The Black Angel

Beginning with the 1940's The Bride Wore Black (aka Beware the Lady), Cornell Woolrich launched into a two-decade output of celebrated mystery novels. Books like Phantom Lady, Deadline at Dawn, and I Married a Dead Man are acclaimed golden age suspense yarns featuring shadowy characters, ambiguous prose, and murky plots. Woolrich was as good as his peers, like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but could be scolded at times for recycling the same formula. That's my biggest criticism of The Black Angel, his 1943 novel first published in hardcover by Doubleday and now available in multiple formats, including audio and digital. 

The Black Angel is a reworking of plots in Woolrich's two short stories, "Murder in Wax" (Dime Detective March 1935) and "Face Work" (Black Mask October 1937). But my criticism isn't with that, instead it is the concept Woolrich used throughout this era of his writing – a series of four or five chapters where the main character interacts with someone in an effort to free a condemned person, gain revenge, or discover the answer to some sort of preposterous question. Sure, this could apply to just about any crime-fiction, noir novel, or story of the mid 20th century, but Woolrich doesn't even attempt to gain an off-ramp. He just rinses and repeats, albeit his motions are fluid, well-executed, and entertaining.

The Black Angel is a woman named Alberta, but nicknamed “Angel Face” by her husband, Kirk. She discovers that Kirk is having an affair with a mistress, a fluent entertainer named Mia. When Alberta arrives to confront Mia at the woman's apartment, she discovers her dead body. At the same time, Kirk calls Mia from work, and Alberta answers the phone. She disconnects before saying anything. A few hours later, the police locate and arrest Kirk for Mia's murder. However, Alberta knows Kirk didn't kill the woman and sets out to prove his innocence despite learning of his extramarital affair. 

In The Bride Wore Black, an unnamed woman hunts and kills five men on a quest to avenge the murder of her husband. The book used certainty – a predetermined sentencing for each character – to build suspense. It was divided into five parts, each dedicated to one of the five men the woman was interacting with in an effort to kill. 

The Black Angel uses the same setup, only this book has four parts, each of them dealing with a man that Alberta is investigating. She uses Mia's telephone book to trace these men, all having first names that begin with “M”, a pattern that corresponds with a matchbook clue left in Mia's doorway. As the time is racing towards Kirk's execution, Alberta must infiltrate each man's life – either by employment or seduction – and learn if they killed Mia. 

This same idea comes to fruition in the author's 1941 novel, The Black Curtain, where an amnesiac is hunting down people who were involved in his life over the last three years to prove his innocence in a murder. The author's 1942 novel Phantom Lady features a man scheduled for execution after being convicted of murdering his wife. His friends and a detective interview the people in his life to prove who the actual murderer is. In Deadline at Dawn, his 1944 mystery, a woman teams with a man to hunt down a killer before one of them is arrested for the crime. 

While reading the novel, I was consistently comparing the plot to other works by Woolrich and his contemporaries. But that didn't necessarily dampen my enjoyment. This is a terrific slow-burn combining a headstrong protagonist with some seedy characters to develop an interesting fish-out-of-water dynamic. Each of these four parts can be read like a standalone crime story. My favorite of them is the Dr. Mourdaunt portion, an effective dive into drug trafficking concerning a doctor leading Alberta on a type of scavenger hunt. 

Woolrich was a great storyteller, and The Black Angel is worth pursuing if you enjoy a calculated, slow pace as characters are fleshed out and the story weaves to a conclusion. The author purposefully keeps things hazy for a reason – nothing is terribly clear, which elevates the tension and mystery. Recommended, but just know what you get with a Woolrich novel. 

Get the book HERE

Secrets of Sinister House #5

As I alluded to in my reviews of The Sinister House of Secret Love, this DC title began its initial run under that mischievous title. The comic ran four issues before giving way to a sort of reboot for issue five, the new title of Secrets of Sinister House. It ran another 14 issues through July 1974. Although the first four issues were prominent displays of 1970s gothic lore, the series expanded into more traditional horror concepts similar to the EC brand and other mid-20th century fright mags. 

Despite the title switch to Secrets of Sinister House, the production team still had one more gothic story to tell, that being the fifth issue's "Death at Castle Dunbar!" This was written by Lynn Marron, who also wrote stories for Vampirella, Creepy, and Eerie. The artwork was created by Mike Sekowsky (Green Lantern, House of Mystery) and Dick Giordano (Batman, The Flash). 

A woman named Mike Hardy (yes, her first name is Mike!) arrives at the gloomy Castle Dunbar in Scotland under the guise of being an author chronicling the Dunbar family throughout military history. She's actually the sister of a recently deceased woman named Valerie, the former bride of the Castle's Laird, Alec Dunbar. Valerie fell from a seaside cliff to her death and Mike thinks she may have been murdered.

The story follows Mike's exploration into the family history, which introduces several suspects. Like any tight gothic romance tale, the house itself becomes a character. Common tropes like abandoned wings and floors, intruders stalking the hallways at midnight, and the obligatory proposal that someone may be locked up in an upstairs bedroom all become key components to the story and atmosphere. 

I enjoyed the first four issues of The Sinister House of Secret Love and was surprised to find this fantastic gothic story tucked away in the pages of Secrets of Sinister House. This sort of storytelling departs with the next issue's “When is Tomorrow Yesterday”, written by Sheldon Mayer, although Alfredo Alcala's artwork is simply amazing.

Fair Blows the Wind

The origin of Louis L'Amour's Chantry family appears in the 1978 novel Fair Blows the Wind. At the time of publication, the author had become complacent with his books concerning good guys fighting ruthless land barons and aiding heroic widows. While those books made L'Amour a multi-millionaire, the writer wanted to stray from his normal fare to offer different ideas and concepts before his career ended (he died in 1988).

L'Amour authored several different types of novels, including The Walking Drum, Last of the Breed, and The Haunted Mesa. Along the same lines as his westerns, L'Amour wanted to showcase America's founding through the eyes of several fictitious families he had created: Talon, Sackett, and Chantry. After several novels featuring Chantry characters, L'Amour went back in time to tell the family's beginnings in America, notably the story of Tatton Chantry, the first to arrive. 

The book is unusual as over 200 pages are one long flashback to Chantry's childhood and coming-of-age in rowdy places in England, Ireland, and Spain. In the novel's beginning, a 28-year old Chantry is stranded somewhere in what would later be North or South Carolina. He meets a group of Spaniards accompanying a Peruvian woman, but soon realizes they have an unscrupulous plan to steal from the woman.

The flashback begins with young Chantry seeing his father murdered on their family farm in Ireland. He warns Chantry to run from the British invaders and head into the wild. Chantry does this and begins surviving in the forests and inner cities, begging for food and hoping to one day avenge his father. Through a series of adventures, similar to Tom Sawyer, Chantry meets eccentric characters on one long road trip through England and Spain. 

Much of the novel concerns Chantry learning swordplay, beginning with an English swordsman named Kory and ending with a Scottish weaponmaster named MacAskill. By the age of 14, Chantry is a well-skilled and feuding with the British and Spanish. He becomes a wordsmith, a prisoner, an adventurer, and an investor. But, each of these adventures is one step closer to disclosing how Chantry became stranded in the Carolinas and his goal of freeing the young Peruvian woman.

I discussed this novel with Jeff on his channel Jeff's Cave of Cool Books. You can watch that discussion HERE. Overall, this was an enjoyable book at nearly 300-pages. I felt it would have been better served as maybe two or three novels, with L'Amour possibly fleshing out some of the storylines he introduces. Unfortunately, L'Amour passed away before he could revisit this book. Later editions feature bonus material that suggests a sequel would surely have appeared if the author had lived longer. Regardless, as a stand-alone adventure, this one is hard to beat. Highly recommended.

Get Fair Blows the Wind HERE 

Comes the Dark Stranger

Comes the Dark Stranger was only Harry Patterson's (aka Jack Higgins) fourth published novel, seeing release in 1962 in hardcover by John Long. It has since been reprinted numerous times under the Higgins pseudonym, including a Brilliance Audio book narrated by Michael Page. 

Like many of Patterson's first few novels, Comes the Dark Stranger is a rich, carefully crafted crime-fiction novel void of any high-adventure tendencies the writer would eventually be synonymous with. The book utilizes several pulpy crime-noir elements that had already saturated the market by the 1960s. The most dominant is the “dying man” attempting to solve his own murder before he succumbs to some fatal element in his body. This trope was used successfully in the 1950 American film D.O.A., written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene. That movie was remade in 1969, 1988, 2017, and 2022. Additionally, the concept was used as a radio episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade in 1951. 

Patterson uses this D.O.A. formula for his character Martin Shane, a Korean War veteran who has shrapnel lodged in his brain. He has a few hours to live before surgeons hope to remove it before it shifts and destroys him. However, the surgery has previously killed most patients, so Shane feels he has just a few hours left to live. He spends those hours hunting the man who sold out his men during the war.

The novel begins with a disoriented Shane stumbling around the village of Burnham. He's been beaten and is handcuffed. After freeing himself with the use of some tools in an old factory, Shane is found by a priest and relays how he arrived in this strange predicament. 

In 1952, Shane and five other men are captured behind enemy lines in Korea during the country's ongoing Civil War. The men were preparing the way for an assault in the coming days from a large British infantry. The men are tortured by a Chinese officer and ordered to be executed individually until someone confesses the British plans for the infantry. Shane's good friend, Simon, is the first to be executed. However, after interrogation, the officer announces that one of the men provided the necessary intel. A few moments later, a bomb reduces most of the facility to rubble. But the Chinese were able to use the confessed info to ambush the infantry, killing over 200 soldiers.

Shane is admitted into a hospital, where he lies in a type of amnesiac state for nearly 10 years. Miraculously, something shifts, and he regains his memory. But, as I explained earlier, he may be dying. He wants to locate the man responsible for giving up the intel to the Chinese and costing the lives of not only Simon, but also the 200 infantrymen. 

As Shane arrives in Burnham, Patterson shifts into an amateur sleuth presentation as the hero interrogates the four men he shared quarters with as a prisoner. These men now consist of a club owner, a bartender, a wealthy investor, and a college lecturer. All of them could have confessed, but the clues led to one man in particular. It is a standard mystery as the pages flip to the reveal. 

Not only did Patterson use the dying man trope, he also incorporates other overused elements like amnesia and plastic surgery. There's also the man-on-the-run plot device that threads the investigation together, leading to one action scene after another as Shane beats up various characters searching for answers. Mixed into the story are two romantic leads, one of whom meets a horrible fate that took me aback.

Comes the Dark Stranger isn't perfect, but it is a fun novel that kept me on my toes for most of the novel. I had figured out the identity of the traitor at the very beginning of the book, but there was a twist thrown in that surprised me. I haven't read a Higgins/Patterson novel I didn't like, and Comes the Dark Stranger is just more evidence that the man just couldn't write a complete clunker.

Get the book HERE

Doc Savage #32 - Dust of Death

Dust of Death was the lead story in the October 1935 issue of Doc Savage. It was authored by Harold A. Davis, filling in for the title's most prominent author, Lester Dent. The house name is Kenneth Robeson, the original magazine cover artist was Walter M. Baumhofer, and the Bantam paperback, published in 1969, features a James Bama cover. I'm reviewing the paperback, which I also supplemented with the Audible audio version narrated by Os Guinness.

The story begins with Long Tom being captured in the midst of a raging geopolitical war between the fictional countries of Santa Amaoza and Delezon. However, the real villain is the cloaked Inca in Gray, an instigator who is simply keeping both parties embroiled in the feud for personal gain. When one country begins an upheaval destined to end the conflict, the Inca in Gray arrives to boost the opponent's ranks. The villain's chief dispatcher is a mysterious “dust of death”, a fatal toxin sprinkled on victims and targets. 

Doc Savage, Ham, and Monk become engaged in the fight after learning of Long Tom's capture. Their participation involves the team's stratospheric dirigible, a type of aircraft that can reach the edge of space. It is aboard the craft that Doc fights a fierce opponent, the vehicle is destroyed, and both Ham and Monk parachute into captivity. Their proposed demise of being munched to death by army ants was very disturbing. 

Dust of Death was just an average Doc Savage adventure – nothing more, nothing less. The book is mostly known for providing the introduction of Ham's ape Chemistry, a series regular. Also, series enthusiast and contributor Will Murray stated this was the first Doc Savage story he had read. I enjoyed the warring sides, the introduction of nefarious arms dealers, demented dictators, and the mystery of the Inca in Gray. I had some suspicions about who the character really was, but I was ultimately surprised with the grand reveal.

Get Dust of Death HERE

Little Red Mittens

I've covered a great deal of author Jack Karney's literary work here on the blog, including his short stories, recent reprints through Stark House Press, and an informative podcast episode. The New York native wrote a number of stand-alone crime-fiction novels, and a plethora of shorts mostly found in the pages of Argosy and Short Stories in the mid 20th century. I tend to gravitate towards his boxing stories and found another scanned one in the archives, “Little Red Mittens”. The story was originally published in the July 10, 1946 issue of Short Stories.

Like Karney's short boxing story “The Bells Are Ringing” (reviewed HERE), this narrative features a current in-ring bout between two fighters, but pauses during the various rounds for flashback sequences explaining how each fighter arrived at this anticipated moment in their careers. To get perspective, Karney teases the introduction of both fighters before taking readers back five years to December 1941.

It was the Friday before Pearl Harbor was bombed. Two up-and-coming amateur boxers are having a bout, Mickey – the narrator's brother – and a bullish fighter named Goff. After some dirty boxing and a few questionable in-ring antics, Goff wins the fight. This loss not only physically hurts Mickey, but he is also propelled into a ravenous need for a rematch. After immediately begging for a rematch, the injured Mickey goes to the bars and tracks down Goff and his trainers. He's then nearly beaten to death and left. The story then flashes to the present, where Mickey is in the corner of his brother Joe, who is now fighting Goff. 

The story then drifts back in time to 1942 as both Joe and Mickey are embroiled in WWII as well as a love triangle. Mickey's hometown sweetheart is Helen, but he refuses to write her letters. Instead, Joe picks up the pen and begins an intimate correspondence with the girl. Through the military, Joe begins boxing under the tutelage of Mickey. Eventually, he's in prime shape to hit the professional ranks when the war is over. These flashback scenes are preempted by the present bout as Joe and Goff extend into the later rounds in their merciless fight.

Karney can write a great boxing story, and I found “Little Red Mittens” to be a wonderful coming-of-age story with an emotional charm. The story features a number of storylines that connect and weave through the bout. Ultimately, the story is about Mickey's inability to love and provide companionship, his struggles with intimacy with Helen, and his submission to Joe as the superior fighter. Typically, these fighting stories allow for revenge and redemption, and one would think Mickey's rise to a rematch with Goff would have been center stage. Instead, it's a different element as Joe is fighting for his brother's honor.

You can read this story online HERE or below. 

Drag Strip Danger

Ross R. Olney (b. 1929), who also writes as E. Price Olney, wrote nearly 200 novels of young adult fiction, science-fiction, and non-fiction. He began as a columnist, contributing to both Vida Newspaper and The Reporter. He edited a 1969 anthology titled Time and Space, a collection of juvenile science-fiction stories by the likes of Fredric Brown, Robert Silverberg, and Arthur C. Clarke. My first experience with the writer is one of his many racing YA books, Drag Strip Danger. It was published by Whitman in 1972. 

High school student Scott Hunter is the book's protagonist. He and his best friend, Peter Reynolds, are both chosen to serve on drag racing pit crews. The invitation occurred in the boys' shop class in Reseda, California. Pete was assigned to one of the best-known dragsters, the Polynesian, with driver Snapper Bowers. Scott was selected for the rival Bombardier, driven by “Big Bob” Banning. This is a friendly rivalry with a sportsman's attitude...until it isn't. Scott and Pete begin to clash when several accidents begin plaguing the racing series.

The first indication of racing sabotage occurs when Snapper's car skids across the pavement and nearly explodes in a fiery crash. When Snapper is pulled from the wreckage, he mumbles to Scott that there was oil everywhere. When Scott mentions Snapper's comments, it is met with criticism. The drivers and crews think Scott is hinting that someone spread oil on the track in an effort to crash Snapper. When these same incidents begin occurring regularly, Scott and Pete accuse each other of knowing about the sabotage. Eventually, the two work out their differences and begin an investigation. Someone in the racing industry is attempting to commandeer the finishes in a sadistic way...even if it means death!

The book is presented in 216 pages of larger font. There's an illustration in nearly every chapter that enhances the narrative. I've enjoyed the juvenile racing books, including William Campbell Gault's popular novels, and found that same energy and need for speed throughout Drag Strip Danger. In comparison to Gault, particularly 1959's Drag Strip, Olney's book possesses a mystery flavor and amateur sleuth element. While the racing, technical nuances of engine builds, and the drag racing industry are all educational and prominent, the emphasis of Olney's prose is the investigation and exposure of criminality within the sport, fictional as it may be. If you enjoy The Hardy Boys and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, then you are sure to like this rambunctious novel. 

Get Drag Strip Danger HERE. 

Dusty Shelves & Bookstore Cats

In this latest Paperback Warrior adventure, the hunt for vintage reads continues through the heart of Central Florida. Stops include the eclectic shelves of Needful Things and the cozy, nostalgia-filled The Family Book Shop. Join me for the book shopping! Watch below or on my YT page HERE.

Phantom Wedding

W.E.D. Ross, who wrote many gothic-romance and suspense paperbacks, wrote Phantom Wedding in 1976. It was published by Popular Library under the author's pseudonym of Marilyn Ross. Matching the book's ghostly title (and Charles Copeland cover) is the front page invitation, “Was she in love with a man or a ghost?”

The book starts with a three-paragraph opener that sort of dooms this book from the start. Ross and an inattentive editor gives away the book's main plot and the identity of its most mysterious characters. I'll spare you a spoiler here and urge you to not only skim over this opener, just also skip this entire book. 

Iris is a 23-year old blonde and attractive woman on vacation in Sarasota, Florida. She has an insurance job in New York, but recently inherited money from a relative that spurred her into vacation mode. The two most important aspects of the gothic paperback trope work here – an inheritance and the “stranger in a strange land” aspect, albeit Florida really isn't as strange as some fog-swept moor. But Ross does add a bit of atmosphere in the opening chapter as Iris befriends a mysterious gentleman in a bar one rainy night. The two hit it off and meet for lunch the next day. It is here that the man of mystery, Nick, proposes to Iris. She says yes, and the two are off to a Phantom Wedding.

Nick takes Iris to an old church that he remembers from his childhood. When Iris arrives, she finds the church badly in need of repair. Further, the only attendants at the wedding are two of Nick's friends, an equally strange duo that are disfigured and somber. Is everyone in this wedding really dead? That's the illusion the author creates, and it works really well early on.

After this freakish wedding, Nick takes Iris to his friend's large seaside house (another trope) where he simply disappears. Iris wanders around the house and island searching for her dearly departed husband. When she hitches a ride to town, she discovers that Nick is dead (supposedly) and the two guests at the wedding died in a plane crash. What is going on here?

Unfortunately, Ross absolutely makes a mess with the rest of the novel. It is a senseless plot with so many convoluted twists and turns that it is nearly illegible. Iris, who has a job, acquires a job as a model for a rambunctious advertising guy, who, of course, falls in love with her. She also gains employment at a local resort as a server. This makes total sense, right? Who doesn't want to inherit money and then embark on a vacation from one job to work two more? There's an absolute mess of Nick's possible criminality involving his dead wife, a murderous half-brother, and the idea that he's really alive after stumbling around for months with amnesia. 

If you love ridiculous soap opera plots of lookalikes, red herrings, sham weddings, affairs, and really stupid characters behaving in preposterous ways, then Phantom Wedding is your paperback Shangri-la. Otherwise, stay away from this steaming turd of a book. W.E.D. Ross is a bit of a hack, but he typically isn't this bad. So far, Phantom Wedding is the dusty basement of his literary work. Avoid this place at all costs. It's the Hall of Shame.

Note - You can watch my video review of this book with Nick Anderson at the Book Graveyard HERE.

Conan - Conan the Wanderer

Conan the Wanderer was first published by Lancer Books in 1968. The painted cover was created by John Duillo, who also created the cover for Conan of the Isles (bearded Conan!) and Conan the Freebooter (Conan is Tarzan!). The later Ace edition of the novel features a superior cover painted by Boris Vallejo. 

This collection is an odd one, featuring just four stories, one being the novella “The Flame Knife”, written by L. Sprague de Camp from a Robert E. Howard manuscript. It features two sole REH stories, “The Devil in Iron” and “Shadows in Zamboula”. The other story, “Black Tears”, is an original authored by both L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. 

The typical introduction by L. Sprague de Camp features the obligatory map and a history of the stories involved. He makes note that “The Flame Knife” was originally a 42,000-word novella of adventure in Afghanistan titled “Three-Bladed Doom”. The story failed to sell, so Howard shortened it to 24,000 words to no avail. de Camp also provides examples of heroic fantasy, citing works like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn, and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The introduction concludes with a brief bio of the Conan character.

“Black Tears” is the first story in the collection (full review HERE). This is penned by de Camp and Carter, and later was adapted by Roy Thomas and Ernie Chan for The Savage Sword of Conan #38. Additionally, the story is included in the Orbit Books omnibus The Conan Chronicles 2. “Black Tears” picks up after the events in “A Witch Shall Be Born”. Conan is the chief of the Zaugir, an outlaw band of Kozak horsemen. In a setup, a blood brother of the former Zuagir leader sells Conan out to the rival Turanians, who ambush the group. After the battle, Conan is drugged by the Zuagir and left to die in the desert. He eventually finds a city called Akhlat the Accursed. There's an old prophecy that a man will come to town and liberate the city from a vampiric force. 

Parts of this story reminded me of Robert E. Howard's “The Scarlet Citadel”, especially the inevitable boss fight in the city's underground tunnels. The stone statue part of the story was reminiscent of “Shadows in the Moonlight”, with a little bit of “Red Nails” thrown in with the inner-city stuff. I really enjoyed the story and found it to be a perfect companion to “A Witch Shall Be Born”. The descriptions of mountains, tunnels, and the “beast” were executed very well. I know some Conan fans really don't like Carter or de Camp's pastiche style, but as I've stated in numerous reviews, I find their work to be mostly enjoyable.  

Howard's “Shadows in Zamboula” is next (full review HERE). This was originally published by Weird Tales in November 1935 as “The Man-Eaters of Zamboula”. The story was later republished in the Gnome Press collection Conan the Barbarian. It was adapted into comics for Savage Sword of Conan #14. It is a simple formula with Conan investigating a town's mystery, this one being a mysterious inn owned by a man named Aram Baksh. Conan voluntarily checks in at the inn and discovers the secret of the old inn – the guests are on the menu for flesh-eating cannibals! Howard's writing is rich on atmosphere, violence, and Lovecraftish imagery. The theme of Conan accepting a challenge always includes a twist, and this one was no different. This was a fantastic story.

Next is another of Howard's stories, “The Devil in Iron” (reviewed HERE). This first appeared in the August 1934 issue of Weird Tales and was adapted to comics for the October 1976 issue of The Savage Sword of Conan. Like many of these Conan stories, this one features a setup as Conan is lured to an abandoned island by Turan's king. The bait is a young woman, the trap is a giant! Along with the monster and the maiden is a raiding party led by the king's henchman, Agha. The giant's colossal nature and threat didn't affect me much, and the overall adventure left something to be desired. I didn't care for this story that much.

"The Flame Knife" finishes the collection (full review HERE). As I mentioned earlier, this was originally a manuscript titled “Three-Bladed Doom” featuring an Afghanistan adventure. The original hero was Howard's lovable El Borak. There are two versions of this story, one printed in REH Lone Star Fictioneer in 1976 and another in the Zebra paperback Three-Bladed Doom in 1977. Both of these versions feature an ending rewritten by Byron Roark. de Camp decided to take Howard's original work and modify it to fit as a Conan-led story titled “The Flame Knife”. This was originally published in Tales of Conan in 1955. The novella was also published as its own book in 1981 by Ace. It was adapted into comic form in Savage Sword of Conan #31-32. 

In de Camp's novels and stories, Conan is a cookie-cutter hero who personifies all that is good. The bad guys are carbon-copy bad. Conan's characteristics are much different than Howard's more nihilistic approach. That difference in style and characterization weighs down “The Flame Knife”.

Conan is instructed by the king of Iranistan to lead a team of men to hunt and kill a bandit named Balash. The problem is that Conan is friends with the bandit, so he leads his team to warn Balash of the king's pursuit. There's a bloated, convoluted backstory on the Hidden Ones cult and how they feel Conan is instrumental in their affairs. They soon create an army and hunt Conan. 

This story, albeit an average read, feels like something Steve Perry would dredge up as a Tor full-length. Conan fights a giant snow-ape (depicted by Sanjulian on the Ace paperback cover) and ends a longtime rivalry with a foe that was originally introduced in “A Witch Shall Be Born”. Those are the real highlights of the novella, along with the conventional swordplay, typical crazy cults, cave creatures, and prison escapes. 

Overall, this is a really enjoyable collection of Conan adventures, highlighted by “Black Tears” and “Shadows in Zamboula”. If anything, these old Lancer and Ace paperback collections are worth having in any book collection. I see them often in used bookstores, and they make great travel companions for a quick read on the go. Get a copy of the book HERE.

Coffin Moon

Keith Rosson won the Shirley Jackson Award for his story collection Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons. His stories have appeared in Nightmare, Cream City, and the Southwest Review. He's received praise and critical acclaim for his full-length horror novels The Devil by Name, Fever House, and Road Seven. His newest novel is the 2025 hardcover Coffin Moon, published by Random House. 

Coffin Moon, set in 1975, features protagonist Duane Minor, a man rebuilding his life after returning home with PTSD from the Vietnam War. He is a recovering alcoholic and works as a bartender in his wife’s family's bar. Duane and his wife Heidi are raising their teenage niece Julia, who has emotional scars of her own from her troubled past. The makeshift family is fighting and striving for stability and peace. 

While working at the bar, Duane encounters a dark and malignant force named John Varley, who tears at the threadbare fabric holding together all that he loves. Duane is then thrust into a depressive and alcohol induced state while Julia seethes with a need for revenge. 

The two embark on a journey of hide-and-seek with Varley, a vampire criminal with a trail of bodies and a bloody history. The duo becomes entangled in a supernatural world that tests loyalty and the love of family. The desire for vengeance takes Duane and Julia from Portland, Oregon, across the highways to North Dakota. The brutality and body counts rise while Varley grapples with loss of his own, his humanity, or what little remains. The three are saturated with a grief that is palpable and a need to avenge that is all-consuming. 

Coffin Moon is an emotional and visceral vampire tale with memorable characters that are well-developed. Rosson’s telling of the vampire story is not simply a horror offering but a homogeneous blend of gore-soaked revenge laced with heartache and loss. Duane, Julia and Varley share their tales through their perspective, which makes the past events more dynamic. I was glued to the story and Rosson's central question – once our humanity is lost, can it be reclaimed and at what cost? 

Get Coffin Moon HERE.

Survivor Song

Paul Tremblay's horror novel Survivor Song was published in 2020 by William Morrow in hardcover and Titan in paperback. While the book has a COVID-19 feel to it, matching the intense year of publication, the author actually wrote the book two years prior, in 2018. It proved to be a timely publication.

The book takes place in Massachusetts as a new strain of rabies begins affecting the population. The illness prompts the infected to rage, battle, bite, and create overwhelming chaos. Think 28 Days Later on a state level. This is the early wave of the attacks, with many first response workers, facilities, and government agencies unprepared for the pandemic. 

As the novel begins, readers are introduced to Natalie, a pregnant woman living in suburbia with her husband. In this opening nightmare, Natalie's husband is murdered by an infected man, and in the attack, she is bitten. There's a sense of urgency for Natalie to get to a hospital for a vaccination, yet the chaos on the streets and highways makes travel difficult.

Natalie's friend, the protagonist of Tremblay's narrative, is a British pediatrician nicknamed Rams. The two were college roommates and live in the same area. Rams comes to Natalie's aid, and the two begin a perilous quest to overcome countless obstacles, bureaucracy, and waves of infected as they race against time to vaccinate Natalie at a functioning hospital.

At 320 pages, I felt that Survivor Song should have felt a bit more epic. It was my misunderstanding that this novel was a road trip journey, encompassing more landscapes and places as the two “survivors” travel from place to place for shelter. Instead, this is more of a confined road trip, featuring many scenes inside of doctors' offices and hospitals, albeit in a frenzied, panic-fused pace. I think the element of a long road trip ripe with danger would have been more appealing to me, as David Moody, Robert McCammon, and Brian Keene have proven in their more enjoyable post-apocalyptic novels. 

I enjoyed the Rams character immensely, but felt Natalie was a weak link in the story. Her characterization was annoying, with her heightened demands for more urgent care a repetitive cycle that wore itself thin as the book continued. Yet, the star of the show is really the situation – average people placed in extreme circumstances. There were moments of sheer horror, dread, and doom, all placed periodically between passages of subdued dialogue. The book's finale is worth the price of admission and will stay with me for ages. 

Survivor Song is an enjoyable, post-apocalyptic-styled novel that reminds us all just how close we came to annihilation. Get the book HERE.

Harry Bosch #01 - The Black Echo

Michael Connelly graduated from the University of Florida in 1980 and became a journalist. He placed as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, which earned him a position with the Los Angeles Times as a crime reporter. After seeing Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, based on Raymond Chandler's novel, Connelly pursued mystery writing. His first novel, The Black Echo, was published by Little, Brown in 1992, and won an Edgar as Best First Novel.

The Black Echo introduces Connelly's beloved character Harry Bosch, a Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective. The character has appeared in 24 of Connelly's novels and spawned an Amazon Prime series that ran seven seasons. As of the time of this writing, a prequel series is set to air on MGM+. 

Bosch served as a tunnel rat in the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division during the Vietnam War. This fact is prevalent throughout the novel, as Bosch realizes his newest homicide case involves Billy Meadows, a former member of Bosch's military unit. Bosch had helped Billy with substance abuse and housing. Bosch arrives at the scene of the crime to find Billy's corpse stuffed in a tunnel. His department suggests Billy's death is just drug-related, but Bosch, like any good paperback detective, suspects there's more to the story.

Like any good series opener, Connelly provides a detailed history of his lead character, delving into Bosch's upbringing, his military service, and the most recent abrasion with the department, a conflict that demoted the detective from Robbery-Homicide Division to Hollywood Division's homicide bureau. With this demotion comes the obligatory disgruntlement with authority, and a new resolve that pushes the character into every crevice of the case. Bosch's upheaval with the department's Internal Affairs is a prominent portion of the book's plot.

Billy's murder investigation leads Bosch to team with an FBI agent named Wish. The two form a working relationship that conflicts with another federal agent, Rourke, who is a suspect with ties to both Billy and expatriates from the Vietnam War. Bosch and Wish extend their working relationship into an intimate affair, which adds a unique complexity by the book's finale.

The Black Echo didn't knock my socks off. At 375 pages, the book proved to be a slow burn with lots of dialogue between characters. Nearly the first 100 pages is simply Billy's body being discovered and Bosch being introduced to the case. There are long, plodding pages of Wish's backstory and the typical day-to-day routine of the investigation. It's an intriguing case, and the various threads of the plot took me where I needed to go, but the journey just seemed overstated. By 1992, the 180-page fast-paced detective yarns had doubled to pad the pages, which bogged down what would otherwise have been a mesmerizing read. The Black Echo is good, not great.

Get the book HERE.

Red Mist

Red Mist was published in paperback in April 1989 by Popular Library. The cover, featuring model Steve Holland, was created by Ben Perini. My efforts to determine a biography of author Michael O'Toole failed to produce any results. Further, the book doesn't present any information on the author. Your guess on who he is as good as mine.

This police procedural is set in Los Angeles. Vic Perry is a Raiders fan, a wealthy day trader, a womanizer, and a serial killer. Through 268 pages, Perry prowls the city for victims, often led by his hot temper and infatuation with power. He kills victims by shooting them point blank, often in the face, with a .38 Smith & Wesson, a gun that O'Toole sometimes foolishly refers to as a magnum. After several kills, Perry's onslaught attracts the attention of two LAPD detectives, Tony and Frank.

Through the book's opening chapters, readers ride in Perry's maniacal headspace, experiencing every detail from lust to rage. O'Toole develops a relationship between Perry and a local sexy barmaid named Andy. The two engage in pornographic sex on-page, similar to the graphic scenes found in adult westerns. In fact, the author injects sex in most of Perry's ambition, going as far as having one victim perform oral sex on Perry before the madman blows her chin off (with the revolver). 

When Tony is murdered by Perry, Frank begins an investigation into his partner's murder, tying it into the rampage shootings around the city linked to the same shooter. There's a surprise thrown in with Frank's wife that leads the police officer into some really dark places while hunting the serial shooter. 

Red Mist is far from a masterpiece, but was just engaging enough to keep the pages flipping. I enjoyed Frank's character and the ruthless aggression O'Toole injected with this radical villain. Whether or not the graphic sex and gore is too much is in the eye of the beholder. I thought it was borderline indulgent, but it never erased the plot. There were reasons for everything, which sometimes just all adds up at the end. Red Mist is an entertaining, recommended read. Get it HERE.

Dirk Pitt #01 - Pacific Vortex

Despite having five series installments ahead of it, Pacific Vortex! is still considered the first of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels. The book was first published in 1983, six years after The Mediterranean Caper (aka Mayday). Yet, in that book, there are some enticing references to a prior underwater Pitt adventure. After 1981's Night Probe!, Cussler decided to write the events mentioned in The Mediterranean Caper and bring readers up to speed on Pitt's first grandiose adventure, Pacific Vortex!.

The novel begins with an unusual event affecting a U.S. submarine called Starbuck. The vessel goes missing in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. After an extensive search, the Navy can't determine the whereabouts or fate of Starbuck. The loss is chalked up to a mysterious vortex that has plagued over 30 ships since 1956. But, leave it to Pitt to get to the bottom of it – the ocean.

After recovering notes written by Starbuck's commanding officer, Pitt reports to NUMA and undertakes a rescue mission to recover the vessel and any crewmen still alive. Pitt learns of a mythical island north of the Hawaiian Islands that disappeared ages ago, similar to the fate of Atlantis. With aid, Pitt finds the specific place to search and, within days, is on board Starbuck. But what he finds is something of a misnomer - an underwater city functioning as a type of above-ground prepper fortress.

Cussler's novel places Pitt in all of the usual situations, speeding vehicles, volcanoes, swanky dinners, torture chambers, and aboard both ancient ships and technological modern marvels. The scenes in which Pitt investigates Starbuck felt like something out of a horror movie. The isolated tomb-like vessel eerily sitting in the ocean's junkyard was written with a sense of atmosphere, lulling me into a false security before all Hell broke loose. The mystery behind the crew's disappearance, the horrific nature of the commanding officer's notes, and the idea of something unnatural – supernatural – occurring were all so captivating.

This book has a huge impact on Pitt's future, mainly a short-lived love interest with a woman named Summer, that will produce some surprising results later. Pacific Vortex! may be most remembered by fans for that part of the series through-story. But, this is a fun, pulpy romp that reminded me of a typical Doc Savage novel – the flight towards fear, mystery, and thrilling adventure. Recommended!

Get the book HERE.

Polybius

According to Amazon, Collin Armstrong has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade, developing, writing, and producing material for outlets including 20th Century Fox, Discovery, and the LA Times Studios. His first publication, Polybius, has just been released by Gallery Books and touted by horror heavyweights like Richard Chizmar and Ronald Malfi. Searching for nostalgic small-town horror, I threw my change in for a delightful turn at Polybius. 

There was an urban myth circulating in the 1980s and 1990s about the U.S. government secretly working on a video game that would infiltrate the minds of the unsuspecting public. It was rumored to be a type of spy-craft where the game would read the player's thoughts and send subliminal messages to control the operator. Armstrong runs with this concept to bring Polybius to the good citizens of the fictional seaside town of Tasker Bay.

In the book's opening chapter, a liquidation firm is sent to clean out an office building. Inside, behind a discreet locked door, they find an unmarked arcade machine. Later, they sell it an auction and it ends up in Tasker Bay's arcade. Anyone that plays the mysterious game seems to experience hallucinations, murderous thoughts, and a tendency to mutilate people and animals. 

Armstrong introduces readers to a handful of important characters that must stop the town's decline into depravity and ruin. Andi is a young whiz-girl who works at the local arcade. Her friend, and later love interest, is Ro, the sheriff's son. Together, they must determine the game's origin, the secret behind the game's deadly messages, and, as tradition serves, convince the town's law enforcement that something unusual or supernatural is happening.

Polybius walks a balance beam of horror and science-fiction while marinating in 1970s/80s nostalgia. Think The Crazies, The Wizard, Wargames, and Deadly Friend blended with Stranger Things. At the root of the novel is a small-town mystery as the sheriff and town doctor dig into the root causes of the homicidal rage, while the kids embark on their own quest to discover the manufacturer. There are also some interesting tidbits about game coding back then, the brink of the internet (Usenet), and early psych ops. 

There's nothing to dislike about Polybius. While it doesn't break any new ground, the novel's character development, small-town charm, and rich nostalgia are worth the price of admission. You could do far worse. Polybius is an easy recommendation. Get it HERE.

Stick #01 - Swag

After reading many of Elmore Leonard's early crime-fiction novels, like The Big Bounce (1969) and Mr. Majestyk (1974), I was anxious to try another of his “prime” efforts. I settled on 1976's Swag, first published in paperback as Ryan's Rules. The novel is the first of two books Leonard wrote about a lifetime criminal named Ernest Stickley Jr. The character would appear again in 1983's Stick, a novel that was later adapted into an ill-conceived film of the same name starring and directed by Burt Reynolds. 

Swag begins by introducing readers to a used car salesman named Frank Ryan. Ryan is unmarried, divorced twice, and is generally just scraping to make ends meet. His life is impacted in a drastic way when Stick arrives to nonchalantly steal one of Ryan's cars. Later, after Stick's capture, Ryan is brought in to testify for the prosecution. Surprisingly, he tells the court it wasn't Stick that stole the car. Naturally, with no other evidence and no supporting witness testimony, Stick walks. That's when Ryan reaches out to him.

Ryan explains he has these ten rules of life and invites Stick to join him in a criminal undertaking. Stick, fresh off a divorce in Florida, sizes up Ryan and deems him worthy of a partnership. The two then embark on a sizable streak of robbing liquor shops, gas stations, and grocery stores.

The book's first act is hilarious as the two engage in twisted conversations about women, prior jobs, marriages, and their bumbling criminal career. There are a couple of unforgettable scenes, notably a laugh-out-loud moment when Ryan rings up a customer's groceries while Stick forces the manager to open up the safe. There's an exchange over an expired coupon that had me in tears. Equally as funny is the two robbing an inept robber while planning a hold-up. Brilliant!

However, Leonard really delves into the sexual escapades of the duo throughout the book's dull second act. These chapters plod along as the two engage with their neighbors in a posh apartment building. Here the two meet, and hook up with a prostitute, two models, a school teacher, etc. There are pool parties, social gatherings, lots of drinking, and tepid sex to plunge the book into a literary rut. There are just a few highlights in the second act. This entire apartment community and pool party vibe is similar to Ovid Demaris's 1960 Fawcett Gold Medal novel The Enforcer, a book where 127 pages are wasted on characters trying to get laid. 

Thankfully, Leonard roars back in the third act and strings together something similar to Jim Thompson crossed with Lionel White. The two beef up their game with a planned department store heist to score nearly $100K. To knock it off, they partner with a charismatic African American bar owner and drug dealer named Sportree. Like most heists, the plot builds with the execution and getaway, then dissolves as these nefarious characters turn on each other. 

If Leonard had cut back the second act and trimmed the book to 180 pages, I think Swag is a masterpiece. The second act's inability to capture the criminal aspect took me out completely. Despite its shortcomings, Swag is still a damn fine crime novel and a hilarious take on criminality in general. I'm looking forward to the book's sequel. Stay tuned!

Get Swag HERE.

Paperback Warrior - Conversations

Welcome to my newest collaboration with Nick at The Book Graveyard. On this episode, we continue our "Guide to Gothics" discussions by reviewing a 1976 paperback by William Ross titled Phantom Wedding. In this analysis, we discuss William Ross's career, his contributions to the vampire-themed Dark Shadows series, and how he stacks up in terms of other gothic paperback writers. You can stream the video version of this episode HERE or stream the audio on any podcasting platform or below:

Listen to "Conversations - The Book Graveyard" on Spreaker.

Keller #01 - Hitman

Lawrence Block began a series of hitman novels in 1998 with Hit Man, the first of six books featuring John Keller, a lonely assassin living in New York. Along with the books (all titles containing the word “Hit”), there are a number of short stories and novellas featuring the character.

In Hit Man, Block presents Keller in a unique episodic formula. Each chapter is a new assignment for the character, taking him to American cities and small towns, hunting his prey for a mysterious boss in White Plains, New York. Each chapter can theoretically be a stand-alone short story, as these narratives aren't immediately relevant to each other. However, in order, the reader can sort of grow with Keller as he embarks on a short-lived relationship with a young woman, acquires a dog, shops for real estate, and invests in a stamp-collecting hobby.

The chapters aren't explicitly violent, with most of the killing scenes being very abbreviated or occurring off-page. The setup places the character in the moment, living in the target's peripheral in the days and hours leading up to the execution. Sometimes Keller befriends the target while speculating on the best ways to knock him or her off. In other chapters, Keller methodically plans a surprise hit or becomes involved emotionally with the target's friend or family. It's all a ruse to get the guard down, but that's the real charm of these stories. It is the ability for Keller to nonchalantly go about the killing business.

There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments throughout Hit Man, including Keller calling his home's answering machine to talk with his dog. Another time, he confesses his childhood to a shrink who he must kill. Block adds in some social commentary fitting to Keller's surroundings, allowing readers to live vicariously through this unusual profession of judgment and execution. I also appreciated Block poking a bit of fun at the pulp-paperback market, especially the western formula.

Hit Man is funny, smart, and entertaining. You need to read this book. Get it HERE.

Heller with a Gun

Heller with a Gun was just Louis L'Amour's 11th novel. It was originally published in April 1955 by Fawcett Gold Medal (#478) with a cover by Walter Baumhofer. It was reprinted again by Gold Medal in 1958 (#728) with the same cover art, and then the publisher reprinted a 1960 edition with a movie cover to pair with the simultaneous film adaptation, Heller in Pink Tights. The book has been reprinted countless times through the years, but my favorite might be Ron Lesser's 1966 painted cover featuring Steve Holland (Gold Medal #k1731). 

Oddly, there is no one named Heller in the novel. My guess is that the book may have been titled “Hell with a Gun”, and the publisher changed the title at the last minute. It isn't clear to me, and I was unable to locate an answer online. Instead of a hero named Heller, readers are introduced to a quiet, fast-draw Civil War veteran named King Mabry. After the war, Mabry attempted to find an honest living with a rope and saddle. However, due to his quick hands and steady aim, his skill set became attractive to ranchers defending their brand from rustlers. Mabry doesn't want the gun life, but his reputation leads him into more and more trouble. 

As the book begins, readers meet Mabry in the dead of winter. The frosty snow is piled high, and the frigid temperature is 40 below. Mabry is on the move to deliver cash back to a rancher. Yet, from some off-page history, an assassin is lying in wait to shoot Mabry down. None of that history is important as Mabry shoots the assassin and then carries him to an outpost to lie up and heal. 

At the outpost, Mabry collides with the novel's central plot. A traveling entertainment troupe that needs passage to Wyoming. The problem lies in unfamiliar trails, the intense weather, and the fact that the group includes three women – this is the 1800s and women are considered fragile. The group's leader, Tom Healy, hires a bad man named Barker (every Barker in westerns is a villain) to lead them on this perilous journey. The problem is that Barker and a couple of his companions plan to lead the group into the wilderness to be robbed. That's where Mabry comes in. He stealthily follows the group, anticipating Barker's plan.

This is an odd L'Amour book. The novel's first half is impressive, mostly with the survival yarn aspect of the plot – dead of winter, snowfall, wilderness, and the impending heist. There are a number of side stories introduced that enhance the isolation. One is Barker's hired assassin hunting Mabry, an enticing side quest that ends too quickly. Another is the trio of women fortified in the wagon while shooting at Barker and his men. This is a home invasion sort of trope that was just thrilling. However, just when things are cooking, the second half descends into this strange love story as Mabry pines over one of the traveling actresses, a bland character named Janice. There is also a younger woman named Dodie who is equally pining for Mabry. This romantic angle is the basis of the film adaptation.

The novel's third act is brimming over with lightning-fast action that becomes cinematic in presentation. Sioux renegade warriors are attacking Mabry and Healy, the inevitable showdown between Mabry and Barker, and a cat-and-mouse chase through the forest and wilderness hideaway. If L'Amour could have spruced up the book's second half, then Heller with a Gun would be a bona fide classic. Somehow, he just slipped up in the middle, which pushes this western a little further down on the author's must-read list. 

Get Heller with a Gun HERE.