Pro Se Productions, a leader in New Pulp and Genre Fiction, announces digital advanced reader copies of an upcoming title are now available for Reviewers!
Pro Se Productions gladly commits THE FIRST SYNN: THE BLOODSTONE CONFIDENTIAL, the first of a new series of supernatural pulp thrillers by noted award winning author Teel James Glenn. Complete with chills and thrills harkening back to the classic Pulps, THE FIRST SYNN introduces the first sibling duo in Pulp history, ready to take on whatever horror flies their way! From Teel James Glenn and Pro Se Productions- THE FIRST SYNN: THE BLOODSTONE CONFIDENTIAL!
About the Book:
The Bloody Curse of the Vampire!
Years ago Gideon Synn tried to save Faith Bloodstone from a deadly family curse in upstate New York. He failed and Faith died at the hands of a mysterious blood drinking fiend. Synn ran from his failure and became a world traveler, joining the French Foreign Legion and eventually becoming a mercenary in China.
Now, years later he has opened a security firm with his sister Kathy. Charity Bloodstone, Faith’s younger sister, comes to him for help against the same curse—the supposed vampire ghost of her ancestor, Justice Bloodstone! According to legend, Charity has only one week to live!
Several people have been killed by what appears to be the undead Justice in ways that suggest a supernatural cause. The Synn siblings are drawn into a whirlwind of terror and evil as the mystery of the vampire murders comes closer and closer to fulfilling the curse.
Has Gideon found love with Charity only to lose her to dark forces? Who are the armed thugs that have attacked the siblings? Can Kathy Synn keep her brother out of trouble long enough to solve the mystery of the Bloodstone Confidential?
Reviewers established with websites, print media, or other formats may request a review copy of this volume. Also, reviewers who consistently post reviews on their own personal sites may also request a copy. To get your review copy of THE FIRST SYNN: THE BLOODSTONE CONFIDENTIAL, email Pro Se’s Director of Corporate Operations Morgan Minor at MorganMinorProSe@yahoo.com.
For more information on Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com
Pro Se Productions, a leader in New Pulp and Genre Fiction, announces digital advanced reader copies of an upcoming title are now available for Reviewers!
Pro Se Productions gladly commits THE FIRST SYNN: THE BLOODSTONE CONFIDENTIAL, the first of a new series of supernatural pulp thrillers by noted award winning author Teel James Glenn. Complete with chills and thrills harkening back to the classic Pulps, THE FIRST SYNN introduces the first sibling duo in Pulp history, ready to take on whatever horror flies their way! From Teel James Glenn and Pro Se Productions- THE FIRST SYNN: THE BLOODSTONE CONFIDENTIAL!
About the Book:
The Bloody Curse of the Vampire!
Years ago Gideon Synn tried to save Faith Bloodstone from a deadly family curse in upstate New York. He failed and Faith died at the hands of a mysterious blood drinking fiend. Synn ran from his failure and became a world traveler, joining the French Foreign Legion and eventually becoming a mercenary in China.
Now, years later he has opened a security firm with his sister Kathy. Charity Bloodstone, Faith’s younger sister, comes to him for help against the same curse—the supposed vampire ghost of her ancestor, Justice Bloodstone! According to legend, Charity has only one week to live!
Several people have been killed by what appears to be the undead Justice in ways that suggest a supernatural cause. The Synn siblings are drawn into a whirlwind of terror and evil as the mystery of the vampire murders comes closer and closer to fulfilling the curse.
Has Gideon found love with Charity only to lose her to dark forces? Who are the armed thugs that have attacked the siblings? Can Kathy Synn keep her brother out of trouble long enough to solve the mystery of the Bloodstone Confidential?
Reviewers established with websites, print media, or other formats may request a review copy of this volume. Also, reviewers who consistently post reviews on their own personal sites may also request a copy. To get your review copy of THE FIRST SYNN: THE BLOODSTONE CONFIDENTIAL, email Pro Se’s Director of Corporate Operations Morgan Minor at MorganMinorProSe@yahoo.com.
For more information on Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com
In the 1960s, super-heroics were such the rage that ever era seemed to inspire a masked champion for Saturday morning fare. We had the Mighty Mightor who could been seen as an ancestor to his comedic counterpart, Captain Caveman, which also reflects the shift from dramatic fun to slapstick comedy (also showing how parents boxed in the animators).
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels was created for Hanna-Barbera, shortly before they split to form their own outfit. It ran from 1977 through 1980 in ABC and the complete 40 episode series is now available on a three-disc set from Warner Archive. The series started off sandwiched as a part of Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby’s All-Stars before gaining their own thirty minute slot. Brenda, Dee Dee and Taffy, the erstwhile angels, found a caveman frozen in a block of ice and thawed him back to life. Now, Cavey and the girls went around solving mysteries and getting in and out of trouble. Nothing new here except you’re mixing in the detectives from Scooby-Doo with super-heroics, all played for comedy. While a trinity is a common element in such shows, the girls and name in particular owe a lot to Charlie’s Angels, which had taken the nation by storm not long before.
Much as Mightor shouted his name to invoke his powers, so too does the Neanderthal crimefighter. In addition to the standard-issue powers, his ancient fur clothing contains an unending amount of gadgets for convenient use. Not only does the show feel familiar it sounds familiar with the hero voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc and narration from Gary Owens. The girls were voiced by the lesser known Marilyn Scheffler, Laura Page and Vernee Watson.
As was far too common at the time, the mysteries were never terribly challenging and the characters were allowed one personality trait each as if they were being rationed because of a budget shortfall. The antics are not terribly inspiring such as Cavey’s flying powers proving erratic only when he truly needed them. And while he eventually revealed to the audience his crush on Taffy, not that she ever knew it. He’s also saddled with stereotypical caveman speak which can prove grating after a few minutes.
Mildly entertaining, it’s disposable and forgettable stuff.
The Hanna-Barbera machine was showing its age by the 1970s. After producing countless hours of programming for the three networks’ Saturday morning schedules, it was clear that the creative juices were drying up. They were also struggling to come with creative variations on the talking animals theme, especially as the hand-wringing parents were getting increasingly vocal about violence depicted on programming intended for impressionable children.
All of which may well explain the not-terribly-original Help…It’s the Hair Bear Bunch series that ran on CBS from 1971-1974 and has been only sporadically seen since. Still, that has not stopped Warner Archive from collecting the complete series and releasing it in a three-disc set.
All the veteran animators, writers, and voice artists gave us a professionally looking and sounding series. It just wasn’t very original or funny or topical. The closest we get is Hair Bear, with his afro, at a time when afros were all the rage. The bears — Hair Bear, Bubi Bear, and Square Bear — operated out of a then- modern looking den with real beds, plus there was a laboratory, television, refrigerator, and even a pizza maker. Like Hogan’s Heroes, the comfortable surroundings were easily transformed back into their prison surroundings. Oddest of all, they used an invisible motorcycle,
The overall premise to the series was that the Bears were trying to escape the Wonderland Zoo or have some sort of adventure. Opposing their plans, of course, is the zoo’s director, Mr. Eustace P. Peevly. In between are the usual assortment of oddballs and comic relief including Bananas the Gorilla, Furface the Lion, Bumbo the Elephant, Slicks the Fox, Hippy the Hippopotamus, Hercules the Hippopotamus, George the Giraffe, Beaks the Pelican, Tiptoes the Ostrich, Gabby the Parrot, Melvyn the Monkey, Hoppy the Kangaroo, Zeed the Zebra, Ollie the Octopus, Einstein the Owl, Arnie and Gloria the Gorillas, Specs the Mole, and Pipsqueak the Mouse.
Typical antics can be seen in the very first show, “Keep Your Keeper” as Hair Bear convinces Peevly he has Zoolerium, thinking he would finally get free until the strict replacement zoo keeper shows up to spoil the fun.
The vocal cast is stellar featuring Hall of Famers Paul Winchell, Daws Butler, John Stephenson, Don Messick, and Janet Waldo in concurrent roles.
There are sixteen episodes for those who want the complete H-B library but there is little fresh enough to recommend this.
After the well-done but under-appreciated take DC Comics did on the classic heroes from Tower Comics, I was pleased, but rather surprised that a new company had secured the rights to them so quickly. Even more pleased that it was IDW, who’s been tearing up the landscape with both exemplary and licensed titles.
The new title does the one thing I suspected they’d have to do – they started over. It takes place in a new history, where NoMan and Lightning are in action, but no other members. There’s experimentation going on in the background of issue 1 for the technology for the Undersea Agent, and dozens of candidates have tried and failed to wear the Thunderbelt. Kate “Kitten” Kane is in charge of T.H.U.N.D.E.R., and while Guy Gilbert’s name is mentioned, it’s not explicitly said that he’s using the Lightning metabolism accelerator suit. And yes, T.H.U.N.D.E.R-fen, Weed is back, although apparently in a desktop capacity.
While I mourn the loss of all those classic stories, Phil Hester has a strong grasp of the characters and sets things up well for new readers, without resorting to excessive narrative to fill in the history. Andrea DiVito’s art is clean, with sparse backgrounds, and perhaps a bit too heavy a line in the inking.
The advantage of not being tied to years of past continuity is it makes it easier for new readers to jump on board, and the first issue hits the ground running, in the middle of an adventure. You get the impression that there’s a history to the organization, but not one you need to know all about to enjoy. The majority of the issue deals with the scouting and recruitment of Len Brown, now a nearly-was goon for the NHL, now semi-drifter who picks up odd jobs, including the occasional leg-breaking deal for loan sharks. His capacity for tolerating pain is off the charts, which makes him a perfect candidate for Professor Jennings’ Thunderbelt – in this incarnation, the belt causes intense pain to wearer during its use, hence the long line of guinea pigs with massive nerve damage. He’s hastily sent in to combat the Iron Maiden, who has taken over a secret T.H.U.N.D.E.R base in the middle east. The Iron Maiden appears to be working for the Subterraneans, and the next issue looks like it will parallel Rusty and Dynamo’s first battle.
Comic book movie super-producer Michael Uslan (and comic book writer) once again makes the credit box, with the mysterious byline “T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents Project initiated By”, the exact credit he received in the DC run. In a past interview, he made it clear that he’s as big a fan of the Agents as…well, me, and as part of the undisclosed deal he’s made concerning the characters, he has the movie rights. So far he’s gotten two very good teams to bring the heroes to a new audience – I’m hoping this one all the success I wished the last one, and more.
When I read The Great Gatsby in AP English back in 1975, I knew it was considered a literary classic but didn’t fall in love with it, despite East Egg’s source material, Great Neck, was nearby. It was a world of the wealthy and decadent that didn’t make sense to me. More recently, though, I reread it for the first time in preparation for my teaching career. With some experience, age, and wisdom, I came to see F. Scott Fitzgerald’s prose in a new light. I certainly got to appreciate that this was a fresh take class, wealth, and The American Dream.
So, when I heard director Baz Luhrmann was going to bring his visual sensibilities to bringing the novel to the silver screen, I thought this could be a wonderful treat, matching the imaginativeness of his Romeo & Juliet and verve from Moulin Rouge. The casting — from Tobey Maguire’s Nick to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Gatsby – sounded spot on, mixing big names with less familiar ones. That it would be shot in 3-D sounded daring but if anyone could turn a novel into a spectacle, it was Luhrmann.
The resulting film, released last May and out this week on home video, proved interesting but ultimately disappointing. It could be, I and others, expected too much from the director or he just didn’t see the world of Jay Gatsby the way we did. It received mixed reviews and tepid box office for what should have been a box office smash.
Part of the problem could be that he amped things up too much. In what could have been an interesting indictment of the 1920’s one percenters, he chose instead to make things so lavish, so big, so indulgent that it staggered the imagination. Compare the party scenes he shot with the ones glimpsed in the trailer for the 1926 silent adaptation, just a few years after the book’s initial publication. Luhrmann made everything so out of scale, perhaps because of the intended 3-D wow factor, that it felt less like a story and more like a fairy tale (or cautionary tale).
Nick Caraway (Maguire) is the audience’s representative as he slowly gets sucked into the world of the ultra-rich, ultra-secretive Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio). More stories exist about him than actual facts but over the course of the story, we learn that he went from rags to riches through nefarious means and intends to reclaim Daisy (Carey Mulligan) who is clearly in a loveless marriage with the rough and tumble Tom (Joel Edgerton). There are parties, fights, flirtations, fast cars, loose women, and gallons of champagne until things suddenly come to a stop with a finality that signaled the end of the Roaring Twenties.
Of course, the novel’s entire story had to be condensed and even the final cut got further trimmed as Luhrmann honed in tighter and tighter on the relationship between Nick and Jay. There are 27 minutes of deleted scenes with the director explaining how delightful they were but needed to go to remain on topic.
The movie looks right with an amazing eye for detail from dresses to jewelry to wallpaper. As usual, the soundtrack is a living thing, a mixture of period era jazz and modern rap, pulsing to a beat that defined a generation. The performances are solid but not revelatory although credit goes to Isla Fisher and Elizabeth Debicki for breathing some life into their supporting roles as, respectively, Myrtle and Jordan.
The movie is available in a variety of formats but the combo pack with Blu-ray, DVD, and Ultraviolet is the one most likely to be purchased and the one reviewed. The bonus features are of course on the high definition disc. The transfer is stunning in its color and clarity, living up to the expectations where Luhrmann rarely disappoints. Similarly, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track properly conveys the aural feel of the era and the music subtly plays away, creating a nice sense of place.
There are a series of short bonus features, mostly Luhrmann talking with plenty of clips from the film and source material. There’s an overview, The Greatness of Gatsby (9:14), then some behind-the-scenes footage called Within and Without with Tobey Maguire (8:41). A highlight is a look at The Swinging Sounds of Gatsby (12:17) as the director, composer Craig Armstrong, Jay-Z, Florence Welch (of Florence & the Machine), Lana Del Rey, Bryan Ferry and The XX discuss how the soundtrack came together. A fine companion piece is The Jazz Age” (15:43), lifting liberally from Ric Burns’ New York documentary.
Razzle Dazzle: The Fashion of the ‘20s (16:22) has Luhrmann’s wife, and the film’s Costume Designer Catherine Martin reveal how they worked closely with Brooks Brothers, Tiffany & Co. and Prada to revive the look, largely thanks to archival designs and pieces in the various archives.
The author gets his due in Fitzgerald’s Visual Poetry (6:55) which also touches on the 3-D process. Then we have four more short behind-the-scenes looks under the umbrella title Gatsby Revealed.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t “review” a TV miniseries or movie until it was completed. You should know the story before you comment on it. I know this is heresy these days but I feel you should know something about a topic before you drop an opinion bomb on it. I have no use for those who have decided they don’t like something without having bothered to experience it. That’s lazy and presumptive. I fully admit some things I have not sampled based on what I know of it, but I don’t render an verdict on it. If I hate something it’s because I tried it – like broccoli. Yuck. Broccoli.
However, I’m currently watching the BBC miniseries Broadchurch on BBC America. I’ve just seen the third episode of the eight part series and I think it’s incredible. I want to tell people about it. The series is set in a small coastal English town and follows the investigation into the murder of a ten-year old boy and the effects the murder and the investigation has on everyone – including the ones investigating.
The series was created, written, and executive produced by Chris Chibnall. ComicMix readers might know of his work on Doctor Who and Torchwood, among other things. Other Who influences include David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) as the lead inspector and Arthur Darvill (Rory) as the local pastor. I’ll be honest, it was Tennant that first drew me to Broadchurch; I’ve been interested in seeing what else he could do as an actor although, being honest again, I was not crazy about his performance in another BBC miniseries, Spies of Warsaw. His performance there, to my mind, was very one note.
Not so here. This time, he plays Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, a haunted depressed man with secrets of his own; there are levels in his performance that show his talent and skill.
He is matched by Olivia Colman as Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller. (That’s another Who connection; in Matt Smith’s first outing as the Doctor, Ms. Colman plays “Mother” – one of the identities that the villain of the piece assumes.) DS Miller comes back from vacation expecting to be promoted to DI, only to find DI Hardy – an outsider – has gotten the job. And the best friend of her own son has been murdered.
For me, the biggest star is the writing. Everyone has secrets in this small town and they are gradually peeled back, revealing deeper and deeper levels of characterization. Grief is real and palpable. The mystery so far deepens with each episode and, at this writing, I have no idea who killed the boy or why.
There is a slight Twin Peaks vibe to the show – it’s deliberately paced and it has a slight undertone of supernatural in the person of a very odd man who claims he is getting messages from the dead boy. He seems sincere but – is he? Unlike Twin Peaks, however, I have the sense that the creator, Chris Chibnail, knows exactly where he’s going and how to wind it up. I trust him; OTOH, I also trusted the creators of The X-Files at the beginning. I thought they knew what they were doing; they fooled me.
The show isn’t simply about the murder, although that’s the engine that drives everything. It’s about secrets and that’s one of the most powerful narrative tools I know. Everyone has secrets and what gets revealed to whom, when, and how and is that a good idea really drives narrative and character. The revelation of secrets may answer some questions but may raise more.
It’s not only the secrets the characters reveal to one another, but the secrets that we learn as viewers, when do we learn them, what does that tell us. There’s more going on here than we initially know and it is only gradually unfolded to us.
The production values and the direction are all first rate. The acting is wonderful throughout. The show may not be to everyone’s taste – some might find it slow – and it demands that you pay attention but I’m riveted.
If you’re interested in the first three episodes (and I would not recommend you watch the show without seeing them), you can find them on BBC America On Demand, Amazon Instant Video and probably elsewhere. I’m certain it’ll also eventually be available on DVD and Blu-ray and such. I plan to own it when it does. It’s gotten excellent reviews both in the UK and the States. A second series of the show is reportedly in development and I’ve heard there are plans for an American adaptation.
For me, this is first class television and I can’t wait for the next episode. It’s not broccoli.
STEIN AND CANDLE Vol III
By Michael Panush
Curiosity Quills Press
232 pages
From the talented imagination of writer Michael Panush comes this third volume in the adventures of Mort Candle, a grizzled ex-Sergeant and his ward, the teenage occult expert Weatherby Stein. Panush continues to chronicle their post World War II exploits as paranormal investigators and within these pages you’ll find the duo’s newest exploits as they travel the globe encountering all manner of supernatural monsters. There are a total of six cases set forth here and each is a well presented pulp actioner, all worthy of the 1930s classics.
The book kicks off with our guys in Japan in “Trouble in Tokyo.” They are hired by a police detective discover who it is attacking rival Yakuza clans and in the process fomenting a gangland war that could severely hamper the city’s reconstruction efforts. Soon Candle and Stein aren’t only dealing with sword wielding crooks but a secret ninja clan controlling ancient Japanese creatures of mythology to wipe out their foes. This one is exotic wall to wall action without let up from beginning to end.
The X-Files meets Happy Days in “Teenage Wasteland” when Weatherby goes undercover in a suburban high school to investigate teenagers meddling with the occult. Along the way he encounters ethnic prejudices, an athletic bully and a Sandra Dee like blonde beauty that turns his head and melts his heart. Easily one of the weirder but most enjoyable stories in this series yet.
Then there is “Lounge Lizard” wherein our heroes head for Lake Tahoe to find a missing crooner who has run off with the his boss’ cash. This leads them into a deadly parallel world of dinosaurs and their lizard-men riders. Exactly the mishmash Panush excels at. Whereas in “Drac’s Back,” Castle, short on funds, accepts an assignment from a group of American vampires to help them travel to Transylvania and resurrect the greatest bloodsucker of them all, Count Dracula. Stein is opposed to the idea and has good reason to be. It doesn’t turn out well.
The fifth tale, “Stein Family Reunion,” has Mort and Weatherby in San Francisco encountering Adam, a monstrous individual created from parts of dead bodies by an earlier member of the Stein clan. Thus do our heroes come to the aid of one of the most iconic monsters in English fiction. After introducing Dracula to the series, we just knew “the monster” couldn’t be far behind.
The book wraps up with “Big City Showdown,” parts one and two and is the longest single Stein and Candle adventure yet. And it deserves that extra space as it has a sense of climatic finality to it. Dracula and the Stein’s twisted wizard ancestor, the Viscount Wagner Stein, team up in New York with an audacious plan to conquer America. The challenges these two powerful entities posed singularly proved to be difficult to our heroes in past encounters. Now combined, they are virtually unbeatable; unless that is, our two occult detectives can assemble their own team to battle them. And this is exactly what transpires until almost every major supporting character in the series reappears for this one cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil.
There is a definitive air of closure by the story’s end that had this reader both pleased and sad. If this is the end of the Stein and Candle Detective Agency, then they go out on a grand note that we applaud. But we truly hope this isn’t the last chapter in one of New Pulp’s most imaginative series ever created. Please, Michael Panush, we want more!
STEIN AND CANDLE Vol III By Michael Panush Curiosity Quills Press 232 pages
From the talented imagination of writer Michael Panush comes this third volume in the adventures of Mort Candle, a grizzled ex-Sergeant and his ward, the teenage occult expert Weatherby Stein. Panush continues to chronicle their post World War II exploits as paranormal investigators and within these pages you’ll find the duo’s newest exploits as they travel the globe encountering all manner of supernatural monsters. There are a total of six cases set forth here and each is a well presented pulp actioner, all worthy of the 1930s classics.
The book kicks off with our guys in Japan in “Trouble in Tokyo.” They are hired by a police detective discover who it is attacking rival Yakuza clans and in the process fomenting a gangland war that could severely hamper the city’s reconstruction efforts. Soon Candle and Stein aren’t only dealing with sword wielding crooks but a secret ninja clan controlling ancient Japanese creatures of mythology to wipe out their foes. This one is exotic wall to wall action without let up from beginning to end.
The X-Files meets Happy Days in “Teenage Wasteland” when Weatherby goes undercover in a suburban high school to investigate teenagers meddling with the occult. Along the way he encounters ethnic prejudices, an athletic bully and a Sandra Dee like blonde beauty that turns his head and melts his heart. Easily one of the weirder but most enjoyable stories in this series yet.
Then there is “Lounge Lizard” wherein our heroes head for Lake Tahoe to find a missing crooner who has run off with the his boss’ cash. This leads them into a deadly parallel world of dinosaurs and their lizard-men riders. Exactly the mishmash Panush excels at. Whereas in “Drac’s Back,” Castle, short on funds, accepts an assignment from a group of American vampires to help them travel to Transylvania and resurrect the greatest bloodsucker of them all, Count Dracula. Stein is opposed to the idea and has good reason to be. It doesn’t turn out well.
The fifth tale, “Stein Family Reunion,” has Mort and Weatherby in San Francisco encountering Adam, a monstrous individual created from parts of dead bodies by an earlier member of the Stein clan. Thus do our heroes come to the aid of one of the most iconic monsters in English fiction. After introducing Dracula to the series, we just knew “the monster” couldn’t be far behind.
The book wraps up with “Big City Showdown,” parts one and two and is the longest single Stein and Candle adventure yet. And it deserves that extra space as it has a sense of climatic finality to it. Dracula and the Stein’s twisted wizard ancestor, the Viscount Wagner Stein, team up in New York with an audacious plan to conquer America. The challenges these two powerful entities posed singularly proved to be difficult to our heroes in past encounters. Now combined, they are virtually unbeatable; unless that is, our two occult detectives can assemble their own team to battle them. And this is exactly what transpires until almost every major supporting character in the series reappears for this one cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil.
There is a definitive air of closure by the story’s end that had this reader both pleased and sad. If this is the end of the Stein and Candle Detective Agency, then they go out on a grand note that we applaud. But we truly hope this isn’t the last chapter in one of New Pulp’s most imaginative series ever created. Please, Michael Panush, we want more!
Continuing its tradition of action packed two fisted books featuring the best in New Pulp and Genre Fiction, Pro Se Productions announces the first in a Crime/Noir Series from Author J. Walt Layne! A WEEK IN HELL will hit the hard bitten streets on August 15th and Pro Se wants established reviewers interested in an advance digital copy to get there first!
Welcome to Champion City. A megatropolis it isn’t. But you couldn’t arrive at that conclusion by looking at the police blotter. Most everyone in the city would tell you that a day in Champion is like… A WEEK IN HELL!
Pro Se Productions continues its tradition of providing the best in New Pulp and Genre Fiction with its latest release- A WEEK IN HELL, the First volume in the Champion City digest novel series by author J. Walt Layne!
It all starts with a girl and a bag of cash. Candi was the kind of gal who could give a guy indigestion. She was poison, with looks to kill, a reluctant moll looking for a way out. Thurman was a young flatfoot, not necessarily the knight in shining armor. He went to shake out a brawl and nearly fed her his gun, was it any wonder he got a date? They spend an evening on the run, but where does it lead? Just when it looks like its over, BOOM! Is it a dead girl, a bag of somebody else’s dough, or both?
“Writing A Week In Hell,” says Layne, “was a chance for me as a writer to try and give something back to the pulp novels and magazines of yesteryear that I enjoyed reading as a kid when no one was looking. Something about the honest, yet ornery sound of the language. The not so innocent victims, the uncompromising men. The story bigger than the hero can handle, yet coming out on top against all odds. Forty Miles of bad road for the big payoff or the big sleep.”
Written in the style of slang ridden, bullet riddled classic crime Pulp and mystery fiction, Layne’s A WEEK IN HELL drops the reader square into all the corruption and corrosion of human spirit that is Champion City. Dames, gats, gumshoes, and brass cupcakes die, shoot, run and glitter from every page. Edited by David White and David Brzeski, this book features a beautiful cover by Terry Pavlet with design, logo, and print formatting by Sean Ali and Ebook formatting by Russ Anderson. A WEEK IN HELL by J. Walt Layne courtesy of Pro Se Productions!
If you are an established reviewer of books either through a site or other venue or you have established yourself as a reviewer with a site of your own, contact Morgan Minor, Director of Corporate Operations at MorganMinorProSe@yahoo.com to request a digital copy for review. Also anyone interested in interviews with the author or other information concerning the book or Pro Se Productions may contact Morgan at the above address as well as going to the Pro Se website- www.prose-press.com
