Jon Spoelstra

A Thrilling Spy Mystery Neo-Pulp with Good History

In 1951, as the Brooklyn Dodgers race the New York Giants for the National League Pennant and their third try in five years to defeat their arch-nemeses the New York Yankees, Ebbets Field regular and private detective Jake McHenry receives a special case: His old neighborhood buddy Nick Salzano now works in the office of Sen. Joe McCarthy. Nick has told the Senator of Jake's experience in military intelligence after World War II, finding German Nazi spies to learn what they know about Soviet Communist spies, earning Jake the nickname "Red Chaser." Sen. McCarthy hires Jake to steal a list of celebrities who are supposed communists from redheaded seductress Arabella Van Dyck, aka the Ice Queen. This seemingly simple case - albeit one for a Senator - draws Jake and his assistant, a beautiful young Japanese woman named Hiromi Kitahara, into a web of politicians and spies, federal agents and mobsters, all against the backdrop of a baseball season for the history books.

I gave this book five stars not because Jon Spoelstra is the next Raymond Chandler. Too often, his historical notes - which are admittedly particularly interesting for those interested in Washington politics during the early Cold War, a post-war history of Brooklyn, or fans of baseball just before the Dodgers and Giants moved to California - get in the way of his electrifying, knuckle-whitening neo-pulp prose and story, which will be particularly enjoyed by fans of (appropriately enough) Brooklynite Mickey Spillane. I rated the novel so highly because despite its flaws, this is one of the best neo-pulps I've ever read, and I'd love to read more from Jon Spoelstra, and I highly recommend him to my fellow Spillane fans.… (altro)

It's the Korean War. Business is booming. Baseball is the national sport. If they could bottle the smell of hot dogs on a summer day at the park, someone would become a millionaire. Reds - Russian Reds, not ichink ones -have infiltrated the entire government. They are everywhere and Joe McCarthy has decided to root them out (and if he gains some personal power in the meantime, well those are just the spoils of war.)

Jake, a former OSS agent who tracked down Nazi networks after the war (and made a ton of money in the process) is running a small private detective agency mostly for appearances and to account for his income, when he is approached by an old friend Nick, who brings along Senator McCarthy who wants to hire Jake for a small job. He is to break into the house of the "Ice Maiden", a beautiful commie agent who has a list (McCarthy, like Arlen Specter, was obsessed with those lists that always seemed to remain in his pocket) of reds in government.

Jake takes along a couple of friends, succesfully gains entry to the building and a couple of safes where he discovers not a list of names, but pornigraphic photographs of prominent men in in flagrante delicto (such a delicious phrase, that) with the Ice Queen and one of those is "Tail-Gunner Joe" in positions befitting his nickname. He also discovers drawings that appear to be of a bomb and lots of writing in Korean. Realizing he is getting into the middle of an extortion racket, he turns photographs of everything over to Nick and opts out - he hopes. Then he becomes the target.

I must say that for some odd reason, baseball has been a theme in several recent books. Baseball lore provides an important backdrop to this story (even includes a picture of Ebbetts field, although why is totally beyond my comprehenson) and Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall mysteries by Robert Parker also have baseball lore permeating the story.… (altro)

Red Chaser by Jon Spoelstra is a 1950's thriller that is available exclusively on the Kindle. So you won't see this novel sitting on the shelf of your local bookstore, but that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to be there! I typically won't pick up a book based in the 50's because I draw no connection with the time period, but I found the novel's environment warm and inviting.

For those looking for a book that gets straight to the point, Mr. Spoelstra delivers the first few chapters in a way that pulls the reader in quickly. The first line of the book, "I went to war poor," hints at a deep history beyond the scope of the novel itself, however there is a rather slow build up before I found the main character to be deemed interesting.

I must note that I have very little interest in history, war, or baseball, three strong subject matters of the novel, so I found myself skimming over the more detailed accounts of the Vietnam war and the history of the Dodgers. The good news is that Red Chaser is not limited by one's disinterest in this topics. By the middle of the novel the character's level of complexity really drove the interest of the story for me. Jake, the main character, begins the story as a disappointingly simple guy, but as the story progresses he becomes an intriguing factor in the plot as this self diagnosed psychotic will shock you with the level of depravity he allows himself to operate at.

Overall, I felt that Red Chaser starts out slow, but as the level of character detail proliferates halfway through the novel, the book really starts to capture your imagination. The book is fun and entertaining, but the true creative writing really shines as the complex plot lines draw together in the end. It's an easy read that will charm anyone, especially if you are a fan of baseball or the Vietnam war.… (altro)