Stir of Echoes: Book versus Movie

The book was originally published in 1958. Written by one of my faves, Richard Matheson. Among many others he was responsible for I am Legend, The Twilight Zone episode with capt Kirk Nightmare at 20,000 feet, Little Girl Lost (which if you haven’t seen it, it’s the plot for Poltergeist.) Shrinking Man, Hell House, What Dreams May Come, Trilogy of Terror, and the teleplay for Kolchak the Night Stalker. What a resume!

The movie came out in 1999. Screenplay by David Koepp who also wrote the screenplays for Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Mission Impossible, Spiderman and others.

I read a 2000s edition with a boring cover so when we’re talking about the book we’re going to use the Hector Garrido painted 1969 Avon edition.

Basic plot

A family of three- Husband, Wife, toddler son- move into a rental house. The parents along with the wife’s sibling go over to the neighbor’s house for a little party. The wife’s brother (book)/ sister (movie) hypnotizes the husband. While under hypnosis there is a suggestion that his mind will be open to everything. He comes out of it. Jokes are made. They go home. He’s feeling funny. Goes to bed. Nightmare. Wakes up in the middle of the night, goes out into the living room and sees a female apparition standing in his living room. Along with this vision he also has psychic feelings and visions of friends and family. He spends the rest of the story trying to solve the mystery of who this ghostly woman is and what the hell is going on with his mind.

Time and Location.

The book: It’s the end of the 50’s. We are in Southern California. It’s sunny and bright and I imagine the neighborhood looks like the Edward Scissorhands neighborhood. Easter egg-colored houses with perfectly manicured lawns.

The movie: It’s the end of the 90’s. We are in Chicago. It’s a downtown area where the houses are all bunched in and probably built in the 1920’s. It’s summertime so we have block parties but most of the action takes place at night avoiding that pesky sun atmosphere.

The movie wins this one hand down. How are you going to have a ghost story with fresh cut grass ambiance? I want musty smelly basements, plaster walls, and old creaky floors. To be fair, around the time of the novel I imagine California and Hollywood in particular, was a pretty popular interest in middle America. It was new and exciting. Around ’99 Hollywood idolization is played out. People want to see stories they relate to and most of the country is BACK EAST.

The two Toms.

In the book we have Tom Wallace. All American guy, all American name. It doesn’t give us his background. He’s the everyman. He works at THE PLANT down the street. He’s a good-natured fella with a lot of patience. He’s cracking but gently. If you bumped into him in the street you’d probably think, “hmm that Tom Wallace guy seems like he might be having some troubles.”

In the movie we have Tom Witzky. I’m guessing a Polish lineage here. Urban Chicago beer drinking working class guy who fixes your phone lines. Rock n’ Roll guitar player who used to play in bands but now that he’s a little older and has a wife and kid he pouts that his life sucks and he’s never done anything. He completely loses his shit after being hypnotized. If you bumped into movie Tom in the street you’d probably think, “Jesus, what the fuck is that guy’s problem?”

Though I think Kevin Bacon is great in the movie, the book Tom is just a more likeable character. Book Tom cares about his wife and how she feels. Movie Tom gives little effort to his wife’s feelings and is self-centered.

The neighbors

The book neighbors have lots of personality. They are major players in the story right off the bat and make several significant appearances in the story that lead you to believe they have something to do with the ghost mystery. Every time they appear, and Tom has an interaction with them it intensifies the suspense. Layers are peeled.

The movie neighbors are bit players. They appear every once in a while and do and say everyday things. The suspense in the movie leans more toward who the ghost is or what she wants. But it never ventures out into the real-world suspects until the reveal at the end.

The ghost.

The book ghost appears but a couple times. It’s more the idea of her that gives you the creeps. She is described in an appropriately eerie way but it’s subtle. It gives you a taste and lets your mind fill in the rest.

The movie ghost is there. You can see her and doesn’t leave much to be imagined. It will still creep you the hell out, but I think it stays right there in the moment.

Once again, I enjoyed the book better in this aspect. I’ve always been a fan of more subtle horror than blatant gore. Though I did like that the ghost was more at the forefront of the story in the movie. There is more depth to the plot in the novel. Many paths to explore. The movie says, here is a ghost story.

The mystery.

In the book after he gets hypnotized, the psychic powers are at the forefront of the plot. It’s not just a ghost he is seeing but now he can read thoughts, has premonitions, he can feel the horror of the traumatic experience through an object that was at the scene. So not only do we have the mystery of who the ghost was but he’s questioning his sanity. Is he really going mad or is this stuff happening?

In the movie the same things happen but it’s on the back burner. The psychic visions have everything to do with the ghost mystery. He almost doesn’t question what he’s experiencing because his son sees the ghost too. In fact, his son is talking to someone who isn’t there right at the beginning of the movie. In the book it’s only briefly mentioned toward the end that the son might have the same psychic abilities as the dad.

The mystery is played out in different ways in the book and the movie. Both are satisfying. You don’t see them coming, especially in the book. Unfortunately, this move on the part of the screenwriters for the psychic kid screwed them as in the same year the mega hit, The Sixth Sense came out.

Final thoughts.

Both are great. This isn’t a case of the book completely blowing the movie out of the water. There isn’t a clear winner here. It’s sort of like the original Blob movie versus the 80’s remake. Both are perfect for their era. That’s what this was. I do wish the book wasn’t set in Southern California though, that’s my biggest gripe about the novel. I also wouldn’t have minded just a little more ghost. The buildup in the book is a softer hill. It’s not screaming in your face to be noticed but it’s also not off track. You are right there with Tom as he slowly starts to lose it. You’re not watching from the outside.

The book was sexier. A look behind the plastic happy façade of 50s life. There is way more marital disfunction drama in the book than in the movie. Well, as far as the other couples in the book go that is. Tom and his wife are actually great together. In the movie the neighbor’s drama is only lightly suggested and movie Tom and wife are bickering and like previously stated, Tom is a self-absorbed moody downer who all but ignores his family.

That whole part in the movie where the wife and son run into the psychic cop and it basically remakes the Shining scene where Danny meets Dick Holoran is so dumb. That part was not only cheesy and a rip-off, but it goes absolutely nowhere. They really should have cut it. It’s not in the book at all.

Tom is so unlikeable in the movie. He really gets on my nerves. I feel like they could have turned down the intensity a notch. He’s running at ten almost right from the first paranormal occurrence. I do love how 90s it is though. And I prefer the wife’s sister character played by Illeana Douglas, instead of the chummy brother in the book. She’s always great in everything.

If I had to pick one over the other…I’ll give it to the book. It’s creepier to imagine the ghost than to see them. With the movie you are stuck with exactly what is given to you, even though I thought they did a great job. I did like the climax of the movie a little better though. I don’t know man! I just can’t do it. It’s a draw.

Walking Dead by Guy N Smith

New English Library 1984

Guy N Smith was a UK horror writer who lived from 1939 to 2020. His early writing career started with writing articles on shooting and firearms. He then appropriately wrote for Men’s Adventure Magazines. He opened a used book business called Black Hill Books. His first published horror novel was Werewolf by Moonlight in 1974, published by the infamous New English Library. His name is synonymous with pulpy 80s horror. He is responsible for all those Crab books. Night of the Crabs, Killer Crabs, The Origin of the Crabs, Crabs on the Rampage, Crabs’ Moon, Crabs: The Human Sacrifice, Crabs Fury, Crabs Armada, Crabs Unleashed, Killer Crabs: The Return and The Charnel Caves: A Crabs Novel.

Basic Premise: The Walking Dead is the sequel to his 1975 book, The Sucking Pit. Our hero Chris Latimer has sold his land, which included the Sucking Pit. The new owners made it into a quarry. But now it’s sold again, and the new owner is developing the land for homes. While a digger is cleaning up debris, he starts sinking into the sucking pit. Evil ghost Jenny and ghost gypsy king show up in the muck and terror ensues.

I originally purchased both the Sucking Pit and The Walking dead at the same time without realizing they were connected. I did read The Sucking Pit and enjoyed it. The ending was pretty well concluded so I was surprised when I started reading The Walking Dead and realized it was a sequel. I don’t usually read the back synopsis after I buy them, I like to just grab a book and be surprised. And yeah, it says it on the cover but I didn’t notice, ok?

The main character Chris Latimer was the original protagonist, Jenny’s, boyfriend. After Jenny succumbs to the Sucking Pit…wait a minute, I didn’t tell you what the Sucking Pit is. The Sucking Pit is a big hole in the ground that gypsies threw bodies into that has a supernatural force inside of it. Ok, so, Jenny is gone and Chris, her ex-boyfriend who has been hooking up with Jenny’s landlord’s wife since Jenny was banging the landlord for rent free living. The landlord is now at the bottom of the Sucking Pit and Christ Latimer has married, the now deceased landlord’s wife and inherited the property with the Sucking Pit on it. Got it?

That wife is now out of the picture. Either she died or just ran off, I didn’t write it down and it doesn’t matter. He sold the place, and they made it a quarry. A new developer guy has bought it and is going to build a housing development. Chris Latimer is back in town, reliving his Sucking Pit glory days when it starts happening again.

This is a crude and rude gore fest with almost zero plot. There is a swampy hole in the woods with evil spirits that hypnotizes people to commit murder and then jump in the pit. Ghostly Jenny makes a few appearances, usually as a sexy siren who then turns into a decaying corpse that likes to show off her rotted undercarriage. I got to say, I feel bad for the Jenny character. She was a total innocent who got manipulated into evil in the first one and now she’s some hot to trot lifeless sack dying for someone to get it on with. They really just dehumanized this poor woman. I mean, the way it’s written is schlocky and hilarious but at the same time you’re like, come on man.

It's really formulaic. Scene after scene of a new character getting entranced by the Sucking Pit and killing their loved ones. It is pretty damn funny though. There is a part where this middle aged dude sees a young lady (not Jenny, they mixed it up for some reason) hanging out by the Sucking Pit. She tells him to kill his wife. He goes home, grabs an ax and heads upstairs. On the way he realizes he has a boner, so he pops it on out and stats rubbing it with his finger and thumb. He opens the door to his wife. She's like, what the hell?! He ax hacks her with his raging boner swinging around and then flops down onto her eviscerated corpse and just kind of rolls around in the entrails.

If that sounds good to you, well, good news, you’ll love this, because that’s all it is! Another amusing point worth mentioning. There is an asterisk on page 105 and at the bottom of the page there is a note to “see Sucking Pit.” HA!! Dude. You’ve been referencing the Sucking Pit the entire fucking book. Why asterisk now??

It’s fun. A little boring once you see it’s the same thing over and over again but it’s really short at around 150 pages so it’s still enjoyable. The books have a certain appeal to them that other “bad” horror books don’t have, and I think a big part of that is the page count. It’s too short to have filler. It’s kill after ridiculous kill. For as simple as this was, I’ve read worse climaxes with bigger build up. Ultimately, I feel like Guy N Smith was like, yeah sure whatever, here is the ending. Not much was explained but I don’t need it explained. It’s a pit in the woods that’s evil.

The Quick Red Fox by John D MacDonald

Fawcett Gold Medal 1964

Original cover art by Ron Lesser

John Dann MacDonald was an American crime author who lived from 1916 to 1986. After graduating with an MBA from Harvard University in 1939 he joined the United States Army Ordnance Corps and then in World War 2, Like E Howard Hunt, John D MacDonald served in the Office of Strategic Services. Also like Hunt, MacDonald was stationed in China in the same years. It makes me wonder if they ever crossed paths. MacDonald’s writing career was prolific and successful. He started off in the pulps, his first story, G-Robot, was published in 1936 at the age of 20. He then went on to have over 400 short stories published. Novel wise, The Travis McGee series, his most popular, had 21 entries. 43 non-series crime/thrillers and 3 science fiction novels. He wrote The Executioners which was made into a movie called Cape Fear in 1962 and then remade in 1991. He died at the age of 70 from surgery complications.

The Quick Red Fox was the fourth entry in the Travis Mcgee series.

The basic premise: Laid back Florida private detective Travis Mcgee is hired by mega super star actress Lysa Dean. She is being blackmailed with pictures of a party she attended that turned into a drunken drugged filled orgy. Travis must traverse the two coasts with his stuffy tagalong help, Lysa’s assistant, Dana Holtzer, to find the other members of the orgy party to see if they too were victims or part of the conspiracy.

This is the second Travis Mcgee book I have read and this one was way more enjoyable than Dreadful Lemon Sky. First off, his drinkin’ buddy Myer is not in this at all. The cutesy, chummy back and forth between the two really got on my nerves. I loved how Mcgee wasn’t just in one location. This book jumps from Florida to upstate New York, to San Francisco to Las Vegas. This was one hundred percent an investigation as he figures out the identities of the rest of the people at the orgy party, hunts them down across the US and gets their take on the party. Everyone is colorful but realistic with believable motive and reasoning.

Ok, maybe the Lysa Dean actress character was a bit of a stereotype. She all but says, “dahrling” at the end of every sentence. She’s a Midwest gal from Dayton Ohio. Wait, that’s where we’re from! It even tells you her childhood address. I thought it would be great to drive down there and take a picture but unfortunately, even though the street exists, there is no 1610 Madison Street.

McGee is a quiet giant of a man with deep philosophical rivers of thought flowing through his brain constantly. He has many beautifully written diatribes on humanity, our relationships with each other and the disgust he has when a person is treated as disposable. He loathes machismo for the sake of being macho but is, of course, the most macho of all. Basically, he doesn’t start fights, he ends them. Also, the man hates orgies. The fact is brought up many times throughout the book, though never in a preachy manner. McGee is just romantically sentimental. For sure he likes to sleep around constantly and never be in a real relationship, but he likes women as people and that elevates him above orgy people. That’s his reasoning anyway. It somehow comes off as admirable and pompous at the same time.

His co-star in this is Dana Holtzer, Lysa Dean’s assistant. She is cold at first, but the ice eventually starts melting around McGee’s aloof charm. The man isn’t trying to get into her pants though, he’s a gentleman. Like every other character in this book, she has a story and it’s a sad one. Her and her husband had a child who was so disabled they had to abandon it at a mental facility. Yikes. Then her husband is in a coma, I forget why, and is basically living on machines. This book has a lot of bleak in it. Not a lot of sunshine hitting the decks of Mcgee’s houseboat.

The rest of the cast run the gamut of wealthy cockroaches, grey area criminals and victims, domestic violence and mental abusers and everyone living the rough party lifestyle that seems fun at the time until years later when you look back and see how messed up your life has become. Serious drug and alcohol addiction and recovery vibes going on here.

The grit is in the characters. The driving force of the story is the investigation and that is quick and upbeat. Layers are consistently peeled as we get closer to the answer as to why all of this is happening. And it’s not just some get rich quick scheme focused around the actress. It’s a whirlwind shitstorm and everyone is invited. This is a bare bones investigation novel. Direct and to the point. He figures out the names of the rest of the people at the orgy right at the beginning and from there he tracks them down across the country, one by one getting their story. There is a little romance appetizer budding between McGee and Dana but it’s on the back burner simmering.

Couple fun things; There is some trash talking about other authors. McGee refers to the writings of Uris, Wouk and Rand as “portentous gruntings of witless ilk.”

He gets into a fist fight with two tough lesbian ladies. One of the ladies on the orgy list is now living in a trailer. McGee knocks on the door and it is EXACTLY like the scene in Kolchak the Night Strangler when he meets Charisma Beauty and Wilma Krankheimer. You know, I feel like often you see people stealing ol Richard Matheson’s ideas but here I think Mr. Matheson might be guilty of borrowing some MacDonald ideas.

This book was real world gritty. It didn’t have the laidback boathouse sunshine Florida backdrop of Dreadful Lemon Sky. It’s dark, bittersweet and lushly written. Brain and brawn. Classic PI novel with a balanced meshing of progressive and conservative attitudes and probably pretty modern for the time it was written.

The Hanging Stones by Manly Wade Wellman

Berkely Books 1984

Originally published by Double Day 1982

Cover artist: Carl Lundgren

Manly Wade Wellman is most well known for being a pulp writer in the peak of the Weird Tales run. He was born in 1903 in Kamundongo, Portuguese West Africa (Angola) and died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1986. He was married to fellow Weird Tales author Frances Obrist. Along with selling stories Wellman had odd jobs such as farming, working in cotton gins and being a bouncer. He occasionally wrote for the comic books including Captain Marvel and The Spirit. He once beat out William Faulkner for the best story in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Which really pissed off Faulkner. Manly is indeed his real name.

Basic premise: Local folk musician John the Balladeer or Silver John, which I prefer, is headed up to Teatray Mountain to check out this replica Stonehenge they are a-building. He encounters bossy rich guys, a clan of werewolves, a Stonehenge historian hermit and is pulled into a supernatural battle between ghosts of the past and greed of the present.

Not an any easy book to lay down a basic premise! This is such an original book that I wasn’t even sure what notes I should be taking for the review. I had zero idea where the plot was going, who was going to be important and what parts would be played. We’re just going to go ahead and give a standing ovation right here at the beginning and hope to do this thing justice.

I usually like to start with the characters but let’s start with the North Carolina setting here as I believe it is truly the heart of the novel. I wouldn’t call this world building because Appalachia is a world that exists, but Manly Wade brings it to life with such enthusiasm and romanticism that it almost feels like a fantasy world. Something like this would seem difficult to write and not be offensive or cartoonish.

The speech in this is written in Appalachian slang. I’ve seen some reviews from people who live around the area where the story takes place, and they mention that even the regional dialect accent is on point. It is a-written like this, but air think you will get ah used to it quick.

The main character’s name is simply John. He is also known throughout the hills as John the Balladeer or Silver John because of the pure silver strings strung on his guitar. He is a traveling folk singer, fighting the evil entities who creep into his mountain world. He reminds me of a mix between real world travelin’ man Woody Guthrie, fighting for the little man, and Robert E Howard’s character Solomon Kane, a devout Christian with one foot in the world of the occult, battling folklorish mythical evil entities. Silver John may be my favorite fictional character. He has such a logical simple nature, which to an outsider might make him seem like a dumb yokel, but he is incredibly witty and intelligent. His logic is genius in its simplicity. I also love how manly he is. He’s always ready to throw down with his fists. He’s macho without the standard extravagant characteristics.

If this is your first Silver John novel, it has a wonderful introduction to the character. He is heading up Teatrade Mountain to see this new Stone Henge replica someone is building. There is a car stuck in the mud. John runs up and helps by pushing the car, he says, “I had to put all of my man into it.” The guy takes off without so much as a thank you wave. John shrugs and heads on. He comes upon a security guard with a gun who tells him to scram. John doesn’t appreciate the way the man is talking to him and tells him he wouldn’t be much without that firearm. Even though it sounds like John is a macho tough guy, his demeanor isn’t violent. He’s actually very cool, calm and collected but he definitely doesn’t like being disrespected. The security guard is more than happy to throw down his pistol and punch it out. Before the two men start throwing fists the stuck-in-the-mud guy, Noel Kottler comes running down the hill. He is the owner of new Stonehenge and wants to give John a job. There are some “fuzzy headed pointy ear characters” sneaking around the build site and John is tasked with finding out about them and getting rid of them. Even though John doesn’t really like Kottler he takes the job because he’s a curious sort of fellow and there seems to be strange goings on at the top of Teatrade Mountain.

He meets a man who lives on the mountain named Esdras who says his name comes from the two books in the apocrypha…which I had to look up. It means biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture. He also says that he is the seventh son of a seventh son. I only know of the saying because of Iron Maiden so once I again I had to look it up. Seventh son of a seventh son is an ever-changing concept from folklore throughout the world. In Romania it means that the son will be a vampire. In Latin America they will be a werewolf. In Italy he would have power over snakes. In England and Ireland they were healers.

“To qualify as "the seventh son of a seventh son" one must be the seventh male child born in an unbroken line with no female siblings born between, and to a father who himself is the seventh male child born in an unbroken line with no female siblings born between.”- from Wikipedia.

There are two new-age spiritual leaders who want to invest in new Stonehenge. They only care about money as does Kottler. There is a subtle anti-commercialism thread going on. When talking about how much money they will make, John and Esdras comment on how wrong it seems but then in the same breath John remembers that he heard they charge money for the real Stonehenge. To that Esdras replies, the money goes to the nature conservatory. Wellman’s viewpoints and values are smoothly woven into the story. You are never spoken down to or preached at.

There is so much more to say but I don’t won’t to let too much out. It’s such a joy to read a book where you really have no idea where the plot is headed or how the climax will play out.

I am afraid I made it out to be too serious though, which it’s not. It has werewolves. Fist fights with werewolves!! Silver John is a fist fighting fool. At one point he’s about to travel into danger and someone hands him a gun. He refuses it. All he needs are his fists. Now that’s fucking MANLY. He sings lots of folk songs. He has crazy occult knowledge essentially making him an Appalachian occult detective.

We got a little book conspiracy here also. The Kottler character talks about shooting a major motion picture at new Stonehenge and suggests getting a really talented writer like Dennis Etchinson. So, is this a sarcastic jab at Etchinson or did Manly Wade Wellman actually like his writing?? The “really talented” part makes me lean more toward sarcastic jab but it’s up for interpretation.

Silver John is a character who should be well known and celebrated at least as much as Solomon Kane. Every vintage genre fiction fan should have well worn John the Balladeer books on their shelves.

Bonus: I just found out while writing this review that there was a Silver John movie made in 1972 called The Legend of Hillbilly John and some wonderful person put it up on youtube.

Caviar by Theodore Sturgeon

Del Ray Books original 1955

This is the fourth printing from 1977

Cover art by Darrell Sweet

Theodore Sturgeon is a very well-known author so we’re just gonna give a quick rundown bio basics here. He was born Edward Hamilton Waldo (1918-1985). His name was legally changed to Theodore Sturgeon at the age of eleven. He is mostly known for writing science fiction but dabbled in other genre fiction such as horror and fantasy. He also wrote several episodes for the original series of Star Trek including creating the Vulcan saying, “live long and prosper.” Fun fact: Sturgeon was the influence for Kurt Vonnegut’s character Kilgore Trout.

Caviar is a collection of stories originally published in various pulps throughout the years 1941 to 1955. I had been wanting to read some Theodore Sturgeon after getting my first taste in the Men’s Adventure Library Journal collection, Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants. Sturgeon’s story, The Blonde With the Mysterious Body, in there was so oddly David Lynch-like. I was extremely into its weirdness. I had the hopeful assumption that his writing was always that weird. So, how does Caviar hold up on the weird scale?

I figured we’d just do a real quick rundown of each one. (Anthologies are difficult to review.)

1. Bright Segment: Eccentric low IQ outcast picks up a bleeding girl after she’s been thrown from a moving car and nurses her back to health.

Slow pacing with lots of inner monologue. Almost zero dialogue. He sets up, not a weird atmosphere but an off-putting one. It’s tender with a layer of violence just under the skin waiting to burst out. I think if you’re into any of those horror movies that are about someone being held against their will, body horror and/or torture you might be into this. Me, not so much.

2. Microcosmic God: Eccentric scientist inventor secludes himself on an island he bought with money from his inventions. Creates a micro species of super intelligent beings called the Neoterics. Gets attacked by banker.

Started off slow again with the backstory of the scientist. It’s actually pretty amazing that Sturgeon can create such a lush character background and give you a complete and realistic personality in such a short story. At the same time. Not very exciting. I kept waiting for something to happen and in my opinion it took too long. The cover artwork on this anthology depicts this story with the city of the Neoterics under the microscope. It was a little hokey and reminded me of the Star Trek Next Generation nanites. Which is probably where they got the idea eh? Once something finally does happen in the story it was enjoyable but as much as Diet Coke is. Not a lot of sugar in this one.

Originally appeared in: Astounding Science Fiction 1941

3. Ghost of a Chance: Guy meets skinny cute girl at night and instantly falls in love. She acts paranoid like someone is following her and runs away. He bumps into her again and continues his courtship even though she says, for his benefit, he should just go away.

It’s a ghost. There is a ghost following her who has a crush on her and does naughty things to the guys she tries to date. This one was straight lame. Sorry. It was too cutesy and had a premise equal to a third graders creative writing story. It was even poorly written. In the story the guy has a psychiatrist friend who coincidentally happened to be the girl’s ex-psychiatrist. Come on man. It was so dumb and made me not want to read any further.

Originally appeared in: Unknown Worlds 1943

4. Prodigy: In a dystopian future there are mutant children with incredible powers. There is an institute that gases the children when they are too much of a threat.

Yikes! Not sure what he was trying to say here. If you enjoy reading about kids being slaughtered, check this one out. Twilight Zone in underlying premise but not in execution. Mutant children with psi abilities are fun BUT all of the focus is on the nun-psychiatrist-nurse lady who takes care of the children and decides who lives and who dies. This was pretty much a bummer. At one point the biological mom steals her child to love him and then two days later brings him back and basically tells them to gas him. I’m not the brightest crayon in the box so maybe I’m missing the point, but this just seemed completely pointless. And even worse, not enjoyable at all.

Originally appeared in: Astounding Science Fiction 1949

5. Medusa: Six astronauts are sent into space to turn off a force surrounding a planet that makes people go mad.

Now we’re getting a little more into the weird I was looking for. Each of the astronauts is told that they are the only sane one onboard. The others have been picked because not only are they qualified in their specific job, but they are already mad so when the psi planet attacks, they won’t completely lose it. Or something like that. This was a total psychological mind fuck. It’s as if you yourself are on this journey and don’t know if you are the insane one or the rational one. By far the best story here and pulpy fun to boot.

Originally appeared in: Astounding Science Fiction 1942

6. Blabbermouth: Another pulpy tale about a woman who gets juicy information about people from a hateful poltergeist, and she has no choice but to tell the parties involved.

This one was also more fun than the rest. The premise is cheeky Twilight Zone and would have been another stinker if not for the added weirdness that Sturgeon wrote in there. Like the Microcosm God story this is another one where he jam packs a lifetime into ten pages. It’s really amazing how he can do that.

Originally appeared in: Amazing Stories 1945

7. Shadow Shadow on the Wall: Evil stepmom mentally abuses young boy who likes to play shadow puppets on the wall. One day the shadow comes to life and guess who pays the price?

Pretty basic story where you can see the end coming from a mile away. Definitely a quick pulp story. I feel like even in 1950 when this was originally published the evil step-parent who gets there comeuppance was a well-worn trope.

Originally appeared in: Imagination 1950

8. Twink: A dad worries about his baby named Twink after he rolls his car.

This was pretty annoying. It’s a buildup with the mystery being, what’s wrong with Twink. It goes on and on about the dad mentally having a guilty breakdown of worry. Lackluster twist ending.

Originally appeared in: Galaxy Science Fiction 1955

Overall, very disappointing collection. I had such high expectations. Maybe Sturgeon is like one of those bands where you like a few songs a lot but don’t care at all for their others? Now I’m curious to check out one of his novels to see how they are different. Maybe these pulp stories were just a quick buck? Maybe this is where he went to experiment? I don’t know. I need a good place to start for his novels. Any suggestions?

Crown no 1 The Sweet and Sour Kill by Terry Harknett

Originally published by Futura Books 1974

Pinnacle version 1974

Terry Harknett (1936- 2019) was a UK author of Crime and Western fiction including the notorious Edge series. Pseudonyms include Frank Chandler, George G Gilman, Adam Hardy, Jane Harmon, Joseph Hedges, William M James, Charles R Pike, William Pine, Thomas H Stone, and William Terry.

The Crown Series had three entries

The Sweet and Sour Kill 1974

Macao Mayhem 1974

Bamboo Shoot-out 1975

The basic premise: Grandpa and Grandma Chang have closed their Hong Kong Island tailor shop for the night. Two hoods break in and demand “insurance” money. The Changs reply they have already paid it. Thugs say, too bad, there’s a new company in town, smash up the place, smash up the Changs and burn down the building. Their cop grandson Po Chang is back from a US trip. He arrives on the scene in time to run into the building and grab grandpa Chang for his dying words, …”insurance.” Now with his Australian born boss/partner John Crown they hit the Hong Kong crime underground in search of this new murderous faction moving into their city.

What we have here is violent revenge justice mixed with kung-fu b-movie action. This was originally published in 1974 so that would have been the zenith of both of those genres.

The relationship of the tough talking Australian cop and the more soft-spoken Chinese cop reminded me a bit of Big Trouble in Little China.

Po Chang is the native. He is a master of Kung Fu and is dead set on revenge as he should be. He’s angry and always on the verge of losing control but knows to stop right at the edge of the line. The story focuses mainly on him.

Crown’s introduction starts with him chugging whiskey from the bottle in a brothel. He’s not there for the ladies, he just likes to hangout. He’s an alcoholic macho Australian white guy in a foreign world where he barrels through people with zero regard to proper police procedure. He has a sad backstory where his wife and kid leave him and go back to Australia. It’s great because it’s supposed to justify his bad behavior but the reason they left is all on him. He’s the one who decided to stay in Hong Kong. Maybe to suggest a fallible nature? To give him heart? Sympathy? Eh. I just thought it was funny.

There are hilarious interactions with Po Chang and this well-off woman he met on the plane. He borrows her car and gangsters wreck it. He goes back to her apartment with Crown who proceeds to have an argument with her and then backhands her so hard that she flips out of her chair. She then immediately sleeps with Po while both make cheesy sexual innuendo jokes about outlets and getting into the right places. Post coitus there is knock on the door. More gangsters. She then gets knocked unconscious with the butt of a gun and when she regains consciousness, she spits out a couple more sex jokes and orally attacks Chang’s wang. (Hey! Good enough for them, good enough for me). And this is basically all in one chapter. Her character is comically absurd in its obviousness BUT there is some suggestion that she may have more to do with the plot than just being there when Po needs a car, a home base or to get his willy wet. Does it deliver?

This is an investigation novel worthy of a 70s cop show. It’s seedy and scummy. There is a gay cowboy bar where they use that other F word quite liberally. An uber rich American bad guy on a yacht. There are double crosses, drugs, explosions, tough violent cops, reserved violent criminals, fist fights and shoot outs and god damn kung fu. It was lots of dumb fun.

It could have used a little more kung fu though.

Crime Partners by Donald Goines

Originally printed in 1974 by Holloway House under the pseudonym Al C. Clark.

Donald Goines (1936-1974) had a tumultuous life to say the least. Though he grew up in a middle-class family in north central Detroit in the 40s, he dropped out of school in the ninth grade at the age of fifteen, got a fake birth certificate and joined the Air Force during the Korean war. It was during his time in Korea that he discovered heroin. He returned to Detroit and became a pimp and a drug dealer. He was in and out of prison for armed robbery and bootlegging whiskey. While incarcerated he became interested in writing. At first, he tried his hand at westerns, having loved watching the movies on TV when he was a kid. He came upon a novel called Trick Baby by Chicago pimp/author, Iceberg Slim and was inspired to ditch the westerns and write about the world he knew. He cranked out sixteen books in four years. Eight of them in 1974. He would shoot heroin and blast out the stories like Stephen King coked out on Christine always needing that paycheck to pay for his next fix.

Goines was murdered along with his girlfriend in their apartment on Oct 21st 1974. Both were shot five times by two unidentified white men while their two toddler children watched. To this day it is still unsolved. There has been speculation that Goines, who often included real people from the street in his books, possibly rubbed someone the wrong way. It could have also been money owed for drugs. Maybe it was a robbery gone bad? Ironically, the beginning of the book in this review, Crime Partners starts off in a similar way.

Crime Partners is the first in a four-part series featuring Kenyatta who is the leader of a black militant group.

Crime Partners 1974

Death List 1974

Kenyatta’s Escape 1974

Kenyatta’s Last Hit 1975 (finished just before his death and published posthumously)

Kenyatta is named after Jomo Kenyatta who was the Prime Minister of Kenya from 63 to 64 and then became Kenya’s first president from 64 to 78. He was an African Nationalist and led the Kenya African National Union which helped separate Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic.

The basic premise: Two hitmen team up with a black militant extremist group to take out cops and drug dealers from their neighborhood in 1970s Detroit.

The titular crime partners are Billy and Jackie. They have been recently released from prison and need some quick cash, so they decide to rob a junkie. Which, yeah, junkies are the last people with money, so it was an odd choice, but it did give the story a situation (no spoiler) to add a dimension to them to show that they aren’t just ruthless killers, they do have heart. Heads up, it will definitely make you think twice about continuing to read. It’s some brutal shit.

We are introduced to a black and white homicide team of Benson and Ryan. While investigating the junkies murder, Benson is walking around to the back of the building when a white cop tells him to freeze. Apparently, he’s never seen Benson before. He calls him racial slurs. Benson keeps his cool. He doesn’t feel the need to explain to this subordinate officer that he is not only a cop but a homicide detective. Benson’s white partner, Ryan comes running up and only then does the cop take his gun off Benson.

It's interesting that Goines used the scenario where the officer points the gun at Detective Benson to show the racial prejudice. It hits harder than if he had written a more street scenario. Like even being a cop won’t stop the hate. It’s powerful. And to add to the complexity, Ryan the white partner of Benson, is absolutely livid about the racist attitudes towards his partner. In this scene Goines shows two sides of the blue coin which I thought was fair. If this were written today it would have been heavy handed either for or against with no shades of grey.

The perspective switches back to Billy and Jackie. They need new guns. They have a connection named Kenyatta. But Kenyatta explains to them that he’s not an arms dealer and every time he sells guns to them, it’s less guns for his people. We then learn that Kenyatta is the leader of a radical black militant group whose plan is to clean up the streets of Detroit in the black neighborhoods by removing the prostitutes, drug dealers and racist cops. Kenyatta appreciates the reputation Billy and Jackie have as stone-cold killers and enlists them for a mission. The mission? He plans to erase from existence a racist cop (the one who pointed a gun at Benson). The fellas are all in.

From then on, we see the world and ideals of Kenyatta through the eyes of Billy and Jackie. They are shown love and respect and are treated like family. They meet some lovely ladies for some actual touching moments. And they murder more people. Though they don’t take out anybody who you’re going to cry over. Once again, in real life, a little too far. In novelization, just what the doctor ordered.

If this was written scholarly instead of from the street it would be considered “literature.” Though I have read where Goines is taught in some college courses. It is less a straightforward plot and more of a snippet of the landscape of urban Detroit in the 70s. The plot is there but it’s the characters that matter. And what makes me lean towards that literature moniker is that the message is open to interpretation. Nothing is spoon fed to you here. There is no clear cut, good guys versus bad guys. In Goines world it’s all shades of bad. In fact, I wonder if Goines even had a clear-cut agenda other than to give a behind the curtain view of this world.

As far as the writing goes, yeah, it’s a little amateurish, especially in the phrasing of the dialogue (not the slang- that’s perfect), but it’s overshadowed by the overall atmosphere. Also, the detective characters storyline gradually disappears. It was almost like he set out to make a police investigation novel and decided the Kenyatta plotline was more interesting, so he went that way.

I love the moral ambiguity of this.

This book is not for the faint of heart. No one was writing stuff like this. Goines was a trailblazer. On a shelf of gritty hardboiled fiction books his standout as the bleakest and unfortunately the most realistic. But he also adds a layer of heart and remorse, kinship and honor. This is must read material for anyone interested in the crime fiction genre.