"On Dangerous Ground" Reviews at Spinetingler

Over at Spinetingler, I have reviews of two stories from On Dangerous Ground: Stories of Western Noir, edited by Ed Gorman, Dave Zeltserman and Martin H. Greenberg. I liked both of the stories I reviewed very much. Special thanks to Brian Lindenmuth and everyone at Spinetingler for inviting me to be involved!

Here are links to my reviews, as well as excerpts.

"Lead Poisoning" by Gary Lovisi

Lovisi can not only write it all, but already has—and in spades! Author, historian, and publisher of Gryphon Books, Lovisi is a triple threat—but also a triple treat to readers everywhere. “Lead Poisoning” shows Lovisi flexing with Western muscles and having a great time spinning a mythological yarn about outlaws, corrupt lawmen, and Indian mystics.

"Going Where the Wind Blows" by Jan Christensen

I’m a sucker for great first lines, and Jan Christensen’s “Going Where the Wind Blows” begins with this stellar hook: “It wasn’t that she liked whoring. But what else could a gal do?” The voice of her main character, Rita Mae Wilson, is immediately apparent, as are the qualities that will guide her through the story: street-smart resourcefulness, world-weary resilience, and a complete absence of sentimentality—not to mention a sense of humor about the bad hand of cards that life sometimes deals you.

Read all the reviews of On Dangerous Ground here at Spinetingler.

Click here to buy a copy of the book direct from Cemetery Dance Publications.

James Reasoner's "Terran Girls Make Wonderful Wives" and Gary Lovisi's "Minesweeper" (Gryphon, 1995)

Is there anything that James Reasoner and Gary Lovisi can’t write? I doubt it. These two modern pulp pros have proven their excellence in any number of genres, and this Gryphon Double from 1995 finds the writers spinning a pair of terrific science-fiction stories.

James Reasoner’s Terran Girls Make Wonderful Wives is a sci-fi twist on the hardboiled private eye tradition. Wesley Holman is hired by Ed Donlin to find his missing mail order Earth bride, Shasharra. At first, he thinks it is just a case of a runaway wife, but when Luna’s crimelord starts expressing interest in the case, Holman realizes there’s something more sinister going on. Fast-paced and fun, with the right amounts of action and suspense, Terran Girls Make Wonderful Wives makes for a wonderful story.

"Then the doors of the elevator slid open and a fist rammed into my stomach. Technology notwithstanding, there's nothing like an old-fashioned punch in the gut to get your attention. I doubled over, gasping for air, and slung a blow of my own at the figure who had suddenly appeared in front of me." -- Terran Girls Make Wonderful Wives

Gary Lovisi’s Minesweeper is set amidst a post-terrorist Earth. The US and the Middle East have razed each other’s societies to rubble. It is a battle of exponentially increasing technology, with each army one-upping the other’s latest deadly innovation. Aaron is a “hunter” in old Times Square, and his job is to detect and diffuse the enemy’s walking suicide bombers. Technology and his skills are put to the test when Talena tells him that not only is a virus slowly degenerating him, but that their dreaded nemesis Rabin is loose in their district. Lovisi’s vision of the future is bleak and paranoid, and it is certainly interesting to read this prescient and terrifying story in light of the events that have happened since it was originally published in 1995.

"Then she was gone, leaving me alone in a crowd of a hundred thousand sweating, traveling citizens, all of whom were oblivious to the fact that someone among them was a walking bomb – a killer of monumental destruction, who at any moment might make the whole Sub-Sector a patch of dust and death to rival hell itself." -- Minesweeper

Raul Garcia Capella contributed the artwork to this edition.

"Open Season on Cops" and "The Arabella Nude" by Michael Avallone (Gryphon Press, 1993)

I picked up a collection featuring Michael Avallone’s "Open Season on Cops" and "The Arabella Nude" knowing little about the author, but instead on the strength of its publisher, Gary Lovisi’s Gryphon Books. Lovisi is a fine writer himself, and as a publisher he’s responsible for bringing to the public some wonderful, rare books that we’d otherwise not be able to enjoy. This two-fer was published in 1993 with two original covers (one on either side) by Frank Hamilton, in the style of an old Ace Double. Both stories were originally from Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and featured Avallone’s series Private Detective Ed Noon.

Both stories were enjoyable, but "The Arabella Nude" (MSMM July 1963) was definitely the better of the two. It had a fun plot, playful language, and good interplay of action and humor. Ed Noon is knee-deep in danger over an antiquarian nude statue that collectors would kill to own, but when he agrees to help Nicholas Ackademian protect the statue, Ed finds all the guns are pointed at him. Between dodging bullets from Mrs. Ackademian and ducking punches from goons, Ed gets an education in art history that they don’t teach in schools. Avallone’s narration often cracks wise, with lines like this: “There was a long silence. The pregnant kind, without babies.” Sometimes he even makes up phrases, like “I scratched Russia” – which I think means that he scratched his chin (or maybe his forehead). Even if it doesn’t, the line still puts a pretty funny picture in my mind.

In "Open Season on Cops" (MSMM Sept 1962), Ed Noon teams up with the son of a murdered cop to find his killers. This one is more serious in tone, perhaps because of its subject matter. Its plot is straightforward, but suffers for it. A lot of the detection occurs off the page, a tactic more convenient for the writer than it is entertaining for the reader. Still, there’s a good fight at the end, and some solid hardboiled lines like this: “The shoulders, upper sleeves and rear of the tunic below the collar line looked as if someone had bombarded him with about a pound of rotten tomatoes. He had bled like a broken sieve.”

Gary Lovisi’s line of Gryphon Doubles has some great sounding rarities. You can browse through them here, but these are some of the books I am looking forward to reading in the near future: Hot Rock Rumble and Double Take by Richard S. Prather; Terran Girls Make Wonderful Wives by James Reasoner / Minesweeper by Gary Lovisi; and Carboncopy Killer and 12xZero by Howard Browne. Drop by his website and have a look around, you’re sure to find something to suit your tastes.