Review: Misfit Lil Robs the Bank - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

I’m a long-time fan of the Misfit Lil series by Chap O’Keefe (who’s really our old friend, writer and editor Keith Chapman, of course), so it’s a real pleasure when I come across one that I haven’t read before. MISFIT LIL ROBS THE BANK was published originally in hardcover by Robert Hale as part of the Black Horse Westerns series in 2009. It was reprinted in a large print edition by Ulverscroft in 2010, and now it’s available again in e-book and paperback editions.

Lilian Goodnight’s friend and mentor, army scout Jackson Farraday, is out of town guiding a scientific expedition, so there’s no one around to provide wise counsel when Lil takes up with reckless, hotheaded cowboy Lucky M’Cline. Their misadventures get them in trouble with the law, and some of the upright citizens of Silver Vein, Utah (including a young woman who’s jealous because she thinks Lil took Lucky away from her) convince her father, rancher Ben Goodnight, to turn her over to the care of a French physician visiting the area, Dr. Francois Guiscard. Guiscard, you see, is famous for using hypnotism and other new-fangled treatments to cure females of hysteria and other psychological ailments. Dr. Guiscard, it is hoped, will be able to cure Lil of her troublemaking ways.

I think we all know what’s going to happen here. Guiscard isn’t the brilliant doctor he pretends to be, although he is a master hypnotist. Lil winds up in more trouble than ever and back behind bars, charged with bank robbery and murder. She and Lucky have to break out of jail and track down the real villain to clear Lil’s name.

One of the great things about Keith Chapman’s Westerns is that his writing has a distinctive voice. Nobody else would write these books exactly the way he does. As a result, he always comes up with great characters and plots that spin traditional elements in fresh and compelling ways. MISFIT LIL ROBS THE BANK races along in a fast, entertaining fashion, and I had a great time reading it. If you’re looking for an enjoyable, somewhat offbeat Western, I give it a high recommendation.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Ace G-Man Stories, October 1942

This issue of ACE G-MAN STORIES features a striking cover by Rafael De Soto. The lead story is a Suicide Squad novelette by Emile C. Tepperman. I've read several stories in this series and really enjoyed all of them. Kerrigan, Murdoch, and Klaw make quite a team, and Tepperman's stories are always fast moving. Another top-notch writer, Day Keene, has a story in this issue, and rounding things out are yarns by lesser-known but prolific pulpsters Don James, Harry Lee Fellinge, and Edward S. Williams.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Fifteen Western Tales, March 1944

Smoking isn't good for you, especially when you have to pause in the middle of a gunfight to roll a quirley. This fine, slightly humorous cover is by Sam Cherry, who always delivered the goods. There are some good authors in this issue of FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES. William R. Cox has two stories, one as himself and one under the name Joel Reeve. Also on hand are C. William Harrison, Theodore J. Roemer, Al Storm, James Shaffer, M. Howard Lane, and four house-names: Lance Kermit, David Crewe, Ray P. Shotwell, and Logan C. Claybourne. Often when I'm stuck for the name of a minor character in a manuscript, I'll use a pulp house-name or pseudonym. Or I'll mix and match the real names of pulp authors. Obscure little references like that always entertain me, help keep me sane, and help keep the pages rolling along.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Dirt Farm - Orrie Hitt

The protagonist of this fine yarn is Butch Hagen, a former carnival worker and truck driver who really prefers working on farms. He’s been shacking up in a small town with another former carny, the beautiful stripper Lucy Ellis, when he finds work on the very misnamed Friendly Farms, owned by brutal Clay Billings. Butch leaves Lucy to go work on the farm, where he finds that Billings has a beautiful niece named Candy. There’s another farmhand who has a beautiful redheaded girlfriend named Sherry, and on the next farm over there’s a hot-to-trot farmer’s daughter named Mae who happens to be a little underage . . .

Well, if you’ve read very many of these softcore sleaze novels, you’ll know how most of these plot elements are going to intertwine. And if you’re read much of Orrie Hitt’s work, you’ll find some of his familiar themes in DIRT FARM. But there are several things about this one that make it an excellent novel and well worth reading. For one, Hitt’s writing is really smooth and fast in DIRT FARM. He was a master at keeping the reader flipping the pages and this book is a prime example of that. For another, he throws in a noirish crime element reminiscent of James M. Cain and then proceeds to milk it for all the suspense it’s worth. Despite the predictability of some of the plot, I really didn’t have any idea how this book was going to end, and that’s rare. And finally, Hitt was among the best ever at writing about the desperation that fills most people, even the seemingly successful ones. Everybody in a Hitt novel wants something, needs something, is missing something. A lucky few find whatever it is that they’re seeking, but plenty of others don’t.

DIRT FARM isn’t as personal a book as some of Hitt’s other novels, so you don’t get his digressions about censorship and government, and not much about morality. But it reads like the wind and tells a compelling, if slightly formulaic, story. I had a great time reading it and recommend it for fans of hardboiled sleaze in general and Orrie Hitt in particular.

(This post originally appeared on August 31, 2009. I'm a little surprised that in the years since, DIRT FARM hasn't been reprinted. It's a good one.)

Review: The Pawn - J.E. Macdonnell

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve gotten hooked on this series of World War II naval adventures by J.E. Macdonnell. THE PAWN is the third one I’ve read in the past few months, and it’s my favorite so far.

Commander Peter Bentley, captain of the Australian destroyer Wind Rode, is the protagonist of this one, although all the usual members of the supporting cast, most notably First Lt. Robert Randall and bosun’s mate William “Hooky” Walker, are also on hand. Bentley and Wind Rode tend to get the dirty jobs, and their assignment this time is the trickiest so far. The ship is supposed to hide out among some islands extremely close to the Japanese mainland so they can spy on a new super-battleship that’s supposed to be launched soon. Whenever they observe that the battleship has put out to sea, they’re supposed to break radio silence, transmit the code word PAWN, and then get out of there as fast as they can.

Naturally, things do not go as planned.

In fact, between Japanese submarines, natives who may or may not be hostile on one of the islands Wind Rode uses for concealment, and a terrible storm at sea, Bentley has his hands full just keeping the ship going and getting where he’s supposed to be. And then, Bentley and his crew find the biggest surprise of all waiting for them.

I don’t know what it is about Macdonnell’s prose. There’s nothing the least bit fancy about it. The writing just goes about its business in workmanlike fashion, but before you know it, you’ve read half the book. He really had the storyteller’s knack. Then you get to the last chapter of this one and it’s not only incredibly suspenseful, there are two stand-up-and-cheer moments.

I found THE PAWN to be hugely enjoyable, and if you enjoy war and/or naval adventure fiction, I give it a great big recommendation. You don’t have to have read any of the others in the series to know what’s going on. Even after only three books, I feel like these characters are old friends already. Published originally in paperback in Australia by Horwitz Publications, it’s available these days in an e-book edition from Piccadilly Publishing.