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.

Kill Me In Yoshiwara

Burns Bannion #5: “Kill Me In Yoshiwara” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). When Mrs. Oaba responds to Bannion’s newspaper add for a private detective, he heads for the village of Katsu where he learns the lady wants him to find her older daughter, Kazuko, who is missing. However, stopping at a Japanese castle he thinks is abandoned, he finds the body of a girl murdered by a karate blow. He doesn’t tell Mrs. Oaba that he has already found her daughter. Now, trying to figure how to let the woman know Kazuko is dead, the local police find the body and suspect – Burns Bannion of the deed. Here we have another nice tale of karate action, and our hero barely survives in one piece, but in the end is left on the mat with the younger daughter, Hiroka.  My copy is the ERLE edition, published in Japan, and it is filled with typos. Hedges is still Johnny-on-the-spot, and we still don’t know exactly what he is, but probably CIA. Inspector Ezawa appears to be a little more lenient with P.I. Burns Bannion staying in Japan under false pretenses. 

Kill Me In Shinjuku

Burns Bannion #4: “Kill Me In Shinjuku” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson).  Bannion’s old newspaper (AKA CIA) buddy, Hedges sends him to help an Australian stripper playing the Shinjuku clubs. From Ginger Peaches, he hears a strange story about a street peddler and missing time (along with an important love letter). From the girl’s apartment, he’s sapped over the head and dropped from the top of a fence, and in a daze, hears a voice inform him that he will soon die. Next he visits his karate instructor and runs into Inspector Ezawa, who tells him a similar story about the wife of a diplomat meeting a strange street seller. There’s one cute chapter where Bannion enters a supposedly haunted abandoned Army firing range, then crawls through a small tunnel below ground in a death trap. The case actually stems from a previous story, and his killing of a gang lord in that adventure. This one has a nice twist at the end, however. Very good.

Kill Me In Yokohama

Burns Bannion #3: “Kill Me In Yokohama” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson).  Running out of money, Bannion is becoming desperate and places an ad in the paper, “Will Do Anything For Money.” He gets three letters, one from a kid wanting a dog (and Bannion thinks he just might find one for him), one from Inspector Ezawa, saying he is being watched. But the third is from Mariko Melson, a super Japanese model, who is half French, and a knock out. She feels her neighbor is turning her brother into a hoodlum bent on world domination or destruction, and wants Bannion to see that he is removed from Japan. Naturally, amateur private detective Burns Bannion jumps feet first into the case, and a whole lot of trouble! Another great karate action, and our hero barely comes out alive. Lots of fun.

Kill Me In Shimbashi

Burns Bannion #2: “Kill Me In Shimbashi” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). Inspector Ezawa comes down hard on Bannion, and demands that he becomes legal or ship back to the states. So now he has to enroll in the university as a student, plus get the proper cards and papers to remain in Japan. To solve his money problems, he has business cards printed, declaring him a private detective, only the cards read ‘pirate’ detective; never mind, a marine sergeant hires him to find the Peking Man. This gives him a job, with money coming in, and plenty of karate and danger. The author’s writing is tighter in this second novel, and is another action-packed case for the self-styled private detective as he makes the rounds of Japanese bars and lots of girls! Top notch.

Kill Me In Tokyo

Burns Bannion #1: “Kill Me In Tokyo” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson), 1958 from Berkley.  Burns Bannion had just been released from the U.S. Army in Japan, where he claimed he was entering college. Instead, he wanted to stay in Japan to study Karate. One night he’s in one of his favorite bars watching strippers when a drunk American approaches him, thinking he is a private eye. Bannion was actually wondering how he was going to make a living in Japan, and this sounded like his answer. The American hands him money, and asks that he find a missing girl for him named Mitsuko. Bannion figures there is 90 million people in Japan, and most of them are named Mitsuko, but needing the money he accepts. Bannion ends up neck deep in gangsters and karate killers. Though he is training with a 7^th degree black belt, Bannion hasn’t reached black belt level yet. Just about everyone he crosses is, but somehow the American comes out the winner. However, he is pretty well beat to a pulp before the story comes to a conclusion. One of my favorite scenes is after he takes some hard hits and kicks, but manages to get to one of his friends, the guy says, “Good Lord, it’s Frankenstein!” The story did have its moments, though it was a little loose at times, and some things were left open, which may appear in future stories. In 1958, this was one of the first really good karate series, and Thompson patterned it somewhat after the tough Mike Hammer. Well worth the read.