BLOOD-SPILLER'S QUARRY: MICHAEL PANUSH'S TALE OF THE STONE LAW

Michael Panush (aka Phillip Pan) is a master of mixing genres. His latest submission, Blood-Spiller's Quarry: A Novel of the Stone Law (published by Airship 27 Productions), is another brilliant case in point, which presents a macabre, prehistory mystery. 

The story starts with a dead member of the Cro-Magnon tribe, The Heap, found near a river. The tribesman appears to have been stabbed. A Heap leader, Red (a Broadhead/Neanderthal exile, promoted to a Fang, so that he might maintain law and order) investigates who may have committed the "Wrong Death," offering an engaging, first-person account, which sheds light upon a morbid and fascinating community characterized by mammoths, wolves, tribal fury, psychedelia, puppetry, cannibalism and an economy based on the convenient exchange of teeth. 

 

Red's female compatriot, Star, assists with his investigation, as well as his intersecting friends, Bug Eyes, Gummy, Autumn, Spinner and Mouse, but the case grows ever stranger, with perplexing clues of soil and seed, insinuating a ritualistic killer. This killer comes to be called The Blood-Spiller, a "Night Demon" of extrapolated, social cause, who wears an ominous, simian-skull mask. Red is determined to capture the fiend, but is he, in fact, hunting the killer or is The Blood-Spiller hunting him?  

Blood-Spiller's Quarry combines the best, adventurous elements of J.-H. Rosny's The Quest for Fire, Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, Jack London's Before Adam, Richard A. Colla/Lane Slate's The Tribe, Ralph Bakshi/Frank Frazetta's Fire and Ice, and Hanna-Barbera's Korg: 70,000 B.C., but with a C. Auguste Dupin bent that differentiates the yarn from the aforementioned. That makes Panush's novel avant-garde yet traditional in its execution: a clever combination. 

To embellish Panush's nimble narrative, illustrator Earl Geier grants a bold cover (pigmented by the dexterous Rob Davis) and earthy, Thomas Yeates-esque interiors, which dispatch a gallery of distinct, aesthetic mystique. 

I'm glad to have experienced Blood-Spiller's Quarry, which is far too good to stand alone. I've a hunch Panush has more cases prepared for Red, and I, for one, anticipate reading them.

Order Blood-Spiller's Quarry at 

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Spillers-Quarry-Novel-Stone-Law-ebook/dp/B0C7YB1BSC/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3F09ZIO2HNGAT&keywords=michael+panush&qid=1686946047&sprefix=michael+panush%2Caps%2C542&sr=8-4

AIRSHIP 27 PRESENTS BASS REEVES: FRONTIER MARSHAL, VOL 5

Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves rides again in Airship 27 Productions' fifth volume of fictional adventures for the real-life, Oklahoma-territory lawman.

Writers Michael Panush, Thomas McNulty, Gary Phillips and Mel Odom supply the new quartet for Reeves to engage. Their yarns include 1) Reeves' entanglement with "Elohim Elixir" salesman, Professor Ashe, his "boychick" nephew and a dead-set assassin; 2) Reeves' encounter with hot-head "Corbin the Orphan", seasoned by some vexing, gypsy interaction; 3) Reeve's recruitment by an eccentric collector to retrieve an Aztec "thingamabob" from a rogue Indian chief; and 4) Reeves's Poe-esque investigation of a hex-casting witch and a reputed zombie. (Rob Davis' dandy illustrations adorn each tale; and Warren Montgomery grants this volume's heroic cover, making Vol 5 a top-drawer collectible from front to back.)

It should be noted that each of Vol 5's well-written tales holds an air of mystery, as any quality lawman exploit should, but even more so, they're character-driven in the best salt-of-the-earth way imaginable: a commendable, common denominator that distinguishes every one of Airship 27's Bass Reeves adventures. 

Though Bass Reeves is an indisputable icon, he deserves far more recognition and respect than he's received over these many years. Thanks to Airship 27, he's receiving just that and with the most accurate depiction of the lawman that any medium has thus far rendered. Bass Reeves, Frontier Marshal, Vol 5 is yet another proof-in-the-pudding case in point:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B64TL27G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2P1WBOORX7Y07&keywords=bass+reeves+vol+5&qid=1657404900&sprefix=bass+reeves+vol+5%2Caps%2C296&sr=8-1

AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST (JULY '22): READY FOR LIFTOFF

Western wonderment is all the rage, plus a hardy dose of Poe, in the latest Airship 27 podcast (July '22).

First up, hosts Ron Fortier and Rob Davis celebrate the release of Bass Reeves: Frontier Marshal, Vol 5, with absorbing yarns from Michael Panush, Thomas McNulty, Gary Phillips and Mel Odom, accompanied by a fierce, front cover by Warren Montgomery and elegant interiors by Davis. 

The wait on this one has been long but well worth it, with each tale exalting Reeve's legacy through exciting and hard-driven fiction. 

Second in the dusty-trail set is R.A. Jones Caged Fury, the third in the Jason Mankiller saga, with a lurid and mean cover by Chris Rawding and two-fisted interiors by Neil T. Foster.

This one has a "straight-up", no-mercy, Clint Walker feel about it, wherein our brawny bounty hunter is falsely accused of murder and dragged into a pit-of-Hell prison. How ever will Mankiller survive? By his tenacious smarts and inexhaustible guts, of course. 

Also on the R. A. Jones agenda is The Last Days of Poe, an Usher-ish account that pays homage to dear Edgar Allan, with a nifty House on Haunted Hill twist that can't help but keep one on the edge of one's seat. Chuck Bordell's brooding illustrations and Adam Shaw's moody cover stir to the atmospheric chills. 

Tune in for all the exhilarating details, plus a couple cool jokes, to boot at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zp2pseosqw&t=384s