A New Review of The New Adventures of Foster
Fade the Criminal Spectacularist.
Having just finished this new anthology in Pro-Se’s
catalogue of pulp characters brought back to life for a new audience I was driven
to create a new review for this heretofore unknown character to me.
You see, I had never heard of Foster Fade before. It turns
out he is a Lester Dent (Doc Savage’s creator) creation.
Knowing absolutely zero about the character I went in and
read the book from cover to cover. It was an interesting character in that he
was so far removed from a Doc Savage type of hero as to be a polar opposite.
The only thing they had in common is that both were brilliant men who designed
and built devices years ahead of anyone else. Otherwise Fade was a thin, gangly
type with an acerbic personality. I found him at times to be extremely annoying
myself. But in other stories to be fairly interesting. Fade has a gorgeous female
reporter who works with him chronicling his exploits for the newspaper they
both work for. Her name is Dinamenta Stevens or as he refers to her ‘Din’. She
travels with him to crime scenes where she takes pictures and he bounces
theories off of her.
Most of the stories in this collection were excellent and
could be very easily enjoyed, even if like me, you knew nothing about the
character.
Fade is a criminologist employed by the newspaper so the
police have a love/hate relationship with him. He has no friends really on either
side of the law, which is kind of unique, because he’s not a vigilante. What he
is, is a pompous ass at times who likes to overshadow the police with his
brilliance.
But the police realize he’s the best at what he does and do begrudgingly
work with him, most of the time because they have no choice one way or another.
In Dead man’s guns by Adam Lance Garcia, Fade is taunted by a
delivery of guns to his office which turn out being murder weapons used
sometimes only hours before.
The Cider King Murder by Derrick Ferguson is a tale of a man
who had a hidden past that finally caught up to him.
The Voodoo death by Aubrey Stevens is about what appears to
be voodoo murders in the city by an ancient evil spirit whose mere name is used
to frighten children and adults alike.
The Pied Piper of Harlem by David White concerns two men who
terrorize the city in a terrible and horrific manner. (My favorite of the book,
BTW)
Grudge Match by H. David Blalock is the story of someone who
feels Foster Fade outshined him in his work and now seeks revenge by implicating
Fade himself in ongoing horrific crimes.
The Black Rock Conspiracy again by Adam Lance Garcia is
about a train trip that turns decidedly deadly.
All in all a very enjoyable anthology. I liked it even
though I knew nothing of this character at all. Give it a whirl, it’s a fun
book.
As always all of my own books are available at http://RLAngeloJr.com or http://tinyurl.com/ralphsamazon
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