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Post by killercrab on May 14, 2009 10:06:49 GMT
The first of my New English Library orders has landed. The Severed Hand is the third in the Specialist series - in which Eli Podgram investigates the Twilight world. In this case a strangling arm is on the rampage ! Cool cover. KC The fingers crept smoothly round the man's thick throat, not wakening him. And when they were in position they closed like a vice.As the body thrashed his hands clutched at the strangling hand , sought for a grip on the arm , the body that was murdering him.
But there was no arm , no body. There was only a hand , a strangling hand that gripped tighter and tighter.
For the Specialist and his two assistants this was a case that led them to face dangers as great as they were inexpilicable in terms of anything Eli Podgram had ever known of in the Twilight World. This was a time when they learned to live with horror.First Nel paperback edition 1974.
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Post by dem bones on May 14, 2009 10:35:41 GMT
You can't beat a severed arm on the prowl, KC, though doubtless Eli will manage - he's not called the Specialist for nothing. Maybe if pulphack or severance are handy they can tell us if Severed Hand was recycled from an earlier 'Peter Saxon' novel and, if so, which one this time?
* I you're not too pushed, any chance of quoting the back cover blurb, KC? Just a couple off sentences would be fine if it's too long.*
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Post by killercrab on May 14, 2009 10:51:37 GMT
I've copied the back blurb. The back cover also features Castledoom and Tigerman of Terrahpor covers. I've yet to get the latter.
KC
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Post by dem bones on May 14, 2009 13:05:08 GMT
Much obliged, KC. If you're intent on collecting all six Specialists, you can probably get away with taking them out of sequence just so long as you don't read, or even read about, Blood Of My Blood until last! Trust me, says clever bollocks who did and has circulated a spoiler-ridden 'review' of BOMB ever since to get even with the world.
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Post by killercrab on May 14, 2009 18:56:39 GMT
Actually I nearly went for BOMB because of the cover! I wonder if the Specialist was their attempt at a homegrown horror character series? Dracula was an American reprint but could be classed as a Nel series. Their numbered Horror series weren't character linked - so the Specialist could be unique. Imagine if it had run to 40 books!
KC
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on May 14, 2009 20:13:18 GMT
Not actually my latest Nel, I've had it for a while, but I've just started reading this one (80 pages into it & it's only 125 pages): It dates from 1967(published by Librairie Plon), but Nel published it in 1970, translated by Nicholas Leonard. This is the third of a trilogy, anyone ever read the other books?. I have Zombie by Errol Lecale on the way, is it part of The Specialist series?
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Post by killercrab on May 14, 2009 20:54:52 GMT
Thanks for posting this HP - never heard of it ! When you think you've seen all the Nel horrors.
ZOMBIE is a Specialist story - let us know how you get on with it!
KC
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Post by severance on May 14, 2009 21:39:31 GMT
Blimey, I've got one of these somewhere, not sure which one of the 4 that NEL published in 1969/70. The American market translated a total of 15 - but in France the series is still running and number 177 is out now!! Espionage rather than horror, the French publishers also release Don Pendleton's 'Executioner' series over there. As you can see here their covers wouldn't get released over here.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on May 15, 2009 11:47:09 GMT
Bloody hell, That is a long series . Just as well there were only a few translated. My copy of Sabat 2: The Blood Merchants, arrived today. Can never have too much Guy N. Smith ;D
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Post by dem bones on May 18, 2009 9:01:44 GMT
Bloody hell, That is a long series . Just as well there were only a few translated. Justin and Andreas contribute a six pager on the SAS books to Paperback Fanatic #8 (last December). I'd not heard off the series before, but Black Magic In New York cover is among those featured on the back page. As soon as i saw it, it was "wouldn't mind a scan of that!"
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Post by severance on Jun 13, 2009 15:03:40 GMT
Now that I've got the first six of Robert Lory's 'Dracula' series - and with the rest being bloody expensive and rare - it's time to give them a read. Halfway through 'Dracula Returns' already, rather a complicated set-up initially, but the pieces are now in place...
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Post by killercrab on Jun 13, 2009 16:43:58 GMT
Returns is the only one I've read - enjoyed it alot - certainly on par with the Specialist books in my view.
I've just started Devil's Peak by Brian Ball - lovin' it. Trapped in a snowbound greasy spoon with Brenda the Fender with the red tatoo at the base of her spine. The owner's wife is none too happy but the climber come researcher wants to find out more about the castle ruins the spoon is built on - maybe down in the cellars...
KC
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Post by dem bones on Jun 15, 2009 18:35:07 GMT
Nowhere near as glam as Devil's Peak, i've started 'Richard Bachman's Rage, (1983), Stephen King's very own Clockwork Orange moment in that he withdrew it from further publication in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre. This one actually conforms to the "give me a novel in 128 pages or give me death!" standard as set down on Vault Mk. I - most Stephen King short stories are longer than that these days.
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