Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 93

On Episode 93, Eric presents the life and literary work of Edgar Award-Winning author Clark Howard. Eric reviews many of Howard's novels, including his 1970 Fawcett Gold Medal paperback The Arm. Tom reviews the 1959 paperback debut of the Psi-Power series and Eric reveals an embarrassing debt. Listen on any podcast app, paperbackwarrior.com or download directly HERE

Listen to "Episode 93: Clark Howard" on Spreaker.

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) is a beloved author with a lasting legacy that includes both screenplays, short stories and novels. His literary works crossed multiple genres like fantasy, science-fiction, horror and speculative fiction. I can remember reading a few of his shorts in grade school and promising myself, I would explore the author's bibliography. 30 years later, I've decided to read one of his most popular novels, Fahrenheit 451. It was originally published in 1953 and has been reprinted countless times over the years. It was adapted to film in 2018 starring Michael B. Jordan.

At 165 pages, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is set in a Dystopian future that reflects much of our daily lives today. In this rather bleak future, people have become seemingly anonymous. Most of the population spends a majority of their lives in their residence watching endless programming on their "wall video". Social interaction is limited and emotional feelings are suppressed. 

The main character is Guy Montag, a fireman who works for the government destroying anything deemed unacceptable by his employer. This is mostly books (and sometimes the people that possess them) and the homes they live in. Instead of the typical fireman extinguishing fires, Bradbury spins it and firemen in this society burn freedom. "It was a pleasure to burn" is Montag's opening statement, a statement that implies that he is enjoying his job and its sense of power and authority. 

When Montag meets a creative thinker named Clarisse, his entire perspective begins to change. She urges him to question his own existence and its purpose. Why do we burn books and live in a predictable world with little variance? With the seed planted, Montag begins to break down the barriers to expose not only his own freedom but others. 

The closing pages of Part One is absolutely remarkable. If you don't want to read this novel, at the very least I recommend reading a thought-provoking portion of the narrative. A Fire Chief explains how society arrived at this anonymous and cold existence and why his firemen burn books. I could probably write an essay on this part of Bradbury's novel. If you read nothing else, read that.

The book's prediction of flat screen TVs and earbuds is just the tip of the iceberg. The social commentary is mesmerizing and really kept me awake just analyzing the final closing pages. Bradbury's classic novel is an eerie prophecy that predicts so many aspects of our current day-to-day. It's an important reminder that freedom should never be taken for granted. At the same time, it's a tutorial on how to avoid Fahrenheit 451's nightmarish future.

Get the book HERE

Too Many Bones

Ruth Sawtell Wallis (1895-1978) obtained her English degree from Radcliffe College in 1919. Later, she went on to graduate studies in anthropology and was employed by the University of Iowa. Wallis started writing mystery novels in 1943, often with her expertise in anthropology to improve her characters and stories. My first experience of Wallis is her first novel, Too Many Bones. It was first published by Dodd Mead in 1943 and re-printed by Dell in 1946. In 2020, Stark House Press reprinted the novel as two-in-one with her 1945 mystery Blood from a Stone.

Too Many Bones features a young anthropologist named Kay Ellis. In the opening pages, readers learn that Kay was referred to the small Midwestern town known as Hinchdale for employment. It is here that she will assist Dr. John Gordon with a unique research on famous bones at the Henry Proutman Museum. In the early 1920s, a large collection of ancient skeletons was smuggled out of Germany. Known as The Holtzerman Collection, these skeletons offer valuable insight into the culture and ancestral behavior of a village of mountainous Romanian people. In a rather bizarre turn of events, this famous bone collection was bought by a millionaire residing in this little rural town in the heart of America. Upon his death, his widow Zaydee Proutman inherited the museum.

When Kay arrives, the museum director is discouraged to learn that his new employee is a female. After some back and forth negotiation, Kay wins the job despite Zaydee's snobbish opposition. Over the weeks, Kay learns about the city - its quirks and subtleties - and her role as Gordon's assistant. As Kay and Gordon begin to have romantic chemistry, she discovers that Gordon and Zaydee are intimately involved. 

In a local restaurant, Kay is repeatedly distracted by a drunk vagabond named Randy. He advises Kay that he was Zaydee's lover and that she threw his life into chaos and left him heartbroken and penniless. But, when Randy's charred body is found in a car, Kay looks like the most likely suspect. The rope begins to tighten when Zaydee goes missing. The readers know that Kay is not the killer, but the chauvinistic sheriff is determined to pin two murders on her. Is it possible for her to find the real killer before she's arrested?

The first half of Too Many Bones is dedicated to Hinchdale and its eccentric residents. It's also a fish out of water story as Kay attempts to settle into this small town. To Kay's chagrin, she is often delegated to the positions below her level of education as an expert in statistics and anthropology. Much of this is due to Zaydee, a pompous, bigoted and dominating millionaire who exists simply to spend her late husband's fortune. She's perfectly designed to be the instant villain you love to hate. 

There are great characters in the storytelling, including touching and sincere attention to two African-American characters. It was rare for the period and a testament to Wallis as a warm and intelligent female author who fought for diversity. The central mystery, once developed, is similar to a cozy locked room mystery. There are suspicions, alibis, pointed fingers and fiery tension as Kay begins to analyze her colleagues, friends and neighbors. Wallis also displays a great sense of humor with some truly outrageous and funny scenes injected into the twisted narrative.

Too Many Bones is a fun murder mystery in a little town with endearing characters and a captivating storyline. Although it was published in the early twentieth century, forensic science and the use of anthropology are parallel to today's crime fiction. Wallis was ahead of her time and Too Many Bones exemplifies that.

Get the book HERE

Come With Me

Come With Me is the latest novel by horror fiction author Ronald Malfi. For this selection, he steps away from supernatural fiction to present the reader with a story of human grief and loss unfolding within a “hunt-the-serial-killer” procedural mystery.

Our narrator is Aaron, a man who discovers that his deceased reporter wife - her name was Allison - was secretly on the trail of a serial killer. For reasons he doesn’t understand, Allison’s amateur gumshoe work was kept a tight secret from Aaron and others in her life. Learning this does little to heal the crushing grief and loneliness Aaron feels for his bride’s death. After all, they had an awesome marriage. Why would she keep this obsession a secret?

Aaron takes up the hunt to learn more about his wife’s hidden infatuation and becomes enmeshed in the maniacal mystery himself. I would compare Come With Me favorably to the work of Harlan Coben or Linwood Barclay in which secrets of the distant past are brought to light by an everyman in the present.

The first half of the book is a slow-burn, but Malfi is an excellent and vivid writer, so the reader is never bored. The second half speeds up quite a bit as our narrator begins putting the pieces together and approaches a solution. At 400 pages, it could have used some trimming and would have been more impactful at a lean 300 pages.

There was a whole sub-genre of serial killer books after Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs, and Come With Me can be counted as a late-entry in that category. Would-be amateur sleuths and fans of the current true crime podcast craze will also find themselves in familiar territory with this novel.

Overall, there’s nothing here not to like. The writing was superb. The protagonist was likable and sympathetic. The mystery’s solution and climactic ending were both very satisfying. It’s an easy recommendation for fans of contemporary suspense and mystery fiction. Get a copy HERE

Night Squad

Philadelphia author David Loeb Goodis (1917-1967) wrote excellent crime novels about skid row losers rising above their alcoholism and misfortune to find justice and normalcy in their violent world. Although Goodis never achieved fame in the U.S. during his life, the French had a keen appreciation for his particular brand of noir. Night Squad was his 1961 paperback original from Fawcett Gold Medal that has been reprinted by Stark House Noir Classics as one of three novels in a trade paperback reprint.

Five weeks ago, Corey Bradford was canned from his job as a police officer for taking bribes from lawbreakers. After the death of his honest police officer father, he was raised by a wino mom in the skid row alleys he now calls home. As we join him, Corey is a boozehound stewbum sleeping on the streets of a city that’s never given a name. Goodis is a master at atmospheric descriptions of the slime-filled slum called the Swamp where rats crawl in the bedroom windows and gnaw on sleeping babies in their cribs. Yes, it’s one of those kind of novels.

The Swamp is under the thumb of a gangster named Walter Grogan, who hires Corey to figure out who is trying to kidnap him. There are several violent set-pieces where Corey is thrust into action trusting his wits and police training to save his own skin as well as his client’s hide. For his part, Grogan is a muscular 56 year-old athlete with a 24 year-old trophy wife who is hot to trot for Corey. If Grogan had any inkling that Corey and his temptress bride were up to anything, it’s a safe bet Corey would disappear to the bottom of the city’s lake.

And then there’s the Night Squad itself. They are a shadowy team of cops operating out of City hall beyond the strict boundaries of the law and police oversight. They are willing to reinstate Corey and return his badge in order to nail Grogan. There’s some great backstory explaining the Night Squad’s hard-on for Grogan that includes one of the most violent vignettes I’ve read in ages. Can Corey serve two masters and rebuild his life?

To be sure, there are a few slow sections, but mostly Night Squad is a pretty exciting, yet thin, paperback with some crazy-violent scenes, backstabbing, torture, gunplay, hot dames, a treasure hunt, and a shot at redemption. Upon reflection, it’s a nearly perfect crime-noir paperback and another win for Stark House, the imprint at the top of the reprint game. Read this one ASAP. Get it HERE

The Slasher

Ovid Demaris is a mid-20th century author who wrote both true crime and crime-noir. Most of his novels have been reprinted by publishers like Stark House Press and Cutting Edge Books. In recent years, I have read and collected his writing. Thankfully, a friend gave me a tattered copy of the author's Fawcett Gold Medal paperback The Slasher. It was originally published in 1959. As far as I can tell, it was never reprinted.

The novel introduces Stanley Palke, a psychopathic lunatic who terrorizes a Californian city. Palke is gay and has a fondness for naval men and merchant seamen. This "slasher" usually picks up men from local dives or bars and then brutally attacks them with a knife. In the first pages of the book, the police find four dead sailors trapped in a car immersed in water. These appear to be Palke's victims.

Whereas the novel occasionally presents events from Palke's point of view, most of the narrative is from Paul Warren's perspective. Like any "downward spiral" story, Warren has developed an alcohol problem. He ends up being fired from his reporting job due to his inability to stay sober for his newspaper assignments. Feeling as if his life is over, Warren spends his days drinking in bars and refusing his wife's help. The stars unfortunately align when Palke spots Warren in a local dive and offers to buy him a drink. Warren awakens the next day in the hospital after being brutalized by Palke. 

The Slasher is mostly a crime-fiction book that highlights two homicide investigators attempting to locate Palke. As fun as that was, I think I enjoyed the more personal account of Warren's downfall. The fact that this suburban husband and father could socially and financially plunge to the depths of alcoholism and suicidal tendencies was riveting. While Demaris is mostly known for his books on organized crime, I felt he presented this emotional story in a way that was easily relatable to readers. 

The Slasher also features some really mature moments that were shocking to me considering this is a 1959 paperback. Palke's flirtation with men wasn't something that was common in literature or film for that time period. While not terribly graphic, Demaris presents some material that was probably taboo or controversial at the time. At one point Palke insinuates that heterosexual men all have a homosexual tendency at one point or another. Warren's wife even reflects on a personal relationship she had with another woman. Beyond that, the sexual crimes were disturbing. Palke's stabbing was comparable to intercourse, each penetration becoming a sexual crescendo that eventually leads to castration. This is all pretty bold stuff for 1959. None of this is really illustrated with the book's cover. Instead, the artwork suggests that the killer is preying on voluptuous women instead of men.

If you like crime-fiction, there's no reason that you won't enjoy The Slasher. Considering all of the elements at work here, Demaris is able to inject quite a bit into a relatively short 172-page novel. From graphic violence, sexual innuendo, police procedures and the aforementioned "riches to rags" personal story, The Slasher is a multifaceted, enjoyable paperback. Get the ebook HERE

Pranks

Dennis J. Higman is a relatively unknown author from Idaho. After a deep dive online, the only information I could gather is that he wrote the horror novel Pranks in 1983 and a romance novel titled Laura Jordan in 1987. I love Halloween and vintage horror novels, so I was excited to borrow my friend's paperback copy of Pranks. It was published by Leisure, and not surprisingly, it's a horror novel that takes place on Halloween night. 

When the novel begins, residents of the small, cozy island town of Horsehead Point prepare for the night's Halloween festivities. There is a sense of isolation on the island, which is in Puget Sound off the foggy shore of Washington. It's here that young Bucky, Harry and Jeff are middle-schoolers running rampant on testosterone, boredom and a desire for reckless abandonment. While most of their misbehavior consists of a few Valium pills and nudie books, it is Bucky that proves to be psycho.

Despite Jeff and Harry's hesitation, Bucky ends up killing two elderly people on Halloween night. Higman's narrative showcases a police procedural that mistakenly rules the murders as accidents. But, Bucky's school teacher Jan feels that the child exhibits unusual behavior by drawing disturbing images of people being tortured. Once she talks with Bucky's mother, she learns that he has a history of psychotic behavior. Jan's father is also suspicious of the two deaths and feels that there may have been foul play involved

At a robust 431 pages, it's clear that Pranks could have been much shorter. I was hoping that this novel would possess some of the "killer kids" genre tropes of vintage horror paperbacks. While I was entertained, the idea of a child killing two elderly people and attempting to cover it up was not exactly a terrifying story. In some respects, Pranks may be more of a juvenile delinquent novel from the 1960s. 

If you manage your expectations, Pranks is an enjoyable crime-fiction novel. The fact that the book's cover is themed for Halloween has no impact on the actual story. While I wish the book was trimmed considerably, I have no regrets reading it. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE