El Mosaico: The Road to Hellfire

Clayton Cane has lived with violence for all of his existence.

The Stein & Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 1: American Nightmares

With a scarred face giving him the feared nickname El Mosaico, Cane has crossed the country as a bounty hunter and left trails of dead behind him. A Confederate plantation owner-turned-madman stitched pieces from a dozen different body parts together and then used Voodoo magic, depraved science and arcane power to bring the patchwork soldier to life - and as Union river cruisers shelled the plantation, the patchwork man escaped and ran into the swamp. He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler.

That's where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich's war effort. Overall a great, fun romp chock full of derring-do and more prehistoric action than you can shake a stick at. Dinosaur Jazz has it all: Thanks to Curiosity Quills for bringing us fresh, young talent like this, to entertain and edify.

Again, this book is a series of episodes where Candle and Stein solve occult crimes and fight paranormal creatures. Fans of Lovecraft will cheer over their adventure in Innsmouth, and the entire book has Cthulhian images scattered throughout. There are a number of editing errors, but the stories are fast-paced and, like the first book, full of pulpy goodness.

Dinosaur Dust (The Jurassic Club #2)

Suspension of disbelief is required, but it is an enjoyable read. Jul 06, Sophie Duncan rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Lovers of pulp fiction with a supernatural twist. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Okay, I'm going to tell you what I liked about this book first and then I'm going to tell you why I'm also a little bit miffed so only gave it four rather than five stars!

Well, as in vol 1, this book has lots of action, blazing guns, occult nasties and is mostly written with a touch of humour although Crimson Catch gets a bit dark. And the best bit of that is, it's better written than vol 1. The stories flow better, the author really seems to have Okay, I'm going to tell you what I liked about this book first and then I'm going to tell you why I'm also a little bit miffed so only gave it four rather than five stars!

The stories flow better, the author really seems to have found his voice for Mort and this book is an easy read. I just love Weatherby, he's adorable: However, why I'm miffed comes in more than one packet, two to be exact. Biggie for me, Weatherby is hardly in it, sidelined for a preacher and Weatherby's sister, Selena.

That's not my only problem with it though. Because it jumps in in the middle, it's quite difficult to get a feel for the bad guys only a bit of tell, not showing about their history and we jump right to the prep for the big confrontation, no build up, no skirmishes, nothing. So I was a bit disappointed. Although I did like the final battle, monsters gave me the creeps, even if Weatherby had been written out!

I will add that breaking from the formula is not all bad, it works sometimes, like in Business Proposition, where it's told from Weatherby's POV - that really worked. My second peeve is a bigger one for me, because it is a pet peeve of mine. The last story, Crypt Crashers, is not a story in its own right, it's a starter for an arc. Now, I don't dislike arcs completely, what I dislike is when the reader or watcher satisfaction is sacrificed to feed the arc. And there was absolutely no reader satisfaction in this story, because it was failure for the heroes, not once, but three times.

First, they ignore perfectly good warnings from someone they trust, when, really, they should at least have taken precautions based on said warnings.

Description

Second, they lose the first round, okay, not a deal breaker, could just be a set up for the next round, but when they lose the final round as well, I was left really let down. There should have been something, they should have come away having at least bruised the big bad, so that he was going away to lick his wounds, but no, they just lost, plain and simple, leaving me, the reader, feeling very flat - at the end of the book, no less.

I wouldn't have minded the big bad getting away, it means they have a classic arch nemesis to pop up in the odd story, but just rubbing it in my face that the guy got away and beat them hollow and it was all their own fault, well, thanks for nothing! So, I still love Mort and Weatherby. I like their adventures, I like the gung-ho approach to dealing with the supernatural. But 4 out of 5 rather than the perfect five, mainly because of the arc-teaser story at the end. Nov 22, Donna rated it it was amazing Shelves: How did we end up here?

You've got 50 pages. Like in its predecessor ,COLD WARS is more like a loosely strung together anthology where each story could stand on its own but, you know, it kind of helps to read everything so you know the backstory of the little past snippets that keep being dropped. Between the old timey voice that you would expect to hear in some old school radio story that tough guy with the unidentifiable albeit probably New York accent with the super kitsch that drips from the words the Hawaiian print shirts, OMG Candle in a Hawaiian print shirt?

Check my last paragraph for more details. Not to mention his ability to set a scene perfectly. He captured the time period, the noir and any place he set the story in so well that I had a full-fledged 3D head movie going on when I read. So that was a little distracting, especially when words were missing.

And in the end. What can I say? It hit me right. I have book three on stand by. While it is left open for potentially more stories—just in case—the ongoing issues that have been faced throughout the series are all more-or-less cleared up, and this is a very satisfying conclusion to the overall series.

Michael Panush

I really do recommend you check out this talented, young writer—I know I have very much enjoyed his books. Nov 22, Donna rated it really liked it Shelves: How did we end up here? You've got 50 pages. The voice has always been an immediate hook, not to mention the body count. Never mind the fact that the book is less than pages long. I still enjoyed what I was readin How did we end up here? I still enjoyed what I was reading.

Red Reunion

The problem with reviewing a series individually is that you kind of run out of things to say if the status quo is met in each book. The voice was still spectacular and Panush kept the action coming with unique stories that certainly never disappointed. The introduction of Adam was a good twist, as was Chad. The latter humbled Mort a bit and it was nice to see his smart mouth shut a few times as a result. The editing quality is certainly degrading. The most obvious was the misuse of than vs. In a finished copy?

Adventure – Michael Panush

But really this is not okay. And in the end. The book works as either an anthology of similar stand-alone stories or a series of stories loosely strung together over the course of the books. I really think I just got lucky with Stein and Candle and I ended up with the best they had to offer right off the bat.

Nov 06, Maxine rated it really liked it. Weatherby Stein is a year-old genius with some strange relatives; Morton Candle aka Mort is an ex-soldier. Together, they run the Stein and Candle Detective Agency in the not-so-fabulous fifties.


  1. Fiddlers Philharmonic: Traditional Folk Fiddling for Cello and Bass!
  2. Get A Copy!
  3. The Stein & Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 2: Cold Wars.
  4. Linear Algebra and Its Applications (Pure and Applied Mathematics: A Wiley Series of Texts, Monographs and Tracts);
  5. Cold Wars (Stein & Candle Detective Agency, #2) by Michael Panush.
  6. The Affair.
  7. Tales of Dog Island: Betrayal.

Their world is fraught with dangers both normal and paranormal. Combine Boys Own Adventure Stories with the pulp fiction of the '50s, throw in some paranormal baddies, and serialize it and you've g Weatherby Stein is a year-old genius with some strange relatives; Morton Candle aka Mort is an ex-soldier. There's plenty of adventure, globe trotting, and tons of gun fights and, like the '50s books it pays homage to, it's a whole lot of fun without taking itself too seriously.

Reading this book won't make you smarter or better looking; you won't learn any important life lessons; listing it on your Curriculum Vitae won't get you into Harvard; and being seen with it won't help you pick up women or men. Reading it will, however, amuse the heck out of you and, really, isn't that sometimes all you want from a book? Jan 29, Ron rated it liked it Shelves: One tale leads into another so order is important for making sense story arcs. Basically, Stein and Candle get involved in various semi-legal dealings with teen-age black magic users, Japanese ghosts and ninjas attacking the Yakuza, the raising of Dracula, etc.

Not a bad, gun and magic filled set of adventures.