My copy is the Jove edition, 3rd printing from 1983
Cover art by George Ziel, born Jerzy Zielezinski, a Polish Holocaust survivor, who is most well-known for his crime and gothic paperback covers.
The Fourth in the Inspector Allen series.
Written review below. Video review here:
It’s December, pouring rain and cold in London. We’re in the fictious neighborhood of Knocklatcher’s Row outside the building that contains The House of the Sacred Flame. Our inquisitive and bored reporter Nigel Bathgate decides that tonight is the night he’s going to knock on this door and see what this place is all about.
A man dressed in ceremonial robes answers the door and lets him know that it’s a member’s only club. Nigel is slightly deterred and starts asking what The House of the Sacred Flame is all about. The man gives vague answers and tells him to make an appointment if he really wants to know. A knock on the door sounds behind him. The man quickly turns to open the doors and two men in the same attire exit followed by a man who appears to be a priest. Nigel slips in while the door is open and we get to attend the ceremony.
There are seven attendees of the service, two acolytes and the priest. Everyone is dressed in the robes, esoteric rites are spoken, and Nordic names are dropped. It seems to be an amalgamation of occult ideals and Northern paganism.
The initiates are in a circle around the priest. There is a chalice of wine that is passed around the circle ending with a woman in the middle of the group. She drinks, starts having spasms and falls dead to the floor. Nigel runs up to the body, it looks like murder, so he calls his good friend from Scotland Yard Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn who arrives with the cavalry. The doctor on scene gives a diagnosis of murder by poison. Now that it is official, Alleyn has started interviewing the members of the House of the Sacred Flame and our investigation begins.
There really isn’t much to the set-up and the mystery, which is what we paid our ticket for, is in full swing by chapter two. It’s the classic whodunit structure of a group of people in a contained area, each with hidden backstory that is unveiled slowly throughout the investigation that throws shade in every direction. Red herrings and possible motives sway the possibilities, but nothing is unfair. It’s all fair play mystery and if you are paying attention Ngaio Marsh puts it all there right in the open as the narrative moves forward.
Atmosphere wise there is a dark thread of heroin addiction to give the story a desperate and gloomy feel. Now add in constant thunderstorms, the cultish occult temple, and a book on how to make poison and this beautiful cover art by George Ziel and you’ve got a perfect mystery setting in your mind.
The suspects include a highly questionable cult like priest, a rich businessman from the US, a French snoot, a young hip couple, a few true believers, a bitter old woman and some servants with an astute attention to detail which make for a great list of suspects.
I don’t know if it was the mood I was in or what, but I did find it a little hard to get into. As the story entered the third act, I was definitely all in but felt the initial kick off didn’t completely grab me. Also, I knew nothing of this series going in. I didn’t even know it was a series. By page fifty I had to stop and google who the principal detective was. It felt like Nigel the reporter was our independent Sherlock Holmes solving mysteries for his own satisfaction. He was a bit eccentric and very inquisitive. But as the narrative progressed, it seemed that Detective Alleyn was the principal. It becomes obvious as it goes on that Alleyn is the main character, but it had a misplaced feeling at the start as I wasn’t sure whose eyes we were looking through.
If I was going with a grade I would give it a C+/B-.
It’s a chilly Christmas morning and Jules Maigret, Chief Inspector of the Paris Police Department, has the rare day off, much to his disappointment. His wife wants him to sleep in but once he is awake, he must get out of bed. Plus, in her good nature she tries to give him breakfast in bed which he is not a fan of as it makes him feel like he’s an invalid or a senile old man, so he quickly gets up and starts moving around. It’s a little melancholy around the apartment as Madame Maigret looks out the window and sees the children starting to come outside and play with their new toys. Years ago, the Maigret’s lost a child in its infancy and it’s a very brief somber moment for them.
They see two women from the building across the street approaching. Madame Maigret points out that she thinks the older woman has a crush on Maigret, which she is amused by. Just like in all of my favorite Maigret stories the loving relationship between Maigret and his wife is on full display here. It’s very sweet. But don’t worry because the story is about to dump grit in your eggnog.
The two women arrive at the Maigret’s apartment. The older woman is excited and the other whose name is Madame Martin, radiates apprehension.
Madame Martin unenthusiastically adopted the daughter of her husband’s brother. The little girl is bedridden with a broken leg. The older woman explains to Maigret that on Christmas Eve a man dressed like Santa appeared in the little girl’s room. He was lifting up floorboards and when he noticed the little girl was awake he gave her an expensive doll and made the international sign for shhhh.
Most curious Maigret thinks. He is intrigued and on the case. Looks like he won’t be pacing around the apartment like a caged animal all day after all.
And here we have the usual Maigret investigation. The gradual discovery of the players and suspects. Madame Martin’s husband is out of town on business. On Christmas day? Well, that’s odd. Where is the father of the little girl? Oh, he’s a hopeless drunk and has been ever since the death of his wife. Where was he last night? Seems like something a desperate drunk might do but then again wouldn’t the girl have recognized her own father. And the shadiest of all is Madame Martin herself. We need to look into her backstory. Hell, maybe it isn’t any of these clowns and it has something to do with who lived in the apartment before the Martins.
For a quick minute I was afraid it was going to be some custey family friendly Maigret where it was hinted at that the Santa in the story was real but thankfully this is your typical bleak and bitter Simenon, real criminals with nefarious motives that lead to desperate actions. It’s a classic Christmas tale with thieves, murderers, porn distribution and Santa!
Blind Man’s Hood by John Dickson Carr
Originally published in 1940
Muriel and Rodney Hunter are driving out to the country of the Weald of Kent in South East England for a Christmas party at their friends, the Bannisters. They are a young couple living their best lives so they made a stop at a local pub along the way to drink ale and sing carols which brought them late to their destination. When they approached the lonely old seventeenth-century Bannister home all of the lights were on and the front door was wide open.
The Hunters approach the door with apprehension. Where is the music, the voices, the kids playing outside? When they walk in, they see a healthy fire in the hearth. Rodney heads right for it to warm up while Muriel looks around. They hear someone approaching. It is a young woman. She is dressed very proper and is carrying a small bag of linen. The woman apologizes for not being at the door to greet them properly. She tells the Hunters that the Bannister’s are all at church.
“Even the servants?”
“Yes, everyone.”
For the last 60 years everyone that has even lived in the home leaves on Christmas Eve during these hours. Because obviously, this is when the murder occurred.
Rodney is like, what the hell are you talking about?
And the odd woman responds, “Oh, I’m not a crazy person.” And chuckles.
Rodney begins to wonder if this woman is a serial killer and has murdered the Bannisters and if he goes to take a look around the place will be littered with the bodies of his friends.
The woman leads them into the library for drinks. Out of the corner of his eye Rodney sees a curtain move. The woman notices that he noticed and laughs. She tells him, don’t even bother checking, no one will be there.
Muriel is beyond creeped out by this eerie woman and finally blurts out, who are you and what are you doing here?!
The woman then launches into the story of the murder that occurred at the house. And this is what John Dickson Carr is known for, the locked door mystery. We get a set up of a young couple who have recently moved into the house. We get what looks like a deadly love triangle but the problem is that the evidence clears all involved. Yet, inside the home, a woman is found dead. Head bashed in and lit on fire.
But the murder occurred in February. So what does this have to with Christmas Eve, Rodney asks.
The woman launches into the second story. Eight years after the murder there is a Christmas Eve party hosted by the new owners of the house. All of the big wigs in town are invited including some of the suspects of the murder. After all of the kids go to bed the adults play Blind Man’s Bluff. I guess a game like Marco Polo but on land. The person that is it must put a pillowcase over their head and try and tag someone else. There is a woman in a blue dress standing over by the fire. The host puts the pillowcase over her head.
With the bag over her head, she crouches low and starts to move forward, her body jerking around. She heads straight for one of the suspects.
This was one of the creepiest ghost stories I have ever read. The jerky movements of the woman with the pillowcase over her head were described in such an inhuman way. It reminded me of a Japanese horror movie. It literally made all of the hairs on my body stand up. They mystery is explained of course by the end and it really was a complex puzzle that makes sense once you know the answer.
I was floored by this one. Probably one of the best short stories I have ever read.
I had a great time this year doing this here book blog thing. I started the Youtube channel on Oct 20th 2023 so like 14 months ago. I made quite a lot of friends which is something I didn’t expect; fellow channels, people in the comments who at first I thought didn’t like me but then ended up sending me books and being my pal- thanks Stiv. I got invited by Jake at Pulp Mortem to be a collaborator/cohost along with Tim at Secret Fire Books, on his book show, The Elusive Exclusive Book Society. Our last guest of the year was Eric from the Paperback Warrior which is crazy to me because their podcast was the reason I started this blog/ YouTube channel. So that was kind of surreal and then also in the past year I got mentioned in the Paperback Fanatic. It’s crazy. I don’t know anything. I’m not an expert. Hell, I barely graduated high school (because I was a JD, not because I was dumb.) I can’t believe people actually want to hear me stumble and bumble my way through these videos and watch as I learn this seemingly endless world of exploitive, explosive, sleazy and most of all fun vintage genre fiction.
I also wanted to give a shout to Bob from Menspulpmags.com and Justin from Fathompress.com for sending me their releases to review. I appreciate it immensely.
I made some shirts, by the way. I have a screen printing business so I printed these myself. The art was done by my good friend Bryan Brady. They are available on my business website streetlightprinting.com
If you don't feel like reading, I did make a video for this one:
For the list we’re not including new releases as this is primarily a vintage genre fiction blog. Though we will give a shout out to Terrance Layhew and his book One Man’s Treasure- it was incredibly enjoyable. We’re also not including art books, or magazines but we’ll mention them all here because I love them and everyone should support them by buying a copy; Paperback Parade, Paperback Fanatic and the MAQ. We will, however, be including the Men’s Adventure Library series collections as they are entirely reprinted fiction from the past.
We read 68 books:
17 horror
16 crime/mystery
9 sci-fi
8 spy
8 men’s adventure
5 westerns
4 S&s/fantasy
1 gothic
68. Deathworld 2- first book we read for EEBS. It was less a plot and more a vehicle for HH to speak at us about how religious people are horrible. I’m not religious in the slightest but this was totally unfair and the worst crime of all is it was boring. It was repetitive, lazy, pretentious and insulting. It’s one of the worst books I’ve ever read.
67. Vortex- this is a book about a huge tornado ripping through a town and the people fighting to survive! Just kidding. It’s a book about some dusty old politician visiting his dying side chick in a rural town where a tornado should be coming any minute now. Lots of dry reminiscing. Lots of republican/democrat BS. A very luke warm murder mystery side plot and two pages of tornado action at the end.
66. Stallion- if this was a cover art list this thing would be in the top five. Unfortunately, the book isn’t anywhere near as good. A horse-riding farm in the sticks in the UK. A giant horse next door. A sort of possessed horny teenage girl. Nervous breakdown mom. Hints of the supernatural but no follow through. Honestly, not much horror at all.
65. Rogue Agent no 1- started off kind of cool with an undercover spy which then leads to sneaking into West Germany to grab this defector scientist and then on the way out it all falls apart and it looks like the spy guy has been set up. Great premise but then he just kind of hangs out for most of the rest of the book. He goes to the beach. Visits some friends. It gets a little more spy toward the end but it has zero climax.
64. Ghostbusters- imagine the script of the movie and now take out all of the jokes and actors charm.
63. Aftershock- underground mutant monster comes to the surface to eat human brains after an earthquake. The monster is depressed and spends most of the book sulking. The humans up top spend most of the time talking biology and medicine. Not nearly enough brain eating. The kills were splendid though. Heads ripped off with attached spines.
62. The Last Rangers- Post apocalypse Texas ranger takes on all manner of bad doers in the pretty much lawless wasteland that is Texas. I remember this having a really solid middle. Like it was a short story and they tacked on an awkward beginning and ending.
61. 13 Horrors of Halloween- This is a case of wanting one thing and getting another. I wanted a spooky book to read during Halloween. What I got was a genre mash up of stories that happened to take place on Halloween but have zero spook factor.
60. Blue Sunshine- one of my favorite B movies. It’s about some bad acid that people took in the 60s that is making them psycho killers in the 80s. And lose all of their hair. This suffers the same fate as Ghostbusters. Pretty much the script and missing the actor’s performances.
59. Foxx no 1- This is an adult western about a Railroad detective who is a manly man named Foxx who goes after some guys that tried to blow up a train. This had lots of detail descriptions of the old west setting. It was impressive but dragged it down and made it feel very dry. The dialogue was basic, the writing was at a 5th grade level. Pretty bland all around.
58. Sliders- one of my favorite tv shows. This one was pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, I was under the assumption that it was a new story but it was just a novelization of the pilot episode. So, for that it lands towards the bottom. Unlike Blue Sunshine and Ghostbusters though, it was written way better with lots of extra panache added.
57. Caviar- a collection of short stories by Theodore Sturgeon originally published in the pulps. I had high hopes for this when I picked it up because I really enjoyed his story in another collection coming up much later in this list. These were pretty disappointing though. Some a little too cheeky. Some flat out boring. Out of the 8 I really only liked 1.
56. Deathworld 3- the final installment in the Deathworld trilogy. Coming right after the trudge through the second one, this one didn’t stand much of a chance. The crew end up on a brutish Conan type world and instead of just giving us some hack and slash release after the preaching of the second one we instead do lots of sneaking around and undercover work. If this was a standalone it might have been rated better but I just couldn’t shake number 2.
55. Bumsider- another EEBS books. A lackluster noirish mystery lightly sprinkled with some sci-fi stuff. This books main issue was that the main character didn’t want to be there and it made you feel like you didn’t want to be there either. I was into it at first. The world was very Soylent Greenish. It unfortunately meandered too much.
54. Operation Atlantis- French author writes a French spy book where the actual hero is a US spy. This had moments of 60s schlocky spy fun, but I really wanted it to be more about the French hero.
53. Badman- the cover states, “he was an outlaw out for revenge.” This had some great shoot outs and action scenes as the main character is on the run from the law after getting set up for a train robbery gone wrong. It read like parables as he travels from place to place getting into morally grey encounters. He spends a lot of time reevaluating his life and it was smart and insightful but a little too deep for what I was hoping for.
52. Dead Man Dead- beautiful Robert Maguire cover. I love the Exotica theme of Calypso and voodoo and mix it with crime and a murder mystery, and I’ll be buying that book in a second. This was just average. Nothing mind blowing. The fact that it had almost zero calypso or voodoo as the cover suggests drops it a little further down the list.
51. Hunger- a group of killer biologically enhanced mako sharks escape their government testing pin and head out to the open ocean to eat people. This was pretty enjoyable but had too much padding. Too much filler not enough killer…sharks.
50. Cherry Delight no 14 In a Pinch- Cherry is a super sexy agent of NYMPHO- New York mafia Prosecution and Harassment Organization. In this one she helps a fellow busty lady take out some mafia button men who were responsible for killing the girl’s brother. As far as Cherry’s go, this one was pretty meh. The sleaze wasn’t that sleazy and the plot got a bit repetitive.
49. Drowning Pool- an entry in the Lew Archer PI series. He investigates a wealthy family because the wife is being black mailed for cheating and they have dirty pictures. This was a pretty good read. It reminded me of Chinatown a lot. Nothing really stuck out as mind blowing but nothing stuck out as bad either.
48. Deathworld- a psychic gambler gets hired to figure out why a planet is trying to kill it’s people. When this first started I loved it. It made me excited to read more sci-fi. But then it just comes off the rails. Plot points are thrown to the side. The reasoning behind the conflict was meh. It did have lots of action though and the world was fun, brutal and interesting.
47. Nine Princes in Amber- one of the princes of the real world of Amber tries to take the throne from his brother. I had no idea this was such a well-loved series when we covered it on an episode of EEBS and if I had I probably wouldn’t have been so harsh on it. Ultimately though, what can I say, I still feel the same. It was a bit too dreamy and loose for me and I just felt like the ho hum motivation of the characters infected me as a reader. Not to say that there weren’t great parts in this; I loved the tarot card idea, the accessible other worlds, one of the coolest fight scenes ever where two armies fight through a single file line…but yeah I don’t know, I am going to try out the second in the series. It really bothers me that so many people who I usually agree with loved it so I’m going in for another round. I hated Lost Highway when I first watched it and now it’s one of my favorite movies. Now THAT’S a nonsensical plot.
46. Devil World- a star trek book featuring the original characters. Kirk and co go to a Forbidden Planet- quite literally it’s just like the movie Forbidden Planet to help a young looker find her dad. This was fun and essentially feels like a lost episode from the original run.
45. Hawk no 1 The Deadly Crusader- Reporter playboy Michael Hawk’s humble beginnings. This is before he inherits his fortune and is just a working reporter. I was surprised by how different this was than the later entries. It’s written really well. Like functionally well. The plot is wishy washy though and it just didn’t have that 80s action b-movie feel that the other Hawk books have.
44. The Golden Stag- I was in the mood for some treasure hunting which is what this was selling but instead it turned out to be a run of the mill men’s adventure which would have been great if they would have thrown in the treasure hunting as mentioned but it was like five pages of the entire book and that’s what I was there for.
43. Ninja Master no 1- we went over this in EEBS so just briefly, I read a later entry in the ninja master series and loved it so I wanted to see how it all began. It began with a whimper. Not enough fighting, not enough ninja. It did however nail the low budget vigilante movie in tone and for that I enjoyed it.
42. The Executioner no 2- the series that started off the one-man-versus-the-mob genre. I had never read one before and wanted to start at the beginning, but I found number 2 for $1 so we started there. Lots of action. Gun fights. Action. Military talkin. Killin. Guns. Action. Bombs. Missiles. Buddy comrade. Guns and action. No plot. No tension. Just shootin.
41. Cosa Nostra- Small town Maine sheriff takes on the mob as they try and infiltrate his small town. Sleazy and kind of ridiculous plot about the mob wanting to set up a spot close to the border of Canada so they can connect with gangsters in Montreal. It’s more like a PI story as you follow the main cop character in trying to figure out what the mob is even doing there. It’s really tough talking. Politically incorrect. Violent and gritty. It was a little slow though and kinda meh plot wise.
40. Hawk no 12 Virgin Stealers- later era style Mike Hawk that we’re used to and love. This one was mid-teir Hawk only because it had all this snuff stuff in it and I just hate that shit. I hate the idea of it. I hate torture. If you took the snuff out it would have gotten much higher.
39. Angel Eyes- E Howard Hunt’s hardboiled CPA character Steve Bentley got the number one spot last year with the Calypso Caper. In Angel Eyes Bentley is back in DC and it just didn’t stand out as much as Calypso Caper. I think this is the case of loving the last one so much that the bar was raised high. This was still enjoyable but I wanted another home run.
38. Hook no 5 Corpses in the Celler- Insurance investigator and former boxer, The Hook, kicks ass, beds ladies and denies you your insurance claim on the fire at your nightclub. This was ridiculous. Which made it fun. It had some decent fist fights and a decent little mystery.
37. Gun Code- A young man returns to the town is father was murdered in 15 years after him and his mother were chased out. He wants the land that is still in their name and half of his fathers business but the other half is owned by the man everyone says killed his father. So what actually happened? A pretty decent cold case murder mystery that pulls you back and forth between the two possible killers.
36. The Walking Dead- sequel to the Sinking Pit. A supernatural pit in the woods that hypnotizes people into killing their loved ones. I mean...
35. The Book of Skulls- four college bros traveling from NY to Arizona to find a cult who one of the lads believes will make you live forever. The only problem is, they will only accept groups of four and one of them must die. What an incredibly original novel. When they get to the cult it was eerie and filled with tension. I NEEDED to know what was going to happen!! So why wasn’t it higher? Most of the book is a road trip of college bros doing college bro things. I get that the end doesn’t work if we don’t know the guys well but man, it was a little too much. Still. What a memorable book.
34. Brood of the Witch Queen- A serialized novel originally published in the pulps. Black magic. Ancient Egypt. 1930s occult out the yin yang. This was in three parts. The first was a little better than good. The middle was outstanding. The third was forgettable. Which places it right in the middle of the list.
33. Black Canaan- REH’s horror stories. This is a short story collection also originally published in the pulps. The Black Canaan story was the main standout. Completely memorable. It takes place in the swamps. There are voodoo zombies and atmosphere galore. The rest of the stories were just ok. Fun horror pulp stories but nowhere near as good as Howards action and adventure stuff. I think this is another case of the bar set high.
32. None of Maigret’s Business- Maigret’s are my comfort read. If I’m feeling stressed, overwhelmed or depressed I read one of these and it never fails to completely take me in. I love this series. LOVE IT. If you don’t know, Jules Maigret is a chief inspector in Paris France. He solves puzzling mysteries. I always say he is the bridge between Sherlock Holmes and those early hard-boiled novels. This one was different. Basically, Maigret takes a vacation and solves the mystery by reading the articles of the murder in the newspaper.
31. Texas Israeli War 1999- We read this one on EEBS and Jake picked it because he thought it was going to be a hilarious shit fire. Turns out it was actually pretty great. A mix of post apocalypse, alternative future history, and a war novel. After the world has been nuked, everything is in disarray. Texas succeeds. They kidnap the US president. Israeli mercenaries are brought in to rescue him.
30. The Face of Night- This was an odd one. It comes out of the gate as an ultra grimy 70s urban crime novel. Lots of heroin and pimps and crooked cops etc. As it goes on it becomes less about an exact crime or plotline and more about the psychological destruction of the main character. This guy starts off as the shining knight and by the end just an absolutely hateful piece of shit.
29. Crown no 1 The Sweet and Sour Kill- Ridiculously fun kung fu cop exploitation novel about a detective in Hong Kong getting revenge for the murder of his grandparents. Look. It’s dumb. I know. I have it above REH. That’s just not right but the thing is I was loving it. I looked forward to it every night.
28. Overkill- I read a book by Dorothy Daniels and while doing research for the review I saw that her husband was also an author and I happened to own one of his books. This is a great spy book that takes place in Albania and involves Russians and Chinese and big surprise a nuclear bomb. Classic Cold War era espionage.
27. Shanghai Incident- Another great cold War era spy book. This one takes place in China and has an ex-soldier returning to find a missing geologist. What was great about this book is it was a spy plot but the style was classic hardboiled detective. It wasn’t a straight narrow mystery but more of a conspiracy mystery.
26. Maigret Sets a Trap- a serial killer is loose on the streets of Paris and Chief Inspector Maigret is tracking him down. This one probably would have been higher but they had made a movie out of it and not only have I watched it like twenty times but the movie was actually better. They didn’t just add scenes but really fleshed out the killers motivation. Regardless, it’s a great entry in the Maigret series.
25. Nighthunter no 1- Part one in a six part series about a psychic killer who uses supernatural elemental forces. What a well researched occult horror novel. The lore in this thing was incredibly on point and the kills were brutal. My biggest complaint is I would have rather just had the story in one book and not stretched out over six. But who knows, maybe it’s worth it to read all six. It’s pretty great as just one though.
24. The Quick Red Fox- this is my third in the Travis McGee series and so far my favorite. Florida houseboat lovin PI Travis McGee is hired by a famous actress to hunt down the guy who is blackmailing her with scandalous photos taken at an orgy she attended. Like other TM entries, the mystery in depth, with many layers and the outlook is bleak.
23. Tight Case- cop book about hunting down the mob. The cops are drunk and willing to break the law to catch the mob. This was written by a real world FBI man who took on the mob. One of the grimiest books I’ve ever read. Everyone in this is a shit heel.
22. To Renew the Ages- Laser books no 26- Post Apocalyptic sci-fi about a man and woman who band together to travel across the wasteland. They get into inventive random encounters and fall in love. This was action and romance and I loved it.
21. The Running Gun- A man is set up as the fall guy in a murder and must travel to the rugged deserts of Mexico to clear his name. Much like the last book this is about a man and woman who band together to travel across a wasteland and fall in love. Sci-fi or Western apparently this is a plot line I enjoy.
20. Panic- Halloween horror book about a boy and then man haunted by a group of wispy imps who only he can see. This was recommended to me by odditypardonme on Instagram and he was right. It rules. No filler. Great Scottish folklore. The main villain is unsettling. And it delivers on the Halloween.
19. Silverglass no 1- sword and sorcery with a female lead written by two female authors. It was tough and exciting. Sleazy. Lots of sex scenes. These ladies get their freak on and they are in control of it. Conan esque type main character who is quick with the sword and hates magic. Reminiscent of a great D&D campaign. Just a lot of fun.
18. Shadow Over Innsmouth- this was a reread so I dropped it lower than it should be. Lovecraft’s haunting story of a town of fish people who made a deal with the old gods.
17. Nolan no 1- Heist novel. Retired thief anti-hero Nolan is being hunted by the mob and is forced to do one last last job to get out from under their scopes. Strong characters. Well written. Exciting which is weird because a lot of it is planning the robbery.
16. The Mexican Connection- Another book where the “bad guy” is the hero. A group of drug runners are trying to do one last big run of quaaludes, so they can retire. A walking hard-on of a cop is on their trail. Someone is snitching. Who is the weak link, can they get away with it? I had no idea the drug dealers were the good guys until the halfway point and it blew my mind when it dawned on me. I think that made me rate it higher.
15. The Night Stalker- The original novel the TV movie was based on. What’s great about this is that the book was actually first even though it wasn’t published until after the movie. It’s different but not in a bad way. Kolchak isn’t the main hero here. He’s the vehicle for telling the story. He gathers together a network of people, so we get lots of other great characters which only adds to the enjoyment.
14. The Maya Temple- the one and only gothic on the list. A woman travels to the jungles of Mexico to find her missing archaeologist father. I loved the setting. The mystery. The Mayan folklore. It was so fun and completely grabs you. Plus, there is a hilarious scene where the main character eats some magic mushrooms and trips out.
13. Atomic Werewolves and Man Eating Plants- I’ve read a few of the Men’s Adventure Library collections and this one has been my favorite. It’s all Weird Tales-ish horror type stories that originally appeared in the pages of Men’s Adventure mags from the 50s-70s. So many great selections that really stick in your mind. In fact, since I’ve read this I have been judging all other short story collections on how great this was.
12. The Golden Child- ok this guy’s trippin. He’s putting the golden child novelization at number 12. Look man. Number one, I love that movie. And even though it doesn’t have Eddie Murphy’s charm and humor it was great but in a different way. This was an entirely different monster. Hardboiled occult detective steeped in Eastern folklore. I looked forward to reading this every night.
11. Monster from Earths End- learned about this book from the Paperback Warrior blog when they reviewed it. Reminscent of The Thing/Who Goes There. Classic b monster horror movie.
10. Sorcerers- spy book with a black magic cult written by E Howard Hunt. This has cold war political intrigue, world traveling, undercover and action scenes. It’s romantically spy and it has a witchcraft cult.
9. A Stir of Echoes- I loved the movie so I decided to go back and read the book. It’s just as eerie but not in your face. There were moments in it that genuinely creeped me out. Excellent haunted house story.
8. Black is the Color- John Brunner writing spy fiction. He takes all of this South African political strife and moves into the swinging hip jazz scene of 60s London and spices it up with voodoo. And he does it well.
7. The Dead of Winter- A group of buddies find one of their own murdered in a strange and violent way. They dig through his life and uncover some shady connections. I thought this was going to be a straight vigilante action book and instead was floored by this complex but understandable mystery novel and they didn’t forget to bring along the vigilante action.
6. The Seth Papers- This is an entry in the occult detective series Dr Owen Orient. He is hired by a woman as a translator for the locals as her and her partner do and archeology dig. They find the Hand of Seth which is a mummified hand that gives prophetic powers. Dr Owen realizes these people are in an evil secret society and must stop them. Halfway through a female CIA agent comes in and takes over the narrative and it’s equally as fun as it turns into a spy novel.
5. Jirel of Joiry- Early sword and sorcery starring a female warrior written by a female. Jirel of Joiry is different from Conan in that she goes about defeating her enemies in other ways. The worlds, creatures and scenarios are completely one of a kind. It borders on horror a lot of the time.
4. Crime Partners- Donald Goines Kenyatta series entry with two hitman who team up with a black militia group to take on cops and drug dealers. Low down and gritty. This is the hardest novel I’ve ever read. This is from the street, written by an author who was in and out of prison.
3. The Gang Girls- I got this for the wonderful juvenile delinquit exploitive cover art and was surprised to find a completely engrossing story. A young lady and her drunk prostitute mom move from Ohio to New York City. The girl gets jumped by a girl gang. Fights back. They invite her to join and from then on its fight, drugs, violence and crime.
2. Assignment Burma Girl- another exciting entry in the Sam Durell spy series. When you read one of these books you not only get an enjoyable history lesson but you get to experience exotic locations from the comfort of your home. Sam Durell is stern and serious but not dry bureaucratic spy fiction. He’s also not martini’s and poonanny. It’s always a great mystery with exciting action and realistic with a tinge of pulpy fun.
1. The Hanging Stones- Manly Wade Wellman comes in at number one on my list this year with this Silver John entry. Someone is building a replica Stone Henge on top of Teatray Mountain. Being a curious fellow John heads up the mountain. We get werewolves, druid folklore, ghosts, fist fights, greed, philosophy, Christian mysticism, occult detecting and songs as John is a travelling folk singer. Such an incredibly inventive and different idea Manly Wade Wellman had come up with. He really brings this world to life.
