STEVE MUDD – The Planet Beyond. Popular Library/Questar, paperback original; first printing, September 1990.
There is an elite among the population of Seelzar, and only they have access to the powers provided by the mysterious Wells. Cross them and wham! You’re in exile before you know it.
As for me, I know I’ve read far enough when: I’ve read five chapters and suddenly realize that I haven’t come across anything of interest so far.
I know I’m right when: I read the last page, and find that the last sentence is “It was going to be a challenge indeed to get out of this alive, let alone with the Scepter.”
— Reprinted from Nothing Accompliced #4, November 1993.
[UPDATE] I’ve just done some online research about this book, something I couldn’t have done back in 1993. What I’ve discovered is that this book is actually a sequel to an earlier one, Tangled Webs (1989), a fact not at all indicated on either the covers or the blurbs inside this one. Not only that, but another source suggests that this book was intended to be the middle of a trilogy (as that last line indicates), but for whatever reason, the concluding volume was never published. I have come across no information on the author himself.
ED GORMAN, MARTIN GREENBERG, LARRY SEGRIFF & JON L. BREEN, Editors – The Fine Art of Murder. Carroll & Graf, oversized trade paperback, 1993. Galahad Books, hardcover, 1995
What can I say about a book that has pieces by: Bill Crider on Texas Authors; Marv Lachman on Rockey Mountain Mysteries; Ellen Nehr on Cat Mysteries, Dog Mysteries, and the Doubleday Crime Club; Walter Albert on Researchers; Bob Napier on Fandom; Janet Rudolph on Conventions and Mystery Weekends; Peggy Albert on Nancy & Jessica; and Steve Stilwell interviewing Al Hubin.
Well, I can say that I can’t imagine any real mystery fan not finding enough of interest to make the book worth the $17.95 purchase price. Besides the luminaries listed above, there are pieces by such lesser lights as Larry Block, Bill DeAndrea, Harry Keating, Ed Gorman, Max Allan Collins, John D. MacDonald, Vin Packer, Carolyn G. Hart, Bill Pronzini, Margaret Maron and a further cast of dozens.
Jon Breen contributed the introductory remarks for most of.the`various sections. Many pieces are original, some are reprinted, but all were written by people who know how to write and write well, and did. My own favorite sections were on pulps and paperbacks, but there’s something (and more than one something) for everyone. It’s a browser’s delight that covers just about every aspect of the field, written by a group of people who know their subject.
— Reprinted from Ah Sweet Mysteries #11, January 1994.
DAVE J. GARRITY – Dragon Hunt. Signet P3203, paperback original, 1967.
Even if you’re a staunch Mike Hammer fan — and, yes, Virginia, of course there are — chances are still good that you’ve never heard of Peter Braid. One of Hammer’s best private eye drinking buddies.
You don’t believe me? Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s the quote from the front cover: “Guts, action … the kind of stuff I like to read.” So says Mickey Spillane. On the back cover is a photo of Spillane and Garrity together, presumably comparing notes on each of their heroes’ latest adventures. And the coup de gras: on page 74 of the book in hand, Peter Braid is in a jam, and who does he call on to keep an eye on his client’s granddaughter? Mike Hammer. That’s who.
Apparently none of the Hammer mystique rubbed off, however. No so far as the buying public was concerned. According to Al Hubin’s Bibliography, none of the other four Garrity/Gerrity books were vehicles for Peter Braid, although, one, The Hot Mods (also published by Signet, 1969), might be. Hardly a sign of significant commercial success, wouldn’t you agree?
Braid refers to his lady acquaintances as hairpins. Cigarettes he calls nails. He has a wide propensity for wiseass leers, and the case he’s working on is plotted in comic book proportions. I liked it.
His client is a wealthy Wall Street retireee. He fears his son has evil designs on his granddaughter, Braid is St. George. Cain DuMont, son of Adam DuMont, is the dragon, the Dark Man, the man in black. His mind is twisted.
As much as they were intended to, the edge-of-the-chair climax and the accompanying heroics include no real surprises. They were effectively done, however, and the make for a fitting close to a tough guy novel Which probably means exactly what you think it does. Garrity wrote and thought in cliches, but as sure as anything, he enjoyed what he was doing. If there ever was another Peter Braid case after this one, I hope somebody out there lets me know.
A nice Ron Lesser cover, by the way, apparently of the granddaughter, wearing next to nothing at all. (Yes, Virginia, it’s in the book.)
— Reprinted from The MYSTERY FANcier, Vol. 4, No. 2, March-April 1980 (very slightly revised).
HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS. American International Pictures, 1958. Yvonne Lime, Bret Halsey, Jana Lund, Suzanne Sydney, Heather Ames, Nancy Kilgas, Rhoda Williams. Director: Edward Bernds.
With a film title like High School Hellcats, you know you’re almost certainly in for a movie that is more exploitation than artistic. Did I mention it’s an American International Pictures production? They more or less had a corner on the teen and juvenile delinquent low budget market back in the 1950s. This particular product – er, film — is true to form. It’s got wild teenagers doing bad things, worried and strict parents who just don’t understand the younger generation, and a misbegotten romantic couple struggling to make things work despite the chaos that surrounds them.
What makes this particular story different from many of the similar juvenile delinquent and hot rod movies churned out at the time is that the focus is on a female gang. You read that right. The leader of the gang may be mean, but her lieutenant is downright sadistic.
When innocent, but rebellious Joyce Martin (Yvonne Lime) shows up at her new school, it doesn’t take long for her to be bullied by the Hellcats. Soon enough, she’s joining their ranks at a late night initiation ceremony at an abandoned movie theater. It doesn’t take long, however, for Joyce’s romantic life to be strained by her membership in the Hellcats. When the gang’s leader dies under mysterious circumstances, Joyce realizes that she has signed up for more than she has bargained for.
JANE. BBC 2, 1982-84. Glynis Barbera as Jane Gay, Robin Bailey as Colonel Henry, Max Wall as Tombs, Dean Allen as Georgie Porgie, and Suzanne Danielle as Lola Pagola. Written by Mervyn Haisman; based on the long-running British The Daily Mirror comic strip “Jane” by Norman Pett. Title song written and performed by Neil Innes. Graphic Design Director: Graham McCallum. Illustrations: Paul Birkbeck. Producer Ian Keill. Directed by Andrew Gosling.
JANE was an odd and dated series even when it first aired in 1982. Jane Gay was a cheerful innocent blonde beauty whose love for adventure always resulted with Jane trying to save the day while wearing nothing but her underwear. Her loyal companion was her dog Fritz, a dachshund (aka wiener-dog).
JANE was based on a popular British comic strip created by Norman Pett, the comic strip JANE (aka JANE’S JOURNAL, OR THE DIARY OF A BRIGHT YOUNG THING) ran exclusive in The Daily Mirror from December 5, 1932 to October 10, 1959.
Jane has been adapted to other forms. Chrystabel Leighton-Porter played Jane in a burlesque stage play in the 1940s that traveled Britain entertaining the troops and town people during WWII. Leighton-Porter also played Jane in a 1949 film, THE ADVENTURES OF JANE directed by Edward G. Whiting. A 1987 movie JANE AND THE LOST CITY starred Kirsten Hughes and was directed by Terry Marcel.
The humor was juvenile, sexist and full of double entendres. The most unique aspect of the TV series was the settings. The actors performed in front of a green screen. Later a drawn background to resemble a comic strip background was added. The result featured an unusual look of the real actors performing within comic strip-like panels.
The TV adaptation was an hour long made up of five ten minute long episodes. The YouTube video of JANE has merged all five episodes together. There would be a second series two years later in 1984 called JANE IN THE DESERT.
Popular British actress Glynis Barber starred as Jane. Barber is better known for playing the strong independent roles of Soolin in Series Four of cult science fiction BLAKE’S 7 (1981) and Police Sgt. Harriet Makepeace in successful cop show DEMPSEY AND MAKEPEACE (1985-86). Jane was certainly a different type of woman for Barber to play, much to her credit Barber excelled in all three roles.
Set during WWII the story begins when Colonel Henry ask Jane to join him on a secret mission. The two are to meet a Professor in a haunted mansion. Before they can find the Professor they learn there is a Nazi spy in the area. Luckily for England, even stripped to her underwear does not stop Jane from fighting off Nazis and the Colonel’s advances.
JANE is a good example of a form of entertainment rarely seen today. That is a shame in a way. Jane was a determined woman who refused to let the limits she faced in that era’s culture stop her from experiencing a life of adventure. The men were all idiots for never seeing Jane as more than an object. Wisely, Jane willingly sacrificed her modesty for good of the entire free world — a job jolly well done.
JOHN & EMERY BONETT – Dead Lion. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1949. Pocket #738, paperback, 1950. Perennial Library, paperback, 1982.
John and Felicity Carter Coulson (who write under the names John and Emery Bonett) have collaborated in a fruitful mystery career as well as a marriage. Their official joint debut came with the publication of Dead Lion, a fine example of the post-World War II British mystery.
Simon Crane comes to Britain to meet his famous uncle — critic, author, and BBC intellectual Cyprian Druse — for the first time. Instead, he finds Druse’s body, his head stuck out a window and his neck bloody and broken. It soon becomes clear that many people wished to break Druse’s neck: the many authors he destroyed with his vitriolic criticism, and the many women he seduced, humiliated, and abandoned.
When Simon finds himself in love with one of his uncle’s embittered conquests, he no longer wishes to play sleuth. Unfortunately, Professor Mandrake does. Mandrake, an anthropologist by trade, had been a BBC colleague of Druse’s. More important, he is a natural-born busybody and student of humanity just waiting for a chance to try his hand at detecting. While Simon tries to shield the woman he loves, Mandrake continues to happily meddle, eventually triggering the novel’s tragic conclusion.
Dead Lion is an exquisitely crafted classical mystery. But besides providing a satisfying puzzle, like its many Golden Age predecessors, this novel also features three-dimensional, modern characters with psychological quirks and motivations. With small touches, the authors also manage to convey what life was like in England after the war. Theirs is a classic puzzle with new depth and Professor Mandrake as a lovable series sleuth.
The fat, homely professor appears in two other books — A Banner for Pegasus (1951) and No Grave for a Lady (1959). Later Bonett novels with a Spanish sleuth and Costa Brava locale are well constructed but lack the charm of the Mandrake mysteries.
The Roaring 420s is a current band from Germany about whom one online source says:
“Sounding like a weird marriage between the Beach Boys and The Velvet Underground, this five-piece combo delivers surf and psych pop as catchy as a fever.”
There’s not much known about the author. It does appear to be his real name; Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV lists possible birth and death dates for him as 1928 and 1980, respectively. The first adventure of private eye Ross McKellar was entitled See the Red Blood Run, published a year earlier than this one, also by Pyramid. This is the second, and this was it. There are no others.
McKellar describes himself as underemployed, and as definitely not the independent type. He’ll do any kind of job that pays money. He is as admitted admirer of Hammett and Chandler, but in this case at least there are no mean streets to go down. An old buddy now a big name in the pubic relations business needs big help. A profitable blackmailing scheme seems to be backfiring. McKellar’s investigations are conducted in the world of high finance, and not at all in the deep dark shadows of the underworld.
When it comes time to cuddle the old buddy’s widow after he’s gone, a woman he’s loved in silence all these years, McKellar suddenly becomes shy. Hands-offish. That’s the kind of guy he is.
Some envelopes are missing and have to be chased around. Interesting, but not intriguing. Catching the murdering blackmailee is not the work of brilliant deduction, but is the result of a gimmick instead…
For what it’s worth, the book is easy to get through, and it has a pretty good twist at the end. It should also be noted that whoever wrote the synopsis on the back cover pretty obviously never read any of the story at all.
— Reprinted from The MYSTERY FANcier, Vol. 4, No. 2, March-April 1980 (slightly revised).
STEVE HARRAGAN – Three Bad Girls. Unibooks #57, paperback, US, 1952; Stallion Books #203, US, paperback, 1953. Unidentified prior British publication.
visceral:
1 : felt in or as if in the internal organs of the body : deep a visceral conviction
2 : not intellectual : instinctive, unreasoning visceral drives
3 : dealing with crude or elemental emotions : earthy a visceral novel
4 : of, relating to, or located on or among the viscera : splanchnic visceral organs
It’s a word I learned in college, one that has stood by me in times of trial, and perfectly suited to this demented little trifle.
But first a bit of background: Steve Harragan is the name of both the author and the hero of this story (à la Ellery Queen) but being naturally suspicious, I wondered at the outset about such a coincidence. A little bit of research came up with one William Maconachie, a British post-war pulpster who also wrote under the names Bart Carson, Larry Ellis and Ray Stahl. A few of Maconachie’s Bart Carson books perambulated west to the U.S. and along the way the author and hero got their names changed to Steve Harragan.
So much for that. The only other niggling detail is that although Harragan-the-hero is depicted as wearing an eye patch, Harragan-the-author occasionally drops a two-eyed reference, like “I turned my eyes on him,†and even “I closed one eye,†making one wonder just where the eye patch came from and whether anyone took it seriously.
Getting on to the book itself, well I have to say it’s pretty amazing: a story that never stops moving from first page to last. The writing may be pedestrian, but the drama takes the corners on two wheels as it careens from our hero waking (in the uniform of a deserter from the French Foreign Legion!) to capture, escape, recapture, prison, escape again, and a perilous journey back to the U.S. where he catches up with the guy who stole his identity and gets in the middle of a kidnapping which…..
You get the idea. Scarcely a page goes by without a fight, chase, explosion or all three, as our hero gets his violent revenge. Good writing? It is to laugh — but Three Bad Girls will amaze the reader with its sheer unparalleled pace.
