Burt Wulff, Barry N. Malzberg’s agent of vengeance on the drug trade, extends his violent damage in Havana Hit and Chicago Slaughter. Wulff, obsessed with avenging the death of his fiancé by targeting the operations of the drug cartels, travels from city to city as an agent of destruction.
Yes, Wulff’s attempts at exterminating the drug gangs resemble Whack-A-Mole. As Wulff’s brand of carnage captures many of the elements of the 1970s: corrupt politics, sluggish economy, and increasing number of Americans turning to drugs to deal with Nixonian Reality.
Havana Hit continues the Wulff’s violent adventures from Desert Stalker. Martin Wulff is flying out of Las Vegas on route to NYC with a valise full of heroin worth over a million dollars. Somehow this heroin was removed from the NYPD evidence room and got into the hands of organized drug traffickers. And during his last escapade in Vegas, Wulff went on a killing spree and blew up a hotel casino to get it back. No TSA and drug-sniffing dogs back in 1974!
The plane Wulff is on is hijacked and forced to land in Cuba. Taken into custody by a Cuba official named Delgado, Wulff’s valise is seized and he is sent to be executed. Delgado plans to keep the uncut heroin, sell it, and leave Cuba to live it up. But of course Wulff escapes and sets out to get the valise back again.
With a little help from a cowardly American helicopter pilot, Wulff kills Delgado along with scores of other people and destroys the headquarters building. But the valise of heroin isn’t there. Delgado turned it over to DiStasio, who is the head of Cuban Intelligence. DiStasio has the same plan as Delgado had, take the heroin and get out of Cuba. More mayhem results! GRADE: B
In his Afterward to Chicago Slaughter, Barry N. Malzberg writes about hitting his stride in this book, the sixth in the series (with 8 novels to go in The Lone Wolf series): “It was stern and flagrant impetus as Chicago Slaughter burned on, as Nixon flailed at the release of the tapes, as Goldwater and several grim accounting Republican Senators trudged upstairs to deliver Tchaikovsky the news.” (p. 227)
Chicago Slaughter takes The Lone Wolf series to a whole new level of corruption with Wulff dealing with the Mob and dirty cops…debasement caused by the drug trade. Malzberg creates a world slipping into double-dealing, decay, and festering immorality. And Wulff’s strategy–burn it all down–doesn’t seem so strange. Don’t miss this one! GRADE: A
The body count was always excessively high in those Lone Wolf books. I haven’t read the Chicago one but it sounds better. The last one is the really over the top one, as I recall.
Jeff, CHICAGO SLAUGHTER strikes me as the key book in THE LONE WOLF series. In his Afterward to CHICAGO SLAUGHTER in this Stark House edition, Malzberg relates that this was the book where he could see his way through the next 8 books in series…with a final explosive conclusion.
George, you sure to read a lot, and widely too. I’ve only read Malzberg’s SF.
Jim, I became a Barry N. Malzberg fan after reading GALAXIES in 1975. Then I tried to read every Malzberg book or story that I could get my hands on. Coincidently, I started reading THE LONE WOLF series and finished all 14 books. Later, I learned Malzberg wrote them!