The Daring Daylight Raid on Germany's Mile-High Fortress

When I was a kid, a film my father seemed to always have on was The Devil's Brigade. It was originally released in 1968, but played consistently on cable television in the 1980s. The movie starred William Holden, Cliff Robertson, and Andrew Prine as rugged Canadian-American commandos ascending a “mile-high” fortress occupied by the Nazis during WW2. 

Surprisingly, I was thumbing through the December, 1960 issue of Male and stumbled on a story titled, “The Daring Daylight Raid on Germany's Mile-High Fortress”. The title connected me to the movie, and after diving into the story, I realized it was the same real-life account of “the devil's brigade”, complete with artwork by the legendary Gil Cohen (The Executioner). The author is Martin Luray, a name that I'm not familiar with.

Luray's story is more like a traditional MAM informative piece detailing the true story of Major General Robert Tryon Frederick and his leadership of the hybrid Canadian-American military force known as 1st Special Service Force. The team was comprised of 2,400 men culled from prior-military professions like loggers, forest rangers, woodsmen, game wardens, and prospectors. The recruitment for the U.S. volunteers took place in the American Southwest and on the Pacific Coast. 

At 3,000 feet high, Monte La Difensa (known as Hill 960) was a strong-point in the defensive German line strung across the high peaks of Italy. To train for the extraordinary climb and fight, the 1st Special Service Force trained in Helena, Montana, Camp Bradford, Virginia, and Forth Ethan Allen in Vermont. 

In December 1943 and January 1944, the 1st Special Service Force conducted a series of operations at Monte la Difensa, Monte la Remetanea, Monte Sammucro (Hill 720) and Monte Vischiataro. The 1st Special Service Force attacked and captured the enemy forces at the impregnable Monte la Difensa. 

This informative piece authored by Luray inserts various quotes from infantrymen and leaders, including Major General Frederick. While not a stirring, action-adventure narrative, the short story provided an education on this chapter of American-Canadian history while provoking me to read more high-adventure literature. 

A Most Contagious Game

Samuel Grafton (1907-1997) was a publishing success with his syndicated newspaper column “I'd Rather Be Right”, which ran from 1939-1948 in over 120 newspapers. The Brooklyn native grew up in Philadelphia, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, served as an editorial-page editor for the New York Post, and contributed to national magazines in the 1980s. The only fictional novel that Grafton wrote, based on my research, was A Most Contagious Game. It was published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1955, then in paperback format by Pocket Books a year later with cover art by Tom Dunn.

Dan is a newspaper reporter in Philadelphia when he is offered the assignment of a lifetime. His editor offers him $5,000 in cash to relocate to New York City and submerge himself into the underworld. His undercover role will produce provocative, sensational news stories that readers desire. Dan breaks up with his girlfriend and moves to the Big Apple.

On a train, Dan meets up with a low-level theologian that offers up some valuable insight on life, plus a room at a seedy motel where Dan can gain firsthand experience with crime. Unfortunately, Dan gets robbed of his $5,000 and is left fending for survival as a homeless, inexperienced wreck on the city streets. He ends up meeting a prostitute, which leads to a promising world of sex and various small-time criminal activities. Eventually, Dan meets the pimp and gets into a bigger racket of collecting bets and the various moving and shaking of crooks circumventing backroom craps games. Dan's journey into criminality leads to a face-to-face showdown with the two guys that robbed him.

A Most Contagious Game is just an average crime-noir novel that uses the theme of rags to riches to explore the rise from upstanding citizen to notorious crime-boss. Grafton offers up some brilliant social commentary on human struggles and the idea of God and religion. I thought these were the real highlights of the book, with the crime-fiction element playing second fiddle. If you want a better, more thrilling crime-noir novel centered around craps games and illegal gambling, try Clark Howard's masterpiece The Arm. But, a lukewarm recommendation still exists for A Most Contagious Game. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

Night Time Is Murder Time

The November, 1945 issue of New Detective Magazine featured short stories by David Crewe, Cyril Plunkett, Rex Whitechurch, and Ken Lewis among others. The story that I immediately flipped to was the lead novelette story, “Night Time is Murder Time”, a “man on the run” tale penned by legendary crime-fiction author Bruno Fischer.

Ray was medically discharged from the military after harrowing combat in WW2. After his recovery, he returns to his small hometown and moves in with his father. One night, Ray receives a call from a guy warning him that a female friend is in danger. Ray drives his father's car onto a rural route and gets halfway to his destination when the fuses in the car blow, pitching him and the vehicle into darkness. When he strikes a match, Ray discovers a dead body in the backseat.

Behaving in the most irrational method, Ray fails to warn the police (or his father who happens to be a judge). Like most of these mid-20^th century crime-noir stories, Ray disposes of the body and car. He then makes a run for it to clear his name and find the real killer that set him up as the fall guy. The story weaves in and out of Ray's quest for justice while foiling the police. There's a few suspects thrown in to keep the reader guessing, and a nice touching side-story with Ray confiding in his father.

Bruno Fischer isn't capable of writing a bad story, and while this is certainly an overused plot-device, the author still packs a punch with a straight-laced whodunit. For a brisk 20-minute read, “Night Time is Murder Time” is recommended.

Beneath Cruel Waters

Horror and crime-fiction author Jon Bassoff continues to impress me with his literary work. As a modern writer, he is certainly in the top echelons for innovative, moving storytelling that captures the dark and dreary landscape of rural America. His books produce a poverty-ridden moodiness that reminds me of Joe R. Lansdale or Elmore Leonard, but with the hazy overtones of bleak horror. His newest novel, at the time of this writing, is Beneath Cruel Waters. It was published by Blackstone in 2022 and exists in audio, digital, and physical formats.

The book is presented in rotating timelines that incorporate present day events with those in the past. In the present, Holt Davidson has returned to his small Colorado hometown after discovering his mother took her own life. After rummaging through his mother's belongings, he finds a bizarre photo of a dead man. Why did his mother have this photo? What is the significance?

In the past, the author presents Davidson's childhood, mostly focusing on his mother's life. She is a single mom struggling to make ends meet. After meeting a former felon, she begins a dating routine that escalates into a frightful fatal-attraction scenario. Davidson's uncle arrives and begins to strike up a reunion with the family, catering to Davidson's sister. These past events, as trivial as they may seem, have a large impact on what Davidson is experiencing in present day.

As Davidson journeys into the past, attempting to make sense of his fuzzy memories, he learns a great deal about his tumultuous childhood, his mother's suicide, and horrifying events that forced his sister into a mental hospital. All of these events circumvent the dead man photo, a mysterious love letter, a gun, and an illegal abortionist. How they all tie into each other is the mystery, thrill, and entertainment of Bassoff's riveting novel.

Beneath Cruel Waters was nothing short of amazing. The characters, the plot development, the core mystery, and the presentation was masterfully woven to create the ultimate page-turner. As an intimate glimpse into the lives of small-town America, no one can do it any better than Jon Bassoff. If you love gripping novels that demand to be devoured in one sitting, look no further than Beneath Cruel Waters. Highest recommendation. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

Heller #01 - The Oil Rig

Author Frank Roderus (1942-2016) was a newspaper writer and author that penned over 300 novels, most of which were westerns. He earned two prestigious Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America and also earned a Colorado Press Association award for best news story. In 1984, Roderus began writing a crime-fiction series starring Colorado rancher Carl Heller. There were seven installments in the series, all published by Bantam. In a 2013 interview with Tom Rizzo, Roderus explained that writing westerns allowed him tax advantages on his horses. By having Heller ride a motorcycle, Roderus was also able to gain a tax advantage on his own motorcycles. Brilliant idea.

Carl Heller was fortunate enough to inherit several thousand mountain acres in the high-country from his great grandfather. Instead of running a beef operation on steroids, antibiotics, and modern efficiencies, Heller uses the old-fashioned method of allowing the herd to run free, culling them once a year. He's not wealthy, and admits to barely keeping up the tax payments on the enormous property, but he manages an average lifestyle. He's a law-school dropout that is described as a playboy that enjoys riding the mountains on his horse, Kawasaki motorcycle, or race-car styled BMW. He has a lukewarm relationship with a local gal in town, a school teacher named Donna. He's in excellent shape, works out each day, and serves as a paperback version of the modern cowboy. That's the origin tale of Carl Heller.

While riding the rapids with a group of friends, Heller learns that a small group of farmers have been hoodwinked by big city shysters. The proposal by Mineral Consortium is that gold has been discovered in ecological surveys on the farmers' land. If the farmers will agree to allow Mineral Consortium to lease property, they will provide the farmers an excellent 30% royalty for all “metals” retrieved. When Heller becomes involved, he discovers that the contracts excluded minerals. The Mineral Consortium used this loophole to establish oil rigs on these leases to pull millions of gallons of oil royalty free. Their defense to the one-sided contract is that gold does exist on the property, but it's nothing more than the small grains found in seawater. They are happy to provide 30% for this small amount of gold retrieval.

Heller explains that there is a distinct difference between law and justice. To establish the character's validity, Heller confesses to Donna that he tracked down and killed a rapist that escaped a court of law. The reader gets the idea that maybe Heller has performed this sort of vigilantism more than once. Like Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder, Heller explains that he does favors for people. So, Heller's motivation is peaked when he discusses the dilemma facing the farmers. Additionally, there is an incentive of a monetary percentage payout if the leases produce money for the farmers instead of the Mineral Consortium. 

The book's first half was a real slow burn as Heller discusses legal avenues to explore. Included is a swindle Heller concocts to lead the Mineral Consortium into believing real gold does exist. To perform the trick, Heller establishes an identity of working for a mining company to construct a large mill. The evidence is convincing enough that the company wants to renegotiate the deal with the farmers. All of this consumes the book's first half, which in itself would be an average story. However, the second half makes all of the difference.

In the second half, Roderus fuels the fire with an action-packed, suspenseful narrative with Heller facing the bad guys around an oil rig at night. This was just an incredible page-turner as Heller was forced to rely on his wits to outsmart the armed gunmen. It's a violent smash-up that includes everything I love about 1970s and 1980s men's action-adventure novels. This closing second-half was well worth the price of admission.

Frank Roderus is a unique author that uses traditional western storytelling to plot modern crime-fiction. Often, he writes like a tough guy cowboy, so much that the wording is odd. For example, something like 3AM is pronounced “three ayem”. Heller's moral compass, good-guy characteristics, and the ability to be a strong, reliable protagonist kicks off the series in a promising way. This is the meat and potatoes of Roderus storytelling and The Oil Rig is recommended if you like that sort of thing. I do, so I'll be reading more. 

You can buy a copy of this book HERE.

The Mark of Satan's Claw

Fred Ottenheimer was a writer and artist employed by various humor cartoons and strips in the mid-20th century. Along with working for Charlton Comics and Magazine Enterprises, Ottenheimer's most notable work was in the pages of Warren Publishing in the 1970s. Often listed as Fred Ott, he wrote for Vampirella, Creepy, and Eerie. My first experience with the writer is his story “The Mark of Satan's Claw”, which was the lead in Creepy's January 1972 issue. The story is beautifully illustrated by Spanish artist Jaime Brocal Remohi. 

In the story's opener, a journalist named Jonathan Howard has just arrived to the foggy village of Llangwell, Scotland. After meeting with a local innkeeper, Howard accepts a room while explaining to readers the reason for his arrival in this sleepy town. Howard is a true-crime writer and wants to delve into the recent string of child murders in Llangwell. The innkeeper warns Howard to stray from the town's business and attempts to convince him that there are no murders.

Howard meets with Llangwell's Chief Constable and learns more about the murdered children. The lawman explains that the murders have been taking place for years under the direction of a local cult of Satan worshipers. He then shows Howard the cult's symbol, which has been burned into his own chest. He explains he escaped the cult and volunteers to take Howard out to the moors to show him where the dead children turn up.

In a memorable panel, the police find a dead boy on the swampy rocks. Howard becomes shocked by the reality of dead children. But, a whisper from the darkness invites Howard back to a rural cottage where a man explains more about the history of the Satanic cult and provides instructions on a secret book that may hold more answers.

The combination of Remohi's gloomy pencils and Ott's dour narrative was enthralling. This is a rare monster story that blends a child serial-killer element with a fantasy outline. I was surprised with the story's twist and found the ending suitable, but not altogether satisfying. “The Mark of Satan's Claw” was just scary enough to be recommended, but the time-frame and artistic style – both in the writing and presentation – is truly the main star. I enjoyed it, and you can read it for free below:

One by One

Freida McFadden is a New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher's Weekly bestselling author of psychological suspense thrillers. With curious titles like Want to Know a Secret?, Do You Remember?, Do Not Disturb, and The Housemaid's Secret, it was just a matter of time before one of her novels showed up in my library app. My first McFadden novel is One by One, originally published in 2020. It's not to be confused with Ruth Ware's 2020 book of the same name. There's apparently more than one One by One.

The book is presented mostly in the present tense by main character Claire, but there are intervals written in third-person from someone simply titled “Anonymous” recapping their own childhood. This was a pleasant distraction from the rather one-dimensional locale of lush forest and dense trees. These accounts from Claire and “Anonymous” were destined to collide by the book's end, but the mystery is how the two characters are related and the inevitable word journey.

Claire (teacher) and her husband Noah (physicist) are in the slumber of a failing marriage, so the two decide to embark on a short vacation to a cozy inn nestled in the northern Colorado wilderness. They are accompanied by Claire's best friend Lindsey (can't remember!) and her new boyfriend Warner (surgeon), as well as Noah's best friend Jack (handyman) and his wife Michelle (attorney). It's a diverse group made up of various professions that may or may not play a hand in the book's plot.

Like most outings in the forest, car trouble and lack of cell phone coverage invite murder and mayhem. As Jack attempts to lead the group through the forest, hoping to find the inn, they immediately become lost, cold, and hungry with water diminishing. The first member of the group dies from poisoning, then another from an apparent animal attack. One disappears completely. Three members are left when they locate a small cabin full of supplies. But, the cabin's owner is dead. What in the actual Hell is happening here?

I've watched plenty of VHS horror, and read my fair share of Paperbacks from Hell, so the premise of One by One wasn't that original. Thankfully, McFadden focuses on character development to build her plot and enhance the story. She has a unique way of telling a great story through dialogue and character interaction. It isn't what's on page, but what's hidden from the reader that is so important. McFadden doesn't provide enough clues to really hone in on the murderer, but she kept me guessing until the very end.

If you enjoy the “weeding out the weak” survival novels, or just a “who's the murderer within our ranks” story, then One by One is an easy recommendation. I devoured it in one sitting and not only discovered a great book, but a fantastic author. At the time of this writing, I'm on the waiting list for her newest novel, Ward D, which promises more mystery, murder, and...terrible cell phone service.

Buy a copy of this book HERE.