Death Trap by John D. MacDonald

Hugh MacReedy has just returned to the US from Europe where he has spent two and a half years working on the construction of some military airfields. He’s ready to take a nice two-month vacation when he happens across a newspaper article describing the upcoming execution of the brother of an old girlfriend. Seems the man has been convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman, a local promiscuous tease of a girl. Hugh goes back to the small town where it all took place, gets back together with his old girlfriend, and begins investigating the circumstances of the crime.

This novel was MacDonald's nineteenth novel, first published in February 1957. The plot is a fairly straight-forward murder investigation by a non-professional. Hugh is a construction engineer, not a private investigator. But he is an intelligent fellow and is very good at pounding the pavement, speaking with those involved, and putting together the subtle clues to solve the mystery and determine the real rapist/murderer. In fact, he identifies the culprit pretty early, about half-way through the book, and the story changes from a sleuthing mystery to more of a thriller. Hugh, working now with several other townspeople, must find actual evidence in order to grant a stay of execution for the wrongfully convicted brother of his girlfriend and bring the real killer to justice.

This novel was written in the early prime of MacDonald’s writing career. Before the Travis McGee novels, which largely took over his writing life, his stand-alones showed a genuine progression as he matured as a writer and this one clearly shows his prowess with the written word. The main character, Hugh MacReady is a typical MacDonald protagonist. He is tall, strong, tanned, and women find him attractive. He is a professional man doing man's work. But he is also different in that he committed a major blunder in his early days, having wooed, bedded, and then abandoned his girlfriend. She was nothing more than another notch in his belt. Thus, after returning to that same small town after three years, his rekindling of that relationship, genuine this time, represents a correction of his moral flaw. This moral theme is seen often in MacDonald’s prose.

For those readers who tend to read only John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books, I recommend pursuing his other novels as well. For the most part, they are real treats. As this one is.

Men's Adventure Quarterly, Vol 4 - Jungle Girls by Bob Deis & Bill Cinningham

The fourth edition of the Men’s Adventure Quarterly magazine is, once again, another fine addition to the stable. As much as I enjoy each one, the next one always seems to top the previous one by a slim margin. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but there it is. 

The first three volumes were devoted to specific topics: Westerns, Espionage, and Vigilantes. Obviously, the next topic to be conquered is Jungle Girls. All of the content, prose and artwork, is sourced from the men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) of the 1950’s, 60s’ and 70’s.

About half of this volume is devoted to the inestimable Jane Dolinger. Here was an adventurer like few others. She billed herself as an "adventure travel writer” who traveled the world’s exotic locations to experience the cultures and then write about them. She became known as “Jungle Jane Dolinger”. Ultimately, she would produce a half dozen or so books and hundreds of travel articles for magazines and newspapers. She was also a model, often posing for scantily clad photos to accompany her articles and stories, many of which are included here as well.

The other real-life jungle girl in this issue is German born Marion Michael, billed as the next Bridget Bardot and cast in a couple of German films, (Liane, Jungle Goddess), while still in her teens.

Four Jungle Girl stories are presented as well, all in the faux-realism style that was common for the MAMs (written in the style of a true-life adventure even though fictional). Of course, there is much more here than just the stories and articles. The artwork alone is worth the cover price but there are also oodles of informative content about the authors, artists, and publishers behind the work. Very informative, just as I expect from this high-quality production.

Tough Tender by Max Allan Collins

“Tough Tender” collects the 5th and 6th novels in Max Allan Collins’ Nolan series, originally written in the mid 1970's - 80's but with a complicated publishing history. Nolan, former member of the Chicago branch of “The Family” and an accomplished master of the heist, is trying to retire. But as another iconic character once said, “Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.” But this time, it’s not The Family that’s pulling Nolan back in again; it’s a former mark.

The first book in this double edition, “Hard Cash” acts as a sequel to the very first book in the series, “Bait Money” in which Nolan works with a group of young would-be thieves to knock over the First National Bank of Port City, Iowa. Now, the very same bank president, prodded by the lovely Julie, hires Nolan to rob it again. Nolan is assisted by his young protégé, Jon and together they must navigate the pitfalls of the operation. Nolan and Jon are plunged into one unexpected twist after another, but a heist is a heist and they never let go of their goal of securing the prize.

The second novel in this double collection, “Scratch Fever” is a direct sequel to “Hard Cash”. It takes place roughly one year later and opens with Jon now the lead in a local club-scene rock & roll band. In the audience, he spies somebody he thought dead, a character from the previous book and somebody who is destined to cause havoc and mayhem in his life. The stakes are high and Jon is soon fighting for his life. Other dangerous characters from previous books show up – hitmen out for revenge. This time it’s Nolan to the rescue in a nail-biting cat & mouse yarn that really keeps the pages turning. 

Nolan is a great character and as MAC writes in the introduction, these stories provide “low-life villains who retain a recognizable humanity.” Hard Cash is meant to combine “the caper novel with the James M. Cain sex melodrama”. Nolan is a tough guy, supremely competent, and willing to take whatever steps are necessary. But throughout, he does, indeed, have that inner core of honor that keeps him sympathetic to the reader. Jon, is also a wonderful sidekick character who tends to take on prominent roles in their various schemes all while dreaming of one day being a successful writer and artist in the world of comics. Gotta love it.

All the Nolan novels can technically be read as stand-alones, but I would recommend they be read in order of publication due to some recurring characters and situations, as evidenced by the two novels presented here. Thankfully, Hard Case Crime has committed to producing all the Nolan books in new, beautifully rendered double editions. Can’t wait for the final pairing still to come.

The People of the Wind by Poul Anderson

Two great empires, the Terran Empire of humans and the Ythrian Empire of bird-like people are at the precipice of war. Caught in between is the planet of Avalon where Humans and Ythrians have learned to live together. So much so that many of the humans there want to become more like the Ythrians, even going so far as to inject themselves with Ythrian DNA, evolving somewhat, into a hybrid species.

First published in 1973, this novel was nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Locus awards. However, it eventually lost to Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama and consequently is much less well known today.  There is quite a bit of scientifically based world building here, especially in regard to the Ythrian species. In many ways this is a novel about race relations but unlike similar science fiction novels of the time, the author does a good job of presenting the issues from both sides. Interestingly, while this is a stand-alone novel, there is a connection to Poul Anderson’s Polestechnic books in that Avalon was originally populated by descendants of David Falkayn, the master trader of those books.

I do confess to struggling with this one. Anderson’s sparse style is not always easy reading and I found myself having to re-read often in order to ensure I was understanding the plot. There are a lot of characters as well which add to the complexity; understanding how they relate to one another is challenging. Nevertheless, the effort was worth it and prods me to tackle more of Poul Anderson’s work.

The Killers of Cimarron by Frank Leslie (Peter Brandvold)

Nothing in life had turned out right for him so far.  Being dead couldn’t really be all that bad.

The second novel in the Colter Farrow series picks up with Colter attempting to make a new life as a ranch hand in the Cheyenne Mountains of Wyoming.  He’s on the run from bounty hunters but hopes the word has not reached this far north. Difficult to do considering his face is prominently branded from a horrendous feud with a corrupt sheriff in his past. Now he works for Cimarron Padilla. It's hard but honest work, and it also has its perks, including Cimarron’s beautiful adopted Hunkpapa daughter, Pearl.  Of course, life can’t stay that ideal for long and indeed, a band of ornery killers who have previously robbed a cache of Army gold, invade Colter’s new idyllic life followed but a whole lot of double-fisted pot boiler action.  

Frank Leslie is a pseudonym of the always reliable Peter Brandvold.  He's probably best known for his other western series characters such as Yakima Henry, Lou Prophet, Sheriff Ben Stillman, and others but I'm here to tell you not to skip over this Colter Farrow series. I’ve read a lot of westerns over the years, including Louis L'Amour-style traditional westerns, adult westerns like Longarm, and Slocum, and those from the Piccadilly Cowboys like Edge, Crow, and Gringos.  This series is almost a combination of all of them, filled with some traditional themes but told in a modern syle, and a bit rougher around the edges.  It’s definitely violent and has some titillating sexual innuendo, though not blatant. And as with most Brandvold westerns, you have no guarantee of a happily ever-after ending.  The prose is excellent with some descriptive passages almost poetic in nature. It was exactly the type of western I was looking for when I picked it up: a great story filled with edge-of-your-seat suspense, action, intrigue, and even some wry humor.

I enjoyed the main character of Colter a lot but I have to say the other main character, Spurr Logan, really stole the show in this volume.  He’s an old deputy federal marshal out of Denver, one that should probably have retired several years ago.  His “ticker” is on borrowed time, but his libido and cantankerous attitude are both full speed ahead.  

While this is the second book in the series, I found that reading it as a stand-alone is perfectly fine.  Previous events are referred to a little bit but not much.  It does however create a great need on my part to read the remaining books in the series! 

Wobble to Death by Peter Lovesey

A “wobble’, for the uninitiated, is a pedestrian contest wherein competitors walk or run for a set period of time, trying to complete as much distance as possible before time is called. It eventually transformed into the modern sport of speed walking. Just such a wobble is the setting for this whodunnit novel set in London, 1879 and the set time is 6 days. That’s a long walk by anyone’s standards but when one of the primary competitors is found dead by strychnine poisoning, Sgt Cribb and his constable partner, Thackeray are called in to investigate.

This first book in the eight volume Sgt Cribb series is the very first book ever published by the highly regarded Peter Lovesey. I’ve been wanting to sample some of his work ever since I saw him as a panelist at a conference. A witty, charming, and downright hilarious speaker, he has won just about every mystery author award in existence. This book shows plenty of signs of that award winning style and it is difficult to believe this is a first effort written more than 45 years ago. I will say that it got off to a bit of a slow start (no racing pun intended) with the body not being discovered until nearly 20% of the way through. Up to that point it was all about the racers themselves and I was starting to think this was a sports novel rather than a murder mystery. But once Sgt Cribb arrives on the scene, it’s filled with all the clues, red herrings, and final denouement that one expects from such a story. There is also a very subtle humor running throughout the book, more due to the nature of the setting than actual events.

The mystery was good and I will admit to having to wait for Sgt Cribb to ID the murderer for me but in hindsight I could see it clearly. That’s a sign of a solid mystery for me. I do feel that I will need another book or two to really get to know Cribb but Thackeray seemed a bit more fleshed out. Happily, this isn’t a series where the main sleuth is a genius and the sidekick a bumbler who serves as a foil for the reader. Rather, both men are capable investigators and work well together while neither is a perfect detective.

Looking forward to sampling more of this series as well as some of Lovesey’s other works.

Die A Little by Megan Abbott

I understand this is Megan Abbott's debut novel, but it certainly doesn't read like one.  It reads like the best of the classic LA or Hollywood noir stories, perhaps something by James M. Cain.  Ms Abbott has the perfect style for this sort of story: minimalistic, meaning there are many layers of subtext and mood but she never really comes right out and explicitly describes the seedy nature of what's happening.  But as a reader, you still completely understand what's happening.  Pretty cool.

The story takes place in 1950's Hollywood where Lora King, a young teacher in a school for girls is slowly dragged into the dark underbelly (is that an overused phrase or what?) of the Hollywood sex and drugs scene.  Her brother, a young district attorney, marries a gal with whom he has just been involved in a car accident.  She seems a little too good to be true which leads Lora to start nosing around.  Every door she opens leads a little further toward her understanding of that underworld and, somehow, she must find a way to protect her brother, and herself, from the "noirness".

A host of supporting characters make this a very colorful story but it is the author's ability to convey the texture of each scene that makes this one a keeper.  And this is her first novel?  I'm adding more of her stuff to my TBR shelves right now.

I listened to the audio version of this novel and I have to say, the narrator, Ellen Archer, was awesome! Her voices for each of the characters had just the right flavor.  Sometimes audio book narrators can get in the way of the book, become a sort of barrier between the author and the listener but Ms Archer is an example of one that enhances the overall experience.

Something's Alive on the Titanic by Robert Serling

Well that was certainly better than I thought it might be.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with such a title but right from the beginning I was pleasantly surprised.  This novel is broken into two parts, the first taking place in 1975 when a somewhat amateurish crew discovers the wreck of the Titanic (the actual discovery took place in 1985) based on some decrypted evidence of gold bullion on board.  The second half of the novel takes place in 1995 where an almost entirely different set of characters takes advantage of new technology and techniques to once again go after the rumored crates full of gold bullion on board the wreckage.

The title certainly suggests this to be a horror novel but most of the book is better classified as scientific adventure.  I found the science of deep-sea diving and salvage operations in both eras to be quite interesting, and the build-up of suspense on what the characters might find within the hull of the doomed ocean liner was well done.  Lots of historical tidbits were included as well. Once the wreckage was reached, there were horror elements introduced which began to drive the plot but even these supernatural reveals were also discussed among the two separate crews in a rather scientific manner…and quite plausibly.  The horror, for the most part, was fairly subtle but had huge impacts on the plot.  It struck a nice balance that included some moral lessons about greed and guilt.

Interestingly, this novel was written and published only a couple of years before James Cameron’s “Titanic” burst on the movie scene, so at the time of publication I think a reader might have been a bit more intrigued by the wonder and mystery that surrounded the Titanic’s sinking.  Today it is hard not to picture scenes from the movie when reading this novel.  Nevertheless, I was happy to take a chance on this one and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  This author intrigues me so I may just have to seek out more of his work.

The Suicide Squad/Secret 6 by Emile C. Tepperman

Most readers today, when they think of “The Suicide Squad”, think of the supervillain team appearing in DC Comics, first launched in 1959.  But long before that, in the late 1930s and 40s, a different sort of Suicide Squad was published by Ace G-Man Stories.

A total of 22 stories featuring the surviving three members of the team, Dan Murdoch, Johnny Kerrigan, and Stephen Klaw, saw print and this volume includes six of them, including their very first story, “Mr. Zero and the FBI Suicide Squad”. These three men are FBI agents but have skirted the edges of their authority a time or two in the past and so have been brought together to take on cases so dangerous that they are unlikely to survive.  While all three agents have equal rank, Steve Klaw tends to be the protagonist in all of the stories and certainly gets the most scenes.

This is good ol’ fashioned G-men pulp, with bad guys bullying their way to power and innocent citizens in peril.  Only the Suicide Squad can stop them because it takes their brand of fearless and even eager gun-play to win the day.  The stories are fast-paced and exciting and certainly got my blood pumping with mental pictures of tommy-guns blazing, punches thrown, dames with questionable loyalties, and diabolical villains in need of stopping.

Emile C. Tepperman had a lengthy career as an author of pulp stories, most notably for the Purple Invasion Series for Operator 5, but he also wrote a number of Spider novels, Secret Agent X stories as well as these Suicide Squad stories for Ace G-Man Magazine.  I have two more volumes of Suicide Squad stories on my shelf but am also eager to read some of his other stuff too. 

Gone for Soldiers by Jeff Shaara

Ever since I read "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara many years ago, I’ve been enthralled with the work of his son as well. I’m not one of those people who constantly says the son just ain’t as good as his dad. I believe he does indeed have the right stuff, and his numerous awards for writing would seem to bear that out.

I’ve read many of Jeff’s books and enjoyed them all but somehow I missed this one along the way, only his third published book. Now that I think about it, I suppose that is analogous to the subject of the book itself. The Mexican-American War, taking place 13 years prior to the Civil War, is often an overlooked war, remembered most often as a sort of training ground for many of the future military leaders of the Civil War.

I certainly learned a lot from reading this book. I knew some of the basics but to witness first hand the major events of the war through the eyes of key participants was both fun and educational. Turns out it was much more than just a training ground, with all the complex political and military conundrums that plague most wars. The actual results and the what-might-have-been’s are indeed profound, with major impacts on both countries.

Most of the novel is told from the perspectives of two individuals: 1) Winfield Scott, the overall commanding general who probably never received as much credit as he deserves, and 2) the 40-year-old Captain Robert E. Lee, the engineer who would win numerous accolades for his brilliant and workmanlike performance. Others also get a chapter perspective, especially during the culminating battle for Mexico City, including US Grant, Lt Jackson (eventually to be dubbed “Stonewall” Jackson), Lt Longstreet, Lt Pickett, as well as General Worth. In addition, many others whose names would become famous in the Civil War are present as well. Interestingly, there are also several chapters from the perspective of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a man who was truly an incredible larger-than-life historical character.

I love reading these sorts of historical novels where I can enjoy the story as well as learn from a trusted source. Looking froward to my next Jeff Shaara book. 

Bendigo Shafter by Louis L'Amour

A small group of westward-bound pioneers, making their way to what they hope will be a better life, find themselves running out of time. It’s too close to winter to make it over the mountains so they decide to stop and build a small town of sorts, just some place to survive until the warmer weather of spring would arrive once again. They were seven men and thirteen women and children, among them a young man of eighteen by the name of Bendigo Shafter.

Louis L’Amour, the best-selling western author of all time offers up one of his most beloved tales. This is not a traditional western novel crammed full of gunfights, cattle rustling, town taming and the like, although all those things do occur in this book. Rather, this is more of a historical fiction novel, a “frontier” story depicting the harsh conditions and challenges under which a community is carved out. Ben “Bendigo” Shafter is the ideal man to face the situations that arise, wise beyond his years but always seeking out new knowledge. In the midst of becoming a leader of the town, he wonders what his future holds, as well as what the future of the town may be.

I’ve read most of Louis L’Amour’s body of work and would rank this one in the top five. Given his prolific output, that’s really saying something. I always like a good frontier yarn filled with mountain men, rough characters, and the ever-present threat of an Indian uprising. I really enjoyed the character of Bendigo Shafter and his approach to life, especially his penchant for reading whatever books he could get his hands on in order to improve himself. Having read L’Amour’s autobiography, I know that is a trait shared by both author and character. Indeed, there is quite a bit of the author’s background that infuses Bendigo, including his extensive travels during his formative years. Yes, Bendigo is a bit too perfect to be true but he struggles now and then just like we all do. And besides, it's nice once in a while to read a novel where the good guy is just that - a good guy. Several other characters provide a well-balanced “family” for Bendigo, including a fellow by the name of Ethan Sackett. Putting a Sackett in a L’Amour novel is always a wise decision.  But in the end, it is the town itself that ties the events of the novel together. That feeling of building something with your own hands infuses the narrative, and to then see it grow and prosper is very fulfilling. Plenty of pitfalls occur, mistakes made, and obstacles overcome, all towards a brighter future.

This is L’Amour at his best. It’s a novel of hope, destiny, and an unerring sense that change is the only constant in our lives. 

Highly recommended.