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).

Buy a copy of this book HERE

The Plunge

Fans of classic hard-boiled and noir literature would be well-advised to keep a stack of short story anthologies handy to cleanse the pallet when you are between novels. Short fiction was an important medium for the best paperback authors to experiment with new ideas, find their voices, and put bread on the table.

During the 1940s and 1950s, noir master David Goodis wrote about losers and outsiders for a living. His short crime novels are, for the most part, brilliant works that captured the brooding imagination of French readers more than he ever caught fire in the U.S. In 1958, “Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine” published a Goodis short story called “The Plunge” that was later collected in a 2002 anthology edited by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins called “A Century of Noir.”

The story is about an honest police detective named Roy Childers who does his job honorably in a cesspool of police corruption. He’s a family man who avoids starches and sweets and only smokes after meals (Greetings from 1958!). After a transfer from Vice to Homicide, Childers remains disappointed with the widespread incompetence and graft among his fellow officers making him a bit of a loner on his squad. He prides himself on being a clean public servant in a dirty department.

“The Plunge” tracks Childers’ investigation of a payroll robbery turned homicide that he believes was conducted by his childhood friend turned hood, Dice Nolan (Editor’s Note: if you name your son Dice, buckle in for a wild ride). Childers returns to the slums of his childhood running down leads to capture the elusive Nolan until the trail leads to a woman who may or may not have answers.

Goodis really was a helluva writer and this is one of the finest short stories I’ve ever read. The ending is so real and so raw that it deserves to be remembered as a classic. Goodis knew his way around the grim and the hopeless better than anyone. If blues was prose, he was the Muddy Waters of American literature, and “The Plunge” is absolutely essential reading. 

For its part, “A Century of Noir” is a fat-free, 520-page anthology anchored by short stories from the best of the best. Highly recommended.

Back Alley Jungle

Leo Margulies (1900-1975) is a familiar name in the world of pulps, MAMs and digests. Originally from New York, he started as a researcher for 20th Century Fox before becoming the editor of Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. Along with magazines like Mike Shayne, Popular Detective and Thrilling Detective, Margulies also compiled and edited a number of anthology collections including Back Alley Jungle. This 1960 collection of short stories was initially published by Fawcett Gold Medal under the Crest brand name. Here’s some highlights:

Ed McBain (written under the name of Richard Marsten) is the author of the 1952 story entitled “Carrera’s Woman”. In it, a man named Jeff has been working the oil fields in Mexico. After many hard years, Jeff amassed $10,000 in savings. Before returning to America to start a new life he was robbed by a co-worker named Carrera and his girlfriend Linda. When the story starts, Jeff takes Linda hostage behind big rocks. Carrera is across the dry gulch firing futilely into the rocks hoping to kill Jeff and reclaim Linda. During the night, the three parties are at each other's throats with both sides taking potshots across the gap. But the story changes fast as Linda starts to seduce Jeff. Is this an escape strategy or is she sincere in her sexual advances? This is the ultimate question McBain is asking, and it's such a tempting one. I really liked this story and it's a key part of the collection. 

In Steve Frazee's 1953 "Graveyard Shift" story, the close narration focuses on a busy police dispatcher on a late night shift. When a woman holding a gun enters the police station, this lone dispatcher is ordered to place all of the city's patrol cars in one section of the city. The woman's motive becomes clear when the dispatcher locates the pattern - she's purposefully maneuvering the police away from the local casino. Involved in this complex case, it is up to the dispatcher to use code words so that officers redirect efforts to the casino. This is a really unique story that presents a rare, but deserving hero - the police dispatcher.

The longest and most enjoyable story is Richard Deming's 1955 short "The War". This starts with a woman named Janice entering the Rotunda Club, a posh casino owned by Clancy Ross. After a talk and a call upstairs, Clancy greets Janice in his office. In short, Janice is the widow of Clancy's old Army buddy from the Korean War. She explains to Clancy that her husband witnessed a mob slaying and was later gunned down by killers working for a syndicate kingpin named Lawson. During the exchange, the Mob framed Janice so that she would appear as a frustrated wife who shot her husband during a heated argument. After the arrest, the Mob posted bail for her in an effort to then kill her in a way that would resemble suicide. With no friends or allies, Janice fled to Clancy hoping he will keep her safe. This violent and explosive story features Clancy at odds with Lawson over the woman's safety. But is there some secret about her? Deming was a great storyteller and “The War” is absolutely awesome. I can't say enough good things about it.

Other authors appearing in this compilation are Jonathan Craig (Frank E. Smith), Dan Sontup, Mann Rubin, Charles Boeckman, Robert Turner and Don Stanford. There's an additional Ed McBain story titled "Clean Break" that's listed under the pseudonym Hunt Collins.

At 150-pages and 10 solid short-stories, Back Alley Jungle is an absolute joy to read and a fairly affordable used paperback considering the era and publisher. Highly recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Drawn to Evil

Harry Whittington’s “Drawn to Evil” first appeared in 1952 as half of an Ace Double packaged with “The Scarlet Spade” by Eaton K. Goldthwaite. The Whittington half has been reprinted as an eBook from Simon & Schuster’s Prologue Books imprint and is free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

“Drawn to Evil” is narrated by a Tampa Police homicide detective named Marty Carter who was passed up for the position of division chief because he was just too brutal. A beloved and respected state senator is murdered in cold blood, and Marty vows to catch the killer. In the aftermath of the senator’s murder, Marty meets Liza, the deceased’s grieving wife, and immediately becomes infatuated with her. Because this is a Harry Whittington novel, Liza’s a sultry, young looker. And because this is 1952, Marty has to slap her around a bit to get her attention after they first meet. Times do change.

Marty’s plan is that he’ll be the detective who solves the murder, and the Liza will be his prize. The problem is that Marty’s boss wants his help on the investigative team but has banned Marty from using his usual rubber hose tactics. So the cop who is normally a powder keg of violence races to solve the murder using pretty standard police procedures. Of course, a promise of restraint like that only can last so long. Marty is a fun character to ride along with because he is so filled with menace while trying (and failing) to do the right thing. He is pure id - fueled by lust and ambition.

The mystery takes Marty into the details of the senator’s personal life and into the bowels of Tampa’s crime syndicate. The action moves fast, and there are plenty of dysfunctional and twisted characters to gawk at along the way. More so than Whittington’s later crime novels, “Drawn to Evil” is a pretty conventional mystery - with a murder, clues, suspects, motives and a solution. However, things take a very dark and Whittington turn with about 30 pages left in the paperback when we leave Mike Shayne territory and go to a perverse and violent place at last. 

As I wind my way through Harry Whittington’s body of work, I’d put “Drawn to Evil” in the top-tier of his crime fiction writing. It had the requisite amount of sex, violence, amorality and darkness to declare this one a true noir fiction classic. The fact that it’s basically free as an eBook makes this a no-brainer must-read for fans of this type of thing. Highly recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Larry Kent #751 - Spanish Harlem

Larry Kent was a hardboiled New York private detective in a long-running series first published in Australia. Many of the novels were written by an American immigrant to Australia named Don Haring, including #751 Spanish Harlem from 1974 currently available from reprint publishers Bold Venture Press (paper) and Piccadilly Press (ebook).

The novel begins with PI Larry Kent being forcibly brought to see a gangster who runs the numbers game in Spanish Harlem. The racketeer’s teenage son has disappeared from a military academy in Georgia, and he needs Larry to find the boy. Kidnapping? Murder? Mob feud? No one knows.

Larry travels down to Dixieville, Georgia, where Greystones Military Academy stands. The missing boy - his name is Phillip - is the “best pass catcher” on the Academy’s football team, so the school is anxious to have him back in pads. Based on the description of the boy’s field position, I gather the author wasn’t much of a football fan himself. It doesn’t take long before Larry is being menaced by a parade of walking southern stereotypes who try to beat him and call him a “nigra lover.”

All roads lead to a racist domestic extremist group called the Sons of the South, who wear white sheets, engage in arson, advocate for sterilization of blacks, etc., etc., etc. Of course they have the local sheriff in their back pocket. Rescuing the missing boy is more complicated than you’d expect and plunges Larry into organized criminal politics among Black Harlem, Spanish Harlem and The Syndicate.

This is a middle-of-the-road Larry Kent novel. It’s not one of the great ones or one of the incomprehensible ones. It’s a bit generic and reminded me of a Mike Shayne mystery without much sex or action. The whole novel is pretty weighted down in racial politics, which became pretty tiresome given today’s never-ending discussions of race. By now, you know if this is your thing or not. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

Swamp Sister

Robert Edmond Alter (1925-1966) sold dozens of short stories to crime-fiction digests including Manhunt and Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine in addition to authoring several children’s books. However, his long-form fiction for Fawcett Gold Medal consisted of only two novels, Swamp Sister and Carny Kill, both of which were published in the year of his death, 1966. America’s fascination with noir fiction involving sexy and unsophisticated women from the backwoods continues to fascinate me, so I decided to try my luck with Swamp Sister.

The paperback opens with a two-person plane - a Piper Cub - destined for Jacksonville, Florida crashing in the remote swampland due to an engine failure. The crash kills two men including a passenger carrying a briefcase filled with a $80,000 in cash.

Four-years later, “The Money Plane, ” as the locals call it, is a thing of legends among swamp people. 20 year-old Shad Hark has been searching the swamp for years looking for any sign of the downed aircraft with no luck. A New York insurance investigator tickled the town’s imagination after the crash with the news that there is wreckage somewhere out there containing $80,000 among the alligators and Spanish moss. Most locals have long since given up the hunt and some have died trying to find it on their own.

Persistence pays off for Shad one day when he finds the Money Plane deep in the watery woods protected by aggressive gators and cottonmouth snakes. He crawls into the tiny cabin, and recovers the briefcase. Because he’s a moron, he uses his Bowie knife to slice the briefcase to ribbons to get at the money. Because of this bad idea, Shad has $80,000 but no way to carry the cash back home. He decides to stash the majority of the cash in the jungle with the plane and fills his pockets with what he could carry.

The author makes the unfortunate literary choice to write the dialogue in the patois of dipshits from swamp county. This makes for a condescending and cumbersome read filled with sentences like, “Shaddy, you ain’t forgit you’n me is going gator-grabbing?” This crappy writing bogs down the plot considerably. To be honest, it’s a fairly lousy plot to begin with, but Alter’s tin ear for dialogue certainly doesn’t help.

Shad’s in love with a swamp girl named Margy with a heart of gold, and he takes her into his confidence about his plan to recover the stashed funds. Meanwhile, Shad’s spending of $10 bills recovered from the wreckage attracts the attention of a different group of shotgun-toting dipshits from town - as well as a trap set by the man from the insurance company who alerted the locals to the existence of the money plane four years earlier.

This book mostly sucks. Some of the jungle scenes with the characters dodging gators and cottonmouth snakes were somewhat exciting, but overall Swamp Sister should have been left to rot among the fetid, torpid waters of history. It’s been reprinted a couple times over the years, but new cover art failed to put a glossy sheen on this turd of a book. It’s still early, but this is the worst book I’ve read in 2020 thus far. To the Hall of Shame with thee!

Buy a copy of this book HERE

The D.C. Man #02 - Search and Destroy

The D.C. Man was a four-book action series released in 1974 and 1975 by a former Roman Catholic priest named Peter Rohrbach under the name James P. Cody. The series tracks the adventures of a Washington lobbyist and political troubleshooter named Brian Peterson who uses guns, political connections and brains to solve sensitive problems for Capital Hill big shots. One doesn’t need to read The D.C. Man books in any order as they stand well on their own, and relevant facts from the hero’s backstory are well explained in the first few chapters.

In this second installment, Peterson is hired by the attractive daughter of a US Senator to investigate the validity of her father’s recent suicide. At first, Peterson is skeptical that the Senator’s gun-in-the-mouth routine was anything other than self-inflicted, but the reader can see where this is heading once we learn that the Senator has been quietly investigating the scourge of 1970s men’s adventure fiction: The Mafia.

The setup and setting for The D.C. Man books provided the author great flexibility for story ideas - credibly toggling between espionage, crime, and political intrigue. This one is more of a straightforward private eye novel. Peterson follows leads diligently moving from person-to-person conducting interviews. Periodically, unidentified goons try to hurt or stop him, and those scenes of violence are always well-written and exciting. A sexual interest arises with a comely female character, and the resulting coupling is slightly more graphic than most crime novels from that era (but less explicit than, say, a Longarm western). In other words, there’s not much to distinguish this story from a solid, workmanlike P.I. novel starring Mike Shayne, Johnny Liddell, or Peter Chambers.

One thing that sets The D.C. Man apart from its contemporaries is the setting and era. The smoke of distrust and corruption of post-Watergate Washington, DC is thick in this story. Peterson spends a lot of physical and mental energy to figure out if the Senator killed himself because he feared the exposure of his own corruption or whether his corruption lead to his murder. The idea that the late Senator deserves a fair shake isn’t even an option for Peterson until a character confronts him about his anti-politician bias several chapters into the book. The symbiotic relationship between elected officials, their staffs, lobbyists, and the press is the fuel that feeds The D.C. Man books. This is a sexy, violent thriller for American political junkies.

By the time Peterson solves the novel’s central mystery concerning the reasons for the Senator’s death, the body count begins climbing exponentially. The brutality of each subsequent death appears to increase as our hero veers deeper into Mack Bolan territory - a lobbyist’s war against the mafia, if you will. The many action scenes are legitimately exciting and filled with gunplay and gripping suspense.

Overall, this second book in The D.C. Man series was another winner in a series that deserves more accolades than it ever received as a new release in the 1970s. Thankfully, Brash Books has reprinted all four novels in new editions with an introduction by yours truly. Buy a copy of this book HERE.

Little Sister

Robert Martin (1908-1976) wrote a fair amount of crime and mystery paperbacks under his own name as well as the pseudonym Lee Roberts. Little Sister was a 1952 stand-alone Fawcett Gold Medal hardboiled private-eye paperback that has been reborn as a Black Gat reprint, including an insightful introduction by Bill Pronzini.

Our narrator is Private Detective Andrew Brice, and he is summoned to a new client meeting at a large estate. His client is a wealthy, attractive woman named Miss Vivian Prosper who has just gone through a financially-advantageous divorce. Vivian shares the lakefront mansion with her little sister, Linda — and since the novel is called Little Sister, you probably saw that coming.

Little Sister Linda is a 17 year-old whiskey-swilling hellion, and she stands to inherit a pile of money from a trust fund soon when she reaches 18. Linda intends to marry a 30 year-old gas station attendant, and Big Sister Vivian wants PI Brice to break up the romance because the loser boyfriend is clearly just trying to get his claws on the trust fund cash.

All of this is conveyed in the Chapter One meeting between Brice and Vivian. The reader sees where this is going, and then Little Sister Linda arrives home in her convertible, drunk-as-a-skunk with a dead body in the trunk. And THAT’S how you start a private eye paperback.

As a licensed professional, Brice is duty bound to report the corpse in the trunk to the police, but sexy Vivian has other ideas. Could the prospect of getting laid with the seductive divorcee possibly convince our PI to dispose of the body with no police involvement? That’s the kind of thing that could turn a hardboiled private eye mystery into a femme fatale crime noir paperback.

You’ll need to read the book to find out how Brice handles this and other dilemmas he confronts throughout this lean paperback. The plot eventually settles into a pretty standard PI mystery with Brice interviewing one witness after another until the situation becomes both more clear and more messy as red herrings arise. It’s all well-written with a sexy undercurrent thanks to the seductive sisters at the eye of the storm and the fact that every female interviewee throws themselves at Brice.

The climactic conclusion is a scene where the villain, now revealed, explains the motivation and execution of the murder in painstaking detail while holding a gun on Brice. It’s an overused trope in mystery fiction, but well-executed in this case.

And that’s the thing with Little Sister. This paperback breaks zero new ground for a private eye mystery of the 1950s. However, if you’re in the mood for a completely traditional and readable genre paperback, you could do a lot worse. It’s about as good as a better-than-average Mike Shayne novel. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

Some Die Hard

Stephen Mertz is a highly-respected author of men's action adventure, mystery and crime novels. As a prodigy of genre great Don Pendleton, Mertz penned a number of 'The Executioner' titles as well as creating action-oriented series' like 'M.I.A. Hunter' and 'Cody's Army'. His first novel, "Some Die Hard," was written in 1975. After an exhaustive search for a publishing deal, the book finally made print in 1979 via Manor Books, a popular producer of genre fare in the 70s. It was re-printed by Rough Edges Press in 2014 with bonus content providing an exclusive backstage peek at Mertz's negotiation with Manor and subsequent frustrations with the publishing house. That version is out of print now.

"Some Die Hard" was written under the pseudonym of Stephen Brett. Mertz later revealed the reason for this pen name comes from his love of Brett Halliday (Davis Dresser) and the 'Mike Shayne' mystery series. This speaks volumes considering "Some Die Hard" is a perfect homage to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. In essence, Mertz offers a unique presentation of a traditional locked-room mystery. This impossible crime follows the genre formula - murder, follow the clues, line up the suspects and name the killer. Mertz goes as far as name-checking some of his influences in the book - Erle Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen and hard-boiled master Mickey Spillane.

The novel's main character is Dugan, a private investigator who is swept into a murder mystery from the vantage point of a warm bus seat. After witnessing a fellow passenger's death in the street while running from assailants, Dugan finds some intriguing photos of gambling markers stuffed inside of his old paperback. Before his death, the deceased obviously knew there was trouble and left behind a valuable clue for Dugan to discover. Mertz quickly sews the threads to connect the murdered man with the next intended victim, a wealthy architect named Carlander Court.

After taking a job from Court's daughter Susan, Dugan becomes enmeshed within the family's dynamic - attorney, attorney's fragile wife, assistant, doctor and the two heirs to the fortune - Susan and Tommy. In the "daddy's dying, who's got the will" narrative, Dugan learns that Tommy owes $15,000 in gambling debts to the dangerous Zucco. Tommy has now found himself on the outs with his terminally-ill father. His reckless lifestyle of gambling and promiscuity has led Court to re-evaluate his will. His artistic daughter, Susan, has proven to be the best benefactor, and after years of neglect, he has established a healthier relationship with her. As such, she will be the sole heir, leaving Tommy empty-handed. Dugan learns all of this from Court with an intriguing plot development - Tommy will be written out of the will the next day. Court fears that Tommy or Zucco will attempt to kill him that night to preserve the inheritance. If Tommy's omitted from the will, he receives nothing and Zucco's debts will remain unpaid. Court's death prior to the signing of the new will allows Tommy the inheritance as originally planned. 

Surely this is quite a murder mystery. Without giving too much away, Court is indeed murdered that night at a birthday party ripe with guests, family and friends. It's an impossible crime that Dugan must solve despite Zucco and Tommy's interference. Who's the culprit and how does the vast fortune connect the victim to the killer? All of this is masterfully orchestrated by Mertz, again clearly utilizing his literary influences while still maintaining his own identity.

Set in Langdon Springs, Colorado, Mertz wrote this first novel while living in Durango. The mountain town was populated by starving artists and the impact of that environment is apparent in "Some Die Hard.". I'd also speculate that the author takes some liberties by denigrating the wealthy. He's quick to criticize the wealthy lifestyle and, while not directly, uses it as a character trait to define the Court family as pompous. Mertz admits this time of his life was one of financial hardship, stating he had 54 cents to his name the day the book contract arrived. 

Overcoming adversity, Mertz was passionate about books and writing and maintained a consistent presence within the industry for decades. I'm not sure there is another Mertz book like this one. While I haven't read all of his work, I can steadfastly say that this surely has to be one of his best. It's a literary pursuit quite different from his violent novels written about vigilantes, soldiers and mercenaries. All of those are certainly entertaining and deserve praise, but "Some Die Hard" is truly exceptional. Do yourself a favor and hunt this book down.

Scratch One Mark

Crime-fiction author Dan J. Marlowe's best literary work was the period between 1959's Doorway to Death and 1969's One Endless Hour. I've read many of the 15 novels Marlowe produced during that 10 year span, but I haven't explored his numerous short stories for the likes of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. According to philsp.com's excellent database, “Scratch One Mark” may have been Marlowe's first published short-story. It appeared in the July, 1959 issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to read it at archive.org.

The 13 page “Scratch One Mark” story features Joseph Conway as the youngest police lieutenant in the state (presumably New Hampshire, Marlowe's home at the time). Conway is a no-nonsense tough guy that is dating Judge Schofield's daughter Ann. Every Wednesday morning, Conway receives a small white-envelope containing $150 of hush-up money to ignore the backroom gambling at the local hardware store. Everyone knows about the game and even Judge Schofield and Conway both play from time to time. It's innocent enough as long as the 'ole boys keep the money at a minimum. Needless to say, Conway is flabbergasted when a player named Ted drops by and explains that some of the guys are in the hole up to $17K. 

The news creates a violent chain of events when Conway learns that Judge Schofield's nephew is a debtor to the game. The story centers around Conway's allegiances to the town and his struggles with the new high-rollers while navigating a bumpy relationship with the Schofields, which could be his future family. These conflicts collide in a savage end, but who's the victor?

What's interesting about “Scratch One Mark” is that it is written from experience. Marlowe was a professional gambler for a number of years - arguably the only thing he really did other than watching sports and writing – so there is a realism to the storytelling, a grainy know-how that blankets these seedy characters. In a few short pages, I developed a love and hate relationship for the main character. These are all of Marlowe's strengths, assets he would later develop into his anti-hero Earl Drake in the heist novel The Name of the Game is Death. 

“Scratch One Mark” is a short, enjoyable read and a forecast on where Marlowe was heading so early in his writing career. You can read this story for free below or HERE.

Ben Gates #03 - Kill Now, Pay Later

Robert Terrall (1914-2009) served in WWII and later wrote for Time and the Saturday Evening Post. After becoming a full-time writer, Terrall used the pseudonym John Gonzales to author a three-book series starring crime-fighting journalist Harry Horne. Arguably, Terrall's claim to fame came when Mike Shayne creator and author Davis Dresser departed the successful private-eye series. Terrall took over the reigns and authored another 25 installments using the series house name Brett Halliday. From 1958-1964, Terrall also authored a five-book series of mysteries starring private-eye Ben Gates using the pseudonym of Robert Kyle. My first experience with the series is the third installment, Kill Now, Pay Later, published by Dell in 1960 and later reprinted by Hard Case Crime in 2007.

In the book's beginning pages, New York City private-eye Ben Gates is working a ritzy wedding for an insurance company. The job is simple: guard the wedding presents and keep the tipsy guests from making off with the family jewels. After Gates is teased by a sultry female guest, he mistakenly drinks a handful of sleeping pills hidden in a mug of hot coffee. Gates falls into snoozeland while the groom's mother is shot and killed in a robbery attempt. The thief is also killed, but there's more to the story.

After Gates awakens, he is questioned by the groom's family and a hard-nosed cop named Lieutenant Minturn. The police think Gates was in on the grab, and the officer seems to have a personal vendetta against private-eyes in general (not uncommon in crime-fiction). A combination of events puts Gates into the driver's seat of the investigation.

First, a newspaper article is published about the murder and points out that Gates was asleep through the debacle. Gates wants to redeem himself and discover who was serving him loaded coffee. Second, Mr. Pope, the wealthy groom's father, brings Gates into the family circle. He explains to Gates that the police and family aren't aware that $75,000 was stolen from his safe during the murder. He wants the money back and hires Gates to find it.

I really love this Ben Gates character. He's the middle ground between serious Lew Archer and comedic Shell Scott. The author's witty dialogue and candor enhance the story and character, making them both instantly enjoyable. Gates doesn't necessarily chase women, but he isn't one to turn away from a hot undercover romp. In Kill Now, Pay Later, there are a number of sexy women attempting to lure Gates into bed or simply remove him from the investigation. While mostly a loner, Gates does rely on a few supporting characters throughout the procedure including a colleague named Davidson.

If you love these urban detective novels, there's plenty to enjoy here. Kill Now, Pay Later is another solid private-eye novel that stands out in the crowded field of mid-20th Century crime-fiction. Ben Gates’ charisma is leveraged by the author to really define the storytelling experience. Based on the high level of quality here, I'll be searching for the remaining series installments.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Men's Adventure Quarterly #12

The Men's Adventure Quarterly Magazine are highlights of my year. Thankfully, the boys behind this amazing publication put in the hard work and are dedicated to keep these books coming. This is the quarterly magazine edited by both Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham that focuses on vintage men's action-adventure magazines, but delves into other media like paperbacks, comics, films, and books about books. Guest contributors in this issue are James Reasoner, David Avallone, John Harrison, David Spencer, and Paul Bishop. Every MAM Quarterly has a theme. Prior issues were dedicated to themes like juvenile delinquents, spy, vigilante, Vietnam War, and western. This one is right up my alley. It is the Private Eye Issue. At 160 pages this thing is stuffed with content. I'll hit the surface just to give you an idea of what you get with this amazing issue. 

In the opening pages, Bob Deis gives a thoughtful and mournful farewell to his friend and MAM inspiration, artist Mort Kunstler. The famed artist passed away in February, 2025. Back in 2019, Bob, alongside his editing partner Wyatt Doyle, put together a fantastic book about Kunstler and his career. Bob's message is endearing and one that solidifies the enormous legacy Kunstler leaves behind. He was a talent like no other and he will be sorely missed. 

Bob also rolls into the issue's first short story with an introduction about a real life private-eye named Raymond C. Schindler. Bob delves into the sleuth's life and his appearance in a short story titled "The Case of the Murdering Detective", penned by writer Alan Hynd and originally published in Cavalier in September 1956. Bob and Bill publish that entire story in this issue complete with the amazing original artwork by Norm Saunders. 

I was thrilled to see that Bob included yours truly in an article about popular crime-fiction author Frank Kane. Bob gives a nod to Tom and I and our Podcast Episode about Kane's iconic private-eye Johnny Liddell. Bob gives a little backstory on Kane and the character and even digs into an old Manhunt story featuring the character titled "Party Girl". That story, originally appearing in Manhunt's August 1954 issue was reprinted in Ken for Men in May 1957. Thankfully, Bob turns the favor and reprints the entire story in this issue as well. Of course it is accompanied by amazing artwork by Rudy Nappi featuring men's adventure supermodel Eva Lynd. 

Bob has an article about a rare two-issue men's adventure magazine titled Private Eye. The issues were November 1959 and April 1960. Bob writes about the magazine and features a story from it titled "Sing a Song of Sex Mail" by an unknown author. 

What I consider the main event of the issue is a book bonus of Michael Avallone's The Tall Dolores. This book bonus is titled "Make Out Mob Girl". The story is introduced by David Spencer and features an excerpt from Spencer's non-fiction work about paperback novelizations aptly titled The Novelizers. The gatefold artwork for the story is by Frank Soltesz. Accompanying this story is an article by Michael Avallone's son David titled "A Little Something About My Father". 

If you are a fan of the Honey West franchise then this issue's MAQ Gallery is a must. There's tons of paperback cover art from books like Dig a Dead Doll and Girl on the Prowl. There's art from TV Guide, an episode guide from the show, and a short story titled "The Red Hairing" which was originally published in the June 1965 issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine with art by Leo Morey. 

James Reasoner's article is titled "The Top Ten Western Detectives" and it looks at characters created by the likes of Loren Estleman, Steve Hockensmith, John Reese, Craig Johnson, and A.G. Guthrie Jr just to name a few. Paul Bishop has a detailed article titled "Sherlockian: The Game is Still Afoot!" that examines Sherlock Holmes short story collection Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories, The Fight Card Sherlock Holmes Omnibus, and his own edited book out now titled 52 Weeks 52 Sherlock Holmes Novels. John Harrison's article looks at specific examples of futuristic private eyes, so that adds a little something unique and different to round out the issue. 

As always, with these issues of Men's Adventure Quarterly, high-quality is the absolute goal and every single issue delivers it in spades. I don't know how they do it but Bob and Bill are a terrific duo that put in a ton of hard work to get this to print four times per year. I'm impressed. Again, this is Men's Adventure Quarterly #12 and it's out now. Get it HERE.

A Piece of this Country

Thomas Taylor (1934-2017), a West Point graduate, was a Captain in the U.S. Army and served in the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War. After an intense engagement with a Viet Cong battalion, Taylor was awarded the Silver and Bronze Stars as well as a Purple Heart. After his service, Taylor graduated from University of California, Berkley and became a writer. His work includes a number of non-fiction volumes on military history and combatants' first-hand accounts as well as fictional novels like A-18 (1967). My first experience with Taylor is his 1970 military fiction novel A Piece of this Country.

The paperback is set in 1965 during the U.S.'s early involvement in the war. Sergeant Roscoe Jackson is an African-American fighting with the ARVN (Army of Vietnam) near the Laos border. Jackson is a short-timer with just four months of active duty remaining before he returns to the U.S. As a husband and father of four, Jackson is anxious to leave the hot and steamy jungles and get back to Maryland. However, after being offered the dangerous job of overseeing the remote and isolated Fort Cougar, Jackson decides he wants to pursue an officer's rank. To obtain it, he'll need to work closely with a South Vietnamese leader to fortify the base and protect it from waves of Viet Cong.

Thomas Taylor's military combat experience is deeply ingrained into this violent and exciting narrative. Jackson tells readers that he keeps his matches inside of condoms, carries hornet spray and wears his poncho backwards. It's these little, descriptive things that make the story come alive with detail. The artillery fire, mortars and minefields are the book's soundscape, drowning Jackson in a sea of emotions as he contemplates his family's financial stress and discrimination back home in the U.S. Through mail correspondence with his wife, Jackson learns that she has a blood disorder and can't work. Further, his oldest son seems to have chosen a criminal path to overcome racial and financial struggles. Knowing that an officer's rank will pay more, Jackson's decision to re-enlist is a costly one.

Once Taylor arrives at Fort Cougar, he begins to formulate a strategy. His collaboration with Vietnamese commander Dai Uy Nguyen involves building escape tunnels while engaging the enemy on small jungle patrols. After numerous attacks on their ranks, Jackson begins to question Nguyen's allegiance. The book's fiery finale places the smaller American and South Vietnamese forces against wave after wave of enemies as they await aerial support from afar.

I really enjoyed so many aspects of A Piece of this Country. It contains so many memorable scenes. There's a powerful dialogue between Jackson where an enemy soldier tells him to leave Vietnam. He explains, “I'm trying to liberate my south. Why don't you liberate yours?” referring to Jackson's race and southern heritage. In another, Jackson explains that he has heard artillery fire so much that he isn't sure that weather-related thunder even exists in Southeast Asia. There's a humorous scene where Jackson trades two Mike Shayne novels to a fellow soldier in exchange for a nudie book. It's all of these realistic things that enhance the propulsive plot points and emotional characters.

If you love military fiction then you'll certainly enjoy A Piece of this Country. Anyone interested in Thomas Taylor's career and proud military lineage should check out both Taylor and his heroic father Maxwell Taylor's Wiki pages to learn more. I'm anxious to read more of this author's work.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Harry Horne #01 - End of a J.D.

Robert Morton Terrall (1914-2009) is mostly remembered for his Ben Gates series written under the pseudonym Robert Kyle and his late-period Mike Shayne novels as Brett Halliday. He also authored a little-known three-book series as John Gonzales starring journalist Harry Horne starting with End of a J.D. from 1960.

Our narrator is Harry Horne, investigative reporter for a New York weekly news magazine, similar to Time (where the author started his own career as a professional writer). One night Harry returns home from a nightclub to find a beautiful young woman showering in his apartment naked - because that’s how people showered in 1960. After getting out of the bathroom and getting minimally dressed, she attempts to kill Harry in his own bachelor pad before taking off into the night. Who does that?

Before the attack, Harry had been working on a big story about juvenile delinquent gangs. He embedded with a youth gang called the Sorcerers who took a liking to Harry - until they decided they didn’t like his attitude. Harry sets out to determine who wants him dead employing a gambit that is one of the most clever I can remember in a vintage crime paperback. There are a lot of instances of cleverness and wit here, and Horne is a great narrator to guide the reader on this mystery.

Mostly, Death of a J.D. is a typical Terrall novel - well-written, smart, funny with a plot too convoluted for its own good. It’s also an artifact of its time when Americans were terrified of teenage delinquents with switchblades, pomade and rock-n-roll music. Now we just call that era “the good old days.” And in the big scheme of things, I suppose this yellowing paperback was a “good old book.” Recommended.

Appendix:

The Harry Horne books are:

1. Death of a J.D. (1960) - Recently re-released as an ebook retitled as “Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Funeral” (Buy a copy of that book HERE)
2. Someone’s Sleeping in My Bed (1962)
3. Follow that Hearse (1963)

The Star Trap

Although he never rose to the commercial success of his contemporaries, Robert Colby was a productive author of paperback original novels for Fawcett Gold Medal and Ace during the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, he was also a regular contributor of short stories to ‘Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine’ and ‘Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.’ “The Star Trap” was Colby’s 1960 release for Fawcett Gold Medal. The book was also reprinted by Manor Books in 1974, and it exists as an affordable eBook today.

Our narrator is Hollywood B-list actor Glenn Harley who is awakened by a 3 a.m. hysterical phone call from starlet Nancy Rhymer - a mere acquaintance - needing help. Glenn rushes to Nancy’s home to find her in a revealing nightgown with a fellow actor lying dead on the floor with a knife wound in his chest. For reasons not fully revealed at first, Nancy wants Glenn’s help in concealing the murder.

The act of stashing a body to get in good with a beautiful girl inevitably involves complications, and it wouldn’t be a femme fatale noir story without them. I won’t give away the store in this review, but suffice to say I found myself muttering, “Oh man, this is getting good,” several times throughout the short novel. At points, there is a disappearing corpse, a missing bundle of cash, some crooked cops, and an honest-to-goodness nymphomaniac. Fun for everyone.

“The Star Trap” isn’t a masterpiece of the genre by any means, but it’s a pretty enjoyable - and very short - paperback to kill a few hours. I’ve heard that Colby’s best work was his 1959 thriller, “The Captain Must Die,” and I intend to check that one out in the near future. Stay tuned.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Challenge the Widow-Maker and Other Stories of People in Peril

Clark Howard was a crime-fiction and true crime author that grew up as an orphan in Chicago's lower West Side. After surviving the Korean War's Battle of the Punchbowl, Howard became a full-time writer and a prominent contributor to mystery magazines like Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen, and Mike Shayne. Thankfully, his estate has partnered with Mysterious Press/Open Road to offer two reprinted books collecting many of Howard's most well-known and award-winning short stories. 

The first is Challenge the Widow-Maker and Other Stories of People in Peril and the second is Crowded Lives and Other Stories of Desperation and Danger. Originally these were released as rather unattractive hardcover editions in 2000 by Five Star Publishing. Mysterious Press/Open Road reprinted these books in 2020 with modern covers in ebook format. My first peek at these is Challenge the Widow-Maker...

The book contains 12 short stories, including Ellery Queen Readers Award winners like "The Dakar Run", "Scalplock", "Animals" and his 1980 Edgar Award winner, "Horn Man". Most of the other stories were all nominated for various awards, including two Spur nominees in "The Plateau" and "Custer's Ghost". After reading the collection, here are a few highlights:

"Horn Man"

This story was probably influenced by the author's fondness of jazz, a genre he discovered in southern America in the 1940s. In the story's beginning, a former jazz star named Dix departs a Greyhound bus in New Orleans. After talking with an old friend, Dix explains that he has been in prison for 16 years after taking the fall for a woman named Madge. He asks his friend where Madge is now and that he wants to see her. His friend isn't sure if Dix is wanting to rekindle a relationship with the woman or murder her. It's an entrancing story as Dix is courted by both a jazz club owner and his friend to pick up an instrument again. When a seasoned cop becomes involved, this 31-page story speeds to an interesting finale where the sins of the past come to light. 

"The Plateau"

While this was nominated for a Spur award, it's not a traditional western. The story is set in a western town in the future. The last two living North American buffalo are owned by an old widowed man nicknamed Tank. The buffalo owner scratches out a meager living in a small Montana town with his daughter Delia. The state has created a lottery system where three winners will be allowed to hunt the last remaining buffalo in North America. But, when Tank realizes that one of the buffalo has died, he begins to gain a fondness for the remaining animal. Her name is Hannah and she's an old, female buffalo (cow) that has been in Tank's life for a long time. While he desperately needs the proceeds paid to him by the state, Tank attempts to smuggle Hannah into the rugged Black Hills ahead of the three hunters. The ensuing chase is a an exhilirating, and emotional read as Tank not only faces Hannah's extinction but also his own morality. It's an exceptionally well-written story.

"The Dakar Run"

Jack Sheffield is an aging race-car driver with a gambling addiction. Due to some bad luck, he's racked up a large debt owed to a French criminal named Marcel. One evening, his estranged daughter Chelsea appears and advises Jack that she's dating a race-car driver. She is requesting that Jack visit her boyfriend to review a super-car he's created for the famous, grueling race known as the Paris-Dacar Rally (today it's the Dacar Rally). It's an off-road endurance race that welcomes any driver and any vehicle. The event transpires across multiple countries, including a long stretch of the Sahara Desert. Jack has run the race before and lost, but his experience could prove valuable to Chelsea and her boyfriend. After Jack reviews the car, known as Max-One, he realizes it has a real shot at winning. The problem is that Marcel approaches Jack later and demands that he sabotage the car so that Marcel's large gamble on a marquee driver could potentially pay off. If Max-One wins, Jack's estranged daughter will benefit and his relationship with her could improve. If Max-One loses, Marcel will erase Jack's gambling debt from his books. I would love to reveal the surprise twist, but that wouldn't be fair to potential readers. This story was simply awesome and it possessed some of the same elements of Howard's stuntman novel The Last Great Death Stunt (1977).

Here is a complete listing of the book's stories and the original publication they were culled from:

"Horn Man" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine June 1980
"All the Heroes Are Dead" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine December 1982
"Puerto Rican Blues" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine April 1983
"Challenge the Widow-Maker" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine August 1990
"Animals" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine June 1985
"Scalplock" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine July 1986
"The Dakar Run" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine August 1988
"Custer's Ghost" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine May 1983
"The Plateau" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine July 1984
"Split Decisions" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine December 1994
"Mexican Triangle" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine October 1981
"The Dublin Eye"- Ellery Queen Prime Crimes February 1984

Overall, Challege the Widow-Maker...should be in your Kindle library right now. If it isn't, please use the below link and remedy that problem HERE

John Easy #01 - If Dying Was All

Pop-culture historian and multi-genre author Ron Goulart wrote four novels and three short stories starring a swinging Hollywood private eye named John Easy in the 1970s. Thanks to Mysterious Press, the novels remain in print today, so I’m starting the series with the first installment, If Dying Was All, from 1971.

An Oscar-winning screenwriter named Mr. McCleary hires Easy to solve a family mystery. The client’s daughter Jackie committed suicide by jumping into the Pacific Ocean five years ago, yet Mr. McCleary just received a letter from the girl. Fortunately for the plot, Jackie’s body was never recovered. In the letter, Jackie says she’s in trouble, but she can’t come into the open just yet. Jackie drops a lot of inside info, and the handwriting looks right. Convinced that his twentysomething daughter is alive and in trouble, the old man hires Easy to find Jackie.

Easy isn’t convinced Jackie is alive, but he follows logical leads - gossipy news clippings, the post-office, her friend-group, etc. This brings him in the orbit of many quirky California types, but Easy is himself is rather generic. In fact, he makes fictional detectives like Mike Shayne and Johnny Liddell seem downright charismatic in comparison. Instead of imbuing Easy with personality, Goulart chooses to make him a competent professional among scads of California stereotypes (“The classical string quartet at the cafe is nude!”).

Man, this was a by-the-numbers tedious and boring book. It’s possible that Goulart was trying to lampoon the private eye genre, but he forgot to actually make it funny. Characters do wacky California things like grab Easy’s crotch while he’s interviewing them, but these attempts at promiscuous edginess fell flat to me. The entire novel is just a series of interviews Easy conducts with witnesses and possible suspects who may have knowledge of Jackie’s death or disappearance. By the time we arrive at a solution to the central mystery, I was way past caring.

If any of this sounds like your thing, please just read any of the Carter Brown mysteries. He did the same thing so much better. If Dying Was All isn’t even bad enough to be noteworthy. The novel is blessedly short, so you won’t need to suffer through much tedium to reach the ending. Better idea: just skip it altogether.

Buy a copy of this book (if you must) HERE

Best of Manhunt: Volume 2

In 2019, Stark House Press generated a commercial and critical hit with the release of The Best of Manhunt, an anthology of stories from the legendary 1950s crime fiction digest. Knowing a good thing when they see it, the reprint publisher has compiled a second volume of blood-on-the-knuckles tales from the popular magazine’s heyday for an August 2020 release.

By way of background, Manhunt began publishing in January 1953 capitalizing on the success of a new breed of hardboiled authors with Mickey Spillane leading the pack supported by muscular authors including Evan Hunter and David Goodis willing to make five cents per word for their stories. While the magazine’s run stretched into 1967, everyone knows that the publication largely lost its way by the mid-1960s. As such, the new anthology front-loads the content with stories primarily form the 1950s.

Before the stories, the reader is treated to a series of essays about Manhunt Magazine by scholars Peter Enfantino, Jon L. Breen, and Robert Turner followed by over 400 pages of twisted, violent short fiction. Anthology editor Jeff Vorzimmer intentionally sought out many “deep tracks” from the magazine’s history choosing many authors who never achieved paperback stardom. There’s a lot to enjoy in stories by John M. Sitan, Roy Carroll, and Glenn Canary who share the pages with heavy hitters including Bruno Fischer, Donald E. Westlake, and Erle Stanley Gardner.

Reviewing an anthology is always a challenging task - particularly in a literary buffet filled to the brim with this much quality. Here are some thoughts regarding a handful of noteworthy stories in the collection:

As I Lay Dead by Fletcher Flora (February 1953)

Fletcher Flora brings the reader a perverse and twisted little tale. Cousins Tony and Cindy work each other into a sexual lather while oiling each other’s skin on the man-made beach. Meanwhile, their wealthy, fat grandpa floats in the lake nearby. It occurs to the lusty twins that if something happened to grandpa, they’d be free - and financially-set - to run away to Acapulco together where the booze, sun and screwing never stops.

Flora’s novels are often tinged with a heavy dose of non-graphic sexuality, and “As I Lay Dead” amplifies that aspect of this writing. Murder, blackmail, and double-crosses are also on the menu making for a perfect story. Whatever you do, don’t skip this one. It’s everything that dark crime fiction should be. With over 160 published short stories to his name, I can’t help but think this might be his best magazine work.

Shakedown by Roy Carroll (April 1953)

Roy Carroll was a pseudonym for Robert Turner, a short story guy who started in the pulp magazines. His literary agent was Scott Merideth, who curated a lot of the talent that appeared in Manhunt. It was at Merideth’s urging that Turner shifted his style from over-the-top pulp writing to the gritty and realistic crime digest format.

“Shakedown” is narrated by Van who has just knocked up a chick at work and has no intention of doing the right thing by the poor girl. He comes up with the idea that she should bang their boss, pin the pregnancy on him, and be set for life as the old man’s wife.

As you can imagine, the plan goes very wrong when the boss doesn’t take kindly to being shaken down by a knocked-up employee in his typing pool. If you can handle some 1950s misogyny with your crime fiction, you’re going to enjoy this one just fine.

One More Mile to Go by F.J. Smith (June 1956)

I could find next to nothing about author F.J. Smith other than the fact that several of his stories appeared in various Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. “One More Mile to Go” is a rare third-person narration from the pages of Manhunt. A small-town Louisiana shopkeeper strangles his nagging wife in her sleep and needs to hide the body somewhere (a recurring theme in Manhunt).

Along the way to the body stash site, he’s pulled over by a state trooper, and the interaction feeds the tension of the situation. It’s a good, simple story. Nothing revelatory, but certainly not a waste of your time.

The Geniuses by Max Franklin (June 1957)

Richard Deming is the only author to appear twice in the anthology with one story under his own name and this one under his Max Franklin pseudonym. “The Geniuses” is about two teenage thrill-killers long before murderous youth was a regular occurrence in American life.

Bart and Edward are high-IQ college kids who find themselves to be social pariahs among their campus peers. A conversation about how one might craft the perfect murder takes a nefarious turn when they begin experimenting with these ideas on a classmate. It begins as an intellectual exercise and then becomes deadly real high-wire act. Under any name, Deming is a solid talent and was rightfully among the bedrock of the Manhunt talent pool.

Girl Friend by Mark Mallory (September 1957)

Mark Mallory was a pseudonym for Morris Hershman who did a lot of writing in the mid-20th Century in the science fiction, war and crime genres. He was also a regular contributor to Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.

“Girl Friend” is a diabolical little story told as an interrogation transcript of a 14 year-old girl accused of murder. As the story unfolds, the kid appears to be the daughter of a prostitute pressed into service herself. Her mom would command top dollar for the girl by telling the clients she was a twelve year-old virgin. As the nightmare narrative shifts into a murder confession, the brilliance of this nasty little story really takes shape. Despite the disturbing set-up, don’t skip this gem.

Midnight Caller by Wade Miller (January 1958)

Wade Miller was the popular collaboration of Robert Wade and Bill Miller that produced so many outstanding crime and adventure novels in the paperback original era. “Midnight Caller” is a short-short story - only two pages long - about a woman being menaced by a sexually-aggressive intruder in her bedroom. It’s a tense little story with a fun punch line at the end.

Paperback Warrior Verdict:

The Best of Manhunt 2 is another masterpiece of short fiction that will be an essential part of any hardboiled library. I’m hoping that it’s another monster success for Stark House to justify more volumes in the future. Highly recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE