Pick Up A Pulp [81]: ANGEL! by Carter Brown

She wore a tight black sweater that shamelessly shaped the contours of her full deep breasts, and a pair of harlequin stretch pants, patterned in multi-coloured dots, that did equal service with the sweater in revealing the full feminine curves of her rounded hips, and firmly tapering thighs. At a conservative estimate I figured she was around 105% woman, and reflected happily that she was my kind of woman.

Flyboys, prisoners of war, beautiful broads, and an unusual mascot, make for some entertaining and pulp-tastic reading in ANGEL!; an Al Wheeler investigation. 

Starting with a scene worthy of a James Bond flick, Wheeler and his trusty Healy nearly end up in a ditch after narrowly avoiding a plane which had swooped down from the skies to strike fear in unsuspecting motorists. Unfortunately for the pilot, he didn't bank on the motorist being a cop! A cop who just so happened to be on his way to the pilot's house to clear up complaints by neighbours fed up with the sky high antics. 

However, the complaints and his own brush with death soon evaporate when Wheeler plays witness to a murder following a deadly midair explosion which killed the pilot instantly and left a ball of flame and a bevy of suspects in his wake. 

There was a lot going on with this one, and as usual, there was a close knit group of suspects - all with probable cause to be a killer; from a cheating wife, to a blackmail spanning years, to a lovestruck mechanic; the murder really is a mystery. 

The approach to ANGEL! flips the script on the traditional Carter Brown ending; yes there's the grandstanding and violent confrontation to unearth motive in the final chapters, but this time, I was left with a level of uncertainty as to who the killer actually was; a refreshing ending to the formulaic narrative. 

Bonus: The covert art depicts one of the more prominent characters in the book; the unusual mascot Angel - her behind, the object of good luck for the flyboys. 

Pick Up A Pulp [80]: SEVEN AGAINST GREECE by Nick Carter

Full disclosure before I get into my thoughts on the 25th installment in Killmaster series; this is my first outing into the world of 'men's adventure' books, not just the Killmaster himself, Nick Carter, so without having a basis for comparison, my thoughts will be biased towards this entry, and this entry alone...

Perhaps that's why I got such a kick out of reading this.

SEVEN AGAINST GREECE pits the all American hero / professional Killmaster, Nick Carter, against a sophisticated international spy syndicate based in Greece posturing as an American migration service for refugees. The syndicate's cover is clever enough; upskill refugees in specialised trades and offer them to rich American businessmen at a reasonable price. The result; an instant and seamless infiltration of spies on American soil. 

AXE, the agency Nick Carter works for, has caught wind of something suspicious out of Athens, and, after sending one of their agents to investigate only for them to go missing, deploys the Killmaster to search for answers. 

In no time at all, Nick Carter is bedding broads, dodging bullets, and beating the living daylights out of bad guys. Naturally he quickly uncovers the sinister scheme behind the Golden Island Productions facade thanks to some quick thinking and all-too-easy infiltration of the inner sanctum of the syndicate's operations; the warm and wanton arms of one of the masterminds of the Golden Island Productions, Princess Electra. 

The moment Nick Carter steps out of Electra's bed, the morning after their hot and steamy coupling, SEVEN AGAINST GREECE goes into overdrive with a body count far exceeding the novel's page count. 

In order to enjoy SEVEN AGAINST GREECE you need to suspend your belief; Nick Carter is impervious to bullets, is a specialist marksman, an expert in hand-to-hand combat, can pilot a plane, is irresistible to the opposite sex, and is incredibly resourceful, - he's basically MacGyver and the Greek God Adonis fused into the ultimate fighting machine or 'Killmaster' as it were.

Nothing about SEVEN AGAINST GREECE is plausible which is part of the charm and appeal; it's fast fried men's adventure take-out for the mind, there's no need to think or contemplate proceedings, just enjoy the over-the-top ride of pure adrenaline infused testosterone. 

Pick Up A Pulp [79]: HELLCAT by Carter Brown

"He hardly seemed to have left the room before he was back with that axe in his hand! Oh, God! I saw him standing there, his eye gleaming like a maniac's, and then he swung the axe and I saw Tino's head roll!" 

HELLCAT starts off like an 80's mass market paperback horror; a head floating in a jar of formaldehyde, a confused cop, and a medical examiner who's lost his senses, all clustered around the ice cold bodies of the dead in a eerily quiet mortuary. From there the story evens out to the traditional lone wolf police procedural akin to Spillane's Mike Hammer (the comparison and praise is well deserved) with Lieutenant Al Wheeler tasked with solving a 5 year old cold case, reopened thanks to a deathbed confession. 

The Sumners own the Valley and everyone who lives there. Their old money influence has kept them out of the headlines and out of the hands of law - until their former cook calls time on a dark family secret. Wheeler's first port of call is the Sumner residence, his first task; get past the beautiful Jessica Sumner (wife to Crispin, who was in residence at the time of the murder accusation), and then interview Crispin and Charity, the brother and sister linked to the murder, in order to debunk the deathbed confession, or confirm it. 

HELLCAT is one of my favourite Al Wheeler books. Not only is the story gripping and dripping with that oh so cheesy pulp goodness, it manages to create a near perfect balance of humour and seriousness as Wheeler steadily paints a picture of murder. 

On the surface, HELLCAT seems pretty standard, but as the story progresses, Carter Brown cleverly adds layer upon layer of complexity to the case which only strengthens the narrative; there's a couple of mob goons (including a pro executioner) claiming to have known the person to whom the decapitated head belongs, a father who resides in the Valley with murder in his veins and a quest to avenge the wrong-doings subjected to his teenage daughter, and a side plot of pure pulp 'love' between Wheeler and Charity Sumner (of course, there had to be some sleaze!). I greedily ate this one up in a single sitting.