’t really all it could be (endings seem to be a bit of a problem for Hitt, from what I’ve read and what other readers have told me). But it’s one of those books that resonated with me, for whatever reason, and I’m certainly glad that I read it.

(This was the second Orrie Hitt novel I read, and since this post first appeared on April 11, 2009, I've gone on to read many more of Hitt's books, of course. A commenter on the original post pointed out that the cover is by Howell Dodd and was used originally on the February 1958 issue of the men's adventure magazine Valor for Men. HOT CARGO has never been reprinted, possibly because it's really not very typical of Hitt's work, but I still think it's well worth reading if you come across a copy. I think it's a shame he didn't write more Spicy Adventure yarns like this.)

Review: Decision - J.E. Macdonnell

Recently, I really enjoyed J.E. Macdonnell’s novel THE BUFFER, part of a long series by him about naval warfare during World War II which follows an ensemble cast of officers and sailors in the Australian navy. I plan to go back to the beginning of the series and catch up, but in the meantime, the just-released novel DECISION is a direct sequel to THE BUFFER, so I picked it up next.

The tragic storyline begun in THE BUFFER comes to a conclusion fairly early on in DECISION, which focuses on Captain Peter Bentley, the captain of the destroyer Wind Rode and the commander of a flotilla of destroyers. That storyline places Bentley in the position where he has to make a difficult decision, a theme that continues throughout this book. Allied forces are invading the Japanese-held island of Truk, and Wind Rode is part of the fleet charged with protecting the invading forces and keeping enemy submarines at bay as the troop ships and supply ships converge on the island.

There’s a lot of strategy and tactics in this book, but of course, Macdonnell provides plenty of human drama, too, as well as a mixture of victory and losses for the Australians. Peter Bentley is a fine protagonist, and First Lieutenant Robert Randall and Chief Bosun’s Mate William “Hooky” Walker are on hand to provide support. (Hooky is a great character, and I’m hoping some of the other books will feature him more.)

Macdonnell’s fast-paced, straight-ahead prose isn’t flashy, but he’s a great storyteller and keeps me flipping the digital pages. I thoroughly enjoyed DECISION, and I’m excited that there are a bunch more books in this series to keep me entertained. You can find this one on Amazon and on all the other platforms, as well.

Review: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, January 1972

I recently got my hands on a number of issues of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. I read the magazine regularly from cover to cover when I was writing for it in the late Seventies and early Eighties, right up until it ended in 1985. (The publisher at that time still owed me $242.00 when the magazine folded, $242.00 that I never got paid, but I’m not still bitter about that $242.00 41 years later, oh, no, of course not.) Anyway, since then I’ve read the occasional old issue, but now I have this nice big stack of them, so I thought it might be good to pull one out at random and read it. The lucky issue was from January 1972. That’s my copy in the scan.

As was common for most of the magazine’s run, this issue leads off with a 20,000 word Mike Shayne novella. “Shadow of Fear” is something of an offbeat tale in which the big redheaded private detective isn’t hired on a case and has no murder to solve. Instead, it’s more of an action thriller in which a New York mobster comes to Miami and kidnaps a friend of Lucy Hamilton (Shayne’s secretary) as leverage in forcing Shayne to set up a meeting with a Cuban refugee who’s rumored to be building a secret army in order to return to Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro. The mystery is what business this mobster has with a Cuban revolutionary, and will Shayne be able to untangle everything in time to save the young woman who’s being held prisoner.

It’s a fast-moving, hardboiled, reasonably well-plotted tale that flows well. The author does a decent job of capturing Shayne’s character most of the time, with a few missteps. In the novels by Davis Dresser, Shayne is always two and sometimes three steps ahead of all the other characters in his thinking, and in this novella, he’s not that smart. Nor would Shayne, in my mind, ever wear bell bottoms and a flowerdy shirt. (Well, the guy in those terrible photo covers on the late Dell editions of the novels might, but that guy isn’t Mike Shayne.) Those complaints aside, this novella’s version of Shayne is at least recognizable as the big redhead we all know and some of us love. That’s not always true in these ghostwritten stories.

And speaking of ghostwriters, “Shadow of Fear” has been attributed to Max Van Derveer, who also wrote the goofy, Shell Scott-like novels about private eye Tokey Wedge under the name Jack Lynn. That’s possible. Van Derveer wrote quite a few stories for MSMM under his own name, and the editors always had a habit of recruiting the Shayne ghosts from the magazine’s regular contributors. But unlike the Tokey Wedge novels, this grim, dour story has not a trace of humor in it. Like I said, it’s certainly possible Van Derveer wrote it, but since all I’ve read by him in the past has been his lighter stories, I just don’t know for sure. Either way, “Shadow of Fear” is okay, definitely not a stand-out Shayne yarn but perfectly readable.

Next up is the short story “Sagittarius” by Gary Brandner, the third of five stories by Brandner about Hollywood private eye Adam Dukane. Two Dukane stories appeared in MSMM, two in ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, and one in ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. In this one, Dukane is hired by an astrologer who counts among her clients movie stars and studio big-shots. Somebody is sending her threatening notes, and she wants Dukane to find out who and if it’s a serious threat. It is, of course, and Dukane solves the case (which, honestly, isn’t very difficult to do). Brandner is enough of an old pro to hold the reader’s interest and deliver an enjoyable story.

“Assignment—Murder” is an espionage novella by F.W. Nash. The narrator/protagonist, CIA agent Art Barrett, is sent to Beirut to investigate the suspicious death of an agent who happens to be an old friend of his. While he’s there, he has to set up the assassination of an enemy agent who’s causing a lot of trouble. Then there’s the matter of the beautiful blonde who, along with her brother, inherited some mining property in a fictional-but-real-sounding Middle Eastern nation. If you think that all these things might wind up being connected, well, there’s a good chance you’d be right. This story belongs in the same murky and dangerous realm of international intrigue as Matt Helm, Joe Gall, and Sam Durell, while not being as well-written as any of those series. Nor does it generate much unbearable suspense, as the cover claims. In fact, the middle section kind of plods along. However, the plot is interesting and the ending is pretty good and, yes, fairly suspenseful. Art Barrett is a good protagonist who probably could have carried a series. But this is his only appearance, and in fact, the only story listed in the Fictionmags Index by F.W. Nash.

Actually, as soon as I saw that name on the cover, I thought, “That’s a pseudonym.” Knowing from experience that the editors at MSMM had a habit of sticking a pen-name on a story without telling the author, I figured “F.W. Nash” was one of the other contributors to this issue. If “Assignment—Murder” was really by Max Van Derveer, they wouldn’t have needed to use a pseudonym since his other story is under the Brett Halliday house-name. Gary Brandner, maybe? Possible, but this story doesn’t read like Brandner’s work to me. Nobody else in the issue seems to be a likely suspect, either. Maybe it really is by F.W. Nash, who for some reason never sold another story. Stranger things have happened. Anyway, “Assignment—Murder” isn’t a great yarn, but I thought it was okay.

Several years before taking over the editorship of MSMM (and giving me my first steady writing job, I might add), Charles E. Fritch appears in this issue with the short story “Is There Wife After Death?”, a wry little tale that takes the premise of a famous Patricia Highsmith novel and Alfred Hitchcock film and gives it a different spin. It’s well-written, as Chuck’s work always was, and moves right along.

Miriam Allen deFord is best remembered for her science fiction and fantasy stories, but she wrote a lot of crime stories for the mystery digests, too. “The Incipient Corpse” in this issue is a lightweight tale about a professional burglar who unknowingly targets a house where a paranormal investigation is going on. This is a pretty good idea, but deFord does very little with it in a mildly amusing but very forgettable story.

M.G. Ogan was the pseudonym of husband and wife writing team Margaret and George Ogan. I seem to recall reading a few stories by them in the past and enjoying them. “The Truck-Snatchers” is the first in a short-lived series about Cole Stoddard, the owner of a security agency who specializes in cases related to the trucking industry. In this one, he’s trying to track down four highjacked trucks. With its straightforward prose and procedural elements, this reminds me a little of Joe Gores’ DKA novels and stories, although not as well-written. But it has some nice action and I enjoyed it.

The issue wraps up with a short-short by a forgotten author named Ed Dumonte, who turned out a couple dozen stories for the mystery digests. “Mrs. Becker’s Yarn” is about a little old lady who sits around various places in the city, knitting and observing life. But of course there’s more to it than that. This is a reasonably clever story.

Overall, I’d have to say this is a slightly below average issue of MSMM. None of the stories are terrible, but none of them rise above the level of okay, either. I’m going to keep working my way through the stack of them I have on hand, hopefully with better results.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Short Stories, October 25, 1928

I'm sure there must have been some other air war covers on SHORT STORIES, but this one by Edgar F. Wittmack is the only one I recall coming across. It's a good one, too, very dramatic and colorful with that red sun in the background. There's a fine group of authors in this issue including Ernest Haycox, Hulbert Footner, Robert Carse, Tom Roan, Kenneth Perkins, Frank L. Packard, and Carson Mowre.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Thrilling Western, December 1936

The excellent cover by Richard Lyon on this issue of THRILLING WESTERN is proof that, just like sitting down to a poker game or going to the barber shop, boarding a stagecoach was an invitation to a gunfight in the Old West! I like this one a lot, probably because this stalwart cowboy looks like Randolph Scott, one of my all-time favorite actors. The lineup of authors inside is top-notch as well: a novella by Leslie Scott writing as A. Leslie, novelettes by Tom Curry, Syl MacDowell, and Chuck Martin, and short stories by Lawrence A. Keating, Edward Parrish Ware, Buck Billings (probably Claude Rister), and Burt Stokes. Various real-life issues are pokin' their snouts in where they ain't wanted again, but I hope to get back to reading some Western pulps very soon!

Review: The Sheriff and the Widow - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

Veteran author and editor Keith Chapman has just released a new edition of one of his early novels under the Chap O’Keefe pseudonym, THE SHERIFF AND THE WIDOW. This is excellent news for me, because while I’ve read most of Chapman’s Westerns, this is one I hadn’t read. So I dived in with great anticipation and was not disappointed.

The lawman of the title is Ross Kemp, sheriff of the cattle town of Cedar City. The widow isn’t actually a widow when the book begins. She’s Jessica Blackwood, the beautiful, scheming second wife of local cattle baron Boyd Blackwood. Also in the mix are Blackwood’s beautiful daughter by his first wife, a scheming gambler, and a no-account cowboy who fancies himself a fast gun.

Well, naturally, there’s a murder (the title kind of gives that away) and Ross Kemp winds up framed for it. He’s convicted and sent to prison, and the only way to clear his name is to bust out and hunt down the real killer.

Most hardboiled Westerns are crime novels, and THE SHERIFF AND THE WIDOW continues that tradition with characters and a plot that would have been right at home in a classic Gold Medal paperback. Ross Kemp is an excellent protagonist, plenty tough but far from superhuman, the widow is a fine femme fatale, and the other villains are plenty dastardly. The story races along in breakneck fashion, with the prison break being a particularly suspenseful and action-packed scene. I really enjoyed this one, and if you’re a fan of traditional Westerns, you can get the e-book right here for just about any platform you can think of, or the print edition here.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Marvel Tales, May 1940

MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES started as a science fiction pulp, as you'd expect from that title, but after five issues, it abruptly changed to a Weird Menace pulp under the name MARVEL TALES. That experiment last only two issues, then it switched back to MARVEL STORIES, then MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES (again), and finally MARVEL SCIENCE FICTION. None of them were successful, but it wasn't for lack of trying. This is the second and final issue under the MARVEL TALES name, with a cover by J.W. Scott that's certainly worth of a Weird Menace pulp. Most of the authors inside were top-notch, although they tended to use pseudonyms, maybe because of the generally disreputable air the whole enterprise gave off. The lead story in this issue is by Nils O. Sunderland, who was really Jack Williamson, and backing him up are Robert O. Wentworth (Edmond Hamilton), Russell Gray (Bruno Fischer), and a couple of guys using their real names, Frederic Arnold Kummer Jr. and George E. Clark. If you want to check out this pulp for yourself, the entire issue can be found here. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Wild West Weekly, January 15, 1938

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan, complete with tape around the edges placed there by a previous owner. I know that tape on pulps gives most collectors the fantods, but it doesn’t bother me as long as it’s not too heavy-handed, probably because I’m more of a reader than a collector. A case like this one is okay. The cover is by Emery Clark, who, if I recall correctly, did some DOC SAVAGE covers for Street & Smith as well. (I know I could look it up on the FMI, but I’m too lazy right now.) I like this cover okay, although I think the best WILD WEST WEEKLY covers are by H.W. Scott and R.G. Harris.

The lead story in this issue is the novelette “Comanche”, published under the house-name Andrew A. Griffin and attributed to Lee Bond, an attribution I agree with. It reads like Bond’s work. The title character is a young troubleshooter for a wealthy ranch owner who has spreads across the West. Comanche’s background is a mystery. He’s white, but he was raised by a band of Comanche Indians until he was ten years old, when he was taken in by the rancher he now works for. Where he came from, nobody knows. But he’s smart, tough, and gun-swift, making him perfect to get to the bottom of the rustling that’s plaguing one of his mentor’s spreads in New Mexico Territory. Of course, the situation turns out to be more complicated than it appears at first. Bond piles on the action and includes a case of mistaken identity to complicate things. Bond’s work tends toward the formulaic at times, but at his best, he was a top-notch Western pulpster, and I really enjoyed this yarn.

Except . . . what I didn’t realize until I got to the end of it is that it’s just the first of a series of six linked novelettes featuring Comanche, so it really doesn’t have much resolution to it. Usually in a case like this, the novelettes would then be put together into a novel published as a hardback. I don’t find any evidence of that being true with these stories, so it’s likely I’ll never know what happens with Comanche after this. (The next week’s issue of WILD WEST WEEKLY with the second Comanche story is available on the Internet Archive. I may read it or I may not, I haven’t decided yet.)

Young Texas Rangers Hungry Hawkins and Rusty Bolivar starred in scores of stories by Samuel H. Nickels, including this issue’s “Prospectin’ fer Gun Trouble”. In this one, Hungry and Rusty help an old prospector protect his claim from a bunch of outlaws. That’s the entire plot. Nickels does an excellent job with the action and Hungry and Rusty are very likable protagonists, but the thin plot kind of works against the story. Also, one of the henchmen wonders why the boss outlaw wants to take over the mine in the first place, since it’s not very productive. That’s a darned good question, and it’s one that Nickels fails to answer. I don’t know if he just forgot and none of the editors at Street & Smith called him on it, but that plot hole is left wide open.

George C. Henderson was a pretty solid Western writer during the pulp era. “War on the Broken Wheel” is a stand-alone story featuring a good pair of protagonists, a couple of deputy U.S. marshals working undercover as surveyors as they try to find out who’s stirring up trouble between the cattlemen and the sodbusters. Again, nice action and characters, but not much plot keeps this story from being as strong as it might have been. I wouldn’t have minded seeing these protagonists again, but it seems this was their only appearance.

Under his pseudonym Ward M. Stevens, Paul S. Powers wrote approximately 150 stories about Kid Wolf, a wandering adventurer and self-styled Soldier of Misfortune. I prefer Powers’ other main series character, good-guy outlaw Sonny Tabor, but I really enjoy the Kid Wolf stories, too. In the novelette “Kid Wolf on Wild Hog Range”, the Kid comes across an injured young prospector who has been attacked by outlaws and left to die at the tusks of a herd of wild javelinas. The Kid saves the fellow from that grisly fate, of course, and learns from him that the outlaws have kidnapped the young man’s partners in order to torture the location of their valuable mine from them. Naturally, Kid Wolf isn’t going to stand for that, so he and the young man set off to right that wrong. Powers was really good at dishing out fast-moving, action-packed prose, and this yarn races along in a very entertaining fashion, ending with an epic fistfight and a suitable comeuppance for the bad guys. An excellent story and my favorite of the Kid Wolf series I’ve read so far.

I’m also a fan of the Shorty Masters series by Allan R. Bosworth, who wrote some really fine Western novels in addition to his hundreds of top-notch pulp yarns. Shorty is a muleskinner and wagon driver who operates a freight line along with his partner, gunslinger Willie Weatherbee, also known as the Sonora Kid. Naturally, the jobs they take on usually result in trouble, as in “The Calaboose at Caliente”, which finds the intrepid due thrown in jail, accused of killing a steer and stealing its hide. Bosworth also works in a jail break, a bank robbery, and a rodeo. Although there’s usually some humor to be found in these stories, they aren’t really comedies, and they include some unusual touches like the mules in Shorty’s team being named after famous musical composers. This story has plenty of action and is very well-written. I’d say that somebody ought to collect the Shorty Masters stories, but there are more than 130 of them, so it would be a pretty big project.

Flash Moran was the hero of about 40 novelettes by William F. Bragg in WILD WEST WEEKLY. A young deputy sheriff in the cattle town of Piute, Wyoming, Flash got his nickname more for his hot temper than for his red hair. In “Ridin’ the Rustler Special”, he’s a long way from his home range on the trail of a murderer when he gets mixed up in a fight defending a hapless tramp who’s caught stealing a ride on a train. Not long after that, Flash himself is the target of a murder attempt. Naturally, everything ties together, with some rustling and a series of train robberies thrown in, to boot. This is a great story. Bragg provides plenty of well-written action with a lot of it taking place on a train thundering through the night on a rendezvous with disaster, and I love that kind of stuff. Flash Moran is likable enough, and the other characters are interesting as well. As far as I recall, this is the first Flash Moran story I’ve read and the first thing by William F. Bragg, as well. I need to read more by him, because I really enjoyed this yarn.

This is a fine issue of WILD WEST WEEKLY. The first three stories are all good, despite my having a few quibbles about them, but the last three by Powers, Bosworth, and Bragg are all top-of-the-line Western pulp stories as far as I’m concerned and elevate this to an above average issue of a consistently good pulp. Definitely worth reading if you have a copy on your shelf, as long as you don’t mind that you’re getting only the first part of what’s basically a serial in “Comanche”. 

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: The Fugitive Pigeon - Donald E. Westlake

When Donald E. Westlake passed away, I don’t recall seeing any mentions of this book in the numerous tributes to him and his work. I think it’s an important novel, though, because it’s part of the transition in his career, the divergence between Westlake the comic crime novelist and Richard Stark the hardboiled novelist. THE FUGITIVE PIGEON is his sixth book, originally published in 1965. I haven’t read the two Westlake novels immediately preceding it, KILLY and PITY HIM AFTERWARDS, but judging by those titles, they don’t sound like laugh riots. I know the first three novels under the Westlake name (THE MERCENARIES, KILLING TIME, and 361) are hardboiled, because I’ve read them. So I’m guessing that THE FUGITIVE PIGEON is something of a departure, a book that still has some hardboiled elements (gangsters, hit men, crooked cops) but also a considerable amount of screwball comedy. As such, it provides a template for a lot of Westlake’s later work that mixes comedy and crime.

But, now that the pontificating is out of the way, how’s the book itself, you ask? Great fun, I’m happy to report. The narrator is Charlie Poole, an unambitious young man who’s perfectly content to run a neighborhood bar in Canarsie. The bar is owned by Charlie’s Uncle Al, who’s a mid-level gangster. Occasionally, Charlie has to hold a package at the bar for somebody until it’s picked up later, and while he suspects this has something to do with his uncle’s criminal activities, he never asks for details. He doesn’t want to know.

But then late one night as he’s about to close up, two strangers come in, and Charlie quickly realizes that they’re hit men sent there to kill him. He has no idea why anybody would send killers after him, but when he manages to escape with his life, he decides that he’d better figure it out in a hurry, because the two assassins are still on his trail. This is the beginning of a whirlwind three days in which Charlie tries to find out who wants him dead and why, an investigation complicated by the fact that he has to keep dodging the two hit men. Along the way he runs into a murder (for which he’s blamed, naturally) and a beautiful young woman (for whom he falls, naturally). It’s all very fast and entertaining and sharply plotted and written, and while there’s not much of the slapstick humor that shows up in Westlake’s later books, it’s pretty funny in places, too.

I really enjoyed this one a lot. If you haven’t read Westlake before, it wouldn’t be a bad place to start. If you’re a Westlake fan but have never gotten around to reading it, I highly recommend that you do so. Either way, you’re in for a treat.

(This post originally appeared on March 22, 2009. I included a link to that post because you really should click on through to it and read the comments. Not just because of what they say, but also for the sense of nostalgia and fond memories they're liable to invoke. Showing up to comment on that post were several wonderful friends gone too soon: Bill Crider, Ed Gorman, Bob Randisi, and Randy Johnson. Those were the days, and we won't see their like again. Thankfully, Juri Nummelin, Patti Abbott, David Cranmer, and Frank Loose are all still with us. As for THE FUGITIVE PIGEON, it's available as an e-book, and used copies of the hardback and paperback editions are easily found, too.)

Movie Review: The Fall Guy (2024)

We weren’t big fans of the TV series THE FALL GUY. In fact, I can’t remember for sure if we ever even watched an entire episode of it. Maybe there was something on opposite it that we watched instead. Even though we had a VCR by that time, we didn’t record a lot. Blank tapes, you may remember, were expensive starting out!

Anyway, you might think that would make me not exactly the target audience for the movie version that came out a couple of years ago. But hey, I like Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, so why not give it a try.

Even though we didn’t watch the TV show, I knew that Colt Seavers was the name of the character played by Lee Majors, a Hollywood stuntman who also worked from time to time as a bounty hunter/private detective. In the movie, Ryan Gosling plays Seavers, but as the movie opens, he’s just a stuntman who’s badly injured in a stunt gone wrong. It’s only after months of recuperation that he’s dragged back into the movie business as a favor to his former girlfriend, a camera operator who’s directing her first feature (Emily Blunt). The shoot is in Australia, and things quickly go wrong. The star of the movie, an obnoxious action star, goes missing, and Colt Seavers becomes an unofficial private eye, pressured by the film’s producer into tracking the guy down.

Of course, this leads into a complicated plot involving murder and almost non-stop, over-the-top action reminiscent of the Fast and Furious movies. Meaning it’s loud, silly, and totally unrealistic . . . but I, uh, enjoyed it anyway.

Actually, I got a huge kick out of this movie and grinned almost all the way through it. Lots of movie and writing jokes, rapid fire banter, and all that action. I mean, you know my motto: If you’re going over-the-top anyway, you might as well go ’waaayyy over. Really, the only things this movie is missing are quicksand, a swordfight, and (my favorite) a fight on top of a moving train.

I know THE FALL GUY didn’t get very good reviews and flopped at the box office, but I had a good time watching it. It’s no masterpiece of the cinema, but neither are a lot of the movies I like. I may have to hunt up some episodes of the TV series and see if it might be a good candidate for a TV Series I’ve Missed Until Now post.

An Announcement

There are going to be books reviewed here that have AI covers because I wanted to read them, and when I did, I liked them. While I post mixed reviews from time to time and have been known to quibble about a few points here and there, I try to concentrate on books that I've enjoyed. Most of the ones with AI covers I've reviewed have been reprints of older books written long before AI existed. I know for a fact that they're either in the public domain or have been properly licensed from the rights holders. When I've reviewed new books with AI covers, it's usually because I know the author personally or have some reason to trust that the book wasn't written by AI.

I removed a comment from another post where the commenter implied that the publisher was guilty of illegal behavior. If an AI cover makes you not want to buy a book, that's fine, what you buy is entirely up to you. You can skip that post, and if you do, I hope you'll come back the next day for a post about a pulp or an old movie or a vintage paperback, because those things are still going to account for most of the content here. If not, again, that's entirely up to you. As for me, I'd rather have a copy of that 80-year-old Western novel I want to read, even if it has an AI cover.

And as for this blog, AI covers have joined the ranks of politics and religion. FIGHT THAT WAR SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Forgive me for posting in, well, anger is too strong a word. Annoyance, maybe. Forgive me for posting in annoyance. Unfortunately, there have been times in the past when I've backed off on reviewing certain books because I knew people I care about would be upset. I still believe in not going out of my way to cause trouble, but maybe I'm going to worry about it a little less in the future. So if you see something on here you don't like, I hope it won't run you off for good, but if I'm writing about something, I truly think it's worth your time and I want to tell you about it.

Review: The Buffer - J.E. Macdonnell

J.E. Macdonnell was an Australian author who wrote several hundred novels in a variety of genres. Some of his espionage thrillers were reprinted in the United States under the pseudonym James Dark, and I read a couple of those back in the day and enjoyed them. These days, however, Macdonnell is best remembered for the many World War II novels he wrote about the Australian Navy, many of which are available as e-books from Piccadilly Publishing. I recently read THE BUFFER, published originally in paperback by Horwitz in 1963.

From what I gather, Macdonnell’s novels often feature a destroyer known as the Wind Rode, and the books have a continuing cast of characters including the captain, the first lieutenant, and the chief bosun’s mate, a rank nicknamed The Buffer. In this case, The Buffer is William “Hooky” Walker, so called because his right hand was shot off during a battle and replaced with a steel hook. That doesn’t prevent Hooky from carrying out his duties and being much admired by the ship’s crew.

Not everybody gets along with Hooky, though. A new junior sub-lieutenant clashes with him almost immediately because the youngster is very much by-the-book and Hooky is an old vet who knows how to get things done even if he has to bend the regulations a little now and then. One of the sailors also hates Hooky because he’s a slacker and a malingerer and Hooky won’t let him get away with it. He has another reason for hating The Buffer, too, which comes out in time.

In addition to all the details of shipboard life, Macdonnell provides a considerable amount of action as the Wind Rode delivers a load of aviation fuel to an isolated island airfield and is attacked by Japanese bombers; runs into a submarine and trades shots with it; and finally goes into battle against a Japanese cruiser that has our heroes much outgunned. There’s also a very suspenseful scene involved an unexploded bomb. The personal drama that’s been simmering under the surface finally breaks through at the end.

THE BUFFER runs into the same problem as a lot of nautical fiction I read: much of the time, I don’t have a clue what it’s talking about. I am not a boat guy and much of the terminology sails (ha!) right over my head. However, I can figure out most of that stuff from context, and my lack of nautical knowledge isn’t a great drawback. (I do know a considerable amount about Mississippi riverboats, having researched them for numerous books, but even there, I’m far from an expert.)

Despite my comment about the terminology, I really enjoyed THE BUFFER. Hooky is a great protagonist, and Macdonnell’s prose has a blunt, straightforward style that’s very appropriate for the situation and characters. The story drew me along at a fast pace. With its ensemble cast and episodic structure, this novel reminded me a great deal of a good Sixties TV show about World War II. Being a huge fan of COMBAT! and THE RAT PATROL, I consider that high praise. There’s a direct sequel to this book and I already have it, so I plan to read it soon. I also want to go back and pick up some of the earlier books. This is great stuff, and I highly recommend it. You can find it for various platforms here.

A Middle of the Night Music Post: Flight of the Silverbird - Two Steps From Hell

I came across this song by Two Steps From Hell and absolutely love it. I've heard it said of their music that it inspires you to create movies in your head, and that's certainly the case here. This is perfect for the opening credits sequence of an epic Western movie. I'm not a big one for playing music while I'm writing, but I have a hunch I may be listening to this one some while pounding the keyboard.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Big-Book Detective Magazine, February 1942

I've read several issues of BIG-BOOK WESTERN MAGAZINE over the years, but I've never read or even seen an issue of BIG-BOOK DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, Popular Publications' attempt to launch another detective pulp. Unlike its Western cousin, BIG-BOOK DETECTIVE MAGAZINE wasn't successful and ran only eight issues from December 1941 to February 1943. This is the second issue, and based on the good cover (don't know who painted it) and the lineup of authors, the magazine's failure wasn't warranted based on its quality. Authors on hand in this issue are T.T. Flynn, W.T. Ballard, Russell Gray (actually Bruno Fischer), Robert Sidney Bowen, Jackson Gregory Jr., and house-names Daniel Winters, Ray P. Shotwell, and David Crewe. The thing about those house-names is that this being Popular Publications, the actual authors were probably pretty darned good. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: West, September 10, 1927

William Reusswig did some nice covers, and I like the one on this issue of WEST, when it was still being published by Doubleday and coming out every week. The authors are a mix of familiar names and ones I don't recognize. The familiar: Stephen Payne, Ralph R. Perry, Oscar J. Friend, Kenneth Gilbert, and Homer King Gordon. The ones I don't know: William West Winter, Edwin Hunt Hoover, and Robert V. Carr. Perry wrote a really fine Western novel called NIGHTRIDER DEPUTY. Friend is best remembered probably as an agent and editor, but I've enjoyed the fiction by him that I've read, too. Payne had a long, productive career as a Western pulpster. I don't recall reading anything by Gilbert or Gordon, but they published steadily, too. This looks like a pretty good issue. 

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Stirrup HIgh/Western Word Wrangler - Walt Coburn

I’ve discussed Walt Coburn’s work here before. He’s one of my favorite Western authors, while at the same time being one of the most maddeningly inconsistent. Today, though, I’m talking about his non-fiction, not his hundreds of pulp stories and dozens of novels. Coburn is the author of two memoirs, STIRRUP HIGH and WESTERN WORD WRANGLER, and they’re both well worth reading.

STIRRUP HIGH is the better of the two. It’s the story of Coburn’s life as a boy growing up on his father’s vast ranch in Montana around the turn of the Twentieth Century. Although there were a few modern conveniences, such as cars and telephones, ranch life in Montana at that time hadn’t changed much from the Old West days (which weren’t so old then, only a couple of decades past). Young Walt was a high-spirited kid, and STIRRUP HIGH is full of his adventures, many of them in tandem with the old cowboy who served as his father’s foreman. Even in Coburn’s worst pulp stories, there’s an air of authenticity, a feeling of “this is the way it really was” when it comes to ranch life, and when you read STIRRUP HIGH, you can see why that’s true. Now, you have to remember that Coburn was a born yarn-spinner, and like a lot of fiction-writers who turn their hands to non-fiction, he can’t resist embellishing a little bit. Some of the dates that he gives don’t quite add up, and some of the stories he tells in this book don’t quite jibe with established facts . . . but I’m not sure either of those things matter. The spirit is true, and STIRRUP HIGH is vastly entertaining.

WESTERN WORD WRANGLER covers some of the same ground but also carries the story on into Coburn’s later life and is fairly unstinting in dealing with some of the mental problems that plagued him throughout his adult years, along with the physical problems that made him give up cowboying and turn to writing. Much of the material in this volume is drawn from “The Talley Book”, the long-running column that Coburn wrote for the magazine TRUE WEST. That makes for a pretty episodic narrative, and WESTERN WORD WRANGLER is not nearly as polished as STIRRUP HIGH. It also doesn’t go into the amount of detail about his writing career that I wish it would have. But it’s still entertaining and filled with information.

Walt Coburn came to a bad end, tormented by alcoholism and finally dead by his own hand because he couldn’t sell his work anymore. His stories have made a small comeback in recent years, with several paperback collections of his pulp stories from Leisure, as well as a number of hardback and large print reprints of his novels. Everything he wrote in the Twenties and Thirties is worth reading, at least based on what I’ve read so far, and good stories can be found in his work from the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties, as well, although you might have to dig a little harder for it. He deserves to be remembered, and STIRRUP HIGH and WESTERN WORD WRANGLER are pretty good places to start.

(This post originally appeared on February 27, 2009. I've continued to read novels and stories by Walt Coburn, although not as frequently as I was doing back then. I still consider him one of my favorite Western writers, though, despite the inconsistency of his later work. I once had him make a cameo appearance in a house-name novel set in the early 1900s. The protagonist was a friend of Coburn's father, so he stopped at the family ranch while passing through Montana. Mention was made of young Walt, who was already quite a yarn-spinner. I hope some reader, somewhere, caught that reference. I never saw any comment about it in any of the Amazon reviews of the book.)