The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines

The good people at The Men’s Adventure Library have compiled a collection of short stories and articles by Lawrence Block originally printed in Men’s Adventure Magazines. The collection is called The Naked and the Deadly, and it collects his magazine writings between 1958 and 1968. The mass-market paperback edition has a dozen stories, and the hardcover adds color art, explanatory materials and a bonus story from 1974. 

The introduction by Block explains how these articles and stories came to be. While working at the Scott Meredith agency, men’s publications would regularly call and say, “I need a 2,500-word article about a guy who survives a shipwreck,” and Block would make it happen. Trust me, it’s better when Block explains it. Bottom line: Don’t skip the intro.

Some of the stories included will be familiar to long-time Blockheads. “Great Istanbul Land Grab” and “Bring on the Girls” are extracts from existing Block novels starring his sleepless adventurer Evan Tanner. There are also three novellas starring his private detective Ed London previously reprinted in Block’s collection, One Night Stands and Lost Weekends. Puzzlingly, the book also includes a story attributed to Block’s pseudonym Sheldon Lord called “Queen of the Clipper Ships” that the author claims he didn’t write. Honestly, I don’t know why it was included in a Lawrence Block story collection at all.

Reviews of story compilations can be ponderous, so I sampled four selections for commentary:

“The Greatest Ship Disaster in American History” (Real Men, April 1958)

This is an article about an actual steamship called The General Slocum in 1904 that sailed from NYC on the East River with passengers destined for a church picnic downstream. Poor judgement results in an onboard fire that ended 1,000 passenger lives. It was a real disaster that Block brings alive in his pseudo-historical account

Block leans into his amplified version of events vividly underscoring descriptions of the burning flesh of the children on board. It’s a vivid nightmare of how human negligence can lead to mass casualties.

“She Doesn’t Want You” (Real Men, June 1958)

This is an allegedly non-fiction journalistic article about the inner-workings of the call-girl trade with the big revelation that a lot of these prostitutes are just doing it for the money and are secretly lesbians.

These faux investigative journalism pieces are hilarious in hindsight. Included are fake interviews with hookers who were perfectly straight before “the life” made them hate men and go lesbo. Block is a fun tour-guide for this silly expose that was probably pretty shocking at the time. Now it’s just funny.

“Killers All Around Me” (All Man, September 1961)

A staple of Men’s Adventure Magazines was the completely-fabricated first-person account of an experience that the magazine falsely claims is an authentic story. In this one, Block poses as C.C. Jones, allegedly telling the story of his job in the violent ward of an insane asylum.

He describes some of the crimes that landed the patients in the ward in graphic, grisly detail. He also describes the physical attacks he’s forced to ensure from the lunatics in the hospital. As always, it’s a well-written fake-expose from the author.

“Just Window Shopping” (Man’s Magazine, December 1962)

This is a straight-up fiction short story previously reprinted in One Night Stands and Lost Weekends about a Peeping Tom who likes to watch the ladies undress through their windows.

One night, he’s watching the hottest chick ever and she catches him. The reception he receives is quite unexpected. This is a nasty little story in line with the kind of stuff we used to see in Manhunt Magazine. Nothing fancy, but a sexy bit of noir worth reading.

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Paperback Warrior Assessment:

Hardcore fans of Lawrence Block will enjoy this collection of his obscure oddities. It’s worth the purchase for the Ed London stories alone, if you don’t have them elsewhere. The faux journalism articles written by Block are plenty entertaining, but shouldn’t be conflated with his short mystery works.

If you’re a student of Men’s Adventure Magazine history and want the visceral experience of looking at the vivid art accompanying these articles and stories, go ahead and spring for the hardcover. The art extras and magazine commentary from the editors are a fascinating look back at this niche publishing phenomenon.

Overall, this collection from a mystery grandmaster is an easy recommendation. If you’re on the fence, take the plunge. 

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Beardless Warriors, The

Richard Burton Matheson (1926-2013) was a multi-genre author best known for his horror and science-fiction works. In 1944, Matheson was 18 years-old when he joined an American combat division during WW2. He drew upon this harrowing experience to write his 1960 war novel, The Beardless Warriors.

The entire book takes place in December 1944 after Everett Hackermeyer from Brooklyn joins the ten-man platoon of C Company, a true fighting outfit just inside the German borders. Four of the ten soldiers are only 18 years old, including our young hero. The novel wastes no time thrusting Hackermeyer into his first combat experience nose-to-nose with German soldiers.

Instead of fearless killing machines, the soldiers of C Company are mostly portrayed as scared teens just trying to stay alive in a confusing and chaotic place far from home. When they get their first taste of combat, Matheson underscores the terrifying muddle that combat seems to an unseasoned soldier. There are moments of bravery, but very little of the heroism we often read in fictional depictions of front-line fighters.

This is a powerful novel, but not a pulpy adventure in the manner of Len Levinson’s The Sergeant or Rat Bastards books. There’s tension and excitement to be sure, but Matheson is clearly trying to give the reader a reality check rather than a swashbuckling yarn. Rather than tracking a single mission, the book reads like a ride-along over a month of an American infantry soldier behind Germany’s front lines.

Ultimately, The Beardless Warriors is a coming-of-age tale where a scared boy matures into manhood and leadership in the most harrowing circumstances. As long as you understand what you’re getting, you’re bound to appreciate the novel as a vivid account of what it was like for the young men prepared to sacrifice it all when the stakes were unimaginably high.

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Six Days of the Condor

James Grady wrote Six Days of the Condor when he was 21 years-old and sold it to a publisher in 1974. Thereafter, it was adapted into the film Three Days of the Condor (Confession: Haven’t seen it) in 1975, and the book has remained popular ever since.

Ronald Malcolm is a CIA researcher in a boring desk-jockey job with an insanely-stupid purpose (it’s too embarrassing to recount here) in a Washington, DC undercover off-site. One day while picking up lunch, he returns to his office and finds that all of his co-workers have been slaughtered. It was only dumb luck that the assassins failed to hit Malcolm, whose code-name is Condor. Now, Malcolm is on-the-run in DC trying to get to safety and into the arms of the CIA Good Guys.

Grady writes the novel in a fun “third-person with a personality” voice borrowed straight from Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels. It’s an omniscient narrator with a distinctive voice who goes on tangents to give background and context to events that occurs. This fuels a really enjoyable read.

As the novel opens, Malcolm is a pretty inept operative — completely unlike James Bond, Jason Bourne or Nick Carter. He’s a bookish fellow unsuited to real fieldwork, but he’s also a rebel and iconoclast among his office peers. These instincts play into his favor during the novel’s extended cat-and-mouse game with the assassins. He takes to killing quite well as the story unfolds.

The author certainly knows how to write a bloody and violent action scene, and there are plenty to enjoy here. The novel is fast moving and exciting. However, the solution to the central mystery of the mass-killing at the CIA off-site left me cold. There were some logical fallacies large enough to drive a bus through in the bad guys’ rationale.

Overall, this is an enjoyable paperback and certainly worth reading. 21st-century reprints contain an interesting introduction by the author discussing how the book came to be and its societal impact following the hit movie. The book also spawned several sequels, including one short story collection starring the hero. Recommended. 

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Nolan #03 - Fly Paper

Max Allan Collins’ Nolan series is his pastiche of Richard Stark’s Parker series. The third novel in the chronology was Fly Paper written in 1973 but not published until 1981. The book has recently been repackaged by Hard Case Crime in a twofer marketed as Double Down.

For the uninitiated, Nolan is a hard-nosed thief who makes a living pulling heists that inevitably run into problems. Much of this book’s focus is on Jon, Nolan’s comic book collecting sidekick. The action kicks off with a colleague named Breen, who has a good thing going with a parking meter rip-off scam. Breen was working the coin theft organized by the redneck Comfort family before those hillbillies shot and double-crossed Breen landing him squarely in Nolan and Jon’s orbit.

This leads to a plan to rip off the Comfort family in a heist-the-heisters kinda deal. The action moves from Iowa to Detroit in the shadow of a large comic book convention. The heist itself is really a side-dish in the paperback with the main course being the commercial airline getaway that is interrupted by a skyjacking.

Between 1961 and 1972, there were 159 skyjackings in American airspace with the majority between 1968 and 1972. It was a vexing criminal social contagion without a clear solution - similar to the problem America currently faces with mass shootings. Collins draws upon this phenomenon as the backdrop of Fly Paper when a married guy plans a D.B. Cooper style airplane heist with a parachute getaway.

When Nolan and Jon are coincidentally on the plane as the dude takes control of the jet, the plotting and action soar. These are the best scenes in a book I’ve read in ages. The creativity at work with the dilemma facing Nolan and Jon sets Fly Paper apart from other heist novels of the paperback original era.

Fly Paper is also unquestionably the best of the first three Nolan novels. The inclusion of Jon as a sidekick gives the book its own identity rather than just being a cover song from a Richard Stark Tribute Band. The skyjacking storyline was brilliant, and everything about his slim paperback leaves the reader wanting more. Highest recommendation. 

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The Secret of Mallet Castle

The Secret of Mallet Castle was originally published with a horrific juvenile cover by Arcadia House in 1966 under William Ross's popular pseudonym Clarissa Ross. I can't bring myself to even show you that artwork here, so you'll need to check it out on your own. The book was later published by Manor in 1977 with a more traditional gothic cover under the name Dan Ross. In the middle of these publications was a McFadden-Bartell with perhaps the best cover, that was published in 1967 under the name Dan Ross. This version was also used by Paperback Classics for their 2023 audio edition (available on CD and Audible) narrated by Romy Nordlinger. 

Eve Grant is a scrub nurse working at a hospital in Ohio. She receives a strange message from a law firm indicating that an uncle she never knew of has left her an immense fortune in his will. For the record, I will inherit debts from every family member I know and don't know. These things only happen to cute paperback nurses, teachers, and nannies. The deal is that she will inherit the fortune and a large castle that was carefully constructed in Cape Cod. Her uncle is terminally ill and near death, but the law firm would like Eve to go to the castle at once to meet the man before he dies. 

Ross does a great job of characterization by having Eve hesitant to inherit the fortune, instead wishing to concentrate on her own career to make her own way. For the record, if this event happens to me, I'm capitalizing on whatever Hell the family member had to endure to earn his or her fortune. My lousy sales agent job with an insurance company can take a hike. I'll make my own way with other people's money anytime. But, Eve does visit the castle and is introduced to her uncle's wife, a snobbish older retired Hollywood actress who is angry with Eve because she gets the bulk of the money. Also, Eve is introduced to her uncle's caretaker, a former Hollywood director or agent that is slightly over-the-top and seems to have a particular disdain for Eve.

Eve's closest ally and friend in the novel is a local town surgeon, who immediately strikes up a romantic connection. But, the narrative consists of Eve being nearly killed by the caretaker, her uncle's son-in-law, and a brutish former pro-wrestler that serves as a type of house bodyguard. Unpleasant things happen to Eve to the point where she questions the motives of her uncle's people. But, where is the uncle in all of this?

Despite Eve's best efforts, she is routinely blocked from meeting her uncle. His keepers seem to have an agenda to keep Eve from physically meeting him. The mystery introduced to readers is whether her uncle is really alive. If he isn't, then who is the man they claim is in the west tower? Also, is there any actual truth to the rumors of a floating apparition in the castle hallways? Is the castle haunted, is it inhabited by murderers, or is this a figment of Eve's imagination stemming from exhaustion? 

This is one of the best gothic novels I've read by William Ross. It certainly follows the formula of a female protagonist in danger within a large structure, but there's enough variety here to make it enjoyable. Eve is a stronger character than some of the prior gothic beauties, and the twist at the end actually threw me off a little. This may also be the first gothic I've read that had the main character packing heat. Needless to say, the ending went out with a loud bang. Overall, The Secret of Mallet Castle is worth a listen or read.

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Rampage

Lester Virgil Roper (1931-1998) graduated from the University of Oklahoma and became a teacher. He later served in the Kansas House of Representatives for nine years. In his spare time, Roper authored 11 total novels using the pseudonyms L.V. Roper and Samantha Lester. Action-Adventure fans may recall his 1975/1976 two-book series starring New Orleans private-detective Renegade Roe. My first experience with the author is his paperback novel Rampage. It was originally published by Curtis Books in 1973 and remains out of print. 

Roper's idea for Rampage was simply to re-write David Morrell's 1973 novel First Blood. Obviously, names and places have been changed to protect the innocent, but Rampage is First Blood, or First Rambo, or whatever we are calling it these days. Here's how Roper's version of Rambo shakes out:

Somewhere in a tiny mountain town in Alabama, a young white school teacher defiantly decides that the region's barbaric racism must end. She orders the black and white kids to sit together in class instead of being divided by the invisible segregation barrier. The town's KKK warns her to stop, but she persists. Off the page (thankfully), four KKK members enter her house, chain her to a bed, and then rape her to death.

Not quite First Blood, but just hang in there.

In Vietnam, Mark Hastings reads a letter from his wife that suggests she may be in danger for combining the black and white kids in her class. He takes an emergency leave (AWOL) and heads home to screw his sister. No, wait, that was Brother and Sister. He goes home to kill the mobsters that have ransacked his family. No, wrong. That was War Against the Mafia. He comes home to become entangled in small town injustice from a bigot cop and his posse of cops and friends. That's First Blood. Also Rampage. Sort of.

Hastings, an Army Green Beret, hitchhikes into a small mountain town in Alabama and discovers that his wife has been killed. He then targets and kills the four men responsible by using hit-and-run attacks from his wilderness hideout in the hills. He also uses a special knife (I suspect a plain 'ole K-Bar) to gut his victims.

Eventually, the town's sheriff, who is a KKK member, organizes a posse to hunt and kill Hastings in the mountains. But, Hastings uses some deadly snares to trap and kill his opponents. He also has a .22 Colt Woodsman that he puts to good use. Needless to say, there is a huge body count in this one. After the police fail to apprehend Hastings, a Colonel from a local National Guard unit comes in to sympathize with Hastings. The end has a delusional Hastings being hunted by his fellow Green Beret A-team. 

There are no doubts that Rampage is a First Blood knockoff, like 1987's Black Moon by Ron Potts. I can't fault Roper because First Blood, and the Rambo films, inspired countless profitable pop-culture ventures. Despite being unoriginal and repetitive, Rampage is pretty darn good. Roper is an excellent writer who had a knack for this sort of suspenseful, cagey action formula. He also tackles a number of deep psychological issues of the era - Vietnam, social inequality, poverty, and plain 'ole everyday abuse of power. I can't remember the page, or the exact wording, but Roper has a character cleverly comparing Hasting's possible arrest for murder in Alabama coming at a time that he's been awarded for murder in Vietnam. These statements are essential to the storytelling, as borrowed as it may be, and adds a little extra emotional "oomph".

If you love these outdoor wilderness survival novels, or enjoy a great small town vigilante romp, then Rampage is worth pursuing. Keep in mind that it is a copy of First Blood, so be sure to read Morrell's classic, more superior novel first. Rampage is a blue-light special version of it that still possesses a level of nostalgic enjoyment.

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The Mall

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the concept of a shopping mall was still a relatively new thing. Who knew that an outdoor plaza of shops could magically transform into an inside oasis for buyers and sellers to mingle regardless of the weather. In America, the neighborhood shopping mall was the place to be for food, friends, arcade machines, and photos. But, it could also host a number of terrors for parents hoping to shield their children from kidnappers, drugs, and perverts. In the 1983 Pocket Books novel The Mall, authored by an unknown dude named Steve Kahn, the idea of shoppers being ransomed for money becomes a plot destined for greatness. Think of Die Hard in a mall. What could possibly go wrong?

At over 300 pages, The Mall is unfortunately a bloated pile of trash. The author introduces dozens of characters, which required a pen and paper to keep track of who's who in the sea of Saturday shoppers. The plot develops into a semi-heist novel when a guy named Prince rounds up five other people to take over the busy Green Meadows shopping mall in Connecticut. They seal up the doors with a special “as seen on television” super-duper glue, then take control of the mall's security room and chief officer. Once this is done, they simply make a demand to the local police chief that they will release the shoppers once they receive millions of dollars in ransom money. 

At some point, by like page 250, I was hoping an Able Team or Eagle Force would show up to liberate the mall in a hail of bullets and blood. But, none of that happens. Instead, the author spends pages and pages fixated on a birthday party for the mall's owner that is simultaneously taking place on an upper level while the mall is being commandeered by criminals. When a message is announced on the PA system that hijackers have overtaken the mall and are asking for millions in ransom money, 40,000 shoppers do absolutely nothing. In fact, it is mostly business as usual as long as they don't attempt to leave. It was kinda, “I'll have a slice of pizza and a TRS-80 game cartridge while I wait for the supposed carnage to end.” It was utterly ridiculous. 

My poor shopping led to a miserable reading experience. It's The Mall of Shame and our newest inductee into the Hall of Shame.

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