Sueno & Bascom #3: “Buddha’s Money” by Martin Limon. While
working the Itaewon red light district in Seoul looking for black market
activity, CID agents Sergeants Sueno & Bascom are contacted by business
girl (prostitute) Sooki, who tells them a nun has been attacked. She leads them
to an alley where they hear a fight in progress and stop a black American
soldier from beating a Korean nun. The American escapes, and the boys take the
nun to the KNP police station, but locals think they are the ones that beat the
nun up. There is a big problem now with locals angry at all American soldiers.
While at the police station, a retired sergeant grabs them, and reports his
adopted Korean daughter has been kidnapped. This leads them to discover there
is more going on than meets the eye. The attack on the nun and the kidnapping
has something to do with Lady Ahn and an antique skull that once belonged to
the Dragon Throne of China, and her ancestors. The skull was used by Kublai
Khan as a drinking vessel, and has a map to the burial place where much of his
treasure was hidden. Buddhist monks are also after the skull. The writing is
smooth, the plot is good, and the characterization is topnotch. The author
knows Korea. It is fun reading about places that I once knew, and hearing
Korean words I once knew. My main problem with the series is the main
characters. They are supposed to be Army CID agents, but are nothing like the
many CID agents I knew in my twenty-year career in the military police. Sueno
& Bascom act more like private detectives than military investigators,
doing what they want when they want. They merely report to a 1st Sergeant,
basically when they want. In reality, the CID office consists of agents under
the command of a warrant officer. Jobs are assigned, and they work hand in hand
with their superiors and local police, when necessary, fellow agents, and the
MPs. Something that really turned me off in this story is the office Staff
Sergeant. Evidently he has the combination to the safe, but gets so drunk
someone gets the combination from him and breaks into the office and steals
something from the safe. The next day it was like, well, gee, these things
happen. No, they don’t! If that SSGT had a drinking problem he would not have
been the one in charge of the safe. As it was he would have lost a stripe over
such lack of responsibility, but nothing is even said to him about his
dereliction of duty. This is the Army, and the CID is better trained and
organized than any of these characters are in this series. I love the setting,
and the idea of CID agents as the main leads. I can even accept Sueno &
Bascom as Army goof-offs who get involved in mischief – but not as CID agents.
Another problem is the man in charge of the armory giving them unregistered
weapons and ammunition when they want them. That doesn’t happen in the MP or
CID weapons armory. All weapons and ammunitions are strictly accounted for. All
of this makes for a good story, and the setting is honest. If Sueno and Bascom
were anything but CID agents, it would have worked for me.
Earl Norman
The Earl Norman books are becoming extremely rare, and publishers don’t seem to be interested in reprinting the series. The only way some of us may ever have all the stories is for collectors to scan and type the stories into PDF to swap with other collectors. I have already completed PDFs of HANG ME IN HONG KONG and KILL ME IN ROPPONGI. I am working on KILL ME IN YOKOSUKA. If other collectors would do the same for some of the other books, we could eventually have PDFs of all ten books. Why not help? I can be contacted at fadingshadows40@gmail.com
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Friday, November 4, 2016
Enter The Dragon
ENTER THE DRAGON by Mike
Roote (Leonore Fleischer, according to Hawk’s Author’s For Book Collector’s,
1992 edition). A novelization of the popular action film starring Bruce Lee,
John Saxon, and Jim Kelly: Han is gathering martial artists for his tournament
on an island near Hong Kong. Roper (Saxon), Williams (Kelly), and Lee (Bruce
Lee) have received invitations. At the Shaolin Temple the Master has suggested
that Lee accept the invitation, as Han has dishonored the Shaolin temple. Then
Lee learns there is another reason he must attend; Han’s men were responsible for
his sister, Su Lin’s death three years ago. Braithwaite, head of F.A.D.E.
offers help if Lee discovers unlawful acts on the island. The problem is, there
is an army of martial artists under Han’s command, and one man may fail if
acting alone. There is a girl all ready on the island, placed there by
F.A.D.E., Mae Ling, but she has not been heard from. Lee must find her, and
maybe get assistance from Williams and Roper, if they are not recruited into
Han’s army. This novel followed the film fairly closely, but not totally. Many
of the fight scenes in the film were different from the book, as were many
other things. But it was a fun book, even if I knew the outcome from the movie
beforehand. I was curious about some of the names in the story. They almost tie
in with another series, THE GIRL FACTURY, featuring Su-Lin Kelly, but the
author of that series remains a mystery, as far as I know. The author’s name
(Robert Franklin Murphy) isn’t listed in Hawk’s 1992 edition. Roote and Murphy
were both writing during the same time frame. Just curious.
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