The Butcher the Man From White Hat Reviews

The Butcher #34: The Man From White Lid, past Stuart Jason
April, 1982  Pinnacle Books

In October of 1977 The Butcher went on hiatus with its 26th book, The Terror Truckers, which was the last to be written by original series author James Dockery. The series didn't render until December 1979, with veteran pulpster Michael Avallone at the captain; he was the sole author of The Butcher until information technology ended with the 35th volume, Gotham Gore, in 1982.

I planned to read the series in lodge, simply to discover there isn't much continuity. At any charge per unit I was in no hurry to jump ahead to Avallone's installments; it had been many years since I read i of his books (unless we count Run, Spy, Run, which is debatable as an actual Avallone novel), and I remembered not being very fond of his unique style. Avallone is 1 of those authors who sometimes puts his tongue likewise far in his cheek, with too many knowing asides to the reader, too many authorial pats on his ain back. But then one day I came home to find a package waiting in my mailbox; it was from Stephen Mertz, and it contained this book of The Butcher. Stephen included a note with the book, and with his permission hither's an extract from it:

Michael was a love personal friend of mine. He was a hardboiled writer of note in the '50s. Effort his Ed Noon novels (The Tearing Virgin, The Living Flop, Dead Game are all great). In the 1960s he became known equally "The Fastest Typewriter in the East," and for a decade averaged 10-12 paperback originals per year. Everything from moving-picture show novelizations to gothic novels to '60s sleaze to novels well-nigh The Partridge Family. Much of the '70s was spent in burnout phase, sadly, just he came back in the early on '80s with his Butcher entries, more novelizations and several historical romances earlier his unbelievably great terminal novel, Loftier Apex at Midnight, wherein the reader is never sure if Ed Apex is going insane or if he really is taking on outer infinite aliens walking among usa, commanded past Zavoda, The Noseless I.

Avallone is where the cut comes downwards. This one is non necessarily his best Butcher – that would be Death In Yellow or Become Die In Afghanistan – but is representative of A's late period over-the-peak manner. There is much division of opinion about Avallone, who was a real character. He wrote the first Human being From UNCLE novel in one twenty-four hours! Some encounter him as an industrious joke; a author who'south so bad that he's really fun. Others, similar me and James Reasoner, love his stuff, although his technical shortcomings are obvious enough. This Butcher novel is in Avallone'south late "high" style; over-ripe but relentlessly 1-of-a-kind.

Well, I'1000 happy to report that I really enjoyed The Homo From White Lid, and all such reservations I previously had about Avallone'southward writing are now null and void. The volume moves fast, it has a fun spirit, good action, plenty of "practiced stuff," and clearly seems to be written by an author who is having a good time. Also, the knowing asides, while occasional, are not nearly equally prevalent as I feared. In many ways Avallone is one of those authors who makes these men's risk books read like '70s/'80s updates of the pulps of the '30s.

Avallone has a very different accept on the serial than Dockery. Whereas Dockery went for wild plots with a dense, highly-unique narrative way, Avallone (at least in this volume) is very streamlined. To the point where you sort of wish there was more to the plot. Nevertheless his Butcher is a very fast, easy read, whereas Dockery's books get to be a picayune long-winded and can wear the reader down. Also, Avallone's have on hero Bucher is much different; here Bucher is, believe it or not, a regular human beingness who is prone to mistakes. The Butcher'southward infamous fast-draw gun technique is similarly downplayed (indeed a pivotal moment late in the volume rests on the fact that Bucher tin't depict his gun in time, something that never would've happened in a Dockery installment), and he's also decumbent to talking a whole agglomeration more. And if all that wasn't enough, Bucher actually tells a gal he loves her in this one!!

It's June 1981, shortly afterward the events of the previous volume, Become Die In Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, which I await forward to reading given Stephen'southward statement above. Bucher is recovering from the apparent catastrophic events of that book, thus isn't too hip to keep this latest consignment. But the Director of White Hat wants him to head to the small Latin American land of Avella, which is ruled by the Castro-esque Pablo Da Costa. White Lid is concerned considering Da Costa's mistress, a former whore turned Eva Peron-wannabe named China Lupe (pronounced "Chee-na," nosotros're helpfully informed), has Communist leanings and might sway Da Costa into making Avella a Cherry satellite land, one that would be style too close to the U.s.a..

Going into this book one of the few things I knew about Avallone was that he was a fan of the pulps; I checked out a book on The Spider via Interlibrary Loan the other year which included a rundown by Avallone on the kickoff ten volumes of that series. Well, the phrase "corpse cargo" is employed early in The Homo From White Hat, and I've only seen that phrase used one other place. Avallone brings additional pulp sensibilities to the serial; Bucher nosotros acquire at present has exploding chewing gum, and both his title and the White Chapeau director'southward are occasionally italicized, a la "The Spider."

Bucher'due south also a picayune sour to learn that the Director has not only hooked him up with a partner on the case, but i who is brand new and is indeed being tested out for full White Lid membership. Plus information technology's a adult female! This is Catharine Farrow, a blonde bombshell who has no idea that she actually works for an ultra-secret intelligence agency and who thinks she's been sent to Avella to human action as secretary for a Texan lawyer named "Dix Hernon," ie Bucher's cover identity for this caper. For reasons of his ain the Director feels that Catharine will brand for a perfect field agent, and one of Bucher's tasks will exist to estimate her performance downward here.

The Human being From White Hat doesn't have much action, but we're graced with a nice scene shortly after Bucher arrives in the humid country of Avella. As he'due south escorted to Da Costa's villa by the man'due south summit full general, their convoy is attacked by a helicopter, one we later learn is piloted past an ex-Nazi (a development by the way that really isn't much explored). Bucher picks upwards a subgun and blows the 'copter out of the sky, something we're informed is near impossible to do – but not for the Butcher! Even so "Dix Hernon" has to come up with a fib on how a fancy-pants lawyer has such stellar shooting skills.

Da Costa is a meliorate grapheme than expected, a big bear of a homo who appears to have stomped out of The Adventurers and who carries around a big balderdash whip. Just he's in a bad way, these days; a would-exist assassinator shot Da Costa in the head several weeks earlier, and though Da Costa survived he'south prone to debilitating migraines. China Lupe is something else. A hotstuff brunette who we learn has Sapphic inclinations (though this doesn't finish her from stripping down and offering herself to Bucher), she is pure evil and Bucher instantly realizes she's probably working for the Commies and thus is bad both for Da Costa and Avella.

Catharine Farrow meets "Dix Hernon" and promptly tells him how hot he is and how she'd love to get involved with him! Bucher himself is taken by the girl'southward beauty and fantabulous body, and it'southward worth noting that Avallone's version of Bucher really has a libido; Dockery's version was almost a robot. It's also worth noting that, unlike Dockery, Avallone is non balky to writing frequent and adequately explicit sexual practice scenes. Only as a tradeoff, and something I forgot to mention, Avallone also does not give the series the uber-dark comedy vibe of Dockery, and likewise removes the traditional opening bit where Bucher is confronted by a pair of Syndicate thugs. Indeed, Avallone's Bucher is for the nearly part just a regular James Bond-blazon secret agent…1, that is, who carries around "explosive chewing gum."

Catharine later in the novel volition be referred to in a chapter championship as "The Girl From White Lid," likely one of Avallone'south trademark in-jokes to one of his ain novels; in the '60s he wrote the novelization for The Girl From UNCLE. Simply Bucher's initial appraisal of Catharine is then out-in that location outrageous that I just had to share it with you lot:

Her rear-view was challenging and pulse-raising. She had a "black" ass. The kind that only generations of women got from walking down the centuries with baskets on their heads. The true female person rump.

Avallone understands that sexy female characters, especially evil ones, need to exist properly exploited in the men's adventure genre; here'due south his juicy breakdown of the novel'south bad babe:

China Lupe stood naked before the total-length mirror, admiring herself, as usual, her nighttime cold eyes investigating the key fullness of her biconvex, curving breasts whose aureolae were like ii ripe strawberries cresting humps of snow-white angel cake. She was much taller than Latin-American women generally are and the deep tan of her splendidly elongated, still rounded and contoured body was in precipitous contrast to the stake shade of her magnificent breasts. Her thighs were like stanchions, her buttocks perfect, and lastly, her head was unforgettable. Jet-black Cleopatra bangs framed a diamond-shaped face whose outstanding features had driven several males mad…

Now that's a men's gamble author who knows his stuff. As mentioned Avallone doesn't shy from the sex, either, though nothing in The Man From White Chapeau goes for full-bore porn. If annihilation information technology trades betwixt explicitness and faux-literary ponderings. Midway through the volume Catharine Farrow is almost killed past poisonous scorpions in her room. Bucher blows them into jelly with his customary Walther and and then, to soothe the gal's fretfulness, decides to finally give her some of that good lovin' she yearns for:

After that, it was a kind of sexual chaos and orgy. Wild, abandoned, unrelenting. Thoroughly whole-hearted.

She whaled him, coming downwards from higher up him, spreading her ample charms for him to select and make use of. In that location was something wholly lecherous about her at present, altogether purposeful and deliberate. Once again, Bucher was amazed at the transformation most females underwent when they got down to the very nuts of being female. Desire was the neat leveler for them all.

I don't think I've ever been "whaled" before. Sounds like I'm missing out!

The novel spans a few days, and over this fourth dimension Bucher and Catharine, believe information technology or not, actually fall in honey. And she survives the novel! I'll be curious to see if she appears in the next (and final) installment, Gotham Gore. Just as it is, she is conspicuously fix upwards equally Bucher's steady girl in this one, with the 2 basically living together by novel's end. Afterward a few misadventures in Da Costa's villa, from those scorpions to China Lupe trying to get her in bed, Catharine undergoes enough trial past fire that Bucher decides she'south prepare to learn all about White Hat and himself. He tells her all most his history – Bucher is positively a windbag compared to Dockery'south stoic version – likewise equally White Hat and what it does, after which Catharine is even more game to assistance out. By the finish of The Human being From White Hat she'south a full-fledged field agent.

But yeah, China Lupe hits on Catharine hard and strong. China'southward lesbianism is well and truly mocked throughout; Da Costa is impotent due to the attempted bump-off, but the lady enjoys other women anyhow. She's often referred to as a "dyke," and later Avallone offers this humdinger which won't get you too many friends in today's politically correct world: "Lesbians swallow those they love – first the soul and and then the body." Don't think you'll be seeing that slogan beneath one of those pinkish ribbons! Simply Red china's attempted sexual conquest of Catharine is the highlight of the volume, relayed by Catharine herself in a rambling, several-page sequence of exposition, excerpted here:

"So we entered her room. A boudoir, really. No chairs or tables. Merely cushions. I felt light in the head just being there. And [China] kept massaging my tit and I hate to say this but it gets to you after a while. Because information technology does feel good – no thing how you feel about women existence hot for women. I could see she wasn't going to talk almost anything but my lovely complexion, my gorgeous pilus, my swell chest and incredible ass – etcetera. Then I started to wriggle off the hook. Well, she laughed and lay dorsum, showing me her glorious snatch. You know it'due south jet-black like her hair? But that can't be, tin can it? Must be dyed. No adult female is like a drawing in a mag, I tried to get upwardly and she went for me, and then. What I hateful – went – geezis, I never would have believed it!

"I don't vesture bras or panties. Especially in this kind of climate. And so there I was and she pulled me down to her and before I knew information technology, she had me laid out and was going hammer and tongs at my box – I'm telling you – this woman's got a tongue like a forked adder – I tried to become up before she got my juices going – no affair how I feel about it similar I say – she was beginning to make me feel damn good though I never would have reciprocated – God, what a mouth. She knows all the tricks. The clit treatment, the man-in-the-gunkhole, everything. And she's potent as well as cute – I had my hands full –"

"And she had her rima oris total," Bucher commented wryly.

As mentioned, action (of the guns and fistfights diverseness at to the lowest degree) is desultory. At that place's a part midway through where Bucher is attacked by a bola-wielding assassin, one who calls him "The Butcher" and appears to be going for that legendary Syndicate bounty for Bucher's head. There's also an assault on the villa by a trio of blowgun-wielding Indians. Avallone besides appears to pay heed to a onetime Dockery staple with Bucher chirapsia a muscle-bound henchman to lurid. Every bit ever Bucher is godlike and emerges unscathed – at one point he even diverts the path of a fired dart by shooting at information technology, the path of his bullets creating a fluctuation in the air current and throwing the dart off course!

The novel climaxes in another long dialog sequence, where Da Costa and China entertain a group of Soviet representatives. When Da Costa says "hell no" to going Commie, China stands up and declares the "junta" she has been planning for months. Almost of Da Costa's loyal followers are in fact Commie dupes, loyal to People's republic of china, and a full-diddled Communist revolution is about to ensue…until Bucher breaks out the ol' exploding chewing gum. The finale is a bit lame with Da Costa recapturing his manhood via his bullwhip and Prc unceremoniously executed – by several signal-blank bullets to the confront, courtesy Da Costa. Turns out she'south been slowly poisoning him with arsenic. But no worries; we find out the kindly despot is going to be fine.

Strangely, we have twenty more pages to become, even though the novel is clearly over. Avallone sort of muddles through some incidental capacity in which Bucher and Catharine trade more lovey-dovey talk on the return flight to New York, and in that location they have dinner with the Director(?!). It just keeps going and going, and is clearly the sign of an author shooting badly for his word count. What makes it worse is that the plot itself is so one-layered; actually, well-nigh the entirety of The Human being From White Lid is comprised of Bucher sitting around in Da Costa's villa and wondering what to exercise.

But I did really enjoy the volume, as evidenced by the lengthy quotes above. Avallone's approach to The Butcher is then radically different that it's basically a whole dissimilar serial than Dockery's. Instead of sadism and dark comedy, we become more than sleaze and more of a fun, goofy spirit. And Avallone's writing throughout is crisp, clear, and memorable – in that location are so many asides in hither that at times it's reminscent of Joseph Rosenberger, including an capricious diatribe against Cosmopolitan magazine!

At whatsoever rate, I look forward to reading more than of Avallone'southward work. Thank you once more for sending me the book, Stephen!

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