Slickers

Like the Eastwood movie, Coogan’s Bluff, about an Arizona lawman who comes to take a prisoner back to Arizona, or a more recent TV show where Dennis Weaver, McCloud, a sheriff from New Mexico comes to New York City, so with L. Ron Hubbard’s western story, Slickers.

The Slickers are the city slickers from NYC and Tex, a sheriff from Arizona (or “Arizony” as he puts it) comes to take his friend back home only to discover him dead, and a pickpocket who took all his money and possessions, and a man with a bowler hat who knows more than his saying.

Funny story as Hubbard’s sarcastic writing style criticizes the NYC police with their bumbling and worshiping protocol than actual police work. And Tex, who could not care less and goes out to find the murderer himself.

Recommended, even if you don’t like westerns.

Murder Afloat is the second tale, about a Fed detective investigating a smuggling ring operation from Havana to the USA. He’s on the SS Cubana, minding his own business when he receives a phone call from a mystery man. He knows it’s a trap but goes anyway, is ambushed, holds his own and is nearly killed for his efforts.

Through most of this mystery I’m trying to figure out who is the killer, what’s going on? It’s a complex tale and gets easily tied together at the end but man, what a read! You can’t put the book down!

A fire is burning on the Cabana. Why? Isn’t there a shipment of dope in the hold?

Great murder mystery with a twisty ending!

Recommended.

The third short that ends this book is called Killer Ape, about a newspaperman who really likes an orangutan named Joe; but Joe is accused of murder, and there is the body, turning blue in the snow! Fun story, cool ending as Bill Lacy solves this monkey business before the cops do. And before the cops shoot-to-kill order on Joe becomes a reality!

Final Comments:

This book has quite a mish mash of stories – a Western, a murder mystery and a reporter/cop story. Good stuff.
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In this book you get three and a pinch stories under one cover! The Slickers, Murder Afloat, Killer Ape and The Chee-Chalker. Written in the 1930s-40s in the hardboiled detective style, the action is fast and direct.

In The Slickers Tex Larimee, Sheriff of Cactus County, Arizony, comes to New York to escort an old friend back home. What Tex finds is his friend murdered and Tex the prime suspect. Fast action, old West know-how prove that New York slickers are no match for Tex.

Bob Clark, ace operative of the Narcotics Squad, U.S. Secret Service, is hot on the case of smuggled drugs aboard a luxury cruise ship. Things turn hotter when the ship is set afire and there has been sabotage to all the escape equipment. Why would the suspects want to go up in flames with their stash? It is up to the tough and quick thinking Clark to get help to the ship and find out who are the fiends who set things ablaze.

News reporter, Bill Lacy, always seems to report the human interest side of the story, even on the most gorey of murders. This time out he finds he winds up with a monkey on his back. Actually an orangutan named Joe. Someone has pinned a murder on the ape and Bill isn't buying it.

The pinch is a preview of The Chee-Chalker. Ketchikan, Alaska is where FBI Agent Bill Norton finds an heiress, a string of corpses and a missing G-man rolled into one mystery.

Good fun, pulp fiction style and quick reads. ( )

Won this through the early reviewers group. This is an entertaining throwback to the pulp fiction days of the 30's and 40's. I have won or read several of these L. Ron Hubbard collections and usually find them quite entertaining. This one for some reason didn't quite live up to the enjoyment of some previous volumes but it was still entertaining. If you crave action and adventure these are a good way to find it.
A word to the wise though. Skip all the "L. Ron Hubbard is the greatest writer that ever lived" crap in the back. ( )

Typical Hubbard. I didn't really care for this. I decided to read it because I'd heard it was better than his other stuff. I was disappointed. ( )

I own a lot of L. Ron Hubbard's reprinted editions of his pulp fiction work. I am a HUGE fan of pulp fiction and film noir and when I first saw these new editions, I knew I would be collecting them all. First, the front cover artwork is a tell-tale sign that you are stepping back in time to a world where anything can happen and where the unusual is...well, usual. The spine of the books have miniature versions of the front cover artwork, so even when you book them on a bookshelf, they still look great as a collection.

Now, on to the actual story. The Slickers is actually only 26 pages long--which is another reason I love pulp fiction. The authors jam so much adventure into so few pages that there is NEVER a dull moment and you feel as though you're in the adventure as you tear through the pages. The Slickers was okay-- not my favorite (which is Twenty Fathoms Down) but not awful. I live in the south and I hate having to read about slow-talking, know-it-all, rude southerners which is how the main character was cast. With that being said, I move on to the next story.

Murder Afloat is 41 pages long and is about "a top narcotics cop in the U.S. Secret Service who’s pursuit of a million-dollar score could land him in some hot—and deadly—water." This was my favorite story in this book, I wish it would have been the main focus instead of the much shorter "The Slickers." The pace is fast, the adventure is amazing (secret service searching for illegal drugs), and it was just an all-in-all good story.

And the final story Killer Ape is 26 pages. It was a mystery, suspense story about a possible Orangutan, Ape Killer named Joe.

My opinion: buy the book for Murder Afloat as it is the longest story in this book and is, in my own opinion, the best out of this book's collection. ( )