Stark House – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

Reviews April 11, 2025

SC-012: Vaught’s Practical Character Reader by L.A. Vaught

Staccato Crime #12

Jeff Vorzimmer rescues a bizarre gem from publishing’s forgotten past. His introduction explains the oddity of phrenology, “the science of discerning personality traits from the shape of a person’s head and its bumps.” One of its leading proponents helped bring phrenology into its heyday, roughly around the jazz era. In fact, he wrote the book on it—and this is it.

Character Reader is packed with illustrations depicting Vaught’s looney ideas. It’s kind of like judging everyone’s character by their appearance. The more “handsome and normal,” the more good and true; and of course, the opposite too.

This is a book that’s more fun to browse than study or read front-to-back. The ideas are outrageous and the attributed traits can be somewhat repetitive. It’s a great novelty piece and could also serve as a sort of catalog of character traits, perhaps of use to creatives in character development. Collectors of the Staccato Crime line will also want a copy.

The book also as a lesson in time. What was once considered an emerging science was later proved to be ridiculous speculation with no basis in fact. A conman’s handbook for the ages. What’s next, a nineteenth century recipe book for snake oil? Who knew the lessons of the phrenology con would remain so prescient 100 years later?

Reviews March 22, 2025

BG69: Cornered by Louis King

Black Gat No.69

Originally published in 1958 by Ace books, Cornered is Louis King’s (1898–1962) only novel. Sometimes known as Lewis King, the author spent most of his career in film and television. Beginning as an actor during the silent era, King went on to direct westerns and adventure films, and transitioned to television in the 1950s directing episodes of Gunsmoke, Zane Grey, and Wild Bill Hickok. Although he directed a lot of westerns, he also had plenty of experience with detective pictures including three entries into the Bulldog Drummond series, and Charlie Chan in Egypt (as Luis King).

King’s familiarity with crime stories no doubt helped him craft a fast-paced, engaging novel for Ace. Steve Grogan is a tough, seasoned cop. He married well, and when his wife’s father died, she inherited a fortune. Fast forward a few more years, when she herself died after giving birth to a daughter, Betsy, and Grogan is left a widower, single father, and rich. He soon quits the force, but before leaving, vows to testify against gangman Marc Henderson. As our story opens Henderson is out to put an end to Grogan through assassination or kidnapping young Betsy to force the ex-cop from testifying. Grogan does his best disappearing act, but Henderson is smart, savvy, and resourceful. In short order, Grogan is cornered, with Henderson and his minions closing in for the kill.

Black Gat brings back buried treasure with Cornered. It’s a nonstop juggernaut with barely a moment spared to catch your breath.

Reviews March 9, 2025

Switcheroo by Emmett McDowell

Jaimie MacRae, operative of Gibbs & Stackpole, likes the detective melee so much he even reads those cheap PI paperbacks that were so popular in the 1950s. He is cocksure, tougher than chestnuts, and quick as a cat. His boss, Isaac Dunn, manager of the Louisville branch, assigns him a missing persons case. Amiel Warren, a crooked lawyer who represents “Little Steve” Hockmiller, wants the widow of Big Steve Hockmiller found—that would be Corinne Hockmiller.

Big Steve was a big-shot racketeer loaded with dough, clout, and territory. When he got clipped, Corinne got rich—and immediately disappeared. Meanwhile, the sharks are circling. They want to take over Big Steve’s racket, with Little Steve left to try and fill his father’s big-shot shoes.

MacRae’s task is simply to find the missing woman, but his search is quickly compromised. Somebody don’t like him nosing around in their playground.

The subplot of MacRae’s pushy/pull romance with co-worker Margaret Ives is dated and you end up wondering what the heck she sees in this gumshoe. No matter, the real action is in the chase. Switcheroo is a nicely plotted detective story, loaded with all the familiar elements of its ilk, and written with solid prose.

Reviews January 6, 2025

Day of the Outlaw by Lee Wells

Black Gat No. 66 January 2025

Accountant turned pulp fiction writer Lee Wells (1907–1982) began his writing career with short stories for pulp magazines until about 1940, when he switched his focus novels. He wrote mostly westerns, and this Black Gat reprint from 1955, may be his most famous one. It was filmed by André de Toth in 1959, starring Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, and Tina Louise.

Day of the Outlaw was Wells’ eleventh novel, so he was deep into the territory and packed in just about every conflict you can think of: man against man, man against nature, and man against himself. The friction starts between Blaise Starrett owner of the Star Ranch and his foreman Dan Murdock. Starrett has designs on his rival Hal Crane’s ranch, and presses Murdock to help him get it by any means possible. Add to that, they’re both smitten by Paula Preston, whose father runs the lumberyard in the town of Bitters, aptly named for both the weather it endures, and the drama that ensues as the novel’s title comes into play.

Jack Bruhn and his gang of nine, fresh off the trail with $50 Gs in loot, need a place to hide out for a short bit and the Wyoming Bar in Bitters looks to fit the bill. There is no law in Bitters, so Bruhn and his gang have no trouble confiscating all the weapons in town and taking over.

Meanwhile, a relentless rain leaves the streets and surrounding prairie a sucking slog that makes leaving or reaching the town from outside, impossible. The outlaws can relax, drink whiskey, play cards, and flirt with every young thing in their wake. Any posse that may be in pursuit can’t reach them, and they bide their time until the trail dries up a bit.

Tension mounts in every direction. Not all the outlaws are happy with their leader—or each other. The townsfolk want to fight back, but without weapons, feel miserable and helpless. Despite these stressors, romance blooms in several hearts, some real and some deceitful, some doubtful, and some unrequited.

The outlaws scour every home and business in the small town for guns. But they miss one, and spark the beginning of a counterattack. As tensions grow in every direction, there are fist fights and gun fights; and casualties. The action is frequent and raucous as Murdock, the story’s hero, frantically reaches for a foothold to turn things his way.

Wells revisits nearly every conflict he creates in an effort to increase the suspense and anxiety of his characters. Sometimes it works, but other times in slows the action a mite. Nevertheless, he’s written a kinetic wildfire about to ignite with the flick of a smoldering cigarette. Now, I’m anxious to see the movie.

Uncategorized November 21, 2024

Too Rich to Die by H. Vernor Dixon

Too Rich to Die by H. Vernor Dixon
Black Gat No. 65

A lousy first impression is a difficult smear to unsmirch. T. Howard Carleton makes a doozy in Chapter 1. Born fabulously rich, he’s shallow, callous, rude, and a mysogonist to boot. I got more than enough of him in the first 18 pages and almost had to bail. But Dixon knew what he was doing and spends the remaining 200+ pages churning things around. It isn’t so much that Carleton metamorphasizes into a butterfly; instead he finally figures out who he really is sans the baggage of ostentatious privilege.

The trigger is a nasty tryst Carleton tries to cap, waving a pistol at his latest conquest in hopes of scaring her off once and forever. Trouble is, he’s so drunk he passes out and can’t remember shooting her dead. Faced with an open-and-shut case, even opulence can’t compensate, he goes into hiding, fortuitously landing a cook’s job on a fishing boat that feeds the canneries in Monterey.

Dixon spent his life in California, eventually settling in Monterey, so he knew the territory well and cites numerous geographic points of interest in this and several of his other works.

Richboy/playboy Carleton takes on the alias Tom Howie, but is still plagued with a sort of death wish. His wealth has precluded him from any normal/genuine relationships, so he takes outrageous risks just so he can feel like he’s alive. And despite his reckless antics, his luck never fails. Hence the title: Too Rich to Die.

This is a marvelous character study, wrapped in a fast-moving adventure story. Howie/Carleton gets the most ink, but the skipper, Matt Radovich, the femme fatales, cousins Ginny and Gail Norton, and even the sardine king, Steve Moore, all get three dimensional treatment that get a little shallower by their role’s importance.

Unlike real life, people nearly always change in fiction, sometimes quite easily. Dixon does a good job with his lead, who slowly grows into the realization that most of the world isn’t black and white, but shades of gray. So his change seems more genuine than that born of crisis or epiphany.

This one has it all—crime, adventure, romance, action, suspense, and danger–all set aboard the churning tides of cannery row. Great, great fun.

Reviews November 2, 2024

BG64: Chartered Love by Conrad Dawn

The introduction by Gary Lovisi explains this novel was originally published in 1961 by sleazehouse Novel Books (#3506); so you know going in to limit your expectations. Nonetheless, it has a lot going for it. Dawn apparently knew the territory of scavenger operations and treasure hunters, and sold me on the authenticity of his narrative. There is plenty of detail, clever twists, and plenty of action to keep you turning pages.

The aspect that keeps things tethered in the second-tier arena is lack of character development. The leads are moderately fleshed out, while the supporting cast is nothing more than roles with names. Skewed toward the male readers of its era, Captain Darrow is a borderline toxic macho-man and the love interest—and financier of the treasure hunt—Elizabeth McCain is likewise stereotroped into her shipboard attire and manner.

Not quite in the league of most of Black Gat’s earlier reprints, Chartered Love, is still worth a few hours of your reading time. It’s an exciting, adventurous treasure hunt told by an author who knows the ropes and the waves.

Uncategorized October 3, 2024

Hunter at Large by Thomas B. Dewey

Black Gat No.62: Hunter at Large by Thomas B. Dewey

This novel is prime for an action movie. Mickey Phillips, detective second grade, is home for the evening, a rare occasion due to a combination of workload and short-staffing at the bureau. His beautiful wife, Kathy, has prepared his favorite meal and they’re grateful for the romantic evening ahead. But their martial bliss quickly turns to horror when two home invaders arrive. The murder of Kathy is particularly brutal and Mickey receives his own brand of torture. He is shot to ensure there are no witnesses, but somehow he survives.

After months of rehab, he finally regains his memory of that night and his physical stamina. Now he wants only to find out who did this—and why? His Captain can’t condone Mickey’s vigilante mentality, he wants to track the killers through normal channels and see the men are brought to justice. Mickey wants only one case and one objective. In short order, Mickey resigns his position and begins the hunt.

There is a relentless aspect of Mickey’s determination and his pursuit of clues as to the identity of the killers, but time is also relentless and Mickey is forced to live a life in the same reality of his hunt. Along the way, he meets two women. Very different, but each unique and affecting to Mickey and readers. These subplots add unexpected constraints to the hunt, and force Mickey to confront himself and his mission.

Hunter at Large is a first rate manhunt thrill-ride with plenty of action, great characters, and several unexpected revelations.

First published in 1961 in hardcover by Simon and Schuster, its latest edition is from Stark House Press’ Black Gat Books, No. 62 in the series. This edition includes Dewey’s bibliography and a short bio.

Reviews October 1, 2024

Each Dawn I Die by Jerome Odlum

Present day prison novels and memoirs are loaded with violence and assault. The convicts must band together for survival against rival gangs and their keepers. So I was particularly interested to read Odlum’s novel, first published in 1936, for comparison. It presents a somewhat more charitable view of life inside, at least as far as an ever-present threat of sexual assault. But hold on. As revealed in David Rachels’ well researched introduction, the novel went through several heavy rewrites over its development. “The publisher told Odlum to remove all ‘obscenity’ and ‘perversion,’ which included references to sex criminals and homosexuality.”

Odlum had served several stints in Minnesota State Prison for writing bad checks and other swindling offensives, so he knew all about prison life first-hand. In his novel, the convicts are the heroes and the screws and management are the sadistic villains.

Newspaperman Frank Ross is set-up to take a bum rap by a powerful political machine. He is deemed responsible for a fatale car wreck while driving dead-drunk. His trial is swift, and he finds himself facing up to twenty years in Stoney Point prison.

His struggle to gain a new trial to prove his innocence is the main thread of the story, pursued by his wife and other colleagues at the Mountain Record newspaper where he worked, and by fellow-inmate Stacey, a powerful gangster with plenty of pull on the outside.

Much of the novel depicts the daily prison life, its harsh conditions, and man’s inhumanity to man. The controlling rules are nearly intolerable and the slightest infraction triggers a suspension of all “privileges” or worse—solitary confinement in the hole, where a man subsides on bread and water with no cot and only a bucket for his latrine.

If you’ve a fascination of prison life, Each Dawn I Die presents an unforgettable deep-dive into doing time, where men are so desperate for a piece of reality they adopt cockroaches as pets and long for escapes that can’t possibly succeed.

In real life, Odlum lost more than he won, but his debut novel rose above this failings and delivers a high-stakes mystery loaded with atmosphere, tension, and action.

Reviews August 2, 2024

Wild by Gil Brewer

Private Investigator Lee Baron relocates to his Florida past to take over his now deceased father’s one-man agency. He explains his approach to a couple of local cops who think he’s holding out on them:

“My old man was a lummox. He was a great guy, but he believed the book. Sometimes the book isn’t right. You go through life believing every word in the book, that’s all right. You live it your way. It’s not my way.” I stopped talking, and they didn’t speak. I said, “It’s not that I don’t want to come to you. You have facilities, means of operations I’ll never have. But I can’t always come to you.”

It’s an anemic explanation of Baron’s hardboiled detecting style, but then it wouldn’t be wild if it wasn’t.

In true 1958 PI rogue, an old flame walks into Baron’s office with a heap of trouble—most of it below her surface story—giving him just enough to set the hook. This is a juicy, messy, murder mystery with a cast of untrustables who leave more cuts than clues. The wild cover girl is one of two sisters, both hot, but one far reckless than the other. What begins as one sort of case soon reveals a more complex chain-of-trouble underlaid by a high-stakes robbery.

Gil Brewer was a top-tier paperback original author, and Wild is a worthy entry on his impressive bibliography of hits.

Reviews May 24, 2024

BG59: Drink With the Dead by Jay Flynn

Booze is big money, not only for the supply chain, but for Uncle Sam who collects premium excise taxes off each gallon sold. That’s why when counterfeit brand names start cutting into the market for the legitimate stuff, the Treasury Department takes particular notice.

The stuff in Drink With the Dead is good. Maybe near as good as the real thing. Based on the volume and quality there must be a major operation behind it—well funded and well hidden.

The Agent-In-Charge of the Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit for Northern California, Leonard Purvis, assigns John Levangie to find out who’s running it and where it’s located. Levangie poses as a newspaperman and begins asking questions. He has a photographic memory and keeps all his leads and evidence in his head. Trouble is, when he’s killed, he doesn’t leave any clues about what he’s learned.

His murder is covered up and ruled an accidental death by the local authorities. The boss, Purvis, ain’t buying it, and sends in Konrad Jensen to investigate both Levangie’s death and the agent’s original assignment. Jensen poses as a private operator hired by Levangie’s kinfolk to disprove or validate the official accidental death finding.

Jensen is a tough, live wire who leads with aggression and apologizes not at all. He soon embroils himself in the action, and trouble ensues as the pages zip by. Jensen makes good progress, but only through considerable wear-and-tear and high-stakes endangerment. There’s a woman too, and she’s a doozy.

John M. Flynn, writing as Jay Flynn, delivers a fast-paced espionage mystery. Its protagonist is not unlike its author according to Flynn’s biography, written by Bill Pronzini for mysteryfile.com—and Pronzini knew the guy.