At the very beginning of his career, Lawrence Block was barely making a living writing surprisingly readable paperbacks for sleaze paperback publishing houses. His 1958 meal ticket was originally published by Nightstand Books with the title $20 Lust under the pseudonym Andrew Shaw. Later, Nightstand recycled the novel as Cinderella Sims, a title that stuck for a handful of reprints under Block’s own name. The book remains available today as a reprint title released on Block’s own publishing imprint for his historical oddities.
Former police reporter Ted Linsdsay is a recovering drunk from Louisville, Kentucky whose wife left him for another man and died in a car accident soon thereafter. Ted left his old life behind and moved to New York City in search of a new start, a reset. He lands a job slinging hash on the graveyard shift of an all-night diner and falls into a predictable, if dull, pattern of life. All that changes one day when Ted sees a stacked babe living in the apartment house across the street. He is immediately smitten and stalks her to learn that her name is Cinderella “Cindy” Sims.
It takes awhile for much of anything to happen in this paperback. Fortunately, Ted is an interesting enough character and Block is a talented enough writer that reading the novel’s first third wasn’t too much of a chore. Once things get rolling, you have an honest-to -goodness crime story to read and enjoy. Without spoiling too much, it involves a crew of con artists, a casino gambling scam, and a satchel full of cash. With those ingredients and Lawrence Block driving the narrative, you’re in good hands.
It really was a different world back in 1958, and some of the scenes in Cinderella Sims really drive that home. Marital rape and unprovoked violence against women are shrugged off and the plot never pauses to consider what just occurred. In another scene, the narrator describes the gays of Greenwich Village in terms that we don’t use today in polite company. I actually like these elements of vintage fiction, not because of some anti-PC crusade, but because they place a work of fiction in a particular time an underscore how far we’ve traveled in the culture today. It’s also interesting to consider what societal norms we exhibit today that will be seen as jaw-dropping and inappropriate 60 years from now.
Because Cinderella Sims is a Nightstand Book, the promise of several erotic sex scenes are fulfilled, but it’s nothing terribly graphic. This is a sexy femme fatale crime novel rather than a porno book with a crime story pretext. If you read enough of these, you can tell the difference. There’s also a compelling plot and lots of bone-crunching violence as the paperback veers toward its satisfying conclusion.
In short, there’s nothing not to like about Cinderella Sims. It’s an outstanding little crime novel with a boatload of titillation and thrilling action. Lawrence Block was smart to rescue this one from obscurity and make it available today. It’s a real winner.
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Lewis B. Patten authored nearly 100 western novels during his four-decades of literary work. Using the pseudonyms of Lee Leighton and Joseph Wayne, Patten collaborated with his contemporary in Wayne D. Overholser for a handful of westerns. His 1968 novel, Death of a Gunfighter, was adapted into a film starring Richard Widmark. Six of his novels were published in 1963 including The Ruthless Range, a book originally published by Berkley that has been reprinted numerous times since.
The novel introduces readers to Jase Mellor, a fictional famed gunslinger. In his youth, Mellor's fast-draw prowess allowed him to kill a notorious outlaw. But since that fateful day, Mellor has found himself challenged by gunfighters throughout the southwestern U.S. Over the course of many bitter, blood-drenched years, Mellor has attempted to flee into obscurity, a tactic that cost him his marriage with Edie.
As The Ruthless Range opens, Mellor is provoked into a gunfight with a loud-mouthed, arrogant man at a bar. After fatally shooting him, Mellor leaves town only to find ten men in pursuit. The author's opening chapters have Mellor facing these men from some high rocks. After being wounded in the battle, Mellor awakens to find that he is being cared for by a man named Sandoval, owner of the sprawling Grandee Range. Over the course of many days, Sandoval informs Mellor that the land's dry conditions have forced nearby ranchers to illegally push steer onto his land. After heated skirmishes, Sandoval fears for his life and knows that he's outnumbered. Can Mellor help?
Patten weaves a number of story-lines together to create a pretty formulaic western yarn. There are thousands of range-war stories within western fiction and The Ruthless Range is just another one. Although it's a fairly standard story, the author injects two love interests for Mellor – one is his former wife Edie and the other is Sandoval's wife. There's also a small mystery to uncover, but experienced readers should be able to figure it out long before the hero does.
At 120-pages, The Ruthless Range is a short, enjoyable western tale but nothing special or particularly innovative. Jase Mellor is immediately likable and readers will find plenty of reason to rally behind this tragic hero. Just control your expectations if you are looking for something remarkable or outstanding. The Ruthless Range is just pretty good, and sometimes that’s enough.
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Episode 38 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast presents a feature on the life and work of post-apocalyptic fiction author Jan Stacy including a review of the first installment in his Doomsday Warrior series. We also discuss some recent purchases as well as a review of the Harry Whittington classic, A Night for Screaming. Please check us out on any podcast app, streaming below or direct download HERE
Listen to "Episode 38 - Jan Stacy and the End of the World" on Spreaker.
New Yorker Jay Bennett (1912-2009) primarily made a living writing scripts for radio serial adventures starring Bulldog Drummond and early television programs such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents. As an author, many of his mystery books were geared toward a juvenile audience - a niche that won him back-to-back Edgar awards in 1974 and 1975. He only wrote three books geared toward adults, including the 1963 Fawcett Crest paperback, Murder Money. The short novel has been reprinted by Wildside Press as an ebook and paperback.
Eddie Doran is a washed-up boxer, over-the-hill at age 35. After fighting for 20 years, Eddie’s career is over with nothing to show for it. He wanders the streets of the city depressed in a manner reminiscent of the losers populating the fictional world of author Davis Goodis from the same era. A confrontation and mix-up between Eddie and a stranger attempting to enter a taxicab at the same time finds Eddie in possession of the stranger’s briefcase. Inside the case? $100,000 cash.
The problem with finding $100,000 cash is that the owners often want the money back, and sometimes those owners aren’t honorable fellows. Eddie knows this and enlists his boxing manager Al to help him get away with the dough in exchange for half the loot. Nervous about staying in New York, the pair hop on a plane to Miami accompanied by Al’s alluring girlfriend, Laura.
Eddie is scared to death, and Laura ads some spice to the plot by repeatedly trying to seduce Eddie behind Al’s back. That’s not a good recipe for a larcenous partnership. Meanwhile, another woman from Eddie’s past resurfaces into his life while he’s laying low in Miami. Coincidence? The action and twists progress at a nice pace until the bloody climax in the Florida Keys where the truth is laid bare and the cash finds a home.
Murder Money is a simple novel drawing on a plot template that’s been done dozens of times. Despite the tired set-up, the book really works because Bennett was a solid author who understood pacing, raw emotions and narrative tension. “Murder Money” (awful title, by the way) is a sexy, violent and twisty ride. Recommended.
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Maine native and US Army veteran Ovid Demaris (1919-1998) dedicated a majority of his literary work to non-fiction accounts of Mafia operations. Between 1957 and 1988, Demaris also authored a number of crime-fiction novels, two of which were adapted to film - Hoods Take Over as the film Gang War and Candyleg as Machine Gun McCain. Based on the author's research on organized crime, it's no surprise to find The Enforcer in his published works, a mob-themed crime-noir originally released by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1960 and now available as an affordable reprint through Cutting Edge.
Bender is a ruthless mob enforcer living in a bright and cheery apartment complex in Hollywood. When he's not breaking the legs of debtors and traitors, Bender spends his time with a stripper named Nicki while also lusting over a nearby resident named Eileen. However, the police are on to Bender and have him under investigation for a neighborhood double-homicide. To finalize their case, the police ask Detective Mark Condon to go undercover as a resident at the apartment complex. While it's never really explained what Condon is hoping to discover, readers will forget the story-line due to the narrative's abundant sleaze and sexy oscillation. The apartment complex’s pool is like the porn palace of Los Angeles. Resembling a dirty episode of “Friends”, roommates spend 127-pages attempting to get laid. There's also the sex-starved whacko who observes from afar with one hand on his...windowsill.
The Enforcer was my first experience with author Ovid Demaris and by all rights should be the last. I'm a sucker for punishment and unfortunately bought a four-pack of his vintage novels on Ebay. But just to be fair, Demaris may have intended this to be a smutty romance novel and Fawcett just dressed it up to resemble a vengeful crime-fiction offering. Even the book's title may have been something entirely different. We'll never know. But that doesn't dismiss the notion that Demaris is a good author. His fragmented, multilayered narrative has way too many shallow characters. The author spends multiple pages on poolside antics and immature jokes that hinder the pace. Nothing is remarkable, and Demaris doesn't have a story to tell. It's just a random amount of nonsense about young hotheads stripping, dancing and boning.
It goes without saying, but I'll state for the record that The Enforcer has joined the Hall of Shame. Avoid this one like a scorching case of California Clap.
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With a wide variety of pen names under his belt, Laurence James was a British author who wrote a ton of violent paperback original series titles set in the American West (Edge, Apache) as well as in a post-apocalyptic USA (Deathlands, Wasteworld). In 1978, James authored a four-book series of bloody Civil War adventures using the pen name L.J. Coburn starring Union soldier Caleb Thorn and his team of misfit irregulars kicking Confederate ass. The series is available today as super-cheap ebooks, and the first installment is titled The First Shot.
The year is 1861 and the U.S. Civil War is in its infancy. Caleb Thorn is a cocky, 21 year-old northerner from a wealthy Washington, DC family. He’s engaged to a psychotic young southerner named Rachel who gets off on whipping her slaves to death on trumped-up sexual assault charges. The fact that Caleb routinely kills his rivals in duels is a plus for his blood-thirsty fiancé.
As the war between the states intensifies, Caleb is mostly a disinterested observer. He eventually kills rebels with a flourish for recreation but cares nothing of the freedom and well-being of enslaved blacks. In fact, other than bloodlust, it’s hard to put a finger on what motivates Caleb. He’s not a particularly likable protagonist, and you need to be comfortable with this fact before setting on the road with such and imperfect - and at times loathsome - character. If you can accept Caleb on his own terms, the reader gets to have a front seat as Caleb bears witness to the Battle of Bull Run and other significant moments of the war’s early days.
Eventually, Caleb suffers a personal tragedy that crystallizes his hate for Confederate soldiers. He is placed in a Union infantry unit unattached to any regiment giving him the freedom to kill rebs when he encounters them without any wartime red tape. The men of Caleb’s unit are all of poor character released from a death row stockade to ride with Caleb. It’s a less-than-magnificent group of seven killers and criminals assembled for a brief mission to end this novel and set up the action for the rest of the series.
In addition to several scenes of shocking violence, the author wove in some bizarre and head-scratching details into this debut. For example, it’s implied that Caleb has an ongoing sexual relationship with his own mother. There are other non-familial sex scenes in the novel with other partners that are every bit as graphic as an edition of the Longarm series of adult westerns.
Overall, The First Shot is a darn fine series debut, and I’m very excited to dive into subsequent installments. If you liked the Civil War flashbacks in the Edge series, you’ll feel right at home with Caleb Thorn.
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Roger Erskine Longrigg (1929-2000) authored novels for a number of different genres including historical, romance, mystery and espionage. Writing under the pseudonym of Rosalind Erskine, the British author found literary success with the erotic novel The Passion Flower Hotel. Under the name Frank Parrish, Longrigg wrote an eight-book series starring a poacher and thief named Dan Mallett. As Laura Black, Longrigg authored a number of Scottish historical novels. In reviewing Longrigg's robust literary catalog, the novels that interest me the most are the spy-fiction books written under the pseudonym Ivor Drummond.
Drummond's nine novels star three wealthy individuals who simply fight crime together. While the team's creation isn't fully explained, nor is an official series name given, these books are of the spy or espionage variety. The trio is led by Jenny Norrington, a beautiful British woman and wealthy heiress. Her co-members are a rich Texan named Colleride “Colly” Tucker and a brute named Count Allessandro di Ganzarello. Thankfully, this wealthy Italian answers to the name of Sandro. The series was launched in 1969 with The Man with the Tiny Head. The first five novels were published by Pyramid with the rest of the series published by Dell. My first sampling of Longrigg and this series is the eight installment, 1978's The Stench of Poppies.
The book begins within a laboratory as a Turkish scientist has mistakenly discovered a method of making a deadlier strain of heroin. By attempting to maximize the growth of poppy seeds (the main ingredient in morphine and heroin) using less land resources, the scientist modifies the seeds. In doing so, he makes a “super” version that makes the morphine or heroin user a raving, suicidal maniac within minutes of its use. The laboratory, in conjunction with government representatives, launch a new project of growing these deadly poppy seeds and selling them to governments that want to cleanse their streets and neighborhoods of heroin junkies. By providing this deadly drug, they feel that their drug epidemic will correct itself through mass suicides among users and addicts.
Jenny, Colly and Sandro meet with a high-level bank administrator who wants the trio to investigate a Turkish carpet retailer, Mustafa Algan, who is making large deposits in various currencies. The author shares with readers the fact that Algan has inherited the distribution duties for these new, modified forms of heroin and morphine. It is up to the trio to learn who Algan is and how his carpets are netting extraordinary profits. At 224-pages, I was hoping this procedural investigation would lead to gunplay, high-adventure or some sexy undercover romps. Unfortunately, The Stench of Poppies never really gained much traction.
The author utilizes dozens of cities for his three protagonists to explore. As the trio tour the countryside, Longrigg uses lengthy portions of the book to explain mythology or famous medieval battles that occurred at each location (borrowing too much from his historical fiction written as Laura Black). The dialogue between the three main characters was entertaining and often humorous. There is an outrageous scene in the opening pages as the trio decide if they want to kill a man trapped in the back of their truck. Another fun scene has Jenny faking an epileptic seizure before luring a victim to his death. But aside from these scenes, the author just spins his wheels on dull, uninspiring travel sequences that find the heroes searching for red poppy fields all over the Middle East. Near the book's end, I was hoping someone was able to find a plant so the story would end...and I could stop counting pages.
A Stench of Poppies would have been better received at 150-pages, less travel and more action. I've read great reviews of this series and I'm not dismissing the entire lot based on this one novel. At some point I'd like to explore the first few installments in hopes of higher quality.
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