Dead Men Kill (Stories from the Golden Age)

This is painfully pulp-fiction, anchored irrevocably in its time. Between the melodramatic prose, flatly stereotypical characters, unconscious racism, and blinding misogyny, it's almost a parody to my ear.

All that aside, it is a well plotted action story. I did enjoy following the mystery, and the cleverness of the villain. I also enjoyed deconstructing the book's issues, occasionally making snarky comments. The narration suited the story well, capturing the melodrama without going over the top.

Perhaps the Scientologists are trying to raise money by selling reprints of L. Ron Hubbard's pulp fiction. With each copy of this free book is a postage paid reply card for the 80 titles of "Stories from the Golden Age" book club, www.goldenagestories.com, all of them by L. Ron Hubbard. Readers have to stoop pretty low to read this dreck, so badly written it's hilarious.

"Inspector Leonard rushed from his desk into the squad room and spotted Detective-Sergeant Terry Lane. 'Lane! Snap into it. Gordon's been murdered and I think it's a clue on your Burnham killing. The man on the switchboard heard Gordon shout "My God, Jackson, get away!" into the phone. Get out there right away!"'
"Detective- Sergeant Terrence Lane needed no further word. show more Like a shot, his wiry figure hurtled through the door, plunged down a flight of steps and swung aboard the scout car at the curb.
"'The Gordon residence!' shouted Lane to Monahan [who, alas, will later have his face blown off] at the wheel. 'And step on it!'
"The car roared up the street, Lane hanging to the running board, his blue eyes flashing, the wind tearing at his raven black hair. Monahan had given the wild figure a brief glance, decided that Terry Lane meant what he said, and the squad car ripped past a red light, lanced up a traffic-jammed avenue, screamed around a curve and then came to a stop before the imposing mansion which was the home of the late Ralph Gordon, a well-known wealthy sportsman.
"If Detective Lane was disheveled, he had good reason to be. For a week he had been on the trail of a killer he could never reasonably expect to apprehend. The papers were blatant in their denouncement of the police force in general and Terry Lane in particular." (pp. 4-5)

Action at the night spot, Club Haitian:
"Without stopping, Lane jumped over the footlights and raced in among the panic-stricken guests. Waiters clutched at him, tried to beat him down. Expertly [Hubbard is a great fan of adverbs.] he skirted the tables and made for the main entrance.
"A doorman in a welter of gold braid crouched and whipped out a revolver. Lane saw him and skipped to one side. The doorman's weapon belched smoke. The detective cracked down, shooting from the hip. His automatic snapped back into his palm. The doorman screamed and rolled to the floor, spitting blood.
"Glass was shattering about Lane. Bullets were whipping into potted palms. Splinters flew from the woodwork. The detective ran swiftly to the entrance, lanced [seems to be a favorite verb of Hubbard's] through the door, raced out into the street.
"A cab was cruising past at low speed and Lane leaped for it. 'The Morton residence, and step on it! [something Lane yells a lot]'
"The driver gave Lane a wild-eyed stare, and then stepped all the way down on the accelerator. Bullets were biting into the machine from the doorway of the Club Haitian." (pg. 55) show less

I won this book on Librarything early reviewers and it was okay. It's an audiobook with a full cast, which is always fun. However, it is a little dated. I guess if you like pulp detective fiction, which I have not read much of, you might like this. It just doesn't have much depth. I like a mystery with a bit more complexity. The characters are fairly two dimensional, and the ending is pretty easy to predict. For a quick listen, though, it was entertaining, and that's what pulp fiction is all about, so it gets 2 1/2 stars instead of two.

This had zombies! And not your modern day apocalypse type but good, old-fashioned voodoo zombies (which makes sense considering when the story was originally written). While I am not really a fan of the style of works from the so called Golden Age, I love the radio drama treatment that Galaxy Audio has given Hubbard's stories. This story was pretty good, too, as the mystery and suspense was very engaging as Detective Lane knew zombies were not real, yet there was no other logical explanation.

Before seeing this book (and other similar books) on the shelf, I had no idea that L. Ron Hubbard had written pulp fiction. I honestly only knew about him peripherally as the writer of Dianetics and founder of the Church of Scientology. Since I never really had any interest in either of those, I never bothered to learn more. So I was surprised to find that he had a number of pulp adventure stories like Dead Men Kill.

Based on the cover and the blurb, I was anticipating something akin to the action/detective thrillers of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler. The main story arc of Dead Men Kill follows a young police Detective, Terry Lane, as he tries to solve a series of murders. This story takes a turn for the supernatural in that the show more murders are being committed by dead men, as the title suggests. Detective Lane sees a fairly obvious pattern to the murders and can logically link them together. Each man killed was a wealthy and/or prominent citizen in the community who has received death threats demanding money. Someone close to the victim dies of a fever or illness of some sort and then shortly after that funeral, the corpse turns up at the wealthy associate's house and kills them.

The supernatural twist made the whole thing feel very "Scooby Doo" to me. The writing certainly isn't as gritty as Hammett's work so it could potentially be accessible by Scooby fans. There is violence in the terms of shootouts and car chases but no harsh descriptions. The writing is also fairly simple and doesn't feel as tight or as elegant as hard boiled detective thrillers. With the other books, even though there were sequences of intense action and adventure, the writing still had a flow and tone that made it feel solid. Hubbard's writing got the job done but it wasn't anything overly impressive. If anything, it was written very simply and straightforward which once again makes it accessible to the young Scooby crowd.

As the story went on I was impressed by the degree of tension, twists and turns integrated into the plot. Rather than a simple shoot-em-up adventure mystery there was a fair amount of good detective work to be done. There were some pretty good character interactions and tension between Detective Lane and his superiors as well as some of the suspects and informants. As the story goes on, Lane finds himself the object of threats and attempts on his life. While some of the situations felt a little laughable (very "Scooby Doo" style - capture or just threaten the hero rather than kill him), they did create some good tension and left me wondering just how Lane was going to escape from one predicament after another.

When the final solution to the mystery was revealed, I found it to be actually fairly satisfying. I really liked the way the supernatural elements were dealt with, especially considering this was written in the 1930s without our 21st century sophistication. *grin* Some of the accomplices and motives were a little thin, but this is pulp fiction after all. It's never meant to be high drama with amazingly realistic and fully-fleshed-out characters.

Overall this wasn't a "great" read but it was a "fun" read. I haven't decided yet whether I'll seek out any more Hubbard in the near future. More likely I'll probably turn to Hammett or Chandler. But this was a fun way to broaden my horizons and find a new author I otherwise never would have turned to.

***
3 out of 5 stars show less

Wow! You follow Detective Terry Lane atan action packed, fast moving pace as he works to solve the mystery of who is responsible for the serial killings of high profile citizens in the city. The description of the murderers is baffling. Voo Doo, zombies, poison, blazing guns and flying fists. All in the style of the 1930s era or pulp fiction.

At the end is also a bit of a glossary to translate the jargon of the era, but you don't really need it.

A great taste of the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction.

Pure pulp fiction. If that's what you like, you'll love this and the CD is well done with good voice actors.

Rich men are dying and Detective Lane is looking into the murders. There is a beautiful woman, a criminal mastermind and plenty of action. The twists and turns are fairly predictable but that didn't ruin the story for me. There is very much the feel of Old Time Radio in this recording.

Since it is very much of it's time, there is some small amount of racism and chauvinism in it. Most people that like pulp fiction are use to that but be aware if that bothers you.

If you are use to modern mysteries or thrillers, this will seem very dated. If you like Old Time Radio, then this will be right up your alley.

I received this from show more librarything's EarlyReviewers program and have given it an honest review. show less