A Couple from Harriet

Dream Unchained
Kate Douglas
Kensington Aphrodisia, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758269355

Mac Dugan now knows his dream lover of twenty years Zianne the Nyrian is real. However, she and her energy race are incarcerated on an alien ship and need rescuing if they are to become the entry he dreams about.

Besides his beloved and her race, Mac learns the aliens target earth for annihilation. Time is running out for rhe two species. However, Mac and his unit, and Zianne and her fellow Nyrians begin to gain power through energies released in shared carnal dreams.

The latest Dream Catchers science fiction romance (see Nightshift’s “Dream Catcher” and Dream Bound), is an exciting erotic thriller as time may be running out on earth, but the sex keeps on coming. Fast-paced, fans will appreciate this alternate energy source as the last hope to save earth and the Nyrians is sexual performance (talk about pressure on the lower head). Harriet Klausner

So I’m A Heel/Flint/The Big Out
Arnold Hano writing as Mike Heller and Gil Dodge
Stark House, $23.95
ISBN: 9781933586502

“So I’m a Heel” by Mike Heller. In 1944, the Howitzer exploded killing a dozen solders and leaving the “lucky” one Hawkins with a disfigured face having lost his lower jaw. He lives with his wife Mary and ten-year-old son Matt in Laredo Rock, California. Acrimonious Hawkins uses his deformity to take advantage of others and blackmails lawyer Otto Weylin. However Weylin plans to take out Hawkins who is attracted to the attorney’s trashy wife Millie.

“Flint” by Gil Dodge. The only one way a hired killer retires is in a coffin. Flint struggles with a bullet lodged in his lungs. He hopes to walk away after he completes his last job so he heads to Colorado where rancher Good hires him to kill Thomason. Flint obtains a job working for Thomason, but is attracted to his employer’s wife Cora.

“The Big Out” by Arnold Hano. The syndicate informs Blues’ catcher Brick Palmer that his brother forged his signature on a $10,000 debt. They demand remittance. Herald sports reporter Randy York witnesses the money exchange and the player busting the collector’s nose. He exposes Brick who is thrown out of the league. He and his wife head to Montreal to play but is treated with rage while an irate syndicate debt collector travels to Canada for payback.

Using two pseudonyms, Arnold Hano showed his vast depth with this exciting 1950s crime caper collection reprints in differing milieus. The three entries are fast-paced with strong characters in troubled waters way over their heads. Although the exciting suspenseful tales do not fully pass the test of time, fans will appreciate these diverse noirs. Harriet Klausner