Throne of Satan

Mark Hood #7: “Throne of Satan” by James Dark (James E. MacDonnell). The story starts off as a case has come to a close. Mark Hood and Tommy Tremayne have stopped Borja, a scientists, from stockpiling nuclear bomb material on an island. Hood transfers the material to a waiting ship while Tremayne remains with Bprja on another boat. Borja escapes and captures Tommy, then a submarine appears and picks them up, and they are taken to a volcanic island called Dominica. Hood soon finds a planted clue and heads for the island with Murimoto, his Japanese karate trainer. They are captured and taken before the giant Dominat; a man standing at least seven feet tall, with the build and strength of Hercules, and the genius of Einstein. Dominat has created scientific gadgets and machines that make him a literal superman, plus he has a huge missile in the volcano aimed at America. It’s evident that he wants to take over the world. This was one of the best of the Mark Hood stories, and it was good to see Murimoto in action instead of Hood this time. Unfortunately, several of the Mark Hood stories have dealt with the same plot, just a variance of each.

Assignment Tokyo

Mark Hood: #4 “Assignment Tokyo” by James Dark (James E. MacDonnell) was a little slow, but a good story. There is one sex scene, but it isn’t descriptive and not as hardcore as most Aggressor novels. Odd, he enters the karate tournament in Tokyo as a cover, and his opponent is the Japanese champion, and they fight for two hours before Hood is beaten. But then throughout the book everyone he meets is tougher than him.

Mindanao Pearl

Mindanao Pearl By Alan Caillou. David Calib’s father sends him after a thief named Smith that stole from his San Francisco company. Reports put Smith somewhere in the Pacific islands around Mindanao. David is to locate Smith and turn him over to the police in Manila; a simple task, though David isn’t used to roughing it. A few years in the Army, but he was more accustomed to the finer things in life. Things are not as easy, as his father let on. Arriving in Mindanao, he’s mistaken for Smith’s cohort, a man after pearls Smith stole from the Ordue brother on a plantation on the island of Pangalau. The brothers capture and torture him, but their sister, Andree, helps him escape. They head for the volcanic island where Smith is thought to be hiding out, with the brothers in hot pursuit. Gaston Ordue is a giant of a man with incredible strength, and has beaten men to death before, and Andree is afraid he will kill David if she doesn’t help him. There was a lot of similarity in this story and stories by Dan Cushman, but where Cushman is strong on dialog, Caillou is strong on description. Regardless, the story is a fun read.

The Turncoat

The Turncoat by Hal G. Evarts. David Grant lives in Hong Kong, working for an Import company. He’s an American born and raised in China and speaks the language fluently. His parents died during the Typhus epidemic in 1948, and he returned to the US. He served in the Army during the Korean War as an interpreter, but was captured and tortured, until he finally went to their side (against his will), become an American turncoat, and spent a year in the stockade. America never forgave him, so he chose Hong Kong to live and work. But now his past is catching up to him. Someone in the Embassy has him fired from his job, and then offers him another one. Work for them (who they are is never really explained, but probably CIA); they want him to enter China and locate the Panchen Lama and who is hiding from the Reds, and bring him to Honk Kong. If he does this, they will reinstate him in his job, and give him back his honor. A pacifist, he doesn’t consider himself a spy or killer, and doesn’t understand why he has been chosen for the task. He is eventually forced to accept, and illegally enters China. He must cross the Himalayas with a guide, and locate the missing Lama believed to be hiding in a village controlled by a vicious Chinese colonel and his mistress, Sonya Rosov, a beautiful woman who is of Russian and Tibetan descent. At the end of the story he does become an operative for the agency(a curious note, there is a spy series later featuring a n agent named David Grant, but written by someone else). This was a well-written and exciting tale, of an unlikely hero he must face danger, and maybe even death to clear his name. A Good read.

Assignment Find Cherry

Curt Stone #5: “Assignment: Find Cherry” by Jack Seward. The Far East Investigations is hired by the Monday Club to find relatives of a Shogun whose ship was sunk with almost two tons of gold aboard. There was supposedly a map and another group, called the Pure Nation Society, whose members wish to return to the old ways, want the gold to finance their rise to power. Curt Stone locates a surviving relative in Hawaii, a beautiful nightclub dancer named Cherry, and buys the map from her. But someone may be a spy in the Monday Club, working with the Pure Nation Society, as the enemy knows his every step. This was another nice plot, but the author’s writing remains a bit awkward. Sentences in Japanese, then repeated in English, slowing down the pace; plus, he tells a lot of the action instead of showing it, which would make for better reading. This was the final story in the series, and I don’t know why it was discontinued. The covers were typical men’s action scenes, with sexy women, and Curt Stone shown with a gun that he seldom carried. I guess guns were illegal in Japan, even for a private detective. A fun read, however.