Kill Me In Atami

I have a duplicate copy of Earl Norman's Kill Me In Atami. I'm looking for any of these in trade: Kill me On The Ginza, Kill Me In Yokohama, Kill Me In Yokosuka, or Kill Me in Roppongi. I'm looking for only the American Berkley editions, not the Erle editions. Trade offers should be emailed to fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Tokyo Intrigue

"Tokyo Intrigue" by William Bender, Jr. Major Mark Talbot, an Air Force pilot in the Korean War is grounded after a flight of North Korean planes shoot down his wing man. Talbot chases them across the border, destroying the flight before they reach their airfield, then strafes the airfield. After the war he's transferred to Germany, where he now works for the public information office (PIO). Here they must play the Cold War game with Russia, until strange orders send him back to the Far East. Now assigned to Japan as ISO where he's to investigate the death of a colonel under mysterious circumstances, as well as the strange disappearances of Air Force aircraft. Talbot's main job is to uncover the killer, and beat the Russians at their own game of propaganda. I had to laugh at what the author says, though: "As it happens, our Air Force doesn't work that way. We are officially dedicated to truth and accuracy." Meaning, we don't use propaganda in any form. Gee, we played the propaganda game with Hitler during WWII, so we were old hands at the game.

I wasn't able to find anything on the Internet about the author, but if we are to believe the Introduction by him, he was a captain in the Air Force in Tokyo, assigned to the information office when he wrote this book. I have no reason to doubt the claim. There is a lot of military jargon that rings true, and he writes of Tokyo from first hand experience, not from an encyclopedia. Yes, there are a few stretches of the truth, but basically everything is correct. I found several things very interesting in this 1956 novel. First, there are a lot of similarities between Talbot and the future "American Avenger" series. Whether or not the similarities are a coincidence, or the author of American Avenger read Tokyo Intrigue is a matter of conjecture. Second, the similarities to Earl Norman's (Norman Thompson) Burns Bannion series two years later I don't think can be questioned. Norman worked for DOD in Japan at that time, bringing entertainment to all the bases in the Far East. He would have known William Bender through this connection, and probably read his book. Bannion is a lot like Talbot, though there isn't as much karate in Tokyo Intrigue as Norman brings in his later stories. There is the police inspector who shadows both of our heroes, and the reporters who may have mysterious ways. Without a doubt this novel would have influenced the future "Kill Me In …" series by Earl Norman. This is a good read, and I'm curious why the author didn't write more books. Perhaps a career in the Air Force took precedence to a writing future.

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.

Kill Me On The Ginza

Burns Bannion #7: "Kill Me On The Ginza" by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). Hedges hired Bannion to find one of his "spooks" who has been investigating the smuggling of Koreans into Japan, but before he can even start, Inspector Ezawa shows up with the man's head. Now Hedges wants our fearless private investigator to find out who killed him. The case involves a strange cult of worshippers, and a rich foreigner involved in a photography studio for models and an S&M magazine. An elderly Japanese gentleman also hires him to discover the object the cult worship, and Bannion discovers the man has trained in ninjutsu (and may be a ninja). The usual broads and karate fights. Lots of fun.

Kill Me In Atami

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.