Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage 41

  

July 1936 - The Black Spot

The Black Spot starts while Pat Savage is attending a costume party with a mobster theme at the ritzy Vandersleeve estate in tony Westchester. The party is so high profile and the guest list so exclusive that a newsreel cameraman is present. When the host is killed, Pat and cameraman Red Mahoney are witnesses and get involved in a real gangster mystery.

The Black Spot is a New York centered tale of villainous intentions penned by Laurence Donovan. A killer has invented an vicious and most mysterious murder technique that leaves the victim dead with only a small black spot on their chest. The killings start out in the ritzi suburbs of the Westchester hills outside of Manhattan. The black spot killer quickly moves to Manhattan and continues to target the super-rich.

This is a much smaller-scale story than Donovan's previous effort, but ultimately far more satisfying. There is tension here, and Donovan writes the team well, with a satisfying, exciting finish. My favorite non-Dent Doc Adventure thus far.

           
The pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer and the Bantam paperback cover is by Fred Pfeiffer. I'll give The Black Spot a 9 out of 10.

Pulp of the Week - Kim Oh 1: Real Dangerous Girl

.

Back from vacation and ready to go...

Author K.W. Jeter is giving away the first novel in his Kim Oh series. You can find it on his blog linked here - just scroll down to the July 14th post. This first book was a fun read and left me wanting more. I will certainly be picking up the next book.

In this first story we follow Kim Oh, a young accountant who works for a less than legit operation. Her biggest thrill is when she gets to chat with a charming hitman.  Kim is a mousy young woman that takes care of her invalid brother and walks through her boring life. Her boss tells her that big changes are coming. Well, as things turn out, the big changes come and Kim isn't at all happy.

Kim takes a few rash actions and her life changes forever. To say more would be spoilerific, but what Jeter does is a fast fun action piece written first person from Kim's POV. My only grouse is that it ends too soon. That's not an expression. The book ended before I was ready to stop reading and before the big ending. I'm guessing these are a serial story, with parts 1 - 3 being the first story. That's fine because you can check out all of part 1 now for free on Kindle.

K.W. Jeter has written a number of books that I love like Glass Hammer, Death Arms, Farewell Horizontal, Dr. Adder and the Bladerunner sequel novel.

Well, K.W. is back and and writing the stories that he wants to write and publishing them himself through kindle and nook and he has been putting his fantastic back catalog up as well. Jeter is perhaps best known today as the man who coined the phrase, "Steampunk" for the kind of books that he, Tim Powers and James Blaylock were writing at the time.

I'll give Kim Oh 1 a 7 out of 10, but really just because it isn't a complete story. I suspect I'll rate the trilogy higher when I finish it.

.

.