Sunday, April 22, 2012

Black & White-Raymond Benson

Black & White


Raymond Benson

Oceanview, May 30 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9781608090419



In the present fortyish Martin Talbot finds an 8mm film dated 1959 inside a strongbox given to him by his "Uncle" Thomas that belongs to his Alzheimer’s ill septuagenarian mother Judy, a resident of the Woodlands Nursing Home in Riverwoods, Illinois. However, Martin learns of a second copy when the apparent filmmaker's son demands payments or else he will go to the Feds as the FBI wanted the Black Stiletto. At about the same time he deals with blackmail, in New York City Martin’s daughter Gina is viciously attacked.



In 1959 Judy Cooper as the Black Stiletto challenges the deadly heroin king of Harlem when her martial arts instructor Soichiro’s teenage daughter Isuzu becomes a prisoner in a narcotics den. She invades the place to mount a rescue while planning to bring justice to the owner Carl Purdy. At the same time a filmmaker threatens to reveal her alter-ego to the media unless she pays him.



This exciting thriller moves back and forth between five decades as in the present Martin watches the film and reads his mom’s dairy, and deals with the blackmailer and his daughter’s assault; while in 1959 Judy battles drug dealers and a sleazy filmmaker. The story line is over the top of the old Yankee Stadium but is exciting fun to read as a young female heroine kicks butt.



Harriet Klausner



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