Black & White

It's 1959, and Judy Cooper, the Black Stiletto, sets out to confront a dangerous gangster known as the heroin king of Harlem when the teenage daughter of her beloved martial arts instructor ends up a prisoner in an uptown narcotics den. The Stiletto has troubles of her own- a shady filmmaker is threatening to reveal her identity to the world- a close friend of her landlord and substitute father may be in cahoots with the Harlem criminals- she's fighting for racial equality- and she has fallen in love again- this time with an FBI agent who has standing orders to arrest her. Meanwhile the Stiletto's son faces his own blackmail crisis when he finds out that there is a second copy of an 8mm film he found in his mother's strongbox - showing the Black Stiletto unmasked in a film studio dressing room. As he tries to stop the filmmaker's son's extortion plot, he learns that his daughter, Gina, has been brutally assaulted in New York City. The past and the present meet.

Black & White (Pulp Action)

By Raymond Benson

Oceanview Publishing

ISBN #978-1608090419

312 Pages

Price $99.80

Rating 5-Stars

This is the second novel in The Black Stiletto series and it’s 1959, and Judy Cooper is trying to stop a Harlem gangster from bringing drugs in. The Mafia boss, don Franco DeLuca, who has a contract out on her, wants her to work with him in removing his Harlem competition, and he’ll drop the contract. This, after several hit men try to collect on the contract. But when her karate and judo trainer Soichiro Tachikawa is murdered by the black gangster, she goes after the kingpin. In the present day, her son, Martin Talbot finds an 8mm film in the secret closet at the old home in Arlington Heights. The son of the photographer also has a copy of the film, and it captures Judy’s face, and he wants a million dollars for the film. Martin must stop the release of the film while other problems continue to follow him.

This was another nice entry in the series. The Black Stiletto was a costumed vigilante who operated in New York from 1958 to 1963, fighting petty criminals, the Mafia, communist spies, as well as drug lords. Fast-forward to the current time, and 73 year old Judy Talbot, nee Cooper, is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s. Her son, Martin was not aware of her past until discovering a secret closet in their old home, and finding The Black Stiletto’s black costume and mask, along with her diary telling about her deeds as the masked vigilante. A secret he must keep without fail.

The novel contains lots of action and of fun, and highly recommended to lovers of pulp adventure and masked vigilante fiction.

Tom Johnson

Author of GUNS OF THE BLACK GHOST