Resident Alien: The Man with No Name by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse

 

(pb; 2016: graphic novel, collecting issues 1-4 of the Dark Horse miniseries. Volume 4 of six-volume Resident Alien graphic novel series, published by Dark Horse Comics.)

From the back cover

“Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle. A smart, gifted, and stranded alien explorer hiding in plain sight, has been posing as a doctor and solving crimes in the small town of Patience, Washington. After Harry accidentally reveals himself to investigators who are on his trail, a stubborn federal agent arrives in town to heat things up! With a little help from the local shaman, Harry and nurse Asta finally realize the danger they’re both in, but some of their allies could help them avoid detection as another murder mystery rocks their town.”

 

Review

The fourth Resident Alien graphic novel focuses on Vanderspiegle’s further immersion into Patience, Washington, when Asta and her father have friendly sit-down with the stranded extraterrestrial, and a mystery stemming from a middle-of-town fire that claims the life of a mysterious hobo who has hidden ties to the community around them.

Like previous entries in this collection of miniseries, Name’s tone is humane, gentle, and sometimes quietly funny, with occasional, brief violence that isn’t so violent that it upsets the organic, delicate overall tone of Resident. Worth owning, this. Followed by Resident Alien: An Alien in New York.

The Big Needle by Ken Follett writing as Symon Myles

 

(pb; 1974)

From the back cover

“From the West End of London to the playgrounds of Paris to the desolate beaches of Wales, a dangerous and deadly intrigue as snowballing. Innocent people were being terrorized, homes were being destroyed, and dead bodies were becoming unnervingly common─all because the most powerful organization in the world was thirsting for one man’s blood. His name was Chadwell Carstairs. And he was a threat for as long as he fought The Big Needle.”

 

Review

Needle is a word-spare, swiftly plotted, hippie friendly, hardboiled, and hard-to-set-down short novel (175 pages) from an author more widely known for his political thrillers (e.g., Triple and The Man from St. Petersburg). Its deft, first-person-POV has brief scenes of explicit sex and its underlying humor is briefly undercut by mentions of two incidents of rape and torture, which take place between the lines, and whose victim shakes off them a little too easily (although Needle acknowledges that her experiences redirect the lives of key characters). The identity of Needle’s mysterious main villain (Mr. H) is not difficult to spot, but it makes sense and easily could’ve been, with a few altered lines, one of several other characters.

I’d recommend this for those who like their pulp unapologetic about its well-written, entertaining low-end thrills─think a stripped-to-the-bone Will Viharo novel, or Mickey Spillane, with more humor and minus his Right-Wing bigotry and nihilism.

Note: Music-loving fans of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange or its resulting film versions and plays may appreciate one of Needle‘s scenes that tips its hat to Burgess’s work.