Serial Vigilantes Of Paperback Fiction

Rough justice has often been served in the pages of serial novels, notably beginning with Don Pendleton’s The Executioner in 1969. This is the first overview of the serial vigilante genre, which featured such hard-boiled protagonists as Nick Carter, Mark Stone, Jake Brand and Able Team among the 130 series that followed Pendleton’s novel. Serial vigilantes repeatedly take the law into their own hands, establishing and imposing their own moral standards, usually by force. The book examines the connections between the serial vigilante and the pulp hero that preceded him and how the serial vigilante has influenced a variety of tough guys, private eyes, spies and cops in different media. A complete bibliography for each series is featured.

The classic 1970s vigilante series is back... for the first time in nearly fifty years. Ben Martin is a married, Vietnam vet who opens a produce wholesale business in New York City. Life is good until he's threatened by mobsters, who demand protection money from him to continue doing business. But they soon discover that they are the ones who need protection...from him. Instead of backing off, the mob retaliates, leading to bloodshed and tragedy, and spurring Martin into a one-man war on crime that could cost him his soul and his life. "This book works exceptionally well. Ben is a believable action hero. He's not just a good guy with a gun. The breakdown from decent man to cold assassin is a slow burn, but a morbidly entertaining one. A stand-out series." Paperback Warrior "Martin, while capable of violent action, is more introspective than many of his fellow Mafia busters." Serial Vigilantes Of Paperback Fiction "Messmann keeps it real. Martin is prone to a lot of soul-searching. At his core, though, he's still a 'specialist in death' who pulled off so many assassinations in Vietnam that he became legendary. Highly recommended." Glorious Trash This new edition features an Afterword by Eric Compton, co-host of the Paperback Warrior podcast.

Mia trembles as she reads the letter that arrives from Ridley Prison. The man is a stranger. His words are desperate and passionate. He describes crazy acts Mia has never experienced or known. A thrill zips through her. Should she write him back? She reads it again. Rope ties. Seduction. He longs for some other woman -- she must have given him a fake address. Mia’s address. She should throw it away, or at least return it. After all, he’s a convicted felon. But his words gnaw at her. She’s never done anything dangerous. And no man has ever talked to her like this. So Mia writes him, pretending to be the woman he desires. It's her one dark thrill in her dull, solitary small-town life. The man is in prison for another fifteen years. It's harmless. She is safe enough. Until he escapes. _______ This romantic suspense series is COMPLETE with four volumes.

For many people, the cinematic vigilante has been shaped by Charles Bronson's character in Death Wish and its sequels. But screen vigilantes have taken many guises, from Old West lynch mobs and rogue police officers to rape-avengers and military-trained equalizers. This book recounts the varied representations of such characters in films like The Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, and Taxi Driver, Falling Down and You Were Never Really Here, in which the vigilante impulse was symptomatic of mental instability. Also considered is the extent to which fictional vigilantism functions as social commentary and to what degree it is simply stoking popular fears.

We are all familiar with the idea of the action hero as a latterday avenger with a gun—Dirty Harry, Chuck Norris' screen heroes, Rambo. Yet, how did the idea of such heroes emerge in the first place? Why did it explode as it did in the 1970s and, still more, the 1980s, defining the Hollywood action films of that decade? And why did it fall out of fashion? PARAMILITARY ACTION-ADVENTURE FICTION: A HISTORY examines all these questions, and much more, as it traces the rise of paramilitary action heroes in the tensions and fears underlying the civil image of the nineteenth century, through the stresses of the world wars and the Cold War, to the emergence by the 1960s of commandos fighting undeclared wars on the streets of urban America—and the evolution of that image in the half century since.

The annual collection edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg available in a hardcover limited edition signed by ALL contributors including: Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, Mary Higgins Clark, and others!

A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West presents a series of essays that explore the historic and contemporary cultural expressions rooted in America's western states. Offers a comprehensive approach to the wide range of cultural expressions originating in the west Focuses on the intersections, complexities, and challenges found within and between the different historical and cultural groups that define the west's various distinctive regions Addresses traditionally familiar icons and ideas about the west (such as cowboys, wide-open spaces, and violence) and their intersections with urbanization and other regional complexities Features essays written by many of the leading scholars in western American cultural studies

Murders are on the rise in Philadelphia-but no one seems to mind because the victims are all fugitives with histories of heinous sex crimes against women and children. Worse for Homicide Sergeant Matt Payne, the main suspect is leaving evidence for police to find. But when copycat killings start popping up due to vigilante groups dealing out their own justice, Payne must find out who's behind the chaos before the violence overtakes the city.