Top Ten Stand-Alone Men Adventure Novels

Recently there was a big tornado scare at my house, it looked like it was going to Mucho-trouble. While getting the house battened down, I looked over at my "good" shelf, the bookshelf with the rare books and the cherished books. Panic struck and I had to squirrel away some choice books that I wouldn't want to be without. These aren't exclusively those books, but some are. Luckily the tornado never showed up and my books (and family of wife and cats) were fine. But it got me thinking about top ten lists and savers.

So, I decided to make up a little list. Now, I saved series titles for another list in the future, just focusing on stand-alones and series hopefuls. You know, where the weird stuff lies. Since I covered most of these books on the blog, it's a little primer to all the old reviews. Compiling the list was interesting as patterns emerged. I like private eyes; I hate Nazi's and love the 70s.

So, here's a list, the numbers don't matter. I can split hairs that much. 

1. Shark Fighter by Nicolas (Len Levinson) Brady

Len Levinson is a legend in the field. All of his books are incredibly enjoyable, especially his entries in the Sharpshooter and Ryker/SuperCop Joe Blaze series. But this is his crowning achievement. It's a wonderful mash-up of 70s obsessions, an Evel Knievel-style stuntman, Jaws-born shark frenzy, drug running, sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. It's a wild nail-biter when Taggart (the titular shark fighter) agrees to fight a shark on T.V. but he's also tangled up with women and non-shark related danger. It's a perfect rollicking manly tale.  

2. Dragon's Fist by Jim (Denny O'Neill) Dennis

Denny O'Neill wrote a lor of comic books and not so many novels. Also, most of those novels featured established comic book characters. This one is actually the origin of a comic character, Richard Dragon Kung-Fu Master who worked his way into the DC universe, thought never really used to his potential. Denny is a fantastic adventure writer (his take on Batman in the 70s is a favorite and a lot of the times feels very James Bond-inspired) and Dragon's Fist is Kung-Fu cinema on the page. It's my favorite over-all Kung-Fu book. It's a thrill-ride full of tons of fighting, a little introspection and characters you want to spend time with.  

3. Death of the Fuhrer by Roland Puccetti

I recently wrote a whole post about my love for this one, so I won't get too far into the weeds with it. But this is my all-time favorite Men's Adventure novel, as it has everything I like and its totally bananas. I suppose if your hero is out to kill Adolf Hitler and then fuck-up some Nazi shit, I'm there. Plus, there's brain transplants, sex baronesses, dark castles, motorcycle escapades. What more could you want in a pulp novel?

4. Cut by Jerry (Laurence James & John Harvey) Bronson

James Laurence and John Harvey, two British pulp writers in the 70s (though Harvey went and got respectable later) teamed up to produce the most distilled hard-boiled, grimy private eye tale I have ever read. It's a slim volume where P.I. Frank Regan uses his .44 Magnum (sometimes .45, two writers give 'em a break) to break up a snuff film ring. This is a dark, twisted Grindhouse movie on the page. It's got sleaze dripping off of it when you pull it off the shelf. It's also mean and violent. It moves so fast because it seems like the two writers were just trying to one-up themselves the whole time. So, it's the good stuff. 

5. Blaster: The Girl with the Dynamite Bangs by Lou Cameron

Lou Cameron is a writer with a tone of books to his name, mostly westerns. This was an attempt to make a "blue-collar" Men's Adeventure protagonist for the working-class Schmoes who read these books back in the day. So, its stars a construction demolition expert. I got three neighbors who do that same thing. Boomer Green is the titular Blaster who's down in South America tangling with old Nazi's and new Nazi plots. He keeps a .25 pistol in his shirt pocket and a lady on his arm. The occupational change is a nice switch from the various vigilantes, spies and mercenaries that usually star in these books. and you know what? Explosions are cool.

6. Terror at Boulder Dam by Vince (Mike Newton) Robinson

This one comes out of the Mafia-front publisher Carousel and is one of the first works by noted adventure writer Mike Newton who later wrote books in the Executioner and Destroyer series. This is another private eye tale, where Las Vegas detective Brad Kendall comes up against a plot to blow up the (you guessed it) Boulder Dam by a group of KKK-like dickholes. There's plenty of barfights, showgirls, and gun-filled showdowns. It's a full-tilt boogie.

7. Dachau Treasure by Anthony DeStefano

Anthony DeStefano is mostly known for his kickass Mondo series of martial books. He was also a painter who did work with paperback covers. Dachau Treasure stars Stosh Jacobs, his eye-patch and his .44 Magnum. Stosh hunts down Nazi's and kills them after his experience in the Dachau concentration camp as a child. He's after the titular treasure to return it to the rightful heirs and to, again, kill Nazi's along the way. It's a wonderful slice of grimy pulp with action, gore and of (yet again) Nazi killin' along the way. 

8. The Sundance Murders by Peter McCurtin 

Peter McCurtin burned up the typewriter back in the 70s, penning way too many tough guy books to count. And that's all in-between being an editor at Belmont-Tower. Somewhere in there he wrote The Sundance Murders. it stars Berger, a sleazy tabloid reporter who keeps a cut-down Walther P-38 under his coat and has a nose for trouble. He's a classic McCurtin character. He drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, the ladies love him, and he likes trouble. It's pretty much a modern western, complete with terrible stereotypical depictions of Native Americans, which is a bummer. But Berger is a fun character, and I'm convinced he was originally the main character in the novel The Camp, which was started by McCurtin and finished by Len Levinson

9. Diamondback by James Reasoner 

Diamondback is a one-and-done (actually never printed until much later) Men's Adventure series by the always readable James Reasoner. Reasoner's novel Texas Wind is one of my favorite private eye novels of all time. This one feels like an 80s action TV show that never was. Tom Sloane is suddenly an ex-cop whose itchy trigger finger had gotten him in trouble. After some shenanigans he finds himself in the employee of a rich dude who wants his own action hero to take down the bad guys. So, Sloane gets guns, a battle van and takes on a paramilitary organization all by his lonesome. The Texas setting sets it apart from the rest of the pack of heroes at the time. It's a real shame this one didn't have multiple sequels. 

10. A Run in Diamonds by Alex (Bill Pronzini) Saxon

Bill Pronzini is a master mystery writer, who's rather soft-boiled series about the Nameless Detective is just wonderful, even if he doesn't shoot or punch people. With, A Run in Diamonds, Pronzini was tapping into his love of the pulp Black Mask by writing a well-seasoned crime tale about Carmody, a bodyguard/smuggler living in Majorca. He gets in involved with beautiful women and dangerous deals. This one reads like an updated 50s Fawcett Gold Medal paperback and was supposed to be the first in a series, hence the pseudonym. Carmody got a little bit of a comeback when Pronzini had the book reprinted (and edited) in hardback with a couple of short stories. 

QUICK SHOTS: "The Jade Figurine" by Bill Pronzini

Bill Pronzini has been a part of my reading life for a lot of years way in my teens devouring mystery fiction. I got started with his Nameless Detective books which were so good I rarely complained that they weren't action packed and I think a lot of my love and interest of pulp magazines come from Nameless's love and interest in pulp magazines. Pronzini has written a lot of mysteries, suspense work, and even westerns. He obviously has a has an affinity for hard-boiled tales, but rarely seems to get the opportunity to write them. His "A Run in Diamonds" (originally published as by Alex Saxon) is one of the great "lost Men's Adventure" series only getting one book and some short stories dedicated to Carmody, a tough jack-of-all-trades in a tough world. With Jeffery Wallmann he wrote "Day of the Moon," a wonderful hybrid of a detective novel with the flavor of Richard Stark's Parker books. And as Jack Foxx, Pronzini wrote two books about Dan Connell, a former pilot and smuggler trying to stay out of trouble (and failing) in Singapore.

"The Jade Figurine" owes some groundwork to "The Maltese Falcon." A tough guy lead stuck in the middle of a several double-crosses over a valuable statuette. Plus, one of the bad guys is real fat. Other than that, it's a comfortable tale of murder and smuggling in an old B-Movie sort of way. Dan Connell is on the outs, working day labor and drinking beer in Singapore when an old buddy comes to Dan and wants him to smuggle him out of the country. Dan doesn't do that anymore and there's the start of a well-crafted crime tale with a dash of exotic-locale adventure story mixed in. Dan is beaten, shot, double crossed, accused of murder and runs afoul of the police all in under 200 pages. Books used to know how to do it. What's wonderful about "The Jade Figurine" is that Pronzini knows all the cliches and trappings involved in these kinds of stories, he manipulates them and twists them around to create a fresh take but doesn't break the mold. There's plenty of local color, slippery characters and a strong twisting story that could have run as a serial in the pages of "Black Mask." It actually reminded me a bit of Raoul Whitfield's Jo Gar stories which I hadn't read when I first read the book back in my teens with its mixture of hardboiled first-person narration and foreign land intrigue. 

Wonder how much I paid?

There's really nothing wrong with this book. I don't think Pronzini is capable of writing a book novel. Every single one I've ever read had a flow clean flow, made perfect sense and moved along quickly. I'm going to have to take a long at the second Connell book "Dead Run" before too long and maybe an early Nameless or two. I recall really enjoying "Undercurrent," the third in the series and I just happened to come across a nice old paperback in the wild. Hmm. Decisions. Decisions. Seriously go read "The Jade Figurine" now. It's easily available as an eBook or reprint under Pronzini's real name. 

Men's Adventure in Digestable Form

I've been a book slump; what I pick off the shelves just hasn't been hitting me right or maybe the outside world is just keeping too much of my attention. Whenever I get like this I turn to short stories and novellas, punchier works that don't take anytime to devour usually screws my head on straight. When this strikes, I turn to my digest and anthology shelf. I'm a big fan of digests, but they can be a headache to collect, their scarcity and higher prices has made my collection modest, though I buy them whenever I can. I keep dreaming of the find of a full big box of Mike Shayne's, Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen's but it hasn't happened yet, dammit.  Anyway, here's a smattering of short reviews for short works.

"Seven from INTREX" by Michael Avallone in The Saint Mystery Magazine, September 1966

Michael Avallone is one of favorite authors and it had been a while since I dipped into his work. The David Seven series (four stories) all appeared in The Saint Mystery magazine over the course of 2 years. Seven (cool name) is an agent for a independent crime-fighting agency funded by rich people (if only) to work toward Peace, man. 

David Seven himself is a fairly standard secret agent-type, not surprising that Avallone wrote the first Nick Carter, Killmaster AND the first Man from U.N.C.L.E. tie-in novel. This is very much his own version the super-agent. Knowing Avallone's love of the pulps, it wouldn't surprise me if Operator 5 or Secret Agent X helped in the process. Seven's partner Miles Running Bear Farmer, who gets himself in trouble in this story and Seven has to work to get him out. It's a whole lot of fun, short and too the point with all the nice comforting 60's spy-fi tropes that make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. I would have loved it if Avallone wrote expanded Seven's world to novel, but it seems like he was busy enough at the time. Though if David Avallone ever reads this, I'd be first in line with a handful of money for a collection of Michael Avallone's short works.

"A Fox on Broadway" by Gary Phillips in "Crime Square" edited by Robert Randisi

I've long been a fan of Gary Phillips, his Ivan Monk mysteries are some of the most unsung private eye novels of the 90's. Plus his stand-alone novel "The Perpetrators" is a stone-cold action novel classic, one of the most high-octane books I've ever read and one of the few I've read more then once. This story is set in the early 80's and stars Pete Atlas, a Men's Adventure private eye who's just plain cool. Not to mention that it name-drops Angela Harpe, star of the "Dark Angel" series by James Lawrence! (Which got me to spend WAY too much to pick up a entry in the series, god, I'm a sucker)

"A Fox on Broadway" is a hoot! Man, it doesn't seem like Phillips ever revisited the Atlas character and that's a bummer. It reads like a super-condensed paperback novel in one of the "Sweats." The opening grabs you (there's a hat-wearing man in a gorilla suit chasing a naked woman down the street) and then throws you on a wild, tight little escaped involving brain-washing and damned 'ol Nazis. The only problem is that its short, I could have read a lot more about Atlas and his adventures. 

 

"The Majorcan Assignment" by Bill Pronzini and "The Cinder Man" by Jeffery Wallermann in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, October, 1972

It took me a while to realize that I was reading a "Nameless" detective story from Bill Pronzini, it dawned on me about the time I thought, "gee, did I miss this guys name?" then I felt dumb. I've read a big chunk of the Nameless series in my teens (I was that cool) and always enjoyed them, especially the early ones and the ones centered around pulp magazines. He's a little more hard-boiled in this early story then I remembered him, but it's been a while since I read one of the novels.

"The Majorcan Assignment," finds Nameless in Majorca to deliver some hurried cash to a rich man's son, he's looking at it like a nice vacation, but once there and after a smack in the face he knows trouble is brewing. This is a nice, clean and to-the-point private eye tale with a little more heart then you average tough-guy tale. I'm going to have to dig out one of the novels to read, as it's been too long since me and Nameless hung out.

Jeffrey M. Wallamann wrote with Bill Pronzini some so it was only fitting that I check out his tale, "The Cinder Man," starring insurance investigator Sam Culp. I had read another Culp story in the "Pure Pulp" anthology and enjoyed it. It's a bit by-the-numbers but Culp's a likeable character and it built to some nice tension. I must have liked it well enough because it got me to order Wallermann's novel "The Spiral Web." 

"The Busy Corpse" by Stephen Mertz in The Executioner Mystery Magazine August 1976

The Executioner Mystery Magazine was a short-venture, it probably didn't get a lot of traction because unlike other "stars" of mystery magazines, like Shell Scott, Mike Shayne or The Man from U.N.C.L.E. there is no novella staring Mack Bolan in the magazine, he just lent his nickname to the title. But there's good stuff in them, old stalwarts like Talmage Powell , Gil Brewer, and Richard Demming had stories in them, so you know it's got class.

Stephen Mertz has written a lot of books, including "Some Die Hard," which I reviewed a while ago. He's a fantastic old-school writer of tough-guy fiction who's work is clean, professional and most importantly very entertaining. "The Busy Corpse" is his first published work and it already showed that he was guy who had the goods. It's a clever and fun private eye story and maybe the secret inspiration for "Weekend and Bernie's." I need to pull his newer series about Kilroy, the 70's set Denver P.I. who's already had a few adventures, off the shelf and give the rest of them a spin and review them. "The Busy Corpse" is also easily available in "The King of Horror and Other Stories," a collection of Mertz's short work.


"A Trip to the Islands" by Edward Y. Breese in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine February 1971

This issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine not only has one of favorite characters from MSMM Johnny Hawk, but it also as a Jules de Grandin reprint and the Mike Shayne story was a ghost-work by noted sci-fi and Lovecraftian author Frank Belknap Long, so it's got a lot going for it. But I'm in for the Johnny Hawk tale, so:

Johnny Hawk is a super-hard boiled trouble-shooter with a cut-down .45 Colt New Service and a penchant for getting into and out of jams. Hawk got a lot going for him, he's suitably tough and without a strict background his stories can be mysteries in the private eye mold or more of the secret agent type tale. He would have made a great paperback hero, but Breese kept busy ghost-writing Mike Shayne tales for MSMM and selling stories to other digest. "A Trip to the Islands," is a nice south of the border type adventure with dangerous dames and bad-baddies. I'm on a mission to collect all the Johnny Hawk tales.

A Run in Diamonds by Alex Saxon (Bill Prozini)

Bill Pronzini, noted mystery writer who's "Nameless" Private Detective novels are legendary. I read a score of them when I was in my teens, at the time (also now) I looked for tough action packed books that would thrill me. The Nameless (so called because Mr. Pronzini purposely didn't give the character a name) books aren't that at all. They are quite and beautifully written down-to-earth stories of a regular beer-drinking schmo who collects old Pulps and solves mysteries.  They really are top-shelve books and the series has run consecutively since the 70's. No small feat. AND they still thrilled me.

Back in the 70's he got hired to start a Men's Adventure series about a badass named Carmody who hires himself out to badass things like body-guarding, black marketing and such. He's a true hard-case, very much in the mold of a character who would have been splashed across the pages of "Black Mask." In fact, when I read this I kept thinking of Raoul Whitfield's Jo Gar, a detective in Malina who appeared in that pulp. There's no real easy comparisons between the two characters other then being tough guys in exotic ports, since Carmody's beat is Majorca. But they spiritual connection was there for me. Or maybe I just got Pulps on the brain. Either way I like these types of stories, they are sort of like a good spy story but without a lot the governmental agency hang-ups that can slow down a story about shootin' bad-dudes and scoring with gorgeous women.

Basically it goes like this Carmody gets screwed on a diamond deal and goes out for revenge with only his wits and a Beretta. All of this is told in Pronzini's typical clean style. The action is well handled and brutal. Its really a damned shame that this wasn't a long running series, it has a nice pliable central character who's morally ambiguous and could get wrapped up in all sorts of a nasty schemes only to fight his way out. It could have avoided a stagnation of plots that appear in other series such as "kill a bunch of mobsters, then later killed a bunch of mobsters."

A lot of Men's Adventure books are simply "hack work," there I said it; lazily and quickly written for a buck. Sometimes that can be its own magic and sometimes it's just shit. Others are writers still honing their craft and learning as they go. Then there's good authors doing good work in a genre that they actually seem to appreciate. Bill Pronzini is too much a writer to write hack work. The world of Carmody is instantly colorful and as real as an action book can feel. Obviously there's not a lot of deep-thinking and self-analyzing. THANK GOD. But the novel moves, makes sense and provides a lot of entertainment in a short page count. Exactly what I want.

Carmody appeared in a few short stories as well in digest around the same time and in the 90's everything that had Carmody in it was republished as "Carmody's Run" by Bill Pronzini. It had all the short stories and a shortened version of the novel, as Mr. Pronzini states in the introduction that he was a little embarrassed about his earlier writing and "cleaned it up." That's the version of the novel I read and it's lean and mean. I need to track down the original paperback and give it a read to compare. I see some mention of a book from 1999 called "The Dying Time," credited to Pronzini as Alex Saxon, but can't seem to find any other info on it. Maybe there's a lost Carmody floating out there.

Mr. Pronzini has a few A.K.A. works including a nice two-book series about a pilot named Dan Connell who gets into frays and then has to extricate himself out of. He wrote these as Jack Foxx, "The Jade Figurine" and "Dead Run," both eventually published under his own name. They read like nice old B-Movies of the 30's, 40's and 50's adventures in the South Seas with crooks, dangerous dames and killers lurking about. Equally as good is a book called "Day of the Moon" he wrote with Jeffery Wallmann about a fixer/detective for the mob named Flagg. It runs along the same lines as say a Parker novel by Richard Stark or a Quarry book by Max Allan Collins. He's also wrote a bunch of westerns and stand-alone books, if his name's on a book it's a safe bet that it'll be good.