Sunday, August 17, 2008

Not Quite Super-Powered Fiction: Zero Cool

Just finished Zero Cool, one of the many truly awesome novels by the fine folks over at Hard Case Crime. Originally written in the sixties by an excellent writer (who I never heard of before this) by the name of John Lange, it has been updated with a modern day prologue and epilogue in the new edition.

Lange tells the story of Peter Ross (Didn’t he used to hang out with Superman?), a young doctor who travels to Europe for a conference and decides to take an extended vacation on a Spanish beach. He meets a beautiful woman named Angela Locke on the beach, but it is when a strange gangster comes to him to perform an autopsy that Peter finds his life thrown for a loop. He is soon embroiled in a conspiracy involving multiple enemies and motives which has multiple bodies falling in its wake.

I don’t want to give everything away now, but Peter finds himself in the midst of a conspiracy straight out of a comic story. With preposterous Bond-style villains and shocking turn after shocking turn, Zero Cool proves to be an exciting ride all the way through. For seven bucks this one is hard to top, and another great Hard Case Crime cover, this one by Gregory Manchess thoroughly seals the deal.

Go out and pick this one up today.

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