Hang Me In Hong Kong

Rick Shaw #1: “Hang Me In Hong Kong” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). Private-eye, Rick Shaw, Asia’s answer to a combination of James Bond and Mike Hammer, that is, if these two gentlemen also knew kung fu. Rick is Oxford educated, and his actual name is Richard Shaw II (I’m not sure where the II comes from, his father’s name was James). He is the scion of a wealthy family, and provided he behaves himself, his mama gives him a cool million every birthday. Rick doesn’t need the money from his private eyeing, he does it as a hobby, and only if there’s a woman involved in the case. A young man of basic non-violence, Rick solves his cases as he delivers death and destruction with Oriental finesse and smooth action.

         Richard Shaw is the offspring of an English father, James Muir Shaw of Scotland Yard (now dead) and a Chinese mother, Li Kung-yah, daughter of merchant and opium distributor, who is autocratic and filthy rich. Richard quickly becomes Rick Shaw (a play on rickshaw) – playboy, lover, man-about-town and collector of erotica and beautiful women.

         The case begins when a nightclub stripper, Rococo Baroque, comes to his apartment for help, and then drugs him before he can seduce her. Police Superintendent, Claude Bawls shows up to warn Rick to stay off the case, but we know he won’t. In the meantime, billionaire mother is trying to find a girl to settle Rick down – in marriage. Mama knows best.

         At one point Rick Shaw mentions a previous case, “Dash Me In Bangla”, but this is the only novel in the series ever published. I’m sure the author planned others, however. The plot is evasive. The first half of the book is dedicated to Shaw’s extensive sexual escapades, which he finds colorful metaphors to describe, like baseball games, etc.

         The plot is a merry-go-round that doesn’t make any sense until the end. Rick Shaw comes across as a sexual predator more than a detective of any note. Nor do we see any kung fu or martial arts of any sort until the final chapters. But it does work in the end, and everything comes together nicely. Unfortunately, this is no Burns Bannion, and no rousing karate fights with the bad guys, but given time I think Norman could have improved on the character.

         The plot was two-fold, a blackmailer and a Chinese communist rebel escaping from China. It was the mysterious goings-on that brought Rick into the case in the beginning, and his mother, the Moon Princess who brings the case to a close. But Rick winds up with the girl, and I won’t reveal which one, as even I had my doubts with this one. A fun read, only lacking in the martial arts from his previous series. Norman Thompson was a black belt in karate, and his “Kill Me In …” series was filled with fight scenes. “Hang Me In Hong Kong” was not.

Hang Me In Hong Kong

HANG ME IN HONG KONG by Earl Norman. This is a Rick Shaw novel, published in 1976 by JADE ORIENT. Earl Norman (Norman Thompson) wasn’t a polished writer, but his novels set in Japan and Hong Kong were lots of fun. Thompson, a karate black belt himself, wrote excellent fight scenes, with some nice plots. Berkley Books published six of his Burns Bannion novels in the US, then Norman self published five of them in Japan, plus three not released in the US, and sold them through the military bases PX and Stars & Stripes to US military personnel in the Orient. Nine novels in all, featuring Burns Bannion, then a final novel featuring Rick Shaw that is extremely rare. Does anyone have this book for sale, trade, or will photocopy it for me if they don’t want to sell it?

Kill Me In Roppongi & Kill Me In Atami For Trade

FOR TRADE

Kill Me In Roppongi & Kill Me In Atami

Fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Burns Bannion #9: “Kill Me In Roppongi” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). In this final novel of the “Kill Me In …” series, Hedges sends ex-Stars & Stripes newspaperman, Addis Racquets to him for help. Racquets now runs his own small paper, and has received a death threat along with an ad. He hires Bannion to answer the ad, and find out what’s going on. Although Inspector Izawa and Hedges are mentioned, they have no active part in this story. It involves the IOON (International Order of Nationalists) Nazi organization. They are running an illegal abortion scheme in Japan, bringing women from all over the world that need an abortion, then blackmailing them to work as their sex spies. Unfortunately, this was the final Burns Bannion novel. Not a great series, but definitely a fun one with sex and karate as the main theme. The series was published by Berkley in the U.S., but distribution in the Far East must have been poor, so Norman Thompson, who had contacts with the military and Stars & Stripes, had the series printed by a Japanese publisher under his ERLE BOOKS Logo. This enabled him to get his books on the racks in the PX system of military bases, where millions of G.I.s became familiar with them. I don’t know if Berkley was aware of this double-dealing or not. Sadly, the ERLE Editions seem to have been printed without editing or proofing, so there are many typos in them. If readers have a choice, buy the American editions published by Berkley instead. Actually, I’m not sure if Berkley even published the last two stories or not.  This one is only 49k, kind of short for a paperback. I have a pdf of this one for trade.

Burns Bannion #6: “Kill Me In Atami” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). This one could have been a Bud & Lou comedy film. Bannion is hired by a wealthy widow, Mrs. Hikonami. She wants a renter removed from her estate. Legal action would take years, but she wants Bannion to see that he leaves early, even if it means a karate chop to back of the neck. But there’s more to the case, as he soon finds out. The widow’s husband was murdered by a karate blow to the back of the head, forcing the head into a sharp instrument, but everybody says it was a suicide. En route to the estate, Bannion picks up a ‘wooley booger’ girl (read the book to find out) who loves sex, but someone hangs him and pins a suicide note on his chest. Arriving at the mansion, he finds the widow’s sister, Fujiwara, and Mrs. Hikonami’s daughter, Asako.  The three women are exact images of each other. Over the next three nights, the power goes off, and one of them enters his room to seduce him, but he never knows which one. Except that it isn’t the 300-pound maid, who also knows karate. There are hidden passages behind a bookcase, tunnels beneath the mansion, and monsters lurking about the tunnels and an abandoned sanitarium nearby. More supposed suicides happen, men hanging in the tunnel, and Bannion’s wooley booger girl inside the sanitarium. This is one of my favorites in the series. Thought Hedges is mentioned, he isn’t in this story. Inspector Ezawa introduces Bannion to Mrs. Hikonami, and then we don’t see him any more. Oddly, this is the only Burns Bannion novel not reprinted in the ERLE Edition in Japan. It’s only available in the American Berkley 1962 printing. I might add at this point that the Berkley editions were well edited, while the Japanese ERLE editions were not. This Berkley edition paperback is for trade.

Hang Me In Hong Kong

Here is the Jade Orient hardback edition of Earl Norman's Rick Shaw novel published in Hong Kong, "Hang Me In Hong Kong". I suppose Norman was tired of Burns Bannion, or just wanted to try a new series character. Rick Shaw was a neat play on words, by the way.

Kill Me In Roppongi

Burns Bannion #9: “Kill Me In Roppongi” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). In this final novel of the “Kill Me In …” series, Hedges sends ex-Stars & Stripes newspaperman, Addis Racquets to him for help. Racquets now runs his own small paper, and has received a death threat along with an ad. He hires Bannion to answer the ad, and find out what’s going on. Although Inspector Izawa and Hedges are mentioned, they have no active part in this story. It involves the IOON (International Order of Nationalists) Nazi organization. They are running an illegal abortion scheme in Japan, bringing women from all over the world that need an abortion, then blackmailing them to work as their sex spies. Unfortunately, this was the final Burns Bannion novel. Not a great series, but definitely a fun one with sex and karate as the main theme. The series was published by Berkley in the U.S., but distribution in the Far East must have been poor, so Norman Thompson, who had contacts with the military and Stars & Stripes, had the series printed by a Japanese publisher under his ERLE BOOKS Logo. This enabled him to get his books on the racks in the PX system of military bases, where millions of G.I.s became familiar with them. I don’t know if Berkley was aware of this double-dealing or not. Sadly, the ERLE Editions seem to have been printed without editing or proofing, so there are many typos in them. If readers have a choice, buy the American editions published by Berkley instead.

Kill Me In Yokosuka

Burns Bannion #8: “Kill Me In Yokosuka” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). This one is really far out. Hedges invites Bannion and Ezawa to a Geisha wingding, and it’s for the purpose of getting them involved in the current case. Something is going on that concerns the military installations around Tokyo. Bannion meets sexy Oyuki, a geisha dancer, and she stays with him throughout the case. The Chinese villain, Original Fu, who supposedly died in a previous story, is back, but he’s working for a mysterious person in the shadows. They plan on disrupting the Naval Base in Yokosuka, which will cause havoc within the 7^th Fleet. Not much in the karate fights this time, but Bannion bungles his way to the finish. There is plenty of action, however. Ezawa goes undercover, using a disguise. A pit of scorpions, a gorilla – Bannion does use karate on the beast. He also swings through the trees, and does a Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan yell. Far out (lol).  Lots of fun.