Endings & Beginnings - The Black Stiletto #5

The story was topnotch, but I was disappointed in my purchase. I’ve bought every issue in hardback, and ordered this one in hardback also, paying almost full price. But what I received was an advance reading copy paperback, clearly listed as not for sale on the cover. It is an uncorrected proof, containing paragraph problems, as well as dialogue running together. I don’t blame the author or publisher, but it is clearly a review copy sent to someone who resold it for the price of the hardback edition. It’s sad that the series comes to an end with this story, and even sadder that my collection ends with a less than perfect copy of the book.

Endings & Beginnings (The Black Stiletto #5)

By Raymond Benson

Oceanview Publishing

ISBN #978-1608091034

326 Pages

Price $20.31

Rating 5-Stars

“A Great Series!”

It’s 1962, and Judy Cooper is pregnant with Leo’s baby.  Leo’s sister, Christina is still wearing the fake Stiletto outfit and robbing the mob boss, keeping heat on The Black Stiletto from both the police and mob. Now in hiding at Barry Gorman’s mountain retreat until the baby is born, she can only harass Leo and his sister by telephone. Once the baby is born, however, she puts her plan in operation to prove that Christina is the fake Stiletto, and with her brother Leo is conspiring to rip off the big boss. The plan comes off, but not before a police shoot-out with gangsters, and once again Judy is on the run, but this time with her baby. They head for Odessa, Texas, where she hopes to fence the diamond stolen by Leo and his sister, to help her support the baby. But she brings more death to her hometown, and eventually has to run again.

This is the final entry in Judy’s career as The Black Stiletto. It also brings Martin, Maggie, and Gina to the realization that Judy’s Alzheimer’s is in the fatal stages, and her life is coming to an end. But Gina now has the Stiletto’s outfit, and she has been recruited into a secret government organization, leaving the door open to new adventures of a modern day Black Stiletto – if the author so desires. Even though Judy Cooper’s career as The Black Stiletto only lasted five years, from 1958 to 1962, I still hated to see her stories end. And it was even worse to see her dying with Alzheimer’s after such a brilliant life. The series was unique in the way the author presented her story through diaries being read by her adult son, and the reader gets a view of past and present as the stories unfold. Judy Cooper was charming, and The Black Stiletto was fascinating. I’m glad I had the chance to read her adventures. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of GUNS OF THE BLACK GHOST

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories 

Secrets & Lies - The Black Stiletto #4

Secrets & Lies (The Black Stiletto #4)

By Raymond Benson

Oceanview Publishing

ISBN #978-1608091010

336 Pages

Price $19.54

Rating 5-Stars

“Keeps You On The Edge!”

It’s 1961. As the police in New York begin a beefed up campaign to bring the Black Stiletto to justice, she’s thrown into situations where police and civilians are hurt in their efforts to arrest her. On a vacation to California Judy meets a handsome man with money and connections who promises her a job in Hollywood if she will move to the West Coast. Accepting the offer, though she hates to leave her friends in New York, she hopes to put the Black Stiletto behind her when she reaches Hollywood. But the excitement of her alter ego pulls Judy back in action. This time she’s working hand-in-hand with the police. But problems continue to beset her.

Meanwhile, in the present day, Judy’s Alzheimer’s is worsening, and she doesn’t have long to live. Her son Martin worries about her. He learns that Gina has quit school and studying martial arts full time with her boyfriend instructor. Going to New York to check on his daughter, he also wants to confront a woman claiming to be the Black Stiletto, but gangsters from Judy’s past catches up to him.

A lot is going on in the 4^th novel, and we know that the series may soon come to an end. Judy gave up the Black Stiletto in 1962 (the next entry in the series), so we only have one more book of her exploits, and with her present health problems, Judy may have little time left. But there is hope, and the author admits it could happen. Gina is training in Krav Maga, Israeli martial arts, and we could have a new Stiletto series on the drawing table. This has been a unique series from the start, and either readers love it or hate it.  I find the characters fascinating, and the writing captivating. Highly recommended for action and comic book lovers. It will keep you on the edge.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories 

Stars & Stripes - The Black Stiletto #3

Stars & Stripes (The Black Stiletto #3)

By Raymond Benson

ISBN #978-1608090723

Oceanview Publishing

Price $25.95

284 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“A Great Action Series!”

Judy Talbot remains in the nursing home, while her granddaughter runs into problems in New York. Martin Talbot is afraid that his daughter is taking on some semblance of Judy’s alter ego, The Black Stiletto. Meanwhile, it’s 1960 in Judy’s diary, and lots of stuff is going on. It’s a presidential election year, and she becomes a Kennedy Girl, working as a volunteer at the New York Democratic Party election campaign headquarters. Naturally, she discovers a Russian plot to assassinate both Kennedy and Nixon, plus she has ventured into Chinatown with drastic results. Both Russians and the Chinese tong want to kill her, and the Mafia were mere children compared to these groups.

This is a great series, well written, good story telling, with just the right mix of action and plot to keep the story interesting. Each novel records a year in the diary of The Black Stiletto, who was active from 1958 to 1963. She fought crime, the mob, spies, and Nazis, as well as Chinese tongs. She dresses in black, carries a sharp blade, a rope, and uses her fighting ability to take down the bad guys. What more could the reader want? This is one of the best new action series out today. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories

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