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.

Review: Marihuana - William Irish (Cornell Woolrich)

For collectors, MARIHUANA by Cornell Woolrich writing as William Irish is one of the most sought-after of the legendary Dell 10-Cent editions. I’ve owned several copies over the years, but despite being a Woolrich fan ever since discovering his work in stories reprinted in ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE and THE SAINT MYSTERY MAGAZINE during the Sixties, I’d never read it until now.

MARIHUANA was first published as a novelette under Woolrich's name in the May 3, 1941 issue of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, which was a large-format pulp at the time but still a pulp. Ten years later it was reprinted as a Dell 10-Cent book. Like many of the protagonists in Woolrich’s stories, King Turner, the main character in this yarn, is kind of a sad sack, an average guy who’s depressed over the break-up of his marriage. So a couple of his so-called friends (they aren’t, really) show up at his apartment with a girl he doesn’t know, and they drag him off to a marihuana den (I’m just going to use the spelling the story does) where he smokes a couple of reefers and goes a little crazy from the drug.

When he accidentally kills somebody, he takes it on the lam and his marihuana-induced paranoia results in several more murders. It doesn’t take long for the cops to get on his trail, and Woolrich skillfully goes back and forth between Turner’s descent into violent madness and the law’s efforts to catch him.

Granted, from our perspective today, this is a pretty silly plot, but when were Woolrich’s plots not a little far-fetched? What makes MARIHUANA work is its relentless pace and Woolrich’s ability to make us sympathize with a protagonist who’s caught up in things he can’t control, even though he’s a killer and an all-around unlikable guy. (Is it just me, or does the description of King Turner—the slight build, the sandy hair, the sunken cheeks—sound suspiciously like Woolrich himself?)

There are a couple of late twists that work pretty well. And even though it's pure coincidence, I can’t help but like the fact that the cop who leads the effort to find Turner is named Spillane.

I’m glad I finally read MARIHUANA. It’s a suspenseful yarn that really had me flipping the pages. Whether you’re a Woolrich fan or have never read any of his work, I give it a high recommendation. If you want to read it but don’t have the Dell 10-Cent edition, there’s a very affordable e-book edition available on Amazon.

Review: The Red Tassel - David Dodge

THE RED TASSEL is the third and final novel by David Dodge to feature Al Colby, a private detective/troubleshooter who works primarily for U.S. business interests in South America. It was published in hardcover by Random House in 1950 and reprinted in paperback by Dell in 1952 with a cover by Robert Stanley. The same Stanley cover art graces the recent reprint from the fine folks at Black Gat Books, which is available in paperback from Amazon and also includes an excellent introduction by Randal S. Brandt.

In this novel, Al Colby, who is a very likable narrator/protagonist, is hired by beautiful redhead Pancha Porter, who inherited a lead and silver mine in the mountains of Bolivia from her father. The mine’s production has dropped dramatically, and Pancha wants Al to find out why and put a stop to it. The situation is complicated, as far as Al is concerned, by Pancha’s insistence on traveling to the mine with him. And since she’s footing the bill, he can’t really say no.

They run into trouble before they even arrive and meet all the colorful characters at the mine and the nearby village of Indian workers. Those colorful characters include a witch doctor who holds a grudge against Pancha’s late father, a neurotic young man and his overprotective mother, assorted surly servants and employees, and an old woman who wanders around acting like a lunatic . It’ll come as no surprise to most readers that a murder takes place sooner rather than later, and Al find himself in deadly danger more than once.

Dodge and his family lived in South America and the setting for this novel is based on a real place. You can tell that from the excellent descriptive writing. THE RED TASSEL is well-plotted, too, not extraordinarily complex but always solid and intriguing. I figured out the killer’s identity and most of what was going on, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of this book even a little bit. That’s how good the characters and the writing are.

Dodge is best remembered for his novel TO CATCH A THIEF, which served as the basis for the famous Alfred Hitchcock movie with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. I haven’t read that one, but I have read the second Al Colby novel, PLUNDER OF THE SUN (also a movie) and the posthumously published THE LAST MATCH. I really liked both of those books, too. I need to read more by David Dodge. I thoroughly enjoyed THE RED TASSEL and give it a high recommendation. It’s a smoothly told, very entertaining tale.