The Masked Avenger

Tom Johnson’s popular new pulp hero, The Masked Avenger trilogy is available in two formats, the thrilling TRIPLE DETECTIVE issues from Altus Press and also as a Kindle edition from the author.

“Crime’s Last Stand”: The debut adventure of the masked hero, will evil win out? Blood covers the streets as gangsters kill indiscriminately. As a little boy lies helpless in the hospital, a new paladin takes up arms to bring the killers to justice. Can even the great Masked Avenger survive the final battle with the city's underworld when crime makes its last stand? $.99 from Kindle edition, and $13.46 from Altus Press (TRIPLE DETECTIVE #2).

“Crime’s Dark Streets”: The dark streets that lead to ebony alleys in the city’s immigrant district culminate in a spider’s web of fear when emissaries of evil abduct homeless children. When The Masked Avenger promises protection to the city’s unwanted children, can he keep that promise? Follow our paladin as he embarks on his second dangerous mission! $.99 from Kindle edition, and $13.46 from Altus Press (TRIPLE DETECTIVE #3).

“Crime’s Death Plague”: The trail begins in a Chicago orphanage, but when a boy is kidnapped, it takes The Masked Avenger to New York City where he must uncover the identity of a German scientist and stop him from releasing a deadly virus and killing everyone in New York. Can one man, even such as The Masked Avenger, succeed when America looks to be doomed? $.99 from Kindle edition, and #13.46 from Altus Press (TRIPLE DETECTIVE #4).

Fill 'Er Up: The Great American Gas Station

Fill ‘Er Up: The Great American Gas Station (Americana)

By Tim Russell

Crestine: Reprint Edition

ISBN #978-0785829867

Price $11.68

208 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“The History of An American Institution”

British author, Tim Russell, fell in love with the American gas stations while attending college in the US. A lifetime of interest in gas stations led him to study and collect everything concerning them, which eventually led to this fascinating book. Filled with many color and black & white photographs, it chronicles the history of the many service stations, their mottos, and advertisements. Remember when men – and women – gave the motorists full service?

As a young boy I remember gas stations on just about every block in Seymour, Texas, and almost the same in Wichita Falls, Texas, where I spent my formative years. In the summer of 1958, before enlisting in the Army, I worked at the Hill Top Truck Stop, several miles outside Seymour, pumping gas in the evenings and on the night shift. How well I remember climbing up on semi-trucks to clean the bugs off windshields! I don’t remember what gasoline we carried, but the Truck Stop had a small café, where my sister worked; that’s how I got the job in the first place. The owner was a mechanic and fixed flats. I did not have to do anything but give full service; although in the evenings and over night I also sold pre-packaged sandwiches that my sister had prepared. I also remember the many gimmicks the gas stations used to get regular customers to come back. In the early days they gave the kids a cartoon strip of an aviation hero (though I don’t remember the hero’s name), a goldfish in a plastic envelope, Green Stamps (?), or special glassware. My wife would send me to the same station every time to be sure to get one of their glasses she was collecting. I also recall the time I drove into a station and asked them to check the oil, water and air, and was told, “We don’t do that any more.” I was shocked. The Texaco man was no more.

People my age will enjoy the memories this book brings back. Maybe even the younger generation that heard their parents and grandparents speak of the “full-service” gas stations will want to see what it was all about. But to everyone who reads this book, I think it will give them a taste of Americana, and a time when service meant something. Well worth the small price.

Tom Johnson

Echoes Magazine

The Boy Who Loved Batman

The Boy Who Loved Batman (A Memoir)

By Michael E. Uslin

Chronicle Books LLC

ISBN #978-0811875509

Price $19.70 (Hardback)

256 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Memories Of A Comic Book Fan”

The author discovered comic books when he was five years old, then fell in love with the character of Batman. This book chronicles his dreams from childhood, through education, and finally to Hollywood where he would be involved in bringing a darker Batman to film with such titles as “Batman Begins”. We see his struggles, triumphs, loves, and discouragements along the way.

I found Michael Uslin’s life an interesting one, and agree with his philosophy to dream your dreams, then get off your butt and pursue them. I find this true. Many people have plenty of dreams, but sit on their butts waiting for opportunity to come knocking on their door, and then blame everyone else when they don’t achieve their dreams. Like the author I discovered comic books at an early age (age 7 for me), and loved Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman until I found Captain Marvel and The Marvel Family. But I was never a fanatic, and only picked up comic books occasionally. In the third grade my teacher caught me with a comic book in school and brought me a book, suggesting I read real literature. The book was “Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal” by Lloyd C. Douglas, and I became a reader of novels from that point onward. However, I could feel Michael Uslin’s love for comic books, and especially Batman, and if his memoirs don’t do anything else, I hope they persuade readers to pursue their dreams as steadfast as he, and don’t blame the world if you fail.

Tom Johnson

Echoes Magazine

Sleeping Dragons

Sleeping Dragons (The Executioner)

By Michael A. Black

Gold Eagle Books

ISBN #978-0373644193

Price $5.99

190 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Very smooth and plenty of action”

Don Pendleton’s The Executioner: “Sleeping Dragons” by Michael A. Black. The latest in the Mack Bolan series has The Executioner and his pal, Jack Grimaldi in Hong Kong investigating the murder of a CIA agent. The agent had been following Eddie Lee, a Chinese arms dealer, and discovers he’s making a deal with a mysterious Libyan for Drones and something they call the “sleeping dragons”. A super weapon the Libyans need to kill the infidels and take back their homeland.

I had only read a few of the early Executioners by Don Pendleton before I got tired of all the disbelief in one man’s massive killing of Mafia gangs, so wasn’t a follower of the series. The idea of a one-man army in Vietnam just turned me off completely. Soldiers didn’t operate alone in the jungles of Vietnam, so Sergeant Mack Bolan never caught on with me. Now, after saying that, when I heard that Mike Black, a real soldier, and Vietnam veteran was the author of “Sleeping Dragons”, I had to give this book a try. To my delight, the story takes place in Hong Kong, which is one of my favorite settings. Bolan and Grimaldi go up against a Chinese gang this time, instead of the Mafia. Bolan has his job cut out for him, and it’s not an easy walk. Plus, there appears to be a traitor in British intelligence that is setting them up. If Gold Eagle Books continues the series with authors like Michael A. Black, they will have a new fan of the Executioner series. This entry is topnotch all the way.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories

The Culling

The Culling (Bio-Thriller)

By Robert Johnson

The Permanent Press www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN #978-1579623517

Price $29.00

326 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Just two kids, two billion, we can live with that”

Five scientists have recovered a super bug, H7N7, a subtype of the Swine flu that killed so many people in 1918, discovered in an Eskimo grave in Alaska. Concerned with the world’s over population as we press towards seven billion people, they wish to curtail the growing numbers by introducing the flu bug to an un-prepared public, perhaps killing sixty percent of those infected, or more. After creating a Hot Zone in Laos, one of the members brings a doctor from the CDC to investigate, then switches vials with him containing a less virulent bug, which is sent to CDC. This causes a rush to produce the wrong vaccine.

Considering the overpopulation of the world, the scientists believe they are doing the right thing. Allowed to continue, the planet cannot support the growing population and unless there is a great dying off, the world will soon collapse. They plan to save the world by eliminating the masses through an unstoppable strain of flu.

Told as a mystery, I would say this bio-thriller is a great fictional story of a scenario that only Hollywood could come up with, but it is not. This is so real, it is frightening, and the possibility of a super bug really being out of control among us is just around the corner. Although the characters are fictional, the story is possible – and very likely. The book will keep you awake nights, thinking about our vulnerability, and worried that we’ve already gone too far for the planet to survive without a culling.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories