HUNT THROUGH THE CRADLE OF FEAR
Gabriel Hunt, as told to Charles Ardai
Leisure Books
Fiction/Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9780843962581
HUNT THROUGH THE CRADLE OF FEAR, the second installment in the new paperback pulp adventure series featuring Gabriel Hunt, delivers on the promise shown in the first book, HUNT AT THE WELL OF ETERNITY, which released in April. This series for a new century provides readers with nonstop thrills and action, along with a fascinating story. To put it simply: it is pulp fiction at its best, rooted firmly in the past with a nod of the fedora to Edgar Rice Burroughs and Doc Savage, but set in the modern world.
It is a treat to witness the rebirth of the paperback adventure series. And for that we must thank Charles Ardai, who conceived of this series just as he did the invaluable Hard Case Crime paperback mystery series several years back. Ardai is also the real-life author of CRADLE OF FEAR, which was told to him by the fictional Mr. Hunt. Read one of these works and you can see why Hunt has no time to write his own books. To describe him as being overcaffeinated would be an understatement.
Ardai understands that the most important rule of the classic pulp adventure story is action. We get it from page one and it rarely lets up for 200-plus pages, which makes this a fun book. The story starts with Hunt cornered in the turret of a castle in Hungary with seven armed men closing in on him. Of course, he is not alone. Ardai writes, “’Go,’ he (Hunt) said again, shooting a glance over his shoulder toward the stone wall where Sheba crouched, clutching the shreds of her dress to her chest. ‘Now!’”
Where he wants her to go is off the edge of the turret, which overlooks a 300-foot drop. He has conveniently provided an inch-wide metal cable that can carry one person down at an angle to the trees below. Of course the problem for Hunt is that there is only room for one on the cable, and he has just fired his last bullet at his pursuers --- at least one of whom is brandishing a rather large curved sword.
Of course, your adventure hero, be it Doc Savage or the modern Gabriel Hunt, is indeed resourceful in tight spots. Hunt manages to escape with the woman and bring her back to New York, where he promptly loses her again after a battle with four armed men in an East Side building that sounds suspiciously like the real-life Explorers Club of New York.
It turns out that the woman is an Irish scholar on the iconography of the ancient world. Hunt got involved after she was abducted off the streets of Dublin. The trail leads to one Legor Degroet, an uber-rich antiquities collector and former Olympic silver medal winner in fencing from Hungary. Close to 70 now, he walks with the aid of a walking stick that conceals a sword. We also learn that he is twice as rich as Gabriel and his brother Michael’s Hunt Foundation. And quite ruthless it turns out. After the wildest cab ride in the history of New York City, Hunt manages to sneak onto the plane where Sheba has been taken by hiding in a box containing guns and ammo. When he emerges, he finds himself in an incredible place: the Plateau of Giza.
“Immediately before them facing them in its eternal crouch, blanketing them with its moon cast shadow was the Great Sphinx,” Ardai tells us.
Hunt soon enough frees the girl after some incredible action inside the belly of the Sphinx. But the larger question remains: what does DeGroet want with the Sphinx? It is worth remembering that while pulp novels never claimed to be more than cheap entertainment, they served as travelogues in the years before television and satellites. They were also a way to introduce readers to serious subjects that they hopefully would look into on their own.
The story in CRADLE OF FEAR quickly moves from Egypt to Greece where Hunt finds an ancient Bard on the island of Chios. We learn that in Greece the Sphinx --- a winged Sphinx --- played a key role in Greek mythology. Indeed, it was the Greeks, not Egyptians, who gave the beast with the body of the lion and head of a human its name. In Arabic, we are informed, the Sphinx was called simply “The Father of Fear.” Furthermore, Sphinxes can be found throughout Asia.
Ardai is a master at keeping the battles and death-defying escapes fresh and vivid throughout. There is a camel chase in Egypt. In Greece, he is chased on a moped driven by a young Greek who claims to drive “like your Steve McQueen.” And then he takes us to a midnight meeting at the incredible Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Turkey, constructed in the sixth century by The Emperor Justinian the Great.
Ardai writes, “The Turks called it Yerebatan Sarayi, the sunken palace. Each column was lit from below with flame red lights, giving the place an ominous appearance. You expected a man in a cape and domino mask to step into view at any moment from behind one of the columns, carrying a wax sealed missive --- or a dagger to slip between your ribs.” There is even a zither playing in the background to put us in the mind of the great film noir, The Third Man. This is wonderfully evocative writing. One fully expects to see Peter Lorre also make a nervous appearance, perhaps followed closely by Sydney Greenstreet in his red fez.
Besides being the founder of both Hard Case Crime and the Hunt series and a highly knowledgeable editor, Ardai is a great writer in his own right. He has written three original books for Hard Case Crime, the first two under the name Richard Aleas. Those books won an Edgar and Shamus Award, respectively. The Hunt series, which is scheduled now for four more books over the next year or so, will be in great hands as long as Ardai recruits writers as talented as he is to help Hunt relate his adventures.
HUNT THROUGH THE CRADLE OF FEAR packs a wallop of an ending that will leave you breathless, hoping for more. This is exactly what pulp adventures are supposed to do. It makes for fun summertime reading.
--- Reviewed by Tom Callahan
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