Larry Kent 640: Naked Curse by Don Haring

Larry Kent 640
Naked Curse
by Don Haring

1966, Cleveland

Larry Kent started life as an Australian radio show I Hate Crime as a competitor to Carter Brown. Kent is hired to scare off a stalker, pay off a blackmailer, and find a missing son, only to find each client belongs to the same family.

Better than average plotting and better action scenes than most PI novels, with a decent body count. Despite the saucy covers this was less suggestive than a Carter Brown from previous decades, like it was a fade-to-black scene with a couple extra sentences removed on either side.

Available from Amazon https://amzn.to/3GpK5G0

Al Wheeler 5: Booty For a Babe by Carter Brown

Al Wheeler 5
Booty For a Babe
by Carter Brown
Horowitz, 1956

Al Wheeler solves a mystery at a science fiction convention at a hotel. An eccentric professor who believed aliens controlled the flow of time is killed during a panel, and Wheeler locks down the hotel, mostly so he can drink hit on dames.

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Strange Powers of the Mind by Warren Smith

Strange Powers of the Mind
by Warren Smith
1968 Ace Star

Anecdotal feel to a lot of these entries, with names changed, mostly of predictions. A few good entries.

There's the Copenhagen Hypnosis Murders, in which a man made a fellow prisoner a hypnotized slave and supposedly forced him to kill - they both ended up in jail for the murders.

There's the story of Mrs. Sarah A. Hand who believed if she removed her head, both her head and body would continue living. She attempted to decapitate herself, and failing that, laid across a railroad track. She left a note to make sure her head didn't get squished because then it wouldn't work. Her experiment was a failure.

There are several predictions - all of the clairvoyants' previous prophecies have come true, of course, so let's take a look at the future predictions. Some have no date references, so they could still be true in the future, and some are so vague ("important political figures will be replaced") I couldn't point to any and say if and when they came true.

• LBJ fails to be re-elected (got this one right, extra points that he didn't lose the election, he didn't run)
• President Nassar of Egypt assassinated in 1968 (1970, heart attack)
• Russia and China fight an all out nuclear war in 1970
• Religious war in India between Buddhists and Muslims at the end of the 20th century
• Eclipse in July and August, 1999 (got August right), in which a masculine female becomes ruler of Russia.
• An American will lead England by the turn of the century (Boris Johnson was 19 years too late).
• NYC and the Eastern Seaboard will be destroyed in the 1990s.
• Lemuria will rise in 1968.
• The Soviet Union will lose a war against 10 million Middle Eastern Muslims (closest was Afghanistan, in Asia with about 250k fighters)
• America wins the Vietnam War in 1967
• Armageddon by 2024, still time for this one

From Amazon

Rage on the Page in a Cage Round Three

 Piers Anthony gets distracted by some schoolgirls in the front row and gets schoolboyed by Carter Brown, who stays in the ring for team Private Eyes.

Outrider by Richard Harding

Outrider
by Richard Harding
1984, Pinnacle

A century or so after the nuclear apocalypse, survivors gradually made their way out of hiding, connected by scouts called Outriders. One such Outrider is our hero Bonner, who survives an assassination attempt by his former buddy turned despot Leather, and learns that his girl is being held captive.

Bonner makes his way to Chicago to New York to DC, seemingly recognizing everyone he meets and joins forces. He ends up with the pyromaniac, Cooker, two mute barbarian types call the Mean Brothers, biker gang the Sisters, among others.

Very juvenile in tone, except for the cussing and violence. Some creative characters, but the action scenes often felt rushed, with a multi-state chase finale crammed into what felt like the last handful of pages. Probably the closest in feel to the Mad Max movies I've come across. Even had Radleps, radiation poisoned suicide troops, which prefigure Fury Road.

The author mainly worked in novelizations, including four Beethoven (the dog) tie-in novels.

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Al Wheeler 4: No Harp for My Angel by Carter Brown

Al Wheeler 4
No Harp for My Angel
By Carter Brown (Alan Yates)

Horwitz, 1956

Al Wheeler is on vacation in Florida and stumbles into a mobbed up club owner who may be involved in the disappearance of society girls. A little more serious than other Carter Brown's I've read, but still lots of style.

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Jason Striker 1: Kiai! by Piers Anthony and Roberto Fuentes

Jason Striker 1
Kiai!
by Piers Anthony and Roberto Fuentes

Guy runs a karate studio. Looks like he enters a tournament, gets hit with the dim mak, and seeks spiritual treatment, but Anthony gets disqualified early on for typing one-handed as he gets vigorously horny over a seventeen year old.

I believe Fuentes provided the martial arts background, and the fights are meticulously detailed descriptions of individual moves which I 100% couldn't follow in my head.

Available from Amazon