You’ll Get Yours/Thomas Wills (William Ard)

Al Guthrie recommended this book a couple of weeks ago in his comments on an earlier post about one of William Ard’s other novels. It was published by the legendary Lion Books in 1952. I got hold of a copy and read it, and while my opinion of it isn’t quite as high as Al’s, I enjoyed it.

The narrator is New York private eye Barney Glines. A PI named Barney Glines also appears in Ard’s two Danny Fontaine novels, published about a decade later. I haven’t read the Fontaine books yet, so I don’t know if the character is supposed to be the same one or just has the same name. This novel has a very atmospheric opening in which Barney is in a seedy hotel in Mexico, having come there to kill a man. Someone beats him to it, though, and from there the story backtracks to how and why Barney set out on this murderous quest. The yarn includes a beautiful actress, stolen diamonds, blackmail photos, strippers, vicious junkies, and a particularly brutal murder for which Barney is framed. In other words, all the stuff you need for a good private eye novel.

Which YOU’LL GET YOURS certainly is. In the end, the plot is a little too simple and seems to be lacking a twist or two, but the book is fast-paced, the action scenes are very good, and Barney Glines is a likable character. Its strongest aspect, though, is the nightmarish quality that hangs over the entire book, as if it might just be a fever dream rather than reality. One of Ard’s other novels is called HELL IS A CITY, and in this book, New York is pretty hellish. But in an entertaining way for hardboiled readers, of course.

Ride Into Yesterday/Ed Gorman

This is one of Ed Gorman’s earlier Westerns, originally published by Walker in 1992 under the pseudonym Christopher Keegan, then reprinted in paperback by Leisure in 1999 under Gorman’s name. But even if I had read the original edition without knowing who the author really was, I think I would have suspected that Ed wrote it. It has all the hallmarks of a Gorman Western: lean prose; characters who are wounded physically, spiritually, or both; a small town that harbors deadly secrets; and an air of grim melancholy that’s relieved somewhat by glimmerings of hope.

Gunfighter Stephen Payne – who never really wanted his reputation as a gunman – arrives in the small town of Favor, where his younger brother committed suicide after robbing a stagecoach. But Payne doesn’t believe that his brother really did either of those things. He thinks that his brother was murdered, and he sets out to discover the truth. It doesn’t take long for his investigation to put him in deadly danger, so he knows his suspicions must be correct. This is a fine book all around, with a particularly satisfying ending.

On a related note, I’ve read several Westerns by Lewis B. Patten lately, and I’ve been struck by the qualities they share with Gorman’s Westerns. Patten wasn’t the writer that Ed is, and his plots are more conventional. He was also inconsistent, producing some pretty bad books at times. But his good ones are well worth reading, and if you’ve read all of Ed Gorman’s Westerns and are looking for something similar, you could do worse than give Patten a try. Some books of his I’ve read recently that I liked quite a bit: PRODIGAL GUNFIGHTER, THE LAW IN COTTONWOOD, and LYNCHING AT BROKEN BUTTE.

Medical Update

I went to get my eyes examined for new glasses today. Had to wait for six weeks after that retina surgery. When it comes to getting my eyes examined and getting new glasses on a regular basis, I've been a bad, bad boy. I've been wearing my current pair for at least fifteen years, more likely seventeen or eighteen. The optometrist told me that as a result of letting my vision deteriorate, I squint 'way too much, which has changed the shape of my eyes and made them even more likely to develop retinal problems. I knew that one way or another it had to be my fault.

Anyway, I have a new prescription for my glasses now, and I'm going to be working on not squinting as much. New glasses should be in next week sometime. I could have gone to one of those one-hour places and gotten them today, but I decided to go the slower, cheaper route. For one thing, I plan on finishing the book I'm working on this weekend, or early next week at the latest, and this way maybe I can adjust to the new glasses between books.

Meanwhile, my eyes have continued to improve slowly (probably because I've been limiting my screen time), and I'm hoping the new glasses will also help in the long run.

Beyond All Desire / Tom Phillips

Look behind the soap-opera-like title and the soft-core porn cover of this book published by Monarch in 1961, and you’ve got . . . well, for the most part a soap-opera-like, soft-core porn novel. Which isn’t too much of a surprise considering that “Tom Phillips” was really Thomas P. Ramirez, who wrote dozens of Nightstand Books and Midnight Readers under the pseudonym Tony Calvano.

What makes this book a little better than it might have been is its behind-the-scenes look at a gigantic construction project, in this case an oil refinery and the company town that goes with it. Ramirez worked in the construction business, and those sections have an air of gritty authenticity about them. The corporate intrigue and sabotage and big business atmosphere make this book resemble a John D. MacDonald novel at times, although without MacDonald’s talent and storytelling ability. The numerous lurid romantic entanglements are actually the weakest part of the story.

I don’t know if Ramirez wrote any other Monarch Books as Tom Phillips. I’m not going to go out looking for them. But if I ever run across another one, I’ll probably pick it up.

Thriller/James Patterson, Editor

One of my main complaints about a lot of current novels is that they're too blasted long. So an anthology like this is a great thing for me, allowing me to sample the work of quite a few authors I've been meaning to try without having to commit to a doorstop of a novel. I wasn't too sure about the idea of writing thrillers as short stories -- the thriller genre seems to need a bit more scope than that, at least novella-length -- but most of the authors represented here pull off the trick very neatly.

Another nice thing about this anthology, and the whole concept of "thrillers" as defined by International Thriller Writers, Inc., the book's sponsor, is the variation in the types of stories allowed in that genre. While it's true that this particular anthology skews toward espionage yarns and legal thrillers, there are several historical stories, including Ted Bell's excellent "The Powder Monkey", featuring pirates, sea battles, and sword fights; and at the other end of the spectrum we have the vaguely science-fictional, action-packed "Kowalski's in Love" by James Rollins.

In every big anthology, there are bound to be a few stories that don't appeal of every reader. In this book, out of 30 stories, there were only a handful that I started, didn't like, and didn't finish. All the others ranged from fair to very good. My favorites were the Bell and Rollins stories mentioned above, plus:

"James Penney's New Identity" by Lee Child -- People have been recommending Child's books to me for years, and based on this story, they were right. I really enjoyed his style. This one ties in with his Jack Reacher books, which I intend to read soon.

"Interlude at Duane's", F. Paul Wilson -- Likewise, friends keep telling me I need to read Wilson's Repairman Jack novels. Again, based on this story, they were right. It's an urban shoot-em-up, as action-packed as the Rollins story. I have a copy of THE TOMB. Got to get to it soon.

"Success of a Mission", Dennis Lynds -- No surprise I'd like this story by Lynds. He's been one of my favorite authors for many years. Decades, actually.

"The Athens Solution", Brad Thor -- I've read Thor's first novel featuring Secret Service agent and counterterrorism expert Scot Harvath, THE LIONS OF LUCERNE, and liked it quite a bit, although I thought it was about twice as long as it needed to be (there's that gripe again). Harvath's a really good character, and this story is nice and tight, with a decent twist in the plot.

I also liked the stories by Steve Berry, Grant Blackwood, Gregg Hurwitz, J.A. Konrath, and M. Diane Vogt, and most of the others were pretty good, too. I've only read novels by three of the authors represented in this anthology -- Dennis Lynds, David Morrell, and Brad Thor -- but I intend to remedy that where some of the others are concerned.

Babe in the Woods/William Ard (Ghosted by Lawrence Block)

This is the third book in the Lou Largo series. Some sources say that William Ard started it and that it was finished by Lawrence Block after Ard's death. Other sources give sole credit for it to Block. The copyright is by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, so it's not surprising that Block would be involved, even if the extent of his involvement isn't known for sure.

Lou Largo is a New York private eye with all the usual attributes. He's big, tough, ruggedly handsome, and irresistible to the ladies. In this book he gets mixed up with a pair of beautiful Hungarian sisters, LiLi and LuLu Kovar, who are pretty blatantly based on the Gabor sisters. Famous actress LiLi Kovar is in some sort of trouble, and Largo is hired to accompany her on a trip to Germany, where she's supposed to make a movie, so that he can protect her and find out what's wrong. There's not much mystery here, as the plot is revealed to the reader very early on: LiLi is being blackmailed by Soviet agents who are threatening the life of her father, Hungarian resistance leader Stephen Kovar, who has been in a Budapest prison for the past five years.

Most of the book takes place on board a ship crossing the Atlantic, bound for Germany. There are several murders, a couple of attempts on Largo's life, and numerous beautiful babes trying to get into his bed. Eventually everybody winds up in East Berlin, where a shootout finally resolves everything.

Sometimes I think that I'm too caught up in nostalgia, too willing to overlook the flaws in older books and too quick to criticize current ones. But then a book like this comes along to prove that's not true all the time. This is not a very good book at all, and if I hadn't known that Lawrence Block had something to do with it, I never would have guessed at his involvement. Other than a few nice turns of phrase, this is thoroughly undistinguished stuff, and I had to struggle to finish it. Decent imitation McGinnis cover, though. At least I think it's an imitation and not the real thing, but I'm not enough of an expert on cover art to be sure. Some of the other Lou Largo books may be better, but I didn't care for this one.

Hardluck Stories/Western Noir

The new issue of Hardluck Stories, Dave Zeltserman's fine on-line magazine, is now available. This is the Western Noir issue and features stories by guest editor Ed Gorman, Bill Crider, Norman Partridge, Jon Breen, Harry Shannon, Trey R. Barker, T.L. Wolf, Jeremiah Healy, Bentley Little, Steve Hockensmith, Jerry Raine, Jan Christiansen, Terry Tanner, and me. My story, for those of you who have read some of my short fiction in the past, is another yarn about Captain Rip Ford and the Old Company of the Texas Rangers, set in Texas in the 1850s. This is a fact-based series for the most part, but I've taken considerable liberties with history in this one, which is called "The Conversion of Carne Muerto". I'll be reading the rest of the stories later today and am looking forward to them very much.

Three Decades

It doesn't seem possible that thirty years have passed since this picture was taken. It sure doesn't feel like that long ago. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes.

Those of you who have met me in person are probably thinking that these pictures are the first time you've ever seen me in a tie, let alone a suit. ("And probably the last time," Livia commented when I mentioned that to her.)

We didn't have a honeymoon because we got married on Saturday and she had college classes to attend on Monday. Or maybe it was registration. I'm a little fuzzy on that, but hey, it's been thirty years. We still haven't taken that honeymoon. Maybe one of these days.

On our 20th anniversary, an editor called that day and said he needed a proposal we were working on as soon as he could get it. So we spent all day writing, took the proposal to Fort Worth late that afternoon, and sent it UPS overnight. Of course, it didn't sell. On our 25th anniversary, another editor called that morning and wanted me to do some revisions and fax them to him that day. For one of the few times in my career, I told an editor, "Nope, not gonna do it. They'll have to wait until tomorrow." When I explained the circumstances, he agreed. Today I didn't write anything -- but I did edit three chapters this afternoon.

When we got married, we moved into an apartment built onto the side of an old rock house that had been there a hundred years or so. It was on top of a hill with a nice view of the lake a couple of miles away. We had one phone, two TVs, and a manual typewriter. I worked for my dad, running the office in his TV repair shop, and wrote movie reviews for the local weekly paper while I was also trying to sell short stories. I probably wouldn't have stuck with it if Livia hadn't encouraged me and believed in me. I know it's a cliche to say that I owe it all to her, but in this case it happens to be true.

Just some musings on a hot day in Texas.

Thirty Years Ago

Since it's after midnight, it's officially our anniversary. Here's one of the pictures from that day.

No Angels for Me/William Ard

I was in the mood to read a vintage hardboiled paperback, and this is what came to hand. I'd never read any of William Ard's mysteries before, but years ago I read all the Westerns he wrote under the name Jonas Ward. He created the long-running Buchanan series and wrote the first five books featuring the character (one of which was made into a movie starring Randolph Scott). Ard died during the writing of the sixth book, which was completed by Robert Silverberg, and then the series was continued by Brian Garfield (one book) and William R. Cox (all the others), with Jonas Ward becoming a house-name.

But I'm getting off the subject here. I knew that Ard wrote mysteries as well as Westerns and have half a dozen of them on my shelves, including NO ANGELS FOR ME. The hero of this one is New York private detective Luke MacLane, who works for the All-States Detective Agency rather than being a loner PI like so many. But all the other usual elements of the genre are here. The book opens with MacLane identifying the body of a fellow PI for All-States who had been on the trail of some stolen diamonds. Vowing vengeance for his friend's murder, MacLane sets out to track down the killer as well as the loot from the diamond heist. Along the way, assorted beautiful women in varying stages of undress throw themselves at him, he gets hit on the head, drugged, and taken for a ride, and there are double-crosses galore. This sounds pretty hokey and cliched now, but it probably wasn't in 1954, when this book was published. It takes a good writer, though, to overcome the stereotypes and make a book like this hold up today, and Ard wasn't really that good. I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody who is used to reading only current PI novels. As for me, though, I enjoyed it quite a bit. There are some nice turns of phrase here and there, the action scenes are good, and even if beautiful women really don't throw themselves at private eyes all the time, I want to believe they do. I wouldn't hesitate to read another of Ard's mystery novels.