Book Report #87 - Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean

Book 11 of 52

Page count - 254

After the revalations from Command and Control, I thought I'd give Alistair MacLean one more try. 

I didn't doubt the plot; the operations of the fictional US Navy nuclear submarine Dolphin, the plausibility of Dirft Ice Station Zebra and the downing of a satellite payload.  According to Wikipedia many very similar events actually took place, so the book was definitely a pretty accurate description of the times. (Go HERE to read about the actual events.)

I just found the writing to be stiff and tiring to read.  I found myself putting the book down for days at a time and dreading picking it up again. The narrarator, Dr. Carpenter came off as incredibly arrogant and I simply did not like him.  The Commander of the Sub, Swanson, however was great; I kept seeing Scott Glenn, the sub commander in the movie, The Hunt for Red October, and that pleased me very much.

Scott Glenn - The Hunt for Red October

Overall, I found the book tedious.  Probably, to a person living in 2014, nothing here is new.  When this was published, 1963, it would have been as earth shattering as some of Tom Clancy's novels were in the 80's.

However, I believe, that if a book is well written it will stand the test of time.  Unfortunately, for me, MacLean's writing does nothing for me.

I have some other of his titles on my bookshelf, I don't think I'll be reading them any time soon.

Book Report #81 - Fifty-Two Pickup by Elmore Leonard

Book 5 of 52

Page count - 239

After the adventures of Max Fisher from Ken Bruen and Jason Starr, I just had to pick up a classic Elmore Leonard.

Published in 1974 it still stood fresh and believable 40 years later.  What I love best about Leonard's writing is how delves into the world of the criminals, something I find fascinating. 

Harry Mitchell, owner of a Detroit auto parts manufacturing business, is targeted for some classic blackmail.  His affair with a younger woman was filmed and shown to him along with their demands for money.  But the bad guys have targeted a man who decides to fight back.  Harry knows that if he pays, the bad guys will not just go away.

The book was a fun read.  One of the things I like about reading older books is how they can be a snapshot of the past.  Technology is a fun one; it's easy to forget how important payphones were or how different life was without the Internet.  In the opening scene Harry is shown the movie from a portable screen and home projector.

I was a few chapters in when my wife mentioned the line at the bottom of the cover: "Soon to be a Major Movie!"  An INDb search brought up the 1986 production starring Roy Scheider and Ann-Margret.  I'll have to track it down and watch it.

If anyone is interested in the vintage paperback book itself, leave a comment and I'll contact you for a mailing address.

Elmore Leonard

Book Report #59 - The Spider Strikes by R.T.M Scott

The "original" Radio Archives cover.

Arguably the Number Three character of the pulp era, after The Shadow and Doc Savage.

Richard Wentworth is a rich New York bachelor who, with the help of his trusted servant, Ram Singh and his girlfriend Nita Van Sloan, fights crime with deadly consequences.  He's suspected by the police of being The Spider which adds a fun increase to the suspense of the stories.  Not only are you wondering how he's going to defeate the bad guys but also how he's going to avoid capture by the authorities.

Set in present day 1933, the story kicks off with Wentworth confronting a notorious con man on board a transatlantic ocean liner. The rest of the story is set in Manhattan where you can hear the jazz, see the potted ferns and taste the champagne of a man who has continued to thrive, even in the depts of the Great Depression.

The first two novels were written by Scott before being taken over by Norvell W. Page who then took the character to dizzying places.  I'm looking forward to these supercharged stories.  This first novel of the series was very much a battle of wits from two highly intelligent foes and relies a lot on deception by the use of disguises.

My favourite part of the story was when our two advisaries meet face to face and have a civil discussion on how they will defeate each other.

The story was wonderful.  It was sophisticated, quick-paced, violent and filled with believable characters.  It was definitely worth the 10 cents charged at the time and the $3.00 I paid for the paperback reprint, published in 1969, that I bought from a used bookstore.

My paperback copy

Partway through the book I spent another $3.00 to get the ebook version from a company called Radio Archives.  This version was fantastic; not only did I get the original novel and the original cover art but there was an historical essay about the the Spider stories and the pulp era.  Plus, and this was the real hook for me, the two backup short stories that were published in the original magazine.  This is the kind of stuff that can really add to the experience of reading vintage fiction and is a way of preserving stories that would be lost otherwise.

These guys are doing a fantastic job!  Look for Radio Archives HERE to browse all the titles.

Now for the short story reviews:

Baited Death by Leslie C. White: Holy cow! This was a serious bit of hard, hard boiled storytelling. A cop is killed and his partner takes justice into his own hands to avenge his death. This story alone was worth the purchase price.

Murder Undercover by Norvell Page: Another story about Revenge. Set in Washington, DC, the nephew of an Italian ambassador uncovers the truth behind his uncle's death.

Ford 8

Book Report #58 - The Spook Legion a Doc Savage Adventure by Kenneth Robeson

Doc Savage.  There is no way I can begin to tell you about this legendary fictional hero.

Start at Wikipedia then follow the links from there for further exploration.  Get there from HERE.

I've read a few Doc Savage stories before and I've always found the narrative a bit stiff but I've always been able to set that aside as it being an example of the style from its time.  First published in April 1935, Doc, Monk and Ham try their best to stop a crime spree committed by invisible groups of men.

This book did not lack for action, but I nevertheless found the first half exceedingly dull.  The trio would chase after the crooks as they moved from bigger to bigger acts of robbery.  Unfortunately Robeson/Dent kept trying to thrill the reader by revealing the acts of invisible (Gasp! Invisible!) men.

The story did not get interesting until Doc and Monk were taken captive and made invisible themselves.  Once the boys were interacting with the "invisi-bad-guys" I was turning pages and looking forward to finding out how it all ended.

Lester Dent wrote most of the 181 Doc Savage stories, some are better than others, this one is only okay - good if you can get to the last half of the book, but you have to read the first half to get there.

The original magazine - April 1935

Book Report #57 - 'Til Death by Ed McBain

First published in 1959 this is the 9th book in the 87th Precinct series.

It was a little bit different for a police procedural in that the scene of the crime was an ongoing wedding reception.  Some points in the book did not stand the test of time too well; there were some glaring things that happened that would be unthinkable today.

A murder takes place in a secluded part of the Carella property, while the outdoor wedding reception for his sister and brother-in-law is going on.  In an effort not to ruin the party Detective Carella convinces the local police to process the scene from the neighbors yard, out of sight of the festivities.  Really?  I'm not convinced he'd be able to pull that off, even in 1959.

The brother-in-law is the target of some nasty death threats and Steve Carella convinces two of his colleagues to help provide security for the groom. Suspicion falls to an ex-platoon-mate from the Korean War who blames Tommy Giordano (that's the groom, soon to be brother-in-law) for the death of another platoon member.

But there is more to it than that; somebody else wants Giordano dead and is trying to make it happen at the same time.

There is an unsatisfying dangling plot element, either I missed the connection or it was left unresolved on purpose, but there is a rather stunning blonde accomplice in the story who's motivation is never explained.

The book was okay, certainly not one I'd read again, but it did have good dialog, humor and the story moved along nicely.  I'd have to say that missing this book would do you no harm, unless you are on a mission to read them all.  It's 211 pages, that's the Perma Book 35 cent edition, and won't hurt you to read it.

It is important if you want to read about Steve Carella's important life event.  Okay, I'll tell you; his wife, Teddy, gives birth to their twins!

Book Report #54 - Too Friendly, Too Dead by Brett Halliday

This is part of the Mike Shayne series of books.

I was lucky enough to have an original Dell copy of the book, with a 45 cent cover price.

I love these vintage books; it was a straight-ahead hard boiled PI story about the unlikely murder of a friendly insurance broker. Published in 1963 part of the enjoyment comes from the settings of the times, the attitudes and comparison to today.

I'm always surprised by how much drinking goes on, lots of it before lunch. One particular aspect of life in the early Sixties was air travel; hopping a flight then was as easy as hailing a taxi.

One of my favourite quotes from the book comes near the end when Shayne is bouncing ideas off his reporter friend.

"But, Mike. Why in hell would she want to take out a big policy on her new husband? She's the one with the money. Millions of it."

"Who knows why a woman does anything? Maybe she figures he's worth that to her. Sort of coppering her bet."

There was also a fair bit of womanly fainting in the story. These things you don't see much anymore in popular entertainment.

It was a fun, quick read. I polished it off in two sittings.

You can find out more about the series at The Thrilling Detective website - HERE

Twilight by John W. Campbell

This was a wonderful story.

To be honest, I nearly gave up on it because it was a bit over-long.

Set in the present (of 1932) a man is driving down the road where he finds a stranger lying prone in the ditch. He picks him up intending to take him to a doctor. On the drive the stranger wakes up and begins to tell the tale of how he got to that ditch.

He is a time traveler from a thousand years in the future who went forward in time many millions of years. There he discovered the sad future that awaits humanity.

Campbell went on too long describing the fantastic, empty cities of the far future. But if you can slog through his obvious attempt to increase his word count, you will thoroughly enjoy the logic of the end of the story.

This was a first-rate thought exercise.

As you may imagine it's been reprinted countless times but it first saw the light of day in the November issue (1934) of Astounding Stories.

More information on John W. Campbell can be found HERE (Wikipedia) and HERE (ISFD).

Book Report #48, Seawitch by Alistair MacLean

I was in the mood for a bit of action and got that with a rather silly story about a group of wealthy oil executives trying to stop a rogue oilman from drilling in international waters. 

The book was published in 1977 and really does not stand the test of time. 

I found the narration stiff and old fashioned.

Off shore drilling was a relatively new thing in the 70's, apparently, and deep-water drilling was forbidden by an old-boys agreement among the major oil executives. So that part was quaint.  

But one guy, Lord Worth, develops, deploys and begins producing oil from a newly developed deep-water oil rig, called Seawitch.  This goes against the agreement but worse, Lord Worth is undercutting them on price. (Gasp!) Again this a bit quaint since today's oil is bought and sold on the open market and not subject to being valued by the producer. 

The old boys hire a "fixer" to stop Lord Worth only to discover that he has a personal vendetta against Worth and he goes over the top by sinking one of Worth's ships, hiring mercenaries to overtake his oil rig and plans to destroy it buy using military explosives stolen from US military stockpiles. 

You read that right - stolen from US military weapons depots!  The bad guys just waltz in by showing some forged ID tags and walk out with weapons.  This took me right out of the story; I cannot suspend my disbelief so much as to believe security could be so easily beaten.  Not in the 70's - not ever.  This was written during the deepest parts of the Cold War, there was no way the author could expect his readers to go along with this part of the story.

To be honest, all the characters had something artificial about them. And the women - yikes! - they were the poorest written of them all. And there were only two.

Unless you're a MacLean fan or just want to revel in a poorly told story, I recommend passing on this old gem.

You can read more about Alistair MacLean HERE

Alistair MacLean

A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum

I've not been having much luck reading decent science fiction short stories these days. So I thought I'd visit the masters for a little while.

Not long ago I discovered a collection of vintage SF called The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at my local used book store.  (The Wee Book Inn)This first story was published in Wonder Stories July, 1934.  Think of it - 1934 - the world then was a scary, scary mess, and this guy Weinbaum writes a very convincing story of discovery on Mars.  The story is very plausible given the knowledge of the day.  In it, a group of scientists are listening to the adventures of one of their team members as he tells the story of how he survived a crash landing and his subsequent discovery of indigenous Martian life.

This was a very well told story and has been reprinted dozens of times and is still available today.  It's well worth trying to find the story and reading it in the context of 1934.


Here is a list of 10 things that stood out for me from the history of that year.
  
Alcatraz becomes a prison.

The 10 year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed by Germany and the Second Polish Republic.

John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and their gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa.

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker kill 2 young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.

Dust Bowl: A strong 2-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl.

New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.

Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, becoming head of state as well as Chancellor.

Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents near East Liverpool, Ohio.

Persia becomes Iran.

Highlights of 1934 selected from the Wikipedia page HERE

Wikipedia page about Stanley G. Weinbaum is HERE

Book is still in print with new covers and size HERE

Download or read online from Project Gutenberg HERE

Book Report #41 - Case of the Vanishing Beauty by Richard S. Prather.

Case of the Vanishing Beauty

by

Richard S. Prather.

Prather is my favorite author from the paperback area of mystery fiction.  Published in 1950, I was lucky enough to read a 1962, Gold Medal reprint of Prather's first Shell Scott novel.

Being a fan of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels I've always been happy to know that there are 42 Shell Scott novels waiting for me as well.  Both authors had fantastic dialogue and humor in their books.  I've come to look forward to Prather's opening paragraphs where he typically describes a woman.  

In this book a beautiful woman comes to Scott's office asking him to find her missing sister.  The story then uncovers the world of drug trafficking and cults.  For a fist book this one had plenty of twists and I was surprised at just how relaxed Prather's prose came out.  The book came it at 160 pages making it just the right length for a tight mystery story.

Like I said, I like Prather's style, here's an example:

She looked hotter than a welders torch and much, much more interesting.

She was in her early twenties, and tall.  About five nine, and every inch of it loaded.  Her lips were the dangerous red of a stop light and her eyes were the same black as the masses of black hair piled high on top of her head.  She was slim, but with hips that were amply ample and high, full breasts that she was careless about but nobody else would be.  Plus a flat stomach, a slim waist, and golden skin smooth as melting ice cream.

 Prather was hard-boiled here's a passage that I found chilling:

After so long a time you get a little sick of violence.  You see guys gasp and bleed and die, and it makes you feel a little funny, a little sick while its happening, when it's right in front of your eyes.  But it isn't ever quite real when it's going on, when you're in it.  Maybe a muscle man slugs you, or a torpedo takes a shot at you, or you're pulling the trigger yourself or smashing a fist into a guy's face, and you're hurting or crippling or killing some trigger-happy hood.  But when it's actually happening, you've got adrenalin shooting into your blood stream, your heart pounds, your breath comes faster, pumping more oxygen into your veins.  Glands and body organs start working overtime to keep you sharp, keep you alive, and you're not the same; you're not thinking like the same guy.  It's all kind of blur like a picture out of focus jumping in front of your eyes, and you don't think much about what's going on, just let your reflexes take over.  If the reflexes are trained right, and if you're lucky, you come out of it scared but O.K.  Nothing to it; all over.

But when it is all over, when you've got time to think, that's when you get sick remembering vivid little details you hardly noticed at the time.  The way a body jerked when a bullet ripped through fine skin and flesh and muscle and bone, or the way it jerked just before it stopped being a man and became what they call down at the morgue a "dead body" or the "deceased."  Maybe you even wonder what kind of man he was, what he liked for breakfast,  when he was born, stupid things like that -  and wonder what made him get a gun in his hand and like the feel of it.  Maybe you even wonder what it is that goes out of a man when 158 grains of lead drive into his brain or his heart.  Maybe you get sick and your stomach turns upside down and then it's all over and you forget about it.  Almost.

So to hell with it. 

 I ate it up.  A very good book.

Book Report #36 - Branded Woman by Wade Miller

Branded Woman

by

Wade Miller

This is one of my many Hard Case Crime books that I've been collecting for years.  I only dip into them once in a while.  They are such at treat to read that I don't want to rush through them.

This story really showed its age.  There was some pretty stilted dialog and some rather narrow minded views of women.

This is a story of revenge, Cay Morgan is on her way to Mazatlan to kill a man.  She's a thief who got in the way of a rival know as The Trader.  He kidnapped her and branded her forehead with the letter 'T' as a warning to stay out of his business.  For five years she's been trying to track him down.

The story started off pretty nicely, exotic locale, independent, strong female character and sinister people around every corner.  Unfortunately the whole story unraveled at exactly page 152 where she instantly turns into a dish rag and wants to give everything up simply because she's finally found - A MAN!

What?!

No Way!

Boo!

Up to this very moment she'd been smarter and tougher than anybody she'd come across but one roll in the hay and she loses every ounce of credibility!  It took me so completely out of the book that I couldn't enjoy the last 50 pages.  The book had a very satisfying ending but it just didn't matter because I lost all respect for Cay.

To be fair; this was written in 1952 so the stereotypes are not be much of a surprise; it's just that the scene on page 152 went completely against her character that it just blew it for me.

So, okay, here it is (I just have to share this) the last few paragraphs of chapter 21.

SPOILER ALERT!  If you still want to read the book (and you should, it's good) but don't want to know what I'm talking about, do not read beyond this point.

"Look at me," he commanded. She looked at him, and his face was a frightening sinewy mask.  "You've got something else now. Me.  I'm yours and you're mine.  I've taken you over and I've taken over your debts.  I'm not asking you to give up anything.  But from now on, I pay the bills for both of us."

"No, Walt!  Afterward, I can come to you,belong to you truly --"

His hand went out to the table, picked up his long-barreled revolver that lay there.  "This belongs to me.  So do you.  I'll handle you both."  He put the gun back and pulled her slowly to his chest, showing her his brutal strength.  "Do you believe me?"

She felt his mouth master her, felt her resolve melting into his reservoir of male power.  She cried desperately, "I want to believe you!  Oh, how much I want to believe you!".


"I'll show you."  He released her and went to the lanterns on the wall.  His eyes locked with hers, he said, "Now we can put out the lights, like normal people, for normal reasons."  She held out her arms to the darkness, and he found her.

"Beautiful," he said, "Any time -- in the light or in the dark -- you're the most beautiful woman in the world.  And you're mine."


"Yes," she said, "Yes, my darling."

I've needed you always, her trembling form implored him, and even as she clasped him to her she thought joyously, I belong to somebody, at last I belong to somebody!


[wow]

Book Review - The Girl with the Long Green Heart by Lawrence Block

First published in 1965 (what a great year that was) Hard Case Crime has republished it in 2005.

It's a great real estate swindle, yea, sounds boring but it's not. Plus a lot of the action takes place in Toronto. Part of the fun of reading this book besides the wonderful pulpy lines like "I wanted to make her purr" is also just how different travel was back in those days. In a post 9/11 world its fun to read about people carrying guns on board a plane and steak knives being used with the meal service.

Lawrence Block has long been one of my favorite authors. He's been writing for decades and is a Grand Master of crime fiction. He's always easy to read and his stories have always kept me turning pages.

Book Review - Plunder of the Sun by David Dodge

First published in 1949 Plunder of the Sun by David Dodge has been newly published (2005) by Hard Case Crime (HCC - 010).

The Hard Case crime website describes the book like this:

"Al Colby should never have agreed to smuggle the package from Chile to Peru. Now one man’s dead, two beautiful women have betrayed him, and a couple of gunmen are hot on his trail. All because of an ancient Quechua manuscript pointing to the hiding place of a priceless hoard of gold, lost for centuries. Now the race is on — by train, by plane, by motorboat and by mule — first to find the treasure and then to escape with it alive..."

It was a good read. However, the main character, Colby, was a bit of a putz: he was double crossed, beaten, tied up and otherwise outwitted at just about every turn. He certainly was tenacious but the amount of times he came out the looser in situations made it a bit distracting. Indiana Jones her certainly was not.

Still, I never lost interest and that is the real test of a book.