June 15, 2025 • 46 mins
In this episode, Eric embarks on a globe-trotting nautical adventure with a spotlight on Arthur Catherall, exploring his World War II-era series set in exotic locales. He also dives into a recent western discovery, reviews a thrilling novel about a runaway rollercoaster, and shares his thoughts on the latest short story collection from Bruce Elliott, newly released by Stark House Press.
You can watch this episode on YouTube HERE. Be sure to follow on Facebook and on the blog at Paperback Warrior for hundreds and hundreds of reviews, posts, videos, shorts, and more.
You can watch this episode on YouTube HERE. Be sure to follow on Facebook and on the blog at Paperback Warrior for hundreds and hundreds of reviews, posts, videos, shorts, and more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Paperback Warrior podcasts.
This show directly connects to the Paperbackwarrior dot com blog,
where you can find nearly two thousand posts, reviews, and
articles about vintage fiction and their creators. Follow along with
the action on YouTube for exclusive videos, and social media
outlets like Facebook, x Threads, and TikTok. You can also
(00:43):
find the Paperback Warrior content on archive dot org and Wikipedia. Today,
we're gonna discuss a vintage author that sold millions of books.
And my guess is you've never heard of this guy.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
After this episode, you'll know his life and literary work
and be spending your hardered money buying his books all
over the globe. His name is Arthur Catherall, and he
wrote stories in young adult books from the nineteen thirties
through nineteen eighty. He was British, he served in World
War Two, and he traveled the globe to give more
authenticity to his literary work. Furthermore, I've read a number
(01:18):
of his books and I think they fit in quite
nicely with the nautical fiction you'll find in paperbacks by
the likes of Falset Gold Medal and Ace, Double and
Bantam and so forth in the mid twentieth century. We're
going to talk about the stigma of young adult fiction
and how it shouldn't prevent you from reading great adventure
novels and stories. Further, I've got a review of a
(01:39):
new Starkhouse Press short story collection titled Do You Know Me?
And Other Operations by a great writer named Bruce Elliott.
He wrote a number of the Shadow stories, and he
contributed heavily to the detective and sci fi pulps. It's
going to be an exciting episode. It's electric, and it's
happening right now.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But first up, I've.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Got a few books I wanted to talk with you about,
and I'll have these in my upcoming shopping video as well,
but hast of this recording, I don't have a date
for that video yet, so I'm going to tell you
about some of them right now. The first book I
recently picked up at my local used bookstore is Death Ride.
The author is Burton Wool. The cover is a pile
of skulls and a candlelit room, so I was all
(02:21):
over it. Here's what the synopsis says. High High Above
the amusement park, the roller coaster climbs towards its summit.
Soon the cars will begin their gut wrenching sixty mile
an hour plunge, and down below, a pleasant looking young
man presses the button on a remote controlled detonator. Seconds later,
the revelers squeals of excitement turned to screams of terror
as the coaster hurls off into the void where death
(02:44):
and mutilation weight Stage one of Eddie Parnassa's master plan
is complete. Unless someone can stop him, he'll soon be
the richest mass killer in history. Now, this is a
UK publication on Granada from nineteen eighty. On the back cover,
it states that this book was originally published under the
name Roller Coaster in nineteen seventy seven, and that it's
(03:06):
based on a screenplay. So then I checked movies under
the title roller Coaster, and I came up with a
nineteen seventy seven film starring Henry Fonda and Richard Wibark.
That seems to be the right connection. And here's a
really odd thing. There's a nineteen sixty two Fawcet Gold
Medal paperbag titled The Death Ride, and that's by Neil McNeil.
(03:27):
And guess what It's about an amusement park that turns
into a slaughterhouse. According to the cover. The cover has
this woman running from this wild roller coaster. What a coincidence, right,
But anyway, that's the book I got, Death Ride by
Burtonwall in nineteen eighty Granada. The other book I Got
is a Western The name of it is Purgatory and
it was published by Fawsett in nineteen eighty six. The
(03:49):
author is G. Clifton Weisler. The synopsis says, a lone
man against a lawless mob. Brian Drane accidentally killed a man.
It wasn't his fault, but nobody in town would believe that.
All they knew or wanted to know, was that this
stranger would pay with his life when they got their
hands on him. That sent Brian Draine on the run
(04:09):
through a wilderness. Hell on his trail was a kill
crazy crew headed by a rancher who had never met
a man. He couldn't outsmart manned outshoot. Brian Drane didn't
have a map, he didn't have a gun, and by
any reasonable odds, he didn't stand a chance against this mob.
But Brian Drane had stopped being reasonable. He was mad,
fighting mad. Doesn't that sound good?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Now?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
This author again, the name is G. Clifton Weisler. He's
the perfect example of what we're going to talk about momentarily.
He specialized in writing westerns in the nineteen eighties and
nineteen nineties, but he also wrote young adult westerns and
adventures set in and around the Civil War or the
early exploration and establishment of the pioneers here in North America.
(04:53):
You could be reading his traditional western or a young
adult Western, and honestly, the genres really just blur. Is
normally just the age of the protagonist. We're gonna talk
about this in a bit. I don't want to get
too far ahead. But this book again, the name of
it is Purgatory Falster publication from nineteen eighty six. Sounds great?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
All right?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So I received a package from stark House Press. They
sent me two books scheduled for release in August. The
first is a twofer by Gil Brewer. The books included
are The Squeeze, originally published by Ace in nineteen fifty five,
and The Girl Screamed, which was originally published in nineteen
fifty six by Fawcett. The introduction to this Twofer is
(05:34):
by David Rachels and I'm really looking forward to this Twofer.
The other book Stark House sent me is their seventy
third black gat book. The title is The Joy Will
and it's by Paul W.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Fairman.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
This was originally published by Lion Books in nineteen fifty four.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I'm really looking forward to.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Reading both of these books, and as always, thanks to
Starkhouse Press for sending these books to me.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And speaking of Starkhouse Press, I received this really nice
message on our Facebook messenger from a fan named Scott,
and he had this to say about my recent conversation
with Starkhouse Press owner and editor Greg Shepherd. Now, Scott
sent me this message and that it says. I'm sitting
back with a beer and a cigar and I just
finished listening to your interview with Greg Shepherd from stark
(06:22):
House Press and absolutely loved it. Your questions were spot
on and exactly the kind of things I would have
asked myself. Seriously, it was such a great conversation and
gave such an insightful look behind the curtain. Thanks to you,
my Amazon card is now loaded with a stack of
stark House books. Keep up the awesome work. This one
was for the books. So Scott, thanks so much for
(06:42):
that message and for your support. It really means a lot.
I'm so glad that you enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That conversation between Greg and I was really really good,
and it's available for free. You can watch it on
YouTube listen to on the same place you probably found
this podcast episode as well. Watch the video or listen
to the audio, but just go out there and listen
to if you have an already. I also received a
book from an author named Sasha. I probably say the
last name wrong, Zaristin. So Sasha Zarasn sent me this book.
(07:10):
It's out now in digital and physical copies. In fact,
I bought this book in digital version before he reached
out to me and sent me the physical copy.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
But the book is.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Titled twenty twenty four Attack on America. Entered demurge. I
think I'm saying that right.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
They're wrong. I don't know. Dmi u r ge entergy George.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
The synopsis is twenty twenty four Attack on America is
a masterful cybersecurity thriller where the realms of political espionage,
technological suspense, and military action converge as mysterious cyber attacks escalate,
and state of the art drones are hijacked. Gabriel is
tasked with unraveling complex threats involving entities as secretive as
(07:50):
the NSA, FBI, CIA, and the elusive Deep State, navigating
treacherous waters one wrong move could spell disaster. Typically I
don't do modern thrillers or tech thrillers, but the author
assures me that it's in the wheelhouse of what I
do here at Paperback Warrior, So we'll see. Thanks for
the book, Sasha again. The title is twenty twenty four
(08:11):
Attack on America, Enter de Moors author Sasha zaraestn so
look forward to reading.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
This, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So I'm gonna put the books away from now and
I'm gonna move on to some other things here. I
wanted to tell you about some exciting opportunities I've got. First, first,
and foremost, I'm gonna be contributing an article about fem
fatales in the next issue of Men's Adventure Quarterly. This
will be issue number twelve and it should be out
(08:41):
by the second half of this summer. This article is
a look at ten of my favorite fem fatale books
or stories. I'm honored at the editors Bob Dice and
Bill Cunningham asked me to be a part of.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It, so look forward to that.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Further, I teamed up with Bill Cunningham, the sponsor this
year's PulpFest, which is happening in Pittsburgh. Bill does on
an awesome full page advertisement for Paperback Warrior, and it's
going to be the full back cover of the events
annual Pulpster collectible program.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That ad will also appear.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
In the same Men's Adventure quarterly magazine issue I mentioned earlier,
issue number twelve, so it's gonna be there as well,
So you got two opportunities to check it out. But
that Pulpster, when I say we're sponsoring it, we paid
for that full page ad, and that money, of course
goes back into the printing of the Pulpster and helping
out with all the weekends festivities. So it's going to
(09:31):
be really cool. I'm glad that I was able to
do that. I'm also working on an audio book for
an author. I can't give away too much right now,
but I just recorded my audio narration of a few
pages for this author and it received his blessing, so
that project's been greenlit. I may only do one podcast
episode in July, just to take a little room for
(09:51):
this audio book, so keep an eye out for that.
I'll make an announcement once the author's cool with it.
But and of course I'm always busy doing videos and
video shorts and all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
It's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
On top of all that, on top of everything else,
I'm going to approved a Wikipedia contributor now, so I
put him a page on the great Ralph Hayes, who
wrote Buffalo Hunter and he wrote a Soldier of Fortune
books under Peter McCurtain's name. He wrote Nick Carter Killmaster Books.
(10:26):
Ralph Hayes is amazing. But you can go out there
and read my Ralph Hayes article on Wikipedia. I'm gonna
try to write some more pages in the future. It's
a chore, honestly, it's a real chore. But I figured
out how to write the HTML code in their sandbox
pretty quickly. If you're an author or a publisher, or
you have intellectual property that needs a Wikipedia page, please reach.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Out to me.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I can provide this service to you at a reasonable
hourly cost. Starkhouse Press, Bold Venture Press, Men's of Venture Quarterly,
Men's a Venture Library, brash books. Whoever you are Wikipedia
page sure would be resourceful. I'm just saying reach out
to me, all right. My last bit of business is
to beg you for business. I'm begging. I make my
(11:09):
living as an insurance agent and I've got seventeen years
of experience as a Medicare benefits advisor. If you are
on Medicare and you want a reliable agent that knows
his stuff, you need to contact me. Even if you
already have a policy. I can request to be your
agent of record and I can manage your Medicare business
for the future. You won't be surprised with unexpected changes
(11:32):
every year because I'm looking after your interest. You'll get
a call from me every fall to let you know
what's going on for the next year. Notebook is more
valuable to me than my own book of business, So
let me help you. Call or text me five four
zero three one two seven zero six two again five
(11:53):
four zero three one two seven zero six two and
let's talk Medicare.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
All right.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Now that all that's out of the way, I want
to jump into today's feature because it's.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Going to be awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I'm going to hit that snazzy little tune and you
can get ready for some fine literary education. Here we go,
all right, today's feature is on Arthur Catherall. Trust me,
you've probably never heard of this guy before, but today's
(12:27):
going to be all about educating you on this wonderful
author and just a really cool advintage nautical fiction spotlight.
But before I start jabbering about his life in literary work,
I feel like I need to set the table first.
The main dish we're serving is young adult books, and
I want to go into that a little bit. Here's
my personal experience with young adult books prior to this year.
(12:51):
I only knew that I enjoyed young adult books when
I was a kid, and they mostly consisted of the
hardy boys those types of young adult books. I consider
it be more more of a juvenile series. It's really
easy stuff with a uniform formula and kids as the heroes. Now,
the same could be said for The Three Investigators, Tom
Swift and so forth. I love that stuff, but I
(13:12):
consider it to be juvenile fiction for a reason. My
other opinion of young adult is something like the Hunger
Games are divergent. That type of young adult fiction is
more accessible to teenagers, but is vastly read and even
celebrated by all ages. I mean, we've probably all had
that coworker that doesn't normally read books come up to
(13:32):
you at the coffee pot or something and say, Hey,
I'm devouring my son or my nephew's borrowed copy of
The Maze Runner or Harry Potter, and they go on
and on and on about how great it is.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
In that moment, I say to myself, Man, I wish I.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Could convince you to read mac Bolin or Peter McCurtain
to really get your head ripped off with action and adventure.
But you know that's another rant altogether. There's this blog writer.
Her name is Sherry Earl. She's got this blog titled
Semi Colon Blog. She summed up my preconceived notions about
young adult fiction in twenty twenty three, and here's what
(14:10):
she said, quote, what are boys and girls reading in
the way of adventure stories these days? Most of the
realistic fiction I read these days for middle grade readers
is problem fiction. Mom is sinking in a depression and
the child must cope with the fallout. Or the main
character is autistic or has a learning disability, or the
bad developers are going to turn the local park into
(14:31):
a parking lot. And there's nothing wrong with any of
that stuff, But where's the adventure. Many young readers are
into fantasy fiction, which does have an adventure element, but
it's not usually an adventure that the reader can imagine
participating in end quote. And that's what I'm saying. The
novels of yesteryear for young people were full of adventure.
(14:52):
And I've totally missed an entire genre, a vintage young
adult adventure fiction and this ran from the nineteen Really
the heyday I think was probably the nineteen forties through
the nineteen seventies. But I totally missed this entire genre.
And I emphasize adventure in caps. This is fiction written
(15:14):
by authors that was marketed by the publisher to teen
boys in hardcover with a few illustrations. Now this is
not to be confused with picture books. Picture books are
normally fifteen to twenty large print pages with big illustrations,
and fit an age group of like eight to thirteen
years of age. These are way more dynamic than that. Plus,
(15:36):
these books were often interchangeable when it comes to the
authors who wrote them. For example, you could look at
a writer like Frank Bonham. He wrote hard hitting westerns
and he also wrote crime noir, but he also wrote
young adult books like War Beneath the Sea Are Honor Bound.
These are straight up adventure books with lots of action
and exotic locales. The books feature male heroes in dire circumstances,
(16:00):
either in war or in some personal quest, dealing with
a family tragedy or a new discovery. Other crime noir,
pulp and action adventure writers wrote young adult novels as well.
Authors like William Campbell Gault or John Reese, for example,
Most of these books that were marketed to young adults
could easily have just been mainstream fiction. I could read
(16:20):
something by Eric Lalan, who's a prolific writer of young
adult fiction, and see how it could be a regular
paperback published by the likes of Bantam, Ace or False
Gold Medal. I just read one of Lalan's books, and
the main character kills two people. This is a young
adult book. You see what I'm getting at. Adults read Tarzan,
they read Doc Savage, The Phantom, The Shadow of the Avenger,
(16:42):
and all of those could be and probably were devoured.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
By teen boys. First.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
No difference here with these young adult books I'm talking about.
In fact, Tom Simon, who used to co host this
show with me, he wrote a review for a Mission
Impossible TV tie in book that was titled The Priceless Particle.
It was a whipman book marketed to young adults. But
in his review he says, and I quote, it's interesting
that this book was originally released for the juvenile market
(17:09):
because there's nothing childish about the writing or plot. Powe's
language is mature, and the geopolitics aren't dumbed down. Granted,
there's no sex or profanity, but I bet there wasn't
any in the adult Mission Impossible paperbacks authored by Walter
Wager using the John Tiger pseudonym. Part of me wonders
if Powell was even informed that this would be packaged
for kids with a hardcover like a hardy boy's novel
(17:33):
end quote. The reason why these young adult books closely
resembled something like a Fossil Gold Medal or a Bantam
paperback is because of the constraints and censorship placed on
the early and mid twentieth century publishers. There was no
graphic sex in these books. There wasn't a tremendous amount
of profanity. In most cases, the violence is a sentence
or three and it's over. It's nothing graphic. It's the
(17:55):
same thing you see with the film industry of that
same era. Do the Hayes Code films were mostly void
of nudity and profanity. You see a lot of movies
of that era that weren't made for young adults now
streaming on various platforms under the genre of family. That
really wasn't the case, but the lack of anything taboo
makes it family friendly now, or what I consider the
(18:17):
confines of a young adult audience. I want to do
an entire episode on young adult fiction talking about this
theme and writers like Rob White and Richard Armstrong, for example,
that specialized in writing great adventure novels but marketed to
the young adult base. I'm going to add that I
found the British and the Australian young adult writers to
(18:38):
have a little more violence and edginess to their work,
much more than the Americans. But I'm going to get
into all that in a future episode. I don't want
to bog us down here because I want to talk
about Arthur Catherall. In my small sample size, I feel
like he's writing the best young adult adventure fiction of
that era, more than anyone else. And this is my
(18:59):
feature him. He was a British writer that was extremely successful.
He was mostly published in England, but a lot of
his books were published right here in the US as well.
By the nineteen seventies, his publisher claimed that his books
were selling over a million copies, and I'm sure that
number increased into the nineteen eighties. His genre was mostly
nautical fiction, but he really dabbled in everything now. I
(19:22):
discovered Arthur in twenty nineteen when I found a used
paperback titled The Strange Intruder. It's got a picture of
a boy on a rope hanging from a cliff. I
read it, I absolutely loved it, and I've kept an
eye out in every story I've shopped at to find more.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Of Arthur's books.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
He's such a tremendous storyteller and I'm really excited to
highlight his life and work for you today.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So let's jump in.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Arthur was born on February sixth, nineteen o six, in Lancolnshire, England.
In nineteen thirty four, when Arthur was twenty eight, he
landed his first published writing gigs. His first story may
have been Phantom Husky's Gold, a short that appeared in
The Pioneer. He followed with two more stories for The
Pioneer that same year. Throughout the nineteen thirties, Arthur had
(20:09):
stories published in The Boy's Own Paper, Chum's Annual, boys
Ace Library, and the Gloucester Journal. But he was tiring
of the short story game and he transitioned into writing
young adult books. He had five books published in the
nineteen thirties, including Campfire Stories, The Rival Tugboats, Black Gold,
Vanished Whaler, and Adventures Limited. He also married Elizabeth Bennen
(20:33):
in nineteen thirty six and they had two children, a
son and a daughter. This is the part of nearly
all of my features where World War II comes in.
In nineteen forty, at the age of thirty four, Arthur
participated in the war. He served England with four years
in the Royal Air Force. He saw action in eastern
Bengal and in Burma. He traveled widely through Europe, Africa
(20:55):
and the Far East as part of his service. Now
in the nineteen forties, Arthur didn't have as many stories published.
I counted just four in the Fiction mag Index he
didn't seem to write much at all in the nineteen forties,
with just four books total that decade, Keepers of the Kaiber,
The Flying Submarine, The Bull Patrol, and Writers of the
Black Camel. I want to Paul use here for a
(21:17):
moment and discuss the first series title that Arthur created.
Since we're in the timeline of the nineteen thirties and
nineteen forties, Arthur's first series title was The Bull Patrol.
The Ball Patrol was published in this timeframe. The short
stories consisted of six entries in The Boy's Own Paper
beginning in October nineteen thirty nine. These stories consist of
(21:37):
a boy scout named Jim Barnes that convinces four of
his friends to create a special patrol. These adventurers solve
minor crimes in the Northern England region, stuff like sheep stealing.
In other stories, the scouts are rescuing individuals called in
a flood. There's a story about a plane crash. There's
another story about a clash with hunters. The locale is
typically farms and farmland with dense for us surrounding it. Again,
(22:01):
this is the Bull Patrol series, and these stories may
have been compiled in the nineteen forty nine book titled
The Bull Patrol. I don't own that book, so I
can't really tell you much about it. Right after the war,
Arthur worked temporarily in the cotton spinning industry before embarking
on a decade of traveling. He had told his peers
and associates in the publishing industry that he was concerned
that the boys who read his books should quickly realize
(22:24):
that he knew his stuff when it came to exotic
locales and experiences. His hobbies included mountain climbing, camping, sailing,
and just traveling everywhere.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
His travels took.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Him all over the globe. He had a detailed knowledge
of geography that was helped by his voyages. Some of
those included a track across the Lapland from the Russian
border to the Norwegian coast on a British trollery. He
made several trips to the fishing shores off the coast
of Iceland. This, combined with his travel experiences with the RAF,
helped create.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Believability in his books and stories.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
By nineteen fifty, Arthur has settled down and he settled
in behind his typewriter By the end of nineteen fifty,
Arthur has written nearly forty books, so many that he
needed to create pseudonyms to keep from flooding the market
under his own name. Throughout his career, Arthur would use
names like ar Channel, Dan Corby, Peter Howard, Margaret Thuthn,
(23:15):
Trevor Main, and Linda Peters to write standalone books and
series titles.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I want to go over two big.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Series titles that Arthur began in the nineteen fifties. Now,
these I think fans of men's action adventure paperwrecks are
really going to enjoy. The first one I want to
talk about is titled Bulldog. Just like it sounds, Bulldog.
This is a nautical adventure series that ran a total
of eleven books between nineteen fifty four through nineteen sixty eight.
(23:41):
In England, the books were published by J. M. Denton
Sons and had black and white interior illustrations. In America,
the series was published by New York's Criterion Books. This
series is about a seventeen year old skipper named Jack Fratcham.
He commands the Bulldog, which is a tugboat Harvard and Singapore.
Through the series, Jack's crew and The Bulldog consists of
(24:02):
Husky Hudson, who's a veteran seaman worth his salt, and
a Melee native named Ahmat. These three are the main
characters in the series. All these books are nautical adventures
at about two hundred pages or less, and the locale
is the South China Seas.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I read the series debut recently. It's titled Ten Fathoms Deep,
and here's what my future review on the blog will say.
In Ten Fathoms Deep, readers are introduced to seventeen year
old Jack Frogum. After finishing school, Jack arrives in Singapore
to meet with his father, Captain Frogum. The captain has
enjoyed a successful salvaging and freighting career with his tugboat Bulldog.
(24:40):
Based out of the Lion City of Singapore, Frogman has
made his living in the warm rolling waters of the
South China Seas. Now his dreams of Jack joining the
family business have become a reality. In the first chapter,
Jack's father meets with a man who is purportedly dead.
This man, Husky Hudson, explains to the Fradums that he
would there's a mate on the freight ship to Nissarium
(25:02):
under the command of Captain Miller. However, the ship was
mysteriously attacked and sunk. Hudson was ruled dead by drowning,
but he managed to escape the attack. He advises the
fraudums that a criminal enterprise that owned the ship sunk
it for insurance money. Now, Captain Miller, who died in attack,
his legacy has been scrutinized under a false public statement
(25:23):
that the Tenasarium perished due to the Captain's poor navigation
of the reef. Hudson wants to bring honor to Captain
Miller's widow and has a plan in place to preserve
Miller's legacy. Shortly after meeting with Hudson, Jack's father is
nearly killed in a stabbing. Now hospitalized, he asks that
Jack meet with Hudson to go over the plan and
(25:44):
to take control of the tugboat for all future jobs.
His mate will be Husky Hudson, and they're joined with
a small group of melees led.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
By a Mott.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Together, this crew will man the tugboat to a seecret
place where Hudson knows that the Tensarium is lying intact
in just ten fathoms of water.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
If they can.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Successfully retrieve this vessel, they can prove that it wasn't
the captain's negligence or a reef miscalculation that led to
the sinking. But as the salvage operation commences, the crew
is plagued by two rival tugboats and a crew of
cutthroat criminals doing the bidding of a mysterious mastermind. Ten
fathoms Deep is an amazing book. First, forget the young
(26:24):
adult stigma that may be associated with Catherall in this series.
The book reads like a nautical adventure penned by someone
like A. S. Fleischman. In fact, the nautical fiction written
by the likes of John Blackburn, Conrad Dawn, Arthur D.
Howden Smith and James Gribbon certainly would welcome the tugboat crew.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
While there isn't any romance.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Which is par for the course for a good nautical romp,
there's plenty of tense adventure and intrigue that saturate the book.
Under this author's excellent prose, The book, right at two
hundred pages, is brimming over with a frantic pace as
the tugboat races against the clock to salvage their target
before they're obliterated by rival ships, this panic stricken moment
of horror when the tugboat is nearly bombed and Jack
(27:04):
must penetrate a pitch black ocean bottom without a guide.
I mean, there's shipwrecks, there's island adventures, sunken treasure, some
shady characters and aerial romps, some gunplay. But what really
sets the book apart is the amount of contractual intrigue.
And what I mean by that is Jack and Hudson
must navigate some of the details of this ship's original logs,
(27:27):
their competition with a rival salvage gang, and the swerve
of an existing job to take on this retrieval heist.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I guess you could call it. There's also numerous hot.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Headed propositions made that forced Jack in some really tight spots,
with the level of venture in exciting locale, Ten fathoms
Deep gets my highest recommendation.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Again.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
The series is titled Bulldog and this book review is
of the series debut ten fathoms Deep, and you can
look for this book on Abe Books. I think they've
got it used there. The next series I want to
tell you about is The Fighting Four. The Fighting Four.
It was published under a pseudonym of ar Channel by
children's Press in England. I wasn't able to determine if
(28:10):
the series was published in America. My guess it probably is,
but I do not sure who the publisher was. The
Fighting Four consists of five books published between nineteen fifty
eight through nineteen sixty four. These are team commando books
set during World War II. My guess is that Arthur
was influenced to write a military action adventure series based
(28:30):
on W. E. John's wildly popular series Biggles and the
spinoff Gimlet. While I didn't have the series debut, I
did get my hands on the series second installment, titled
The Tunnel Busters, and here's what I wrote for my
blog review, which hasn't been posted yet. This one hundred
and eighty eight page book begins with a fitting introduction
(28:51):
to the team members. Sam Foster is the radio communications specialist,
China Brown manages the team's firearms and logistics, Curly Bates
is the explosives expert, and the group is led by
the all round fighting man, Sergeant Ted Harris. Based on
their success in the first book's adventure, which featured a
Norwegian locale, the four had been assigned an explosive new mission,
(29:14):
Hitler's routed supplies for his troops by way of railroad
through an underground tunnel from rural France into Italy. Due
to the rugged mountaintops, the interior design of the tunnel,
and the any aircraft defense, British intelligence wants the team
to parachute in and detonate explosives within the tunnel. Now
paramount to the mission's success is working with the rebel
French in this isolated village controlled by the Germans. Man
(29:37):
this tunnel busters non stop action from scene to scene,
just amazing. The books pace kicks off with Sam's spiraling
descent away from the team due to this barrage of
German gunfire. So Sam is miles away and he meets
this young shepherd boy and his dog that actually proved
crucial to the mission. From the onset, there's a gunfight
(29:58):
with Germans, there's a tent stand off in a nearby village,
there's a rescue attempt, the aforementioned tunnel busting business, and
this wild hostage situation that really elevated the books finale
into an emotional roller coaster as German leaders are set
to execute members of the team and again, don't be
afraid of the young adult or of this series and
its reputation. Despite the lack of violent details from the author,
(30:21):
it's clear that enemy forces are dying now. Granted, the
team will typically just knock out their opponents or quote
riddle them with gunfire, but Catherine's storytelling has a darker
overtone at times, with talk of torture firing squads. There's
threats of mass slaughter of this village.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Comparisons are often made to John's Gimblet.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Series, which is expected.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
However, from research online, it suggests that the Fighting Four
are more adult in nature compared to the Gimlet or
big OL's series. Despite lukewarm reviews, my sample sized experience
with the Fighting Four was exceptional. I thoroughly enjoyed this
high adventure military yarn and I recommend and it's to
men's action of venture fans of any age.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Then the other series I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Tell you about is called Kan genty. Now I kind
of made that up con hyphen genty. I read the
first book, Coral Reef Castaway. Coral Reef Castaway was published
in nineteen fifty eight under Arthur's pseudonym of Peter Howard.
It's kind of a dumb title, I admit. In this book,
a young man named Con is thrown overboard and accidentally
(31:24):
left in the Pacific Ocean. He ends up washing ashore
of a small island, and there he's saved by an
old man named Genty. It turns out that twenty one
years ago, Genty was in that area of the ocean
engaging in pearl culturing. Now, if you don't know what
that is, don't worry. Arthur does an amazing job explaining
this fascinating business of pearl farming through this elderly character Genty.
(31:47):
Genty explains he had a shipwreck and has been on
the island for twenty one years. Now, with CON's help,
the two can paddle the thirty plus miles to civilization
and be rescued. But Genty doesn't just want to rescue.
He wants to come back with diving gears so the
two of them can dive down and get the pearls.
There's like hundreds of thousands of dollars in pearls just
(32:09):
sitting there in an oyster bed. But like any good
rags to riches, feel good story, there's got to be
a criminal element, right, a group of rival divers figure
out that Gent and Connor up to this diving and
getting these pearls, and they want in on the action,
but they want all the pearls for themselves. This was
a really good read. I enjoyed the pearl culturing stuff
and all the neat little nuggets of information that Arthur
(32:31):
and Jeckson to the story about diving, the technical nuances
of diving, ocean pressures, how to make stuff like homemade
coffee and sugar and bread on the island. It was
all a really great learning experience for me. The exciting
diving narrative and underwater adventure was just really icing.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
On the cake.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Now, Coral Reef Castaway has a sequel. At the beginning,
I said this is a series. It does have a sequel.
The name of that book is Barrier Reef Bandits, and
it was published in nineteen sixty. I consider both these
books a series under the title con genty, which is
the name of the duo's boat. I also believe that
there's a third book as well, titled Guardian of the Reef.
(33:09):
I don't have that book, so I can't definitively say
it's the con genty series.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
But pretty sure it is.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
But the book's like eighteen dollars on eight books, and
I really don't want to spend the money right now.
Aside from these series titles, as I mentioned, he wrote
a number of standalone books too, and I wanted to
review just a couple of those for you as well,
just shorter reviews. The first book that I wanted to
mention to you in this feature is the book that
started it all for me with this Arthur Catherall author.
(33:38):
It's called The Strange Intruder and it was published in
the US by Archway in nineteen sixty four. It was
originally published in England as The Strange Invader.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Now. This novel is on the Chile.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Farose Islands, which geographically is positioned north of the British
Isles in just southeast of Iceland. Again, this is a
region that Arthur knew quite well based on his experiences
traveling there. A sixteen year old fisherman named Sevin is
thrust into this crazy situation. All of the men in
the village are trapped at sea in a boating accident
with their schooner. They're on their way back from a
(34:11):
fishing trip and hit the rocks. Now from the distant shore,
Savin sees something leap from the schooner and plunge into
the sea. So Sevin races up the shore to help
rescue whoever or whatever.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Fell from the ship. He's thinking it was a crewman.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Instead, it was a polar bear that the crew had
captured on their fishing trip. There's a whole story on
why they hadn't know what the goal was. But the
polar bear is really out of his element and hits
the beach and goes berserk. Sevin panics and runs the
village to tell the women and kids that the bear
is coming. The Strange Intruder is a really fun adventure
(34:45):
story as seven is forced to battle this rampanting bear
in a village during a rainstorm. There's these rocky cliffs,
there's island life swollen seas from the storm. It's really
all a metaphor that Sevin is battling his own childhood
and form of the bear, sort of end of Innocent's
tale as Savin becomes an adult through this battle.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It was really a great book.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I wanted to quote you a portion of a review
of The Strange Intruder written by Sherry Early on the
Semi Colon blog, and in her review she had this
to say, quote, I've heard of Arthur Catherall as an
author of children's or young adult fiction, but I've always
thought of him, without having read any of his books,
as a sort of minor, second rate pop bowler fiction writer.
(35:30):
If The Strange Intruder is a good example of the
rest of Catherall's work, he's actually a first rate adventure writer. Unquote,
she's echoing my sentiments exactly. My last standalone review is
Arthur's The Night of the Black Frost. It was published
in England and the US in nineteen sixty eight. I
had the review posting later this year on the blog,
(35:51):
but here's what I wrote about it. Norwegian young adult
Leif has just graduated high school and is in that
sort of life lull, decigning to spend his time prior
to going off to college.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
His friends convince him.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
To tour Europe for months, but Lee's father has another plan.
He'll support and pay Leaf's way to northwest to the
Barren Sea. Remember they're in Norway, so he's going to
go northwest to the Barren Sea, which is this frigid
wasteland of ice between the Arctic Ocean and Russia sounds awful.
He convinces Leif to spend a few weeks with his
(36:24):
uncles Peter and Jan on their commercial fishing expeditions. Now
Leif longing for a venture immaturity, he accepts on board
his uncle's fishing trawler. Leif experiences this harrowing two day adventure.
His uncle Peter is really hesitant about Leif's participation in
this dangerous fishing expedition. Uncle Jan, he's a bit more
patient understanding for Leif. His endurance and staminas tested when
(36:47):
these two Russian pilots plunge into the frosty Ocean in
an accident. When Peter and Jan attempt to rescue on
a dinghy, they become lost at sea trying to find
these pilots.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
It's up to Leaf to.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Run the trawler by him and also attempt to make
a rescue of his uncles and try to find the
pilots while enduring this awful black frost. I didn't even
know what that was, but think of it. When fog
turns to ice in the air, that's black frost. This
one hundred and sixty six page book was a short
example of what Catherall does so well nautical adventure storytelling
(37:20):
that features ordinary young people facing life threatening adult decisions
that accelerates their maturity and personal growth. As I always
preach in my reviews, throw out the stigma of young adult.
This book has an intense survival element with some gritty
life choices, including like possible amputation of a leg. There's
a serious frostbite hypothermia, very personal conflict facing one of
(37:45):
the Russian pilots. There's turmoil and intrigue involving the Russian
government and their interaction with these Norwegian fishermen. Night of
the Black Frost is a fantastic adventure that showcases really
everything I love about this author.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
For example, if you like to think of the.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Name here Hammon Innis, Hammon Innis book The White South
comes to mind when I read this book, So look
no further. If you like ham and Innis, then you're
really going to like Arthur Catherall. Also note this book,
A Knight of the Black Frost, is based on Arthur's
own experience fishing off the coast of Iceland. Some of
the events that transpiring the book really happened to the author.
(38:21):
He was caught in a black Frost situation at sea,
and he wanted to write about the experience in a
fictional way.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So that brings us to the end of this feature. Now,
Arthur he continued to write books through the nineteen sixties
and nineteen seventies under his own name and pseudonyms. He
wrote nearly sixty five books during that time. He only
had one book published in the nineteen eighties, and that's
because Arthur Catherall passed away on January sixth, nineteen eighty,
at the age of seventy three. Honestly, I wish I
(38:51):
knew more about him in the life he led. I'm
not totally convinced anyone has really solidified in actual bibliography
for him. It's hard to imagine how many books he
wrote under differ names. I'm sure there's sources out there
with the information, but the Internet is somewhat bare when
it comes to this author.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
My biggest resource for this feature was a great article
written by Jim McKenzie on the Collecting Books and Magazines
dot com website. Without that resource, this feature just it
was not possible. I also relied heavily on archive dot Org,
the fiction mag Index, Wikipedia, and the semi colon blog
which I mentioned earlier. Now off to the last order
(39:27):
of business, which is today's review. This review is for
a short story compilation titled do You Know Me? And
Other Aberrations by Bruce Elliott Now Bruce Elliott was a
prolific writer of crime fiction and science fiction and the pulps.
He also worked as a television screenwriter and practice stage magic.
He wrote fifteen novels for The Shadow magazine between nineteen
(39:49):
forty six and nineteen forty eight, and he helped edit
and publish a number of men's magazines like Rogue and
The Jent. Now back in August of twenty twenty three,
I read and reviewed Elliott's fabulous short story do You
Know Me, originally published in the February nineteen fifty three
issue of Thrilling Detective. I enjoyed the story so much
that I contacted Greg Shepard at Starkhouse Press and informed
(40:12):
him that he should read the story as well. Thankfully,
two years later, Greg and the great Starkhouse Press folks
have published the short story compilation by Elliott, containing ten
of his best works, called from the detective and science
fiction Pulps and magazines. The story I recommended to Greg,
Do you Know Me? Was used as the title story
in the artwork from the original publication adorns the front cover,
(40:35):
Wonders Never Sees Now. This episode is running a little long,
and I'd planned on capsule reviews for each of the
ten stories. How about I do just look at a
time here? How about I do a quick capsule review
of the first five stories right now for you, and
you can come back tomorrow and visit the blog at
paperback Warrior dot com and read my capsule reviews for
the remaining five stories.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
How's that sound all right?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Let's kick it off with the first story, do you
Know Me? As I mentioned earlier, this was pulled from
Thrilling Detectives February nineteen fifty three issue.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
The author introduces.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
The man nobody knew as a resident of a West
forty seventh Street apartment just east of Broadway. The room
in which the man awakens has door frames and windows
stuffed with newspapers. Beside the bed, written lipstick is an
ominous message scrawled. Since you can't catch me, and since
I don't want to kill again, I'm gonna kill myself.
(41:26):
That's what it says. This man who isn't named. I
refer to him simply as the killer or the man
nobody knew. He's stalking New York City and he's savagely
cutting off people's faces while maniacally asking them do you
know me? Do you recognize me? And where do you
know me from? Through the course of Elliott's compelling, all
(41:48):
inspiring story, more characters are introduced, each with their own backstory.
Now all these characters entwined in a disturbing series of
events that mirror is an active shooter situation today. In
this story, the killer begins randomly murdering people in nightmarish
fashion in the middle of Times Square. Elliott provides some
(42:08):
riveting stuff involving sexuality, social unrest, mental illness.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
This is a great story. This is a must read.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Next is Vengeance Is Not Enough, which is from Stories Annual,
Volume one, nineteen fifty five. Vengeance Is Not Enough. This
story begins with a man named Henry Times sweating from
shock therapy at the hands of a psychiatrist. As the
doctor prodds him, Henry recalls the events that led him
to the doctor, the horrific murder of his young son
(42:38):
in a hit and run, But just as the past
events unveiled before the reader. A gunshot sounds and the
doctor is killed. The story then follows Henry trying to
find answers on what happened and who's responsible. It's an effective,
innocent man on the run story with a distinct flavor
that only Elliott could provide. Ethereal, violent, and wholly unique.
(42:58):
Third is The Darken The Darkened Room was from Popular
Detectives May nineteen fifty three issue. Now matching the title's dimness,
Elliot's bleak writing elevates the story as a real highlight
of the collection. This criminal named Garo and his partner
Magan have stolen gems from celebrity, and they've hocked them
not a hotel in New York. Garo pays a visit
(43:21):
to Baggigan and selfishly strangles him to death to be
sure all the money is his now. Then, the narrative
is a roller coaster as Garo runs from the costs
by seeking shelter in this dark flophouse. But like all
good heist, the criminal never gets away with a cabbage.
This one has a fitting ending that serves a type
of cautionary tale, advising us all that crime doesn't pay
(43:42):
The fourth story is called Carnage in Colossa. It's from
Sea Stories November nineteen fifty three. Tommy Winners as an
American crewman on a shipping trawler and an extended stop
on a small Pacific island. Tommy strikes up an intense
affair with a married islander named Aquila. One night, he
awakes from a drunken beating to discover his passport, money,
(44:03):
and ship has left him behind. Penniless and homeless. Tommy
agrees to work for a queless husband, this fat, seedy
merchant and restaurant owner named Madigan. If Tommy can do
all the dirty work around the place for a week,
like mopping up pists and puke, then he'll earn enough
money to get a transport to the nearest US embassy.
After one week of working for Madigan by day and
(44:25):
sleeping with his wife by night, Tommy is hopeful he
can get away. But there's a surprise awaiting Tommy and
the reader after a week's work. Carnage in Colossa was
an exceptional tale, laced with grime and shady characters. Again,
it's a cautionary tale as well that it's got a
really fitting and enjoyable ending, but left me guessing where
Elliott was going to go with these despicable people and
(44:47):
where to dump them. It's just a great story. Last
one I want to tell you about his death lives
in Brooklyn. It's from Thrilling Detective, April nineteen fifty three.
Farnell is an attorney that's lost everything. He now spends
his time on forty seventh Street in Broadway playing Nickel
and dimeball. A mob henchman is roughing up a couple
people when Farnell hears this victim whisper him to check
(45:09):
the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
That same victim warns Farnell.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
To avoid the police because they're quote iced in the
John Farnell finds this signed document sealed in an envelope.
He has the foresight to open up the envelope and
take a photo of the document using one of the
arcade camera vending machines.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
That was the thing back then.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Farnell then goes on the run from the syndicate and
their killers who want this mysterious document. He's eventually called
an ordered for execution in this rundown section of Brooklyn.
Like any good crime noir, the innocent man on the
run is being chased by the crooked cops and the crooks.
This was such a great story and was really ahead
of its time if you think about it. Today we
(45:48):
take photos of documents with our phones all the time,
but back then it was unheard of outside of just espionage. Overall,
After reading the whole book, I'll have to say this
is one of the better short story collections I've read.
But come back tomorrow or anytime after and check out
the reviews for the rest of the stories. You're gonna
enjoy these reviews again. This book is out now from
Starkhouse Press. It's called Do You Know Me? And Other
(46:11):
Aberrations and the author is Bruce Elliott. And that's a
wrap on this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll
be back again in a few weeks. I also hope
to have a shopping video up in the next week
or two. Keep stopping by the blog for four to
five reviews weekly. The YouTube channel is really busy, with
a new review every day around four thirty pm Eastern time.
(46:32):
There's also TikTok, Instagram, threads, archive dot org, Facebook with
tons and tons of book discussions and posts. In fact,
paperback Warrior on Facebook is nearing ten thousand followers, so
there's a really great community in there, so you can
talk to other fans of these same books and authors.
It's a great place. But in the meantime, enjoy whatever
(46:55):
it is you're doing, and I'm going to see you
next time.
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Paperback Warrior podcasts.
This show directly connects to the Paperbackwarrior dot com blog,
where you can find nearly two thousand posts, reviews, and
articles about vintage fiction and their creators. Follow along with
the action on YouTube for exclusive videos, and social media
outlets like Facebook, x Threads, and TikTok. You can also
(00:43):
find the Paperback Warrior content on archive dot org and Wikipedia. Today,
we're gonna discuss a vintage author that sold millions of books.
And my guess is you've never heard of this guy.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
After this episode, you'll know his life and literary work
and be spending your hardered money buying his books all
over the globe. His name is Arthur Catherall, and he
wrote stories in young adult books from the nineteen thirties
through nineteen eighty. He was British, he served in World
War Two, and he traveled the globe to give more
authenticity to his literary work. Furthermore, I've read a number
(01:18):
of his books and I think they fit in quite
nicely with the nautical fiction you'll find in paperbacks by
the likes of Falset Gold Medal and Ace, Double and
Bantam and so forth in the mid twentieth century. We're
going to talk about the stigma of young adult fiction
and how it shouldn't prevent you from reading great adventure
novels and stories. Further, I've got a review of a
(01:39):
new Starkhouse Press short story collection titled Do You Know Me?
And Other Operations by a great writer named Bruce Elliott.
He wrote a number of the Shadow stories, and he
contributed heavily to the detective and sci fi pulps. It's
going to be an exciting episode. It's electric, and it's
happening right now.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But first up, I've.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Got a few books I wanted to talk with you about,
and I'll have these in my upcoming shopping video as well,
but hast of this recording, I don't have a date
for that video yet, so I'm going to tell you
about some of them right now. The first book I
recently picked up at my local used bookstore is Death Ride.
The author is Burton Wool. The cover is a pile
of skulls and a candlelit room, so I was all
(02:21):
over it. Here's what the synopsis says. High High Above
the amusement park, the roller coaster climbs towards its summit.
Soon the cars will begin their gut wrenching sixty mile
an hour plunge, and down below, a pleasant looking young
man presses the button on a remote controlled detonator. Seconds later,
the revelers squeals of excitement turned to screams of terror
as the coaster hurls off into the void where death
(02:44):
and mutilation weight Stage one of Eddie Parnassa's master plan
is complete. Unless someone can stop him, he'll soon be
the richest mass killer in history. Now, this is a
UK publication on Granada from nineteen eighty. On the back cover,
it states that this book was originally published under the
name Roller Coaster in nineteen seventy seven, and that it's
(03:06):
based on a screenplay. So then I checked movies under
the title roller Coaster, and I came up with a
nineteen seventy seven film starring Henry Fonda and Richard Wibark.
That seems to be the right connection. And here's a
really odd thing. There's a nineteen sixty two Fawcet Gold
Medal paperbag titled The Death Ride, and that's by Neil McNeil.
(03:27):
And guess what It's about an amusement park that turns
into a slaughterhouse. According to the cover. The cover has
this woman running from this wild roller coaster. What a coincidence, right,
But anyway, that's the book I got, Death Ride by
Burtonwall in nineteen eighty Granada. The other book I Got
is a Western The name of it is Purgatory and
it was published by Fawsett in nineteen eighty six. The
(03:49):
author is G. Clifton Weisler. The synopsis says, a lone
man against a lawless mob. Brian Drane accidentally killed a man.
It wasn't his fault, but nobody in town would believe that.
All they knew or wanted to know, was that this
stranger would pay with his life when they got their
hands on him. That sent Brian Draine on the run
(04:09):
through a wilderness. Hell on his trail was a kill
crazy crew headed by a rancher who had never met
a man. He couldn't outsmart manned outshoot. Brian Drane didn't
have a map, he didn't have a gun, and by
any reasonable odds, he didn't stand a chance against this mob.
But Brian Drane had stopped being reasonable. He was mad,
fighting mad. Doesn't that sound good?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Now?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
This author again, the name is G. Clifton Weisler. He's
the perfect example of what we're going to talk about momentarily.
He specialized in writing westerns in the nineteen eighties and
nineteen nineties, but he also wrote young adult westerns and
adventures set in and around the Civil War or the
early exploration and establishment of the pioneers here in North America.
(04:53):
You could be reading his traditional western or a young
adult Western, and honestly, the genres really just blur. Is
normally just the age of the protagonist. We're gonna talk
about this in a bit. I don't want to get
too far ahead. But this book again, the name of
it is Purgatory Falster publication from nineteen eighty six. Sounds great?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
All right?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So I received a package from stark House Press. They
sent me two books scheduled for release in August. The
first is a twofer by Gil Brewer. The books included
are The Squeeze, originally published by Ace in nineteen fifty five,
and The Girl Screamed, which was originally published in nineteen
fifty six by Fawcett. The introduction to this Twofer is
(05:34):
by David Rachels and I'm really looking forward to this Twofer.
The other book Stark House sent me is their seventy
third black gat book. The title is The Joy Will
and it's by Paul W.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Fairman.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
This was originally published by Lion Books in nineteen fifty four.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I'm really looking forward to.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Reading both of these books, and as always, thanks to
Starkhouse Press for sending these books to me.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And speaking of Starkhouse Press, I received this really nice
message on our Facebook messenger from a fan named Scott,
and he had this to say about my recent conversation
with Starkhouse Press owner and editor Greg Shepherd. Now, Scott
sent me this message and that it says. I'm sitting
back with a beer and a cigar and I just
finished listening to your interview with Greg Shepherd from stark
(06:22):
House Press and absolutely loved it. Your questions were spot
on and exactly the kind of things I would have
asked myself. Seriously, it was such a great conversation and
gave such an insightful look behind the curtain. Thanks to you,
my Amazon card is now loaded with a stack of
stark House books. Keep up the awesome work. This one
was for the books. So Scott, thanks so much for
(06:42):
that message and for your support. It really means a lot.
I'm so glad that you enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Man.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That conversation between Greg and I was really really good,
and it's available for free. You can watch it on
YouTube listen to on the same place you probably found
this podcast episode as well. Watch the video or listen
to the audio, but just go out there and listen
to if you have an already. I also received a
book from an author named Sasha. I probably say the
last name wrong, Zaristin. So Sasha Zarasn sent me this book.
(07:10):
It's out now in digital and physical copies. In fact,
I bought this book in digital version before he reached
out to me and sent me the physical copy.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
But the book is.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Titled twenty twenty four Attack on America. Entered demurge. I
think I'm saying that right.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
They're wrong. I don't know. Dmi u r ge entergy George.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
The synopsis is twenty twenty four Attack on America is
a masterful cybersecurity thriller where the realms of political espionage,
technological suspense, and military action converge as mysterious cyber attacks escalate,
and state of the art drones are hijacked. Gabriel is
tasked with unraveling complex threats involving entities as secretive as
(07:50):
the NSA, FBI, CIA, and the elusive Deep State, navigating
treacherous waters one wrong move could spell disaster. Typically I
don't do modern thrillers or tech thrillers, but the author
assures me that it's in the wheelhouse of what I
do here at Paperback Warrior, So we'll see. Thanks for
the book, Sasha again. The title is twenty twenty four
(08:11):
Attack on America, Enter de Moors author Sasha zaraestn so
look forward to reading.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
This, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So I'm gonna put the books away from now and
I'm gonna move on to some other things here. I
wanted to tell you about some exciting opportunities I've got. First, first,
and foremost, I'm gonna be contributing an article about fem
fatales in the next issue of Men's Adventure Quarterly. This
will be issue number twelve and it should be out
(08:41):
by the second half of this summer. This article is
a look at ten of my favorite fem fatale books
or stories. I'm honored at the editors Bob Dice and
Bill Cunningham asked me to be a part of.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It, so look forward to that.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Further, I teamed up with Bill Cunningham, the sponsor this
year's PulpFest, which is happening in Pittsburgh. Bill does on
an awesome full page advertisement for Paperback Warrior, and it's
going to be the full back cover of the events
annual Pulpster collectible program.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That ad will also appear.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
In the same Men's Adventure quarterly magazine issue I mentioned earlier,
issue number twelve, so it's gonna be there as well,
So you got two opportunities to check it out. But
that Pulpster, when I say we're sponsoring it, we paid
for that full page ad, and that money, of course
goes back into the printing of the Pulpster and helping
out with all the weekends festivities. So it's going to
(09:31):
be really cool. I'm glad that I was able to
do that. I'm also working on an audio book for
an author. I can't give away too much right now,
but I just recorded my audio narration of a few
pages for this author and it received his blessing, so
that project's been greenlit. I may only do one podcast
episode in July, just to take a little room for
(09:51):
this audio book, so keep an eye out for that.
I'll make an announcement once the author's cool with it.
But and of course I'm always busy doing videos and
video shorts and all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
It's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
On top of all that, on top of everything else,
I'm going to approved a Wikipedia contributor now, so I
put him a page on the great Ralph Hayes, who
wrote Buffalo Hunter and he wrote a Soldier of Fortune
books under Peter McCurtain's name. He wrote Nick Carter Killmaster Books.
(10:26):
Ralph Hayes is amazing. But you can go out there
and read my Ralph Hayes article on Wikipedia. I'm gonna
try to write some more pages in the future. It's
a chore, honestly, it's a real chore. But I figured
out how to write the HTML code in their sandbox
pretty quickly. If you're an author or a publisher, or
you have intellectual property that needs a Wikipedia page, please reach.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Out to me.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I can provide this service to you at a reasonable
hourly cost. Starkhouse Press, Bold Venture Press, Men's of Venture Quarterly,
Men's a Venture Library, brash books. Whoever you are Wikipedia
page sure would be resourceful. I'm just saying reach out
to me, all right. My last bit of business is
to beg you for business. I'm begging. I make my
(11:09):
living as an insurance agent and I've got seventeen years
of experience as a Medicare benefits advisor. If you are
on Medicare and you want a reliable agent that knows
his stuff, you need to contact me. Even if you
already have a policy. I can request to be your
agent of record and I can manage your Medicare business
for the future. You won't be surprised with unexpected changes
(11:32):
every year because I'm looking after your interest. You'll get
a call from me every fall to let you know
what's going on for the next year. Notebook is more
valuable to me than my own book of business, So
let me help you. Call or text me five four
zero three one two seven zero six two again five
(11:53):
four zero three one two seven zero six two and
let's talk Medicare.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
All right.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Now that all that's out of the way, I want
to jump into today's feature because it's.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Going to be awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I'm going to hit that snazzy little tune and you
can get ready for some fine literary education. Here we go,
all right, today's feature is on Arthur Catherall. Trust me,
you've probably never heard of this guy before, but today's
(12:27):
going to be all about educating you on this wonderful
author and just a really cool advintage nautical fiction spotlight.
But before I start jabbering about his life in literary work,
I feel like I need to set the table first.
The main dish we're serving is young adult books, and
I want to go into that a little bit. Here's
my personal experience with young adult books prior to this year.
(12:51):
I only knew that I enjoyed young adult books when
I was a kid, and they mostly consisted of the
hardy boys those types of young adult books. I consider
it be more more of a juvenile series. It's really
easy stuff with a uniform formula and kids as the heroes. Now,
the same could be said for The Three Investigators, Tom
Swift and so forth. I love that stuff, but I
(13:12):
consider it to be juvenile fiction for a reason. My
other opinion of young adult is something like the Hunger
Games are divergent. That type of young adult fiction is
more accessible to teenagers, but is vastly read and even
celebrated by all ages. I mean, we've probably all had
that coworker that doesn't normally read books come up to
(13:32):
you at the coffee pot or something and say, Hey,
I'm devouring my son or my nephew's borrowed copy of
The Maze Runner or Harry Potter, and they go on
and on and on about how great it is.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
In that moment, I say to myself, Man, I wish I.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Could convince you to read mac Bolin or Peter McCurtain
to really get your head ripped off with action and adventure.
But you know that's another rant altogether. There's this blog writer.
Her name is Sherry Earl. She's got this blog titled
Semi Colon Blog. She summed up my preconceived notions about
young adult fiction in twenty twenty three, and here's what
(14:10):
she said, quote, what are boys and girls reading in
the way of adventure stories these days? Most of the
realistic fiction I read these days for middle grade readers
is problem fiction. Mom is sinking in a depression and
the child must cope with the fallout. Or the main
character is autistic or has a learning disability, or the
bad developers are going to turn the local park into
(14:31):
a parking lot. And there's nothing wrong with any of
that stuff, But where's the adventure. Many young readers are
into fantasy fiction, which does have an adventure element, but
it's not usually an adventure that the reader can imagine
participating in end quote. And that's what I'm saying. The
novels of yesteryear for young people were full of adventure.
(14:52):
And I've totally missed an entire genre, a vintage young
adult adventure fiction and this ran from the nineteen Really
the heyday I think was probably the nineteen forties through
the nineteen seventies. But I totally missed this entire genre.
And I emphasize adventure in caps. This is fiction written
(15:14):
by authors that was marketed by the publisher to teen
boys in hardcover with a few illustrations. Now this is
not to be confused with picture books. Picture books are
normally fifteen to twenty large print pages with big illustrations,
and fit an age group of like eight to thirteen
years of age. These are way more dynamic than that. Plus,
(15:36):
these books were often interchangeable when it comes to the
authors who wrote them. For example, you could look at
a writer like Frank Bonham. He wrote hard hitting westerns
and he also wrote crime noir, but he also wrote
young adult books like War Beneath the Sea Are Honor Bound.
These are straight up adventure books with lots of action
and exotic locales. The books feature male heroes in dire circumstances,
(16:00):
either in war or in some personal quest, dealing with
a family tragedy or a new discovery. Other crime noir,
pulp and action adventure writers wrote young adult novels as well.
Authors like William Campbell Gault or John Reese, for example,
Most of these books that were marketed to young adults
could easily have just been mainstream fiction. I could read
(16:20):
something by Eric Lalan, who's a prolific writer of young
adult fiction, and see how it could be a regular
paperback published by the likes of Bantam, Ace or False
Gold Medal. I just read one of Lalan's books, and
the main character kills two people. This is a young
adult book. You see what I'm getting at. Adults read Tarzan,
they read Doc Savage, The Phantom, The Shadow of the Avenger,
(16:42):
and all of those could be and probably were devoured.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
By teen boys. First.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
No difference here with these young adult books I'm talking about.
In fact, Tom Simon, who used to co host this
show with me, he wrote a review for a Mission
Impossible TV tie in book that was titled The Priceless Particle.
It was a whipman book marketed to young adults. But
in his review he says, and I quote, it's interesting
that this book was originally released for the juvenile market
(17:09):
because there's nothing childish about the writing or plot. Powe's
language is mature, and the geopolitics aren't dumbed down. Granted,
there's no sex or profanity, but I bet there wasn't
any in the adult Mission Impossible paperbacks authored by Walter
Wager using the John Tiger pseudonym. Part of me wonders
if Powell was even informed that this would be packaged
for kids with a hardcover like a hardy boy's novel
(17:33):
end quote. The reason why these young adult books closely
resembled something like a Fossil Gold Medal or a Bantam
paperback is because of the constraints and censorship placed on
the early and mid twentieth century publishers. There was no
graphic sex in these books. There wasn't a tremendous amount
of profanity. In most cases, the violence is a sentence
or three and it's over. It's nothing graphic. It's the
(17:55):
same thing you see with the film industry of that
same era. Do the Hayes Code films were mostly void
of nudity and profanity. You see a lot of movies
of that era that weren't made for young adults now
streaming on various platforms under the genre of family. That
really wasn't the case, but the lack of anything taboo
makes it family friendly now, or what I consider the
(18:17):
confines of a young adult audience. I want to do
an entire episode on young adult fiction talking about this
theme and writers like Rob White and Richard Armstrong, for example,
that specialized in writing great adventure novels but marketed to
the young adult base. I'm going to add that I
found the British and the Australian young adult writers to
(18:38):
have a little more violence and edginess to their work,
much more than the Americans. But I'm going to get
into all that in a future episode. I don't want
to bog us down here because I want to talk
about Arthur Catherall. In my small sample size, I feel
like he's writing the best young adult adventure fiction of
that era, more than anyone else. And this is my
(18:59):
feature him. He was a British writer that was extremely successful.
He was mostly published in England, but a lot of
his books were published right here in the US as well.
By the nineteen seventies, his publisher claimed that his books
were selling over a million copies, and I'm sure that
number increased into the nineteen eighties. His genre was mostly
nautical fiction, but he really dabbled in everything now. I
(19:22):
discovered Arthur in twenty nineteen when I found a used
paperback titled The Strange Intruder. It's got a picture of
a boy on a rope hanging from a cliff. I
read it, I absolutely loved it, and I've kept an
eye out in every story I've shopped at to find more.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Of Arthur's books.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
He's such a tremendous storyteller and I'm really excited to
highlight his life and work for you today.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So let's jump in.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Arthur was born on February sixth, nineteen o six, in Lancolnshire, England.
In nineteen thirty four, when Arthur was twenty eight, he
landed his first published writing gigs. His first story may
have been Phantom Husky's Gold, a short that appeared in
The Pioneer. He followed with two more stories for The
Pioneer that same year. Throughout the nineteen thirties, Arthur had
(20:09):
stories published in The Boy's Own Paper, Chum's Annual, boys
Ace Library, and the Gloucester Journal. But he was tiring
of the short story game and he transitioned into writing
young adult books. He had five books published in the
nineteen thirties, including Campfire Stories, The Rival Tugboats, Black Gold,
Vanished Whaler, and Adventures Limited. He also married Elizabeth Bennen
(20:33):
in nineteen thirty six and they had two children, a
son and a daughter. This is the part of nearly
all of my features where World War II comes in.
In nineteen forty, at the age of thirty four, Arthur
participated in the war. He served England with four years
in the Royal Air Force. He saw action in eastern
Bengal and in Burma. He traveled widely through Europe, Africa
(20:55):
and the Far East as part of his service. Now
in the nineteen forties, Arthur didn't have as many stories published.
I counted just four in the Fiction mag Index he
didn't seem to write much at all in the nineteen forties,
with just four books total that decade, Keepers of the Kaiber,
The Flying Submarine, The Bull Patrol, and Writers of the
Black Camel. I want to Paul use here for a
(21:17):
moment and discuss the first series title that Arthur created.
Since we're in the timeline of the nineteen thirties and
nineteen forties, Arthur's first series title was The Bull Patrol.
The Ball Patrol was published in this timeframe. The short
stories consisted of six entries in The Boy's Own Paper
beginning in October nineteen thirty nine. These stories consist of
(21:37):
a boy scout named Jim Barnes that convinces four of
his friends to create a special patrol. These adventurers solve
minor crimes in the Northern England region, stuff like sheep stealing.
In other stories, the scouts are rescuing individuals called in
a flood. There's a story about a plane crash. There's
another story about a clash with hunters. The locale is
typically farms and farmland with dense for us surrounding it. Again,
(22:01):
this is the Bull Patrol series, and these stories may
have been compiled in the nineteen forty nine book titled
The Bull Patrol. I don't own that book, so I
can't really tell you much about it. Right after the war,
Arthur worked temporarily in the cotton spinning industry before embarking
on a decade of traveling. He had told his peers
and associates in the publishing industry that he was concerned
that the boys who read his books should quickly realize
(22:24):
that he knew his stuff when it came to exotic
locales and experiences. His hobbies included mountain climbing, camping, sailing,
and just traveling everywhere.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
His travels took.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Him all over the globe. He had a detailed knowledge
of geography that was helped by his voyages. Some of
those included a track across the Lapland from the Russian
border to the Norwegian coast on a British trollery. He
made several trips to the fishing shores off the coast
of Iceland. This, combined with his travel experiences with the RAF,
helped create.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Believability in his books and stories.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
By nineteen fifty, Arthur has settled down and he settled
in behind his typewriter By the end of nineteen fifty,
Arthur has written nearly forty books, so many that he
needed to create pseudonyms to keep from flooding the market
under his own name. Throughout his career, Arthur would use
names like ar Channel, Dan Corby, Peter Howard, Margaret Thuthn,
(23:15):
Trevor Main, and Linda Peters to write standalone books and
series titles.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I want to go over two big.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Series titles that Arthur began in the nineteen fifties. Now,
these I think fans of men's action adventure paperwrecks are
really going to enjoy. The first one I want to
talk about is titled Bulldog. Just like it sounds, Bulldog.
This is a nautical adventure series that ran a total
of eleven books between nineteen fifty four through nineteen sixty eight.
(23:41):
In England, the books were published by J. M. Denton
Sons and had black and white interior illustrations. In America,
the series was published by New York's Criterion Books. This
series is about a seventeen year old skipper named Jack Fratcham.
He commands the Bulldog, which is a tugboat Harvard and Singapore.
Through the series, Jack's crew and The Bulldog consists of
(24:02):
Husky Hudson, who's a veteran seaman worth his salt, and
a Melee native named Ahmat. These three are the main
characters in the series. All these books are nautical adventures
at about two hundred pages or less, and the locale
is the South China Seas.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I read the series debut recently. It's titled Ten Fathoms Deep,
and here's what my future review on the blog will say.
In Ten Fathoms Deep, readers are introduced to seventeen year
old Jack Frogum. After finishing school, Jack arrives in Singapore
to meet with his father, Captain Frogum. The captain has
enjoyed a successful salvaging and freighting career with his tugboat Bulldog.
(24:40):
Based out of the Lion City of Singapore, Frogman has
made his living in the warm rolling waters of the
South China Seas. Now his dreams of Jack joining the
family business have become a reality. In the first chapter,
Jack's father meets with a man who is purportedly dead.
This man, Husky Hudson, explains to the Fradums that he
would there's a mate on the freight ship to Nissarium
(25:02):
under the command of Captain Miller. However, the ship was
mysteriously attacked and sunk. Hudson was ruled dead by drowning,
but he managed to escape the attack. He advises the
fraudums that a criminal enterprise that owned the ship sunk
it for insurance money. Now, Captain Miller, who died in attack,
his legacy has been scrutinized under a false public statement
(25:23):
that the Tenasarium perished due to the Captain's poor navigation
of the reef. Hudson wants to bring honor to Captain
Miller's widow and has a plan in place to preserve
Miller's legacy. Shortly after meeting with Hudson, Jack's father is
nearly killed in a stabbing. Now hospitalized, he asks that
Jack meet with Hudson to go over the plan and
(25:44):
to take control of the tugboat for all future jobs.
His mate will be Husky Hudson, and they're joined with
a small group of melees led.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
By a Mott.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Together, this crew will man the tugboat to a seecret
place where Hudson knows that the Tensarium is lying intact
in just ten fathoms of water.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
If they can.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Successfully retrieve this vessel, they can prove that it wasn't
the captain's negligence or a reef miscalculation that led to
the sinking. But as the salvage operation commences, the crew
is plagued by two rival tugboats and a crew of
cutthroat criminals doing the bidding of a mysterious mastermind. Ten
fathoms Deep is an amazing book. First, forget the young
(26:24):
adult stigma that may be associated with Catherall in this series.
The book reads like a nautical adventure penned by someone
like A. S. Fleischman. In fact, the nautical fiction written
by the likes of John Blackburn, Conrad Dawn, Arthur D.
Howden Smith and James Gribbon certainly would welcome the tugboat crew.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
While there isn't any romance.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Which is par for the course for a good nautical romp,
there's plenty of tense adventure and intrigue that saturate the book.
Under this author's excellent prose, The book, right at two
hundred pages, is brimming over with a frantic pace as
the tugboat races against the clock to salvage their target
before they're obliterated by rival ships, this panic stricken moment
of horror when the tugboat is nearly bombed and Jack
(27:04):
must penetrate a pitch black ocean bottom without a guide.
I mean, there's shipwrecks, there's island adventures, sunken treasure, some
shady characters and aerial romps, some gunplay. But what really
sets the book apart is the amount of contractual intrigue.
And what I mean by that is Jack and Hudson
must navigate some of the details of this ship's original logs,
(27:27):
their competition with a rival salvage gang, and the swerve
of an existing job to take on this retrieval heist.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I guess you could call it. There's also numerous hot.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Headed propositions made that forced Jack in some really tight spots,
with the level of venture in exciting locale, Ten fathoms
Deep gets my highest recommendation.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Again.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
The series is titled Bulldog and this book review is
of the series debut ten fathoms Deep, and you can
look for this book on Abe Books. I think they've
got it used there. The next series I want to
tell you about is The Fighting Four. The Fighting Four.
It was published under a pseudonym of ar Channel by
children's Press in England. I wasn't able to determine if
(28:10):
the series was published in America. My guess it probably is,
but I do not sure who the publisher was. The
Fighting Four consists of five books published between nineteen fifty
eight through nineteen sixty four. These are team commando books
set during World War II. My guess is that Arthur
was influenced to write a military action adventure series based
(28:30):
on W. E. John's wildly popular series Biggles and the
spinoff Gimlet. While I didn't have the series debut, I
did get my hands on the series second installment, titled
The Tunnel Busters, and here's what I wrote for my
blog review, which hasn't been posted yet. This one hundred
and eighty eight page book begins with a fitting introduction
(28:51):
to the team members. Sam Foster is the radio communications specialist,
China Brown manages the team's firearms and logistics, Curly Bates
is the explosives expert, and the group is led by
the all round fighting man, Sergeant Ted Harris. Based on
their success in the first book's adventure, which featured a
Norwegian locale, the four had been assigned an explosive new mission,
(29:14):
Hitler's routed supplies for his troops by way of railroad
through an underground tunnel from rural France into Italy. Due
to the rugged mountaintops, the interior design of the tunnel,
and the any aircraft defense, British intelligence wants the team
to parachute in and detonate explosives within the tunnel. Now
paramount to the mission's success is working with the rebel
French in this isolated village controlled by the Germans. Man
(29:37):
this tunnel busters non stop action from scene to scene,
just amazing. The books pace kicks off with Sam's spiraling
descent away from the team due to this barrage of
German gunfire. So Sam is miles away and he meets
this young shepherd boy and his dog that actually proved
crucial to the mission. From the onset, there's a gunfight
(29:58):
with Germans, there's a tent stand off in a nearby village,
there's a rescue attempt, the aforementioned tunnel busting business, and
this wild hostage situation that really elevated the books finale
into an emotional roller coaster as German leaders are set
to execute members of the team and again, don't be
afraid of the young adult or of this series and
its reputation. Despite the lack of violent details from the author,
(30:21):
it's clear that enemy forces are dying now. Granted, the
team will typically just knock out their opponents or quote
riddle them with gunfire, but Catherine's storytelling has a darker
overtone at times, with talk of torture firing squads. There's
threats of mass slaughter of this village.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Comparisons are often made to John's Gimblet.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Series, which is expected.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
However, from research online, it suggests that the Fighting Four
are more adult in nature compared to the Gimlet or
big OL's series. Despite lukewarm reviews, my sample sized experience
with the Fighting Four was exceptional. I thoroughly enjoyed this
high adventure military yarn and I recommend and it's to
men's action of venture fans of any age.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Then the other series I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Tell you about is called Kan genty. Now I kind
of made that up con hyphen genty. I read the
first book, Coral Reef Castaway. Coral Reef Castaway was published
in nineteen fifty eight under Arthur's pseudonym of Peter Howard.
It's kind of a dumb title, I admit. In this book,
a young man named Con is thrown overboard and accidentally
(31:24):
left in the Pacific Ocean. He ends up washing ashore
of a small island, and there he's saved by an
old man named Genty. It turns out that twenty one
years ago, Genty was in that area of the ocean
engaging in pearl culturing. Now, if you don't know what
that is, don't worry. Arthur does an amazing job explaining
this fascinating business of pearl farming through this elderly character Genty.
(31:47):
Genty explains he had a shipwreck and has been on
the island for twenty one years. Now, with CON's help,
the two can paddle the thirty plus miles to civilization
and be rescued. But Genty doesn't just want to rescue.
He wants to come back with diving gears so the
two of them can dive down and get the pearls.
There's like hundreds of thousands of dollars in pearls just
(32:09):
sitting there in an oyster bed. But like any good
rags to riches, feel good story, there's got to be
a criminal element, right, a group of rival divers figure
out that Gent and Connor up to this diving and
getting these pearls, and they want in on the action,
but they want all the pearls for themselves. This was
a really good read. I enjoyed the pearl culturing stuff
and all the neat little nuggets of information that Arthur
(32:31):
and Jeckson to the story about diving, the technical nuances
of diving, ocean pressures, how to make stuff like homemade
coffee and sugar and bread on the island. It was
all a really great learning experience for me. The exciting
diving narrative and underwater adventure was just really icing.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
On the cake.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Now, Coral Reef Castaway has a sequel. At the beginning,
I said this is a series. It does have a sequel.
The name of that book is Barrier Reef Bandits, and
it was published in nineteen sixty. I consider both these
books a series under the title con genty, which is
the name of the duo's boat. I also believe that
there's a third book as well, titled Guardian of the Reef.
(33:09):
I don't have that book, so I can't definitively say
it's the con genty series.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
But pretty sure it is.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
But the book's like eighteen dollars on eight books, and
I really don't want to spend the money right now.
Aside from these series titles, as I mentioned, he wrote
a number of standalone books too, and I wanted to
review just a couple of those for you as well,
just shorter reviews. The first book that I wanted to
mention to you in this feature is the book that
started it all for me with this Arthur Catherall author.
(33:38):
It's called The Strange Intruder and it was published in
the US by Archway in nineteen sixty four. It was
originally published in England as The Strange Invader.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Now. This novel is on the Chile.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Farose Islands, which geographically is positioned north of the British
Isles in just southeast of Iceland. Again, this is a
region that Arthur knew quite well based on his experiences
traveling there. A sixteen year old fisherman named Sevin is
thrust into this crazy situation. All of the men in
the village are trapped at sea in a boating accident
with their schooner. They're on their way back from a
(34:11):
fishing trip and hit the rocks. Now from the distant shore,
Savin sees something leap from the schooner and plunge into
the sea. So Sevin races up the shore to help
rescue whoever or whatever.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Fell from the ship. He's thinking it was a crewman.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Instead, it was a polar bear that the crew had
captured on their fishing trip. There's a whole story on
why they hadn't know what the goal was. But the
polar bear is really out of his element and hits
the beach and goes berserk. Sevin panics and runs the
village to tell the women and kids that the bear
is coming. The Strange Intruder is a really fun adventure
(34:45):
story as seven is forced to battle this rampanting bear
in a village during a rainstorm. There's these rocky cliffs,
there's island life swollen seas from the storm. It's really
all a metaphor that Sevin is battling his own childhood
and form of the bear, sort of end of Innocent's
tale as Savin becomes an adult through this battle.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It was really a great book.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I wanted to quote you a portion of a review
of The Strange Intruder written by Sherry Early on the
Semi Colon blog, and in her review she had this
to say, quote, I've heard of Arthur Catherall as an
author of children's or young adult fiction, but I've always
thought of him, without having read any of his books,
as a sort of minor, second rate pop bowler fiction writer.
(35:30):
If The Strange Intruder is a good example of the
rest of Catherall's work, he's actually a first rate adventure writer. Unquote,
she's echoing my sentiments exactly. My last standalone review is
Arthur's The Night of the Black Frost. It was published
in England and the US in nineteen sixty eight. I
had the review posting later this year on the blog,
(35:51):
but here's what I wrote about it. Norwegian young adult
Leif has just graduated high school and is in that
sort of life lull, decigning to spend his time prior
to going off to college.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
His friends convince him.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
To tour Europe for months, but Lee's father has another plan.
He'll support and pay Leaf's way to northwest to the
Barren Sea. Remember they're in Norway, so he's going to
go northwest to the Barren Sea, which is this frigid
wasteland of ice between the Arctic Ocean and Russia sounds awful.
He convinces Leif to spend a few weeks with his
(36:24):
uncles Peter and Jan on their commercial fishing expeditions. Now
Leif longing for a venture immaturity, he accepts on board
his uncle's fishing trawler. Leif experiences this harrowing two day adventure.
His uncle Peter is really hesitant about Leif's participation in
this dangerous fishing expedition. Uncle Jan, he's a bit more
patient understanding for Leif. His endurance and staminas tested when
(36:47):
these two Russian pilots plunge into the frosty Ocean in
an accident. When Peter and Jan attempt to rescue on
a dinghy, they become lost at sea trying to find
these pilots.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
It's up to Leaf to.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Run the trawler by him and also attempt to make
a rescue of his uncles and try to find the
pilots while enduring this awful black frost. I didn't even
know what that was, but think of it. When fog
turns to ice in the air, that's black frost. This
one hundred and sixty six page book was a short
example of what Catherall does so well nautical adventure storytelling
(37:20):
that features ordinary young people facing life threatening adult decisions
that accelerates their maturity and personal growth. As I always
preach in my reviews, throw out the stigma of young adult.
This book has an intense survival element with some gritty
life choices, including like possible amputation of a leg. There's
a serious frostbite hypothermia, very personal conflict facing one of
(37:45):
the Russian pilots. There's turmoil and intrigue involving the Russian
government and their interaction with these Norwegian fishermen. Night of
the Black Frost is a fantastic adventure that showcases really
everything I love about this author.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
For example, if you like to think of the.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Name here Hammon Innis, Hammon Innis book The White South
comes to mind when I read this book, So look
no further. If you like ham and Innis, then you're
really going to like Arthur Catherall. Also note this book,
A Knight of the Black Frost, is based on Arthur's
own experience fishing off the coast of Iceland. Some of
the events that transpiring the book really happened to the author.
(38:21):
He was caught in a black Frost situation at sea,
and he wanted to write about the experience in a
fictional way.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So that brings us to the end of this feature. Now,
Arthur he continued to write books through the nineteen sixties
and nineteen seventies under his own name and pseudonyms. He
wrote nearly sixty five books during that time. He only
had one book published in the nineteen eighties, and that's
because Arthur Catherall passed away on January sixth, nineteen eighty,
at the age of seventy three. Honestly, I wish I
(38:51):
knew more about him in the life he led. I'm
not totally convinced anyone has really solidified in actual bibliography
for him. It's hard to imagine how many books he
wrote under differ names. I'm sure there's sources out there
with the information, but the Internet is somewhat bare when
it comes to this author.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
My biggest resource for this feature was a great article
written by Jim McKenzie on the Collecting Books and Magazines
dot com website. Without that resource, this feature just it
was not possible. I also relied heavily on archive dot Org,
the fiction mag Index, Wikipedia, and the semi colon blog
which I mentioned earlier. Now off to the last order
(39:27):
of business, which is today's review. This review is for
a short story compilation titled do You Know Me? And
Other Aberrations by Bruce Elliott Now Bruce Elliott was a
prolific writer of crime fiction and science fiction and the pulps.
He also worked as a television screenwriter and practice stage magic.
He wrote fifteen novels for The Shadow magazine between nineteen
(39:49):
forty six and nineteen forty eight, and he helped edit
and publish a number of men's magazines like Rogue and
The Jent. Now back in August of twenty twenty three,
I read and reviewed Elliott's fabulous short story do You
Know Me, originally published in the February nineteen fifty three
issue of Thrilling Detective. I enjoyed the story so much
that I contacted Greg Shepard at Starkhouse Press and informed
(40:12):
him that he should read the story as well. Thankfully,
two years later, Greg and the great Starkhouse Press folks
have published the short story compilation by Elliott, containing ten
of his best works, called from the detective and science
fiction Pulps and magazines. The story I recommended to Greg,
Do you Know Me? Was used as the title story
in the artwork from the original publication adorns the front cover,
(40:35):
Wonders Never Sees Now. This episode is running a little long,
and I'd planned on capsule reviews for each of the
ten stories. How about I do just look at a
time here? How about I do a quick capsule review
of the first five stories right now for you, and
you can come back tomorrow and visit the blog at
paperback Warrior dot com and read my capsule reviews for
the remaining five stories.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
How's that sound all right?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Let's kick it off with the first story, do you
Know Me? As I mentioned earlier, this was pulled from
Thrilling Detectives February nineteen fifty three issue.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
The author introduces.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
The man nobody knew as a resident of a West
forty seventh Street apartment just east of Broadway. The room
in which the man awakens has door frames and windows
stuffed with newspapers. Beside the bed, written lipstick is an
ominous message scrawled. Since you can't catch me, and since
I don't want to kill again, I'm gonna kill myself.
(41:26):
That's what it says. This man who isn't named. I
refer to him simply as the killer or the man
nobody knew. He's stalking New York City and he's savagely
cutting off people's faces while maniacally asking them do you
know me? Do you recognize me? And where do you
know me from? Through the course of Elliott's compelling, all
(41:48):
inspiring story, more characters are introduced, each with their own backstory.
Now all these characters entwined in a disturbing series of
events that mirror is an active shooter situation today. In
this story, the killer begins randomly murdering people in nightmarish
fashion in the middle of Times Square. Elliott provides some
(42:08):
riveting stuff involving sexuality, social unrest, mental illness.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
This is a great story. This is a must read.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Next is Vengeance Is Not Enough, which is from Stories Annual,
Volume one, nineteen fifty five. Vengeance Is Not Enough. This
story begins with a man named Henry Times sweating from
shock therapy at the hands of a psychiatrist. As the
doctor prodds him, Henry recalls the events that led him
to the doctor, the horrific murder of his young son
(42:38):
in a hit and run, But just as the past
events unveiled before the reader. A gunshot sounds and the
doctor is killed. The story then follows Henry trying to
find answers on what happened and who's responsible. It's an effective,
innocent man on the run story with a distinct flavor
that only Elliott could provide. Ethereal, violent, and wholly unique.
(42:58):
Third is The Darken The Darkened Room was from Popular
Detectives May nineteen fifty three issue. Now matching the title's dimness,
Elliot's bleak writing elevates the story as a real highlight
of the collection. This criminal named Garo and his partner
Magan have stolen gems from celebrity, and they've hocked them
not a hotel in New York. Garo pays a visit
(43:21):
to Baggigan and selfishly strangles him to death to be
sure all the money is his now. Then, the narrative
is a roller coaster as Garo runs from the costs
by seeking shelter in this dark flophouse. But like all
good heist, the criminal never gets away with a cabbage.
This one has a fitting ending that serves a type
of cautionary tale, advising us all that crime doesn't pay
(43:42):
The fourth story is called Carnage in Colossa. It's from
Sea Stories November nineteen fifty three. Tommy Winners as an
American crewman on a shipping trawler and an extended stop
on a small Pacific island. Tommy strikes up an intense
affair with a married islander named Aquila. One night, he
awakes from a drunken beating to discover his passport, money,
(44:03):
and ship has left him behind. Penniless and homeless. Tommy
agrees to work for a queless husband, this fat, seedy
merchant and restaurant owner named Madigan. If Tommy can do
all the dirty work around the place for a week,
like mopping up pists and puke, then he'll earn enough
money to get a transport to the nearest US embassy.
After one week of working for Madigan by day and
(44:25):
sleeping with his wife by night, Tommy is hopeful he
can get away. But there's a surprise awaiting Tommy and
the reader after a week's work. Carnage in Colossa was
an exceptional tale, laced with grime and shady characters. Again,
it's a cautionary tale as well that it's got a
really fitting and enjoyable ending, but left me guessing where
Elliott was going to go with these despicable people and
(44:47):
where to dump them. It's just a great story. Last
one I want to tell you about his death lives
in Brooklyn. It's from Thrilling Detective, April nineteen fifty three.
Farnell is an attorney that's lost everything. He now spends
his time on forty seventh Street in Broadway playing Nickel
and dimeball. A mob henchman is roughing up a couple
people when Farnell hears this victim whisper him to check
(45:09):
the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
That same victim warns Farnell.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
To avoid the police because they're quote iced in the
John Farnell finds this signed document sealed in an envelope.
He has the foresight to open up the envelope and
take a photo of the document using one of the
arcade camera vending machines.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
That was the thing back then.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Farnell then goes on the run from the syndicate and
their killers who want this mysterious document. He's eventually called
an ordered for execution in this rundown section of Brooklyn.
Like any good crime noir, the innocent man on the
run is being chased by the crooked cops and the crooks.
This was such a great story and was really ahead
of its time if you think about it. Today we
(45:48):
take photos of documents with our phones all the time,
but back then it was unheard of outside of just espionage. Overall,
After reading the whole book, I'll have to say this
is one of the better short story collections I've read.
But come back tomorrow or anytime after and check out
the reviews for the rest of the stories. You're gonna
enjoy these reviews again. This book is out now from
Starkhouse Press. It's called Do You Know Me? And Other
(46:11):
Aberrations and the author is Bruce Elliott. And that's a
wrap on this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll
be back again in a few weeks. I also hope
to have a shopping video up in the next week
or two. Keep stopping by the blog for four to
five reviews weekly. The YouTube channel is really busy, with
a new review every day around four thirty pm Eastern time.
(46:32):
There's also TikTok, Instagram, threads, archive dot org, Facebook with
tons and tons of book discussions and posts. In fact,
paperback Warrior on Facebook is nearing ten thousand followers, so
there's a really great community in there, so you can
talk to other fans of these same books and authors.
It's a great place. But in the meantime, enjoy whatever
(46:55):
it is you're doing, and I'm going to see you
next time.
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