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Post by bushwick on Feb 20, 2010 10:17:18 GMT
Just read 'Kill Squad: Dead Wrong' by Mark Cruz, picked up from the always reliable Leeds Market for 20p. Greatly enjoyed it. Three San Diego cops who bend the rules and get results - a hunky white ladies' man, his black colleague (who comes in for lots of 'friendly' racial jibes from his white partner and doesn't seem too bothered, this being a pulp novel from 1975) and a sexy Hispanic lass. A multi-ethnic crime-busting team who get involved with an aeroplane hijacking plot involving twenty of the world's most beautiful women, a corrupt Hollywood impressario type and a seven foot tall sadistic brute.
Chet Tabor (the white lad) has to use his sex powers on the impressario's beautiful wife. A crazy smack-addled hippie kidnapper chick gets her eye poked out. Various beautiful models are sexually humiliated by the big seven-foot brute. Some good carnage including a man getting shot up the arse, and a Manson-esque ratbag called Pixie nicking someone's hangglider and meeting his doom on the rocks below. And the long-suffering police chief who is sick of Kill Squad making problems for him and constantly pops antacids for his ulcer, but has to grudgingly accept that Chet Tabor is always right!
Short page count, big print...good stuff!
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Jul 13, 2010 15:19:37 GMT
Another Manor for you (picked this one up last week for 50p, from RSPCA shop I didn't know was there before):
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Post by killercrab on Jul 13, 2010 15:30:26 GMT
Always good to see another *Manor* surface !
KC
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Aug 30, 2011 20:10:23 GMT
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Post by pulphack on Mar 2, 2013 7:57:22 GMT
After three years and some - at times frankly desultory - searching I've finally laid hands on Jeff Rovin's second Hollywood Detective novel, 'Wolf'. It looks cracking, but I'm saving it for when I finish this partcular job later this week, so will report in due course.
Related, I've also bought a copy of Len Levinson's The Last Buffoon, his Manor paperback about -er - writing Manor paperbacks. £12 inc postage wherever you look, and there seem a fair few about. I'll already guess that it'snot much cop unless you're a)someone who used to read those books, b)someone who still does, c)someone who was writing them then, d)someone who does now... but I fit at least two of those categories, so it's a no-brainer. Expect a completely one-sided review when it arrives...
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Post by pulphack on Mar 10, 2013 7:00:13 GMT
JEFF ROVIN – HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE: WOLF (MANOR BOOKS 1975) The second and final entry in Rovin’s Hollywood Detective series (the first being written about somewhere above), and a very odd book indeed; though not for the obvious reasons. 1975 was a busy old year for Rovin at Manor – the two Hollywood Detective books and The Hindenburg Disaster (Berg? Note to self – must check). According to the numbering on the HD books, there were 25 books between the two (12312 and 12337). I’d be interested to known if the numbering on these was consecutive, and how many Manor did actually churn out in a calendar year. I’m also very keen to read Len Levinson’s The Last Buffoon when it arrives, as it may answer some of the questions this book posed for me. Which is all a bit meta actually, as that was the part of me who reads too many – and about too many – old paperbacks and wants to understand the mechanism of how they were produced. Back in ’75, who gave a toss? Was the book entertaining was all that mattered. And it is: the unevenness of tone that made the first entry bumpy in places has been smoothed out, though this does bring a whole new set of problems (but later for those). As a piece of rip-roaring pulp fiction this races along – put it this way, I read it in an afternoon and it was a pleasure (and was better than the BBC red button praying Orient didn’t screw up at Shrewsbury). The main plot as a whodunit is a bit slender – Rovin plays the same ‘most likely subject is cleared at the beginning and then in switch turns out to be the villain after all’ trick that he did with the first book, and there is a subplot involving a circus and revenge that has a tenuous connection to the whole and takes up a little too much time, being an excuse for lots of gory violence and dodgy sex. Par for the course in this type of book, but balancing the plot and subplot would have been preferable. There are a couple of great running gags about Garrison’s assistant Ruby, a match for Emma Peel in many ways, being unable to make decent coffee (carried over from the first), and the amount of cars that Garrison gets through, with his valet – the long-suffering Elston – sighing as he is dispatched to deliver and order yet another car that is totalled in the next three paragraphs. Yes, it does involve a genuine werewolf: as with the first, it’s set in 1927 movie world, and while The Werewolf Of London is being filmed, a wardrobe assistant, a security guard, a big time actress and a doctor are all despatched in an extremely gory fashion by what does in fact turn out to be a genuine lycanthrope. This is explained as being a mutation caused by a disease that the murderer has contracted, and there is much cod science hinted at (wisely not explained in detail). If this were a genuine ‘men of action’ series, then it would jar horribly that there is a real werewolf. However, the supporting cast and network hinted at in the first book are drawn out more fully, and make appearances that mark them as being a genuine attempt to create a pulp team ala Justice Incorporated. I say this as the interaction and mix of skills and races is less Shadow and Doc Savage, and more The Avenger. And here is where the book, despite the newly even tone, is somewhat odd. There is a lot more bad porno novel sex shoehorned in, and the violence is more OTT and cartoonish. Which is not so bad, if a little at odds with the older style of parts of the first book: however, it’s Garrison himself who is the main problem. In the first book he is presented as a hard man, but suave and cultured as well, able to move and mix with everyone. In this book, although this is alluded to, he actually acts and talks like a really bad early Black Mask ‘tec, with all the bad points of a Race Williams character. Which just seems bizarre both in the context of the story, and in view of the previous book. I wonder... Did Manor think they were getting a ‘men of action’ series like The Marksman goes 1920’s? In which case, the first book’s pulp mag homage must have pissed off the editor. Are the changes in dialogue and action style – not to mention the increased quota of porno pages – the result of direction from the editor? Were they re-writes? Did Manor have the time, money and concern for rewrites? Short of tracking down Rovin (who probably can’t be bothered to think back that far now he ghosts Tom Clancy and has own Clancy-esque series), maybe the autobiographical elements of The Last Buffoon will provide clues. And odd book at times, but fun, and worth tracking down for Manor mavens. An Amazon-free review!
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Post by dem bones on Mar 12, 2013 11:35:34 GMT
"i suspect Rovin was trying to find a successful mix of golden age pulp and the newer, harder edged thriller ,,,, the violence is unsparing and bloody, the sex written in a manner that suggest rovin may have penned a few adult paperbacks anonymously before this ..... the fact that 'wolf' has a supernatural slant should have been a giveaway about the new/old pulp theory." Think you're onto something here. I'm sure you're already aware of it, but twelve years after Hollywood Detective: Garrison, Jeff Rovin wrote the tie-in for Re-Animator (Pocket, 1987), which, if it is the least faithful to the film (i've not read it), can only be described as a sexed-up, ultra-violent take on golden age pulp. Lovecraft would surely have bust a few fingers trying to claw his way out of the grave if he'd known what Stuart Gordon had in mind.
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Post by pulphack on Jul 13, 2015 6:27:38 GMT
It's Jeff Rovin time! Everyone's fave 70's hack (well, mine) is still in the game. I saw the paperback of Gillian Anderson's ghosted sci-fi novel A Vision Of Fire (the first part of a -gulp-trilogy) in Smiths at the weekend, and guess who the credited ghost is? Yep, Mr Rovin! Forty years on and still hard at it. Go Jeff! I googled some reviews, and the Anderson fans love it, but the critics hate it. Not sure I want to find out for myself, but glad to see Jeff still at it, and at a high level.
Meanwhile, I note that I never did write up Len Levinson's The Last Buffoon. This thread seemed to die, so I never got around to it. Not a horror publisher, really, so I can see why. Who gives a monkeys about a book about a writer in NYC forty years ago?
Well, you should if you ever read the kind of embossed horror toss that ended up in newsagents dump bins over here (those were the days!), as this is about the kind of eejits that wrote them.
Plot wise it's a thinly veiled autobiographical account of a disastrous run in a paperback writer's life. Lots of NYC colour and 70's reference, as you would expect. It gets compared to Kotzwinke's The Fan Man, and while I loved that book as a youth, I think this is - by design - more real and less poetic.
Yes, all his publishers are cheap sleazebags. There's a portrait of Peter McCurtin that is loving and makes you realise the pressure all 'creatives' were under in the paperback trade from the quick-buck businessmen. And hack writing for a living may have changed in social details, but not in essence over the decades. Really.
But above all it's a joy to read as Levinson can really write: it flows, the jokes are smooth, the characters become three dimensional quickly. Len writes a lot about his past work on Joe Kenney's Glorious Trash blog, whenever Joe reviews one of his old books, and the old chap is far too harsh on himself. True, it could be better - we all say that when we look back, but that's only because we see the shite parts. Truth is, Len could write rings round most paperbacks hacks then AND now, and should be national treasure in the US. That he isn't while others (no names) are feted is appalling.
You can get this for around a tenner with postage from Abe or Amazon. Maybe that seems a lot for an old paperback. Well, I suppose it is considering the things we usually pick up, but you won't spend a better tenner all year.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 15, 2015 8:29:22 GMT
This reminds me of all those actors/writers novels which crop up from time to time. You know, P.N.Elrod and Nigel Bennett, Chris Golden and Amber Benson. Neither of which I would call a big success story.
Levinson on Kennys Blog is always interesting.
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Post by pulphack on Nov 22, 2015 12:20:54 GMT
I picked up a copy of Behind Closed Shutters by Dan Ross this week. Stamped import by David Gold, page count boosted by having chapters only start on odd numbered pages (leaving a swathe of blank pages throughout), and a reprint from someone else (originally issued in 1968, this was issued in 1975). It also has a Kent cigarette ad in the centre which has broken the spine, and the ink is blotchy. Hurrah!
Not having read a gothic for years, I got it mostly because it's Dan the Dark Shadows man, and because... well, that's it, really. I haven't read him for years, either, and having just seen the Johnny Depp Dark Shadows, got curious by association (as it were). It has the 'bird running from house with one lit window' cover, only being Manor it's a downstairs window which is lit. D'oh!
Having always remembered and imagined gothics as being romantic, I was surprised by this, as it's actually pretty nasty. Elizabeth Shepherd is a nurse visiting her uncle who helps run a sanitarium in the middle of the Canadian wilds. Her mother has just died and mum and uncle didn't get along, so she's never even seen a photo of him. Remember that...
Anyway, she meets the wife of his partner on the plane, who gives her a lift to the castle where the sanitarium is based, walks through a door, and is never seen again. Uncle is a hard-nosed bugger, and the staff seem callous and creepy. And there are no patients... Guess what? Of course, the lunatics have taken over, etc, and there follows a series of incidents with skulls, dead rats and attempts at seduction from two dr's on staff (or are they??) that are more full-on sexual assault than anything, and quite tasteless even if carefully circumspect in description. Ross is no stylist, and the plot is pretty transparent, but there is a page-turning momentum and a nice line in building tension that keeps you going to the final shoot-out with Mounties on the roof of the castle (!!!!!).
Love interest is a Mountie who appears half way, crops up a couple of times, snogs her once, and then is crap enough to be captured and isn't even in the final shoot-out. There's also a ghost who isn't, but just happens to be a member of staff bearing a strong resemblance to a ghost of legend who is wandering around drugged and trying to escape the patients. Which is no coincidence at all, is it...
At the close, our Mountie asks Elizabeth to stick around for him, and to get to know her just released Uncle. Like a fool she agrees. If that was me, I'd point out how useless Mr Mountie was when the bullets were flying, how he asked her to snoop when he knew how dangerous it was, and why the hell would he want her to meet a psychiatrist so useless he let his own patients drug and imprison him!?!
Having said all that, I loved it. More a horror in disguise than a romance, this piles it on quite nicely in 169 pages (including the blanks) and you whizz through it. Well, I did. It's cheap, nasty and not what it claims to be, which makes it a perfect Manor paperback.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 22, 2015 12:39:46 GMT
Having always remembered and imagined gothics as being romantic, I was surprised by this, as it's actually pretty nasty. Elizabeth Shepherd is a nurse visiting her uncle who helps run a sanitarium in the middle of the Canadian wilds. Her mother has just died and mum and uncle didn't get along, so she's never even seen a photo of him. Remember that... Anyway, she meets the wife of his partner on the plane, who gives her a lift to the castle where the sanitarium is based, walks through a door, and is never seen again. Uncle is a hard-nosed bugger, and the staff seem callous and creepy. And there are no patients... Guess what? Of course, the lunatics have taken over, etc, and there follows a series of incidents with skulls, dead rats and attempts at seduction from two dr's on staff (or are they??) that are more full-on sexual assault than anything, and quite tasteless even if carefully circumspect in description. Ross is no stylist, and the plot is pretty transparent, but there is a page-turning momentum and a nice line in building tension that keeps you going to the final shoot-out with Mounties on the roof of the castle (!!!!!). "Having always remembered and imagined gothics as being romantic...", a common false memory! Well, I'm sure many of them are, but what got me interested in Gothics in the first place is that so many are horrors in disguise, most notably those published by Paperback Library, where even Sydney Horler's The Curse Of Doone and J. U. Nicolson's Fingers Of Fear receive a Chaste-woman-chased makeover from the artwork department. Behind Closed Shutters sounds a belter. Isn't Dan Ross aka 'Marilyn Ross' who penned all those Dark Shadows novelisations? Sure we've a thread for them somewhere. Edit, answers own stupid question. Yes, it most certainly is that Dan Ross. Here's Sara's review of Behind Closed Shutters - replete with cover artwork - on her very beautiful My Love-Haunted Heart blog
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Post by andydecker on Nov 22, 2015 13:45:21 GMT
The Gothic is a strange field. Sometimes it appears to me as a dumping ground for all kinds of genres, which just didn't made the cut. A little bit too soft for horror, a little bit too horrific for a historical. Publish it as a Gothic. There is often a surprising quality in the writing one wouldn't expect. Sure, you have to ignore the formula, which gets tired quick. I don't want to know how many Gothics begin with the arrival by train in a remote corner of the world by our heroine.
But there are so many hidden and forgotten gems. I once read a Gothic by someone called Genevieve St.John The Ghost of Channing House where the contemporary woman-narrator was kidnapped and woke in hidden room,. Nothing special there, but then she escapes, discovers that the house has a hidden labyrinth of rooms and begins to life there to spy on the other occupants of the house to solve the riddle because she has been framed for muder in the meantime. Even with the unavoidable romantic subplot it was a novel idea quite well executed.
The perplexing thing about Gothics is that there seems to be no fandom. Go to the ISFDB and you can check which stories were featured in an obscure sf-anthology from 1972. Try to get some facts about who wrote which Gothic or how many titles were published, and you draw a blank. There are bits and pieces, but nothing compared to the information you can get about crime novels or even western.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 22, 2015 14:06:46 GMT
The perplexing thing about Gothics is that there seems to be no fandom. Go to the ISFDB and you can check which stories were featured in an obscure sf-anthology from 1972. Try to get some facts about who wrote which Gothic or how many titles were published, and you draw a blank. There are bits and pieces, but nothing compared to the information you can get about crime novels or even western. This undoubtedly has something to do with the fact that gothics are marketed at women. Women, being on average less autistic than men, are less interested in systematization and what you call "information." Men, on the other hand, are in the majority on message boards devoted to any topic, even ones you would have thought were primarily of interest to women, such as perfume.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 22, 2015 14:20:30 GMT
Women, being on average less autistic than men, are less interested in systematization and what you call "information." I wonder what Sara on the aforementioned My Love-Haunted Heart would make of that? Her blog is as meticulous re identifying cover artists and unmasking pseudonyms as any I've seen. You might want a word with Ro Pardoe over at 'Ghosts & Scholars' too.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 22, 2015 14:27:19 GMT
Women, being on average less autistic than men, are less interested in systematization and what you call "information." I wonder what Sara on the aforementioned My Love-Haunted Heart would make of that? Her blog is as meticulous re identifying cover artists and unmasking pseudonyms as any I've seen. You might want a word with Ro Pardoe over at 'Ghosts & Scholars' too. Would you say they are average women? I think not.
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