Forgotten Books: Backfire - Dan Marlowe

BACKFIRE isn't just the title of this 1961 stand-alone novel by Dan J. Marlowe. It's what life has done to its protagonist, police detective Marty Donovan. Marty and his partner Tony Alfieri are on an unauthorized stake-out at a jewelry store, trying to catch an elusive thief who seems to have some connection to the security company that put in the store's alarm system. Things go wrong when the thief shows up, just as Marty and Tony expect, but Tony winds up dead and the killer gets away.

Marty figures he can't just call for help, for a couple of reasons. One, they weren't supposed to be there since they didn't set up the stake-out with their lieutenant, and two, Marty is having an affair with Tony's wife and he's afraid if that fact comes out, he'll be suspected of killing his own partner. So Marty decides to make things look different than they actually, keeping himself in the clear while he tries to track down the killer.

This isn't really a wise decision, because things just keep going wrong, the case gets more and more complicated, and Marty finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into trouble. But you knew that was going to happen, right?

BACKFIRE is a brisk little hardboiled crime novel. Marlowe's style is pretty plain and functional, but he keeps things moving along nicely and the plot has several layers. This isn't on the same level as THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH, Marlowe's masterpiece and one of the best crime novels ever written, but it's certainly worth reading.

Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe - Charles Kelly

I knew when I first heard about this book that I'd want to read it. I've read only a few books by Dan J. Marlowe, but two of them, THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH and ONE ENDLESS HOUR, are among the best hardboiled crime novels I've ever read. Also, I nearly always enjoy biographies of writers, especially the ones that have a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff about writing in them.

GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM, Charles Kelly's biography of Marlowe, certainly qualifies. I had no idea that Marlowe had written porn novels and men's magazine stories, although neither of those things surprises me. This book just confirms something that I've come to learn over the years: writers who I would have thought were quite successful financially often really weren't. A lot of times even writers who publish regularly struggle to make ends meet. That was true of Marlowe as well.

I also didn't know that Marlowe collaborated to such a large extent with William C. Odell. I knew Odell's name was on one of Marlowe's novels as co-author but had no idea that Odell also contributed to at least a dozen more. Nor did I know that Odell wrote three of the Nick Carter novels on his own. I don't think I've read those three books, but I'm not sure.

GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM also contains a lot of information about Marlowe's other collaborator, bank robber Al Nussbaum, including a rundown of Nussbaum's criminal career, and the most complete portrait yet of Marlowe's medical problems which led to a bout of amnesia that sidetracked his writing career for a number of years. It's all fascinating stuff and very well-written with a novelistic flair by Kelly, a crime novelist himself in addition to his career in journalism. All of it adds up to make GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM a fascinating book and definitely one of the best things I've read this year. Highly recommended. Available in both print and e-book editions.

Dustwood: A Western Webcomic

DUSTWOOD is a new Western webcomic with an interesting look to it by C.A. Beninati, a writer, artist, and graphic designer. A long-time Western fan, Chad cites not only Sergio Leone movies as an influence on DUSTWOOD but also the Don Knotts film THE SHAKIEST GUN IN THE WEST. You've got to love that combination! Check it out.

Pariah, Missouri: A Kickstarter Campaign You Should Check Out

Here's a very interesting-looking Weird Western graphic novel project currently being funded on Kickstarter.

1857. Pariah, Missouri is a riverboat boom-town and a haven for the unscrupulous. The charismatic Hy Buchanan works undercover as a foppish cheat, and creates a rag-tag team to ferret out evil, both the corruption of man and the supernatural. His first challenge is the arrival of a duo of thespians, whose intentions are not to entertain.

The script by Andres Salazar and the art by Jose Pescador look good on the sample pages on the website. I plan to contribute to this, and if you're a Weird Western fan you might want to, as well.

Amazon Recommendations

This showed up in the e-mail of a friend of mine this morning. You can't go wrong with that line-up.

New This Week

Well, this week I bought some print books again, for the first time in a while. These were all in the clearance section at Half Price Books, marked down from the regular nostalgia section.

THE STORY POCKET BOOK, edited by Whit Burnett – This is an early collection of mostly mainstream literature stories selected by Whit Burnett, one of the long-time editors of STORY MAGAZINE. Authors include Erskine Caldwell, Jesse Stuart, William Faulkner, Cornell Woolrich, Eric Knight, Lord Dunsany, William Saroyan, and the proverbial many others. This is the first printing of this early paperback, from December 1944. The cover and spine are a little faded, there's some sticker damage on the back cover, but the paper is barely tan. They used great paper back then. Who knows if I'll ever get around to reading it, but it only cost me a buck.

DARK UNIVERSE and THE INFINITE MAN by Daniel F. Galouye – A couple of science fiction novels by an author I've heard about for a long time but have never read, as far as I recall. Galouye published some well-regarded stories in the SF digests of the Fifties. I'll bet Bill Crider has read his work.

GIANTS IN THE DUST by Chad Oliver – I met Chad Oliver a few times at SF conventions but didn't really know him. We had a number of mutual friends, though. This is a science fiction novel from the Seventies.

THE DISAPPEARING ISLAND by Geoffrey Jenkins (originally published as A GRUE OF ICE) – Adventure novel set in Antarctica by a British (or possibly South African) thriller writer whose books I've seen around for decades but never read.

SIREN IN THE NIGHT, MURDER WITH SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY, and WASHINGTON WHISPERS MURDER, all by Leslie Ford – Three mystery novels from the Forties and Fifties, two of which feature Ford's series characters Grace Latham and Colonel Primrose (which name always makes me think of the board game CLUE). I seem to remember that Ford is controversial for some reason, but I don't remember why.

On the e-book front, only one to report that I haven't already reviewed: SHOCK TROOPS OF JUSTICE by Robert R. Mill, another fine collection from Black Dog Books. I've read some of Mill's other pulp stories and liked them.

Branham's Due - Richard Prosch

Richard Prosch knows Westerns, knows his native Nebraska, and is a fine writer, all of which is evident in BRANHAM'S DUE, his new ebook short story. Deputy Sheriff Whit Branham, armed with a 10-gauge shotgun along with intelligence and experience, is on the trail of a horse thief and killer who is hiding out in Branham's bailiwick of Holt County. Branham tracks down his quarry and arrests him seemingly without much trouble, but that's hardly the end of the story as Prosch still has several very nice twists to spring on the reader.

This is an excellent story, and I really enjoyed reading it. The ebook edition includes of a preview of the next Whit Branham story, a novella called HOLT COUNTY LAW that will be out soon. I'm looking forward to it, and in the meantime if you like a good Western yarn I highly recommend BRANHAM'S DUE.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: South Sea Stories, August 1940

South sea stories were a popular genre in the adventure pulps, and there was even a short-lived magazine devoted entirely to them, published by Ziff-Davis and edited by the legendary Raymond A. Palmer. This issue features a lead novel by Z-D regular Robert Moore Williams, along with a story by "Alexander Blade", a popular house-name that appeared in just about every magazine Z-D published. Other authors in this issue include Robert Leslie Bellem, who did most of his work for the Spicy pulps, and the always excellent Manly Wade Wellman. I've never seen an issue of SOUTH SEA STORIES, and I'm not sure I'd want to read a whole issue of such yarns, but if I did this looks like it would be a good issue to try.

Poison Mean - Peter Brandvold

This is a brand-new ebook short story from Peter Brandvold, so you know what to expect: a lightning-fast pace, plenty of gritty action, well-drawn characters, and a vivid setting. POISON MEAN delivers on all counts. It's an excellent Western adventure yarn about outlaw Chet Villanova, who's so mean (as the title indicates), that he doesn't hesitate to double-cross and murder the other members of his gang so he can hightail it to Mexico with all their loot for himself. Along the way, though, he meets an old prospector and the man's beautiful daughter, and things take a few turns that Villanova doesn't expect.

I had a great time reading this story, and if you need a break from shopping and eating leftovers – or even if you don't – I highly recommend it.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ranch Romances, First November Number, 1936

I've read this issue, although it's been quite a few years ago and I don't have a copy anymore. I bought it for J. Edward Leithead's novel "West of the Wagon Tongue", because Leithead is one of my favorite Western pulpsters. This is an excellent yarn, too. But there's plenty of other good reading in it from authors such as Stephen Payne, Lawrence Keating, and Frank C. Robertson. When I first started reading Western pulps I didn't have any interest in RANCH ROMANCES. I learned my lesson, though. There are a lot of great stories in its long run.