Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 42

On Episode 42 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast, we do a deep dive into the life and work of author William Ard (aka Jonas Ward) as well as a review of Clifton Adams’ DAY OF THE GUN and much, much more! Listen on your favorite podcast app, Paperback Warrior.com or download directly here (LINK).

Listen to "Episode 42: William Ard" on Spreaker.

The Executioner #59 - Crude Kill

Chet Cunningham authored six Executioner novels between 1983 and 1986 beginning with the 59th installment, Crude Kill. I have always enjoyed Cunningham's blunt writing style, and I liked his violent Executioner novel, Baltimore Trackdown, the series' 88th entry. With another exceptional Gil Cohen cover, a solid author and the promise of quality consistency, there was no hesitation behind choosing Crude Kill to read and review. 

After liberating hostages from a Milan stronghold, Bolan learns that a mastermind-terrorist named Lufti has targeted an enormous oil tanker called The Contessa. His evil plan is to dump thousands of tons of oil into the Mediterranean Sea if he doesn't obtain millions in gold and the obligatory freeing of all criminal cohorts associated with his criminal empire. Of course the ransom won't be met because Bolan arrives just in time to terminate the baddies. The real enjoyment is the journey to get there.

After working closely with series mainstay pilot Jack Grimaldi, Bolan's first target is to destroy a commandeered former German U-Boat that Lufti's forces are using as protection. Cunningham soaks 40 pages with blood and guts, propelling the narrative, along with Bolan, onto the oil tankard's deck. The remaining 150-pages is saturated with bullets, bravado and bombs. Cunningham's literary style always borders on the grotesque – brains jellied, intestines splattered, flesh searing – but it’s all just an over-the-top attempt to please his dominant male audience. The intense violence factor is probably a prerequisite to write Bolan books. Trust us, none of his fans were tipping off Tipper Gore in 1983.

Crude Kill is another enjoyable Bolan saga sure to please fans of the series. The book also features an explanation from Don Pendleton regarding why he handpicked Chet Cunningham to join his revolving carousel of Bolan authors. Based on just Crude Kill, the reason is obvious.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Grave Digger & Coffin Ed #07 - Cotton Comes to Harlem

Between 1957 and 1969, trailblazing African-American hardboiled crime author Chester Himes (1908-1984) authored an eight-book series starring black NYPD detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. The conventional wisdom is that the high-water mark of the series was the seventh installment Cotton Comes to Harlem from 1965.

The story opens with Reverend Deke O’Malley selling Harlem residents a chance to emigrate back to Africa for $1,000 per family. The reverend is quite a salesman and the money is pouring in - $87,000 in a few hours of making his sales pitch in the vacant lot next to the housing project. The festivities are interrupted by two white men with machine guns who pull up, shoot up one of the reverend’s men, and rob the $87,000 of Back-to-Africa money before making a clean getaway.

Grave Digger and Coffin Ed are tough cops on the Harlem beat assigned the case of the violent heist. The two cops are riddled with scar tissue and healed bullet holes from previous adventures. They have good reason to be skeptical of the grifter reverend and his Back-to-Africa scheme, but they also have deep compassion for the poor blacks so disillusioned with American life that they’d be willing to spend their last dime to leave the nation behind and start a new life in Africa.

Himes really beats the drum on the disenchantment that Harlem’s blacks had with the American Dream. The tension between the white establishment - including white cops - and the poor blacks is also on full display in the novel and recalls many of the complaints and divisions we grapple with today. If these issues are interesting to you, Himes gives the reader a lot to chew on. If you already have way too much racial grievance talk in your life, Cotton Comes to Harlem is probably not for you.

As a straight-up violent police procedural mystery, the novel works quite well, particularly when you consider that the author honed his writing skills in prison. As the criminals who stole the money were making their getaway, they shoved a large bale of unprocessed cotton onto the roadway (thus, the book’s title). The mob of white bandits and unprocessed cotton in Harlem provide their starting point for a decent mystery for our heroes to solve.

Although I can recognize the achievement of Cotton Comes to Harlem, I didn’t love the book. It felt long and dragged a bit to me. The heroes were awesome, but I found most of Harlem supporting characters fairly cartoonish and unrelatable - particularly to a middle-aged, white, suburban guy in the 21st century. The comic relief scenes were kind of silly (although you won’t forget the paper bag scene), and the entire novel could have used a stronger editing hand. Chester Himes and the series are revered by literary scholars, but I suspect that’s more for the cultural significance than the actual greatness of the novels. But by all means, try the paperback for yourself as your mileage may vary. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Death by the Day

We read so many vintage paperbacks by authors with dozens - or even hundreds - of titles that it’s easy to forget that some guys only had one or two books in them. I’ve had a helluva time learning anything about author Lawrence Fisher. I know he wrote two crime novels: a 1961 paperback called Death by the Day (reviewed below) and a 1963 book club hardcover called Die a Little Every Day. Based on copyright data, his real name appears to be Lawrence V. Fisher. I don’t know where he was from, his birth year, his death year, his turn-ons, or any particulars. I did read his paperback, though, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

One month ago, our narrator Nick Paulson and his 15 year-old brother traveled to the mountain resort town of Park Village with 75 cents in their pockets to begin a lucrative summer as bellhops during the busy season at a Colorado resort. The monotony of elderly guests and bad tippers is broken one day with the arrival of a rich man named Mr. Rinehart, his driver and his young, sexy arm-candy, Margo. By page seven of the paperback, you know that this dame has femme fatale written all over her.

As the plot thickens, Nick becomes enmeshed in the real agenda behind Rinehart and Margo’s visit to the mountains - Rinehart and his “driver” are planning a heist. Meanwhile, it takes no time at all for the sexual tension between Nick and Margo to reach a boiling point. Can Nick get the girl and the money without being filled with bullet holes?

It’s a shame that Fisher didn’t produce more fiction because he was an excellent writer with a real knack for exciting plotting. His style reminds me of early Lawrence Block, top-shelf Harry Whittington or the best of Gil Brewer. He doesn’t reinvent the genre in Death by the Day, but he executes the crime noir formula with great skill. Some publisher should resurrect this paperback for modern audiences. It hasn’t seen the light of day in 60 years and deserves to be remembered. This one’s an easy, full-throated recommendation.

Caveat:

Neither the cover art nor the back cover’s plot description bear any resemblance to actual events in the novel. Both were certainly created by people who never read the book and were probably recycled from elsewhere. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Red Sonja #01 - The Ring of Ikribu

A common misconception in fantasy literature is that the Red Sonja fictional character was entirely created by Robert E. Howard. The fiery red-headed swordswoman is often affiliated with Howard's own hero, Red Sonya of Rogatino, a female swashbuckler that was featured in the 1934 short-story Shadow of the Vulture. However, the Red Sonja (note the “J”) character didn't appear until 1973 and was created by Roy Thomas Jr. (Ghost Rider, Conan the Barbarian) and Barry Windsor Smith (Wolverine).

Influenced by Howard's Red Sonya of Rogatino, the Red Sonja character made her debut in Marvel Comic's Conan the Barbarian #23. Since then, the character has become a pop-culture icon appearing in numerous comics by multiple publishers and series. Along with graphic novels, action figures, television appearances and a 1985 theatrical film, Red Sonja was also a short-lived paperback series published by Ace. The debut, The Ring of Ikribu, was published in 1981 and kick-started a six-book run of paperback novels with covers by Boris Vallejo. The books were authored by fantasy authors David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney.

The Ring of Ikribu is a powerful gem that can crush or create kingdoms. A powerful sorcer named Astoth is pursuing the ring in hopes of ruling a portion of the Hyborian kingdoms. His search for divine power brings him to the city of Suthad. Off page, Astoth and his army decimate Suthad leaving their King Olin and a thousand soldiers fleeing from the city. It's in this part of the book that Olin meets Red Sonja.

Through alternating chapters, the authors retell Sonja's origin story originally presented in Kull and the Barbarians #3 (1975). Before being raped repeatedly, Sonja watched invading marauders murder her family. After wandering into the forest, Sonja is empowered by a spirit/deity that provides her an uncanny, supernatural swordsmanship. The curse is that she can never love anyone unless they can best her in swordplay. Swearing vengeance, she is now a drifting adventurer that conveniently serves as a blank page for creators to craft countless stories and adventures around. Just like Conan. After hearing of King Olin's losses at Suthad, Sonja teams with the brutish warrior to retake Suthad.

The Ring of Ikribu is similar to a traditional western tale - an action-packed road trip that features a lone hero assisting the downtrodden to overthrow the town bully. In this case, the bully is a sorcerer that conjures plagues of undead combatants, ghoulish worm creatures and phantom ghosts. Sonja rides tall, speaks the truth and shoots straight. Only with a lightning quick sword instead of the six-gun. The authors weave a romantic notion that Sonja and Olin can truly fall in love, but the concept drowns in a murky black swamp (you'll never guess who dies!).

Paperback Warrior covers very little Fantasy, but we seem to be drawn to the pulpy, men's adventure styling of heroic icons such as Conan and Red Sonja. While serving as pillars for the Fantasy genre, the characters themselves could seemingly be interchanged with Ben Haas's Fargo, Jon Messman's Trailsman or Barry Sadler's Casca. The Ring of Ikribu displays the same literary style. If you have avoided the series due to the sword and sorcery wrapping paper, I urge you to rethink your position and try again. Red Sonja can be as badass as Mack Bolan.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

In a Vanishing Room

I took inventory, and 15 of the 17 novels written by Robert Colby between the years 1956 and 1972 are now available as ebooks for your Kindle. Based on the three Colby novels I’ve read thus far, I’m convinced that the author is an unsung hero of American crime fiction. As such, I was excited to read his lean 1961 novel, In a Vanishing Room, a book originally released as half of an Ace Double paperback.

The novel opens with an odd scene. While waiting to board a flight from Miami to New York, Paul Norris sees a fellow passenger in line abruptly run out of the airport and two other men in the airport pursue the runner on foot. Upon arriving in New York, a woman waiting at the gate (ah, remember when that was a thing?) is clearly waiting for the man who ran away before boarding. She says the man is her lawyer and appears perplexed that he didn’t make the flight.

Norris accepts a ride into Manhattan from the woman - her name is Eileen - and tells her about the odd circumstances surrounding her lawyer’s escape from the airport. Upon arrival into the city, she invited him up to her apartment for a drink, and it becomes a near-certainty that Norris is about to get laid - 1961 style.

Not so fast, Mr. Norris! It seems that Eileen has something else up her sleeve. The seduction routine is just a ploy to get her hands on a shipping receipt for a large crate slipped into Norris pocket before the lawyer took off running at the Miami airport. In any case, Eileen splits fast leaving Norris with the receipt and a case of epididymal hypertension (Google it). This set-up is all rather contrived and tortured but will be worth it if the mysterious crate propel Norris into an exciting and mysterious adventure, right?

Lots of people want the receipt, so they can get the contents of the crate. Some are willing to befriend Norris to get the crate. Some are willing to pay dearly for it. Some are willing to kill for it. Understandably, Norris (and the reader) is uncertain who to trust. As the story winds through additional twists and turns, he pairs up with an attractive female corporate secretary on his mission to recover the crate for a wealthy benefactor.

The second half of the book introduces a fascinating hired killer and a vexing architectural mystery - the titular Vanishing Room - making for the kind of floor-plan mystery often devised by author John Dickson Carr. Unfortunately, the solutions to the Vanishing Room Mystery and the What’s Inside the Crate Affair were both rather ho-hum.

In a Vanishing Room is a difficult book to recommend. There were definitely some cool parts, but none of them fit together nicely into a coherent or particularly enjoyable crime novel. I’m not giving up on Robert Colby because I’ve seen what he can do when he’s firing on all cylinders - check out The Captain Must Die. Unfortunately, this one just isn’t much good. Take a pass. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Dragon's Eye

Scott C.S. Stone was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars before settling into life in Hawaii as a journalist working for Reuters and The New York Times. He wrote a lot of non-fiction books about Hawaii and Asian culture as well as a handful of novels leveraging his knowledge of the Far East. His most enduring book is The Dragon’s Eye from 1969, an espionage adventure that won the 1969 Edgar Award buoyed by some great Robert McGinnis cover art in the original paperback printing.

Michael Hawkins, our narrator, is a war correspondent in Vietnam who quits the life after a colleague is killed in action. He retreats to Honolulu to work on a book, get laid and learn to surf. Hawkins’ easy life is interrupted by a visit from an old friend - a former journalist who now appears to be working for the CIA. He recruits Hawkins to help a British-born journalist defect to the United States from China. The would-be defector is currently working for Communist China’s state-run news agency.

Hawkins’ bounces from Taiwan to Hong Kong to Thailand to Laos and much of the novel feels like a bit of a Fodor’s Guide to 1969 Asia. I found it interesting because the narrator is an excellent tour guide, but those seeking wall-to-wall espionage action may get bored. Hawkins (and the reader, by proxy) learns about the labyrinthine structure of Red China’s intelligence apparatus, and it’s a pretty fascinating academic lesson. The upshot for the plot is that the New China News Agency is not like the AP or Reuters but functions as an intel agency with every reporter functioning as a spy. As such, the defecting journalist is a big deal - the highest ranking non-Chinese in Red China’s government who wants to come over to America and spill his guts.

Along the way to facilitate the defection, there is torture and sex and murder and lies and romance and double-crosses and everything else you might expect from a competently-written international espionage paperback. Stone’s writing is pretty excellent, and the story moves at a nice clip. It’s denser than most disposable fiction from the 1960s, but the extra attention that the paperback demands is rewarded by a compelling story with interesting characters and exotic locales.

For a book coveted by paperback collectors for its iconic cover art, The Dragon’s Eye was a total pleasure to read. If you are thoroughly disinterested in the spread of communism in Southeast Asia during the late 1960s, you’ll probably be bored silly with much of the book, but I found the whole thing pretty riveting and learned a lot within the body of this exciting adventure story. Recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE