Moon Man, Secret Agent X & More

Coming soon to Kindle, three new books by Tom Johnson.

Hunter’s Moon, featuring the Moon Man in his best adventure since Frederick C. Davis. With the police closing in on Angel’s hideaway, the danger for the Moon Man may be escalating for Great City’s Robin Hood. To compound matters, tragedy strikes closer to home. This time, he will not be able to provide help to someone close to him. Sergeant Steve Thatcher, seeing the people struggling to survive, dons the mysterious garments of the Robin Hood thief to relieve the filthy rich of their ill-gotten gains to be distributed among the poor by ex boxer Ned Dargan. When they come up against an illegal weapons manufacturer masquerading as a toy company, his fiancé is taken prisoner by criminals and he must not only remove them of their money, but put a stop to their weapons sale overseas.

In The Silence of Death, Colonel Jeremiah Custer’s Wild West Show comes across murder in a small Texas town. A mystifying murder mystery ensnares the famous criminologist and sharpshooter, Colonel Jeremiah Custer when his team encounters a young boy accused of mayhem. The lad cannot deny the charges for he can neither hear nor speak. The scientific brain of the greatest man hunter is put to task as he attempts to unravel this new crime! The ex intelligence officer puts his scientific brain to work to prove that the deaf mute boy is not the killer. Follow Colonel Custer and his aides as they unravel this deep mystery, and bring to justice this evil murderer.

Secret Agent X is back in The Tower of Death. What could a German agent be after in America? During Secret Agent X’s recovery at the Montgomery Mansion after the battle with Zerna’s drug gang in 1937, Betty Dale falls into a trap while following a suspect and is captured by a German Spy. Her whereabouts are unknown, and indeed, it’s not known if she’s even alive. Although the Agent hasn’t fully recovered from his previous battle with Zerna and the underworld, it’s imperative for him to locate and rescue the girl. For Betty Dale is more precious to him than anything in the world. If she has been harmed, he will exact vengeance on those responsible!

The 2012 Echoes Award

Tom & Ginger Johnson are proud to announce the recipient of the 2012 ECHOES Award. This year the Award goes to Howard Wright. The publisher of The Bronze Gazette, dedicated to Doc Savage, was the recipient of the 2012 ECHOES Award this year. Howard has been publishing The Bronze Gazette for 22 years now, and also promotes other pulp interests. He is well deserving, and long overdue acknowledgement from the pulp community. We want to congratulate Howard for his achievements.

Tom & Ginger Johnson

Fight Card: Irish Dukes

Irish Dukes (Fight Card)

By Jack Tunney (Mike Faricy)

Kindle $2.99

ASIN #B00A6KX8FS

Rating 5-Stars

Buck Sergeant Kevin Crawley is stationed at Templehof, Germany in 1951. He’s waiting for his transfer to Japan, with a thirty-day leave in between in Ireland, when Sergeant Major Eugene Taylor throws him in the ring against a big Russian. He wins the fight for his Division, and Taylor hides two thousand dollars in his bag. He didn’t know it, but this was going to come in handy very soon. He heads to Ireland looking for relatives; he had never known his father, and his mother had died when he was very young, leaving him to be raised in Father Tim’s Chicago orphanage for boys, where he learned to box. Finding his grandmother, and a beautiful neighbor named Mary, he discovers the local landlord is using strong-arm tactics to force renters to pay high prices. After beating up several of the landlord’s hoodlums, he’s tricked into fighting a huge killer to take pressure off the renters.

I do have a problem with the military rank in this story. Yes, Sergeant Major has been a military rank for the last 200 years, however, between 1920 and 1958, the rank was discontinued. So there could not have been a Sergeant-Major Eugene Taylor. The actual rank in 1951 was Master Sergeant and Senior Master-Sergeant, both E-7, but depending on their job and position. In 1958, the super E-8s and E-9s were created, bringing back the Sergeant Major title for the E-9. Buck Sergeant Kevin Crawley was also a problem, as there was no Buck Sergeants (three stripes) between 1948 and 1955. The rank of E-5 was just called Sergeant, and it had three stripes, plus a rocker at the bottom; today, this stripe is an E-6 and called a Staff Sergeant, but in 1951 it was an E-5 Sergeant. The 3-stripe Buck Sergeant was reinstated in 1955, which then threw confusion into the Army ranking system for several years until the old ranks were eliminated.

Regardless of the author’s mistake with the military rank, it doesn’t harm this interesting little story. In fact, I found it a bit more fun than some of the previous entries in the Fight Card series. We have a wee bit of humor, along with some nice fight scenes.

The Soul Stealers

The Soul Stealers by Tom Johnson, a short story collection from Amazon. Kindle Edition is 99 cents.

Angels have walked among mankind since the dawn of civilization. Although we may not recognize them, or even see their presence, they are always with us. Perhaps they whisper advice in our dreams, or guide our governments without their knowledge, angels are moving us towards a higher good. Some even protect us in our final day, when violent death reaches out for our very soul - these are the Soul Sealers! 

The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still

Louie Knight: The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still

Malcolm Pryce is an English author who moved to the Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth at the age of nine and now writes detective novels set there. His books parody vintage pulp, using artwork typically associated with the hard-boiled detective stories that were popular in the 1930s and depicting a fictional, alternative Wales that could pass for something from a classic film noir. In reality Aberystwyth is a quaint little Welsh town but Pryce portrays it as being filled with crime and mystery, with all manner of sinister figures lurking in the wings. This is undoubtedly an in-joke that people familiar with the area will find hilarious but that will probably be lost on most readers.

The Plot

The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still is the sixth book in the Louie Knight series, Louie Knight being Aberystwyth’s only private detective. It features Louie attempting to find out the truth behind a local farmer’s encounter with an alien, solve the mystery of a notorious thief who was hanged for a robbery only to be seen boarding a bus twenty-five years down the line and figure out why shadowy government agents have suddenly appeared in Aberystwyth. The plot is sometimes surreal to the point of silliness but it is nevertheless cleverly constructed and full of twists and turns.

More than Just a Spoof

Pryce’s strength lies in his ability to switch from humour and surrealism to content that genuinely manages to pluck at readers’ heartstrings. Rather than being a one-dimensional parody, his book is full of complex, well-developed characters that would be believable if they didn’t exist within such a surreal setting. It is easy to become attached to the supporting cast, as they each have their own distinct personalities and provide a lot more than just comic relief. Pryce displays an impressively sharp wit and underpins the quirky world that he has created with a feeling of melancholy and the message that human beings are intent on causing pain and grief to one another in spite of the obvious pointlessness of their actions. The book works on numerous different levels, providing strange and often dark humour with a hidden depth to it.

Another impressive feature of Pryce’s writing is his ability to craft sentences that they are a pleasure to read. Some of his phrasing is bordering on poetic and he manages to keep his style accessible whilst demonstrating that he has perfectly mastered the written word. The structure of his book is also cleverly thought out, with the pace and mood changing at regular intervals in order to maintain the attention of the reader. This is done seamlessly and subtly without seeming clumsy or deliberate and creates a sense of nail-biting suspense.

The Downside

The only thing about The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still that is slightly disappointing is its failure to build upon some of the characters introduced earlier on in the series. Louie’s love interest Myfanwy, who was present in the first few books, does not make an appearance, which leaves the reader wondering where she has got to, and Llunos, a policeman who Louie has developed a love/hate relationship with, is also nowhere to be seen. There were unresolved issues related to these characters that readers were led to believe would be tied up later in the series. The fact that they are not even mentioned gives the impression that Pryce has lost interest in them and introduced a new cast of characters without bothering to finish telling their stories. However this leaves room for them to be re-introduced in a future Louie Knight book and still fails to detract from the quality of the story to an extent where it is no longer fun to read. If there are any book deals that enable you to purchase the entire series, I would recommend doing so but if not, the lack of inclusion of these characters might even add to readers’ enjoyment of The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still, as it means that it can be read as a standalone title even if you have no knowledge of the previous books.

Overall Verdict

The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still is both a skilful parody and a well-constructed detective story. It manages to straddle the line between humour and serious content, captivating readers whilst simultaneously making them laugh. I would recommend this book for pulp fans who are able to take a humorous look at the genre and enjoy a story with plenty of hidden twists.

Reviews By Eve

Evelyn Robinson