QUICK SHOTS: A Lonely Place to Die by Art Bourgeau

Every now and then, I'll roll the dice. It's a big gamble. I'll buy a whole series of books without reading one of them or anything by the author. It'll usually be at used bookstore and a spur of the moment thing. I mean whatever more books is never a problem to me. That's how I ended up all four of Art Bourgeau's "Snake" Kirlin mystery series. I probably picked them up because they were slim Charter books. I don't run across a lot of Charter books, so I'll pretty much always take note of them if I see them and this being a rural set mystery seemed interesting. 

Art Bourgeau apparently had a mystery bookshop and wrote The Mystery Lover's Companion, a book of reviews of mystery novels that I remember checking out of a library at one time but remember nothing about. Either way, he's got mystery chops. He wrote a couple of stand-alones, but his main work seems to be this series about Claude "Snake" Kirlin and F.T. Zevich, two ex-marines who get involved with various murders. Sounds like fun.

A Lonely Place to Die is the first in the series and we are introduced to Snake and F.T. as they return to Snake's old hometown where there's a mayoral race happening where (gasp) a woman is running for mayor! It's riled up all dudes in the 1980s town. Small town life and its quirks is painted well throughout the book. I'm from a one-horse town and I instantly knew a lot of the people Bourgeau wrote about. Anyway, Snake and F.T. mostly want to hang out in a shack, drink beer, joke and fish. Until they do something, honestly despicable to get the murder plot going.

It's a book very much of its time and place. It seems like Bourgeau wanted to meld mystery fiction to the bawdy literary fiction (and its questionable sexual politics) that was happening in the 70's. This is a book more interested in day-drinkin' and vibes than getting down to any detective work. I found the writing pretty fun. I was curious to hang out with F.T. and Snake, even after they did something I found super gross (I'll get to it) mostly because it's not a big deal to the rest of the characters for the rest of the novel. Bourgeau is able to create some fun banter and good 'ol boy-ism's. It did have the feel of a 70s Hicksploitation B-Movie, with mentions of Waylon Jennings, Leon Russell and other musicians I dig which was fun. Anyway, here's the unfun spoiler thingy. 

 

MILD-SPOILER --

So, F.T. and Snake are in their shack in the woods and F.T. sees two women pull up to a nearby cabin. The women begin to kiss outside the cabin then go inside. F.T. goes and peeps on them through a window and the women are having sex. F.T. goes back and the boys wait for days, staking out the cabin for the women to return with a camera.

The women do return. Snake and F.T. takes photos of the women having sex, once they have them, they bust in a blackmail both women into having sex with THEM with the photos. It was a bizarre thing to have your two "heroes" do. And later it's pretty much brushed over, and Snake has a romantic relationship with one of the women and the other is the murder victim that spurn the whole plot.

SPOILER OVER --

 

So, I kept reading this to see if it ever seemed to be a big deal within the plot, nope, it just seems to be played as "boys will be boys," and other then the photos coming into play (minorly) later it's never a big deal. Just gross. It's a pretty dark lump to have in your mostly for laughs mystery-novel. I might not even think about it being in a twisted adventure of The Sharpshooter or in other trashy series, but it stuck out like a sore thumb here. I'm all for complicated characters but if you're not going to explore anything you set-up what's the point of doing it?

Anyway, the mystery itself is sorta not really explored too much. Things happen to solve it without Snake or F.T. doing much. The "red herrings" are all sorta light pink at best, most of the book is devoted to watching houses, bathing in rivers while always trying to get laid and drinking tons of beer. 

The books did have some minor Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard book vibes, but nowhere near as good. But I got all of them, maybe someday I'll check out the second book, The Most Likely Suspects to see if it was in better and if by the second Bourgeau rounded off the sharp edges any. 

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

QUICK SHOTS: Quarry #2: The Broker's Wife by Max Allan Collins

I've long been a fan of Max Allan Collins work. A couple of his novelizations were some of the first "grown-up" books I read when I made the switch from Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes to the harder stuff. I read quite a few Nathan Heller's in my teenage years and read through some of his comic book work but Nolan and especially Quarry eluded me for a long time. First off, I think I just never ran into them at the used books stores I used to haunt. I picked them up when I saw them, but they were all out of order. And I knew I'd like them, so I wanted to read them through the right way. 

When I did get my hands on the first Quarry, I read it quick and guess what? I liked it a lot then the series sorta became one of the ones that I decided to "savor" waiting for the right time when I needed a sure-fire treat. Since I'm still getting over the reading slump I was in that I talked about in the last review I wanted some sure-fire hits. And I don't think I'll be waiting too long to tackle any more of them.

The Broker's Wife has Quarry, a mid-western hitman who is in quasi-hiding after being around when his boss, The Broker got dead. He's mostly just bored, so when two hired killers come and try to take him out, he's relived to be back in the fray. Along the way he tackles with more killers, shady lawyers and, obviously, the titular Broker's Wife. This is a clean book man; everything works and isn't showy about it. Max's style is sparse and wryly funny. The twists are laid out before and waiting for you to remember about when he lets you in on the REST of the story. Never fails to make you smile. 

Quarry himself is a lot fun too. He's a tough guy, sure, a 'Nam vet who has no qualms about murdering people for money, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have a sense of humor. The humor element is a little stronger here and I think it grows a little more as the series goes on. All-in-all, you just sorta like Quarry, he seems like a good guy to have a soda pop with, as long as you don't cross him.

So, The Broker's Wife (also published as Quarry's List) is a fun time, halfway through I paused my reading and watched The Last Lullaby, a feature film based on the Quarry short story A Matter of Principle. The movie was written by Max and stars Tom Sizemore as Price (Quarry) who does a pretty good job, his Quarry isn't quite as relatable/funny but its solid casting. The movie is an indie joint so adjust your expectations. It's a sturdy adaptation with some flair and really nice acting by Tom and Sasha Alexander. It also seems to take a little from the ending of The Broker's Wife, so I could sorta see where this book was going after a bit. Didn't affect the enjoyment any though. 

So, this one's got like the easiest and highest recommendation. All the Quarry books are easy to get too with Hard Case Crime republishing and publishing the new adventures of Quarry, which isn't always the norm in the books I review here. So, you got no excuse not to pick one or all of them up. 

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

QUICK SHOTS: Hardman #1: Atlanta Deathwatch by Ralph Dennis

 

I've been in a reading slump, nothing to worry about it happens time to time. I start a new book, and it won't grab me. Maybe it's the books' fault, maybe it's my fault. But I had to get it squared away. I'm a read after all. So, I turned to my old buddy Jim Hardman and his old buddy Hump. 

Right out of his college days, my buddy and me ended up in Jacksonville Florida. I was still drifting in and out of colleges back then about to take up a criminal justice degree that would later turn out to be fairly useless. Well, expect maybe as a crime writer. Anyway, he wanted to go down to Florida for some sort of job fair and had a free ticket. I soaked up free booze and food, rode a monorail like that one in that Simpsons episode, hit the bookstores and loafed.

I had heard of the Hardman books before that from my lurking around the Thrilling Detective website. They sounded up my alley. I was on the lookout for something to bring up the James Crumley feeling that Joe R. Lansdale feeling. Something low-down and mean. That cynical 70s-thing that so many try to replicate but came easy back in the day. I hadn't really dipped my toe into the Men's Adventure world at the time, so the numbers on the covers worried me a bit. But I knew I liked private eyes and action and, hell, that's what it promised on the cover.

It was also before I really bought books online. I remember thinking spending four bucks on a book with free shipping sounded like a ripoff. the young me would certainly look cross at me for how much I've spent on online book purchases now. So, my purchase pool was small, and I never came across a Hardman book. But it turns out this bookstore was a good one and it had a whole stack of them, for something like two bucks a piece. What a score. 

After humping back to my hotel room with a bag of books and a few quarts of beer I read Atlanta Deathwatch while my buddy sat in seminar and my mind was blown. Ralph Dennis's work was something special. It was different, hard-boiled as hell but Jim Hardman himself wasn't a cartoon character. He lived and breathed, (and drank) he was fallible but got his man and was tough but knew his limitations. And his partner Hump was cool, confident and a real buddy. A good guy to have in your corner. They had a certain vibe or a certain music to them. They felt like a good Guy Clark album or a riotous live country show, hard-bitten with a few lines of pure poetry. Things I know well. 

What really struck me is, like Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard books is that they felt like men I knew and grew up with. Being from a small KS town, I didn't feel much connection to New York or L.A., but Atlanta didn't seem too far away, and the restaurants and bars seemed like they could be familiar. I really understood the small towns that Hump and Hardman would go to from time to time, which I imagine would be alien to some city folk. It was a nice change of pace.

So, I eventually tracked them all down, a few more added from a Gardner's Used Books in Tulsa with a few of Ralph's stand-alone books, one picked up on the road in a truck stop along with a few Bruno Rossi Sharpshooters, the rest on online. They were a secret to me then, a series of books that only I seemed to know about and dig. I read a good chunk of them while working as Pinkerton guard at an aircraft plant. Eventually Lee Goldberg found out he loved them too and got them reprinted and I wasn't alone, a lot of people found out how good Ralph was. 

Atlanta Deathwatch is the one I started with, and it's been the longest since I read it, so I pulled it off the shelf. It was a good choice; I read it with ease and enjoyment rather quickly. I forgot how rough and tumble this first one is, some of the edges are smoother (just a bit) as the series goes on. Maybe it's Ralph or Hardman getting slightly older, maybe its Marcy, Hardman's complicated girlfriend. But they're a tour of the mean streets of 70s Atlanta with detours to the rich dudes as Hardman and Hump investigate the death of a co-ed who was tangled up with The Man, a black mobster. There're beatings, killings, shoot-outs and sieges, you know all the good stuff. It's a twisty mystery to boot. It's really just a helluva book.

So, I'll probably re-read them again, this time fully in order (I had to read what I had the first time) and since I remember only the feelings not the plot by this point, it'll be as close as new to me as I can get. 

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

REVISITED QUICK SHOTS: Cut by Jerry Bronson

 

Cut by Jerry Bronson is something of a legend book in certain trash circles. It took me a couple of years to track mine down. That's a lot of saved searches on eBay, Wishlist clicking and searching of any place that sold used books online. Eventually I got it from an online compadre (thanks, Stan!) and read it right up. I chronicled that in depth here and the other day I started writing what will (probably) my second novel, an extra violent/comic private eye tale and decided to re-read some stuff that I'm using for inspiration. So, be on the lookout for "Revisited Quick Shots," if that's your bag.

This is a Laurence James/John Harvey joint. Legend has it they took turns writing it and since they are British writers sent it off to British publishers who promptly thought it was "too violent" to publish. I don't know if that's the case or if it's just a better story. Especially since Piccadilly Westerns exist. But either way it ended up stateside as a one-off by Pinnacle. It must not have set the world on fire. I imagine the lackluster photo cover might have had something to do with it. Copies are scarce, so it must have had a low print-run or got remanded or maybe someone went around and bought them all up. Who knows?

But it's certainly ripe for sleaziods to love in 2026. A nasty little slice of private eye fiction set in California with the hunt for a rich lady's missing sister leading to cults and *dun-dun* snuff films. The P.I. is Reagan, a hard drinkin' ex-cop whose lady died from a drug overdose so he's gruff about it, but it doesn't stop him from sexing the ladies. He's in the classic mold, broke, tough who packs a .44 Magnum (when it's not a .45 automatic, the writer's must not have talked much) and asthmatic. Well, maybe not the asthmatic part. There's sex, a Boris Karloff/Vincent Price-type horror star, rich ladies, overweight hookers, sleaze and SLEAZE, action, crazed cult members and leaders and some truly graphic gore. 

So, it's a good time. It's certainly not a carefully crafted mystery. It's a seat-of-the-pantser and a one-upper. The writers certainly appeared to have fun churning it out. All of that appeals to me. Sometimes I want some good writing (I'm reading Butcher's Moon by Richard (Donald Westlake) Stark now and WOW is it getting good) but other times I want a drunk guy on a barstool next to me to tell me a wild-ass tale that he probably shouldn't. That's what Cut is. I like Reagan enough, but the real star is the sleaze with an extra side of sleaze. 

There's been some rumblings about people trying to get it republished, but nothing solid. I'd imagine it'd happen eventually; everything comes back around. I hope so anyway, I'm just not giving up my copy of it!

QUICK SHOTS: The Sharpshooter #5: Night of the Assassins by Bruno (Len Levinson) Rossi

 Ah, the twisted world of Johnny Rock came calling. It'd been a minute since I cracked open a volume of The Sharpshooter, and that's a wicked shame. The saga of The Marksman/The Sharpshooter/The Assassin is one of my favorites of the 70s Men's adventure offerings. Because this is where things get weird.

The books are sloppier than Don Pendleton's work. They are hastily thrown together pulp cranked out by pure id and a few days of hazy typing. Most of them sorta work in some sort of dreamscape where things just happen. They seem like bar room tales told over an ever-increasing amount of beer, where parts of the tale don't quite add up and lucky coincidences run rampant. That all depends on who's writing them of course.  

This one's the work of Len Levinson, an all-around terrific storyteller who spins the most level of all of these paperbacks. Len gives Johnny Rock more personality than the other writers who worked on the series, who paint Rock as a raving psycho. I mean, he's a raving psycho here too, but he'll have a few human emotions too. Rock's got the usual vigilante trappings, the mafia killed his family, and he goes out kills the mafia. Don't mess with something that works. 

In Night of the Assassins, he finds himself in Miami and sets out killing various mob dudes. In-between his a-murderin' Rock gambles a little, plans his hits a lot and has some fun with various woman who seem very willing to bed down a half-crazed stranger. Along the way's there's scuba raids on casino boats, long-range sniping, machine-gunnin,' dumb cops, dead mobsters and some rough complications. All in all, it's a good time between the covers. Len makes Rock interesting and you don't mind just spending time with him as runs around Miami, that isn't to say that the action is fast and furious when it happens. This one's got some great set-pieces (one's on the cover) and quick action. 

Like I said, Len can write. You'll probably never be disappointed if he wrote it. This series and its sister series' can be a mixed bag and unfortunately their all getting pretty pricey these days. I used to buy 'em for a buck or two in used bookstores and I've even bought a couple at that truck stop. Now most of them will run $5-$10 and some of the choice ones, the ones written by Len or Russell Smith will go for crazy prices. That's what happens when you become a legend.

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

QUICK SHOTS: Dead Man #5: Blood Mesa by James Reasoner

The other day I was rearranging bookshelves. Call it my form of mediation. It started out as a book hunt, a "do I have that book, or have I just been thinking about buying it?" Then I spotted some things that didn't belong in their respective spaces, and I decided to remedy that situation. This snowballed into a light rearranging that took a whole afternoon. I recently finally gave up my day-job for my side-work and make my own schedule now and spending an afternoon hip deep in the library organizing sure put my head on straight again. Ah, Zen. 

It's inevitable that if you dig around your own shelfs enough, you find the forgotten treasures. I finally tracked down an elusive copy of Walter Wager's 58 Minutes that I'd been searching for and a wayward stack of the Dirty Harry books by Warner books. But I also dove into my trade-paperback and hardback shelves, which I honestly don't look at much. The mass market paperback is the finest book format ever created, and I'll die on that cross. So, I was surprised to find the second volume of the Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin lead Dead Man series that I didn't remember actually buying. I enjoyed the first volume immensely but got side-tracked keeping up with it. After an afternoon of bookwork, I decided on a treat. 

The Dead Man series is the classic Men's Adventure set-up. A revolving door of authors tackling entries in a series built around a badass protagonist. Here it's Matt Cahill, a man who died in an avalanche until to be un-frozen, only to see the evil that a certain Mr. Dark has infected people with. Before you can turn your TV to The Fugitive or The Incredible Hulk, Matt hits the road searching for Mr. Dark and having adventures along the way. I suggest you read the first novel first to get the whole set-up, but after that they can be read at your discretion. 

It had also been too long since I had read anything by James Reasoner, so I flipped this second volume to his entry Blood Mesa, cracked open a cold beer and started reading. Matt finds himself in New Mexico on a remote archeological dig as a truck driver. Naturally this dig on top of the titular blood red mesa and of course Mr. Dark's evil is a problem again. With its remote location, there's a bit of a "siege atmosphere" as the members of the dig turn into crazed killers, leaving Matt and his trusty axe to save the survivors. There's a little interpersonal drama, plenty of axe-action, some explosions, rotting people, ancient curse-stuff and a beautiful woman to fall for Matt. This is a quick, tense read, the length of The Dead Man novels is one of the series great strengths. They fly by and keep you wanting more. 

Reasoner is a helluva writer. I always mention his private eye novel Texas Wind and his sadly aborted Men's Aventure series Diamondback whenever his name comes up, but the truth is you can't go wrong any of his work. He's a true-blue pulp writer cranking out wonderful adventure tales. He works a lot in the western genre, and he infused a little of that into this horror/action tale, and it really work for me. His entry it got me itching to read more of his stuff AND more adventures of Matt Cahill. 

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

QUICK SHOTS: Landshark #1 by Irwin Zacharia

One of my little paperback obsessions is books published by the fly-by-night publisher Carousel (a division of American Art Enterprises, the porn publisher) and the crown jewel of their output is the work by Irwin Zacharia. In my humble opinion anyway. I've covered his The Protector series about the sumo-wrestling private eye who fights supernatural menaces and one of his Vendetta books about Will Power, vigilante for hire. It took a long time, but I finally tracked down both books in his Landshark series about Salamander Shark. As you can see 'ol Irwin had a thing with goofy names. 

Irwin certainly had a thing for other names if the general consensus is correct that Irwin Zacharia is actually Paul Little who supposedly wrote something like 700 novels (whew) under a ton of names. Obviously, the supposedly mafia-adjacent Carousel Books records aren't around now, so we might never know who Irwin actually is. I do have some other novels that are known to be Little's work and I'll have to read them to compare the writing. I DO think that it was singular man writing as "Irwin Zacharia," the goofy names, some distinct odd turns of phrase and some preoccupations shine throughout all the books. 

So, this was after the SNL skit's where Chevy Chase played a landshark so I'm just going to assume that was the germ of the idea. But here the titular "landshark" is Salamander Shark, a man of Native and Asian descent who is part Tarzan, part Robin Hood, part Bruce Lee and all paperback hero. He lives in the desert with his family and steals to improve the lives of native Americans. He's also basically superhuman. He can move without sound, climb up anything, expel poison with thought and even CHOP MOTHER FUCKER'S HEADS OFF WITH HIS HANDS.

Yeah. He's a cool 70s macho dude. Here he robs a cabal of rich douchebags to build a hospital. This gets him tangled up in a government investigation of said douchebags. The G-Men are onto the bad guys, but they need a Superman to take them out and Shark is reluctantly drawn into a dastardly plot to overthrow a whole country with a drug-fueled army. Along the way there's plenty of night raids, sexual shenanigans, ass-kicking and chopping off of body parts with bare hands, vaginal contraceptive foam used as a weapon, scaling tall buildings in loincloths (yes, Virginia, the book's cover actually happens) and all-around Men's Adventure fun. 

The whole set-up is vaguely familiar to fans of Men's Adventure, owing a little to John Eagle, Expeditor and a whole lot to Tarzan and Doc Savage and the like. This is a slim book, and it was clearly written in a couple of sittings (maybe with some help from some uppers, smokes and a little whiskey to taste, but it was fun for what it is. It's pretty modern in some ways, the treatment of the Native American characters (though total stereotypes) is pretty favorable, and it's got a strong distrust of rich people (always appreciated) and a lot of the books at the time weren't even that progressive. 

These are the books I really enjoy. The weird outliers, the rush jobs. Stuff like Kirby Carr's Hitman or Norman Conway's Clown-covered Hunter or Andrew Sugar's Enforcer. The stuff that was really playing with the conventions of the genre and taking it to some odd places. I'm glad I have the awesomely named second book (and last) book in the series: Landshark #2: Piranha, Piranha to enjoy, I'll savor it as a treat.