President Bill Clinton and novelist James Patterson had a 2018 hit with their bestseller “The President is Missing,” (ghostwritten by David Ellis), but there was another book with the same title released in 1967 by Henry A. Milton. I was unable to learn anything about Milton other than finding that the copyright is in his name (i.e. likely not a pseudonym), and the paperback was published by Banner Books, a Hearst Corporation subsidiary.
Oddly, our friend Bob Deis at menspulpmags.com informs me that Milton wrote a “Fiction Book Bonus” titled “The Day the President Disappeared!” for the April 1961 issue of “Bluebook Magazine.” It’s impossible that a book published in 1967 was adapted into a short story six years earlier - with key characters’ names changed. The magazine story has no reference to the related novel while still claiming to be a book bonus. It’s likely that Bluebook published the short story by Milton who then expanded it into a full novel six years later. Moreover, it was not unusual for Men’s Adventure Magazines of the era to misrepresent original short stories as “Book Bonus” articles. Oddly, it seems that Bluebook’s misrepresentation succeeded in conjuring a book into existence years later.
Anyway, here’s the review:
It’s the weekend before an important summit with the Russians, and the President (the author never gives him a proper name) is at Camp Victory (a fictional Camp David with way crappier security) working on his speech and relaxing before the meeting. His beleaguered third-string press secretary Mike McDowell, the novel’s protagonist, is leading the skeleton crew of staff at the camp who didn’t get the quiet weekend off, and no one is expecting any action.
Not so fast! After noticing an unmanned door to the President’s quarters that should have had a Secret Service posting, Mike sheepishly goes inside to discover, you guessed it, The President is Missing! Please note that the President is also missing from the narrative. This is one of those episodes of The West Wing featuring the staff hashing out a problem without the boss around, which, I suppose, is sorta the whole point of the paperback.
Also missing is an enigmatic university professor who plays Gin Rummy with POTUS on lazy weekends like this. The timing of the President’s disappearance is both inconvenient and mysterious. Could this have something to do with the upcoming summit with the Russians? A coup from within the administration? Perhaps a romantic affair? It’s up to Mike and the tight circle of people in-the-know to solve the mystery before it leaks to the press and sparks a national crisis.
For such a high-stakes situation, the book itself is pretty devoid of action. It’s more like an Agatha Christie mystery with a bunch of people in a remote lodge trying to figure out whodunnit and what was done. I kept thinking that Mack Bolan would have handled the situation quite differently. By the time the solution to the President’s disappearance is revealed, I was past the point of caring all that much. I enjoy both politics and mysteries, but I just can’t stand being this deeply bored. As such, file this one in the “don’t bother” pile.
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After seven installments of Stephen Mertz's 'M.I.A. Hunter' series, the popular title takes a slight shift into a new direction. Beginning with this eighth entry, “Escape from Nicaragua,” we discover Mark Stone's combat hardened trio working in unison with the U.S. government, a rather unique turn of events considering Stone had been targeted by the CIA and FBI.
In the last novel, “Saigon Slaughter,” Stone has a revelation about his team's future. It's 1987 (the series was written in the 80s) and the Vietnam War has been over for 14 years. The idea of malnourished prisoners of war still alive in Vietnam's harsh climate is a stretch. Further, Stone's network of intelligence has become sporadic and inconsistent. His admirable missions of saving prisoners of war may be finished. In that book's rowdy finale Stone rescues American prisoners from Saigon and conveniently returns them during a U.S. summit with Vietnam.
“Escape from Nicaragua” has a sense of continuity by mentioning these prior events in the novel's opening pages. Now, the CIA and FBI have stricken Stone's trio from the record books in what is perceived as an exchange for their labor. U.S. government agencies, impressed with Stone's fortitude, will now contract his team for messy assignments...like freeing two CIA operatives from a Nicaraguan prison.
Those of you excited about this new series direction, and the enticing idea that Stone might be assassinating drug lords, dictators and communists while utilizing upgraded intel, should really hold your applause. “Escape from Nicaragua” doesn't really present itself as anything other than a recycle of the prior seven books. Stone's team hits Honduras for intel, then penetrates the Nicaragua jungle to align with freedom fighters who assist the trio in liberating the prisoners.
Seasoned magicians say the rabbit don't come easy. I'd say the same for “Escape from Nicaragua.” The magic of transforming this series into a “Phoenix Force” styled mercenary unit apparently isn't easy. The collaboration between series creator Stephen Mertz and a relatively unknown writer named Arthur Moore lends a sense of familiarity to the novel, but the plot never really pushes the envelope. The series, while certainly delivering action-packed goods, should have turned the corner on this eighth novel. Looking ahead to the next installment, “Invasion U.S.S.R.,” appears to have a similar theme – Stone freeing a U.S. journalist from a Soviet prison. I'm hoping for the best.
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In 1959, Harry Whittington submitted for publication a crime noir novel titled “Never Find Sanctuary” that Fawcett Gold Medal published as “Backwoods Tramp” with a salacious cover indicative of the soft-core sleaze of the era. When Black Lizard republished the paperback in 1988, it was given the title “A Moment to Prey” with an insightful introduction from Whittington detailing his highs and lows of his writing career.
Due to an unusual series of events I won’t spoil here, former Major League Baseball pitcher Jake Richards is hot on the trail of an armed payroll robber named Marv Pooser who just scored $100,000 in a daring heist. A promising clue brings Jake to Pooser’s hometown in rural Florida - nearby the author’s own hometown of Ocala. The locals in the mosquito-infested town are suspicious of strangers and don’t take kindly to an outsider asking questions about Pooser, so Jake is greeted with a backwoods-style ass whooping.
Meanwhile, Lilly is a hot little swamp chick selling fried fish at her family’s restaurant in the same part of rural Florida. She’s got issues of her own and has always wanted more than the constant sexual harassment she must endure from the restaurant’s clientele. Referring to Lilly as a “Backwoods Tramp” is wholly inaccurate after the reader bears witness to what happens to a local man who tries to manhandle the girl. Circumstances thrust Jake and Lilly together - figuratively at first - but you can see where that’s headed. After all, she’s the kind of girl men get obsessed over.
Jake enlists Lilly’s help in finding Pooser, and that’s when things go bonkers. Pooser is one of the most vile, devious and reprehensible villains in crime fiction. In fact, this whole paperback is pretty crazy. Crazy sexual. Crazy tense. Crazy violent. Because it’s Florida, deadly snakes and man-eating gators play a key supporting role in the mayhem leading up to the beat-the-clock climax.
Fawcett Gold Medal was selling consumers a bit of swampland of their own by packaging “Backwoods Tramp” as a sexy seduce-the-swamp-girl paperback. What readers inevitably found was a menacing rural noir filled with violence, darkness and double-crosses. Or, in other words, top-notch Harry Whittington at his most twisted. Highly recommended.
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Author Paul Bishop is a 35-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. Receiving “Detective of the Year” accolades twice, Bishop starred as the lead interrogator on the ABC reality show “Take the Money and Run” developed by marquee name producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Along with his 15 published works, Bishop also is the writer and editor of the essential reference work “52 Weeks 52 Western Novels – A Guide to Six-Gun Favorites and New Discoveries”.
With his commendable career in law enforcement, Bishop writes with conviction and authenticity. His experiences are easily conveyed in his artistry, evident in his five-book literary series starring LAPD Detective Fey Croaker. The first novel, “Kill Me Again”, was published by Avon Books in 1994. It introduces us to the seasoned Fey, a West LA detective and supervisor of the homicide unit. It was the top detective spot in the division and she's the first woman to hold the job.
Bishop explains, “I based Fey in part on two of my long term, very experienced, female detective partners. Walk into any LAPD detective squadroom and you'll find one or more versions of Fey. She's got some hard earned miles on her. She street savvy. She knows how to fight dirty, not just politically, but physically, and is more than willing to kick your ass if you take her on. She's forty with a string of bad marriages, bad choices, and bad boooze behind her. She expects and demands a lot of her people, but in return she is loyal to a fault and will fight like a tiger for them. Basically, she's about as far from a twenty-something, hard-bodied, high heel wearing, female TV detective as you can get”.
Just shy of 300-pages, “Kill Me Again” is a riveting mystery procedural that has plenty to unpack in terms of the central character. While Bishop expands the murder case, he slowly allows readers a more intimate view of this rather complex character. From her early career rise, tumultuous love-life and murky childhood, there's a lot to offer beyond a stand-alone story.
Bishop, detailing the character's beginnings, explains, “By the time I was ready to write Kill Me Again, I already had a handful of novels published. Two were connected, but the others were all stand-alones. Career wise, I felt I needed a series character strong enough to carry at least four books. In creating Fey Croaker, the protagonist of Kill Me Again, I plotted out a four book personal story arc for her. I knew exactly what position I wanted her to be in personally at the end of each of the first three books, forcing her to deal with everything that had come before in book four. Each of the four books would have a standalone plot, but there would be a through story dealing with Fey's abusive upbringing, which would come full circle and to resolution in book four”.
Beginning with “Kill Me Again”, Fey's relationship with her father is shown as a key role in her development as a detective, rising through the promotions after 16-years in the unit. As a sexually molested child, the novel provides brief passages explaining Fey's protection of her brother and her abuse from both her father and family friend. It's a prickly family tree, cultivated by sorrow and regret, and written with a grainy sense of realism.
“At the time, I was also working full throttle in my career with the LAPD. As a detective, I spent almost all my career, 30 out of 35 years, investigating sex crimes from indecent exposure to child molest to rape to sexual homicide and everything in between. I was always aware of how victims processed the assault emotionally. There were those whom it destroyed, and others who were never able to break the cycle of victimhood. But I was fascinated by those who flat refused to be defined by something beyond their control. They were determined not to just be survivors of sexual assault, but victors over it. They struggled and they fought and they failed and they picked themselves up again. I admired these incredible individuals, and this was what I wanted to exemplify through Fey Croaker”, explains Bishop.
“Fey is a high functioning detective, but a low functioning human. She is aware of this and ferociously fights those emotional forces that have threatened to cripple her since she was a child...As the omnipotent author, I was going to give her a chance at redemption if she could lead me there over four books.”
“Kill Me Again” received a sequel in “Twice Dead”, published in 1996 by Avon. Following the mystery-procedural formula, the novel centers around an NBA athlete charged with murder. Later, the book was later re-titled as “Grave Sins”. In 1997 the third novel, “Tequila Mockingbird” was published by Scribner in hardback and by Pocket Books in paperback. The same publishers produced the series' fourth entry, “Chalk Whispers,” in 2000. A 68-page novella was released in 2014 entitled “Pattern of Behavior", which was also included in Bishop's short story compilation of the same name. All of the books have been republished in digital formats, including Kindle, by Wolfpack Publishing.
Bishop concludes, “The greatest compliment I've received as an author is when either female law enforcement personnel or individuals who have been through the ringer of sexual assault approach me at a writing function, sometimes with tears in their eyes, and ask, 'How do you know this?' 'How do you know what it's like to be a woman on this job?' Or in the case of one woman, 'How do you understand what it feels like to be a child of the silence?' My answer is always the same, "Fey told me..."
Fey Croaker Purchase Checklist
1. "Kill Me Again" (1994 Avon)
2. "Twice Dead" (aka "Grave Sins" 1996 Avon)
3. "Tequila Mockingbird" (1997 Scribner/Pocket Books)
4. "Chalk Whispers" (2000 Scribner/Pocket Books)
5. "Pattern of Behavior" (2014 Wolfpack)
Before he wrote full novels in every conceivable genre, Norman Daniels was a prolific author of short stories for the pulp magazines. The March 1936 issue of “Secret Agent X Detective Mysteries” features a story by Daniels titled “Boomerang Blade” that was once available as a stand-alone eBook and currently exists within a Radio Archives audio reprint of the entire magazine.
“Boomerang Blade” is not a ‘Secret Agent X’ story but rather a hardboiled tale starring ex-boxer turned ex-cop turned taxicab driver, Jason McGee. After fixing a flat tire one night, McGee accepts a job driving home a drunk from a nightclub with a generous fare covered by a local underworld boss. After arriving at the requested destination, McGee learns that the drunk is actually a corpse with a chest wound. Before he can figure out what happened, McGee is forced to convince his former police colleagues that he’s not a murderer. When that fails, McGee gives the cops the slip and takes it upon himself to solve the murder and clear his name.
The 1930s tough-guy vernacular is a lot of fun to read 83 years later - like opening a suspenseful time capsule. The “murder suspect clearing his own name” plot is a trope that’s been done a thousand times, but for all I know, it was fresh and innovative in 1936. In any case, Daniels keeps the story moving and McGee is a great companion on the wild ride this short story provides. If you’re looking for a 15-page pulp diversion, “Boomerang Blade” is certainly worth your time. Recommended.
Buy a copy of Secret Agent X #24 March 1936 HERE
Sterling Noel (1903-1984) was an American author and journalist whose 1950s body of work includes two respected novels, “I Killed Stalin” (1951) and “We Who Survived” (1959). His mystery and crime fiction entries included “Empire of Evil” (1961), “Prelude to Murder” (1959), “Intrigue in Paris” (1955, aka “Storm Over Paris”) and “Run for your Life” (1958). His literary work has been largely preserved thanks to modern reprints from both Armchair Fiction and Wildside Press. My first exposure to Noel's writing is the 1955 novel, “I See Red,” which was originally published as an Ace Double along with Dale Clark's “Mambo to Murder.”
Pete LaSalle is a former American spy who has retired to Fort Myers, Florida to try his hand in the shrimping business. In the book's opening pages, he receives a strange guest who claims to know about LaSalle's secretive past. The visitor wants LaSalle to assist a U.S. counter-espionage agency in locating a missing atomic scientist. LaSalle, comfortable in his retirement, immediately declines but eventually gets lured back into the intrigue for intensely personal reasons.
The author draws upon a reliable genre trope when LaSalle is falsely-accused of a murder relating to the assignment, considerably increasing the stakes for the mission’s success. The action heats up as LaSalle eventually partners with his beautiful ex-wife as the setting shifts to New York City and eventually Mexico in search of the missing scientist. The bulk of the book is extremely violent and hard-boiled as hell. Upon arriving in New York, LaSalle employs some brutish techniques - not for the squeamish - to get people talking. This leads to an exciting finale with twenty pages of pure action that produces an astounding body count...for 1955.
“I See Red” is an awesome work of mid-century action-adventure fiction. Interestingly, Ed Lacy's 1959 novel “Blonde Bait” shares a very similar opening premise. I also found that Dan J. Marlowe's 1969 book, “Operation Fireball,” emulates a lot of the book's second-half story-line wherein the hero recruits hardmen to boat down the east coast and liberate the prize from a Latin American compound. These plot devices later emulated by respected authors left me respecting Sterling Noel's innovative and influential work immensely, and any reader looking for an exciting paperback will find that “I See Red” definitely delivers the goods.
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The cover of “Ambush at Derati Wells” from 1977 credits Peter McCurtin as the author, but the novel was actually written by veteran action-adventure scribe Ralph Hayes. McCurtin was undoubtedly the editor for the entire “Soldier of Fortune” series although he only wrote the first three installments. Interestingly, in the British editions, the series was called “Jim Rainey: Death Dealer.”
The series is narrated by Jim Rainey who is an armed mercenary selling his combat services to the highest bidder in Earth’s most dangerous places. In this sixth episode, Rainey is in Kenya where he receives a tip from a dying man about an air shipment of valuable guns that recently crashed near Derati Wells, a remote location in Northern Kenya near the borders of Sudan and Ethiopia where “nobody seemed to die of old age.” Rainey figures that the weapons were being flown to an Ethiopian rebel group, and there’s money to be made in reaching the crash site first.
Hayes presents the wilds of Africa as being filled with deadly, thieving black people itching to rob and maim Rainey without provocation. On the other hand, Hayes certainly knows his way around violent fight scenes. In the first chapter, Rainey wastes a foul-smelling native attacker by plunging a screwdriver into the African’s ear during a frantic life-or-death fight. I enjoyed the hell out of the action sequences, but they’re not for the faint of heart, nor could a book like this with villainous caricatures of African bushmen ever be written and published today’s more genteel and sensitive times.
After a false start, Rainey returns to Nairobi where he learns of a rebel group seeking to overthrow the dastardly junta controlling Ethiopia. The rebels could sure use all those guns in the wrecked airplane, and they would be suitable buyers if Rainey can just get his hands on the cargo. However, the junta has also sent representatives to get the guns before the rebels do (hence, the ambush in the title). Also in their way is an African tribe who likes to take the testicles of intruders as trophies. Can Rainey lead his crew - including a sexy, hot-to-trot blonde - through the jungle to the crashed plane while keeping his nuts firmly attached?
If men’s action-adventure fiction of the 1970s is your jam, you’re going to love this book. It has everything you like - sex, violence, action, and politically-incorrect villains just itching to be killed. If you’re looking for realistic depictions of foreign cultures and War College combat tactics, this one’s not for you. Predictably, Ralph Hayes delivers the goods for readers interested in a paperback diversion to a simpler, and more violent, literary era. Recommended.
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