Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze

 

(pb; 1954)

From the back cover

“When Tim Sunblade escapes from prison, his sole possession is an infallible plan for the ultimate heist. Trouble is it’s a two-person job. So when he meets Virginia, a curiously well-spoken ‘ten-dollar tramp,’ and discovers that the only thing she cares for is ‘drifts of money, lumps of it,’ he knows he’s met his partner. What he doesn’t suspect is that this lavender-eyed angel might just prove to be his match.”

 

Review

Black Wings, told in the first person from the perspective Kenneth McClure (aka Tim Sunblade), is an immediately immersive, exciting and sometimes violent and flirty read, detailing his adrenaline-spiked criminal run with Virginia, to its darkly humorous and karmic finish. If their trajectories, separate and together, are familiar to pulp/noir fans, it’s not to the detriment of Chaze’s work here: it merely provides the framework in which the character-driven action happens.

Fans of wild-women characters may especially enjoy Black Wings’ Virginia, who reminds me of other iconic noir/pulp femme fatatles: Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) in Double Indemnity (1944), Vera (Ann Savage) in Detour (1945) and Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummins) in Gun Crazy (1950).

Black is another great entry in the pulp genre, up there with other top tier works in the genre—worth owning.

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Il gèle en enfer (1990; English translation: He’s freezing in hell), directed and co-scripted by Jean-Pierre Mocky, was adapted from Black Wings and released in France on April 25, 1990. Jean-Pierre Mocky played Tim. Lauren Grandt, billed as Laura Grandt, played Georgia (the cinematic equivalent of Virginia from the source novel).

Money Shot by Christa Faust

 

(pb; February 2025. First book in the Angel Dare series.)

 

From the back cover

“THEY THOUGHT SHE’D BE EASY. THEY THOUGHT WRONG.

“It all began with the phone call asking former porn star Angel Dare to do one more movie. Before she knew it, she’d been shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car. But Angel is a survivor. And that means she’ll get to the bottom of what’s been done to her even if she has to leave a trail of bodies along the way.”

 

Review

Faust, with her gritty and pulp-veracious execution, penned a quick, reader-hooking read when she wrote Money—it has human warmth in unexpected places, sleaze, greed, violence, lust, gore and even a quick rape scene that’s not gratuitous and lends appropriate-but-succinct emotional weight to that last crime. Just as importantly, Faust brings together dark/wry humor, an insider’s view of the porn industry with the natural sleaze factor that makes pulp so palpable and worth reading. This is a great, if overlong novel (its last quarter could’ve been shorter, more action-intense gritty and genre effective). Worth owning, this. Followed by Chokehold.

Vic Valentine, Private Eye: 14 Vignettes by Will Viharo

(pb; 2019: story anthology--tenth book in the Vic Valentine series)

From the back cover

“Lounge lizard. International man of misery. Space cadet. Dog walker. Lover. Loner. Fighter. Fool. Vic Valentine has been all of these things and more, and less─much less. These fourteen torrid tales of forbidden love, shameless lust, surrealistic horror, existential mystery, pointless mayhem, and just plain stupidity spanning Vic’s pathetic life collectively illuminate the darkest corners of the human condition, without revealing a single goddamn truth, other than we’re all lonely globs of ephemeral flesh wandering aimlessly around a big ball of shit hanging by a thread in a vast, apathetic world.

“Welcome to the hypnotic, erotic, neurotic world of Vic Valentine, Private Eye.”

Overall review

14 Vignettes is a great addendum collection of Vic Valentine works, filling in timeline gaps relating to the P.I.-turned-dog walker’s life. As is often the case with Vic, his neurotic and sexual worldview revolves around multimedia interests (especially music and movies), women, tiki bars and frelled-up, over-the-top situations. This unique, entertaining and pulpy string of stories is not a book for the prudish or the politically correct, but it should not be, because otherwise it would not be the fun, worthwhile read it is. It put me in the mindset of Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise anthology, Pieces of Modesty, the way it filled in certain gaps in her storyline. Both are worthwhile purchases.

Review, story by story

“Feet First”: Vic engages the services of a prostitute. Set during the Love Stories Are Too Violent for Me era, this story has meaningful and clever banter. I love the finish, which has wild, fresh ending like the best stories do.

“Vein Attempt”: In Seattle,Vic tries to seduce a sexy phlebotomist (Brigitte), who is a dead ringer for a French porn actress Fans of director-writer Jean Rollin may especially like this one.

“By Any Other Name”: Sex-, jazz- and CBGB-suffused microtale. This prequel to the first Vic Valentine novel  is chatty and entertaining, and ably sets up Love Stories Are Too Violent for Me.

“Doc and Me”: Vic’s final conversation with his longtime friend-landlord-bartender─they talk about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), as well as the virtues and vices of its 2003 remake (and most remakes, in general). They also converse about the therapeutic value of breasts, friendship and the beautiful diversity of the East Bay, California─especially Oakland. Warm homage to the above subjects, this, one of my favorite entries in this collection.

“Pawn of the Dead”: Vic reminisces about his brother (Johnny), who died at a young age, with whom Vic shared common passions: punk/CBGB, Dawn of the Dead (1978) and other late Seventies influences.

“Just Breathe”: Vic has a hallucinogenic slipstream of a case, involving a secretive woman (with whom he has a fling), a blood bank, and an ending that may be the beginning of something sweet or horrifying.

“Sick as a Dog”: Vic has an affair with a married woman (Katey), the owner of one of the dogs he walks. She is a woman with a secret, beyond her wielded butcher knives, pet-play and other sado/masochistic psychodramas.

“Blowing Smoke”: In high school, Vic hooks up with a classmate (Dolly), whose love of oral sex─giving and receiving─hides surprising truths she would rather not talk about. Great end-line to this one.

“Westwood Ho”: Los Angeles, late Eighties. Vic, hired to find a missing stripper (Roxi), accomplishes his mission. A brief, tender and honest friendship results. One of my favorite stories int 14 Vignettes.

“Googie Grindhouse”: Prior to the events of the “Westwood Ho,” “Feet First” and Love Stories, Vic and Valerie─later known as Rose─fly from New York to Los Angeles, where she, independent, sets the tone of their future encounters. Romantic, harsh and sometimes nightmarish work.

“Tiki Bar Bounce”: Vic gives a shout-out to his favorite, real-life tiki bars, many of them located in the East Bay-San Francisco, California region. Sexy women, mainly Monica, also get some printed love. There is also a real-life cocktail recipe! Fun, sometimes trip-out read, especially when Radon, a recurring Viharo character, appears.

“Pulp Beat”: Vic tells the story of how he became a private eye. It involves a naïve college student (Brenda), a spontaneous lie and a Berkeley-to-San Francisco BART ride. This tale takes place before Vic meets Doc and other characters, introduced in Love Stories. This is one of my favorite selections in this collection.

“Page Turner”: Vic dreams he is another man (Will Viharo), shark-fishing in Florida with actor Christian Slater. Fun meta-work.

“Illville”: A post-Vic Valentine: Space Cadet story, this. Vic details his slip-swirl days with recent movies by Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, his wife (Val), ghosts (Doc), and life in general. This is a solid, post-“Mental Case Files”* wrap-up, and satisfying bookend to this fourteen-tale anthology.

(*The “Mental Case Files” are Viharo’s most recent Vic Valentine novels: Vic Valentine: International Man of Misery, Vic Valentine: Lounge Lizard for Hire and Vic Valentine: Space Cadet.)

One of my stories, Three days after the heist, was published on the ERWA site

One of my mainstream and pulp-brutal microstories, Three days after the heist, was published on the Erotica Readers & Writers Association website. (This following link goes directly to my 200-word tale, so you won’t encounter smut.)

This story is an homage to one of my all-time favorite writers, Richard Stark (a.k.a. Donald E. Westlake)--particularly his twenty-four-book “Parker” series.

Three will be up on the site until the end of March 2019. If you’re so inclined, check it out!

Dark Corners (Summer 2015 issue) edited by CT McNeely, Emily J. McNeely and Steve Gallagher

(pb; pulp fiction magazine/anthology: Summer 2015, Vol. 1 Issue 4)

Overall review:

The twenty pieces -- seventeen stories, three author reviews --  in this issue of Dark Corners are worth reading. Some pieces grabbed me more than others, but I could see why the editors included all these works in their latest product -- worth owning, this.


Standout stories:

1.)   "The Good Step-Dad" -- Heath Lowrance: A hasty marriage leads to domestic hell, where a stepfather feels he has to teach his boy how to be a man. Naturally -- and predictably, if you're a nit-picky reader -- the situation worsens, in violent ways.

What makes this chatty story stand out is how the step-dad -- from whom we hear the tale -- sees the chain of events, as well as their reasons and his justifications. The last few lines of this are stellar, making this work stellar, also.


2.)   "Cool Reception" -- Will Viharo: An ex-con and his bigamist wife argue at her wedding. This dialogue-, sex- and violence-driven story is funny (in a dark, nasty way), full of emotional knife-twists and over-the-top intense. Entertaining marriage-is-truly-hellish piece.


3.)   "Wolves" -- Ed Kurtz: A farmer and his son try to fend off a harsh winter, starvation and wolf attacks in this bleak-toned Western survival story. It does not go anywhere unexpected, but the writing is excellent in its starkness.


4.)   "This Thing" -- Patrick Cooper: Good, pulp-solid tale about a man (Berger) who hires his landscaper (Bauer) to murder Berger's wife.


5.)   "Tips" -- Warren Moore: A kidnap victim tries to escape from her Coach, who has just kidnapped her -- this piece is microfiction-effective and darkly funny, with a great end-line.


6.)   "Better Man" -- James Queally: Good, pulpy work about a man (Rey) who means to do away with his emotionally blackmailing mistress so he can fully commit to a better woman. Full of twists and turns, this is an entertaining read.


7.)   "Guts and a Gun" -- Jason Lairamore: A Chicago man's Vegas trip turns violent when bad money, a monkey and goons get involved in it. Good read, I especially enjoyed the dialogue at the end of it.


8.)   "Mayej" -- Emily J. McNeely: A woman (Jennifer) and her melodramatic mother (Brenda) travel through Mexico, unaware that it will suddenly get better. Fun, solid piece.

Fate is My Pimp/Romance Takes a Raincheck, by Will Viharo

(pb; 1994, 1995, 2011: second and third novellas in the Vic Valentine series)


From the back cover:

"Fate is My Pimp picks up the torrid trail of Vic Valentine, Private Eye as he traverses the mean streets of San Francisco and beyond in search of a mobster's missing teenage daughter, encountering various voluptuous vixens, a female surf band, and a stalker leaving him mysterious musical messages, all while infiltrating an Elvis-theme commune for runaways, led by a deviously decadent Deacon Rivers.  Follow the further misadventures of this misguided misfit introduced in Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me as he continues looking for love in all the wrong places, and unfortunately for him - finding it.

"Romance Takes a Raincheck finds Vic back on the East Coast, tracking down a lead on his cop father's killer, visiting his mother in an asylum, and reuniting with his high school sweetheart, Dolly Duncan, now married to a doper dentist.  Nothing is what it seems, times and people have changed, and Vic is going to learn the hard way - again - that some bones, and boners, are best left buried."


Review:

Fate and Romance, like the first "Vic Valentine" book (Love Stories), are pop and cinematic nostalgic, with lots of clever dialogue, sex and desperation-soaked action.  Not only that, but there's a clear maturation in Valentine, the perpetually horny, prone-to-self-pity P.I., in these sequels: while he's still reeling here and there, he's less a victim than he was in Love - there's a sense that yeah, he could still get frakked over and die, but if it happens, it will more likely be the result of others' decisions and actions, not his.

What further differentiates Fate and Romance from their source book is their varied tones.  While Love had a neo-pulp surrealistic feel to it, Fate ups the mellow-gold wackiness, with its mood-swing characters, its strange groupings (the Elvis cult) and its over-the-top climax; Romance has an appropriate, directly stated East Coast break-your-bones gravitas. 

Both of these sequels are entertaining, memorable and darkly humorous in their lusty violence.  They're also worth owning. 

Followed by the third and fourth "Vic Valentine" novellas I Lost My Heart in Hollywood and Diary of a Dick (which, like Fate and Romance, have been published in one volume).