The Big Brain #3: Energy Zero by Gary Brandner

 

(1976: third book in The Big Brain trilogy. Publisher: Zebra Books.)

 

From the back cover

“THE BIG BRAIN IS POWERLESS. . .

“And so is the rest of the country. Call it energy crisis, black-out, magnetic warp. . . call it what you will, but there is just no electricity, plain and simple. Lights won’t light, motors won’t start, auxiliary generators are dead. And without any AC, DC is on its knees, ready to surrender.

“Even Colin Garrett, whose super bain can untangle the most incomprehensible technical problem, finds this truly a current conundrum. But even if he has to short every circuit in his brain, Garrett must learn who pulled the switch on Washington!”

 

Review

The Chinese are again the (probable) villains in Energy Zero, this time operating an “oil exploration” station in the frozen hell called the North Pole—it seems they, while seemingly working on a legit program, might be using a mysterious machine whose broadcasting power nullifies its targets’ electrical power, rendering them completely helpless energy-wise.

Of course, Energy has familiar setups and characters (again, Garrett gets a case partner: this time Ko Chun, who seems on the up-and-up, but is he really?). But Brandner ups his game here, plays with men’s adventure genre/Big Brain expectations with new-to-the-series twists and character motivations which, along with Garrett’s second-to-third-act survivalist situation (truly harrowing and inventive, with luck thrown in), make Energy (at least for this reader) the best entry in the already-fun, smartly written Brain trilogy. Garrett’s proclivity for casual sex (usually with affection—he is truly a lover of women) is in evidence as well, keeping with the first two books, so readers who enjoy that aspect can smile at it anew. Excellent, humorous and fun-in-a-men’s-adventure-way read, this crisply written and edited adventure is a great, playful ending for the Big Brain series.

“Moon Knight” Omnibus, Vol. 2 by various authors and artists (Part 2 of 2)

(oversized hb; 2021: graphic novel. Collects Moon Knight #21-38; Iron Man #161; Power Man and Iron Fist #87; Marvel Team-Up #144; Moon Knight #1-6 [second run, 1985]; Marvel Fanfare #30, 38 and 39; Solo Avengers #3; and Marvel Superheroes #1.)

From the inside flap

“Moon Knight’s first solo series comes to a close, including the climax of Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz’s artwork continues to evolve before your eyes, he and Moench put their tortured hero through a series of trials—including the return of the waking nightmare that is Morpheus and the vigilante Stained Glass Scarlet, now wielding a crossbow as her weapon of choice. But while encounters with these and other deadly adversaries take their toll, they have nothing on the task of juggling the identities of mercenary Marc Spector, millionaire playboy Steven Grant and cabbie Jake Lockley—not least the strain that puts on his love life. And just as Marlene Alraune starts to doubt their romantic future, her brother gets caught up in the madness—and things go from bad to worse. When a mystery man is inspired to seek power by becoming Moon Knight’s dark nemesis, will the schemes of the Black Spectre drive a final wedge between Marc and Marlene—or perhaps destroy the silver-and-ebon-clad marauder once and for all? Though that task may fall to Moon Knight’s very first foe, the Werewolf By Night—back and more ferocious than ever, as only Sienkiewicz could draw him.

“Other creators take Moon Knight in new directions as he fights killers, super villains and zuvembies—and shares adventures with Brother Voodoo, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Power Man and Iron Fist, the X-men, the Fantastic Four, and more. But as he falls further under the influence of a certain Egyptian god, he emerges stronger than ever—as the Fist of Khonshu! It’s the dawn of a new era for Marc Spector, but where does that leave Marlene?”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review. Part 2 of the review is here. Vol. 2 (Part 1) starts here.

The creative team behind Moon Knight really upped their game in these final Volume 1-run (1980-1984) issues. A lot changed, not just for Moon Knight, but its supporting characters (e.g., Gena, MK’s diner-owning friend and mother of two energetic teenage boys), and those wild changes made equally big waves in the storylines as well as Spector/Grant/MK’s bruising, who-am-I mindset and life. The first five issues of this omnibus wrap up the Volume 1 run, leaving MK (as well as his friends and family) in a good place.

The Volume 2 run (six issues, 1985) shatter MK’s quiet life—Spector/Grant had left his vigilante lifestyle behind—and compel him to don the jet and silver spandex again, this time without his usual supporting characters (e.g., Marlene Aulrane) always close by. Volume 2 issues also bring to the fore a more supernatural element in MK’s life (the Volume 1 creators had left the extent of MK’s mystical elements open for readers to decide), and the Volume 2 really run with those elements, connecting MK (now truly “the Fist of Khonshu”) with three immortal Thebes Valley priests who regularly unsettle Spector/MK’s peace of mind as they alert him to incidents of global malfeasance and terror. The Volume 2 run ends on a solid, entertaining note.

The five remaining non-Moon Knight issues in this hardback (and physically heavy) collection place MK in a guest role.  Some of them are strange (even for a MK read), as if any superhero could’ve been inserted into his role(s)/appearances, while others are entertaining in a general way.

The quality of Moon Knight’s (and associated titles) artwork varies with who’s doing the drawing, linework and coloring. Most of it’s good (in that gritty, experimental and pulpy series-true way). The rest embraces a new aesthetic, one that may or may not grab you, depending on when you came up reading comic books (and if you grew up reading them).

Ultimately, “Moon Knight” Omnibus, Vol. 2, with its complicated, often tormented and hallucinating title character, is as great a read as Vol. 1, worth owning (despite their not-for-the-casual reader priciness).

 

Review, issue by issue

Moon Knight: “Primal Scream”/”Scorecard” (#34)—“Primal Scream”: Gena , local diner owner and Moon Knight’s [MK] friend, is viciously attacked by a young man (Frank) exposed to a dangerous chemical (the result of a secret experiment, code name: “Project Primal”—an operation MK’s alter-ego, Marc Spector, once confronted). In the now, MK must track down Frank as well as locate the source of his poisonous infection, before it spreads to others.

Excellent issue, art-, character- and writing-wise, with its planetary environment-focused message, reminiscent of elements in Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 film The Return of the Living Dead. This issue is scripter Tony Isabella’s first work for MK.

 

“Scorecard”: This fun, experimental issue is narrated by a decrepit, macabre-humored host (the Scorekeeper) in a riff on the EC horror-esque works like Marvel’s The Vault of Evil (1973-1975).

In “Scorecard,” the Scorekeeper asks readers if MK’s anti-crime efforts are effective, actually help society at large. The answer is obvious, yes, shown in an overview of MK’s street encounters, including the trouncing of two thugs pretending to be werewolves while they prey on local (New York City) shopkeepers. This mini-story also continues the storyline of “Primal Scream,” with Gena making a post-Frank-attack, life-changing announcement to her adolescent sons (Ricky, Ray).

 

Moon Knight: “Second Wind” (#35, double-sized issue): Excellent issue!

A battle with a winged thief (The Fly) leaves MK seriously injured—possibly unable to walk for the rest of his life. As if that weren’t bad enough, a Soviet mutant (Bora), with her tornado-creating powers, is on a mission to hunt down and blow into oblivion those who defected ballet dancers who betrayed her and their country.

When MK (as Steven Grant) and Marlene Alraune cross paths with her, and he is unable to stop her, he enlists the aid of the Uncanny X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Can they stop Bora? Can MK/Grant regain his ability to walk? And what is it that Gena, MK’s diner-owning friend and anti-crime ally, feels the burning need to tell him?

There’s a lot happening in this issue, even for a Moon Knight comic book, all of it entertaining, tightly penned and risk-taking (series- and character-wise) in the best ways.

 

Moon Knight: “Ghosts” (#36): A Nubian demonic necromancer (Anmutef) from the twentieth century B.C. is accidentally resurrected by MK’S Khonshu-enhanced presence, threatening the world anew, and necessitating initially unwanted-by-MK assistance from Stephen Strange, master of the mystic arts. MK and Strange should remove Amutef from our earthly realm, but MK (who’s sworn off any belief in Khonshu’s supernatural intervention and powers in his life, must somehow rediscover his wonder about the albino-statue god.

Excellent game-changing issue in the Moon Knight series, one whose repercussions are likely to ring loud in future issues.

 

Moon Knight: “Red Sins” / “Crawley” (#37) – “Red Sins”: Elias Spector, Marc’s rabbi father, lies on his deathbed while Marc/MK processes that fact by pummeling neo-Nazi punks. Once MK comes back to himself, he and Marlene Alraune go to see his father just as a bizarre turn of events sets everything on its head. Excellent, with a cliffhanger finish to this.

 

“Crawley”: Bertrand “Jake” Crawley, one of MK’s key street informants and friends, recounts how he helped MK deal with a neighborhood mob of people. Fun, okay story.

 

Moon Knight: “Final Rest” (#38): In the cliffhanger conclusion to last issue’s first story (“Red Sins”), a curiously familiar red-robed and -masked magick practitioner (Zohar), who took Elias Spector’s corpse, is tracked by MK and Marlene Alraune. But Zohar has a few insidious tricks up his voluminous sleeves. This is a particularly dark and life-changing conflict for Marc Spector/MK, especially fun (for the reader) and intense.

This is the final issue of the original run of Moon Knight, a good send-off.

 

Marvel Team-Up: Spider-Man and Moon Knight — “My Sword I Lay Down!” (#144): The two heroes come together to battle The White Dragon, a white- and red-spandex clad villain who means to take over New York City’s Chinatown district after one of MK’s friends and Chinatown leader (Do Yang) dies. Good, entertaining issue.

 

Moon Knight: “Night of the Jackal” (#1, volume 2): In this first-issue, series reboot (and sequel series to the original run of Moon Knight), Steven Grant has sworn off his MK-related vigilante activities and is living a happy life with his longtime, live-in girlfriend (Marlene Alraune). Alraune, like Spector/Grant is thrilled; she no long has to worry about her lover’s safety.

It all comes to a crashing end when a new villain, a resurrected priest (“Araamses, brother to the pharaoh Seti” and “priest to the god Anubis, Slayer of souls and dweller of darkness”) threatens to destroy Khonshu, the moon god who resurrected MK. A reluctant Grant, after a visit to Thebes, the Valley of the Kings, is (again) compelled to by three seemingly immortal priests to become “the Fist of Khonshu,” even if it means losing those he loves in the process.

Entertaining going-back-to-MK’s-roots reboot, worth reading. This first Volume 2 issue kicks off a more supernatural take on MK’s adventures, a take that was absent the Volume 1 stories (Bill Sienkiewicz preferred MK’s world and adventures to be more real-world.)

 

Moon Knight: “Deadly Knowledge” (#2, volume 2): Northern Yucatan, Mexico. Still grieving over being dumped by his longtime love (Marlene Alraune), MK, with help from über-feminist scientist Dr. Victoria Grail, tries to stop a Nazi experiment-obsessed scientist (Dr. Arthur Harrow) from completing his jungle-secret mission—it’s an especially personal quest for Harrow, whose twisted-mouth visage, the result of his “trigeminal neuralgia, tic douloureux,” might be cured by the human suffering he’s causing.

Good, fun issue; it introduces not just one (possibly) recurring villain, but several—including those working for the imposing O.M.N.I.U.M., Harrow’s financial benefactors.

 

Moon Knight: “A Madness of Dreams!” (#3, volume 2): Morpheus, within the body of Peter Alraune (Marlene’s brother), awakens anew (Morpheus was last seen in Moon Knight, #22 volume 1). The dream demon escapes Seaview Research Hospital where he was interned, his violent rampage resulting in a hospital-hostage situation, a full-blown nightmare event that the police, cordoned outside, are helpless to end.

Can MK rescue the hospital-trapped Marlene Alraune and put down, again, the contagious insanity that is the ebon-energies-blasting Morpheus? This is another good issue that ties together Spector/MK’s personal life with that of his vigilante life. Lieutenant detective Flint, MK’s New York cop buddy, last seen in Moon Knight #30 volume 1, also makes an appearance!

 

Moon Knight: “Bluebeard’s Castle” (#4, volume 2): Female Fortune 500 executives—four so far—have been kidnapped and are being held for future execution by the misogynistic, seething Bluebeard, a new villain in MK’s gallery of foes. It looks like the modern-day pirate’s crime spree will continue unless the police stop it, something they’ve been unable to do. A desperate Detective Flint asks a reluctant MK to help stop the neuron-ray-blasting, newspaper- and cop-taunting kidnapper, a request Spector/Grant struggles with.

Fun, solid issue. It’s not difficult to figure out who Bluebeard really is, but considering it’s a comic book it’s a non-issue, at least in this case.

 

Moon Knight: “Debts and Balances” (#5, volume 2): Khonshu’s three mystical priests from Thebes (specifically the Valley of the Kings), first seen in “Night of the Jackal” (#1, volume 2), compel MK to leave New York City to go to Chicago, IL to save sacrificial children from the immortality-seeking White Cobra Cult and (possibly) three black-clad assassins, who are somehow linked to the cult. Good, entertaining work.

 

Moon Knight: “The Last. . . White Knight” (#6, volume 2): An unspecified South Caribbean island. MK, with help from a junkie US Customs Special Agent (Lynora Goode), sets out to take down a heroin-dealing gang . Led by fierce and imposing Mama White, a priestess and “keeper of the old faith, protector of ancient rites,” the gang also kidnaps children for a mysterious “Sacrament” ritual—one which MK might be forced to take part in!

Solid, entertaining finale to the Volume 2 run of Moon Knight.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “Real to Reel” (#30): MK and Marlene Alraune (who was not with Steven Grant/MK in the Volume 2 run of Moon Knight), hanging out in a small backwoods town, are drawn into a crazy-weird situation where a cinema verité filmmaker draws the wrath of locals and a spectral bodied Mother Nature—the latter partially born of a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment, a “Syzygy Quadrature.” The filmmaker has accomplished this massive piss-everyone-off event by killing a herd of deer for a scene in a film shoot, then leaving their corpses to rot, waste away.

This one-off issue is a disconnected-from-Moon-Knight-Volume-2 work, a forgettable, weird and bland trifle of a Moon Knight tale (it could almost be applied to any superhero, with MK’s name filling in the character-blanks. It also has a ridiculous Marlene/MK-argument subplot, one that belongs in a teen romance work, not worthy of Moon Knight.

 

Solo Avengers #3: Hawkeye and Moon Knight—“Tower of Shadows”: MK, seeking leads on a criminal (Cornelius Van Lunt), is given a late-night address to visit by his former-foe-turned-friend Jack Russell (aka Werewolf By Night)—but when MK has to run a gauntlet of death traps as well as fight a blue-cowled and -caped phantom of sorts (The Shroud), MK questions whether or not he’s being “set up” and: is there more to this situation than he initially thought?

This issue, like the MK-visiting Marvel Fanfare: “Real to Reel” (#30) issue, feels off as a MK-centric work. When MK, frustrated by the “Tower of Shadows” traps and attacks by The Shroud, begins questioning Jack Russell’s loyalty to MK—something that Russell has repeatedly proven during the original runs of Werewolf By Night and Moon Knight—it just reads wrong. Sub-par writing as a MK-centric work.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “Whatever Happened to the Podunk Slam?” (#38): At an all-female orphanage (Danielle Clarke Home for Lost and Friendless Girls), young girls begin disappearing just as old women begin appearing in their place and a boy band (pop quintette Podunk Slam) is in town. MK, ditching his Steven Grant persona (and merged its millionaire status with his birth name, Marc Spector), investigates this strange situation, with help from his right-hand man and copter pilot (Frenchie) and his art-collection advisor (Spence).

 

“Podunk” is an especially fun and wild-for-a-comic-book issue, one that recalls some of more enjoyable Volume 1 Moon Knight entries.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “#*@%&c” (#39): Relatively light entry in the Moon Knight series where MK fights off terrorists. Fun, offbeat read.

 

Marvel Super-Heroes: “Old Business” (#1): Houston, Texas. Marc Spector, visits an old friend—Gena, former owner of Gena’s Diner (and one of MK’s “Baker Street Irregulars”) in Moon Knight Volume 1 run, now the co-owner and manager of a fancy restaurant. His visit is interrupted when he must don MK’s silver-and-jet outfit to stop a jewel thief (The Raptor).

While The Raptor feels like a lightweight villain, it’s entertaining, and the scenes where Gena and Spector are talking are heartwarming, a nice capper to the just-after-Volume 2 Moon Knight run.

The Big Brain #2: The Beezlebub Business by Gary Brandner

 

(pb; 1975: second book in The Big Brain trilogy. Publisher: Zebra Books.)

 

From the back cover

“What good is a billion-dollar brain when there’s the devil to pay?

“It’s hell on earth for Colin Garrett—the Big Brain—when an assignment to investigate the President’s chief advisor on forgeign affairs leads him to the Beezlebub Club. The elite club is a haven of sex and Satanism for Senators and other Washington headliners: it may also be afront for undesirable political activists. Garrett’s Big Brain usually functions faster than a computer, allowing him to probe men’s minds and read their thoughts. But now a deadly, impenetrable mind shield, wielded by Beezlebub, has Garrett almost helpless in a masterful duel of brain waves. Because if just one circuit shorts, it will blow out the Big Brain forever!”

 

Review

The second Big Brain novel finds Colin Garrett and his Agency Zero boss (General Jefferson “J.J.” Judd) investigating Alec Danneman, friend and close advisor to the current US President—it seems that Danneman has been become secretive with his colleagues, his actions made more suspicious by the fact that Danneman is set to engage in important international negotiations with Chinese government officials (among them Chung Tao-Lin, head of the Chinese intelligence agency).

Garrett’s job becomes more complicated when Judd’s friend, Darrell York, member of Executive Committee of Foreign Affairs board, is publicly stabbed to death; York was the one who gave Judd the heads-up on Danneman. Another violent death, possibly connected to York’s killing, widens the scope of the investigation, bringing two others into Garrett’s orbit: Norman Schuyler, husband of the recently deceased Bebe Schuyler; and Liona Wolfe, a satanic dominatrix linked to the notorious Beezlebub Club (which Danneman recently visited).

Fortunately for Garrett, Beezlebub‘s Garrett Woman (think “Bond Girl”) is Trudie McKenzie, a smart, sometimes girly, Washington D.C. guide who provides more than transportation help to the titular cerebral spy-detective.

One curious character, briefly mentioned as a “friend” of Judd’s, is Dr. Arnold Tesla. Arnold’s name is close to Bela Lugosi’s character, Dr. Armand Tesla, in the 1943 Lew Landers film The Return of the Vampire. Not sure if it’s a coincidence, or why it might be a cinematic-to-pulp in-joke, but given Brandner’s genre-smart pulp sensibilities, it perked my interest.

As with the first novel (The Aardvark Affair), Beezlebub’s writing is fast-paced, tightly edited and bluntly male-gaze in its language, with its casual-womanizer Garrett deftly, sometimes violently and carnally adapting to its corkscrew events and lots-of-suspects characters. (The two sex scenes are explicit enough to make the sexually shy blush, but fall short of being completely X-rated.) The killer (or killers) isn’t too hard to figure out, but it’s an entertaining action-flick, short-read trashy novel by an excellent, having-fun author. Worth reading, this. Followed by The Big Brain #3: Energy Zero.

Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout

 

(pb; 1939: sixth book in the forty-six book Nero Wolfe detective series)

 

From the front page

“THE CASE OF THE BUM STEER

“A foolproof bull

“A foolish young man

“A foolhardy blackmailer

“These were but a few of the annoyances waiting for the ponderous frame and quicksilver mind of Nero Wolfe as he ventured upstate to compete in an orchid contest at the Exposition. For a restauranteur had paid an exorbitant price for a prize bull, intending to roast him for a giant barbecue. The furor he caused quickly led to a double murder, and a side case of blackmail for good measure—with the finger of suspicion pointing straight at Wolfe’s sidekick, Archie Goodwin.”

 

Review

Caesar is an especially delightful Wolfe/Goodwin mystery outing, placing Wolfe outside of his cozy milieu (his brownstone building), with an especially fun, bold, hope-she-sticks-around-in-future-books love interest for Goodwin (stunningly beautiful and smart bad girl Lily Rowan). Of course, the sarcastic back-and-forth exchanges between Wolfe and Goodwin are verbal-spar gem-like here, and the murder set-up (poor Clyde Osgood) and Wolfe’s solving of it is impressively simple, direct yet similarly clever. At this point in the series, I’ve come to regard Wolfe and Goodwin as warm-friend-familiar characters, and this, thus far, is one of my favorite Wolfe books, largely because of that last feeling.

Followed by Over My Dead Body (1940).

Escape from New York by Mike McQuay

 

(pb; 1981: movie tie-in, based on John Carpenter and Nick Castle’s screenplay)

 

From the back cover

“1997. In an America ravaged by war and gutted by riots and social collapse, ‘Snake’ Plissken was the deadliest man alive. Ex-soldier, ex-hero, outlaw. Snake was so slippery no trap could catch him, no jail could hold him. Then he was set up, betrayed, captured. They sent him into the ultimate prison: New York City. A penal colony 12 miles long and two miles wide. An urban jungle where men had become things and only the most brutal survived. But they gave him one shot at freedom. Somewhere in that cesspool of humanity was the President of the United States. Snake had twenty-four hours to find him. The rest was easy. He just had to get out alive.”

 

Review

Above-average movie tie-in novels consistently add different, character-expanding elements to their source-film stories. Mike McQuay’s Escape does this, e.g., showing New York police commissioner Bob Hauk’s rarely displayed sensitive side while revealing why he, a Leningrad war vet like Plissken, took the job. Additionally, McQuay details Plissken’s past and why he is the way he is, making Escape a standout, vividly pulpy read. That McQuay is also an excellent character-centric action writer with an in-joke sense of humor further makes Escape, long out of print, a book worth owning, an adaptation that’s as great as its source script/film.

 

#

 

The source film, starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plisskin and Lee Van Cleef as Bob Hauk, was released stateside on July 10, 1981.

Black Evening by David Morrell

 

(pb; 1999: story/novella anthology)

 

From the back cover

“Fear of loss, fear of pain, fear of madness, fear of being trapped, fear of the inescapable, unspeakable horrors that fester deep within the soul. . . No matter who or where they are, fear is always with you, always ready to attack from behind the masks of thought and dream.”

 

Overall review

The sixteen stories in this collection are a mixed bag. Morrell, an excellent novelist, is an okay short story/novella author. His end-twists are solid but telegraphed early on in a Stephen King/Dean Koontz mainstream way. The writing is cinematically vivid, a strength in novels, but sometimes a shortcoming in shorter works, particularly works that depends on twist/shock-value elements.

Standout stories/novellas: “The Partnership,” “Black Evening,” “The Typewriter,” “But at My Back I Always Hear,” “The Storm,” “For These and All My Sins” and “Mumbo Jumbo.”

Worth checking out from the library for those seeking fresh-edge thrills. Worth owning for those looking for touchy-feely, solid if often familiar-finish works.

 

Review, story by story

“The Dripping”: A man, walking through a strangely empty house with an ever-present dripping sound, finds himself in the throes of a nightmare. Solid story, feels like an early, still-figuring-it-out work from a fledgling short-fiction writer.

 

 

“The Partnership”: Competitive business partners grow more so when one of them hires a clever, money-hungry hitman. Great, twisty pulpy tale.

 

 

“Black Evening”: A police chief, a deputy and a doctor investigate a dilapidated house with a stench about it—and discover a horrifying crime scene that’s more than it seems.

Good story, with an end-twist that doesn’t feel feels forced, underwhelming.

 

 

“The Hidden Laughter”: An empty house where children’s laughter is heard reveals deeper, possibly darker secrets. Again, good lead-up with an out-of-nowhere, unearned twist.

 

 

“The Typewriter” (novella): A struggling, broke, wanna-be author (Eric) buys an ugly, odd-shaped typewriter that seems to write publishable work almost on its own, making Eric successful. But, as with many things, there’s a catch. This tale, a blend of Ray Bradbury’s supernatural whimsy and style and an old E.C. comic book, is excellent, one of the best novellas in this collection, and one of the best overall short works I’ve read in a while.

 

 

“But at My Back I Always Hear”: Life gets turned upside-down when a college professor and his family when one of his students (Samantha Perry) becomes obsessed with him and calling him late at night. As the intensity of her stalking becomes more elevated, the professor’s family’s lives become terrifying when something that should be impossible seems all-too-possible. Excellent novella, one that feels like Stephen King’s early, better stories, theme-, tone- and edit-wise.

 

 

“The Storm” (novella): A stormfront, increasing in intensity and consistency, follows a vacationing family as they head home, causing disasters and almost repeatedly killing them—eventually they realize what is likely causing it, but can they stop it in time, without making the situation worse? Another above-average supernatural novella that Stephen King fans might like.

 

 

“For These and All My Sins” (novella): After his car breaks down, a man finds himself in a spooky town with monstrously deformed humans, who are not friendly. Lovecraftian-dread, mood-effective, solid and entertaining throughout, has a Twilight Zone feel to it.

 

 

“Black and Red All Over”: A newspaper delivery boy in a small town tells how the town was stalked by a murderer who targeted newspaper delivery boys. Chatty, overlong, okay work.

 

 

“Mumbo Jumbo” (novella): Two friends join their high school football team and experience their coach’s secret pre-game ritual with his players, a ritual that may or may not change all their lives.

Excellent and engaging coming-of-age read, with a touch of the possibly supernatural and more than a touch of religion-based superstition in it. Somehow this has the feel of a Bruce Springsteen song as well.

 

 

“Dead Image” (novella): Good, hint-of-the-darkly-mystical and intriguing story about a Hollywood, CA screenwriter who discovers a bit actor (Wes Crane) who may be the reincarnation of an iconic, died-young actor (James Deacon, a—you guessed it—a fictionalized version of James Dean) makes a huge career gamble and works with him. . . only to possibly see history repeat itself. Can he stop the (perceived) curse before it strikes again?

 

 

“Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity” (novella): Modern day academic researchers follow the creative and physical trail of a nineteenth century, gone-mad painter (Van Dorn) in hopes of understanding the “secret” draw of his work. Any reader familiar with creepy mystery tales like these can easily figure out where the story’s going, but this well-written EC Comics-esque cautionary tale is entertaining throughout.

 

“The Beautiful Uncut Hair of Graves” (novella): A lawyer, grieving for his recently deceased parents, finds a document in their attic-stored papers that turns his world upside down. Following the trail available to him to their—possibly his—past, the mourning son risks everything to discover truths which may kill him. Solid, if overlong story (even for a grief-paced read), not Morrell’s best work.

 

“The Shrine” (novella): Another story about grief, this time a man mourning his recently killed wife and son, a process complicated by his inheritance of two friends’ property. Like “Beautiful,” it’s overlong but it’s a better piece than “Beautiful.” Liked the familiar but warm, character-true finish, the natural melding of darkness and hope.

The Nested Man by Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2024)

From the back cover

“Frank Hastane is an anthropology professor attempting to decode a notorious grimoire known as the Atrum Res. Frank’s uprooted this family and responsibilities at Rawlson University, an institution with a checkered past. Soon he begins to discover the terrifying truth about the grimoire, his supervisor at Rawlson, and his own identity and past connection with the book.”

 

Review

The tone and details of Steensland’s latest book, Nested, brings to mind the steady-build paranoia of a 1970s/80s conspiracy thriller crossed with a 1980s/90s supernatural mystery, with a suburban/collegiate cypher of a protagonist whose hazy past comes into nightmarish relief when he gets an enigmatic phone call from a mysterious woman. This ringing of Hastane leads him down a dark, possibly fatal path of self-discovery, one that threatens his family and the world as well.

Nested is an excellent read, one worth owning—it’s tight prose, attention to details (which usually matter in a larger way later in the book), and waste-no-words, steady-build pacing is one of the better conspiracy-fiction books I’ve read in a long while, given to us by the co-screenwriter of Jakob’s Wife (2021; director/co-screenwriter: Travis Stevens) and other worthwhile works.

The Long Kiss Goodnight by Randall Boyll

 

(pb; 1996: movie tie-in novel, based on Shane Black’s screenplay)

From the back cover

“Eight years ago, Samantha Caine, woke up on a beach—two months pregnant—with amnesia. Now it’s eight years later, and the tranquil life she’s built with her new husband Hal and daughter Caitlin is about to shatter.

“Samantha doesn’t remember that she was once the United States government’s most lethal assassin. But Pentecost—a vicious and cunning terrorist leader who was her last assignment—recalls her vividly. After believing she was dead, he has just discovered she’s alive—and he’s sending his people after her.

“When Caitlin was kidnapped by Pentecost’s terrorist group, Samantha has to remember her deadly skills before her family becomes just a memory.”

 

Review

Boyll’s adaptation of filmmaker Shane Black’s whip-smart script crackles with the underlying humor of its source-material script/film, maintaining the fun sense of Black’s over-the-top, memorable action set pieces, character development (and resulting concern this viewer-later-reader felt for key characters) and swift pacing. Not only that, Boyll ups the enjoyment level of Goodnight by including a not-in-the-film chapter about Samantha/Charly’s childhood, how she came by her emotional damage and came to be a government assassin. Goodnight is a great, blast-of-a-read movie tie-in novel, one that answers the question some may ask: why read the book when you can just watch the movie? Worth owning, this, especially for that glimpse into Charly’s memory/psyche and a playful reference to another film actor Samuel L. Jackson (who plays Mitch Henessy in Goodnight) co-starred in.

The Big Brain #1: The Aardvark Affair by Gary Brandner

 

(pb; 1975: first book in The Big Brain trilogy. Publisher: Zebra Books.)

From the back cover

“Before his birth, even before his conception, everything about Colin Garrett’s life was planned with a single goal in mind: to produce a genius child. The plan was so successful that the standard tests for intelligence did not measure high enough to rate Colin on their scales.

“But one thing the brain wasn’t smart enough to do was keep his mind power hidden from the Army.

“When serious trouble erupts at Aardvark, Colonel Jefferson (J.J.) Judd makes it his business to start the brain working again for the highest-level espionage operation ever conceived—Agency Zero.

 

“Judd tells Garrett that Aardvark is a soil reclamation project, testing ultrasonics and laser light to change the molecular structure of barren soil. And there people have become mental vegetables in the course of that testing.

“But you can’t keep a secret from a man with X-ray intelligence. Garrett knows one of those three is faking.”

 

Review

This 189-page “men’s adventure” book, the first in Brandner’s The Big Brain trilogy, is a fun, tightly penned, action-punctuated and oh-so-masculine spy-ish thriller where the titular, ultra-smart character (Colin Garrett) and his muscular partner-in-espionage, Beverley “Beano” Rocker, set out to discover who’s responsible for the sabotage of a top-secret government program (Aardvark). Their spiraling investigation takes them to (for them) unexpected places, with inevitable and well-placed, effective twists, and a solemn finish. While there are few surprises for genre-familiar readers in Aardvark, it’s an above-average thriller from the author of The Howling trilogy. Fans of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Ian Fleming’s James Bond series might especially enjoy Aardvark.

Aardvark is followed by The Big Brain #2: The Beezlebub Business.

Tomie by Junji Ito

 

(hb; 1987-2001 manga series, collected into the above-shown 2016 omnibus edition)

 

From the back cover

“Tomie is the girl you wish you could forget. She’s the one you shouldn’t have touched, shouldn’t have smiled at, shouldn’t have made mad. She’s oh so lovely—but you just might love her to death.”

 

Review

Ito’s first mega-successful manga series about a seemingly immortal and invincible girl you can’t kill is an unsettling, bold and often horrific work, about a bedazzling girl who seems nice for two seconds before her selfish demon side begins ruining her victims—usually anybody within her gaze and memory. While the structure of these episodic, expanding tales are essentially the same, it’s fun and interesting to see Ito’s early, emerging style and structuring (which lent itself to later, greater works) as well as the playful creativity of the myriad of ways that Tomie gets at her victims, often through initially innocuous ways. And of course the artwork is great.

Tomie has inspired nine live-action films (starting with Tomie, 1998), at least one Japanese series and scores of other directly linked multimedia/crossover works. Worth checking out, this.

The Magician's Wife by James M. Cain

 

The Magician’s Wife by James M. Cain

(pb;1965)

From the back cover

“CLAY LOCKWOOD.

“He was a powerful business executive with a brilliant career ahead of him—until he met Sally.

 

“SALLY ALEXIS.

“She was a magician’s beautiful wife, but it was her own sensuous magic that drew Clay to what he knew would mean trouble.

 

“GRACE SIMONE.

“Clay was her idea of everything a man should be—and she didn’t intend to share Clay with Sally.”

 

Review

Fans of Cain’s heady brew of firebrand men and women, lust, suspense and murder are likely to enjoy wholesale-meat salesman (and manly man) Clay Lockwood’s dizzying, quick-twists journey down a rabbit hole of character-based success, desire and death (in this case the latter is likely to be Alec Gorsuch, aka the Great Alexis, husband of Sally, one of Lockwood’s lovers). Like much of Cain’s other headlong-into-trouble works, this one is chatty at times (though it doesn’t feel like filler), with a variety of engaging characters—some of them honest, like Edith “Buster” Conlon, a feisty, friendly stripper, and her lawyer (and Lockwood’s friend), Nat Pender! For me, though, the standout character is the savvy, patient Grace Simone, Sally’s mother, who isn’t out to get her daughter, but won’t let Sally get in the way of what she wants. The ending has its own stark brand of honesty and personal responsibility, admirable in a weird and dangerous way. Entertaining, good read by a great genre author, one worth seeking out and settling into for an afternoon or two.