Forgotten Books: RED HORSE (Executioner 226) by Will Murray

I’m a big fan of Don Pendleton’s Executioner books (1-15 and 17-38) and Steve Mertz’s entries (43, 48, 52, 62, 64, 67, 73, 76, 92, 94 and the unnumbered opus Dirty War), which are very Pendletonesque, but beyond that I’ve sampled only a couple, which means there are more than 450 I haven’t read, and don’t expect to. But I’ve long been on the lookout for Red Horse (number 226), which I knew to be the one and only volume penned by our generation’s Kenneth Robeson, Mr. Will Murray. I was poking around in a Goodwill store the other day, and there it sat. It sits there no more.  

“I wrote it as a lark,” Will said in an interview in 1997, and a lark it is. The action takes place on his home turf—the Boston area—though in the downtrodden Roxbury neighborhood rather than Will’s own Quincy. Though there are enough Pendleton-flavored lines to assure you you’re reading an Executioner story, there’s no attempt to echo Pendleton’s style. The surprise was that I found no hint of Lester Dent’s style, either. This is a Will Murray I hadn’t met before. He’s grimly serious, and carries it well.

Still, I couldn’t help looking for Dent and Doc influence in the story, and believe I found some.

A series of seemingly pointless fire bombings attracts the attention of Mack Bolan, and when a Massachusetts state trooper is brutally murdered, he descends on Boston with a vengeance. Adopting the cover of a cab driver, Bolan roams the streets looking for trouble, and quickly finds it. The bad guys he encounters are all costumed alike, a common habit of henchmen in Doc Savage adventures. In this case, they wear black jump suits and matching ski masks. And in another Dent-like touch, they exhibit inexplicable behavior: they’re all furiously chewing something while performing their evil deeds.

Bolan shows us he’s still the Executioner with a couple of firefights, but when an apartment building catches fire, he shows us his Savage side. Instead of relentlessly pursuing the bombers, he takes time out to play hero, doing his best to rescue a woman and a boy from the burning building.

Later, thanks to his Stony Man crew, Bolan acquires a supercar that would have been right at home in Doc’s garage. It has heat-resistant ceramic armor like that on a NASA space shuttle. The plating also resists bullets, but is much lighter than steel. “It’ll take anything up to a tank round,” the mechanic says, “and ask for more.” It also has bulletproof glass, metal-studded flatproof tires, a NASCAR roll cage and an onboard computer, and can do zero to sixty in three point two seconds.

Knowing Will’s fondness for playing name games, I was watching for tributes around every corner. In that department, I didn’t do so hot. There’s a character named Spillane, which is pretty obvious, and one named Mcilwraith, which may be a hat tip to the Weird Tales editor of that name. I thought I’d spotted another in a reference to a Wentworth Institute, but it turns out there really is such a college in Boston (no doubt named by a Spider fan). Foley could be inspired by a dead Continental Op, Dion by he of the Belmonts, Hannibal by Lecter, and Weatherly by U.N.C.L.E., but all seem tenuous. Any of these names ring other bells?

Harry Foley

Aunt Ora

Carl Shaner

Mrs. Hawkins

Dion Hawkins

Bellups

Dowdle

Hannibal Youngblood

Kevin Reynolds

Ray Zankowski

Sam Morgan

Lark Younglood

Kirk Weatherly

Curt Upton Weatherly

Tony Bonfiglio

Forgotten Books: WAR AGAINST THE MAFIA by Don Pendleton

Reading this book again was like reuniting with a long-lost friend. I read all 37 of Don Pendleton’s Executioner books sometime in the ‘70s, and again in the ‘80s (he wrote books 1 thru 15 and 17-38, with number 16, Sicilian Slaughter, written by “Jim Peterson,” aka William Crawford).

When Gold Eagle took over the series with new authors in 1980, I read the first, judged it far below par, and gave it up. Only years later did I discover Steve Mertz had written a handful for the Gold Eagle line, and done Pendleton proud.

On this reading, I was struck once again by Mack Bolan’s strength of conviction. I can’t think of another character, fictional or not, who is so damn sure of his role in life. It isn’t cockiness, or even self-confidence. He’s always well aware his next mission could be his last. He just knows what needs doing, and if he doesn’t do it, no one will. So off he goes. No doubts, and damn sure no fear.

At this point, just beginning his long paperback career, Bolan is a little like Don Quixote. The Mafia is a mighty big windmill, and he has no expectation of winning this war. He’s simply determined to fight it, and keep on fighting it for as long as he can.

Pendleton’s prose here is good, tight and tough, but stylistically, Pendleton is just getting warmed up. By the time he really gets going - later in the series - he gives the “poetry of violence” ascribed to Raymond Chandler a whole new meaning.

At one point, in discussing Bolan, a couple of mobsters make reference to the Phantom and The Shadow. And whenever Bolan stages a hit, he leaves a calling card in the form of a marksman's medal, hugely reminiscent of The Spider. Makes me wonder: Was Pendleton a pulp fan?

Last time I read the series, I felt the first three books (this one, along with Death Squad and Battle Mask) formed a sort of trilogy, setting the stage for the series proper. Once those three housekeeping books were out of the way, Bolan was off on his rampage around the country, and that’s when Pendleton’s style really began to pop.

At this stage, had someone told Mack Bolan he’d need only thirty-eight books to cripple the mob and divert his attentions to terrorists instead, he’d have scoffed at the notion. And Don Pendleton, no doubt, would have been astounded to hear there would be well over six hundred Mack Bolan novels, plus the spin-off series Able Team, Phoenix Force and Stony Man. The series was officially cancelled last year, after 47 years of continuous publication, but I’ll be mighty surprised if it doesn’t charge back from the dead. Especially if we finally get a movie.

Over the years, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone and Vin Diesel have all been slated to play Bolan on screen, but all four projects fell through. In 2014, Warner Brothers got the rights, planning to star Bradley Cooper, but I’ve heard nothing about it since. Will it happen before I croak? Jeez, I hope so. 

First published by Pinnacle in 1969, War Against the Mafia has been given new life by Open Road Media. They have now reissued the first three volumes in trade paperback, and the all 37 Pendleton volumes as eBooks. I found those first three books recently at the public library. The Executioner in the library. Who'd a thunk it?

P.S. Last week, Ben Boulden posted a piece by Steve Mertz discussing Don Pendleton's pre-Bolan work - a series of sleaze books featuring private eye Stewart Mann, written as by "Stephan Gregory." Those books (minus the sleaze) need reprinting! That post is HERE, and is extremely worthy of your attention.