Black Hound of Death

Robert E. Howard's weird fiction story “Black Hound of Death” first appeared in the November 1936 issue of Weird Tales. It was also included in the Summer 1976 issue of Dark Phantasms, the 1978 Sphere collection Weird Tales Vol. 1, and countless other volumes housing weird fiction and Howard stories. My review is from the Trails in Darkness 1996 paperback collection from Baen.

The story takes place at night in a dense forested area in the American southeast. While Howard doesn't specifically state Kirby Garfield is a lawman, it is implied based on his actions in the story. Through a first-person perspective, Garfield explains to readers that he's in the part of the forest to deliver a message. A man named Braxton has escaped from the law leaving a “ghastly toll of dead behind him.” Garfield believes Braxton is in the area and he is riding on horseback to warn a reclusive man named Richard Brent of the potential danger. 

On his way he stumbles upon a man begging for help after being ripped to shreds by some sort of animal. He screams at Garfield saying that “HE” done it. He relays a story to Garfield on how he was hired by a white man (wearing a mask) as a guide to Brent's house. But, somewhere along the way the mask slipped away and the man went on the attack. The man later dies in front of Garfield after providing him a warning to leave the area.

The book ventures into a pulpy horror nightmare as Garfield and a few stragglers venture to Brent's house and prepare for the flesh-ripping forest menace to appear. Of course there is an explanation on who – or what – is killing people and how it all ties to the fugitive Braxton. I can't give away any more details because it would inevitably spoil the reading fun. Trust me, the story is worth pursuing and delivers a hair-raising creature-feature experience. Recommended! Get the vintage copy of Trails in Darkness HERE.

Isle of the Undead

Pennsylvania native Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (1910-2003) discovered science-fiction at the age of 15. He soon began writing his own stories and sold his first to Science Wonder Stories in 1929. Eshbach became influential with his small Fantasy Press, initially publishing authors like E.E. Smith and Robert A. Heinlein. My first experience with Eshbach is the novelette Isle of the Undead, originally published in the October 1936 issue of Weird Tales. 

It begins with Cliff and his girlfriend Vilma on a rented yacht sailing through a sea of fog. Cliff rented the yacht, and it's captain, a guy named Corio, to entertain his small group of vacationing friends. Cliff and Vilma are horrified when they spot a strange galley ship approaching. As it nears, the couple see the crumbling timbers are blackened with rot, the prowl is bent backwards, and the mast is a jutted broken arm. But, the real terror lies in discovering the wretched crew of undead “things” sailing on the ship, a group of raggedy men that appear bloodless white with puffed and bloated skins as if they had been drowned and left in the sea for a very long time.

Soon, Cliff, Vilma, and the crew are manhandled by these monstrosities and taken to an obscure island hosting an enormous castle. Inside, they discover that this island is home to an undead legion of vampires that ransack vacationers and use them as sustenance to quench their nocturnal thirst.

I was thoroughly entertained by this pulpy horror tale and found Eshbach's writing so descriptive and imaginative. He creates scenes of stark-white terror when the group learn of their fate inside the Hellish castle. He really had to deliver the goods to match J. Allen St. John's ferocious cover design. However, his writing blends a sense of swashbuckling adventure as Cliff attempts to liberate his lover and friends. There are rescue attempts, sacrifices, nautical adventure, and plenty of fisticuffs as the group fight to survive the Isle of the Undead. 

You can listen to this story for free using Librivox, read it online at archive.org, or order a cheap copy online HERE. 

Open Season

Open Season began life as the novel The All-Americans, authored by David Osborn. Osborn simultaneously wrote the book and the screenplay and it was purchased by Columbia Pictures. The title was changed to Open Season and the novel was published under that title in 1974 to coincide with the film release. The movie starred popular actor Peter Fonda. In other parts of the world the film was titled Recon Game. 

In Open Season, the book introduces three college buddies who take an annual trip into the Wisconsin forest to hunt deer...and people. So the deal is that these three guys, Art, Greg, and Ken, take this sabbatical hunting trip to drink beer, kill deer and other wildlife, and rape a woman. Here's how it works. 

These three men kidnap a man and woman each year, a couple of lovers, and take them into the wilderness to hunt. The victims are chosen at random and after they are hunted and killed they sink the bodies into a scummy lake. So, it is The Most Dangerous Game just changed slightly. However there is something a little different with this plot point. 

While these three men are out hunting deer as well as the two people they have captured as targets, another mysterious hunter is in the forest hunting the hunters. So, the niche is that deer hunters are being targeted and hunted which fits into a little niche I like to refer to as “Deer Hunter Horror”. 

In the book, three men capture a man and woman who are secretly having an affair away from their tranquil married life. They leave their spouses behind for a short vacation into the woods to do the nasty. But the two are targeted at a motel by Art, Greg, and Ken and hauled into the Wisconsin wilderness. There, they shackle the man in the kitchen and then convince the woman to consent to sex with all three men repeatedly. She goes along with it thinking they will befriend her and she can then escape whatever awful things they have planned for her. She even likes the whole ordeal when she gets going with the men. 

On day two the three hunters give each of the victims a 20 minute head start to run into the wilderness and commence to being chased. The three men of course have rifles and the victims have twigs and branches. Totally fair. Kinda like deer hunting, right? The fight is fixed. But, once the chase ensues another hunter unknown to the reader begins hunting the three hunters. 

Open Season is a savage and violent book at 267 paperback pages and definitely not for the squeamish. There is graphic sex with faces and heads being shot off. But, the book is really good at about page 120 and the pace never slows down. It is also double-pleasure as Open Season works as both a high-octane action novel but also as a mystery as readers guess who the hunter-killer may be. High recommendation.

Solomon Kane - Rattle of Bones

Robert E. Howard's story “Rattle of Bones” was first published in Weird Tales in the June 1929 issue. The story was also printed in Skull-Face and Others, Magazine of Horror #11, Red Shadows, and a host of collections by the likes of Wildside Press, Del Rey, Bantam, and Baen. The story was adapted to comic form in the Savage Sword of Conan #18. 

“Rattle of Bones” features Howard's Puritan hero Solomon Kane. In the Black Forest of Germany, both Kane and a man named Gaston L'Armon stop for the night at the Cleft Skull Inn. After the bartender's strange behavior, Kane advises Gaston that they should bar the door to their room. While searching for something to secure the door with L'Armon discovers the skeleton of a man. One of the legs is shackled to the floor. Something is amiss in the strange Cleft Skull Inn.

This is a very simple but effective story. Kane discovers that he knows L'Armon from somewhere else. As the two investigate the skeleton, Kane is held at gunpoint by an assailant. I can't tell you too much more due to spoilers. “Rattle of Bones” is a mere eight pages, so anything else would disrupt your enjoyment of Howard's writing. Thus far, this is my least favorite of the Solomon Kane stories I've read, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing considering how much I enjoy this series. Every installment has been entertaining. Get it HERE.

Note - Howard's first draft was published in the first issue of The Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter in Spring of 2007. That version apparently has a different ending.

Fred Fellows #04 - Born Victim

Here's what we know about Fred Fellows, the protagonist of 11 crime-fiction novels by Hillary Waugh, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. He is the Chief of Police in the fictional city of Stockford, Connecticut. His right-hand man is Detective Sergeant Sidney Wilkes with back-up assists in the stories from Sergeants Unger and Gorman. He likes milk and sugar in his coffee. I gained these significant details from reading the series first two installments, Sleep Long, My Love and Road Block.  I don't have the series third installment at the time of this writing so I had to jump ahead to the fourth book, Born Victim (1962). The order you read these books plays no part in the storytelling. 

In Born Victim, I discovered that Fellows has a wife named Cecilia, sons named Peter and Larry, and two daughters (no names provided in this book). The author makes note that Peter is age 13, which adds a personal connection. The plot for the book has Fellows and his men challenged with the disappearance of a 13-year old girl. 

In prior books Waugh would title each chapter a date and time of the investigation. In this novel he has elected to standardize the chapters numerically. The first chapter kicks off the story with Fellows receiving a call from his officers that Barbara Markle, the aforementioned girl, hasn't returned home in a few hours. Fellows initially dismisses the sense of urgency and importance due to the child only appearing to be tardy for a curfew - not a revelation of murder or malicious intent. He goes out to visit Barbara's mother Evelyn to gain any insight on the girl's disappearance.

Evelyn lives on a poor stretch of suburbia backed up to a river. She's a single mom that works long hours. Her response to various questions is alarming - she acts as if Barbara is already dead. Fellows can't quite grasp why the mother is assuming the worst. Over the course of several interviews Fellows learns that Barbara's family history is murky. As more and more time passes without the girl's return the case evolves from locating the girl to solving a homicide. 

Waugh's novels follow a standard formula of introducing the crime, typically murder, and then taking the readers along the police procedure of investigating every tip, clue, and piece of evidence. The running theme behind the girl's disappearance runs from dates for the dance to a mysterious truck idling beside her house. But, the focus of the investigation, which ties into the book's title, is Barbara's murky family history. Evelyn's secrecy on who Barbara's father is, a faked marriage, and a family dynasty in jeopardy of exposure. 

An aspect of the series debut was conflict with the press. Fellows often battles press leaks and aggressive reporters that seem to infiltrate his office. This novel touches on the police providing the public with details but not allowing the press to pressure his men. There is also a rare occurrence where Fellows loses his cool on one of his officers. Typically Fellows is level-headed and keeps an air of professionalism. As the case presents more challenges the pressure to find the girl's whereabouts - dead or alive - begins to weigh on his shoulders.  

Born Victim was another fantastic police procedural installment. Hillary Waugh has a knack for this style of storytelling and draws the readers into the investigation smoothly. It's an easy reading experience that delivers a few surprises and an emotional ending. The characters are interesting and persuasive, the crime is compelling, and the prose is ultra-tight and plot-propulsive. In other words, track down a copy of this one. Highly recommended. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE

High Hunt

Author David Eddings (1931-2009) authored best-selling fantasy epics like The Belgariad, The Dreamers, The Elenium, and The Malloreon. However, before Eddings ventured into the worlds of American fantasy, he wrote a number of adventure manuscripts. Some were never finished and one was even burned. What remained was the novel High Hunt, which Eddings wrote in prison in 1971. The book was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1972. My copy is the 1988 Ballantine paperback with excellent artwork by Cliff Miller (The Hard Corps, M.I.A. Hunter). 

High Hunt is written in first-person narrative by Washington resident Dan Alders. Dan has just been discharged from the Army and is in between life journeys from soldier to full-time college student. In Tacoma he runs into two very attractive young girls who are protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War, Clydine and Joan. Dan gingerly dismisses their protests and decides his next step to adjust to civilian life is to re-connect with his estranged brother Jack. The two aren't close, but Dan still has his brother's phone number.

The reunion between Dan and Jack sets up a series of character introductions and sequences that consume most of the book's first-half. In many ways this section of the narrative is what I consider the American Dream of the 1970s – the real one and not the fantasy. Jack is living in a trailer court with his new wife and two kids. He's friends with a guy in town named Sloane that runs pawn shops and car dealerships. He's also friends with a disgruntled ex-Marine gunnery sergeant named Lou who may be suffering from PTSD. As Dan is introduced into this motley crew of alcoholics he begins to see some disturbing behavior. Lou is secretly banging Jack's wife while Jack is secretly banging anything with legs. The same can be said for Sloane who is in an open relationship with his wife. 

Later, Dan ends up meeting Clydine again at a party. Fortunately, she doesn't remember him so Dan makes a smooth move by cleverly creating a lie. He explains to Clydine that his is out of prison for dodging the draft and for rebelling against the war. Clydine is so moved by his integrity and kind heart that she goes back to his place and puts out. The next morning she finds Dan's Army jacket and becomes furious. However, the two of them work it out and a bulk of the book is dedicated to their relationship. 

Jack decides a hunting trip into the high peaks would be a great bonding time and a way to kick back, drink a lot of beer, and complain about the old ball and chain. So the group (Lou, Jack, Dan, Sloane, and a nerdy guy named Stan) hire a guide and go on a week long hunting trip. Once these men enter the wilderness, far from civilization, their unchecked emotions leads to some animosity between each other. The Vietnam Veteran hints to the nerdy guy that he is banging his wife (which may not be true). So, seeds are planted and things begin to spiral out of control. 

One morning while hunting Dan spots Stan crawling through the brush and taking a rifle shot at Lou. This is the perfect example of Deer Hunter Horror (see Podcast Episode 109). Hunters turning on hunters. Lou believes Stan is trying to kill him while Dan and Jack have an altercation. Sloane becomes deathly ill and the entire hunting trip becomes a bit of a drag for everyone. 

High Hunt is an extraordinary novel. It is an emotional melodrama with a stretched tension as the reader submerges into these strained friendships and affairs. Dan's character is admirable and it was particularly touching how he connects with the old-timer serving as the hunting guide. That man's son had been killed so he finds Dan to be an equal to the son he lost. At the same time Dan's adjustment into civilian life while balancing a college education and his newfound love in Clydine is just a great reading experience. There is so much emotion and intended humor on these pages. 

If you are searching for a fast-and-furious action-oriented novel, then High Hunt won't fill that need. Instead, this is a realistic, poignant image of American life in the 1970s – protests, soldiers' homecomings, the demise of the 1950s family dynamic, PTSD, and a cagey resolve that this is the new normal. Brilliant novel. Highest recommendation. Get it HERE.

Charlotte Shopping Trip

On his newest book hunt, Eric hits the Queen City to search for vintage paperbacks in two popular independent book stores. Can he find the good stuff or just settle for the average? Watch below or by clicking HERE.