New from BLACK DOG BOOKS !

DEATH HAS AN ESCORT by Roger Torrey
With an introduction by Richard A. Moore
     Crime comes in many forms, great and small—but no crime compares to murder!
     The floors runs red as Roger Torrey’s classic hard-drinking private eyes sleuth their way through eight short novels and one shorter work.
     With a ground-breaking introduction by Richard A. Moore, presenting a vast amount of new biographical information about Roger Torrey.
     Coming in at more than 300 pages, this collection is sure to find a place on your mystery shelf!

THE GARDEN OF TNT by William J. Makin
The Collected Adventures of the Red Wolf of Arabia
With an introduction by Mike Ashley
     Walking a tightrope of fragile alliances, undercover British Intelligence agent Paul Rodgers, aka the Red Wolf of Arabia, faces off against revolutionaries and foreign dignitaries, trying to sway the balance of power following the Arab revolt.
     Drawn from Makin’s personal travels and peppered with intimate color and background, it’s little wonder that the Red Wolf of Arabia stories were reader favorites when they first appeared.
     Now collected for the first time in book form are the complete thrilling adventures of the Red Wolf of Arabia—over 500 pages of action andespionage excitement in the shifting sands of international intrigue!

THE VOICE OF THE NIGHT by Hugh Pendexter
The Cases of Jeff Fanchon, Investigator
With an introduction by award-winning author Evan Lewis.
     A series of baffling robberies strike the high society of New York. What could be the purpose and who could be responsible for such odd crimes? The agents of the evil mastermind, Henri Bouchard, have infiltrated all levels of society. No precious item is safe from his criminal genius.
     Jefferson Fanchon, Inquirer, has been called in to decipher the events. Immediately he recognizes the hand of his old European adversary, Bouchard. But never before has Bouchard’s influence spanned the Atlantic. Why now?
     The game is afoot as the great Inquirer’s legendary powers of deduction are put to the test
in this series of astounding cases!
     Will Bouchard win? Or will Jeff Fanchon triumph?
     In the grand tradition of Sherlock Holmes, uncover the startling answers in The Voice of the Night.

TARRANO THE CONQUEROR by Ray Cummings
With a new introduction by Tom Roberts
     The year is 2430. The Earth awakens to find its leaders murdered! All major cities are in turmoil. It is rumored an interplanetary plot is underway. When the same situation arises on Mars, panic ensues. Who is responsible? The ruler of Venus sends word that he will protect the Earth if all its citizens will recognize and honor his supreme authority.
     A defiant Earth Council refuses to submit to such blatant tyranny. Then a second message arrives from the stars:
     Tarrano the Conqueror declares war on the Earth!

DYING COMES HARD by James P. Olsen
The Collected Cases of “Hard Guy” Dallas Duane
With an introduction by James Reasoner.
     They don’t call him Hard Guy for nothin’!
     Into the rough and tumble oil fields of Texas and the American southwest of the 1930s comes Dallas Duane, troubleshooter, freelance private dick and undercover investigator for the oil companies.
     “Hard and fast” is his motto! Watch as he works his way in and out of trouble—both with the wildcatters and wild women—knuckling a path through a series of bank robberies and payroll heists, murder and corrupt officials, crooked gambling and haunted graveyards.
     Here, for the first time are assembled the complete adventures of “Hard Guy” Dallas Duane, two-fisted troubleshooter!
     The appendix includes a nonfiction article about the wildcat oil booms of the Texas region that Olsen covered as a newspaper reporter. 

WINDY CITY PULP STORIES No.15 edited by Tom Roberts
Celebrating the 125th Birthday of H.P. Lovecraft and the 75th Anniversary of the Street & Smith comics. With cover art by Les Edwards.
      With contributions and rare articles by F. Paul Wilson, Robert Weinberg, Stephen Jones, S.T. Joshi, David H. Keller and others.

ALL BOOKS NOW AVAILABLE - HERE!

Forgotten Books: RED TRAILS by Hugh Pendexter

 

Red Trails is one of five books now available in Black Dog Books' Hugh Pendexter Library. The others are The Shadow of the Tomahawk (reviewed HERE), Along the River Trail (HERE), The Shorthorn Kid and According to the Evidence (reviews coming soon). And there are more books in the works. I know, because I'm working on an Introduction to Voice of the Night, a collection of mystery stories.  

 

This adventure novel first appeared in two parts in Adventure magazine back in 1919, and was published in hardcover in 1920 as Red Belts. It's loosely related to The Shadow of the Tomahawk, taking place ten years later and not far away, on the frontier east of North Carolina that would eventually become Tennessee.



The cool thing about this book is that it features a real-life hero pitted against real-life antagonists with the future of the United States in the balance. It's 1784, and the U.S. is still just a collection of states with dreams of becoming a country. Spain knows this, and is courting the Indian nations, seeking to establish a rival country on the frontier. Spain's front man is the Creek "Emperor" Alexander McGillivray, the educated and dandified son of a Scotsman. McGillivray is trying to persuade the leaders of nearby Cherokees and Chickamaugas to join him in scouring the frontier of white settlers and clearing the way for this new rogue nation.

 

Standing in McGillivray's way, thankfully, is John Sevier, a man commanding great respect from whites and Indians alike. The situation is desperate, and Sevier ventures alone into hostile territory, relying on his wits, his woodcraft, his personality and his fearsome reputation to foil McGillivray's plans.

 

Following the events in Red Trails, Sevier went on to become the first and only governor of the short-lived State of Franklin, and later the first governor of Tennessee. He once fought a duel with Andy Jackson, an act that would have endeared him to our patron saint, Colonel David Crockett.

 

As usual, Pendexter tells a rousing good story, and cloaks it well-researched detail. If this ain't the way things really happened, it ought to be.

 

Red Trails is available HERE.

 

The illo below is from the 1920 hardcover edition.

 



Black Dog Books After-Christmas Sale!

Two Nebels for $30. Save $15, HERE.

 

Over at the Black Dog Books site, Jolly old Tom Roberts is doing his dangdest to make your new year happy. In addition to the swell packages pictured here, he's even offering the option to roll your own. Pick any two $19.95 books for $30 (HERE), or any three for $45 (HERE).

Two Pendexters for $20. Save $10, HERE.

Three Rohmers for $40. Save $19, HERE.

Two Worts for $30. Save $10, HERE.

Two Best of Adventures for $44.95. Save $25, HERE.

 

Two Englands for $30. Save $20, HERE.

Forgotten Books: ALONG THE RIVER TRAIL by Hugh Pendexter (1920)

I've long had an itch to re-read The Long Rifle by Stewart Edward White and report on it here in Forgotten Books. The Long Rifle was the book that introduced mountain man and trapper Andy Burnett, and was the basis for the Disney series The Saga of Andy Burnett. 

Well, I still haven't returned to The Long Rifle, but Along the River Trail by Hugh Pendexter scratched that Andy Burnett itch in a big way. This one, too, is about a young man who heads west in the company of older, wiser hands, and learns the ins and outs of the trade. The difference here is that one of those wiser hands is also quite young, and such a prominent character that he's almost a co-protagonist. And that's a good thing, because he's Jim Bridger, and Bridger makes a fascinating hero. 

This book, one of five volumes (so far) in Black Dog Books' Hugh Pendexter Library, was serialized in Adventure in 1920, and is collected here for the first time. Our official POV character is Ralph Lander, a St. Louis store employee of the American Fur Company who gets sacked for falling in love with (and capturing the love of) the boss's daughter. After winning a duel with a rival, he finds it wise to get out of town, and heads for the mountains with Bridger, one of the leading lights of the AFC's chief rival, The Rocky Mountain Fur Company. All sorts of wilderness adventures follow, including (but not limited to) encounters with friendly Indians (the Crow), hostile Indians (the Blackfeet), friendly mountain men and hostile mountain men, all set against the background of a battle for supremacy between the American Fur and Rocky Mountain Fur outfits. 

         
While Ralph Lander stumbles around, making mistakes and sometimes learning from them (and giving the reader someone to identify with), Jim Bridger does the thinking and provides the heroics. They make a great pair.

Hugh Pendexter (above right) loved history and was a meticulous researcher, so I'm guessing the picture painted here is about as close to history as fiction can get. But this is fiction, and mighty entertaining reading, because Pendexter was also a master storyteller. As a bonus, the book has a fine introduction by Mr. Robert Randisi. You know you want it, and the best way to get it is direct from Black Dog Books, right HERE. 

 

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