Edward S. Aarons (1916–1975)

Dated as this may be, I really enjoyed falling into it for a brief escape from reality. It's got all you'd expect from a piece of 1950s fiction focused around small-town corruption, gang activity, and a hero who's a small-town boy made good via business and military, fighting for his livelihood and the girl next door who he loves. Just from the description, you know it's dated... but it's also a nice escape. I'll certainly pick up more of Aarons' work to save for the right mood if I can come across it.… (more)

Point of Peril is an excellent example of mid-fifties pulp fiction. At around 120 pages, it is a fairly quick read. At the beginning of the book, it was a little confusing understanding who all the players are, but once the story gets rolling, that's no longer an issue.

Aarons throws a whole variety of pulp themes into this story, including the two brothers, one a criminal and one a law abiding guy, the femme fatale temptress who has every man beguiled, the corrupt small town run by one vindictive man, the down on their luck shotgun-wielding swamp girls, the pair of big city mobsters, the jailbreak, the man on the run claiming he's been framed, the theft of the payroll, and countless jealousies and betrayals.

Aaron's tends to focus more on actions and moving the plot along rather than juicy pulpy descriptions. He's a storyteller who focuses on plot. Very pleased with this find and looking forward to finding more of Aaron's' pulp work.… (more)

One of the things I hate about the Assignment series is Sam Durell's girlfriend, Deirdre. Her mission in life is to nag Sam to quit his job as a CIA agent so he can pay more attention to her. He is always worried about endangering her and proves it by endangering her multiple times. In this adventure, Deirdre has left Sam for good (again) because he refuses (again) to quit his job. In an amazingly fast rebound, she finds an astronaut and is almost immediately engaged to be married.
Another flaw in the series is how coincidence-driven the stories are. Many of the books are peopled by folks he's known in the past who become enmeshed in the world of international espionage. Old playmates from Louisiana, college roommates, army buddies-all come into play in various Assignment: capers. So it's no surprise when America's first man into space happens to be Deirdre's fiancé and definitely not a surprise when he crash lands behind the Iron Curtain. Not being able to help in any way, she immediately heads to Europe with one of Sam's fellow agents to "help" in the rescue attempt.
Naturally, Sam feels the need to ignore orders and head out to rescue the rescuers.
Meanwhile, in another amazing coincidence, the astronaut finds the woman of his dreams in the person of a peasant girl who helps hide him from Communist officials. People in this book fall in and out of love at the drop of a hat.
It's all a bit much and at the end of the story, you're asking yourself what the purpose of the whole exercise was. There are definitely better stories in this series, it's just that none of them involve Deirdre.… (more)