The Pro #01 - The $3-Million Turn-Over

Richard Curtis was a successful literary agent and author who wrote nearly fifty works of fiction and nonfiction. In 1974, Curtis authored The $3-Million Turn-Over, the debut of a four-book series starring sports agent Dave Bolt. Like the “newshound heroes” of the mid-20th Century, the idea of an amateur solving crimes and murder mysteries works like a quasi private-detective novel. Wolfpack Publishing has just reprinted The $3-Million Turn-Over for modern readers.

In the series debut, readers learn about series star Bolt through a few dialogue sequences scattered throughout the book. He was born in Texas, excelled at collegiate sports, served a stint in the Army and then became a successful wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. Other than being very athletic, Curtis wisely chooses not to validate Bolt as stereotypical 1970s action hero. The Pro is a mystery series with some action sprinkled in to lure prospective shoppers. After a horrific ankle injury ends his career, Bolt engages in a two-year swim in the bottle before rehabilitating and finding work in the Cowboys front office. This eventually leads to a sports agency deal that now finds Bolt representing a number of clients across all major sports.

Bolt's office is in NYC, a rather busy place that's kept in order by sexy secretary Trish. As the novel opens, Bolt receives a call from the father of a top basketball recruit. IL star athlete Richie Sadler wants to discuss contracts with Bolt. It's this early portion of the book that really caters to basketball fans. In 1974, when this book was published, the NBA and ABA were two separate leagues. The two competed with each other for fans, TV rights and endorsement deals. Bolt, along with Richie's family, has an interesting discussion about the two possibly merging and teams like the Nets eventually becoming NBA properties. All of this is marvelous to read considering the merger actually came to fruition two years later.

While all this is insightful and engaging as a sports read, readers want crime. As a precursor to the heist, Bolt begins contract negotiations on behalf of Sadler. The asking price is a lofty three-million for two years (preposterous in 1974) but it's done for a reason. This price is important because soon the Sadlers receive a ransom call demanding three-million in cash or Richie dies. Afraid to risk the FBI's help (the first place I would have turned to personally), Bolt and Richie's sister Sondra tangle in the sheets and streets trying to locate Richie's whereabouts. The book has Bolt combing NYC, Harlem and the city's outskirts while the ABA commissioner puts together the needed funds.

The Pro reads like Robert B. Parker's Spenser in that it is loosely a PI series with northeastern ties. Further, Bolt displays some of the same characteristics that make Spenser engaging – sports car, humor, drinking, sex. Arguably, those traits are found with most detectives in fiction, but I found incredible similarities. These novels also work as a sort of precursor to Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series of mysteries starring a former basketball star turned sports agent and “accidental detective.” The author even thanks Richard Curtis in the acknowledgment page of the series debut Deal Breaker (1995).

The Pro series would later focus on hockey, baseball and football – America's most popular sports. Curtis also wrote at least one other sports related novel, a stand-alone called The Sunday Alibi which was published under the pseudonym Ray Lilly.

Buy a copy of The $3-Million Turnover HERE

Killer on the Turnpike

“Killer on the Turnpike” is a 63-page story by William McGivern that was originally serialized in the “Saturday Evening Post” in 1961 under the title “Murder on the Turnpike.” It was later the anchor of a five-story McGivern anthology paperback released by Pocket Books later in 1961. Finally, the story was collected in the Alfred Hitchcock compilation, “Stories to Be Read with the Lights On” from 1973.

“Killer on the Turnpike” takes place over a single night when a serial killer (before there was a term for that) is stalking, abducting, and killing motorists along a 100-mile length of interstate highway stretching south from New York. The state troopers patrolling the turnpike first notice an abandoned car followed by a dead body - with more mayhem to follow. Even still, it takes them awhile to piece together what’s happening. 

Adding to the tension is the fact that 45 miles of this highway will be traveled by the motorcade of the President of the United States later that night. Dan O’Leary is the earnest young state trooper who discovers the first abandoned car 200 yards away from a highway diner where his girlfriend works. He later spearheads the cat and mouse game between the police and the killer that is the centerpiece of this enjoyable story.

McGivern writes both tense suspense scenes as well as logical police procedural passages very well. The scenes jump from the killer to the police with smooth transitions. Perhaps it stretches realism when the President’s convoy isn’t rerouted while there’s an active manhunt happening on the turnpike, but what fun would that be?

In any case, “Killer on the Turnpike” is a fun way to kill some time with an old, crumbling paperback. Don’t spend a fortune on it, and you won’t be let down. Recommended.

Note: McGivern's turnpike story became a movie, "Nightmare in Chicago". It was directed by Robert Altman in 1964 and features Charles McGraw.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Such Are the Valiant

“Such Are the Valiant”, perhaps John C. Andrews' only literary offering, was released in 1965 by Belmont Tower. It's a paperback war novel set in the Burmese Jungle during the Pacific-Asian Theatre of World War II. It is a short read at 155-pages but Andrews makes the most of it with a thrilling, action-packed narrative. 

The novel centers on a small British reconnaissance unit led by Captain Barrington, Sergeant McCallum and Lieutenant Fulton. This patrol is deep in the jungle probing Japanese lines to determine strengths and weaknesses. Utilizing terrain maps, the men are locating trails and pathways that are hidden from aerial intelligence. With this extreme scouting comes Japanese patrols, sweltering heat, insects and their own weaknesses from the excursion. 

The first 60-pages has the patrol navigating a river, assassinating a Japanese scout and climbing a rocky mountain ridge to root out a Japanese gun post. Andrews writes these scenes with a harrowing pace but pausing to inject a good amount of suspense. The dialogue and point of view is distributed evenly among the squad members, allowing the reader to see the whole squad as chief protagonist instead of an individual member. 

Eventually the patrol finds rest at a nearby village. After negotiation with the village elders, the tribesmen agree to help the Allies due to broken promises by Japanese leaders. Their much-needed rest is short-lived when a large Japanese battalion is spotted outside of the village. Knowing they can't fend off waves of enemy troops, Barrington makes the decision to send McCallum and two others through the lines to relay the news to HQ. This is where the narrative is split into two equally exciting portions.

The first has Barrington making quick preparations for the impending attack. He has a brief love interest with a village nurse that eventually leads into a quick history of her action during the war. As wave after wave of Japanese descend onto the village, the narrative switches to McCallum's trio desperately trying to venture back to camp for help. The chapters spend an equal amount of time telling us both fascinating tales. There's a riveting finale to the battle...but who wins?

The author's description of soaked boots, sucking mud and leech bites leaves me wondering if he spent wartime in Asia himself. There's a great sense of authenticity from the soldier's point of view – cumbersome Sten Sub-Machine guns (they were junk), the rattling of metal and the inner turmoil of killing another man.  Other than a 1981 WW2 photo album, I can't find any other work by this author. I'd suspect he is a former British soldier but have no basis of truth other than this captivating, authentic novel. “Such Are the Valiant” is a mandatory read for war fiction fans.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

After Dark, My Sweet

Students of Jim Thompson’s career point to the 1950s as his most productive and commercially-successful period. “After Dark My Sweet” was a 1955 paperback published three-years after his best known work, “The Killer Inside Me” during a period where he was writing a new novel every year.

The narrator of “After Dark, My Sweet” is former pro-boxer turned drifter, William “Kid” Collins. He discloses to the reader that he has been institutionalized multiple times for neurosis and recently walked away (read: escaped) from a mental asylum to hit the road. It’s clear from Chapter One that taking this literary ride with an unbalanced and unreliable narrator is going to be an interesting trip.

On the road, Collins hooks up with a screwy lush of a dame named Fay Anderson who brings him home to her dilapidated house. She seems to have a few screws loose herself and introduces Collins to Uncle Bud, an ex-cop who serves as the the criminal “mastermind” of the story. These three dysfunctional - and rather irritating- characters form the core of the plot.

It takes forever to get there, but Fay and Uncle Bud finally bring Collins in on their money-making scheme: kidnap a little boy from a wealthy family and hold him until the ransom is paid. The execution of the plan is riddled with problems and unexpected obstacles - most of which arise from the fact that the threesome attempting this are a dangerous combination of crazy and moronic. 

In a better novel, this could have been fun. Instead, the reader is trapped inside the head of a neurotic lunatic for a narrator, and that makes for an exhausting read. There’s way too much examination of Collins’ mental illness and melodrama relating to his condition. The writing in Collins voice is well-done and the book was written with high literary aspirations. Unfortunately, it lacked the pop and the charm of a good crime novel as the clever stuff was just missing.

One can’t deny that Thompson was a great writer, but “After Dark, My Sweet” just isn’t his masterpiece. The great writing was just overshadowed by the author’s commitment to put the reader in the head of a narrator who overstays his welcome early in the book. Take a pass on this one. You deserve better.

Purchase this book HERE

Cardigan #02 - Hell's Paycheck

Author Will Murray ('Doc Savage') has a comprehensive analysis of the pulp fiction detective 'Cardigan' in “The Complete Casebook of Cardigan, Volume 1: 1931-32” (Altus Press 2013). In it, he chronicles writer Frederick L. Nebel's rise through the pages of “Black Mask” magazine and his early creation of “Tough Dick” Donohue of the Inter-State Detective Agency. When “Dime Detective” launched in 1933 it featured Nebel and a knockoff of his own pulp character Donohue, Detective Jack Cardigan of the Cosmos Detective Agency. 

In Cardigan's first adventure, “Death Alley” (what I am considering #1), Cardigan's first name is Steve. Later, his first name is given as Jack despite the author's original naming conventions. Murray does a fantastic job as Cardigan historian, even pointing out that by 1930 Dashiell Hammet's retirement of Continental Ops' Nameless Detective had left a void that even Raymond Chandler couldn't fill until 1933. Titles like Cardigan, Donohue and MacBride & John X of The Free Press kept the torch burning for detective fiction. 

The second Cardigan story, “Hell's Paycheck”, originally appeared in the December, 1931 issue of “Dime Detective Magazine”. The story's beginning has Cardigan hired by an unnamed small town resident (I assume by wire with very little story provided to Cardigan). After departing the train station, Cardigan is chauffeured by limo down some winding back roads. He smartly asks to stop at a nearby store for cigars, makes a call to the man to gain a description of the limo driver and then hurries back to the limo knowing the driver is a fake. There's a shootout, a chase and ultimately Cardigan makes his own way to the man's residence where he learns the limo driver was carjacked and the unnamed man is actually the town's mayor, Mr. Holmes. 

The quick synopsis is that the mayor is up for re-election and his son has engaged in a heated love affair with a corrupt woman. Holmes, hoping to buy her off, has provided her a check for $20,000 to go away. The woman has apparently cashed the check – she's driving a new sports car - but the check never cleared the bank. Holmes fears that a political opponent has provided the woman $20K and is now holding the paper check as an insurance policy. They can go to the tabloids proving Holmes paid off the woman or negotiate with the mayor to attain their agenda in an exchange for silence. 

Cardigan is faced with a variety of enemies. First, there is a pesky, violent reporter that's following the detective for clues. Second is the political opponent, who could very well be running in the election or a syndicate leader holding the mayor hostage. The most exciting “villain” facing Cardigan? Surprisingly...it's the police. 

Nebel's makeshift novella (about 35-pages overall) is an exciting detective novel that puts two rightful forces against each other. The Cosmos Detective Agency is doing plenty of good, but they expect Cardigan to play by the rules and perform his due diligence within the confines of the law. Two town cops, Strout and Blake, really push Cardigan off the scent – seemingly tangling the investigation in bureaucracy and inexperience. It's Cardigan's navigation of the legal system that's just as exciting as the heated revolver once the narrative explodes in a fiery crescendo. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my first sampling of Cardigan. You can buy four volumes of “The Complete Casebook of Cardigan” that collects all of the stories from 1931-1937. These are available for about $30 each in softcover or $5 on Kindle. It's money well spent.

Purchase a copy of the book HERE

Devil in Dungarees

During his life, Marvin H. Albert (1924-1996) was a prolific writer of mystery, noir, Western, and high adventure novels using the pseudonyms of Nick Quarry, Anthony Rome, Ian McAlister, Albert Conroy, and others. He also wrote many books under his own name, including several movie novelizations. In 1960, Crest Books released a 198-page paperback original called “Devil in Dungarees” under the pen name, Albert Conroy. Automat Press has recently re-released the orphaned novel as a Kindle eBook for three bucks.

After nailing young Peggy - maybe 20, maybe younger - in a motel cabin, police officer Walt Bonner is feeling the nerves. You see, he agreed to participate in a bank heist with some guys he barely knows. If it works, Bonner and Peggy - the titular devil who wears her tight blue jeans without panties - can run away to Cuba together and spend their lives porking in a rum-induced haze.

We learn pretty early in the novel that Peggy’s not a completely loyal sex partner. In fact, she plans to take off with another member of the heist crew leaving Detective Bonner without a girl or his share of the loot. The bank robbery itself happens early in the story, and most of the book is dedicated to the aftermath. As far as literary heists go, this one was well-planned and professionally executed. The benefits of having a bent cop in on the planning becomes very apparent - until things go south. The author was clearly channeling the paperbacks of Lionel White and Richard Stark when he wrote this one, and he seems to have mastered the formula.

Albert’s wrote “Devil in Dungarees” in a wandering third-person narration that slides seamlessly from one character’s mind to another’s. There’s an admirable self-assurance to his style that lets the reader know you’re in good hands through the twists, turns, and double-crosses. The paperback’s action toggles between a heist getaway story and a credible police procedural. The sex scenes are well-described and the action is a few notches more graphically violent than most 1960 crime paperbacks.

Overall, I have nothing bad to say about “Devil in Dungarees.” It was a sexy, action-packed heist thriller among the best I’ve ever read. Marvin Albert was the real deal, and I now want to explore more novels by him. Highly recommended.

Buy this book HERE

A Grifter's Song: Episodes 1 and 2

“A Grifter’s Song” is an ambitious contemporary literary project orchestrated by author Frank Zafiro. The idea is a series of 90-page short novels - released more or less monthly - about a con-artist couple on the run. Different authors are invited to write installments that are collected into “seasons” like a television show. The cover art is a gorgeous throwback style and the line-up of writers who have committed to the series looks promising.

Down & Out Books is the publisher of “A Grifter’s Song,” and their business model relies on selling subscriptions like Netflix with the latest edition being delivered monthly to your eReader device starting in January 2019. Individual installments will also be sold separately through the publisher or via Amazon Kindle. Hard copies will be published compiling three episodes in each paperback volume starting in July 2019.

Titles and authors for Season One are:

• The Concrete Smile by Frank Zafiro,
• People Like Us by JD Rhoades,
• The Whale by Lawrence Kelter,
• The Movie Makers by Gary Phillips,
• Lost in Middle America by Colin Conway,
• Losing Streak by Jim Wilsky.

Authors committed to Season Two (launching in 2020) are:

• Eric Beetner,
• Asa Maria Bradley,
• Eryk Pruitt,
• Holly West,
• Scott Eubanks,
• Frank Zafiro.

So, we have great cover art and a cool delivery gimmick, but this series will succeed or fail based on the quality of the books. I love con-artist stories, so I decided to check out the first two novellas.

A Grifter’s Song #01: The Concrete Smile by Frank Zafiro

In this inaugural episode, we meet long-con experts Sam and Rachel mid-sting In St. Louis. Sam has a blowhard businessman - who fancies himself as a real ladies man - on the hook. Meanwhile, Rachel - a real head turner - has a key role in the grift that is also one of the book’s best surprise reveals.

We learn that Sam and Rachel had some recent problems in Philadelphia when they conned a good chunk of change from some mafia types who aren’t excited to forgive and forget. The hope is that if they stay off the Philly mob’s radar screen long enough, they may be able to extend the useful life of their kneecaps well into the future.

An interesting subtext to this short novel - and likely the series - is the idea that Rachel leverages her intense sex appeal against the target, and this sparks pangs of jealousy in Sam despite the fact that Rachel is a total pro just playing her part. I hope future installments by the other authors tease out this idea as it creates a compelling inner conflict in Sam and tension between the principals.

The con itself is a rather complicated business transaction where the partners are gently manipulating the mark into buying a company that has no functional assets. The modest con turns into a possible big score - with added risks - along the way. The plot doesn’t get too bogged down in the details of the underlying transaction and instead chooses to focus on the human element of the coercion. The result is a fascinating character study of a con-game mechanics that recalls the glory days of Fawcett Gold Medal paperback originals from the 1950s.

The tension and excitement is ratcheted up considerably for the last act of the book with an interesting twist propelling the couple into their next installment. Overall, “The Concrete Smile” was an outstanding debut of a series that hopefully can sustain this level of quality in the hands of new writers who didn’t create the series from scratch.

A Grifter’s Song #02: People Like Us by JD Rhoades

The second installment in the “A Grifter’s Song” was penned by a Shamus Award winning mystery author from North Carolina named J.D. Rhoades. The shift in writing style from Zafiro to Rhodes is never jarring, nor does it take reader out of the story. The new author also provides a wider range of third-person perspectives throughout the novel beyond just Sam.

The action moves to Raleigh, North Carolina where Sam and Rachel team up with a grandmotherly grifter named Aunt Sally who Sam knew back when he was coming up in the game. Aunt Sally catches wind that there’s a contract on Sam and Rachel from the Philly mob and offers to bring them in on a con assuming that they needed a gig.

In this case, the target is a rich southerner with a fetish for Civil War memorabilia. The plan is to sell him a counterfeit long-sword of Stonewall Jackson while convincing the mooch that it’s the real deal. To do that, Sam needs to don a tweed jacket and become a fellow collector of American historical artifacts essentially vouching for the authenticity of the sword while driving up the price. Rachel plays the alluring female bait keeping the mark off-balance with lust.

If this book was just about a jackass getting fleeced by some expert grifters, it would have been perfect. Rhoades is clearly a talented writer who knows his way around a good plot structure. However, the author chooses to make this fun little crime story a political statement by wading into the unfortunate culture war currently plaguing the U.S.

You see, the Civil War loving target is a de-platformed history professor harboring regressive views about the treatment of black slaves in the south. This makes him a hero to the alt-right and a villain to the woke left when all I wanted to do was read a damn con-man story. After all, I read crime fiction to get away from the political culture war, and I suspect I’m not alone. Right wing straw men being ridiculed in a left-leaning thriller is just as creatively bankrupt as the bestsellers of Brad Thor and William Johnstone when they slaughter cartoonish fictional liberals. If I want a culture war, I have Twitter on my phone.

Of course, the author escalates the conservative craziness into a place where no right-thinking American could find a rooting interest in the race-war loving villains of this thriller. If that gives anyone a greater sense of comfort about injecting politics into the series, so be it. I’m just not sure that alienating half of one’s potential audience is a wise business strategy while trying to get a new series off the ground.

The shame is that the actual con-artist story here is otherwise well-executed. The violent aspirations of the manhunter from the Philadelphia mafia increase the stakes to make this grift work, and the conclusion was good enough to keep me interested in Episode 3.

Series Evaluation

“A Grifter’s Song” has the capacity to be a total blast of it sticks to clever cons and exciting thrills. The installments are the perfect length to never overstay their welcome, and con-artist stories give the authors plenty of room to spread their wings and get creative. Sam and Rachel are great leads, and the unsympathetic mooches chosen for their scams are worthy targets.

The idea of a loosely-affiliated network of grifters across the U.S. who know each other and occasionally collaborate is a fun universe in which to set a series. In that sense, “A Grifter’s Song” recalls Richard Stark’s Parker novels where heist pros gather to set up big scores as a team. The network of independent actors for these scams should keep the series fresh and evergreen.

The ongoing story arc that has Sam and Rachel one step ahead of hunters from the Philadelphia mafia ties these stand-alone con-man stories into a real series with a sense of urgency and continuity. That aspect reminded me of the old TV show “The Fugutive” or even “The A-Team.” No matter how well or poorly any fraud scheme goes, there’s still this unsolvable problem hanging over their heads.

Based solely on the first two installments, it appears that “A Grifter’s Song” has the potential to be a real winner. Hopefully, future episodes won’t poison the well with individual author’s worst instincts and personal agendas. A strong editorial hand should ensure the literary success of this ambitious project. I’m interested to see where this is headed. Recommended.

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