January 19, 2025 • 27 mins
Today's exciting episode reviews the life and career of a crime-fiction and pulp megastar named Stewart Sterling. He wrote over 400 pulp detective stories and is credited as the creator of the specialty detective formula. Sterling also wrote numerous paperbacks for publishers like Beacon, Fawcett Gold Medal, Dell, Ace, Pyramid, and Avon. Additionally, the fallout from the Brian G. Berry accusations, Eric reviews the new sword-and-sorcery novella Doom of the Dark Delta by James Reasoner, and much more.
You can also stream the episode on the Paperback Warrior blog HERE. Be sure to visit paperbackwarrior.com weekly to read at least four new reviews covering genres like crime-fiction, western, fantasy, horror, pulp, and graphic novels.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE to see daily video shorts on books, authors, publishers, and comics as well as a weekly full-length video. You can listen to this episode on YT HERE.
You can also stream the episode on the Paperback Warrior blog HERE. Be sure to visit paperbackwarrior.com weekly to read at least four new reviews covering genres like crime-fiction, western, fantasy, horror, pulp, and graphic novels.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE to see daily video shorts on books, authors, publishers, and comics as well as a weekly full-length video. You can listen to this episode on YT HERE.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello again, Eric, here with the Paperback Warrior blog and podcast.
This show is an offshoot of the Paperbackwarrior dot com blog,
where you can find hundreds and hundreds of vintage fiction
reviews across multiple genres. Be sure to follow us every
day on Facebook, Instagram, threads, and x for posts on
old books, magazines, pulp's comics, and a look at authors
(00:40):
that we may not even talk about here on the show.
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to find
over one hundred and fifty videos. So on today's episode,
I'm presenting a feature on Prentice Winchell Junior. Now you
probably don't recognize that name, but you've probably read or
seen books by Stuart Sterling. That was his most used
pseudonym when writing crime fiction, paperbacks and pulp stories from
(01:03):
the nineteen thirties to the early nineteen sixties. He was
a prolific pulp writer, and he also had several series
characters that we'll talk about today. It's a real shame
that his name has been lost to the ages because
he produced over five hundred radio mystery shows and he
wrote for both television and film. His pulp presence was
nothing short of remarkable, as he pinned nearly four hundred
(01:24):
detective stories mystery files. Richard Moore deemed Stuart Sterling the
quote king of the specialty detectives. This is a great feature,
I promise you. I'm also going to review James Reasoner's
sword and sorcery novel Doom of the Dark Delta, but
my first order of affairs concerns last week's content and
the fallout from it. Last Monday, January thirteenth, I presented
(01:46):
an interview I conducted with author Brian G. Barry. The
reason this author came up on my radar was a
connecting piece involving a horror movie from the nineteen eighties,
a film called Chopping Mall. Now, Barry was hired by
Encycled Apocalypse Publications to write a novelization in that movie.
I received the book back in October reviewed it on
the blog End of Story Right Wrong. I read a
(02:07):
few days after my review that his book was pulled
by the publisher and his contract was severed. I'm not
one to get involved in all this modern stuff, As
you know, I mostly live in the twentieth century world
of paperbacks. I chose not to read anything else about
this decision. I didn't read anything, the publisher said. I
didn't read anything the author said. Instead, I just went
to X. I messaged the author and I didn't really
(02:28):
know him from Adam, and asked him if he wanted
to come on to the show to explain what happened.
My guest is the publisher probably didn't want an interview.
I never thought much of it after that, but Barry
did get back to me, and after a few back
and forth with schedules and times, he came on and
I asked him what happened to make the publisher pull
him again. Up until he started talking, I had no
idea what his response would even be. Here's a mic.
(02:49):
Tell us what happened. That's the end of it. He
said that there were accusations of domestic abuse with a
woman he was seeing. He claims that the abuse never
happened and that it was a lie. They cost him
his publishing deal. I asked if there was any validity
to the accusations. He said no. I asked if there
was a police report. He said no. Since that interview,
I've been inundated with comments. Some really enjoyed the interview
(03:10):
and how it was coordinated and presented. Some liked my
interview style, some didn't. But the question that recycles over
and over is why did I provide a platform for
an abuser to speak? The comments are something to the
effect of paperback Warrior supports a violence against women, the
paperback Warrior supports Brian G. Berry. My response is to
(03:30):
these questions and probes is always the same. I'm a
neutral platform. Simple as that, I'm a neutral platform. Nowhere
in that interview did you hear me support partner, provide,
encourage any allegiance to the author, the publisher, or the accuser.
I did what any journalist does. Again, here's the hot bike.
Tell us what happened in year words. You also never
(03:51):
heard me say in that episode or any prior episode,
that I support violence against women. I have a wife,
I have two teenage daughters. That goes against the grain.
But the notion that the accused or the accuser should
be kept silent and shouldn't have the opportunity to speak
about the incident that just doesn't sit right with me.
And a cancel culture that's been out of control in
the past, I don't believe silencing the accused and writing
(04:13):
them off is the best approach to finding the truth.
The exact same thing can be said of the accuser.
As I record this. Up until yesterday, I didn't even
know the name of the accuser, So the condemnation that
I didn't want to hear both sides is hyperbole. In
my opinion, the best course of action is to have
the accused speak, then organically await the accuser or any
other related parties to hear the tape, so to speak,
(04:34):
and then they can offer opinion on what's true and
what isn't. That's the interview approach. If I are writing
an article or a lengthy column, I'm hearing both sides
of the story to prepare, in my words, what happened
for the reader. Writing news stories puts the writer in
the middle. This is an interview. It's not a news story.
I'm not the middle person relaying messages. I'm letting the
(04:55):
actual party articulate details to the listener without any censorship
or outside in float. I reached out to the publisher
and they responded that they will review the interview. Good
enough for me. I invited them to come on and
talk about Barry, their books, their release schedule, or anything
else that listeners may want to know about. Their company.
I've posted numerous times since last week that I enjoy
Barry's storytelling. I've read two of his books. I enjoyed
(05:17):
both of them. But I also have posted that I
really appreciate in Psycho Apocalypse and everything they do to
support literature. Listen. They have a lot of authors, a
lot of books, and I plan on continuing to read
their publications. Since the interview. The accuser her name is
Danielle Yeager. She sent me a message again, I'm a
neutral party. I have no one here to protect. I
offered her the same opportunity that offered Brian Barry. She's
(05:38):
welcome to have a conversation with me. I can record it,
and I can present it right here on the show.
She declined, and I totally respect that. She explained to
me that Barry lied in the interview and that she
was the victim of his attack on September fifth. She
offered the emergency room reboard and a photo taken the
day of her er visit, which she says was on
September the tenth. She states on her November the eleventh,
twenty twenty four post on Facebook, that she sustained a
(06:01):
Grade one concussion with grade two wrists brain and Class
one B tearing of TFCC ligaments. In regards to a
police report, she states that she called Chalin City Sheriff's office.
I'm not sure if I'm saying that name right. Chalen
is in Washington State. She called the sheriff's office to
report the incident. She says that she was scheduled to
fly out of Washington State on September the ninth. She
(06:21):
states that the police advised her that as she wasn't
going to be in the state for a month, which
is how long it would take for the case to
go to court, then they couldn't make a police report.
Danielle said she lives in Canada. She couldn't stay in
Washington that long and wait for the case to go
to court, so there is no police report. Listen, no
one knows what happened that night except the two people involved.
I wasn't there, Listeners, you weren't there either. If what
(06:44):
she says is true, then it's a truly horrific thing.
I hope she finds happiness and that she finds someone
that would care for her and treat her with human decency.
I'm happy to know that there were no children involved
in this. You've heard Barry explain his position. I've recounted
to you what Danielle Jager explained to me. You can
come to your own conclusions. I'm not denouncing or defending anyone.
I'm not here to influence anyone. The whole thing's a
(07:06):
nightmare and a hope both of them find some level
of peace in the future. If you are anyone you
know is suffering from domestic violence, you can call one
eight hundred seven nine nine seven two three three four help.
All right, So with that being said, I am gonna
work right over here into the feature. I'm gonna play
us some mood music to get it set up, and
I'll be right back. As I mentioned in my opener,
(07:34):
today's feature is on an author that wrote hundreds of
pulp stories from the nineteen thirties until the early nineteen sixties.
He also created some distinct characters, some that were featured
in his novels. That author is Prentics Winchell, Junior, but
you probably know him better as Stuart Sterling. Many scholars
consider him to be the originator of the specialized detective,
(07:55):
which we're going to talk about today. Many authors and
stories feature a general private atte active with no prior
skill set in any particular area. But Sterling he kind
of changed that by creating heroes for his novels and
Pulps that specialized in store security, for example, or harbor patrol,
or medical examination, or even horse racing investigations. Princess Winchell
(08:18):
was born in eighteen ninety five in Everston, Illinois. He
attended Dartmouth College, played football there, and graduated in nineteen sixteen.
He went to New York City in nineteen twenty and
he began a fourteen year period of working as an
editor on journals and trade publications. Now as a side hustle,
he began writing for the Pulps in nineteen twenty five
and used the pseudonym of Stuart Sterling. The first character
(08:40):
I wanted to bring up is Winschell's creation of Johnny Highgear. Now.
This character debuted in the story Boomerang Dice in Black
Mask April nineteen thirty one issue under Sterling's byline, but
he spelt Sterling with an I instead of an E.
The character would reappear in the June, July, September, and
December issues of Black Mask. In nineteen thirty one, and
(09:03):
then again the following year in the January, April, and
May issues of that same magazine, all written under the
Stuart Sterling name with an I. This is the only
time that Sterling ever spelled his last name with an I. Thankfully,
Steger Books has published every Johnny Heigeer story in their
collection titled Boomerang Dice The Complete Black Mass Cases of
(09:24):
Johnny Highgear by Stuart Sterling. That book has an introduction
by Will Murray. Now, Johnny Higear was an undercover police
agent named K five who battled gambling rackets during the
Great Depression. This character sort of kickstarted the author's popularity again.
This was the Johnny Highgear character in nineteen thirty eight,
when Shall used his Sterling pseudonym to create the Steve
(09:46):
Cooski series. This character first appeared in the Fall nineteen
thirty eight issue of Detective Book Magazine in the story
The Corpse Doctor. This story was reprinted in Bold Venture
Press's Pulpit Ventures number eighteen and so of twenty fifteen,
you can still get that on Amazon. I believe Koski
is an example of what this author really concentrated on.
(10:07):
Stories that featured alternatives to detectives and detective agencies, as
we'll talk about in just a second. The author made
Steve Koski a New York Harbor patrol officer, which is
unique in a way that it places the police officer
somewhere other than just beating the streets or maybe raiding
gambling houses or apartment complexes. Koski's Harbor investigations continued for
(10:29):
fourteen more short stories that appeared in Detective Book magazine
up until nineteen forty two. Then he placed Steve Koski
in his own novel titled Down among the Dead Men,
published by Putnam in nineteen forty three. The character would
then reappear again in Popular Detective for three stories between
nineteen forty eight to nineteen fifty, then one more Coski
(10:51):
story and g Men Detective and Winner of nineteen fifty one,
before returning to Popular Detective for two more issues from
nineteen fifty one. In nineteen fifty three, a second novel
also appeared starring Steve Cosky in the Five Detective Novels
Magazine and Fall of nineteen fifty three. Again, this is
the Steve Koski series. KOs Ki. In nineteen thirty nine,
(11:14):
there were two stories that appeared in Detective Tales that
Start a character named dab Jensen. However, I couldn't locate
any information about the character and those two issues aren't
available anywhere online. Again it's the dab Jensen series. Also
in nineteen thirty nine, the author created the character Vince
Malley and inserted him into three stories for Black Mask,
(11:35):
the May, July, and December issues. In the first story,
strictly for Suckers, Malle explains to readers that he works
for a craps game guy that he refers to as
the Laos. He explains that the Loos is actually a
really good guy and keeps his nose clean. Obviously, the
craps game he runs is illegal, so he constantly has
to shuffle the business around to keep the police from
(11:56):
finding him. The Louse pays Malley one hundred dollars per
game to see that everybody gets away from the game
with whatever they win. Malley says the Louse pays him
because he's a practical guy who knows some of the angles,
and because he has a rep for not getting nervous
when he smells powder burning, so he's sort of the
level for these games making sure everyone gets their money.
There's no cheating, and if there is, he's a guy
(12:17):
that gets it back. Even so, that's the scoop on
this Vince Malley character that again appeared in three Black
Mask issues in nineteen thirty nine. Again in nineteen thirty nine,
Stuart Sterling's name appears in Dime Mystery Magazine with a
story titled Coffins for the Living. This is the first
appearance of a character named Rod Keeney. This character appears
from nineteen thirty nine through nineteen forty two in the
(12:39):
pages of Dime Mystery Magazine, Detective Tales and Strange Detective Mysteries.
This Roy Keeney character introduces himself in Coffins for the
Living as Keeni Shield number nine two seven one fifteenth Precinct,
and his colleagues refer to him as a rookie. His
beat is Chinatown, on and off of Pell Street. In
this first story, Keeney's trying to find the terrorists behind
(13:01):
planting bombs in victim's mouths. Wow, these bombs detonate and
then they decapitate the victims in a geyser of blood
and brains. Now, Dim Mystery Magazine never held back much
in terms of gore and violence, and this first story
is a blood bath. Later on, the series has kiny
listed as plain clothes first grade, Shield twenty first precinct,
(13:23):
so he sort of elevates these stories from what I
can gather, focus on really bizarre criminal cases like the
aforementioned mouth bombs and others like people laughing themselves to
the death of all things. So again, this is the
Ray Kiney series that ran from nineteen thirty nine through
nineteen forty two. Speaking of bizarre criminal cases, there was
another character written by Sterling named mal Varney. This character
(13:44):
was in four issues of Strange Detective Mysteries from nineteen
thirty nine until nineteen forty While I don't have any
information on this character, the story titles lead me to
believe that these were truly outrageous narratives that would fit
smoothly into Strange Detective Mysteries wheelhouse. Examples being titles like
television's Torture Chamber and The Devil Dines on Corpses. Again,
(14:06):
this is the mal Varney series. Another character I don't
have any information on is Keith Burnside. This character appeared
in three issues of Dime Mystery Magazine from nineteen thirty
nine until nineteen forty. The titles are outrageous as well,
like the Corpse who Wouldn't Die and Corpses on the Menu. Again,
this is the keat Burnside character. Another I don't have
(14:28):
any information on is the Gary McGregor character that appeared
in two issues of Dime Mystery Magazine in nineteen forty
and nineteen forty one. If any of you listeners have
any information on these characters, please let me know. I'm
kind of curious what they're about. Keen Madden is another
odd detective. He works for the West Coast Thoroughbred Racing
Protective Bureau, basically investigating criminal cases within the horse racing
(14:52):
and gambling industry. Now West Coast doesn't mean California, it's
actually West Coast Florida. In fact, one of the stories
takes place in Sarah So. This character appeared in two
issues of Popular Detective that was May of nineteen forty
nine and June nineteen fifty. Again, this is the Keen
Madden character. Another pulp character that Sterling wrote is the
(15:12):
Don Marco series Marco m a RKO. This character appeared
in four issues of Thrilling Detective between nineteen fifty to
nineteen fifty three, and one issue of Popular Detective in
May of nineteen fifty three. Again, like so many of
the author's characters, Don Marco is another abstract type of detective.
Marco works in New York on Fifth Avenue on the
(15:33):
tenth floor of a store called Nimblets. His frosted glass
door proclaims Marco is chief of store Protection. The first
novel att to feature Marco has him on the case
of who stole a delivery truck stuffed with the store's
goods valued at seventy five thousand. This also included some
rare Russian furs. Again, this is the Don Marco series
(15:54):
that ran five issues of Thrilling Detective. Another abstract type
of character is Myro Cayton Cayton cati In. He appeared
in Popular Detective in January nineteen fifty three, and then
a full length novel in Triple Detective Spring nineteen fifty three. Now,
Cayton is the medical examiner for the fictitious Naval County,
(16:16):
which I think honestly could be a play on Broward County, Florida,
where Cape Canaveral is a Lot of the author stories
and novels take place in Florida, so that would certainly
fit now. Maro Caten is described as sleeping in his
socks and underwear, with his trousers within reach of his bed.
This is because he's always answering the phone late at
night from a hospital. He smokes cigars, wears glasses, he's bald,
(16:40):
and he drives an ancient Chevy, which I guess the
word ancient in nineteen fifty three is pretty freaking old.
And the novel The Ladies Out for Blood and Triple
Detective Cayten is on the way to Samaritan Hospital because
they have a new corpse. The narrator explains that it's
written in statutes that every accidental shooting must be investigated
by the medical examiner for possible evidence of homicide. This
(17:02):
case has a nineteen year old woman who says she
was putting a gun away and dropped it on the
corner of her dressing table. It went off and shot her,
But as Caten gets into the investigation, he learns there's
a lot more to this than just an accidental shooting. Again.
This is the Miro Cayton series of one story and
one novel from nineteen fifty three, and that gets us
(17:23):
up to the speed on the bulk of Sterling's writing
career in the pulps. This last part of the feature
is a look at his most popular characters and how
they fit into novels. Let's start with gil Vine. The
first gil Vine story appeared in Thrilling Detective in October
nineteen thirty nine. It ran a total of twelve stories
from nineteen thirty nine until nineteen fifty seven in Thrilling Detective,
(17:45):
Dime Mystery Magazine, Popular Detective, Triple Detective, and so on. Also,
the character appeared in eight paperback novels from nineteen forty
seven through nineteen sixty. Now in the pulp magazines, gil
Vine leaves the FBI, and five years later is shown
as being a private eye on the streets running his
own business. In some of those stories, Vin is just
your average gum shoe. Those stories are in the third person,
(18:08):
but by nineteen forty seventh novel Dead Wrong, Vin is
now the hotel security chief for a swanky New York
hotel called Plaza Royale, and that's where the bulk of
the series fixates. Vine's life and career working as a
house dick and these are presented in first person fashion.
The bulk of these novels and stories has Vin attempting
to solve a crime before notifying the police. His first
(18:31):
instinct is to always protect the hotel. You have to
suspend your disbelief and kind of just go with it again.
This is the gil Vine series of stories and also
the eight novels. Sterling's Special Squad debuted in Black Mask
August nineteen forty issue with the story ten Carrots of Lead.
It was followed by eight more stories that all appeared
(18:53):
in Black Mask until nineteen forty three. This was really
a revolutionary concept by Sterling to incorporate a team of
criminal specialist that used inside techniques to solve crimes. This
team is made up of the Loft Squad, the Bomb
and Forgery Squad, the Criminal Identification Bureau, the Air Police,
(19:15):
Pickpocket and Confidence Bureau, and the Stolen Property Bureau of
the New York City Police Department. Each story in the
Black Mask focuses on one of these Special Squad teams
to solve crimes. The first story, Tim Carrots a Lad,
features Mike McCready of the Detective Bureau Lost Property Division
investigating a diamond Theft, just to give you an idea
(19:36):
how these stories work. Again, this is the Special Squad
series that ran in Black Masks from nineteen forty to
nineteen forty three. For some reason, I was thinking they
were in novels, but now I see that they were
just stories. Using the pseudonym of Spencer Dean, the author
created the character Don Katie Katie's Cade and placed them
in nine novels, beginning with nineteen fifty four's The Scent
(19:58):
of Fear. Katie works for a department store which I
think is called Ambulets, of course, located in New York City.
The books don't necessarily take place in New York, though,
as Katie's assigned cases across the country because he serves
as the store's chief of protection. For example, in Murder
on Delivery, Katie is tracking down a missing one hundred
thousand dollars sable coat that was supposed to be delivered
(20:21):
to Hollywood and is now missing. Again, this is the
Don Katy series, and again there were nine novels, all
written under the name Spencer Dean. The last major character
I wanted to discuss is the one that most pulp
fans remember when it comes to Serling's prolific body of work.
This is the Fire Marshall Ben Pedley series. The series
(20:41):
ran from July nineteen thirty nine through August of nineteen
fifty three. The book of the stories were in Detective Tales,
but also in Mammoth Detective, Thrilling Detective, Popular Detective, Dime Detective,
and so forth. There were forty total stories, but then
also nine full length novels, all of them in hardcover
and paperback. Brian ritz Paperback Confidential quotes Art Scott describing
(21:04):
the character as quote Ben Pedley as a humorless, hard
bitten veteran smoke eater driven by an almost pathological hatred
of arsonist unquote. Sterling's Fire Marshal Ben Pedley series was
acclaimed by Thomas Brophy, a real New York City fire
Marshal that was celebrated at the time. He described the
(21:24):
series as being very true to the modern methods employed
in the detection of arsonists. Besides Stuart Sterling and Spencer
Dean Princess, Minchell also used a few other names, as
j Da Becker. He wrote two sleeze books for Beacon,
nineteen fifty four's Gutter Gang and nineteen fifty two's key
Hole Peeper, which is one of my favorite titles ever.
(21:44):
Key Hole Peeper sounds creepy. He used the pseudonym Dexter
Saint Clair to write two Fauset Gold Medal books, nineteen
fifty one's Sarah Toga Man Trap in nineteen sixty three's
The Ladies Not Living. In nineteen thirty nine, he used
the house name Tom O'Neill to write a sports story
in the Bullseye Sports Fall nineteen thirty nine issue, which
was later reprinted. He wrote at least one the Spider
(22:08):
story as Grant Stockbridge that was when Satan came to town
in the December nineteen forty three issue. He wrote three
The Phantom Detective stories in fall of nineteen fifty two
and the following year in the winter and spring issues,
he wrote three stories of Dan Fowler g Man that
appeared in nineteen forty forty one. In nineteen fifty he
wrote at least two of the Black Bat stories, which
(22:29):
I believe occurred in nineteen fifty three. His screenplay writing
began in nineteen thirty two. Now he's credited with over
fifteen hundred half hour network shows with characters like Sherlock Holmes,
Jimmy Valentine, and the heroes of Eno Crime Clues. He
wrote the movie Having Wonderful Crime in nineteen forty five.
He wrote an episode for the TV show The Web
(22:51):
in nineteen fifty. I tried to narrow down a list
somewhere of his radio show credits, but I just couldn't
find enough information. Plus, I'm not even sure what name
he used. I assume Sterling, but it could have been
something totally different. On a personal side, the author moved
to Daytona Beach, Florida, in nineteen fifty five. He was
the skipper of his own houseboat. Later, he wrote a
bridge column titled The Cardboard Jungle, and he often provided
(23:12):
lectures on literature and poetry at women's clubs. In closing.
According to Steger Books, they estimate that his stories have
appeared in every pulp magazine title. Unfortunately, today you won't
find his name beyond the first page on a Google search.
He died in Tallahassee, Florida, in nineteen seventy six. As
I mentioned earlier, Steger Books has the Johnny Heigier stories
(23:32):
in a collection that you can purchase. Also, Armchair Fiction
has reprinted his novel Dying Room Only as a double
with Day Keen to Wake Up to Murder. Also the
aforementioned Pulp Adventures number eighteen by Bold Venture Press, which
features a Sterling story. Adventure House has a reprint of
the g Men Detective issue from November nineteen forty one,
which features the story The Eyes of Death by Stuart Sterling.
(23:57):
The Gilvine novel The Body in the Bed is Available
was a ninety nine cent ebook on Amazon. So you
can still try this guy out and see if you
like him. Looks like there's plenty of affordable ways to
do that. My references for this feature was Brian Ritz's
Paperback Confidential, mystery File dot com, the fictionmag Index at
Galactic Central, Stigerbooks dot com, and Thrillingdetective dot com. My
(24:19):
last portion of this episode is this week's book review.
I chose a newer book by author James Reasoner in
case you live under a rock and don't know the
Reasoner name. He's authored several Western series titles like Stagecoach Station,
Long Arm, Trailsman, Wind River, as well as a ton
of standalone novels. Reasoner is a real historian on pulp stories.
(24:40):
He has an excellent blog which I read regularly. Last year,
he announced a new series he created titled Snakehn. This
series is a throwback to sword and sorcery pulp stories.
As of this recording, there are three installments, Doom of
the Dark Delta, Fear on the Fever Coast, and Layer
of the Serpent Queen. These are one dollar e books
(25:00):
that weigh in at one hundred pages, give or take
a font size. I wanted to start at the beginning,
so I chose Doom of the Dark Delta. The series debut.
In the book, readers learned that series hero Horace treval
I'm not sure if I'm saying that name right. It's
tre vay l E. Treval Or. Travel is from the
land of Albion. His father is Lord Amarill, and he
(25:23):
has two brothers, both of which serve in a loyal
and honorable way. Travail, being the brave hearted, iron fisted hero,
served as a soldier on a mission to quell in Uprising.
Travel was portrayed by superior officer and sent back to
his land in chains. Lord Ambrrell, apparently torn on the matter,
buried Travel in work, which is where this novella begins.
Travail began a journey down the Gulf of Metoxia to
(25:47):
have a contract signed by a plantation owner specializing in
giant snakes. These enormous serpents are called I Loca Macumba.
His ship was taken over by pirates, and Travail washes
ashore on an island unknown to him. Immediately, a naked
woman bursts from the swamp as warriors chaser. Travail, unarmed,
(26:07):
joins the naked woman in running from these armed combatants. Later,
he learns that this woman is actually the daughter of
the plantation owner he was originally supposed to meet. Travail
is then thrust into a battle with a ruler named Ostrazol,
as well as the giant serpents, the savage troops, and
even the woman's own allies. On this island. Travail has
(26:27):
no alliances, no allegiance, and often he has no weapons. Outnumbered,
he must fight to survive this grizly ordeal through chases,
sword fights, prison escapes, the traditional damsel and distress rescue.
Doom of the Dark Delta is a pulp inspired sword
and surcery tail that's just brimming over with NonStop action.
It's got a short page length, and Reasoner puts his
(26:49):
skills to the test with really quick character development that
matches the fast pace. I'm imagining this is just as
fun for him as it is for me as the
reader of the Dark. Delta is just fantastic. Highly recommended
for anyone that loves a great men's adventure. I can't
say enough great things about it. It's wonderful and that
finishes out everything I planned for this episode. I hope
(27:11):
you enjoyed all of today's content. Please subscribe to the
Paperback Warrior YouTube channel. You'll see videos about books, authors, publishers.
You can also follow Paperback Warrior on Instagram x Facebook
thread for multiple posts daily Lord Willing and the Creek
Don't Rise. I'll be back in two weeks with a
brand new episode. Take care and enjoy whatever it is
(27:32):
you're doing.
Hello again, Eric, here with the Paperback Warrior blog and podcast.
This show is an offshoot of the Paperbackwarrior dot com blog,
where you can find hundreds and hundreds of vintage fiction
reviews across multiple genres. Be sure to follow us every
day on Facebook, Instagram, threads, and x for posts on
old books, magazines, pulp's comics, and a look at authors
(00:40):
that we may not even talk about here on the show.
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to find
over one hundred and fifty videos. So on today's episode,
I'm presenting a feature on Prentice Winchell Junior. Now you
probably don't recognize that name, but you've probably read or
seen books by Stuart Sterling. That was his most used
pseudonym when writing crime fiction, paperbacks and pulp stories from
(01:03):
the nineteen thirties to the early nineteen sixties. He was
a prolific pulp writer, and he also had several series
characters that we'll talk about today. It's a real shame
that his name has been lost to the ages because
he produced over five hundred radio mystery shows and he
wrote for both television and film. His pulp presence was
nothing short of remarkable, as he pinned nearly four hundred
(01:24):
detective stories mystery files. Richard Moore deemed Stuart Sterling the
quote king of the specialty detectives. This is a great feature,
I promise you. I'm also going to review James Reasoner's
sword and sorcery novel Doom of the Dark Delta, but
my first order of affairs concerns last week's content and
the fallout from it. Last Monday, January thirteenth, I presented
(01:46):
an interview I conducted with author Brian G. Barry. The
reason this author came up on my radar was a
connecting piece involving a horror movie from the nineteen eighties,
a film called Chopping Mall. Now, Barry was hired by
Encycled Apocalypse Publications to write a novelization in that movie.
I received the book back in October reviewed it on
the blog End of Story Right Wrong. I read a
(02:07):
few days after my review that his book was pulled
by the publisher and his contract was severed. I'm not
one to get involved in all this modern stuff, As
you know, I mostly live in the twentieth century world
of paperbacks. I chose not to read anything else about
this decision. I didn't read anything, the publisher said. I
didn't read anything the author said. Instead, I just went
to X. I messaged the author and I didn't really
(02:28):
know him from Adam, and asked him if he wanted
to come on to the show to explain what happened.
My guest is the publisher probably didn't want an interview.
I never thought much of it after that, but Barry
did get back to me, and after a few back
and forth with schedules and times, he came on and
I asked him what happened to make the publisher pull
him again. Up until he started talking, I had no
idea what his response would even be. Here's a mic.
(02:49):
Tell us what happened. That's the end of it. He
said that there were accusations of domestic abuse with a
woman he was seeing. He claims that the abuse never
happened and that it was a lie. They cost him
his publishing deal. I asked if there was any validity
to the accusations. He said no. I asked if there
was a police report. He said no. Since that interview,
I've been inundated with comments. Some really enjoyed the interview
(03:10):
and how it was coordinated and presented. Some liked my
interview style, some didn't. But the question that recycles over
and over is why did I provide a platform for
an abuser to speak? The comments are something to the
effect of paperback Warrior supports a violence against women, the
paperback Warrior supports Brian G. Berry. My response is to
(03:30):
these questions and probes is always the same. I'm a
neutral platform. Simple as that, I'm a neutral platform. Nowhere
in that interview did you hear me support partner, provide,
encourage any allegiance to the author, the publisher, or the accuser.
I did what any journalist does. Again, here's the hot bike.
Tell us what happened in year words. You also never
(03:51):
heard me say in that episode or any prior episode,
that I support violence against women. I have a wife,
I have two teenage daughters. That goes against the grain.
But the notion that the accused or the accuser should
be kept silent and shouldn't have the opportunity to speak
about the incident that just doesn't sit right with me.
And a cancel culture that's been out of control in
the past, I don't believe silencing the accused and writing
(04:13):
them off is the best approach to finding the truth.
The exact same thing can be said of the accuser.
As I record this. Up until yesterday, I didn't even
know the name of the accuser, So the condemnation that
I didn't want to hear both sides is hyperbole. In
my opinion, the best course of action is to have
the accused speak, then organically await the accuser or any
other related parties to hear the tape, so to speak,
(04:34):
and then they can offer opinion on what's true and
what isn't. That's the interview approach. If I are writing
an article or a lengthy column, I'm hearing both sides
of the story to prepare, in my words, what happened
for the reader. Writing news stories puts the writer in
the middle. This is an interview. It's not a news story.
I'm not the middle person relaying messages. I'm letting the
(04:55):
actual party articulate details to the listener without any censorship
or outside in float. I reached out to the publisher
and they responded that they will review the interview. Good
enough for me. I invited them to come on and
talk about Barry, their books, their release schedule, or anything
else that listeners may want to know about. Their company.
I've posted numerous times since last week that I enjoy
Barry's storytelling. I've read two of his books. I enjoyed
(05:17):
both of them. But I also have posted that I
really appreciate in Psycho Apocalypse and everything they do to
support literature. Listen. They have a lot of authors, a
lot of books, and I plan on continuing to read
their publications. Since the interview. The accuser her name is
Danielle Yeager. She sent me a message again, I'm a
neutral party. I have no one here to protect. I
offered her the same opportunity that offered Brian Barry. She's
(05:38):
welcome to have a conversation with me. I can record it,
and I can present it right here on the show.
She declined, and I totally respect that. She explained to
me that Barry lied in the interview and that she
was the victim of his attack on September fifth. She
offered the emergency room reboard and a photo taken the
day of her er visit, which she says was on
September the tenth. She states on her November the eleventh,
twenty twenty four post on Facebook, that she sustained a
(06:01):
Grade one concussion with grade two wrists brain and Class
one B tearing of TFCC ligaments. In regards to a
police report, she states that she called Chalin City Sheriff's office.
I'm not sure if I'm saying that name right. Chalen
is in Washington State. She called the sheriff's office to
report the incident. She says that she was scheduled to
fly out of Washington State on September the ninth. She
(06:21):
states that the police advised her that as she wasn't
going to be in the state for a month, which
is how long it would take for the case to
go to court, then they couldn't make a police report.
Danielle said she lives in Canada. She couldn't stay in
Washington that long and wait for the case to go
to court, so there is no police report. Listen, no
one knows what happened that night except the two people involved.
I wasn't there, Listeners, you weren't there either. If what
(06:44):
she says is true, then it's a truly horrific thing.
I hope she finds happiness and that she finds someone
that would care for her and treat her with human decency.
I'm happy to know that there were no children involved
in this. You've heard Barry explain his position. I've recounted
to you what Danielle Jager explained to me. You can
come to your own conclusions. I'm not denouncing or defending anyone.
I'm not here to influence anyone. The whole thing's a
(07:06):
nightmare and a hope both of them find some level
of peace in the future. If you are anyone you
know is suffering from domestic violence, you can call one
eight hundred seven nine nine seven two three three four help.
All right, So with that being said, I am gonna
work right over here into the feature. I'm gonna play
us some mood music to get it set up, and
I'll be right back. As I mentioned in my opener,
(07:34):
today's feature is on an author that wrote hundreds of
pulp stories from the nineteen thirties until the early nineteen sixties.
He also created some distinct characters, some that were featured
in his novels. That author is Prentics Winchell, Junior, but
you probably know him better as Stuart Sterling. Many scholars
consider him to be the originator of the specialized detective,
(07:55):
which we're going to talk about today. Many authors and
stories feature a general private atte active with no prior
skill set in any particular area. But Sterling he kind
of changed that by creating heroes for his novels and
Pulps that specialized in store security, for example, or harbor patrol,
or medical examination, or even horse racing investigations. Princess Winchell
(08:18):
was born in eighteen ninety five in Everston, Illinois. He
attended Dartmouth College, played football there, and graduated in nineteen sixteen.
He went to New York City in nineteen twenty and
he began a fourteen year period of working as an
editor on journals and trade publications. Now as a side hustle,
he began writing for the Pulps in nineteen twenty five
and used the pseudonym of Stuart Sterling. The first character
(08:40):
I wanted to bring up is Winschell's creation of Johnny Highgear. Now.
This character debuted in the story Boomerang Dice in Black
Mask April nineteen thirty one issue under Sterling's byline, but
he spelt Sterling with an I instead of an E.
The character would reappear in the June, July, September, and
December issues of Black Mask. In nineteen thirty one, and
(09:03):
then again the following year in the January, April, and
May issues of that same magazine, all written under the
Stuart Sterling name with an I. This is the only
time that Sterling ever spelled his last name with an I. Thankfully,
Steger Books has published every Johnny Heigeer story in their
collection titled Boomerang Dice The Complete Black Mass Cases of
(09:24):
Johnny Highgear by Stuart Sterling. That book has an introduction
by Will Murray. Now, Johnny Higear was an undercover police
agent named K five who battled gambling rackets during the
Great Depression. This character sort of kickstarted the author's popularity again.
This was the Johnny Highgear character in nineteen thirty eight,
when Shall used his Sterling pseudonym to create the Steve
(09:46):
Cooski series. This character first appeared in the Fall nineteen
thirty eight issue of Detective Book Magazine in the story
The Corpse Doctor. This story was reprinted in Bold Venture
Press's Pulpit Ventures number eighteen and so of twenty fifteen,
you can still get that on Amazon. I believe Koski
is an example of what this author really concentrated on.
(10:07):
Stories that featured alternatives to detectives and detective agencies, as
we'll talk about in just a second. The author made
Steve Koski a New York Harbor patrol officer, which is
unique in a way that it places the police officer
somewhere other than just beating the streets or maybe raiding
gambling houses or apartment complexes. Koski's Harbor investigations continued for
(10:29):
fourteen more short stories that appeared in Detective Book magazine
up until nineteen forty two. Then he placed Steve Koski
in his own novel titled Down among the Dead Men,
published by Putnam in nineteen forty three. The character would
then reappear again in Popular Detective for three stories between
nineteen forty eight to nineteen fifty, then one more Coski
(10:51):
story and g Men Detective and Winner of nineteen fifty one,
before returning to Popular Detective for two more issues from
nineteen fifty one. In nineteen fifty three, a second novel
also appeared starring Steve Cosky in the Five Detective Novels
Magazine and Fall of nineteen fifty three. Again, this is
the Steve Koski series. KOs Ki. In nineteen thirty nine,
(11:14):
there were two stories that appeared in Detective Tales that
Start a character named dab Jensen. However, I couldn't locate
any information about the character and those two issues aren't
available anywhere online. Again it's the dab Jensen series. Also
in nineteen thirty nine, the author created the character Vince
Malley and inserted him into three stories for Black Mask,
(11:35):
the May, July, and December issues. In the first story,
strictly for Suckers, Malle explains to readers that he works
for a craps game guy that he refers to as
the Laos. He explains that the Loos is actually a
really good guy and keeps his nose clean. Obviously, the
craps game he runs is illegal, so he constantly has
to shuffle the business around to keep the police from
(11:56):
finding him. The Louse pays Malley one hundred dollars per
game to see that everybody gets away from the game
with whatever they win. Malley says the Louse pays him
because he's a practical guy who knows some of the angles,
and because he has a rep for not getting nervous
when he smells powder burning, so he's sort of the
level for these games making sure everyone gets their money.
There's no cheating, and if there is, he's a guy
(12:17):
that gets it back. Even so, that's the scoop on
this Vince Malley character that again appeared in three Black
Mask issues in nineteen thirty nine. Again in nineteen thirty nine,
Stuart Sterling's name appears in Dime Mystery Magazine with a
story titled Coffins for the Living. This is the first
appearance of a character named Rod Keeney. This character appears
from nineteen thirty nine through nineteen forty two in the
(12:39):
pages of Dime Mystery Magazine, Detective Tales and Strange Detective Mysteries.
This Roy Keeney character introduces himself in Coffins for the
Living as Keeni Shield number nine two seven one fifteenth Precinct,
and his colleagues refer to him as a rookie. His
beat is Chinatown, on and off of Pell Street. In
this first story, Keeney's trying to find the terrorists behind
(13:01):
planting bombs in victim's mouths. Wow, these bombs detonate and
then they decapitate the victims in a geyser of blood
and brains. Now, Dim Mystery Magazine never held back much
in terms of gore and violence, and this first story
is a blood bath. Later on, the series has kiny
listed as plain clothes first grade, Shield twenty first precinct,
(13:23):
so he sort of elevates these stories from what I
can gather, focus on really bizarre criminal cases like the
aforementioned mouth bombs and others like people laughing themselves to
the death of all things. So again, this is the
Ray Kiney series that ran from nineteen thirty nine through
nineteen forty two. Speaking of bizarre criminal cases, there was
another character written by Sterling named mal Varney. This character
(13:44):
was in four issues of Strange Detective Mysteries from nineteen
thirty nine until nineteen forty While I don't have any
information on this character, the story titles lead me to
believe that these were truly outrageous narratives that would fit
smoothly into Strange Detective Mysteries wheelhouse. Examples being titles like
television's Torture Chamber and The Devil Dines on Corpses. Again,
(14:06):
this is the mal Varney series. Another character I don't
have any information on is Keith Burnside. This character appeared
in three issues of Dime Mystery Magazine from nineteen thirty
nine until nineteen forty. The titles are outrageous as well,
like the Corpse who Wouldn't Die and Corpses on the Menu. Again,
this is the keat Burnside character. Another I don't have
(14:28):
any information on is the Gary McGregor character that appeared
in two issues of Dime Mystery Magazine in nineteen forty
and nineteen forty one. If any of you listeners have
any information on these characters, please let me know. I'm
kind of curious what they're about. Keen Madden is another
odd detective. He works for the West Coast Thoroughbred Racing
Protective Bureau, basically investigating criminal cases within the horse racing
(14:52):
and gambling industry. Now West Coast doesn't mean California, it's
actually West Coast Florida. In fact, one of the stories
takes place in Sarah So. This character appeared in two
issues of Popular Detective that was May of nineteen forty
nine and June nineteen fifty. Again, this is the Keen
Madden character. Another pulp character that Sterling wrote is the
(15:12):
Don Marco series Marco m a RKO. This character appeared
in four issues of Thrilling Detective between nineteen fifty to
nineteen fifty three, and one issue of Popular Detective in
May of nineteen fifty three. Again, like so many of
the author's characters, Don Marco is another abstract type of detective.
Marco works in New York on Fifth Avenue on the
(15:33):
tenth floor of a store called Nimblets. His frosted glass
door proclaims Marco is chief of store Protection. The first
novel att to feature Marco has him on the case
of who stole a delivery truck stuffed with the store's
goods valued at seventy five thousand. This also included some
rare Russian furs. Again, this is the Don Marco series
(15:54):
that ran five issues of Thrilling Detective. Another abstract type
of character is Myro Cayton Cayton cati In. He appeared
in Popular Detective in January nineteen fifty three, and then
a full length novel in Triple Detective Spring nineteen fifty three. Now,
Cayton is the medical examiner for the fictitious Naval County,
(16:16):
which I think honestly could be a play on Broward County, Florida,
where Cape Canaveral is a Lot of the author stories
and novels take place in Florida, so that would certainly
fit now. Maro Caten is described as sleeping in his
socks and underwear, with his trousers within reach of his bed.
This is because he's always answering the phone late at
night from a hospital. He smokes cigars, wears glasses, he's bald,
(16:40):
and he drives an ancient Chevy, which I guess the
word ancient in nineteen fifty three is pretty freaking old.
And the novel The Ladies Out for Blood and Triple
Detective Cayten is on the way to Samaritan Hospital because
they have a new corpse. The narrator explains that it's
written in statutes that every accidental shooting must be investigated
by the medical examiner for possible evidence of homicide. This
(17:02):
case has a nineteen year old woman who says she
was putting a gun away and dropped it on the
corner of her dressing table. It went off and shot her,
But as Caten gets into the investigation, he learns there's
a lot more to this than just an accidental shooting. Again.
This is the Miro Cayton series of one story and
one novel from nineteen fifty three, and that gets us
(17:23):
up to the speed on the bulk of Sterling's writing
career in the pulps. This last part of the feature
is a look at his most popular characters and how
they fit into novels. Let's start with gil Vine. The
first gil Vine story appeared in Thrilling Detective in October
nineteen thirty nine. It ran a total of twelve stories
from nineteen thirty nine until nineteen fifty seven in Thrilling Detective,
(17:45):
Dime Mystery Magazine, Popular Detective, Triple Detective, and so on. Also,
the character appeared in eight paperback novels from nineteen forty
seven through nineteen sixty. Now in the pulp magazines, gil
Vine leaves the FBI, and five years later is shown
as being a private eye on the streets running his
own business. In some of those stories, Vin is just
your average gum shoe. Those stories are in the third person,
(18:08):
but by nineteen forty seventh novel Dead Wrong, Vin is
now the hotel security chief for a swanky New York
hotel called Plaza Royale, and that's where the bulk of
the series fixates. Vine's life and career working as a
house dick and these are presented in first person fashion.
The bulk of these novels and stories has Vin attempting
to solve a crime before notifying the police. His first
(18:31):
instinct is to always protect the hotel. You have to
suspend your disbelief and kind of just go with it again.
This is the gil Vine series of stories and also
the eight novels. Sterling's Special Squad debuted in Black Mask
August nineteen forty issue with the story ten Carrots of Lead.
It was followed by eight more stories that all appeared
(18:53):
in Black Mask until nineteen forty three. This was really
a revolutionary concept by Sterling to incorporate a team of
criminal specialist that used inside techniques to solve crimes. This
team is made up of the Loft Squad, the Bomb
and Forgery Squad, the Criminal Identification Bureau, the Air Police,
(19:15):
Pickpocket and Confidence Bureau, and the Stolen Property Bureau of
the New York City Police Department. Each story in the
Black Mask focuses on one of these Special Squad teams
to solve crimes. The first story, Tim Carrots a Lad,
features Mike McCready of the Detective Bureau Lost Property Division
investigating a diamond Theft, just to give you an idea
(19:36):
how these stories work. Again, this is the Special Squad
series that ran in Black Masks from nineteen forty to
nineteen forty three. For some reason, I was thinking they
were in novels, but now I see that they were
just stories. Using the pseudonym of Spencer Dean, the author
created the character Don Katie Katie's Cade and placed them
in nine novels, beginning with nineteen fifty four's The Scent
(19:58):
of Fear. Katie works for a department store which I
think is called Ambulets, of course, located in New York City.
The books don't necessarily take place in New York, though,
as Katie's assigned cases across the country because he serves
as the store's chief of protection. For example, in Murder
on Delivery, Katie is tracking down a missing one hundred
thousand dollars sable coat that was supposed to be delivered
(20:21):
to Hollywood and is now missing. Again, this is the
Don Katy series, and again there were nine novels, all
written under the name Spencer Dean. The last major character
I wanted to discuss is the one that most pulp
fans remember when it comes to Serling's prolific body of work.
This is the Fire Marshall Ben Pedley series. The series
(20:41):
ran from July nineteen thirty nine through August of nineteen
fifty three. The book of the stories were in Detective Tales,
but also in Mammoth Detective, Thrilling Detective, Popular Detective, Dime Detective,
and so forth. There were forty total stories, but then
also nine full length novels, all of them in hardcover
and paperback. Brian ritz Paperback Confidential quotes Art Scott describing
(21:04):
the character as quote Ben Pedley as a humorless, hard
bitten veteran smoke eater driven by an almost pathological hatred
of arsonist unquote. Sterling's Fire Marshal Ben Pedley series was
acclaimed by Thomas Brophy, a real New York City fire
Marshal that was celebrated at the time. He described the
(21:24):
series as being very true to the modern methods employed
in the detection of arsonists. Besides Stuart Sterling and Spencer
Dean Princess, Minchell also used a few other names, as
j Da Becker. He wrote two sleeze books for Beacon,
nineteen fifty four's Gutter Gang and nineteen fifty two's key
Hole Peeper, which is one of my favorite titles ever.
(21:44):
Key Hole Peeper sounds creepy. He used the pseudonym Dexter
Saint Clair to write two Fauset Gold Medal books, nineteen
fifty one's Sarah Toga Man Trap in nineteen sixty three's
The Ladies Not Living. In nineteen thirty nine, he used
the house name Tom O'Neill to write a sports story
in the Bullseye Sports Fall nineteen thirty nine issue, which
was later reprinted. He wrote at least one the Spider
(22:08):
story as Grant Stockbridge that was when Satan came to town
in the December nineteen forty three issue. He wrote three
The Phantom Detective stories in fall of nineteen fifty two
and the following year in the winter and spring issues,
he wrote three stories of Dan Fowler g Man that
appeared in nineteen forty forty one. In nineteen fifty he
wrote at least two of the Black Bat stories, which
(22:29):
I believe occurred in nineteen fifty three. His screenplay writing
began in nineteen thirty two. Now he's credited with over
fifteen hundred half hour network shows with characters like Sherlock Holmes,
Jimmy Valentine, and the heroes of Eno Crime Clues. He
wrote the movie Having Wonderful Crime in nineteen forty five.
He wrote an episode for the TV show The Web
(22:51):
in nineteen fifty. I tried to narrow down a list
somewhere of his radio show credits, but I just couldn't
find enough information. Plus, I'm not even sure what name
he used. I assume Sterling, but it could have been
something totally different. On a personal side, the author moved
to Daytona Beach, Florida, in nineteen fifty five. He was
the skipper of his own houseboat. Later, he wrote a
bridge column titled The Cardboard Jungle, and he often provided
(23:12):
lectures on literature and poetry at women's clubs. In closing.
According to Steger Books, they estimate that his stories have
appeared in every pulp magazine title. Unfortunately, today you won't
find his name beyond the first page on a Google search.
He died in Tallahassee, Florida, in nineteen seventy six. As
I mentioned earlier, Steger Books has the Johnny Heigier stories
(23:32):
in a collection that you can purchase. Also, Armchair Fiction
has reprinted his novel Dying Room Only as a double
with Day Keen to Wake Up to Murder. Also the
aforementioned Pulp Adventures number eighteen by Bold Venture Press, which
features a Sterling story. Adventure House has a reprint of
the g Men Detective issue from November nineteen forty one,
which features the story The Eyes of Death by Stuart Sterling.
(23:57):
The Gilvine novel The Body in the Bed is Available
was a ninety nine cent ebook on Amazon. So you
can still try this guy out and see if you
like him. Looks like there's plenty of affordable ways to
do that. My references for this feature was Brian Ritz's
Paperback Confidential, mystery File dot com, the fictionmag Index at
Galactic Central, Stigerbooks dot com, and Thrillingdetective dot com. My
(24:19):
last portion of this episode is this week's book review.
I chose a newer book by author James Reasoner in
case you live under a rock and don't know the
Reasoner name. He's authored several Western series titles like Stagecoach Station,
Long Arm, Trailsman, Wind River, as well as a ton
of standalone novels. Reasoner is a real historian on pulp stories.
(24:40):
He has an excellent blog which I read regularly. Last year,
he announced a new series he created titled Snakehn. This
series is a throwback to sword and sorcery pulp stories.
As of this recording, there are three installments, Doom of
the Dark Delta, Fear on the Fever Coast, and Layer
of the Serpent Queen. These are one dollar e books
(25:00):
that weigh in at one hundred pages, give or take
a font size. I wanted to start at the beginning,
so I chose Doom of the Dark Delta. The series debut.
In the book, readers learned that series hero Horace treval
I'm not sure if I'm saying that name right. It's
tre vay l E. Treval Or. Travel is from the
land of Albion. His father is Lord Amarill, and he
(25:23):
has two brothers, both of which serve in a loyal
and honorable way. Travail, being the brave hearted, iron fisted hero,
served as a soldier on a mission to quell in Uprising.
Travel was portrayed by superior officer and sent back to
his land in chains. Lord Ambrrell, apparently torn on the matter,
buried Travel in work, which is where this novella begins.
Travail began a journey down the Gulf of Metoxia to
(25:47):
have a contract signed by a plantation owner specializing in
giant snakes. These enormous serpents are called I Loca Macumba.
His ship was taken over by pirates, and Travail washes
ashore on an island unknown to him. Immediately, a naked
woman bursts from the swamp as warriors chaser. Travail, unarmed,
(26:07):
joins the naked woman in running from these armed combatants. Later,
he learns that this woman is actually the daughter of
the plantation owner he was originally supposed to meet. Travail
is then thrust into a battle with a ruler named Ostrazol,
as well as the giant serpents, the savage troops, and
even the woman's own allies. On this island. Travail has
(26:27):
no alliances, no allegiance, and often he has no weapons. Outnumbered,
he must fight to survive this grizly ordeal through chases,
sword fights, prison escapes, the traditional damsel and distress rescue.
Doom of the Dark Delta is a pulp inspired sword
and surcery tail that's just brimming over with NonStop action.
It's got a short page length, and Reasoner puts his
(26:49):
skills to the test with really quick character development that
matches the fast pace. I'm imagining this is just as
fun for him as it is for me as the
reader of the Dark. Delta is just fantastic. Highly recommended
for anyone that loves a great men's adventure. I can't
say enough great things about it. It's wonderful and that
finishes out everything I planned for this episode. I hope
(27:11):
you enjoyed all of today's content. Please subscribe to the
Paperback Warrior YouTube channel. You'll see videos about books, authors, publishers.
You can also follow Paperback Warrior on Instagram x Facebook
thread for multiple posts daily Lord Willing and the Creek
Don't Rise. I'll be back in two weeks with a
brand new episode. Take care and enjoy whatever it is
(27:32):
you're doing.
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