The Boy Who Invented The Bubble Gun by Paul Gallico

The Boy Who Invented The Bubble Gun
by Paul Gallico
Dell 0719
Copyright 1974

Nine and a half year-old Julian West is an innovated kid. He came up with his own little invention, a toy gun that shoots bubbles, and he is pretty excited about it. Shunned by his father, Julian sneaks out one night and with $150, he hops onto a Greyhound bus going to Washington to get a patent for his “bubble gun.” Well, the adventure begins and along the way we see it unfold through the eyes of the young boy.

The novel is subtitled An Odyssey of Innocence, and Paul Gallico beautifully captures that inevitable moment in life, when a young boy realizes that childhood is over and discovers what the world is really like. During Julian’s passage, he touches the lives of an odd assortment of characters. He meets up with two love-struck teenagers, a cat-and–mouse drama between the KGB and CIA, an immigrant musician looking forward to a new life in America, and there is even an unstable killer who attempts to hijack the bus. But its the bond between Julian and a disillusioned Vietnam veteran named Frank Marshall, that brings the reality of the existence of the unfair laws of human nature to him. Marshall takes to the kid, protecting and befriending him. Julian looks up to Marshall, who comes to symbolize many things in a world that can be both awe-inspiring and dangerous. And it is because of the trip and the time he spends with Marshall, that allows in the end, Julian’s relationship with his father to develop.

This is the second time that I read “The Boy Who Invented The Bubble Gun,” the first time was when it came out in 1974. The story of a nine year-old traveling alone across the country and some of the interactions between the characters, may be a bit unbelievable today. But I enjoyed it in 1974, and again in 2009. Paul Gallico was a remarkable writer. (If you ever read “The Snow Goose,” you'll know what I mean) It doesn’t matter that the novel was written 35 years ago, Gallico’s writing touches your heart and the maturing of Julian West will be long remembered.

“The Boy Who Invented The Bubble Gun” is a compelling story that takes us on a journey that is both heartwarming and inspiring.

Escape from Five Shadows by Elmore Leonard

Escape from Five Shadows by Elmore Leonard
Dell #940, Copyright 1956

Most know that Elmore Leonard cut his teeth writing Western stories. For a young man that grew up in Detroit, he sure supplied the reader with a palpable portrayal of the Arizona Territory in the 1880s. "The Law at Randado" was my first Leonard Western novel. That was many years ago and at that time I thought I stumbled upon a Western that was different from the generic ones that I had been reading. The impact that "Randado" left on me made me seek out Leonard's other early Westerns. And I have read them all. One that is near the top on the list is "Escape from Five Shadows." It's filled with a wide variety of morally different characters stuck and struggling in a harsh piece of the dusty Arizona landscape.

Salvaje looked at his men. There were ten trackers here, and now he watched them remove their army-issue shirts and pants, stripping to breechclouts, then slipping on their cartridge bandoleers again. All of them wore curl-toed Apache moccasins folded and tied just below the knee: and to a man they carried single-shot Springfield carbines.
When they were ready, Salvaje nodded, and they moved off to take the escaped man.

Cory Bowen has been wronged, sent to prison for stealing cattle which he had no involvement in. He's been farmed out of Yuma prison, along with a handful of other prisoners, to work on territory road construction, which the Government has contracted to an iron-fisted independent named Frank Renda. The prisoners are housed in a makeshift convict camp called Five Shadows and Renda holds them there with a few guards, a ruthless gunhand, and a dozen Mimbre Apache police. Posted to watch over the Government's investment is the cowardly Willis Falvey, whom Renda has wrapped around his finger. Together they have been skimming off the money that the Government has allocated for the prisoners' care and the road work. It's become a profitable business for them, at the prisoners expense. Bowen escapes early in the novel and the Mimbre Apache trackers drag him back to Five Shadows. Renda gives him a beating and month's worth of brutal punishment. This is when the novel really takes a turns and we learn that through Bowen, others seek ways to form their own means of escape. And the others are not the prisoners. There is the wife of Falvey, who wants out of this stinking dead end part of Arizona. A girl that lives with her father at the nearby stage station, who is determined to get another trial for Bowen. And my favorite, the Mimbre leader named Salvaje, who is the most righteous and pure character in the whole story.

Not to give anything away, I'll just say that there is an opportunity for Bowen to plan another dangerous escape. Of course he takes it and this intertwines all characters, for some the results offer a weighed relief and for others there is contriteness. The risk for Bowen is great because a new trial is granted for him and he doesn't know it. Getting caught this time means death. "Escape from Five Shadows" isn't Elmore Leonard's best Western novel. (It's tough to compete with his later classics -"Valdez is Coming" and "Hombre") But it is still a well above average one and there is plenty to like in it. First is the remarkable picture of the old Arizona West that Leonard paints for the reader. The smells of horse, leather and dust get in your nostrils. Frank Renda and his gunhand are diabolical, and for some reason I find these characters compelling as hell. Elmore Leonard has Bowen being tormented by these two. He takes a lot of punishment, but remains determined to get out. (I guess that is the will of an innocent man) The best scene is without a doubt when the Mimbre Apache trackers are hunting down Bowen after his first escape. It happens early in the novel and it turns into a game of respect and bravery. A wonderful action snapshot episode in the novel.

I enjoyed this Elmore Leonard novel, but that's easy for me to say because he is one of my favorite Western writers. I have always wished he had written more Westerns. I prefer them over his crime fiction. I have hope that he will write another. It's been too long of a wait.

Sharky's Machine by William Diehl

Sharky's Machine By William Diehl
Dell 18292, Copyright 1978

William Diehl waited until the resilient age of 50 to start his first novel. The story behind that, is he was a seated juror on a trial and was so bored with it, he grabbed a notepad and starting writing. Well if true, we have to thank his local jury commissioners office, because what came out was “Sharky’s Machine,” a novel that holds nothing back and throws just about everything at the reader.

She lay beside the table. Her face was gone. Part of her shoulder was blown away. The right side of her head had been destroyed. She was a soggy, limp bundle laying partly against the wall in front of the door, blood pumping from her head, her neck, her shoulder. A splash of blood on the wall dripped down to the body.
Sharky clenched his teeth, felt bile sour in his throat, cried out, "No. Goddamnmit, no!"

Kicked out of the narcotics department after a bloody shootout in the streets of Atlanta, Sharky gets thrown down into the lowly Vice Squad. But he’s a good hard street cop and along with fellow beaten down Vice misfits, (the “Machine”) they quickly stumble upon a high-class prostitution ring. The operation seems to be shaking down wealthy “johns,” so they set up surveillance involving everything from shadowing people to wire-taps. A hooker named Domino becomes the "person of interest" in the corrupt scheme and Sharky obsessively makes her the focus of the investigation. Just when we get comfortable with the violence, sex, and pace in the story, Diehl takes it to another level. You have an U.S. Senator making plans for a Presidential run linked to the call-girl, a shady millionaire called DeLaroza who is connected to the Senator and Domino, and one of the most ruthless paid killers I have come across in any novel. Murders start occurring and once Sharky learns that Domino’s life is in danger, the "Machine" decides to hush up the investigation from their superiors and go it alone.

This turns out bigger than a standard street cop novel. Millions of dollars of stolen gold from WWII is tied to DeLaroza, and he needs people silenced. The U.S. Senators’ bid for the White House is in jeopardy and he needs Delaroza’s help. And our crazed hitman just keeps on coming. Of course Sharky falls for Domino, and the sex scenes of her with customers and Sharky listening in on the wire, are vicariously erotic. (Definitely “adults only” stuff) The novel succeeds in capturing the acrid street pulse of the late 1970s, using violence on high-volume, plenty of foul mouth language, and mysterious characters thriving on sleaze and power. Diehl creates a dirty, rash, and cold atmosphere, which makes the private scenes between Sharky and Domino, that much more endearing. And it is these brief pockets of tenderness that balances out the extreme raw edge that dominates the novel. But don’t get me wrong, this novel was written to get your attention.

For starting late, William Diehl authored a handful of excellent novels and fans of his work will differ on which is their favorite. But for me, “Sharky’s Machine” will always be on top.
This novel is an erupting force that spits at you.....

Thin Air by Howard Browne

Thin Air by Howard Browne
Dell 894, Copyright 1954

"Our street was as black as an account executive's tie."

In 1954, three years before Howard Browne started his career as a television script writer, he wrote "Thin Air." It involves a theme that others have covered may times - a missing wife, with the husband being the main suspect. Of course Browne being no slouch of a writer, took it a step further and put together a sharp piece of crime literature, which starts in a sterile setting and then takes us down a bleak road of violent danger.

"It was no way to die. Her face was bloated and the wrong color, her mouth wide and strained far back, her tongue enormous. Her eyes bulged out until they were no longer eyes but something out of the psychiatric ward at Bellevue."

Ames Coryell finally pulls into his Westchester County driveway after thirteen straight hours on the road from a Maine vacation. Sleeping in the back seat is his exhausted wife and three year old daughter. On arrival, his wife immediately leaves the car to open the house while Coryell gets his sleeping daughter out of the back. Once inside, Coryell can’t locate his wife. She has disappeared. After a frantic search, he combs the neighborhood streets with no luck. The police are notified and later a male neighbor that his wife knew is found unconscious, near death in the bushes. Suspicion quickly turns to Ames Coryell as a suspect in the assault on the neighbor and his wife’s disappearance. Feeling that the cops are inept, Coryell decides he must take action and get personally involved to find out what happen on that night.

What makes this missing persons story different than others is Coryell’s position as vice president of a major NYC advertising agency. The next morning he heads to work assembling all his business contacts, using their skills to construct a world-class campaign to get leads on his wife. He has some of the best marketers, commercial designers, and researchers at his disposal. He puts together his little private detective agency in one day and has his wife’s photo out in the streets, on radio and television in hours. Leads quickly come in and he personally investigates them, during which a couple of murders occur. At this point in the story, Coryell plays it like a hardboiled dick, hitting the streets with gun in hand and roughing it up with a few informants. Though an amateur, he’s no dummy – he finally pieces it together.

Howard Browne doesn’t hold anything back from the reader. The clues are there throughout the story, we just have to grab the right ones and place them accordingly. He sure had the wonderful talent of taking a storyline that has been covered before and building it into a dark, noir potboiler. The twist in using the advertising agency as a means to locate Coryell’s wife was surprisingly unique, even though I thought he got into a little too much detail on it's workings for my taste. But after Browne sails through that, he takes us on a hardboiled trail through shabby apartments, small-time hoods, a dark mysterious proprietor and finally to a hell of an ending. A first-rate mystery novel.

I’ll admit “Thin Air” is a bit far fetch and not his best novel, but Howard Browne’s writing is so good that anything he authored is well worth your time. In fact later when the author was working as a writer for television, he adapted this storyline for numerous television detective scripts. There was a high demand for his TV crime dramas, but he really excelled when writing mystery novels. His best work is undoubtedly the four detective novels, featuring Chicago P.I. Paul Pine. Definitely one of the best detective series ever written, all four novels are outstanding and they are personal favorites of mine.

Halo in Blood (1946, pseud. John Evans)
Halo for Satan (1948, pseud. John Evans)
Halo in Brass (1949, pseud. John Evans)
The Taste of Ashes (1957, Howard Browne)

And if you can find it, don’t miss the one Paul Pine short story that appeared (under his pseud. John Evans) in the Feb. 1953 issue of Manhunt Detective Story, “So Dark for April.” In could be the best short story the prominent mystery magazine ever published.

The Iron Gates by Margaret Millar

The Iron Gates By Margaret Millar
Dell 209, Copyright 1945

There was a blur in front of her eyes and beyond the blur words dangled and danced, and beyond the thickness that clothed her ears voices spoke, out of turn, out of time.

Set in Toronto during WWII, Lucille Morrow seems to have the perfect life. Married for 16 years to the successful Doctor Andrew Morrow, the affluent household consists of the doctor's two grown children and his elder sister. But things are not as they seem. A visitor stops one day and leaves a small package for Lucille, which sends her (and the story) into a chilling psychological tailspin.

Canadian born Margaret Millar was an author that got into your head. A grand master of mystery novels, her characters are sometimes odd, and built from complex emotional interwoven parts. This is definitely the case in "The Iron Gates."

After receiving her surprise package, Lucille flees the house in terror and goes into hiding. She is found in a hotel and mentally unresponsive. Committed to a mental institution, she feels someone is out to murder her and we wonder as readers if she is mentally ill or "faking it" to stay protected in the institution. The case interests Inspector Sands of the Toronto Homicide Department, who was involved in the investigation of the murder of Andrew's first wife 16 years earlier. The case was never solved. More deaths occur, including Lucille's roommate at the institution. Lucille descends deeper into insanity and another tragic event befalls her. Suspecting a member of the family as the root cause of all the calamitous events, composed Inspector Sands attempts to bring an end to the mystery and see that justice is served.

A monumental novel. Millar's story is full of hidden clues that when put together could solve the mystery. But we learn, stories can curve from where we think they are going and clues are sometimes not clues. And Lucille may not be all she seems. A strong psychological thriller, that takes you into a mind of a woman falling and us trying to find what would drive her into a state like this. As for Inspector Sands, a truly original compelling sleuth. Millar describes him as a tired-looking middle-aged man, with clothes that blended with the rest of him, "they were gray and rather battered and limp." When people are introduced to him they think the police "take just anybody on the force nowadays, with so many able-bodied men drafted." But of course that is not the case, he's highly respected, will drink a beer at the pub, and calmly will irritate people enough to get the information he needs. (Before there was Columbo, there was Inspector Sands.)

"Why do you want to hang me, anyway? Revenge? Punishment? To teach me a lesson or teach other people a lesson?"
"It's my job," Sands said wryly.
"Purely impersonal?"
"No, not quite."
"Why, then?"
"I think you might do it again."

If you never read a Margaret Millar novel, this early one of hers is a great start. She is not only one of my favorite female mystery authors, she is one of my favorite authors. Period....

It's a shame Inspector Sands was in only two novels and one short story by Margaret Millar.
A marvelous detective. The stories he appeared in:

The Wall of Eyes (1943)
The Iron Gates (1945)
The Couple Next Door (1954) Short Story in The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

The Quiet Woman by Bruno Fischer

The Quiet Woman by Bruno Fischer
Short story in Dell Mystery Novels No.1 Jan.-Mar 1955

Bruno Fischer wrote five novels featuring P.I. Ben Helm. All are very good and written on the "gentle" hardboiled side. In this one shot digest, that precedes the Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine run, contains the only short story the amiable detective appeared in.

Though he was flat on his back, not much of his once handsome face was visible. Blood covered it, and blood had dyed most of his blond hair. All around him the pale-green linoleum looked as if somebody had swung an open can of red paint...It always surprised me how much blood a human being had in him.

Ben Helm returning from a blackmail case in Buffalo, arrives in the city of West Amber where his wife is an actress in a summer theater group. That night, the leading man of the performing group is murdered by having his skull smashed by a milk bottle. The actor's wife is taken in as the suspect, and Helm believing the woman is innocent looks into the case. Things darken for the jailed suspect, after it is discovered that four years ago in Chicago she killed her previous husband in self-defense using a milk bottle. The D. A. believes this locks up the case, while Ben Helm suspects she was set up. Later, the neighbor of the murdered actor is killed with her skull cracked open by a rock, and the coincidence is too much for Helm. He spends the night figuring it out and in the morning, with his .32 (that is stored under his spare tire in the truck of his car) he confronts the killer.

As always with Bruno Fischer, this is well written and a worthy read. It's quick and tight; and even with figuring out who the real murder is halfway through, I enjoyed it because of Ben Helm. This P.I. is likable, content and doesn't let the dregs of society get to him. He'll lay back, observe and think it through. The local police even study his published articles and books on criminology, and eagerly accept his help. Helm has an updated American Sherlock Holmes air to him, especially when he is stoking his pipe and spending a night putting the pieces together. Plus, with having the loving, striking actress Greta Murdock as a wife (who men swoon over) -why not be content and likable.

This issue contains three "novels": (all by fine authors)
A Bundle for the Coroner by Brett Halliday
But the Prophet Died by William Campbell Gault
The Quiet Woman by Bruno Fischer

The Evil Days by Bruno Fischer
Ballantine, Copyright 1973

Now, if you want something completely different by Bruno Fischer, you will want to sink your teeth into his last novel, "The Evil Days." A thriller mystery that contains violent murder, robbery, drugs, adultery, kidnapping, deceit and at the end- forgiveness....
All masterfully embedded in this tense narrative.
Where we expect suburban life to be protective and salutary, Bruno Fischer give us one that changes a man's home life into a grim, voluted nightmare.

Hang on for Cabeb Dawson's ride.

The Canvas Coffin by William Campbell Gault

The Canvas Coffin by William Campbell Gault
Dell 795, Copyright 1953

Thanks to William Campbell Gault's fondness for sports, readers have been rewarded with a handful of wonderful stories that use a sport as the backdrop for mystery, murder, and detective work. Boxing is on tap here and the main event has an aging middleweight boxer who is a suspect in a murder case and he's determined to prove his innocence.

"Twice, he started that overhand right; both times I beat him to the punch. It would be unfair to Western Union to say he telegraphed it; it was more in the nature of a night letter."

Luke Pilgrim wakes up the morning after taking some serious punches in his title fight the night before; and can't remember if he killed a girl he was seen with after the victory party. He's no palooka; Pilgrim is a sympathetic, caring, middleweight champion. Puzzled and confused, he becomes tormented by what he may of done. Pilgrim realizes that to clear himself as a suspect, he must piece the events together and find out what occurred that night. But, justice is breathing down his neck and closing in, so he must continue to slug out of his lost memory any vague thought that could prove beneficial to solve the mystery.

The setting is the 1950s L.A. boxing scene, with its cynical atmosphere of smoky ringsides, mobsters, fixed fights, and and an assortment of characters with names like Muggsy, Noodles and Patsy. Between bout after bout, the Champ spends his time hunting down clues and people, to fit together what really happened that night and what his involvement was. It climatically comes down during his last big title fight, where Luke Pilgrim finally gets all the dots connected and confronts the men involved.

Written a couple of years before Gault introduced his compassionate P.I. Brock Callahan, it is obvious that the Luke Pilgrim character planted the seed for Callahan. The story has the same feel as those excellent early Callahan novels-in its pervasive mood, dialog and characters. Pilgrim even has a sophisticated girlfriend named Sally, who is essentially the Jan character in the Brock Callahan series. If you enjoyed those early Gault novels, you'll want to strap the gloves on for this one. It's wonderfully done.......

"Murder is more important than that; it's a double death, killing the killer as well as the killed, ending the dream and staining the soul. The newspapers love it, especially if one breast or more can be exposed, along with the inside of the thigh. "

Boxing has been the backdrop in other William Campbell Gault stories. In the excellent "The Hundred Dollar Girl," (1961) Tough wise-ass P.I. Joe Puma tackles murder and broads when a contenders' voluptuous wife hires him to investigate her husband's manager.





Gault boxing stories that were published in pulp magazines:

A Dilemma for Danny (1943)
Slug the Man Down (1948)
The Longest Count (1949)
Wake for a Warrior (1950)
Chop-’Em-Down Kid (1950)

Kiss and Kill by Ellery Queen (Charles Runyon)

Kiss and Kill by Charles Runyon
Dell 4567, Copyright 1969

In the 60s, a couple of dozen mystery novels under the name of Ellery Queen were ghost written by a handful of authors. Writers like Richard Deming, Talmage Powell, Jack Vance and others contributed with some excellent offerings. Charles Runyon was another and I believe he authored three novels under the Ellery Queen title name. "Kiss and Kill" is one of them and though a bit uneven, I still enjoyed the read.

"The stench billowed out in waves. A balloon of a man was slumped in the fetal position on the closet floor, so swollen that the seams of his dark blue uniform had split open. Barney tried to drag the body out; it was too heavy."

Edward Tollman's wife has disappeared and progress by the police force has been slow. Tollman hires P.I. Barney Burgess, and together they head out to find her. Quickly, Burgess suspects that there may be a link between her disappearance and a Mexican vacation she was on months ago. Hunting down other members of the vacation tour, they discover the members are being killed off. They follow the tail, but it leads to more bodies. They eventually locate a surviving member, the beautiful Claire English. She joins the hunt for protection reasons and the three head for Mexico where they hope to find Tollman's wife and solve the mystery of the deaths.

You usually don't see a big city P.I. taking his client and a woman who is being pursed by killers, along on the case; but it seems to work.(if you let it) Runyon describes Barney Burgess as tough, gun ready Bogart-type P.I., which as the novel develops doesn't ring true. He's not timid though, and will comes up with some hardboiled dialog :

Barney said, "You get nothing. Not even death. Pain is what you get. Hours of it. Days, if necessary. Until you tell me where Mrs. Tollman is."

Drugs and money are the root cause here. The step by step trail to the missing wife works well, if you just overlook a couple of incidences where you know a person in a specific situation in the story wouldn't really react that way. The killers are psychopaths, and they provide just the right amount of violence to the story. Enjoyable enough to hold my interest and it's a quick mystery read. Also to Charles Runyon's credit, the ending does have a neat twist that I didn't see coming.

One of my favorite Charles Runyon short stories is in the March1962 Mike Shayne Magazine, titled "The Death Gimmick." It's set in the West Indies and involves vile people taking us down stinking, dark alleyways. Also, the cover of this issue is a hardboiled beaut.......

Cain's Woman by O. G. Benson

Cain's Woman by O. G. Benson
Dell FE A200, Copyright 1960

In 1960, O. G. Benson may have given us one of the most creative PI novels ever written, with a pragmatic Chicago private investigator that works out of his own office.

"The last time I cried had been at night on the lumpy mattress of a cell in a lockup in San Francisco while somewhere outside, in the darkness of the city, the woman I loved had waited to divorce me and marry another man."

The beautiful, young Mrs. Naomi Cain is being blackmailed; someone has pornographic pictures of her from her past. She is married to the wealthy and elderly Jedediah Cain, and needs to get this resolved before her husband finds out. Naomi hires Chicago PI Max Raven, still getting over his divorce, to get them back. Raven gets off to a bad start and botches the case at the start. But he gets back on track and starts making progress. The story takes us from Chicago, to an investigation in NYC, then back to Chicago. Raven eventually falls hard for Mrs. Cain, which ties him emotionally to the case. Secrets get revealed and her past starts to unwind. Raven pieces it all together, which at the end falls apart in his hands.

"My fist hit him and the scream died as a gurgle in his throat. I hit him again and felt the jar wrench my shoulder. He slid down the wall like a punctured bag of sand and I kicked him in the face."

This is an excellent PI novel in every way, with many surprises and a terrific ending. The relationship and interaction between Raven and Naomi Cain, as a client and lover, is brilliantly woven. Max Raven has real emotions, good and bad, which interferes with his ability to solve the case. He’s a troubled PI, believable and realistic. You get the impression that this is how a PI, operating on his own, goes at it. Raven goes up against some slimy people and gets knocked around some, but he is a tough character and stays with it. A slick, hardboiled novel that contains my favorite opening and closing paragraphs in any PI story. In some circles this has been called a "cult classic" and I can see why. To bad Mr. Benson didn't write more PI novels, with Max Raven in them.

O.G. Benson's real name is Ben Benson (not to be confused with the Ben Benson who wrote the Wade Paris and Ralph Lindsey novels in the 1950s) and “Cain’s Wife” was his first novel. I know of no other book that he has authored, but I assume there must be a couple more. He was a fairly accomplished painter and his work is on display at the Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago. He died of cancer at the age of 74 in 2002.

This paperback finally got enough recognition and was published again in 1985 by Perennial Library. It was retitled as "Cain's Wife" and they gave it a horrible cover, but at least they threw it out there.

Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard

Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard
Dell paperback, Copyright 1974

Just a quick note.

Just saw the Bronson movie, last time was in the 70s. Thought back about when I read the paperback and dug it out. I remember after I first read it, I hunted for Leonard's westerns for some reason. (which I'm glad I did)

Bronson is "the real deal" in the film and he has some great lines, but the novel is extremely good. More depth with the Vince Majestyk character, better storyline and descriptive action against the organized crime guys. It might of been my first Leonard book I read. Got me hooked.

Elmore Leonard's screenplay was exactly what Hollywood was looking for in the 1970s- action, wise comebacks by the good guy, girl meets guy, etc...,but his novelization packs a punch. I almost forgot about the novel. You paint a different character of Majestyk when you read the book. I love Bronson, but I like the book character much more.
(Actor Al Lettieri, as Frank Renda in the film, was exceptional.)

Last week completed Leonard's "Forty Lashes Less One" -Very good, with an excellent ending.