The Blood of Strangers

Dirty Harry #10: “The Blood of Strangers” by Dane Hartman (Unknown). The Libyan minister, Gamal Abd’el Keyyim, is visiting L.A., where he plans to donate money to the university. Harry is sent from San Francisco to help guard him, and actually saves his life when a man in the audience tried to kill the minister. Now Keyyim wants Harry to accompany him to Beirut as an extra guard. In the meantime, KCVO news anchor, Ellie Winston, is following Harry to get a scoop for the news. Behind it all is a group of terrorists. In Beirut things go bad, and they are caught between crossfire at a warehouse where the minister is buying weapons from an international dealer, who may be a CIA agent. I think this was one of the worst plots in the Dirty Harry series. And the action was just as goofy.

The Dealer Of Death

Dirty Harry #12: The Dealer of Death by Dane Hartman (unknown). James William Gallant was arrested and sent to prison by Inspector Callahan, where he spent six and a half years before escaping. Now, his ambition is to cause Dirty Harry problems before killing him. Setting up his own death to make everyone think his dead, he won’t be suspected in crimes now. He steals Callahan’s famous gun and kills several people known to hate Dirty Harry, which eventually leads to Callahan’s suspension from the force. Gallant also ties up with an end-of-the-world survival group made up of paramilitary men with a hideout in the woods. This was actually a pretty good entry in the series, even though not by Ric Meyers. Well worth reading.  

The Mexico Kill

Dirty Harry #4: “The Mexico Kill” by Dane Hartman (unknown author). In order for the author to make the story work, he has Harry make a false arrest on a drug kingpin, which gets him suspended from the force. This is just in time for Harold Keepnews, an extremely rich person, to hire Harry to oversee a crew on a small luxury cruiser sailing to Mexico to get revenge on pirates who captured his previous cruiser and killed all on board. Naturally, Harry is given a crew not much better than the pirates he’s going after, plus every move he makes seems to be known in advance. Could Harold be setting Harry up, or is it his gorgeous wife, Windy working against him? Well, the plot wasn’t too bad, but the carry-through wasn’t very good. Almost as if this was intended as something besides a Dirty Harry in the beginning, but rejected, and turned into this odd entry. In reality it might have worked better as another men’s action novel series. I don’t think it worked well for Dirty Harry. Truth be told, the only stories in this series I seem to like are the ones written by Ric Meyers.

Duel For Cannons

Dirty Harry #1: “Duel For Cannons” by Dane Hartman (Ric Meyers). Texas sheriff Boris Tucker and his family are in California on vacation, to get away from the maddening political corruption in San Antonio. However, Boss Hannibal Striker (a wetback named Ed Villavada) is in control of the political system as well as crooked cops, and sends a gunslinger named Sweetboy Williams to kill him. Tucker is a friend of Harry Callihan, however, and Sweetboy wants to lead Dirty Harry to San Antonio for a real gunfight at the Alamo. Leaving enough clues for Harry to follow, it doesn’t take long for Dirty Harry’s brand of justice to start taking hold. This was the first of a new paperback series based on the popular film series of the same name, which would run for a total of 12 issues. Thoroughly enjoyable, as San Antonio was once my own stomping grounds, and the areas covered by Harry were quite familiar. The story was fun, too. Apparently, two authors wrote the series: Ric Meyers and Leslie Alan Horvitz. I found the stories by Meyers to be the better of those written for the series. This one in particular is one of the best.