Jungle She by Dan Cushman. Frisco Dougherty is back. This time
the beautiful half-cast wife of a huge and powerful Dutchman named Van Hoog,
who has escaped from his plantation, wants Dougherty to enter his Borneo estate
and discover the secret of his fortune.
But things go awry, as usual, and Dougherty becomes a prisoner of Van
Hoog, and is betrayed by his Chinese connection, the Wash’eng. Cushman uses the
same formula in all his jungle adventures, just changing a few names, and
altering the plot. But his dialogue is some of the best I’ve ever read, and his
characters come to life. Although the immensely strong Hoog (this character
appears in every novel, just a different name) beats Dougherty several times in
the story, the final fight scene on a rope bridge high above a jungle river is
straight out of the Saturday Matinee serials. And in each novel, at some point,
some one will be reading a pulp, or a comic book, or a paperback mystery novel.
These jungle adventures by Cushman are a lot of fun.
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