Blood Oath

Canadian-American author David Morrell wrote First Blood in 1972 as his first published novel. The book was adapted into the blockbuster film launching the successful Rambo film franchise. With nearly 30 novels to his credit, Morrell has practiced in multiple genres including horror, action-adventure, mystery and even comics. I've always enjoyed his work and have owned his 1982 novel Blood Oath for awhile. The back cover features a Stephen King blurb that says he defies readers not to finish this novel in a single sitting. Taking the horror icon's challenge, I opened to the first page.

Peter Houston is a successful novelist and college professor. As a child, his father lost his life in a French battlefield during WW2. Pete's mother insisted that his father was a great man who gave everything for his country. After his mother passes away, Pete and his wife Jan journey to France to visit his father's battlefield grave for the first time. But, after asking the cemetery's U.S. military administration about his father's grave, they have no record of it existing.

When probing various U.S. diplomatic correspondents, Pete receives no helpful information about his father’s final resting place. As this odd mystery begins to unfold, Pete begins to imagine that maybe his father was never killed in the battle and is possibly still alive. The only clue may lie with the name Pierre de St. Laurent, a French soldier who promised Pete's mother that he would always be the caregiver for his father's grave. When speaking with the French residents in and around the battlefield site, the locals nearly run in horror at the mention of St. Laurent's name. After Pete and Jan are attacked multiple times, their luck finally runs out and Jan is murdered by an unknown assailant. Knowing her murder is linked to the mystery, Pete sets  out to find his wife's killer and to locate the real history about his father.

Blood Oath is like this fantasy marriage of Hammond Innes and Dean R. Koontz. It mixes in WW2 history, Nazi gold, high-altitude adventure and the idea of the average citizen on the run from strange and shadowy government operatives. The action moves at a breakneck speed with very little time for dialogue or discussion. The bad guys (no spoiler here) send waves of assassins after Pete and force him to utilize the training and expertise he's acquired while researching his own novels. It parallels Morrell's own expertise in firearms, evasive driving, outdoor survival, crisis negotiation - all skills acquired by the author during his research. I thought the pacing, character development and story progress were superb, but the ending was a real letdown with its indulgent castle setting and stereotypical villain.

If you are looking for a high speed, high adventure yarn, Blood Oath is certainly entertaining. Morrell has better books (Creepers for example) and whether or not this is a mandatory read is going to depend on how deep of a fanboy you are for this author. As to Stephen King's challenge, this one took me two days and wasn't the same enthralling experience he predicted.

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Barr Breed #01 - The Body in the Bed

Born William Sanborn Ballinger, Bill S. Ballinger (1912-1980) wrote over 150 teleplays including episodes of The Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Ironside. With most of his career spent in radio and television, Ballinger still found the opportunity to author nearly 30 novels. His first, The Body in the Bed, was published in 1948 and is the first of two books starring a Chicago detective named Barr Breed. As a lifelong Cubs fan, I couldn't resist the idea of a crime novel in Chi-Town.

Although the sign on his door reads Breed Detective Agency, Barr Breed isn't your typical private-eye. Instead, he runs a detective staffing agency that furnishes guards for warehouses and banks, detectives for railroads, secret shoppers for stores and payroll protection for long routes. So the last thing Breed wants is a murder case. But, when a guy named Gibbs knocks on his door, Breed becomes enthralled with his story.

Gibbs explains that he's been cheating on his wife for a number of years. As a commercial account executive, Gibbs is in and out of hotels all over the country. In Chicago, Gibbs has a main squeeze named MacCormick. Unfortunately, while Gibbs was in the shower, someone walked in, strangled her to death and then tucked her into bed. Gibbs discovers the dead broad and makes a beeline for a detective agency to figure this out. Breed doesn't buy in right away, but when Gibbs produces a wad of bills, Breed makes him this deal: The money will buy Gibbs seven days. During that seven day stretch, Gibbs needs to lie low and allow Breed to find someone else to be a suspect for the cops. Gibbs accepts the deal and takes a point-blank shotgun blast to the chest later that night. Later, Gibbs' own wife is found murdered as well. Who knocked-off this love triangle and what's Breed's commitment to the case? That's the main premise behind The Body in the Bed.

Honestly, I didn't particularly like Breed during the novel's first half. But as the story-line began to tighten, I changed my tune - he's a real badass. He fights hard, escapes from killers, endures some torture, is an excellent shooter and a real cool cat with the ladies. He's not a dimwit, but he does allow the problems to solve themselves. He does some sarcastic wisecracking and always seems to describe in great detail what he's eating and drinking. As a crime-fiction mystery, the novel works really well with a payoff finally coming at the very end. I was glued to the characters just trying to figure it all out.

Ballinger writes this in the first-person as Breed relays his experiences to readers. After the book's sequel, The Body Beautiful, the author changed his writing style to incorporate shifting first-person narrators from the various characters' perspectives. This sort of bobbling could make readers seasick, but I'm willing to test the waters. I haven't seen the last of Bill S. Ballinger.

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Fresh Fiancés for the Devil’s Daughter

Before there was a term for “Extreme Horror” or “Splatterpunk” with amplified gore and violence, a man writing as Russell Gray was shocking and revolting readers with his graphic horror stories and novellas in the pulps. Gray was a pseudonym of author Bruno Fischer, and his most famous horror work was “Fresh Fiancés for the Devil’s Daughter,” originally from the May 1940 issue of Marvel Tales.

The story begins at a crowded and drunken literary party in a Manhattan apartment. Our narrator is literary agent Lester Marlin, and he can’t keep his eyes off a woman who just entered the party. She introduces herself as Tala Mag, and Lester is somehow able to fend off her wanton advances by citing his wife’s presence at the party.

The next morning Lester receives a note from the party’s hostess (his best client) asking him to meet with Tala Mag as she is an aspiring author in search of representation. A second note from Tala requests Lester to come to her Park Avenue penthouse later that day for the meeting. Despite his misgivings, he agrees to meet with Tala to appease his client.

At the meeting, Tala is in full seduction mode demanding that he read a story she wrote. Lester reads her manuscript, and it’s dark, vile, evil and unprintable. However, Tala is not the kind of lady who takes no for an answer. As he tries to escape her apartment, Lester is subdued, rendered unconscious, and later awakens naked and bound by chains inside Tala’s “room of torment.”

Beyond that, I don’t want to give much away. However, if you’re seeking a violent and kinky fantasy gone awry, this is the story for you. The torture story becomes a revenge story with an expanded cast of victims, sizzling breasts and a “most dangerous game” gimmick. Bruno Fischer is clearly having some fun pitting an author against a literary agent in a battle sparked by the rejection of the exact kind of story that Fischer himself wrote as Russell Gray.

Was “Fresh Fiancés for the Devil’s Daughter” extreme? Most definitely. Was it scary? Not really. It was definitely suspenseful and never boring, but torture porn was never my idea of a scary time. I liked the novella mostly because Fischer was such a talented writer who could write propulsive and exciting action sequences. Even at this early stage of his career, he could deliver a compelling story. By now you know whether this is your thing or not. If it is, you’ll dig this selection plenty.

Buyer’s Guide:

The 38-page novella began its life in the May 1940 issue of Marvel Tales and has been reprinted in anthologies several times over the past 71 years. If you don’t have $300 to buy the original pulp magazine, you can find the story in any of the following books:

Radio Archives eBook Reprint

Hostesses in Hell

Pulp Fiction Megapack

Paperback Warrior - Episode 83

On Episode 83 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast, we discuss the evolution of sexual content in genre paperbacks. Also discussed: Carter Brown, Adult Westerns, Ardath Mayhar, John Kildeer, Frank Cannon, Sam Spade, Wade Miller, Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, Jonathan Craig and much more! Listen on your favorite podcast app, at paperbackwarrior.com or download directly HERE 

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Listen to "Episode 83: Paperback Sex" on Spreaker.

Virgil Tibbs #01 - In the Heat of the Night

New York native John Ball (real name John Dudley Ball Jr., 1911-1988) worked as a newspaper and magazine reporter, a part-time Los Angeles deputy and a book review columnist for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. In addition to his three Talon police procedural novels, Ball also authored a seven-book series of novels starring African-American homicide detective Virgil Tibbs. The author is memorialized for the series' debut title, 1965's In the Heat of the Night. The Edgar Award-winning book was adapted to cinema in 1967, capturing five Oscars including Best Picture. After enjoying Ball's first Talon novel, 1977's Police Chief, I was anxious to read what is considered his finest work.

The book begins by introducing readers to Wells, South Carolina. It's the proverbial 1960s Southern small town where they can still smell the Civil War powder burning and probably always will. It's here where young cop Sam Wood patrols the city's streets on the graveyard shift. After a midnight lunch break, Wood discovers a dead body lying in the highway. After notifying police chief Bill Gillespie, Wood is instructed to immediately prowl the area for strangers. In a dark and cavernous train station, Wood finds a black man casually reading a paperback book. After discovering the black man has a wallet of cash, Wood hauls him in as the prime murder suspect.

Perhaps one of Hollywood's most treasured movie quotes is found in the book's fourth chapter - “They call me Mister Tibbs.” After the police question the black man, they learn that he is Virgil Tibbs, a veteran homicide detective from Pasadena, CA. As the narrative tightens, readers learn that Tibbs was trained in martial arts with a specialty in karate, judo and aikido. In addition, he's a veteran of the Pasadena police force, becoming a homicide detective after five years of patrol. It's also hinted that he may have attended an FBI school. Tibbs is a polymath, like Ball's favorite literature hero Sherlock Holmes. He is astute at problem solving with an almost supernatural attention to detail. But in the deep South of the 1960s, Tibbs finds he's in a different world.

As one can imagine, Ball explores the line between racial hostility and small-town justice. After learning that Tibbs is a highly regarded detective, Gillespie asks for his assistance with the corpse. Through character interviews, Tibbs learns more about the case despite the town's opposition that a colored man is leading the investigation. Tibbs, knowing that Gillespie and Wood are both inexperienced, is extremely humble and complacently accepts his role as a victim of racism. This is where Ball absolutely shines as a storyteller. Tibbs doesn't particularly care about the injustice, the racial hostility or Gillespie's browbeating. He's far above all of that, never in the ditch but up on the road. Tibbs is consumed by the murder mystery. Through the book's 150-pages, I don't recall Tibbs stopping for rest. Instead, he ascends to a plane of existence that only contains him, the murdered and the murderer. Thankfully, Ball doesn't make readers rest in this headspace. Instead, he presents the story by centralizing Wood and Gillespie. Readers rarely ride with Tibbs but instead are presented his findings just like Wood and Gillespie.

I'm probably off base here, but for some reason I couldn't help but think of Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer character. Tibbs isn't Archer, but the narrative's twists and turns reminds me of MacDonald's writing style. Or, it could just be that I'm aligning two West-Coast detectives. Nevertheless, In the Heat of the Night is a masterpiece of police procedural fiction. If you are a fan of the film, there are key differences in the novel. The film has Tibbs from Philadelphia, the murdered man as someone quite different and the suspects having different professions and roles. Most notably is that the film version presents Tibbs as an angered individual when faced with racism. As I alluded to earlier, the novel is the opposite. Thankfully, the old adage applies here: The book is better than the movie (or television show).

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Forever After

In May 1960, Winston Publications launched a short-lived horror literary digest called Shock: The Magazine of Terrifying Tales with a cover illustration by Jack Davis from EC Comics. The magazine mostly reprinted classic horror and suspense stories from Weird Tales and Argosy, but the debut issue also contained an original short story by Jim Thompson titled “Forever After.” The story has been reprinted on Kindle for a buck from Noir Masters.

Mrs. Ardis Clinton is having a sexual affair with Tony, the dimwit dishwasher from the diner across the alley from her apartment. As the story opens, Mrs. Clinton has it all figured out: Tony is going to murder her husband with a meat cleaver allowing her to enjoy the widow’s life complete with $20,000 in life insurance dough. They just need to stage the apartment to look like a struggle took place during a robbery to give the murder an air of authenticity.

In order to give the ruse a sense of authenticity, Dumb Tony needs to rough up Mrs. Clinton to make it appear she was injured in the home invasion robbery that killed her husband. Meanwhile, it’s important to Mrs. Clinton that she’s wearing a skimpy negligee when her husband gets home, so Mr. Clinton can see what he’ll be missing before Tony cleavers the old man into the hereafter. The story’s tension mounts until the doorknob turns welcoming Mr. Clinton home for the last time...

“Forever After” is a nasty little story lasting only about ten pages, so I’m not going to spoil the plot any further for you. There’s an unexpected twist at the end that explains why Thompson sold the story to a fledgling horror digest rather than, say, Manhunt. It was also compiled in the 1988 collection Fireworks: The Lost Writings of Jim Thompson. In any case, “Forever After” is definitely worth reading. The easiest way to get a copy is to plunk down a buck and buy the digital copy for your Kindle. You won’t regret it for a moment.

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The Hoodlums

John Eagle was a pseudonym utilized by George Benet who was born in Chicago in 1918. In 1952 when paperbacks were exploding as a medium, Benet moved to New York City and wrote this crime novel called The Hoodlums. The Avon book sold a half-a-million copies and was reprinted in 1956. The paperback has found new life in 2021 as a reprint from Black Gat Books retaining the original cover art.

Despite being lucky, smart and aggressive, ex-con Kirk Wagner is broke at age 26. His three-year stint in prison arose from an armed robbery followed by a double-cross that landed Kirk in the slammer while his partner Martin got away with the dough. To his credit, Kirk never squealed. Now that he’s been out for two weeks, Kirk is trying to make ends meet with a legit job in Chicago. But it’s hard, man, hard.

Three years without a woman is a long time, so Kirk tries to catch up with Jeannie, a hot little dish he dated for a spell before he got pinched. The time has been good to Jeannie - she’s stacked and seems to be a sex-positive kinda chick. Meanwhile, Kirk gets word that his old pal Martin has returned to Chicago. He allegedly wants to make things right for the double-cross that landed Kirk in prison. But how do you repay someone for three years in the slammer?

Benet/Eagle was a much better writer than most of his 1953 paperback contemporaries. His vocabulary and descriptors belie literary aspirations that surpass the hoodlum genre. The plotting, however, was a bit slow, meandering, and largely non-existent. The first quarter of the book has Kirk and his vagrant friends bumming around Chicago trying to stay warm and behaving like drunken characters from a David Goodis book. When Martin returns to Chicago something resembling a normal scam plot begins to take shape. It’s all well-written and compelling, but you would never describe The Hoodlums as being a propulsive thriller or having a normal story arc. Things happen, but it’s more like a reality show following a small-time hoodlum around Chicago’s underworld as he barely makes ends meet. Some of the vignettes are better than others, but the novel was never boring.

Despite having no real plot, I found myself enjoying The Hoodlums. It was like a blues song set to melodic prose, and I appreciated how different it was. Most of the crime novels from the early 1950s made their magic from tightly-wound stories with twists and turns along the way. The Hoodlums took a different route, and it largely worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

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