Reading the detectives

THE CONDUCTORS by Nicole Glover is a fantasy mystery set in Reconstruction Philadelphia, where Hetty and Benjy, two magic-wielding conductors from the Underground Railroad now use their skills as private investigators for the black community. When they find a friend dead with an ominous sigil on his chest, the couple have to figure out whether the death was an accident or murder — and if the latter, who did it and why?

The mystery is the weakest part: when I read the full confession I couldn’t even remember the incident that incited everything and I couldn’t figure out if the explanation made sense. There are also details that puzzle me: since magic using astrological sigils is African, why use the Greek constellations (the water-bearer, the ram, the big dipper, etc)? Though if it was simply for ease of recognition, I’d think that was an acceptable compromise.

I still liked the book. The leads are a good couple. The few antebellum scenes show the brutality of slavery: when a thoughtless overseer injures Hetty’s hands, her owner fires the guy for his carelessness with a valuable slave. Then she informs Hetty that if she can’t keep up her seamstress work with her hands burned, she’ll have to go out in the fields. Glover does a great job showing the complexity of post-Civil War black society, with class and money fracturing everyone. Overall well done.

MYSTERY MEN: The Golden Age by novelist David Liss and Patrick Zircher shows that not every novelist turned comics scribe turns out as badly as Brad Meltzer or Jodi Picoult. In the early 1930s, Dennis Piper is the Operative, a Robin Hood type whose war on the rich is in part a push-back against his powerful father, the General. Which may be why the General targets Dennis’ lover as human sacrifice in his plan for occult absolute power. Her death turns the Operative’s war colder, but he has help: the magic of the Revenant, the winged Aviatrix, the unkillable Achilles and the deranged Surgeon.

Liss says in the endnotes that the goal was to create pulp-era heroes who were more like the superheroes of a few years later. Overall, Liss and Zircher succeeded, though I do think the choice of names is generic — and why would a master burglar call himself “the Operative?” Still, this is worth reading.

I’m not so sure THE MASTER OF MYSTERIES by Gelett Burgess was worth the time. This collects Burgess’ stories of Astro the Seer, a consulting detective who gets attention and fat fees by claiming he doesn’t work through deduction but through psychic ability. In reality he’s he’s using Holmesian skills, stage magic tricks and his beautiful assistant ability to get people talking to pull off the work.

This idea works in small doses; if I’d been able to pace reading these out over a few weeks instead of rushing to get it back to the library, maybe I’d have liked it better. But not a lot better: like so many writers of that era, Burgess doesn’t have Doyle’s flair (which I discuss in some of my Holmes posts).

Dynamite’s first Doc Savage collection disappointed me, but DOC SAVAGE: The Ring of Fire by David Avallone and Dave Acosta did much better at capturing the pulp spirit. It’s 1938 and an impossible volcano has just wiped out an American naval base in the Pacific. Doc heads out that way but so does his cousin Pat, haunted by dreams suggesting her BFF Amelia Earhart is still alive long after her disappearance (their relationship is written to scream Gay as Hell!). Behind both quests lies John Sunlight; Avallone admits that’s a cliche (every comic but Marvel’s Bronze Age Doc Savage books has brought Sunlight back) but he still wanted to use him; he does a decent job though Sunlight is still too much Devil Genghis Sunlight and not the Fortress of Solitude take.

#SFWApro. Covers by Zircher (t) and James Bama (b), all rights remain with current holders.