Reid Bennett #02 - Murder on Ice (aka The Killing Cold)

Ted Wood's second novel, starring small-town Police Chief Reid Bennett, Murder on Ice, was first published in hardcover by Scribner in 1984. It appeared in paperback a year later by Bantam. The book was also published in Europe in 1989 as The Killing Cold. The series, which ran for ten total novels between 1983 and 1995, began with Dead in the Water, a book I enjoyed immensely and reviewed HERE. I was looking forward to climbing back into Bennett's tiny resort town again. 

Bennett is a former Toronto lawman who moved to the wilderness of Ontario after a shakeup with his former force. In Ontario, Bennett is the Police Chief and sole police officer of a small fishing village called Murphy's Harbour. He has a German Shepherd named Sam that assists him with collaring the occasional robber or vagrant. In the series debut, Bennett tracked down three missing men tied to a mysterious woman named Angela. That sort of theme is used again for this effective sophomore release.

In Murder on Ice, a snowstorm has descended on the town, adding some complications to the village's annual winter carnival. While honoring this year's Carnival Queen, a woman named Nancy is seemingly captured at gunpoint by a group of men. As they race away on snowmobiles, Bennett is left behind to put together clues on her whereabouts. His investigation leads to a radical women's group who claims the whole thing was a political stunt to create awareness around women's rights. But when Bennett discovers a girl named Katie strangled to death in a motel, the whole fiasco turns into a more serious event. Additionally, whoever took Nancy was just using the stunt to disguise their actual human trafficking plot. 

The events of Murder on Ice take place over one night. Bennett, armed with a revolver and shotgun, is forced to journey into the town's abandoned lodges, a network of small houses and lakeside fishing cabins. Normally, this area is ripe with vacationers and sportsmen, but in the heart of winter, it makes for an unsettling environment to track a killer. The author uses this isolated atmosphere – the boarded-up buildings, the frosty atmosphere, and the use of lights in the distance – to amp up the tension and pressure. Bennett is forced into some harrowing predicaments as he plays cat-and-mouse to rescue the missing woman. But, like any good mystery, there are a few side quests that keep Bennett and readers continually pivoting to the next action scene.

Murder on Ice is the best book I've read in 2026. The atmosphere, Bennett's determination and skill set, the plot development, and the small-town characterization are highlights, showcasing Wood's ability to weave a remarkable crime-fiction tale away from the bright lights of Los Angeles or New York. The woodsy feel, rugged terrain, and Sam's charming inclusion make this one an absolute read. Get the vintage copy HERE or a digital version HERE. 

The Suffering

David Sodergren is a contemporary extreme horror author based in Scotland who has developed quite a loyal following among modern horror fiction readers. The Suffering is his 13th novel, published in 2026.

The story takes place in a remote Catholic convent in the Italian Alps around 1890 or so. The nuns live in solitude and prayer under the supervision of a strict Mother Superior. A couple of times per year, a doctor from the nearby village travels up the mountain to provide the nuns with basic medical care.

On this trip, the doctor finds a young woman in the snow near the convent and brings her inside to be nursed back to health. There’s a young sister named Ursula with a genuine interest in nursing, so she takes ownership of the amnesiac girl’s well-being.

There are some salacious chapters where the reader is treated to the secret lives of cloistered 19th-century nuns, including a hidden lesbian couple and a sister who has learned to love the Joy of Sex with a visiting doctor.

It doesn’t take long for the horror to begin in the form of a black fungal parasite infecting the nuns. The fast-spreading ailment reminded me of a classic British horror novel called The Fungus by Harry Adam Knight or The Ruins by Scott Smith. This gives way to a lot of vividly described gross-out body horror, so you may not want to read this one while eating.

The infection coincides with a blizzard, snowing the doctor in with the rapidly decaying situation involving the infected nuns. The mysterious ailment also drives the ladies completely mad and impossibly horny, allowing the author to spread his literary wings with scenes of irrational Catholic Girls Gone Wild dressed as penguins behaving like dogs in heat.

How does all this tie into the lost girl in the woods that Sister Ursula is nursing to health? Can the doctor and his secret nun lover survive this convent of carnage? What we have here is a very graphic reimagining of zombie fiction tropes. As a closed-space survival adventure story, it really worked. At no point was it actually scary, but there are plenty of stomach-turning gore set-pieces, if that’s your jam.

Whether this is your thing or not, it’s undeniable that Sodergren is a solid author who has mastered easy-to-read pulpy prose and a good instinct for propulsive plotting. The Suffering certainly isn’t going to be for everyone, but I had fun with it. 

Get the book HERE.

Resident Evil #2 - Caliban Cove

Back in 2022, I read and reviewed the first of a seven-book series of Resident Evil media tie-in paperbacks, The Umbrella Conspiracy. This series was authored by S.D. Perry and published between 1998 and 2004. I caught the trailer for the new Resident Evil film the other day and remembered how much I enjoyed reading that debut and wanted to return to the series. After reading my review of the first novel, I continued with its sequel, Caliban Cove. 

The book picks up just a few days after the events in The Umbrella Conspiracy. Essentially, this takes place between the Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 games. However, if you are a diehard gamer, this book won't have anything to do with the alternate events that happen in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. These books stand alone and really are a completely different “universe” than the movies or games. 

The S.T.A.R.S. team that miraculously survived the Spencer Estate is on suspension while an investigation ensues. But, as readers know, the whole operation is crooked and operated by the Umbrella Corporation, a biohazard research facility responsible for the horror. The team members are basically rogue agents now, determined to fight Umbrella on their own.

Barry Burton takes over the S.T.A.R.S. team and learns of a secret Umbrella Corporation facility in rural Maine that may be developing biohazard weaponry. Determined to retrieve evidence, Barry wants the team to fly in and handle it. The team will be led by Barry and involves protagonist Rebecca Chambers, one of the heroes of the prior novel. They are accompanied by a shadowy S.T.A.R.S. Captain named Trapp, a member of the New York team, and a few of his agents. 

Before this team-commando unit gets to Maine, there's an intense firefight in the suburbs as the heroes are targeted for execution by Umbrella's hit squad. This is one of the better gun battles I've read in an action-adventure paperback. Fans of Gold Eagle-era action will love these pages. After the fight, the team arrives on the Maine coastline to infiltrate the terrifying research station. This is where the bulk of the paperback lands.

Through various buildings, dark hallways, sinister labs, and the surrounding seaside foliage, the team investigates what's happening behind these closed doors. Along the way, there's treachery, zombie soldiers, monsters, and intrigue. Additionally, there's some strife within the team and a focus on one particular member, Karen, and her history and background with S.T.A.R.S.

In terms of a fun, over-the-top action-adventure paperback, Caliban Cove delivers grandly. It's a team-commando book brimming over with firefights and fisticuffs. Obviously, there's the survival horror aspect, but for the most part this novel really works like any 80s staple – Able Team, Phoenix Force, Hard Corps, etc. If you like that stuff, then you'll love this book as well. Pick up a copy HERE.

Salem's Child

Mississippi native Robert W. Walker is a graduate of Northwestern University. He’s been a novelist since the mid-1980s, contributing to numerous genres like crime, horror, urban fantasy, and mystery. Using his own name and pseudonyms like Geoffrey Caine, Stephen Robertson, and Glenn Hale, Walker has created and authored over a dozen series titles and numerous stand-alone works for publishers like Jove, Pinnacle, and Leisure. Our only experience with the writer was the four-book crime-fiction series Decoy, written under his Robertson pen name. Wanting a summer horror read, I chose his 1987 Leisure paperback, Salem’s Child.

The novel’s locale is Danvers, Massachusetts, historically known as Salem Village. In the opening pages, a young boy is running from a trailer and stumbles upon a field of old bones. His father ends up being electrocuted, and there’s some importance placed on these bones in relation to witches who were burned at the stake in the 1600s. The boy, whose name is Richard Carrier (let's call him Dick...Dick Carrier) grows up and begins a quest to avenge the death of these witches by targeting the descendants of the persecutors.

The narrative works like a crime-fiction mystery as Lieutenant Stephen Price, a Boston police detective, becomes the story's central investigator. He journeys to Danvers to look into a string of murders that may somehow be connected to the town. He teams with his nerdy partner and the town's quirky sheriff to flip stones and read a lot of old texts – riveting stuff. He falls in love with a woman named Amy, who is an archaeologist with a psychology background. She has her own vendetta with the town and this mysterious killer.

At 400 pages, Salem's Child plods along in this murky criminal investigation. Unlike a traditional horror paperback, the body count is fairly low, and the murders are mostly off the page. The style and presentation - slow-burn investigative mystery – failed to keep my attention. Maybe you'll have a better experience. Get the digital or audio edition HERE (re-titled as Abaddon: Salem's Child).

Bloodbath

William Wingate, born Ronald Ivan Grbich, was a resident of Johannesburg, South Africa. He turned from journalism to a career in patent and copyright, earning degrees in law and engineering. He authored seven works of fiction including Shotgun, a 1981 novel we reviewed favorably here at PW in 2022. Returning to Wingate's bibliography, I jumped into his 1980 hard-hitting spy novel Bloodbath. It was published in hardcover by St. Martin's Press in 1980 and released as a Bantam paperback in 1981. It now exists as a cheap $2 ebook. 

At less than 250 pages, Bloodbath packs in four key plot developments centralized around two CIA agents. The first is Yazov, a former Bulgarian resident who turned to international assassinations for the U.S. government. After a fruitful career, Yazov is ready for retirement. His handler, Kruger, works with operatives to acclimate Yazov into a peaceful retirement in an Iowa farming town. However, Yazov's tranquil life is upended when two Soviet assassins break into his home and attempt to kill him. On the run, Yazov flees to New York as Kruger races to back him up. It's here that the story delivers a massive firefight as these professionals duke it out with grenades and shotguns. Folks, that's just the first 50 pages – an appetizer. 

Yazov doesn't realize that his unwanted attention from the Soviets is a risky affair that can only be solved one way – the CIA needs to kill Yazov. To do this, they force Yazov to take on a perilous hit on a Ugandan leader. Kruger will accompany Yazov on the mission. Once the Ugandan is killed, Kruger will remove Yazov with a single bullet to the head. A nice and tidy “thanks for your service”. But, as these things go, complications ensue, and things become topsy-turvy as a power vacuum engulfs the Uganda leadership. Thrown into the mix are two airplane hijackings by Uganda's terrorist friends from Palestine and a sexy female killer.

Bloodbath is a masterpiece of spy fiction. Wingate possesses an unusual storytelling ability in the way that he delivers a play-by-play presentation of events unfolding on the page. Readers don't have traditional access to these characters' thoughts and streams of consciousness. Instead, we only receive the descriptions of their actions. Wingate does provide some insight into the Kruger character, but it's different than the typical third-person narration. The author uses a buffet of firearms, explosives, and military tactics, each explained from firing mechanisms to trajectory. I'm not a big fan of gun po##n in men's action-adventure, but the way Wingate describes these accessories was really descriptive and fun. 

If you want an excellent espionage hitman sort of men's fantasy then take a splash in Bloodbath. Highest recommendation. Get the digital copy HERE and a vintage edition HERE. 

Pay Any Price

British espionage fiction author and former intel officer Ted Allbeury (1917-2005) left behind over 40 spy novels of varying quality. Sometimes his dose of realism is welcome, and other times, it makes for a slow read. Pay Any Price is a stand-alone thriller from 1983.

It’s 1960 (or so), and Tony Symons is an expert at the psychology of human manipulation. When we meet him, he’s finishing up his post-graduate work at Harvard. His thesis was on hypnosis and mind control, and his published papers were so impressive and groundbreaking that he was recruited by the CIA. His assignment? An experimental program called MKULTRA was used to learn about what drugs and psychological prompts could turn subjects into human slaves.

Meanwhile, a 21-year-old U.S. Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald is acting like an idiot in Japan - partying and getting laid. When his unit was about to leave for the Philippines, Oswald shoots himself in the arm and fakes a sick mother to separate from the USMC. Soon thereafter, he turns up in Moscow at the U.S. Embassy wanting to renounce his U.S. Citizenship before marrying a Russian girl.

Like James Ellroy, Allbeury leverages real historical figures and events to invent a conspiratorial alternate history within the whirlwind surrounding the JFK assassination, its planning and aftermath. Oswald is not the only historical character in the mix. A pissed-off and mobbed-up Jimmy Hoffa also wants to see both Kennedy brothers dead and gone. JFK’s election to the presidency doesn’t exactly chill out his enemies as organized crime convictions accelerate.

The CIA and the mafia share an equal disdain for the Kennedy brothers, and their unholy alliance begins with planning to take out JFK. I guess it’s not too much of a spoiler to disclose that fairly early in the novel, JFK is shot and killed in Dallas by a mind-controlled Oswald. It’s this point that the novel veers off into pure fiction. You see, the Brits have some IRA leaders they want quietly assassinated, and Symons’ ability to hypnotize normal people into murderous zombies sounds like a good solution.

The second half of the paperback is a hypnotized assassin adventure. It’s not as fun as the first half, but it still makes for a solid British espionage thriller. Allbeury is a good writer and keeps the action moving, albeit with way too many characters. The British Intel officer James Boyd, piecing the scheme together, is a great second-half protagonist determined to uncover the truth.

Overall, Pay Any Price was a blast to read. The first half was way better than the second half, but the realistic and grim ending departs from the usual hero’s narrative of action-adventure fiction. I’ve started and left several Allbeury books unfinished, but this one is a winner.

Get the book HERE.

A Time to Kill...A Time to Die

I've covered Jack Pearl quite a bit here at PW, with a primer, podcast episode, and reviews. He authored movie and television novelizations like Garrison's Gorrillas and Ambush Bay, but really shone by penning his own novels in the crime-fiction and action-adventure genres. Interestingly enough, Pearl placed two of his books on Christmas Day. I read one of these in 2023, Victims, and it's easily one of my favorite Pearl novels. I wanted to read his second Christmas-themed novel, A Time to Kill...A Time to Die. It was first published in hardcover in 1971 by W.W. Norton & Company. It was published in paperback in 1972 by Manor. 

The novel begins on Christmas Eve in the isolated, winter resort of Snowmass-at-Aspen. An unknown assailant uses a high-powered rifle to shoot skiers from a luxury room on Mt. Baldy. He then turns to the chairlifts and begins a terrifying, maniacal “shooting gallery” as victims plunge hundreds of feet to their death from gunshots or sheer panic. Needless to say, A Time to Kill...A Time to Die kicks off with one of the most frightening opening chapters I've experienced.

Pearl's narrative comes alive as readers are plunged into the room where this sniper has barricaded himself. Inside are two bound women and an unconscious man. However, the identity of the sniper is the key mystery. Who is he, and how does he know these captives? 

Through flashback scenes, readers are thrust into a post-WW2 small town where a handful of lifelong friends experience love and loss. It's a portrait of everyday America as these characters interact with each other, talk about love and life, and grow older through the decades. These are men who have had combat experience and are adjusting to civilian life after the war. Through these scenes, the characters evolve and seek fortunes through various endeavors like startup firms, advertising, journalism, etc. But it's slowly revealed that one of these friends is the sniper. Only the author doesn't reveal the identity until the book's final act. It's clever, suspenseful, and kept me glued to every page. I was totally invested.

While these flashback scenes are interesting, they are short and to the point. The sniper's cozy bedroom doesn't offer much diversion, so the narrative enjoys a wonderful investigative angle as a police Captain named Dorn orchestrates a siege on the sniper's chalet while sending various lawmen into the files of residents staying at the resort. Slowly, the details are revealed that tie back to the handful of friends. The novel has a stirring, action-packed climax as lawmen use tunnels and a basement to penetrate the chalet and have the inevitable shootout with the sniper. 

A Time to Kill...A Time to Die shows Pearl's strengths as a suspenseful, action-packed storyteller. He's one of my favorite authors for a reason. Based on my experiences with Victims, The Cops, Ambush Bay, and Garrison's Gorillas, I'm not sure why I don't just drop everything and read all of Jack Pearl's books. I guess I just need to save the treasures. Do yourself a favor and track down this novel. You can get the book HERE.

Velvet Jackpot

I've enjoyed Charles Boeckman's sleaze paperbacks written under the pseudonym Alex Carter. Boeckman, a celebrated jazz musician, authored crime-fiction, westerns, and pulp stories, but made a splash on the sexy fiction market with his contributions to Beacon in the mid-20th century. After reading a handful of enjoyable Carter works, I decided I needed another riveting romance jolt. I dived into Velvet Jackpot, a 1965 paperback published by Beacon with a flipped version of Victor Olson's 7 Days to Love cover from 1963. 

Reb Baker is a young man from a troubled, lower-class background. Years ago, he went to work for Jim Mason, a ruthless businessman who controls the small town of Camrock. Along with running errands and detailing the family's exotic cars, Reb indulged in an affair with Jim's wife, Beverly. Reb was run out of town, which is where the book begins. Reb is on the west coast playing guitar in dive bars when he receives a letter from a friend urging him to return to Camrock. The reason? Reb's younger sister, Linda, has turned to prostitution.

Through several flashbacks, readers learn that Reb and Linda had an incestuous relationship. Reb now feels protective of Linda and fears that his sexual exploits with her are the main reason she's turned to prostitution now. When he arrives in Camrock, he learns that Linda is now a widow and is struggling to finance a tree nursery that her late husband left her. Due to Reb's affair with Jim Mason’s wife, her efforts to obtain financing have been cut off. So, tramping is the ticket. 

Slowly, Reb succumbs to his old ways. He resumes his affair with Beverly despite being nearly beaten to death by Mason and his enforcers. But the main plot premise is Reb meeting a 17-year old girl named Sherri. He begins to obsess over her, leading to you know what. Here's the catch: Sherri is Beverly's daughter! Imagine Jim Mason's anger learning that Reb is now porking both his wife and daughter. This book is nuts!

Velvet Jackpot has several enticing twists and turns. First, you have Linda suffering the sins of her brother – emotionally, physically, financially. There's Reb's inner turmoil to protect Linda and earn legal money to support her business, yet fracturing with his sexual urges. The Mason family dynamic is explored, including the escalating danger posed by Jim. Retribution, guilt, defiance. These are the staples.

Boeckman was a master of unraveling the nuclear family in his paperbacks, and this one is a prime example of his storytelling. The story, a cycle of moral decay, is a real guilty pleasure for me. I love the author's intertwining characters and his ability to invest so much emotion and trepidation. You just know the car wreck is happening – it's the tension that builds as the cars careen off course. I love it. I just wish a reprint house out there would consider reprinting these Beacon classics. These vintage paperbacks command top dollar. 

Frisco Dougherty #02 - Jungle She

Dan Cushman (1909-2001) is a respected mid 20th-century writer who is synonymous with the western pulp market. He routinely contributed to North West Romances, Ace-High Western Stories, and Dime Western Magazine. However, Cushman had a soft spot for jungle adventure, evident in his pulp series title Armless O' Neil, his contributions to Ki-Gor, and his shorts found in Jungle Stories and Action Stories. 

Like A.S. Fleischman, Cushman had a solid Fawcett Gold Medal run of jungle-themed paperbacks featuring sweeping exotic locales and heart-thumping adventure. Some of these novels featured a troublesome character named Frisco Dougherty, an American thrust into these scorching lands searching for a diamond treasure that will allow him a lucrative living in San Francisco. The character first appeared in the novel Jewel of the Java Sea, originally published in the October 1948 issue of Adventure. Dougherty appeared again in Jungle She, a 1953 Fawcett paperback with cover art by John Floherty. 

In many ways, Jungle She reads like a spy novel, perhaps something more akin to the Monty Nash series by Richard Telfair. The dense plodding, hyperbole, and emphasis on mini-adventures all combine on the obligatory gauntlet of superimposed villains and mistrusting damsels. It's sheer pulp fun, but it seems to stay a bit too long. 

Frisco arrives in Tengah to confront a plantation owner known as Van Hoog. Frisco, again looking for some sort of diamond treasure, wants to inquire about how Van Hoog created his lush lifestyle. The man – obviously a criminal of some sort – lives on a vast plantation with a seemingly endless supply of wealth. Hoping to learn Van Hoog's secret, Frisco learns some insightful information at a local dive bar. Van Hoog's wife has escaped him. Hoping to use this as leverage, Frisco approaches Van Hoog with the idea that he can provide information on the runaway bride – information he doesn't have. Van Hoog sees right through the charade, beats the pulp out of Frisco, and imprisons him.

With malaria and a lack of weapons, Frisco escapes the compound only to be captured again. This kicks off a series of catch-and-release as Frisco is forced to locate Van Hoog's wife. Based on the title, you can guess that he eventually locates the Jungle She, only it's a distrustful partnership as both of them hope to escape the clutches of Van Hoog while stealing pieces of his empire along the way. This means a run-in with the Chinese criminal organization Wuch'ang and dips into some crazy smuggling adventures in Singapore. 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Jungle She. It has a lovable loser in Frisco, a romantic buzz with Van Hoog's wife, and a formidable foe that must be upended. Yet, despite all of the upside, I never could quite get into the novel as much as I wanted to. I felt that the book moved a bit too fast and overstayed its welcome with the relentless pacing. There's a great reward at the end with Frisco and Van Hoog duking it out with machetes on a bridge, but by that point, I was exhausted from the robust travel schedule these characters endure. 

You can get Jungle She HERE.

The Caves of Night

John Christopher was a popular pseudonym used by British writer Sam Youd (1922-2012). Under the Christopher name, Youd authored successful science-fiction, fantasy, and young-adult fiction titles like The Tripods, The Lotus Caves, Sword of the Spirits, and The Fireball. He also authored numerous books using a variety of other names like William Godfrey, William Vine, Peter Graaf, Hilary Ford, and Stanley Winchester. Having owned several of his novels, I opted to escape the summer heat with Christopher's cavern disaster book, The Caves of Night. It was originally serialized in John Bull Magazine in 1958 and published in hardcover the same year. The most popular edition is the 1968 Avon with cover art by Don Crowley. My version is the 1984 Sphere paperback with art by Chris Achilleos.

Married couple Henry and Cynthia routinely take vacations to a rural inn in the Austrian wilds. Henry is a spelunker with a passion for a unique, complex cave structure that is completely off the grid when it comes to tourists and other hobbyists. During their stay, they meet an eccentric Russian named Albrecht, a WWII veteran and former prisoner-of-war. He invites the couple to wine and dine with him. As these things go, Henry is climbing in caves and turning up stones while Cynthia and Albrecht secretly develop a romantic groove. Thrown into the mix is a young, newlywed couple that also enjoys Albrecht's company. 

The first half of this book explores infidelity, marriage struggles, and the daily grind of domestic life – work vs play. Henry is a really nice guy, but seeks these solo ventures into the cave's infrastructure. It's a real bore for Cynthia, but she supports his enthusiasm. There's a definitive rut in the marriage, and the author capitalizes on it with the affair angle. However, based on the cover art and premise, I needed some caves to crash and characters to slowly suffocate. It's how I roll. 

Thankfully, the second half of the book plunges all five of these characters into the bowels of the Earth. When the newlywed couple attempts to pick flowers – a symbol of their budding love – all Hell breaks loose. Trapped in the cave for days, this quintet logically turns to desperation. With dwindling light, food, and general survival supplies, the hours turn frantic as the group treks into the darkest recesses, hoping to find daylight. It was this aspect of the novel that appealed to me, a gripping survival yarn that conjured some of the moments I loved so much in the post-apocalyptic novel The Rest Must Die by Kendell Foster Crossen. Youd's use of darkness, despair, and loneliness in one particular scene really etched a place in my mind. 

If you want a straight-up cave adventure, then The Caves of Night might partially disappoint you. Ultimately, this is a story of marriage and the weight of relationships. So much so that the final scenes of the book utter a Shakespearean echo of Romeo & Juliet – only with people perilously dangling from fraying ropes above a dark mouth of some wet and bottomless chasm. Yeah, the book is definitely about marriage. 

Pick up a copy of the novel HERE.

Scary Bastard

Have you ever watched backyard wrestling? You know, the one where normal, ordinary people – some malnourished – throw themselves through fluorescent light tubes, tables, boards, windows? These “wrestlers” tend to become five-second stars to the neighborhood crowds of ten to twenty spectators with a plethora of blood, guts, and senseless violence. It's pedestrian. It's crass. But, don't get me wrong, there's an entire televised enterprise called AEW, backed by corporate advertising and Time Warner, that competes with WWE by using paid pro-wrestling professionals to perform backyard wrestling barbarism. There's a crowd for it, no doubt.

Aron Beauregard is like a backyard wrestler. But, not really a wrestler. He's a horror writer. He writes extremely violent novels and shorts that feature disposable characters being tortured, raped, and killed. He's authored over 20 novels, including Horsefly (2026), Cemetery Camp (2023), and Playground (2022). His short story collection, Came with the Frame (2023), features a few characters that appear in his 2019 novel Ugly Bastard. I've enjoyed some – not all - of the novels by splatter-horror experts like Brian Berry and Bryan Smith. I decided to borrow a friend's trade paperback of Scary Bastard and give it a go. It was published by Maggot Press with artwork by both Anton Rosovsky and Andrly Dankovych. 

While there isn't really a protagonist, the main content of the novel features scenes involving a super-slasher Hulk thing named Edmon. In the book's beginning, Edmon is a serial killer imprisoned at a sanitarium. He doesn't speak, and reminds me of Rob Zombie's version of adult Michael Myers in the Halloween re-imagining. With the help of a serial rapist and killer, Herschel, Edmon escapes the facility and goes on a killing spree on Halloween night. That's pretty much it.

Beauregard adds copious amounts of ridiculous graphic sex, limb-tearing, skinning, decapitating, rape, animal abuse, kid deaths, and other literary atrocities that make you wonder why this guy is freely walking among civilization. It is disgusting, completely unnecessary, and thinly constructed. An author once said that if you’ve ever had sex, you can pretty much write p*** novels. I think the same thing goes here. If you've watched one flesh-tearing horror movie, you can write the torture p-word stuff just fine. The question is how depraved the reader must be to really enjoy this kind of thing. I read it, skipped quite a bit of the gore, and was left...with very little else. In my opinion, pass on this one.

Mike Shayne #54 - Armed...Dangerous

Mike Shayne debuted in 1939 with Davis Dresser writing under the pen name Brett Halliday. After Dresser stepped back from the series in 1958, the Brett Halliday name became a house pseudonym shared by several authors, with Robert Terrall eventually emerging as its principal steward. By the time Armed…Dangerous was published in 1966 as the 54th Mike Shayne novel, Terrall had firmly taken control of the series.

This is a weird installment in the series because Mike Shayne’s name doesn’t appear in the novel for the first 40 pages. Instead, it follows a NYC diamond thief named Jake who kills a cop during a heist and takes a hot, French babe named Michele hostage during his getaway.

While hiding out in Michele’s apartment, Jake learns that Michele is a more complicated character than he originally thought, and Jake gets roped into a second, way more lucrative heist as part of a full crew. It feels like a Lionel White or Richard Stark novel at times, with a plunder squad filled with volatile and colorful characters, and there are some amazing twists and turns in the plot that you probably won’t see coming.

By the time Shayne is brought into the case down in Miami, the stakes of Jake’s crime spree become clearer, and the reader is taken on a wild ride best not spoiled here. Just remember, this one is a hardboiled crime novel, not a whodunnit mystery.

As heist novels go, this is pretty good. Having a PI in the mix is also an interesting twist. Shayne does his best to do right by his client while also getting laid (off page) as much as possible. It’s also very much a novel of 1966 with raw racial tension and overt homophobia. These glimpses into America’s unfiltered past are much of the joy of vintage paperbacks. Embrace history.

The novel ends in such a manner that the door is open to a sequel or a continuation story. The author clearly did this deliberately. I don’t know if any of the subsequent novels followed up on this. My impression is that the Mike Shayne books each stood alone. In any case, Armed…Dangerous is one of the good ones. Unfortunately, it’s not one of the installments that has been digitized and reprinted for 21st-century readers. You’ll need to find an old copy HERE.