Halloween - The Mad House

In 2023, I reviewed The Scream Factory, the first of a three-book series of young-adult horror novels centered in John Carpenter's Halloween universe. The series was published by Berkley in 1997-1998 in paperback format and authored by Kelly Reno using the pseudonym of Kelly O' Rourke. Halloween is my favorite horror series and my family just recently gifted me a Michael Myers-themed coffee mug. It reminded me to read more of this series, so I grabbed The Mad House, the third installment of the series. 

As I mentioned in my The Scream Factory review, this series ignores the entire Halloween movie franchise aside from the 1978 film. In the town of Haddonfield, life goes on despite the masked serial killer, Michael Myers, vanishing after being shot by his doctor, Sam Loomis. In The Scream Factory, Myers appeared once again in the sleepy midwestern town, stalking and murdering teenagers at a haunted house attraction. At the end of the book, Myers once again vanished. 

While these books can be read in any order and are considered stand-alone novels, each book is set one year apart. The Mad House begins with the book's protagonist, Christine, recalling her school newspaper article, “Good-bye Friends”, as an emotional story about the lives and accomplishments of several students who were murdered a year earlier in The Old Myers Place. It's now late summer, and Christine is meeting a fellow student named Eddie for a planned documentary he hopes to shoot.

Eddie explains to Christine that he plans on shooting his film at Smith's Grove Mental Hospital, the place Myers escaped when he turned age 21. Eddie says the ghost of a deranged doctor, Ernest Blackwell, still haunts the abandoned hospital. In this book, it is explained that Blackwell would often treat Myers and conduct various experiments on him. Eddie hopes he can capture the ghost on film as part of a documentary documenting haunted places in Illinois. 

The bulk of the book's narrative features Eddie, Christine, and a handful of other young people spending the night inside the abandoned mental hospital. Of course, Myers is living there, huddled in the hospital's basement waiting for his next killing cycle. Through the book's second half, Myers methodically kills the kids in different parts of the building. Eventually, Eddie and Christine do find the ghost of Blackwell, but it's not quite what they imagined.

I'm trying not to completely nerd out and drown you in Halloween film mythology, but there are a couple of interesting things happening in this slim paperback. 

This novel is the only instance where a character named Blackwell appears. He is absent from the film franchise and the other novels. Also, I found it interesting that Halloween: Resurrection film (2002) used a similar idea of filming in a location central to Michael Myers' past. Like that film, characters are often attempting to record events happening so they can sell the footage to prospective studios and producers. The Mad House predates Resurrection by five years. 

Also, I loved that the author used a laundry chute in one of the chase scenes. This had been used effectively eight years prior, in Halloween 5 (1989). It's a type of homage (I think). Interestingly enough, Halloween: H2O also used a similar device to escape the killer, but instead of a laundry chute it was a dumbwaiter. 

I questioned whether Reno had watched Halloween movies before writing The Scream Factory. Reading The Mad House, I know she hasn't. In this book, she has Myers tying victims to a hospital bed and then torturing them with electricity. Myers never “toyed” with victims like that. Also, there' a strange description of Myers with a deformed head, a plastic mask, and a rotted face. I felt like Reno was confusing Myers with Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th). Reno also routinely has Myers voicing animal growls and howling to break free from a straitjacket. This isn't the Myers character. If I'm nitpicking, I'd also question Reno using “bullets” in a shotgun.

As a quick horror read, this is a very entertaining read. There's plenty of violence as bodies are impaled, stabbed, electrocuted, and run over through the book's 144 pages. There's also a side story of Blackwell's involvement with Myers and the atrocities that occurred at the hospital in years past. If you love a good horror story, then The Mad House is recommended. However, in terms of traditional Michael Myers characterization, this one is way off.

Bone Chillers #01 - Beware the Shopping Mall

Betsy Haynes authored nearly 100 paperbacks, mostly of juvenile and young-adult fiction. Her bestselling novel, The Great Mom Swap, was published in 1986 and adapted to a film in 1995. She authored the preteen series Taffy Sinclair and its spin-off, The Fabulous Five. Beginning in 1994, Haynes authored a ten-book series titled Bone Chillers, a juvenile horror title created by Harper to compete with the successful Goosebumps series written by R.L. Stine. The series was adapted into a 13-episode television show in 1996. Fans of the PW brand know I never shy away from a good story, no matter what genre or age level. I jumped on the debut Bone Chillers paperback, Beware the Shopping Mall.

In the first-person perspective, Robin begins her tale while being dropped off at the front entrance of the Wonderland Mall. On the drive over, Robin's mom explains that the mall was built over the old Mournful Swamp, a cursed place where three teenagers mysteriously disappeared. Robin would rather trade rumors of haunted swamps for the buzz of the mall's grand opening. 

Inside the mall, Robin and her friends begin the stroll through the new stores. Yet, it seems the same three kids are working all the stores. This is impossible considering that the stores are far apart, sometimes on different levels. Yet the kids are physically identical, other than the store-branded shirts they are wearing. By mid-morning, Robin notices that many of the kids she saw shopping in the mall now resemble mannequins strewn throughout the mall's shops. When her friends begin to disappear, Robin fears that they have secretly been transformed into mannequins!

There's something to be said for a good shopping mall novel. Oddly, it's almost its own sub-genre of horror and suspense. Here on the blog, we have obvious mall-themed books reviewed like Chopping Mall, The Mall, Hacking Mall, and the then novels that take partly take place in malls like Black Friday, Suburban Gothic, and Path to Savagery. 

Beware the Shopping Mall, at 150 pages, is a brisk, breezy read that has a central mystery that kept me interested throughout. Obviously, the connection from the haunted swamp to the new mall structure is paramount to the plot, but I felt the ending was a bit disappointing. Like clowns, mannequins are equally unsettling, and I felt like the author used that to her advantage. If you want a fun, all-ages horror story for an hour of enjoyment, then Beware the Shopping Mall is an easy recommendation.

Get the book HERE. 

The Exorcist's House

West Virginia native Nick Roberts has emerged as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary horror, blending the psychological depth of classic suspense with the visceral terror of modern supernatural tales. With 2022’s The Exorcist's House, Roberts leans into one of the genre’s most enduring tropes, the haunted house possession story.

After a prologue introducing the evil dwelling within this house, we join the action in 1994 in Southern Ohio where psychologist Daniel Hill is excited to be closing on the purchase of a thirty acre plot of land in rural West Virginia with his pregnant wife, Nora, and their teen daughter, Alice.

The house upon the farm hasn’t been upgraded since its construction in the 1940s, so contractors get to work modernizing the place for the Hill family. An old timer on the crew tells his fellow workers that the house used to be owned by a backwoods exorcist before experiencing an unsettling supernatural encounter.

Once the Hill family is occupying the house, they quickly determine that all the spookiness seems to be emanating from the basement, and the paperback doesn’t waste any time becoming seriously scary. In the cellar filled with cobwebs, there’s a small sealed door that is difficult to open. Our new homeowner, Daniel, is giddy and determined to find out what’s beyond the door because he hasn’t read as many cursed houses books as you and me.

The scares escalate throughout the novel with terror, possessions and explanations of how this poor family’s basement became a portal unleashing demons from hell. There are some really terrifying scenes that work because the characters are so vivid. No joke, this is one of the scariest books I’ve ever read.

The Exorcist’s House is a seriously frightening haunted house book that was so wildly popular that it spawned two sequels with equally terrifying online buzz. I look forward to diving into the next novel about the house, but I need to let my heart rate stabilize first. Recommended. Get the book HERE. 

The Sinister House of Secret Love #01

DC Comics flirted with the gothic romance/suspense genre with a couple of titles in 1971. The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, originally published in September/October 1971, ran four issues before abandoning the gothic romance feel for more of a horror anthology flavor under the new title Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. DC's other venture into the genre was The Sinister House of Secret Love, which also launched September/October 1971. Again, it ran four issues before abandoning the gothic romance tropes with its new title Secrets of Sinister House. I wanted to give The Sinister House of Secret Love (what a name!) a try, so I read the first issue.

This debut is titled “The Curse of the Macintyres”. It was written by Mary Skrenes, a veteran scripter that also contributed to The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Young Love, and Detective Comics. The artwork is by the famed Don Heck, a talent that touched hundreds of comic titles during his illustrious career. 

In the opening pages, Rachel's father is dying. On his deathbed, he tells Rachel he has a formula that will make her rich, but he stresses that she hide his journal, go live with her cousin Blair, and to beware of the Macintyres Curse. Included in the first chapter is the initial meeting between Rachel and Blair at her father's funeral service, Blair's explanation that his wife died, and that he has a young son named Jamie. He asks that Rachel be the boy's tutor and she accepts.

Days later, as Rachel is traveling to Blare's dilapidated mansion, she receives ominous warnings from the train conductor and the coachman. Inside the mansion, Rachel meets Blare's dwarf cousin, Jamie, and the family maid. She's warned to never go to the third floor, which is a bold invitation in any gothic romance paperback. Eventually, Rachel learns that Blare may have a split personality and his sister may be a giant lunatic living upstairs.

The book's narrative features several attacks on Rachel, her romantic involvement with Blare, and the inevitable origins of the family's curse stemming from genetic deformity. I enjoyed the homage to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the gothic romance overtones that saturate nearly every page – new job, stranger in a strange land, atmosphere, supernatural rumors, the giant mansion, and of course, the vulnerable beauty striving to escape her newfound prison.

Lords of Twilight

I'm continuing my re-reading of the Greg Gifune bibliography. I've enjoyed and respected his novels and novellas for the past 25-years. Next on my list is Lords of Twilight. It was originally published by Dark Fuse in 2011 and now exists in a new Crossroads Press' Macabre Ink edition alongside the author's 2013 novella House of Rain. 

The main character is Lane Boyce, a former educator. Although the author doesn't offer explicit details, it is revealed in snippets that Lane had an alleged sexual relationship with a student. Whether he did or didn't, the incident led to Lane's formal dismissal as a professor and the upending of his marriage. In a type of self-imposed punishment, Lane moves to a small rural house in Edgar, Maine, an off-grid type of locale where he can become riddled in self-pity. But, things are weird in Edgar.

There's an early indication that something has invaded the town. It begins with cattle mutilation and the discovery of a local farmer's mysterious corpse. Later, three hunters appear at Lane's house with a frenzy of instructions, one of which is to load a shotgun and prepare. As government employees, the proverbial men-in-black, appear in the countryside, events begin to spiral out of control. Is Lane losing his mind in this off-the-grid frosty Hell or is something from another world inhabiting this small town?

Gifune shines when he reveals fragments of the story to readers. Often, his characters revel in emotional turmoil with undertones of loss, regret, and frustration. Along with weather elements, it is the characteristic of his writing. 

In Lords of Twilight, Lane is mentally traipsing a balance beam of what's real and unreal. That instability conveys to the readers, leaving much of the narrative as a foggy suggestion that readers can contemplate subjectively. Whether events are actually happening or simply figments of a character's imagination is the charm of Gifune's literary work and this novella is no different. Lords of Twilight is a captivating horror yarn (I think) or, at the very least, an unsettling descent into a man pushed from the rungs of relevancy. Regardless, it is a real masterpiece of the genre. Highly recommended. Get it HERE.

Punk Rock Ghost Story

I've been reading David Agranoff this month. My first experience with him was The Last Night to Kill Nazis, and I've dabbled in his work, podcast, and excellent blog ever since. He's extremely diverse, popping in and out of genres while still maintaining his strong storytelling. That's a measure of talent that often goes unnoticed. 

His 2016 novel, Punk Rock Ghost Story, was published by Deadite Press. Like his debut, The Vegan Revolution...with Zombies, this book also boasts a flavorful combination of satire, comedy, seriousness, and outright horror. I described it to Nick at the Book Graveyard as Natural Born Killers throwing a basement party with the Manson Family and Black Flag. I'm not even sure that outrageous description does it justice. Maybe throw in Ari Aster to direct the party's cell phone footage.

The book is presented in a non-linear narrative that captures events from 1982 and 2006. Agranoff masterfully blends both into a penultimate moment when everything collides – people, places, and things. It's a careful orchestration to combine these two different eras in an entrancing plot that doesn't lose the reader. 

In 2006, Nate and his band are set to tour the country's dives and basements as the fictional Indiana punk band People's Uprising. As a mode of transportation, the group bought an old beater van that was once used by a mysterious fictional punk band called The Fuckers, who had one unforgettable tour in 1982 that culminated in their lead singer, Frank Fucker, disappearing. 

As the People's Uprising hits the road, Nate begins to hear voices from the van – voices that seem to resonate from The Fuckers in 1982. Nate begins to align his principles and beliefs with Frank Fucker as he descends into a pretty dark place. His girlfriend, Ericka (the star of the show), is revolted by Nate's transformation, an intriguing part of the storyline that makes for great drama. On the flip, readers are submerged into the 1982 tour and the violent crescendo of Frank Fucker's self-appointment as punk rock's unholy gatekeeper.

As a music journalist, I've been in some pretty crazy spots on the East Coast. This book brought back some memories for me (good and bad) of the music industry roadshow. Agranoff complimented the novel with a Blair Witch Treatment. He made an actual album of punk rock songs credited to The Fuckers, including songs mentioned in the book. Further, he made a mockumentary film with real Indiana punk bands, citing The Fuckers as an influence on their music. Outrageous. 

If you enjoy unique psychological horror, or just a great backstage music bio, then Punk Rock Ghost Story is an entertaining experience. Get it HERE.

Eric's Brand New Book Haul

Eric shares his latest book haul, featuring new releases from Stark House Press and a stack of horror books borrowed from a friend. He also talks about a pulp coffee table book and outlines upcoming plans for his show through the end of the year and into 2026. Stream below or on YouTube HERE.

The Shoppe of Endarkenment

Bradley J. Knefelkamp is a commercial photographer who possesses a strong passion for music (his drum covers to Rush are rad), graphic design, and writing. His first novel was 2016's Escape from Gehenna, a young adult adventure that was followed by a sequel, Return to Gehenna, in 2022. My first experience with the writer is his horror novel The Shoppe of Endarkenment, published in 2021. 

In the Victorian town of Brown's Creek, a new trinket store has just opened. Its mysterious owner, Phineas Stumpf, offers a charming assortment of oddities that captivate the apothecary and antique consumer. But Stumpf is a peculiar shopkeeper. He has a penchant for eating insects, especially the ones that crawl out of his own skin. Stumpf can also make inanimate objects move of their own accord. But his most uncanny ability is the nearly magnetic pull he has on his customers. They “must” possess his various trinkets and treasures - at any price. But, Stumpf proves to be a fair dealer in commodities. He warns every one of his consumers of the danger and responsibility of owning these physical objects. Humanity has a history of opposition to supernatural commands.

The Shoppe of Endarkenment is a type of short story collection. Through these six offerings, listed as “episodes”, six people buy an object from Stumpf and experience horrifying results. It's a variety of offerings, and offings, as these people are essentially killed by their own material possession. Maybe. But, as each episode unravels, readers learn that each of these characters was experiencing their personal demons, an inner darkness that Stumpf preys upon. In the last episode, Stumpf meets his match with a vengeful family man who brings Jesus into the conversation.

Knefelkamp's prose is smooth and to the point, never squandering the propulsive feel of each episode's obligatory demise. He maintains a quick pace while still offering enough characterization of these men, women, and children to allow the reader to care about their fate. This book should appeal to all ages, but it is targeting young adults. There are a few gory details (like disembowelment in a bathtub), but for the most part, it all remains PG-13. You can get the book in digital and physical editions HERE.

Things Have Gotten Way Worse Since We Last Spoke

Boston horror author Eric LaRocca devised a clever 100-page novel called Things Have Gotten Way Worse Since We Last Spoke. The story employs a storytelling device organized like a documentary film pieced together by a diligent researcher via Internet postings, emails, and instant messages. It’s an inventive way to tell a horror story.

The story begins with a somewhat rattling Internet posting from a woman named Agnes trying to sell her grandmother’s apple peeler and the response from another woman named Zoe. The two women (both lesbians) develop an online friendship that veers into sexual flirtation.

Once they start confessing their sexual fantasies to one another, things take a dark turn when Zoe reveals her preferences. It’s about total escalating control over another person. No spoilers here. Leave it at that.

And then the payoff comes and it’s…disgusting. The author is a fine writer but went for the revolting gross-out when something more subtle and menacing would have been more effective. I genuinely think he’s a great writer, so I look forward to checking out his other works. This one failed by going extreme without the requisite build-up.

Also: Gratuitous animal cruelty. You’ve been warned. Get the book HERE.

The Lost Village

Camilla Sten is a Barcelona-based Swedish author and comedian. She's gained recent notoriety for her critically acclaimed suspense novels, including a criminal psychologist character she's created, Rebecca Lekman. Her novel, The Resting Place, was one of Goodreads' Most Popular Horror Books of 2022, and she earned a Viktor Crime Award in Germany. I wanted to start with her debut, The Lost Village, published in 2021. The novel was praised by the New York Times and has been translated to multiple languages. The book has also been optioned for a movie deal.

If you are striving for a traditional, breezy reading experience, then The Lost Village is not the book for you. Instead, this novel is non-linear and alternates between events in the present with those in the mid-20th century. To assist me on my literary journey, I kept a scratch pad handy with character names for both periods. It may not be necessary, but I found it a valuable supplement to Sten's narrative.

In the past, labeled as “Then” in the chapters, a fictional small town called Silvertjarn comes to life through a handful of characters. It's a typical rural village that exists from the income earned through the local mine. It's complemented by charismatic, ordinary citizens who go to work, school, and church. But three monumental events occur that change Silvertjarn's blue-collar charm. First, a new pastor arrives who immediately begins to change the orthodox teachings of the local church. Second, the mine closes. Third, a young woman is tied to a pole and stoned to death. That last one surprised you, right?

In the present, aptly labeled “Now” in chapter headings, a small filmmaker named Alice Lindstedt leads her production crew to Silvertjarn to document the town. It's now completely abandoned, with its streets and old buildings being slowly consumed by nature. Alice wants to investigate the town and search for answers on why the town's population seemingly vanished one day. Helping her is a former ex-best friend (and her male friend), the film's financial backer, and her partner.

The Lost Village is like a cross between The Blair Witch Project and David Morrell's Creepers. The narrative's twisty first half is an atmospheric, downright spooky delve into the town's empty school, church, and residential homes. There's a feeling of cold regret, an edgy abrasiveness, and a cloak of impending doom that helps suffocate these characters. Enhancing the mood is a stalking vibe as these characters hear footsteps and laughter in this quiet, neglected place. 

Sten's second half storytelling is where The Lost Village drifts from something truly special into a formulaic cat-and-mouse thriller that doesn't develop into an inventive finale. The surprise reveal wasn't spectacular, and there's a giant plot hole that left me feeling a bit insulted as an invested reader. 

Despite the poor second half, I found there was enough spark here to still make The Lost Village an entertaining read. The panning out from present to past wasn't a unique combination, but it helped the story and propped up the mysterious circumstances involving the town's citizens. The characters were predictable, but compelling. I dislike past-tense presentation, but Sten made it work. I would read another one of her books, but I'm not in a rush to run out and get one.

Get The Lost Village HERE.

At Home With the Horrors: 14 Chilling Tales

Sammy Scott is a rising voice in contemporary horror, known for crafting stories that are as unsettling as they are imaginative. In At Home With the Horrors: 14 Chilling Tales, he turns everyday settings into landscapes of dread, pulling readers into worlds where something sinister is just beneath the surface.

Reviews of short story collections are usually unsatisfying, but here are my thoughts of the first four stories in the collection:

"What We Have Here" - Scott wastes no time scaring the crap out of the reader with this story of a marital communication failure of epic proportions. The things that happen to Emily and Elliott in this story was like a twisted Twilight Zone episode fed through a body horror meat grinder. The less you know the better. Read this story.

"Theresa" - Newlywed Theresa is shattered when her husband Ray is killed in an act of workplace violence until she hears from him beyond the grave. The catch? He’s calling from the day he was murdered. Can Theresa use this temporal time loop to save her man? Depressing, but effective, story. Would be a great Black Mirror episode.

"Blackbird" - Molly is seeing a shrink because she misses her dead mother so much. As you can imagine, she’s excited at the idea of participating in a new kind of psychotherapy where drugs and hypnosis can send Molly into a dream state to have conversations with her mom while unconscious. After a few sessions, Molly begins to wonder if her weekly reunions with mom are a dream placebo or something truly supernatural. Another rattling winner of a story with a tidy twist ending.

"The Sisters" - Andrea is a home health care nurse assigned to care for an Alzheimer’s patient named Delores. Before starting the gig, Andrea receives a briefing about Delores’ creepy and cruel sister, Edna. It’s quite a backstory. Delores is convinced her dead sister is haunting her, and damned if the author didn’t create another great final-page surprise.

You get the idea. The quality of the 14 stories never fades. Sammy Scott is a modern-day Rod Serling who has mastered the art of twist endings that land every damn time. This may be the best single-author horror short story collection since Stephen King’s Night Shift.

At Home with the Horrors is available for free on Kindle Unlimited or just pay for it on Amazon. It’s really something special. Get it HERE.

Joyride

Stephen Crye, possibly a pseudonym for Ronald Patrick, authored Joyride, a 1983 horror paperback published by Pinnacle. The book's blurb on the back cover suggests it is comparable to movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th, only more horrifying and grisly. I originally heard about the book during an interview I conducted with horror writer Brian Berry, who praised the book's use of slasher tropes. Will Errickson also mentioned the book in his interview with Nick Anderson of The Book Graveyard.

Joyride has a narrative that features events happening in both 1982 and 1974. In 1974, the author presents the story of young Robert, a 17-year-old high school kid that's tormented by his fellow students. At home, Robert is abused by his father, a wheelchair-bound dictator that dumps daily diatribes in an outward deflection of his own emotional instability. Robert's only peace is through books, writing poetry, and one-sided friendship with a popular 12th grader named Carla. The events of this period culminate in Robert being facially disfigured in a cruel joke.

In 1982, Robert now lives in the cemetery that his family owns. His mother and father are both dead. When a group of graduating seniors arrive to kickoff the rest of their lives, Roberts slips in behind them and locks the cemetery gates. As night descends, the teenagers are hunted and killed off one-by-one in a macabre murder spree. But, Robert has special plans for a girl named Priscilla, who he mentally sees as Carla, the girl that he had longed for previously.

If you love slasher cinema from 1973 through 1986, like Slaughter High, Prom Night, Graduation Day, etc., then this vintage horror novel will be a real pleasure. Crye/Patrick perfectly captures the spirit of the slasher genre by injecting this scarred madman into the narrative while serving him plenty of stereotypical teenagers to feast on. It isn't a masterpiece by any means, but it doesn't have to be. 

As one of the only true slasher books from that era, Joyride is a cause for celebration. Highly recommended. You can also watch my video review of this book HERE. Also, spend a fortune on acquiring the book HERE.

Should a Tear Be Shed?

Charles Boeckman (1920-2015) authored stories for digests and pulps like Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Detective Tales, All-Story Detective, and Dime Mystery. While performing New Orleans jazz for 70 years, the multi-talented writer authored a number of novels with his wife Patti as well as penning sleaze paperbacks under the pseudonym of Alex Carter. Bold Venture Press has spotlighted the author and his literary work with several reprints, as well as his autobiography. I've read a lot of Boeckman over the years, but occasionally I drop in and out of his short stories for quick enjoyment.

“Should a Tear Be Shed?” was a short story published in January 1954 by Malcolm's, a short-lived detective and crime magazine published by mystery fan Malcolm Koch. 

This quick read is a success story that focuses on the rise of a tap dancer named Lawrence Terrace Jr., a young man that suffered a brain injury when a truck ran him over. When a shyster named Jess Norvell catches Lawrence dancing by a bar jukebox, he puts together a scheme. First, he befriends Lawrence, then has an insurance policy placed on the young man for $50,000 (double indemnity for an accident) with himself as beneficiary. The next logical step is to get Lawrence accidentally killed. 

Central to the story's plot is Jess' girlfriend, Candy, who does not endorse the scheme and repeatedly tries to warn Lawrence that Jess is using him for financial purposes. Like any good story of suspense, Boeckman intensifies the tension with multiple attempts at murder. It's an explosive, though not surprising, climax. I loved the story and read it twice.

The best way to read this story is by picking up the collection, Strictly Poison and Other Stories HERE.

Missing in Action

William J. Linn was an associate professor of English literature at the University of Michigan, a position he earned in 1979. He was the recipient of three Fulbright lectureships and taught universally at colleges in Bulgaria, Beijing, and Burkina Faso. During his long teaching tenure, Linn also authored three novels: Missing in Action (1981), Kambi Hai (1987), and The People's Republic (1989). I've always enjoyed a rowdy action-adventure novel featuring the prison-break plot device. With that fondness, I chose to read Linn's Missing in Action, published as a paperback by Avon.

In the novel's beginning, William Tompkins is serving in the Army during America's involvement in the Vietnam War. While the year isn't specified, based on the novel's events, I am guessing this is around 1972. During a firefight (off page), Tompkins becomes the only surviving member of his platoon and is quickly taken into captivity by the Viet Cong. 

In captivity, Tompkins, who is simply referred to as “The Prisoner” in the book's narrative, refuses to provide any information beyond name, rank, and serial number. He's placed in general quarters with a dozen or more fellow prisoners. The narrative flows into a rather one-dimensional plot that provides Tompkins' day-to-day activities, including gardening, masonry, roadwork, and other menial labor. There's an interesting plot device with Tompkins feuding with another prisoner, but that is quickly sewn up.

Eventually, Tompkins makes a break for the jungle and escapes captivity, only to be recaptured days later in a different part of North Vietnam. Here, the menial labor isn't an option. Instead, Tompkins is tortured repeatedly by a sadistic Cong leader nicknamed “No Neck”. These include starvation, solitary confinement, whippings, and mental harassment. Eventually, Tompkins is saved by an older, much wiser Viet Cong leader who was originally educated in America. He forms a unique bond with Tompkins that leads the narrative into a literary trance involving politics, war, peace, and America's involvement in Vietnam's internal struggles. 

Missing in Action has nothing in common with the 1980s action film industry that often used POWs and their captivity as its cinematic bedrock. It's void of the proverbial action star, gunfire, fighting, and so forth. If you thirst for that flavor, then look no further than the M.I.A. Hunter series of paperbacks. This novel is a literary examination of captivity and the concept of mental freedom despite physical boundaries. 

Missing in Action is also a rare example of a book written in the present tense, a fad that consumes most contemporary fiction (one that I'm not fond of). It was interesting to read a novel written in this style in 1981. This perspective makes the novel feel more emotional with the peaks and valleys of Tompkins' daily conditions. 

I did enjoy the book, but I feel like Thomas Taylor's A Piece of this Country is a better example of the prisoner-of-war formula. You can obtain Missing in Action HERE and Taylor's novel HERE.

The Sparrows Fall

Charles Frederick “Fred” Bodsworth (1918-2012) was born in Ontario and worked as a journalist for several Canadian newspapers. He authored five novels, one of which was Last of the Curlews (1955), a popular wildlife novel that was adapted into an animated Emmy-winning film by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1972. His novels focused on the Arctic and other frosty locales like the Hudson Lowlands. I wanted to try his great outdoor yarn, The Sparrow's Fall. It was published in 1967 as a hardcover by Doubleday. My edition is the first paperback printing, the 1968 edition by Signet. 

Jacob is a member of the Atihk-Anishini tribe located in the Hudson Lowlands. He falls in love with a young woman of his own tribe named Niska. The issue is that Niska has been promised to another man in Jacob's tribe, a great hunter named Taka. It's a forbidden love narrative, but ultimately expands into a much broader outdoor adventure. 

A pastor arrives by plane and dedicates himself to providing Christianity to the tribe. He introduces Jacob and Niska to the Bible and to the teachings of Jesus. Jacob and Niska ask the pastor to marry them, however, the pastor has some qualms about doing so. First, he wants to honor God's commandment to honor mother and father. If he marries the two of them, he is defying the wishes of Niska's parents. However, he also realizes that both Jacob and Niska have shrugged away their pagan religion (animal and wind gods, etc.) for Christianity. He wants them to marry and create a new generation of Christian followers. I will leave his decision out of the review so I don't ruin anything.

The outdoor adventure begins with Jacob and Niska leaving the tribe (the synopsis gives the reason away) and forging a new path deep in the frosty tundra of the Lowlands. But, Jacob, conflicted with a number of emotional things (some of which are his own doing), waits too long to kill deer for the coming winter. He then must go alone to hunt, leaving Niska behind in hopes she can endure until he returns. However, Jacob soon realizes he's not the only hunter. Taka is tracking him.

This book was hard for me, but I appreciated it. What I really enjoyed was the Christian discussion and the perplexing things Jacob asked about God – things I had never thought of before. I also really enjoyed the tribal politics and the adventures Jacob has in his war with Taka. Great stuff. But, the book has very little dialogue. Instead, there are endless pages of descriptions of Jacob hunting. Details on wind conditions, the history of the Lowlands, and the movement of wildlife were interesting to a degree, but I quickly tired of it. Keep in mind that this author wrote Last of the Curlews and the protagonist is a bird. He uses that same formula in this book and has portions of the book dedicated to deer. 

Despite my qualms with the book, I'm still going to recommend reading it. It's great escapism, offers some deep thoughts on religion and its history, and is a wonderful expansion on the Canadian wilds. I confess that I did have to skip some pages of descriptive details on deer and trees, but it didn't detract wholly from my enjoyment. Get the book HERE.

David Agranoff: Writing Against Facism with Fangs and Fire

This in-depth interview explores the work and creative philosophy of author David Agranoff, known for blending horror, science fiction, and political commentary. The discussion covers his literary influences—ranging from heavy metal and punk rock to authors like Alistair MacLean and Philip K. Dick—and how they inform his fast-paced, visceral writing style. Watch the video chat HERE or stream below. The audio portion is available on any podcasting platform or download HERE.

Crash Course

I initially discovered Kathryn Johnson earlier this year when I read her young-adult thriller Winterkill, originally published by Avon in 1991. I enjoyed the novel, leading me to place the author on my radar to find more of her works. Johnson, who used the pseudonym Nicole Davidson, wrote over 40 published novels and was nominated for the Agatha Award. I located plenty of her books and chose her 1995 book Crash Course to read along with a fellow Booktuber named Bryan from Bad Taste Books. 

The plot is rather elementary, leaving the focus to be more of a character study. Eight Maryland high school students are forced to participate in a group SAT study with a teacher named Porter. But, this isn't any normal scholastic study group. Instead, Porter, with parental consent, takes these eight kids to a rural house miles from civilization. The house, sitting on the shore of Deep Creek Lake, will be the students' home for a few nights over Thanksgiving break. Here's the personalities that clash on this mandatory meeting of the minds:

Kelly – protagonist, in love with a student athlete named Jeff and best friend to her neighbor Brian.
Paula – Kelly's rival, the girlfriend to Brian, jealous rager.
Chris – jock and bully, homicidal.
Jeff – secretly loves Kelly, goes with the flow.
Nathan – motorhead biker and food junkie.
Isabel – Native-American mystic and all-around introvert.
Angel – the group's goth witch.
Brian – pal to Kelly, hardworking student, bound for college.

As the kids arrive and settle in, small alliances begin to form. But, the mystery begins when Brian disappears in the lake. The kids begin to question each other on where Brian is, who may have had a hand in his demise, and what to do next. These suspicious increase once Porter leaves to find help. But, when another student is found stabbed, the need to survive the coming days becomes the most prevalent plot point.

By 1991, the slasher film market had reached a pinnacle of success. Johnson hones in on some of the genre's most intriguing tropes – a camp killer, teens in peril, the clashing of raging personalities, and the ultimate guessing game of the murderer's identity. While the third-person narration consistently flips among the characters, the most dominant is Kelly. She's mature, daring, and makes good decisions when facing adversity. She's also the one with the most motivation to discover the whereabouts of Brian's body. It was fun to join her on the search for motives.

Kelly and two other characters from this book appear in the sequel, Crash Landing. 

Get Crash Course HERE.

A-Team #01 - The A-Team

There are distant echoes of a marital dispute that can still be heard today in Florida. It emanates from a lone parking lot in Jacksonville, adjacent to a 2nd and Charles retail store. The legendary disagreement stemmed from an argument with my wife over what she perceived as an overabundance of A-Team paperbacks stuffing shelves in book stores, flea market tables, yard sale boxes, and library sales. Maybe she was right. Maybe there are millions upon millions of A-Team paperbacks littering the planetary surface. Sure. However, to this day, I think she was confusing the A-Team with another similar-sounding title, Able Team. The Los Angeles Times reported in 1987 that Gold Eagle had shipped over 500 million paperbacks across five men's action-adventure series titles they published – one of which was Able Team. 

A-Team. Able Team. Ovaltine? We'll never know. 

Like every kid in the 1980s, I watched my share of NBC's successful television series the A-Team. It aired between 1983 and 1987 and was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo. The original concept was to simply find a television series for Mr. T, an upcoming megastar that had already appeared in Rocky 3 as Rocky Balboa's fierce opponent (and catalyst for Mickey's terminal heart attack!). The A-Team was the perfect fit for Mr. T to shine as the angry Bosco B.A. Baracus. 

You can journey down any pop culture rabbit hole and learn more about the A-Team on screen, in the cinema, and the various licensed merchandise that dominated everything from toys and comics to lunch boxes and birthday balloons. The concept was an adventure-of-the-week where a four-man team of soldiers of fortune, wanted by the U.S. government as fugitives from the Vietnam War, travel around the globe, with a female journalist, fighting heroically for the people while collecting money from paying clients, although if memory serves me, it was often as a favor.

Where I'm involved in this show is at the book level. According to the trusty Wikipedia, there were 10 paperbacks printed between 1984 to 1986. Only the first six were printed in the U.S., courtesy of Dell. In England, all 10 books were published by Target. These books were mostly published as paperbacks, although a small number appear in hardcover. Charles Heath was the house name used by authors Ron Renauld, who wrote the first five installments, as well as seven and eight. Louis Chunovic wrote the fifth novel, David George Deutsch wrote the ninth, and Doris Meredith wrote the last.

My first experience with the book is the debut, the eponymous A-Team. It was based on the show's pilot episode, “Mexican Slayride”, which aired on January 23, 1983. In the book's opening pages, a California journalist named Al Massey is in a Mexican town doing a story on drug runners. The cartel's leader, a stereotypical villain named Valdez, captures Massey when he attempts to leave town. Massey's colleague and friend, journalist Amy Allen, learns of Massey's disappearance and wants to investigate. She discovers a mysterious team of mercenaries called the A-Team.

Renauld's narrative reads more like the episode's script. There are very few occasions that anything different from the TV episode sneaks in, and that's okay. It is an entertaining read as Renauld learns of the A-Team's enchanting aura, and goes about hunting down clues to their whereabouts. This leads to the introduction of Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, an actor at Universal Studios who leads the team. Next, Amy meets up with the handsome face of the team, Templeton Peck. Through a sequence of events, readers meet the star of the show, “Howling Mad” Murdock, the team's pilot, and B.A. Baracus, the resident tough guy fixer. 

The team flies to Mexico and coordinates a series of tricks that make the local authorities believe they are an international film production company. I always felt that the Three Amigos (1986) comedic western film borrowed the general idea from this A-Team pilot episode. But what do I know? As usual, the good guys fight the bad guys in a small Mexican town – it's an old fashioned, formulated western tale told in a modern way. The team is always mindful of actually killing anyone, so they go to great lengths to avoid murdering any of these bad guys. If blowing away the enemy is your thing, the A-Team isn't those guys. They had more in common with G.I. Joe than The Five Fingers. 

The A-Team is an entertaining, completely unnecessary paperback. The entire series consists of  episode novelizations except the sixth, which may have been an original novel based on the Fog of War blog. Depending on your love of the show may measure how much you need these 180-page paperbacks. Get them HERE.

Secret Agent X #01 - The Torture Trust

First published in Secret Agent X magazine in 1934, The Torture Trust introduced pulp readers to the mysterious figure known only as Secret Agent X. Conceived as a rival to The Shadow and The Spider, the series quickly carved its own niche with fast-paced plots, bizarre villains, and relentless atmosphere. Written under the house pseudonym Brant House (with the bulk of early entries by pulp veteran Paul Chadwick), the stories blended espionage, hard-boiled detective grit, and macabre menace.

The novel begins with a daring prison break setting habitual offender Jason Hertz free from confinement. His guardian angel facilitating this escape is a mysterious attorney named Gibbons who wants Hertz’s help. What would his agenda be?

Meanwhile, the police are dealing with a vexing series of torture-killings with prominent victims. The perps have been dubbed “The Torture Trust” by the news media and the cops are stumped. The killings, as described, are horrific and extreme — victims’ faces burned with acid. Stuff like that.

We then learn that Attorney Gibbons sprung Escapee Hertz from prison to have him get re-acquainted with a mobster Hertz once knew likely affiliated with The Torture Trust. You see, Gibbons is not an attorney at all, but the elusive vigilante crime fighter known only as Secret Agent X.

The reader is treated to a visit to X’s secret lair with his assortment of weapons and disguises. He’s only an “Agent” in the broadest sense that he has the unofficial sanction of the U.S. Department of Justice to fight the criminal hordes preying upon society. Officially within the government records, he is dead. His name and background? No one knows. His budget? Unlimited.

X has a sidekick/secretary named Betty Dale who handles a lot of his back office tasks - like dispersing money X steals from criminals to the poor and needy and being his date when he needs a cover. There’s also a police detective who hates X and his intrusions on police business with his unconventional interventions.

The debut novel is pretty standard - and enjoyable - pulp fare. Disguises and gaseous weapons, a kidnapped damsel in distress, a secret lair, and criminal masterminds deserving some rough justice. It’s not as unhinged as The Spider and the hero isn’t as impressive as Doc Savage, but if pulp heroes are your jam, you’ll enjoy this one plenty. Get it HERE. 

The Commandos

Elliott Arnold (1912-1980) is best known for his 1947 novel Blood Brother, a western that was adapted into a 1950 film titled Broken Arrow and a subsequent 1956 television series of the same name. The Brooklyn-born author, who was once married to actress Glynis Johns, authored 25 novels from 1934 through 1977. My first experience with Arnold is his 1942 novel Commandos, which was adapted into the 1943 Columbia Pictures film First Comes Courage. The book has been published repeatedly by different companies. My copy is the Belmont Tower paperback with artwork by Ken Barr capturing Clint Eastwood's likeness.  

In this 300-page book, Alan is an American soldier serving in World War II as a member of a British-led international team of Commandos. This team operates covertly in Norway, a country held in a vice-grip by Nazi Germany. In the novel's first half, Alan is working solo on missions to capture German leaders, destroy a fish-processing factory, and to hop in and out of long-range reconnaissance missions. In the first few chapters, Alan is teaching a middle-aged Polish man English, as well as training him on stealthy operations to stalk and kill targets. 

Alternating in and out of these chapters are two major characters, Nicole and Dichter. In these chapters, readers learn of Nicole's faithful service as a spy for the Allies. After her husband was killed in the war, she's now a vengeful widow working behind the scenes to feed the Commandos valuable intel. However, by day, she hosts extravagant parties for Nazi soldiers and affluent Norwegians that are sympathetic to Germany – a job she finds distasteful. Years ago, she met and fell in love with Alan and consistently worries about him on perilous missions. 

Dichter is a Nazi Major in charge of tormenting and terrorizing the Norwegian citizens. He has a romance with Nicole and often tells her details about German operations, details she uses to further the Commandos' resistance efforts. There are some chapters that delve into Dichter's personal life, key childhood moments, and a crescendo of violent occasions that have propelled his sadistic behavior. 

The book's second-half concerns Alan being captured behind enemy lines. These scenes aren't for the squeamish as Alan suffers an infectious bullet wound in his leg that complicates his survival efforts in the hands of Dichter and his Nazi torturers. However, his most agonizing moments center around his thoughts about Nicole lying in bed with Dichter while serving the Allies. He fears for her safety while also pining for her in his darkest hours.

Arnold's prose borders on literary, reminding me of a British author named Cecil Day Lewis. They both have a poetic nature to their work that involves difficult romances put to the sword over loyalty and allegiance. The Commandos carefully walks a balance beam of engaging romance and death-defying action-adventure. Thankfully, there's enough here to please both types of readers. Alan is a very human hero, often crying over some despicable act he's forced to endure or simply reminiscing about a better time in human history. Nicole's strong feminine leadership is a captivating part of the book and an endearing look at the sacrifices women made during the war. 

If you love a slow-burn action novel, The Commandos is a winner. Highly recommended. Get the book HERE.