The Dagger Affair (The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #4) by David McDaniel

The fourth in the series of Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels is also the first to be written by David McDaniel who would go on to write five more plus an unpublished finale called “The Final Affair”.

Having read a number of these now, I must say this one is easily among my favorites. Sure, it’s another story about preventing an evil genius with a new invention from destroying the world, but it’s the method of telling that story that is unique. The U.N.C.L.E. agents are forced into an alliance with arch-enemy THRUSH in order to prevent the evil plot.  After all, THRUSH doesn’t want to see the world destroyed; they want to take it over and wield power over it. It’s in everybody’s best interests to call a temporary truce and work together.

The characterization of both Solo and Kuryakin this time around is much closer to what was shown in the television series than the first three books in the series. They are very effective as a team, and in tough situations they are each able to read the actions of the other like a well-oiled machine. They also display a playful banter with each other which is both endearing as well as serves to hi-light their different natures. Even Mr. Waverly gets to have some time in the field. The author includes a fair bit of humor, including one scene in an airplane where the movie to be shown is the newest James Bond picture. While Solo is quickly absorbed in the opening sequence, Kuryakin just shakes his head, not understanding how people could enjoy such rubbish.

But the best part of this novel is that we finally get to understand the nature of THRUSH, not only learning what that acronym stands for but also to learn of its history and what its primary goals are. That sure beats the vague “bad guy organization” we’ve known about up until this point (if you're reading them sequentially in publication order). The higher-up THRUSH characters of Ward and Irene Baldwin are not only nicely drawn characters but also work well as a way to put a face to the THRUSH organization and even almost become anti-heroes. It’s always nice to have educated, honorable (at least on the surface), and gentlemanly foes to work with. Working alongside THRUSH agents in life-or-death scenarios might be distasteful at first but we readers tend to get lulled into complacency right along with Solo, Kuryakin, and Weatherly, all the while knowing this won’t last and soon they would once again be enemies.

I’m glad to know there are more U.N.C.L.E. books still to come written by David McDaniel. Looking forward to them all.

The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards

This non-fiction book won all sorts of awards when it came out in 2016, including the prestigious Edgar and Agatha awards.  It’s easy to see why.  I’ve dabbled in reading a few golden age detective novels, mostly Agatha Christies but a few others here and there. But I’ve never felt like I had a good handle on that era and how and why this sub-genre came to be so popular.  I was also interested in learning more about the authors involved.

The Golden Age of murder mysteries or detective novels is usually considered to be those years between the two world wars.  Big name authors were Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K Chesterton (Father Brown mysteries), John Dickson Carr, John Road, Anthony Berkley, and many others. In the year 1930 a small group of these authors formed “The Detection Club”:

    an elite social network of writers whose work earned a reputation for literary excellence, and earned     a profound long-term influence on storytelling in fiction, film, and television.

This was a group of young writers from Britain (almost all living in London), whose impact continues to be felt even today.  This book focuses on their early years, from 1930 through 1949, which only involved a total of 39 members.   

The book does an excellent job of not only delving into their biographies and work, but also provides a solid understanding of how they influenced each other, criticized each other, and came to each other’s defense. I really felt like I got to know them, warts and all. Many of them got ideas from real-life murders, details to which we are also treated. But the real treasure here is in understanding how their work came to be so important and influential for later authors, whether in the mystery genre or beyond.  The author is, himself a crime writer as well as a noted authority on detective fiction which is very evident throughout the book.

Best of all, I feel like I absorbed all of the information that a textbook could offer and yet this doesn’t read like a textbook at all. In some ways, it is like reading a mystery story, especially considering all of the secrets these authors kept to themselves. Very entertaining to read.

The bad news is that I now have a whole list of authors I want/need to try and a much longer list of their books to get my hands on.

Highly recommended.

Once Upon a Star: The Adventures of Manning Draco, Volume 1 by Kendell Foster Crossen

Manning Draco is the chief insurance investigator for the Greater Solarian Insurance Company, "Monopolated", in the 35th century.  He is called upon to work the most difficult cases of fraud, scams, and circumvent con artists of all types.  This book contains four sequential novellas that feature humorous/zany situations where Draco must exercise his considerable intellect to come up with creative solutions in order to prevent huge inappropriate monetary payouts from his company.  Frequently he rescues his company from poor decisions.

These stories are filled with funny situations and Draco’s snarky, yet friendly personality makes these stories really fun to read.  Since they take place in the far future, the author pulls out all the stops when creating alien species and planetary/cultural governments and cultures.  In fact, it often goes to the point of being absurd but that’s entirely consistent with the zany tone of the stories and just adds to the fun. It’s a bit like combining The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with the Flashman novels but with an insurance investigator plot.  Fun stuff indeed.

These stories were originally published in the early 1950’s in “Thrilling Wonder Stories”.  Author Kendell Foster Crossen may be familiar to readers as the author of the Milo March detective novels under the pseudonym M.E. Chaber. Crossen was incredibly prolific and actually wrote over 400 radio and television dramas, some 300 short stories, 250 non-fiction articles and approximately forty-five novels. He also found the time to write reviews, edit several science fiction collections, and serve as editor for Detective Fiction Weekly.  He was responsible for the creation of  private eyes Brian Brett and Pete Draco, although he's probably best known for creating “The Green Lama”, a costumed vigilante who appeared in the pulps from the forties.

Shoot-Out at Sugar Creek (Caleb York #6) by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

This sixth book in the Caleb York series directly follows the events of book #5, Hot Lead, Cold Justice, in which a killer blizzard swept across the Southwest putting lives and whole ranches in peril. Trying to recover from that experience has proven no easy task. Wealthy widow and cattle baroness, Victoria Drummond, has seized the opportunity to snatch up most of the smaller ranches in the area of Trinidad, New Mexico, and now has her sites set on the vast Bar-O spread, owned and managed by Willa Cullen, the getting-close-to-fiancé-status girlfriend of one Sheriff Caleb York.

There is no level to which Victoria will not stoop to get what she wants, to include hiring an army of hard case gunfighters from nearby Las Vegas, setting up ambushes, and even sacrificing her own sons to the effort. She has the upper hand against the Bar-O due to controlling Sugar Creek, the only water supply that’s not fouled by dead cattle from the massive blizzard. So, when Sheriff York is forced to shoot and kill Victoria’s son for raping and beating a saloon trollop, a full-on range war is ignited.

Some readers expect the character of Caleb York to be simply a western version of Mike Hammer but I find Caleb to be a much more sympathetic character. He is loyal to the law and to maintaining the peace, but he is a firm stand-your-ground kind of man and never backs down from a fight. He’s an excellent shot, of course, and always manages to find plenty of action to test his skills, but he would prefer that was not the case.

The plot of this novel tests not only Caleb York’s skills with a gun but also his hot-cold-warm-hot relationship with Willa Cullen, once again. The stakes have never been higher, and the body-count is stratospheric. With the title of this novel being what it is, a lot of gunplay is expected but man-o-man was that spectacular! I was fully invested in these characters after the very first book in the series, The Legend of Caleb York, and the rest of the series has only increased that for me. So, when one of them gets such a raw deal as we see here, I’m all in for revenge in the purest sense of the word.

I really hope there are more Caleb York novels still to come. Please let it be so.

Doc Savage - The Red Terrors by Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent/Harold Davis)

A sailor on a ship in the South Atlantic eats an apple contaminated with diphtheria and infects the rest of the merchant vessel’s crew. One passenger, a deep-sea diver, tries to survive by diving into the water with his suit on, only to experience something incredible. We readers aren’t privy to exactly what that is until much later in the novel, but a clue is provided in the form of a torn piece of red suit material.

Meanwhile strange attacks are occurring in New York City involving red humanoids. And then word reaches Doc Savage's headquarters of a criminal doctor getting dragged off his ship by another red creature. But when Long Tom and Renny go missing, and then Johnny is severely injured (two broken legs and a broken arm!) Doc pulls out all the stops to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on. Doc, Monk, and Ham follow the trail that leads them to an extraordinary under-the-sea civilization, a civilization connected to one they’ve discovered before in Mystery Under The Sea, published two years previously in 1936.

This is the 67th Doc Savage novel to be published (number 83 in Bantam edition order). It was co-written by Lester Dent and Harold Davis. The year was 1938 and the yearning for technological adventure was in full swing. The Doc Savage novels have always been on the cutting edge of technology, thanks to creator and primary author, Lester Dent who liked to have Doc using all the latest gear. Frequently, he used items that weren’t even in existence yet, projecting what would be logical advancements in the near future. In this novel, however, the tech speculation goes beyond mere projection and into pure fantasy. While some explanative science is provided for how the humans can live and breathe under water using pills and a specialized gas, today's readers must really suspend their disbelief and just go with it. 

Putting that observation aside, this was a fun entry in the Doc Savage series. Lots of action sequences but balanced with a straightforward mystery plot. No Scooby-Doo ending this time; the bad guys and the good guys are identified early on with no double-crossing to be found. The real focus here is on the underwater society and how it developed and operates despite the obvious barriers. Good pulpy fun. And the Boris Vallejo cover art on the Bantam edition doesn't hurt.

The Long Short Cut by Andrew Garve (Paul Winterton)

Michael Bliss, handsome, charming, and polished man about town is beginning to run a little low on funds. He’s not particularly worried though as he’s been in this position many times before. A new job always seemed to come his way. It was just a matter of finding the right opportunity. These things had a way of taking care of themselves, especially for a professional confidence man like Bliss.

Sure enough, an opportunity does, indeed, come along when Bliss witnesses a shooting. At first, he is reluctant to come forward as a witness but then he realizes he can make use of the goodwill he would generate from the police. He can use that to smuggle a criminal financier out of the country and use those same police to assist him in the smuggling operation. He enlists his new friend, the lovely Corinne in a masterful scheme and together they plan and execute all the details while at the same time, earning a hefty paycheck, albeit grudgingly from the financier.

Author Andrew Garve is a pseudonym of Paul Winterton, a former journalist in Britain and a well-respected crime writer. He was, in fact a founding member of the Crime Writers’ Association. He’s written a number of engaging mystery/crime novels and if this one is an indication of his work, then I will be happy to pursue as many others as I can.

That said, this is not a perfect novel by any means. The scheme developed by Bliss and Corinne wasn’t really all that complex, nothing like an Ocean’s 11 sort of scheme. There are a few risks with their plan but, given the state of technology in 1968 when this novel was first published, those risks seem minor. Most of the novel is devoted to the day-to-day and even hour-by-hour planning while much less is devoted to the actual carrying out of the plan. But that was Ok with me because something about these two characters resonated with me, and I enjoyed spending time with them. I kept waiting for something to go wrong but it all unfolded without a hitch…until the very end. I’d been expecting one of the pair to turn on the other, having conned them all the way along. Whether or not I was right...well, I won’t spoil that but I will say the end provided a nice surprise twist and another in the very last paragraph.

An enjoyable read and a nice entry into more works of Paul Winterton which I will be seeking out in the future.

Slither by Edward Lee

Professor Nora Craig and her research assistant, Loren are America’s foremost authorities on the intricate study of worms. They’ve been chosen to accompany a National Geographic photographer and an Army Lieutenant onto an island off the Florida Keys in search of the rare “Scarlet Bristleworm”. What they find there is something all together different, a previously undiscovered worm which has the capability to grow extremely rapidly, can eat through metal and concrete, and likes to spawn eggs in moist warm places like human bodies. Two other small groups of island visitors have preceded the main foursome and have already discovered the horror to be found there. There is also a military presence on the island which leads us to believe they are conducting biological experiments.

The first three quarters of this novel is a pretty standard movie-of-the-week style horror yarn. Sort of a combo of a creature feature and swamp sleaze. The photographer is a young, beautiful girl who happens to be as promiscuous as can be so there are ample opportunities for sexual innuendo and teasing which morphs into full-on sex scenes. Later, as the worm infestation comes into fruition, the sex stuff morphs once again into gross-out sex, with all kinds of eggs, larvae, etc. leaking and oozing out of various orifices….ugh…you get the idea.

The final quarter of the novel seems to be a case of the author writing himself into a corner and seeking a solution that will make some kind of sense for how these worms came to be. I won’t spoil that in this review but suffice it to say that it mostly works as long as you can suspend every shred of disbelief in your brain. I did appreciate that the ignorant and arrogant souls on this island get what they deserve while the intelligent ones are able to rationally think through possibilities for survival. That doesn’t always happen in these sorts of stories.

I will likely read more of this author's stuff as I still have at least three more of his books on my shelf. But much like Richard Laymon's body of work, I'll need plenty of time between them to shower and recuperate, lest I go insane.

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard

Another fine collection of short stories from Robert E. Howard accompanied by some truly amazing artwork by Greg Staples. As I always do with these Del Rey collections, I read one story per week (with a few exceptions when I couldn’t resist the urge to read just one more) and thus it has taken me five full months to get through the collection. No doubt I will go into withdrawal now until I start the next set.

There are 60 items within, counting stories, poems, and unfinished fragments. There are, of course, horror elements in all 60 but the range of “horror” is quite vast. We are treated to everything from traditional supernatural tales, to occult horror, to psychological scares. Occasionally we encounter characters we’ve come across before, including Solomon Kane and Steve Costigan but for the most part these are all unique, stand-alone stories that demonstrate the amazing versatility of this gifted writer. There is even a story that ties in to HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos (not surprising given the pair’s well-known long-term correspondence).

No doubt I will return to these stories from time to time, just like my other REH collections. They never seem to get old.

The Spider #7 - "Serpent of Destruction" by Grant Stockbridge (Norvell Page)

April 1934: Prohibition has been repealed in the United States, much to the dismay of organized crime and less-than-organized crime alike. But if liquor is now legal, narcotics are not, so it’s an easy transition for criminals to transfer their focus. Richard Wentworth, aka The Spider, knows this is a new level of war and he’s willing to risk everything to fight it.

A national crime syndicate has its sights set on the upper crust of society, feeding them cocaine and heroine and never looking back. The Bloody Serpent gang has the market mostly sewn up by the time the story begins. Wentworth is already making moves in the war, but it is apparent he’ll have to pull out all the stops this time. I’ve read several Spider books before but this one seems to have really cranked it up a notch. There is a ton of action here, with knife fights, gun battles, and fisticuffs galore. Wentworth’s disguise kit gets plenty of workouts as well, as he infiltrates and surveils the bad guys. But it’s a far-reaching syndicate with powerful tools of their own as proven when Police Commissioner Kirkpatrick is removed from duty because of his supposed taking of bribes. A set-up of course, but it’s an important tool that’s now off the table for The Spider. (Although Kirkpatrick makes up for this as a total bad ass in several gunfights on Wentworth’s behalf).

The stakes get even bigger when Wentworth’s fiancé, Nita van Sloan, is kidnapped and held as leverage against The Spider’s actions. Fortunately, his old pal, Professor Brownlee is available and tapped to construct a cane with a hidden nozzle that shoots spider venom. This cane is an awesome, perhaps even iconic weapon that The Spider uses to inflict 24 hours of tortuous pain before the victim ultimately dies. Pretty cool!

First published in 1934, this is the seventh entry in the series, and the fifth by the prolific writer Norvell Page who, I believe, had really begun to hit his stride. The plot is nicely complex without becoming obtuse and the action is virtually non-stop. The Spider has no interest in bringing bad guys to jail or in rehabilitating them. He’s happy to annihilate them and simply remove them from any chance of a further life of crime. The ending was pretty sweet with a nice twist in the identity of the main bad guy, the Chief of the Bloody Serpent gang.

Two bonus short stories are included with this volume: “Deadlock” by Arthur Leo Zagat and “The Death Yacht” by George A. Starbird. Bold Venture Press does a fine job with these reprints and I look forward to my next adventure with The Spider.

Creature by John Saul

The small mountain town of Silverdale Colorado is perfect. A company town with perfect weather, perfect neighborly citizens, and the perfect high school with a perfect football team. It is to this perfect town, run by the corporate tech giant, Tarrentech, that the family of 16-year-old Mark Tanner moves; a promotion for his father and a chance to start again for Mark. Little does he know that such perfection comes at a cost. Due to a childhood sickness, Mark is now a short, skinny kid who avoids sports in favor of more scholarly pursuits but when faced with continual bullying from school, friends, and even his own dad, it becomes harder and harder to resist what the town, and the high school sports clinic has to offer.

I’ve tried two John Saul novels before and thought them “OK” but not particularly brag-worthy. But several of my reading friends have been urging me not to give up on him and so I dug this one out of my vast home library of unread books and gave him another try. Happily, I can report that this one surprised me quite nicely, keeping me engaged throughout with good narrative story-building. The character of Mark, especially, was well done and I think I will remember him for a long time to come. It’s not fine literature by any means but that's not what I was looking for when I picked it up to read.

Published in 1989, the plot of this novel makes full use of the dangers and fears of anabolic steroid abuse, vitamin enhancing therapies, etc. of the time. The novel takes things to extremes, of course, in order to create a truly horrifying story but just as in most good horror, it is the nature of humans and how we treat each other that is the real horror occurring.

Uther (The Camulod Chronicles #7) by Jack Whyte

It was with great reverence and a bit of trepidation that I returned to my reading of the Camulod Chronicles.  The first six novels of this amazing series form a complete series by themselves and I was a little worried that even though I had greatly enjoyed those novels, this next one might be more of a “filler” novel. After all, it tells the story of Uther Pendragon, a life that was already mostly covered during the events of book three, The Eagles' Brood, where he is shown growing up with his cousin Merlyn. The shear length of the book also added to my concern, weighing in at over 900 paperback pages. So… at the risk of suffering through a lengthy filler novel, I plunged in anyway, tossing my fears aside for the simple reason that I trust this author, Jack Whyte, to provide me with yet another amazing novel, much as he had with the first six books.

And he did just that. Most of the first half of the book was, indeed, a repeat of the events of The Eagles' Brood but while that book was told from the first person perspective of Merlyn Britannicus as he looked back on long-ago events, this book was from Uther’s third person perspective as those events unfolded. It’s quite a different viewpoint because the two characters are so different from another. 

The second half of the book covered Uther’s life after leaving Camulod (Camelot) as he becomes King of Cambria and leads his alliance in an aggressive defense against Lot of Cornwall.  These events were not covered in previous books in the series other than a passive mention of Uther being off doing his thing in the West. So I was happy to fill in these holes. We do know the end result of Uther’s campaigns, of course, and so the second half of the book does read a little like a tragedy. But to read of Uther’s actions, his thoughts and growth as a character, his relationship with Ygraine, their child Arthur, the difficulty with dealing with various allies as Uther tries to counter the devious Lot… all of that was truly awesome.

Historical novels that center on warfare can often get bogged down in endless battles but the battles that take place in the final 200 pages of this book were absolutely intriguing. To watch Uther’s brilliance at overcoming difficult odds, designing a new brand of warfare when desperately needed, and demonstrate ideal leadership qualities was extremely fulfilling. The battles themselves are like a combination of a strategic chess match and well-choreographed action sequences filled with all the bloody horror one would expect from up close and personal sword play, flails impacting helmets, pounding horse hooves, etc. I never once felt bogged down or wished for the plot to speed up even though this is a very long novel. But don’t get the impression this is strictly a war novel. That’s really only a small part of Uther’s life and of this novel.

Once again, a Jack Whyte novel gets my highest recommendation. But definitely start at the beginning of the series (The Skystone) in order to be privy to the numerous interactions and history leading up to the rise of Arthur himself. Only two more books to go in the larger series and I am already dreading the moment when I will have turned the last page.