This is one of the books I bought at Kayo Books when I was in San Francisco. I bought it because I liked the title and the cover, and I should have known better than to read it. But I couldn't resist.
Jeff Bogar is a house name used by several of the residents of the Mushroom Jungle. In this case, it's being used by Leslie Barnard, according to this website.
Jeff Bogar is also the name of the detective in this novel, which is set in Florida. I don't know if Leslie Barnard was ever in Florida, and the setting is indeed a lot like Florida as imagined by someone in Britain. There are occasional Britishisms throughout the text, so I suppose the editors at Lion Books didn't really do much editing but instead just reprinted the British edition just as it appeared when it was called Dinah for Danger. I have to admit that I like the U.S. title better.
The story's nothing special. A private-eye's looking for a reporter who's disappeared while working on a big story. Bogar gets beaten up and dragged to the swamps. Or maybe he gets dragged to the swamps and beaten up. I forget the order. He vows revenge. He gets it. Dinah finally shows up, and there's a bit of a twist, but nothing surprising. I wish I could say the book was fun in its goofy way, but it wasn't. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but for now I'm pretty well convinced that it deserves to be forgotten. Except for the title and the cover, of course. Those are great.
Marvin H. Albert had great pseudonyms. Can you think of a better one than "Nick Quarry" for a writer of hardboiled p.i. novels in the Spillane vein? Okay, maybe you can, but "Nick Quarry" sure is a good one. (Later on, Albert used this for a couple of "In the Tradition of the Godfather" novels for Gold Medal, too.)
The p.i. in this case is Jake Barrow, and a killer is after the daughter of his old war buddy. The killer has just shot Jake's girlfriend in the stomach. He's also shot Jake's buddy, and he's going to kill more before he's done. Jake isn't happy, and he doles out a lot of punishment. He takes a lot, too.
One thing you can count on in nearly every Albert novel, no matter the pseudonym, is an extended chase scene, always well done, always detailed. In this one novel, Barrow is chased into the drain tunnels under New York City. After he gets in, no one's pursuing him, but he still has to find a way out. It takes him fourteen pages to do it. There's another chase at the end of the book, but this one takes place in quite a different setting: Santa Fe. Albert must have enjoyed doing these scenes, and they're always entertaining.
There's a lot of violence in this book. It's the kind of book that blurb writers used to describe by saying, "Out-Spillanes Spillane!" I'm sure you get the idea. There's never a dull moment, and one of the interesting things about it is the basis of the plot. It's very up to date and might have come from last week's headlines. Check it out.
Update: I thought I'd bring Lee Goldberg's comment up here in case some of you don't read the comments. Here it is: Brash Books is bringing back all of the Albert crime novels and thrillers ... Except for Tony Rome. The rights to the Tony Rome novels are held by 20th Century Fox, which is developing a new TV series version. You can find out more about Brash at www.brash-books.com and we've got a Facebook page up with some of our new book covers.
Update: The covers are also on Pinterest. Click here to see them.
