Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Mammoth Mystery, January 1946

MAMMOTH MYSTERY was a fairly short-lived pulp from Ziff-Davis that put out only a dozen issues in 1945, '46, and '47. The first issue truly was mammoth at 276 pages, but by the second issue--this one--it had shrunk to 178 pages, still pretty hefty by pulp standards. This cover is by an artist named Richard R. Epperly, who's not familiar to me at all. Pretty nice back on that lady, though. The lead novel is by Bruno Fischer, an author whose work I've enjoyed quite a bit. I need to read more by him. Also on hand are Larry Holden (actually Lorenz Heller, many of whose novels have been reprinted by Stark House in recent years), Z-D regular Chester S. Geier, and lesser-known authors Phyllis Dayton and A. Boyd Correll. If you want to check out this issue, a PDF of it can be found here.

Review: Night Never Ends - Frederick Lorenz (Lorenz Heller)

Lorenz Heller’s NIGHT NEVER ENDS uses the classic noir novel set-up: down on his luck photographer Luke Fogarty takes a job at a struggling photography studio run by George and Belle Buckner. George and Belle are not happily married. George drinks too much, is a terrible photographer, and is gradually running the business into the ground. Belle is his beautiful, long-suffering wife, and when Luke goes to work for them, sparks fly immediately between the two of them. Most of the time, you’d think you knew where this story was going, and most of the time you’d be right.

But not in this case. NIGHT NEVER ENDS, which was published originally as a paperback original by Lion Books in 1954 under the pseudonym Frederick Lorenz, takes a different tack. There are some lurid secrets in the background of these characters, and Heller reveals them pretty early on, which ratchets up the tension between them. Although several crimes take place in this book, it’s not really a crime novel. It’s more of a mainstream domestic drama, but it’s so well-written it kept me up later than usual, flipping the pages to find out what was going to happen.

Stark House has just reprinted this one as half of a double volume with Heller’s THREE MUST DIE!, which I read and reviewed a couple of weeks ago. I think I liked NIGHT NEVER ENDS even more. Heller’s characters are always well-developed and interesting, and he had a great touch with memorable lines that do a fine job of capturing the setting and the era. This latest double volume from Stark House gets a high recommendation from me. You can find it on Amazon in e-book and paperback editions.

Review: Three Must Die! - Dan Gregory (Lorenz Heller)

Dinny Powell, the narrator/protagonist of Lorenz Heller’s novel THREE MUST DIE!, is a former journalist who’s living a quiet life as the publisher of a shopping guide in the small city of Rocky Hill, New Jersey. One peaceful Sunday afternoon, he’s out fishing in a creek with a couple of buddies of his, one a lawyer and the other a banker, when they hear a terrible car crash nearby and hurry to investigate. When they arrive on the scene, they find that the richest man in the county has been killed in the wreck, and the man’s lawyer is wandering around in a daze. A few minutes later, the members of a teenage motorcycle gang show up, too, and Dinny gets in a little scrap with one of them.

The wreck turns out to cause serious problems for Dinny, because a briefcase belonging to the rich guy’s lawyer should have been in the car but is missing, and in that briefcase is the brand-new will made by the tycoon. The cops think Dinny has the will, everybody affected by it thinks Dinny has the will, and so does a mysterious blackmailer who’s willing to kill to get what he wants.

THREE MUST DIE! is an excellent medium-boiled mystery that was published as a paperback original by Graphic Books in 1956 under the pseudonym Dan Gregory, the only time Heller used that name. The cover art is by Roy Lance. There are enough twists in the plot to keep things interesting, but Heller’s strong suit was his characters, and they’re all well-rounded and compelling, especially Dinny. His on-again, off-again romance with the girl who works on the shopping paper with him and wants to become a famous reporter is really well-handled. As a mystery, the clues are all there and I figured out who the killer was before I got to the end, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the very suspenseful climax.

THREE MUST DIE! has just been reprinted by Stark House in a very nice double volume with another of Heller’s novels, NIGHT NEVER ENDS. It’s available in e-book and paperback, and I give it a high recommendation. Lorenz Heller is just a thoroughly entertaining writer of crime and mystery fiction.

Review: Desperate Blonde - Lorenz Heller

Marta Selfron is the desperate blonde of the title in this novel by Lorenz Heller, published originally by Beacon Books of Australia in 1960 under the pseudonym Laura Hale and just reprinted by Stark House. As a young woman barely out of her teens, Marta married the wrong guy, and in order to get away from him, she wound up committing a crime. Now her ex-husband is not only blackmailing Marta, he’s also stalking her. When she meets tough, handsome private detective Dirk Delgar, she thinks maybe she’s found a way out of her problem, but first, she’ll wind up enmeshed in a web of robbery and murder.

As always, Lorenz Heller spins a fine, well-written tale in DESPERATE BLONDE, a revised version of which was published in the United States by Beacon Books as THE MARRIAGE BED in 1962. Considering its pedigree, there’s really very little sex in this book, and it’s not graphic at all. Some nude swimming is about as racy as it gets on the actual page. No, this is a pure suspense yarn, as Marta, with the help of private eye Dirk, tries to get out of the trouble in which her bad decisions have landed her. Heller was really good with setting, character, and pace, and he keeps the reader flipping the pages to find out what’s going to happen. A few plot twists near the end help make for a satisfying conclusion.

I don’t think this is quite as strong a novel as the others I’ve read by Heller, but it’s a very solid, entertaining book and well worth reading. It’s available in trade paperback and e-book editions on Amazon.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Fight Stories, Spring 1952

I didn't realize FIGHT STORIES was still being published as late as 1952. This was, in fact, the final issue in a run that began all the way back in June 1928. The cover of this last issue is by George Gross, who did a lot of great covers for Fiction House pulps. Jack Kofoed, one of the long-time stalwarts of FIGHT STORIES has a feature inside, and there are some interesting writers on hand, including Larry Holden (who was really mystery writer Lorenz Heller, much reprinted in recent years by Stark House) and Western pulpsters Clifton Adams and Phil Richards, along with names new to me such as Barney Barnett, Burgess Leonard, and Francis Paul Pyne. I think of Robert E. Howard when I think of FIGHT STORIES, of course, but it was a decent market for other pulp writers for a long time.

Lovers Don't Sleep - Laura Hale (Lorenz Heller)

Young, beautiful blonde Suzy Carr is head over heels in love with lawyer Harry Sloan, so in love that she doesn’t see how sleazy he is. Harry has a lucrative racket going, setting up quickie divorces when both parties want out of the marriage. Suzy makes a perfect foil for this shady scheme, letting Harry use her as “evidence” of adultery, courtesy of pictures taken by photographer Joe McBride, who’s actually a decent guy despite the racket he’s in. Then Harry’s actual mistress, wickedly beautiful femme fatale Camilla, cooks up a plan that involves getting rid of her unwanted husband, and it’s nothing as simple as a plain old divorce . . .

LOVERS DON’T SLEEP is another hardboiled romance novel by Lorenz Heller writing as Laura Hale, first published by Falcon Books in 1951 as part of the Exotic Novels line and recently reprinted with WILD IS THE WOMAN in a double volume by Stark House. I really enjoyed WILD IS THE WOMAN and LOVERS DON’T SLEEP is equally as good. The story races along at a very enjoyable pace, and Heller does a great job with the characters. Suzy isn’t all that bright, but she’s a very sympathetic protagonist, and Joe is a big, likable lug who’s clearly in love with her and wants to get both of them out of the mess in which they find themselves. Harry and Camilla are both suitably despicable. Heller orchestrates the twists and turns of their various relationships with great skill and the storytelling talent that keeps the reader flipping the pages.

Both novels in this double volume took me by surprise because I hadn’t really cared for the Lorenz Heller novels I’d tried in the past. Clearly, the fault in that lies with me, because based on WILD IS THE WOMAN and LOVERS DON’T SLEEP, he was a top-notch writer, a little reminiscent of Orrie Hitt but oriented more toward crime fiction. I give this double volume a high recommendation. It’s available in e-book and trade paperback editions on Amazon.

Wild is the Woman - Laura Hale (Lorenz Heller)

Stark House has reprinted a number of novels by Lorenz Heller, and they have a new double volume coming out that contains two of Heller’s novels originally published under the pseudonym Laura Hale. These are hardboiled romance novels, I guess you’d call them. I just read WILD IS THE WOMAN, published in 1951 as a Rainbow Book, one of those stapled, digest-sized lines of racy novels that were popular for a while in the early Fifties. This tale of a young woman becoming a burlesque dancer so she can get revenge on the crooked politician responsible for sending her brother to prison for a crime he didn’t commit is just terrific. It races along like a backstage musical combined with a gritty crime yarn. I had a great time reading it and give it a high recommendation. I’m looking forward to reading the other book in this double volume, which is available for pre-order on Amazon, and sampling more of Heller’s work.