Negative, Ghost Writer

 I only recently found out about the existence of Leslie McFarlane's Ghost of the Hardy Boys, which made me sad, given it has a copyright of 1976, well before I read any of his work. (While I get the impression this is a much later edition, and heaven knows if it itself got edited and ghostwritten...)

See, Mr. McFarlane wrote under many different names, probably the most famous being Franklin W. Dixon, as well as a handful of Carolyn Keene, Victor Applegate, ad Roy Rockwood. The former there being most of the first 40 hardcover volumes of The Hardy Boys, which sold for 10 cents, with him being paid roughly $100 a volume. That he also enjoyed a writing career outside of the Strathmeyer Syndicate isn't what he got asked about that often though. Which I think is largely why he wrote this, since he did have quite a life when he wasn't being a phantom novelist. 

Admittedly, the narrative here is on the non-linear side, as we learn about how he came to be employed by Strathmeyer before jumping back in time, before returning to  the Boys near the end. This gives us time to hear about his newspaper days, and any number of good stories of people he worked with through Ontario and Massachusetts, as well as discussions on what he was thinking when he wrote certain books.

Along the way, we get an education in how syndicate writing works, and his rather ...aloof... feelings towards the series he created.  (So, when he starts with the syndicate, he's writing Dave Fearless, a young man who's also a deep sea diver, and therefore is running afoul of bad storms, murderous relatives, man eating sharks, octopi that are hungry, etc. I'd love to track one or more of this down, since they sound like pulpy fun. He gets asked to start the Hardy Boys, which means writing three "breeder books" that will get released at the same time, and hopefully spark enough reader interest to get a series going. The process is, he gets an outline, he fleshes out the outline into a novel, occasionally adding his own own flourishes to the narrative; things like the Boys getting monetary rewards AND a big feast, since the readers in the age range are always hungry. He does get feedback on things like "Make the cops less buffoonish", which leads to making spinster Aunt Gertrude a source of humor. Given the Syndicate gave birth to Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Rover Boys....they knew what they were doing.)

 It is kind of interesting to lean that Mr. McFarlane never really did realize exactly how much impact his unknown work had on generations of boys, and indeed, the only thing that seems to upset him about the entire situation is seeing what happened in the 50s when the revisions to the books happened. (By most accounts, the books got revised to get rid of some unfortunate racism and update the language; the side effect was the books got rewritten and a lot of the things people enjoyed [pacing, character relationships] got taken out. [Fer instance, it's mentioned that in the original introduction of Aunt Gertrude, there's a scene of her arriving from the train station and haranguing the Hardy Household, adding comedy to the scene. In the revision, she's just kind of appears and never leaves.] Some of this, I get. Of the reprinted and revised hardcovers, I only finished a few, and that was mainly due to the pulpy illustrations drawing me in. Even in the very early 80's the revisions from 30 years prior made the books seem horribly outdated. Which is probably whey I got sucked into the more contemporary "Digests", which saw publication starting in 1979.)

I'm kind of needle dropping here, because there's a hell of a lot in the book that really deserves discussion that I really just don't have the energy to explore here. I will say I highly recommend reading this to anyone who got sucked into one of the Syndicate series.

The Saints are Coming

 I had to do some checking on the timeline of when Greg Herron's Bourbon Street Blues was published (2003) vs when Katrina hit the Delta (2005), since some of the plot involves a plot to blow up the levee to flood New Orleans. I think this can be chalked up to horrible timing, as anyone reading the book now will have the actual horror come to mind vs the fictional events here that have a happier ending. 

So, this is the first book in the Scotty Bradley series, which I was happy to finally read after finishing book 3 a few weeks ago. Scott in this one is working as a personal trainer and stripper, and we're opening oin Southern Decadence, aka the big gay party New Orleans hosts every Labor Day weekend. Here, he's single and ready to mingle, although he's working with a methed up porn star and a non local named Colin on top of a bar. 

Well, first, a former trick he still talks to on occasion winds up executed in front of his apartment. Then he finds a disk another former trick shoved in his boot while tipping him. Which in turn evolves into stopping a plot by a gubernatorial candidate to blow up the levees and kill all the gays in New Orleans in order to get elected to state office. (Mostly due to New Orleans, much like Detroit and Chicago, both having large enough voting populations to swing the entire vote of the state.)

I enjoyed this; the humor leavens the seriousness of the plot, and everyone mostly winds up with a happy ending.

Digging deep

 So, as I've been slowly sorting boxes of books from the basement that came out of Mom's house, I found a high school favorite, Thrill by Patricia Wallace. Now, let me point out the obvious, it is a Zebra Imprint from the early 90's, and therefore generally regarded as supermarket pulp. To which I say, who cares? it's readable and memorable, even with a few formatting errors and a resolution that makes no sense at all. 

Anyway, the whole set up in that Billionaire Sheldon Rice has built an exclusive amusement park north of San Francisco, excavating a mountain to do so. ($3000 a day, 7 day stay for everyone coming.) Wesley Davidson, who's barely 20, designed all the rides. Part of Wesley's contract stipulates that once a month, 5 disadvantaged youth get to come for a week free. Which gives us child prostitute Celeste, tough guy Max, oddball Ben, good girl Betsy (who's being groomed by her principal), and Jesus, who slipped over the border from Tijuana after his family died. 

We have local doctor Taylor, who's father owned part of the mountain The Park is built on. When he sold it, he got harassed to death. We have Sheriff Young, who really doesn't want to deal with the headaches The Park brings. And then there's the enigmatic Ezra, the mountain man who Rice thinks is sabotaging The Park. 

Anyway, other than a few minor accidents on opening day, things go ok until the Thursday, when all hell breaks loose. There's quite a bit of "Did Ezra sabotage things? Did the insects do this acting on behalf of a deeper power? Was it an EMF pulse?" to go along with the known things, like the security guard who covers up crushing a man to death when the man breaks into a ride, or the software engineer who maybe was screwing with Wesley's code. 

I mean, it's a fun, in nonsensical at times ride, that brought back a sense of vicarious excitement I felt reading it years ago. Much love to an old classic.

Papa Loves Mambo

 I had picked up Greg Herren's Mardi Gras Mambo at Half Price Books a while back, but kept pushing it down the TBR pile for shinier books. While I will never regret my decisions on reading order, it wound up being better than I had anticipated.

Evidently there are two books in the series that precede this, and one follow up, so I jumped in at the middle of the ongoing metaplot. Scotty Bradley is the gay grandson of two wealthy New Orleans families, with very two hippie parents. As this book opens, he's works as a private investigator with his two boyfriends, which is his first real stable paycheck. (Evidently, both sets of grandparents cut him off from the family trust funds, thus why his previous jobs have been stripper and personal trainer.) One boyfriend is former FBI, the other has a rather cloudy past. Scotty can read tarot cards, and occasionally receives visions from the Goddess. 

Anyway, the book starts a few days before Mardi Gras. Scotty has convinced his two straight laced boyfriends to try Ecstasy for the festivities, while they run around in costumes that reveal how built they all are. Which is all well and good, until Scotty's dealer, Misha, winds up dead not long after Scotty buys the drugs.  

Which, since Scotty was the last one to see him alive, makes Scotty the prime suspect. 

There's a hell of a lot involved here, from nearly identical triplets all using the same name, to long buried family secrets. And the final disposition really doesn't make sense, since I can't figure out how a murderer could shoot someone from behind while standing in front of them. On the other hand, the tone of the book does a neat job of staying between total camp, total smut, and deadly serious, which is difficult to achieve in gay mystery fiction. 

Going to have to find the other 3 books now.

Violating a rule here

 So, normally I don't blog or list of good reads when I read something that qualifies as Intermediate Readings, since those reviews are generally better left to teachers teaching kids in the age range. However, after running across The Hardy Boys Ghost Stories while going through boxes in the basement, I'm going to go ahead and blog and log it, since I've actually had a lot of fun rereading this slim volume. 

Amazon has a better pic, but this is my copy.

 So I've probably owned this since second grade, and it remains in decent condition. (I have a few other volumes out of this particular set of adventures; you can click the tags on this to see the overly long essay I wrote about their history.) However, what surprised me on rereading was how well the stories in here have held up.

 That has nothing to do with the accidental homoeroticism involving Joe Hardy at all.

We start with "The Walking Scarecrow", which gave me nightmares as a kid. Boys are on their way home from hiking, break down, decided to walk to the farmhouse they saw to use the phone, but feel like the scarecrow warned them away from the house. Seriously, while not a ghost per se, the Scarecrow seems to be doing its best to drag Joe and Frank out the farmhouse. Which, at the end, we find out is because lightning strikes the house as they return from a wild goose chase and the house burns down. 

Next is "Mystery of the Voodoo Gold", in which Frank and Joe get told by a Fortune Teller in Underground Atlanta not to do a few things, which they promptly do, which leads to nearly drowning in a root cellar where Simbo, a voodoo protection doll, watches over his master's treasure. 

Then comes what it likely my favorite of all of them, "The Disappearance of Flaming Rock". Joe and Frank are in Arizona, near a town that vanished off the face of the Earth. Literally. Seems a prospector his Flaming Rock, and found the town deserted, but things like dinner on the stove still cooking, and a swinging light in the church bell tower. When people went to look, they found the town gone, as if it never existed. Frank and Joe drive up, and guess what they find? Seems the town hanged the local Apaches, so the Great Spirit cursed Flaming Rock and all its inhabitants to wander the spirit world for all eternity homeless. 

Fourth story is "The Phantom Ship", wherein Frank and Joe's fishing boat dies and they get taken aboard an 18th Century Whaler. Inhabited by 18th Century Crewman. Who think the modern boys are insane, and somehow manage to get everyone really confused as to where the are. This is also an old favorite, since honestly, the ghost ship should have made them walk the plank for mutiny.

Then comes the illustration from the front cover, "The Haunted Castle", where Frank and Joe wind up in a Haunted Castle in Scotland. Their appearance winds up fulfilling a prophecy, which sets the ghost free of a witch's curse. 

We finish with "The Mystery of Room 12", in which Joe is haunted by the ghost of a sailor's son. Joe finally gets the boys flute back to him, and resolves the ghost's fetter. 

Now, while all of this is really really improbable, not the least of which is how two high school kids can be all over the globe for this stuff to happen (a problem with the entire series, that you don't particularly think about when you're in the age range), it's still fun reading, with more than a little learning hidden in the bare bones stories. (You get an age appropriate lesson in whaling, information on Widow's Walks, exactly how poorly settlers treated Native Americans, why you listen to the gypsy lady with the crystal ball.) Even nearing 50 though, this scratched a nostalgia itch I was unaware I had, and brought back some childhood wonder that the series of this era inspired in me. 

But Seriously, I blame Joe Hardy illustrations for much of my sexual awakenings.

Puttanesca

 I finally got around to reading Morgan Brice's Last Resort (which is what I meant to buy when I accidentally bought a book in another series I already own), and was not disappointed. 

We're joining Erik and Ben as they have officially moved in together in Cape May, New Jersey. While they're in love, there are adjustments to arranging a life together in one space. Add into this anonymous mailing of haunted poker chips to the store Trinkets, and the murder of a former mob accountant at Ben's rental property, and it's a bit more. 

Basically, the crux here is that the accountant hid a large stash of money somewhere in the area, and managed to get killed upon returning to Cape May to get some more. His ghost isn't happy. The Mob ain't happy because it was their money. The Accountant's nephew ain't happy because he needs to apy off a debt. 

Given this is Morgan Brice, you have a general idea of what's going to end up happening by the end, although this is the second book where I feel like the ending got a lot rushed. (I mean, the story is great and engaging, and I can see the ending, but it still feels a bit like "Oh shit, I'm over my word limit, so let's cut out some of the climax so I don't go over."

Still fun, and I love the connected world here. 

I've got that Evil Spirit DOWN IN MY HEART!

 When I was growing up, I missed reading the Fear Street Cheerleader cycle, which is sad, since the original cover art belonged in a Grady Hendrix review. 

I mean...

 

 The trilogy, now reprinted as one volume, unfortunately loses the cool cover art in favor of this.

 

 Not as cool.

 

Anyway, the story centers at first on Bobbi and Corky, two teenage girls transplanted from Missouri to Shadyside, where they audition for the Cheer Squad, against the wishes of a few of the girls. (This came out long before Bring it On, so I can't blame that for this.) They get on, which means the Freshman on the squad gets bumped to alternate. On the way to the first away game, Bobbi realizes she left the fire batons at her house, so the bus makes a run to Fear Street so they can grab them. Or attempts to, since the bush crashes into the Fear Street Cemetery, and Cheer Captain Jennifer gets thrown from the bus and lands on Sarah Fear's tombstone. Jennifer survives, but is paralyzed. Bobbi, the older sister, becomes cheer captain, sparking jealousy in Kimmy. Then Bobbi gets locked in a shower and drowned in scalding water. (This is one of the very few Fear Street novels with actual deaths of major characters. Generally, if someone dies, it's a villain or a random adult.) 

This of course, makes Corky go a little nuts, but she eventually finds out who did it, and gets the bonus of finding out the responsible party was possessed by and Evil Spirit. Said spirit supposedly gets trapped again in the grave of Sarah Fear. Except, no, in book two the spirit is back, possesing another cheerleader and tormenting Corky again. We eventually find out who's hosting, get rid of the spirit, and head into book 3, wherein someone else gets possessed, we go to cheer camp, we learn how Sarah Fear got rid of the spirit, and we get a few The Exorcist homages. 

So,m while I'm aware my love of the Fear Street series is mostly nostalgia, since most of the books don't quite hold up to my memories of reading them, these were not particularly good, even for nostalgia. The three installments, while continuing a story line, really have some fairly glaring continuity errors, or at least unanswered questions, like, if the possessed in book 2 doesn't remember anything that happened at the end of the book, why is she still besties with a girl she loathed in book one when she wasn't possessed in book 3? It all works best when we focus on the jealousy and envy in the squad, although when Hannah joins in book 3, Corky never acknowledges particularly that her feeling about the new recruit outshining her mirror how others felt in book one. That, and Corky and Bobbi's family are almost non entities, occoasionally popping up to give them something to worry about.

 

Honestly, I enjoyed it for what it was, but it really missed a lot of opportunities.

Lighthouse trolls

 Morgan Brice's BadLands series continues with Thunder Road, in which newlyweds Simon and Vic get mixed up in weird vanishings among a motorcycle club and protections from certain Carolina lighthouses failing.

Basically, the thrust of this is that certain North Carolina Lighthouses form a 7 pointed star, while several lighthouses down the South Carolina coast provide energy to those to keep bad things at bay, both natural and supernatural. Seems that as lighthouses either got shuttered or automated, the lighthouse keepers weren't reinforcing the protections, thus they started fading. Which means a certain primal elemental is getting enough function back to start making vanish in thin air. 

Fun read, and what I've come to expect from the author.

Book Review

 I wound up checking out Paul Tremblay's Horror Movie since it was on a lit of suggested books based on stuff I've been reviewing. Saw that he write a book I heard good things about but already knew the ending to, and figured I'd give this one a try.

Let me see if I can explain this book. Our narrator is never named, so I, like probably everyone else, thinks of him as The Thin Kid, the name of his character in the movie that forms the central point of the book. We spend the book bouncing back and forth through time, with a reboot/remake of a movie that never really got released, titled Horror Movie. Seems at some point, Valentina, the director, edited and released 3 scenes from the movie on YouTube and dumped a PDF of the script in a few horror forums, and it got interest in the movie going. In the past, TTK narrates the filming of the movie, and we get excerpts of the shooting script. The script is art house horror, with everyone playing roles named after the actor, one murder scene involving a 5 minute shot of an empty doorway, lots of notes from Cleo (the screenwriter) about what is actually supposed to be implied from each shot, and how she thinks the audience will react. Shortened down, 3 kids lead a 4th to an abandoned school, make him wear a mask, and torture him. He eventually becomes a masked killer who turns on his creators, eventually vanishing into the shadows under the survivor's bed. 

Problem being there were problems on the shoot, including TTK actually getting his pinky chopped off in real life, and ya know, an accidental chainsaw death during filming the final scene. 

 Or was there?

A few passages suggest TTK is a very unreliable narrator. (Add to the conceit here, he's supposedly dictating the narrative as an audiobook.) He discusses having his finger chopped off during filming, but then discusses someone else chopping it off much later in the timeline. Music listed in the script wasn't written when the script was released, suggesting the person who leaked it had done some revisions. Stuff like that. Frankly, about the only narration that feels honest in here by the time we get to the end is his description of signing autographs at a Horror Convention. (One gets the distinct sense the author was relaying his own experiences through the narrator here, minus the whole getting confronted about the missing finger thing.) And the ending... Well, I guess it fits in with the original movie script about finding the meaning for yourself, as much as figuring out how much of the final chapter you're willing to take as honest has meaning. 

I enjoyed this one, even if it did leave me with more questions than answers, but I think that was the point of this narrative. Worth checking out if you're inclined.

Once again, I got behind

 Evidently Valdemar (book 3 of Mercedes Lackey's The Founding of Valdemar trilogy) came out in 2023, and I missed it. Well, that has been remedied, and I can now say I have finished the story of how Baron Kordas of of the Duchy of Valdemar became King Kordas of Valdemar, First of his name. 

The book picks up roughly ten years after the last book, with the remnants of the escape living in what they're calling Haven. While many people who came on the journey either stayed at the lake or moved elsewhere, the remnants are fairly well organized and establishing a kingdom. The Hawkbrothers are less present, but still able to be in contact. An Adept of not quite known hostility is north of the kingdom, running their own city, and absorbing some of the groups unhappy with Valdemar. 

We get a lot of watching the children grow into their roles, and Kordas does eventually deign to let them crown him King, against his better wishes. This leads into a very strange magical firework show against the shields, which in turn leads to Valdemar's legendary prayer that births the Companions. Amusingly, the first companions share some information that later on in the timeline Valdemar Heralds don't get until much later. 

Speaking of, the Adept turns out to be a missing Hawkbrother Prodigy who vanished after learning her first Fire spell. (AKA tying it in with Mage Winds, where we find out this was the legendary Ma'ar's trick to eternal life.) 

It's a really fun and quick read, although it is very much a Lackey Valdemar novel. You know what you'e in for when you pick it up.