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Big Red's Daughter / Tokyo Doll
BIG RED'S DAUGHTER
It all starts with a road accident. Jim Work has just returned from Korea and is driving around Carmel. Buddy Brown cuts in front of him, they collide. And that's how he meets Wild Kearny, Buddy's girl. But the first thing Work sees when he gets out of his car is Buddy's fist. Buddy likes to make a quick impression. In fact, as Work finds out, Buddy likes to inflict pain in general. After they fight, and Work gets the worst of it, he follows them up to Wild's pad, the Zoo, where he meets her rich friends. Wild's hot-headed father is coming to town, and she asks Work if he would pose as her boyfriend so she won't have to introduce Buddy. She knows her father well enough to know they won't get along. Big Red Kearny isn't a man to mince words--if Work is the boyfriend, then Work is going to marry his daughter. But not if Buddy finds him first. And so begins the wildest weekend of Jim Work's life.
TOKYO DOLL
Mate Buchanan has fought in WWII and in Korea. He's paid his dues and been discharged without prejudice, but only just. Now they want him back. Back to Occupied Japan, where a Japanese scientist may have found a virus to heal radiation sickness. Trouble is, Dr. Tsumi hates Americans. So the plan is to work through the daughter. Mate is to marry her, and bring her and her father's secrets back to the States. It isn't his fault that he falls in love with Sandra Tann, a tall, golden girl and the Tokyo Doll of Far East airwaves. It isn't his fault that every move he makes is blocked by Colonel Barham, who is convinced that Mate is working for the Reds. Nor is it his fault that everyone who is looking for the virus believes it to be a killer rather than a cure--an ultimate weapon in the Cold War!
It all starts with a road accident. Jim Work has just returned from Korea and is driving around Carmel. Buddy Brown cuts in front of him, they collide. And that's how he meets Wild Kearny, Buddy's girl. But the first thing Work sees when he gets out of his car is Buddy's fist. Buddy likes to make a quick impression. In fact, as Work finds out, Buddy likes to inflict pain in general. After they fight, and Work gets the worst of it, he follows them up to Wild's pad, the Zoo, where he meets her rich friends. Wild's hot-headed father is coming to town, and she asks Work if he would pose as her boyfriend so she won't have to introduce Buddy. She knows her father well enough to know they won't get along. Big Red Kearny isn't a man to mince words--if Work is the boyfriend, then Work is going to marry his daughter. But not if Buddy finds him first. And so begins the wildest weekend of Jim Work's life.
TOKYO DOLL
Mate Buchanan has fought in WWII and in Korea. He's paid his dues and been discharged without prejudice, but only just. Now they want him back. Back to Occupied Japan, where a Japanese scientist may have found a virus to heal radiation sickness. Trouble is, Dr. Tsumi hates Americans. So the plan is to work through the daughter. Mate is to marry her, and bring her and her father's secrets back to the States. It isn't his fault that he falls in love with Sandra Tann, a tall, golden girl and the Tokyo Doll of Far East airwaves. It isn't his fault that every move he makes is blocked by Colonel Barham, who is convinced that Mate is working for the Reds. Nor is it his fault that everyone who is looking for the virus believes it to be a killer rather than a cure--an ultimate weapon in the Cold War!
258 pages, Paperback
Published March 3, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 26, 2017
Somehow, John McPartland slipped under my radar. He wrote thirteen novels back in the ‘50s, and I’d never heard of him until I got this book. But Jeez, it was worth the wait. This guy was a hell of a writer.
These two novels are extremely different in cast in setting, but have several things in common. Both are narrated by first-person tough guys, and the prose is top notch. Both narrators are good with their fists and enjoy using them, even when they lose. And each encounters a babe who immediately becomes THE woman, the only woman who matters and who could ever matter. And both novels are of the grab the reader by the throat and drag him all the way to the end variety I’ve come to expect in Stark House’s line of Crime Classics.
Big Red’s Daughter plays out against the bohemian jazz scene in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Our hero Jim Work is fresh out of the navy and looking to start college. But his life takes a crazy turn when his car smacks into an MG driven by a world class asshole called Buddy Brown. After a brutal fist fight, he meets—and falls for—Buddy’s girl, a tall long-legged blonde named Wild Kearney. Yep, “Wild” is her real name, as well as her demeanor.
Jim is instantly sucked into Wild’s world of spoiled twenty-somethings rebelling with whatever methods are at hand—in this case drugs, booze, jazz and sex. That wouldn’t be so bad if not for the presence of Buddy Brown, a sadistic psychopath who is addictive to all women, and Wild in particular.
Next thing he knows, Jim is dodging the cops who want him first for one murder, then another. Buddy’s evil aura looms over the whole landscape, while Jim’s obsession with Wild colors his every move.
When he’s caught, this exchange sums it up:
“Quite a week end for you, Work,” said the policeman next to me in the back of the car. “Kill a girl. Kill a guy. Escape from jail. Almost beat a man to death in front of his mother. Shoot another man.”
“It’s been quite a week end,” I agreed.
And there’s more to come. Read it and see.
Tokyo Doll is a high octane thriller set—you guessed it—in Tokyo. It’s 1949, and the U.S. Occupation is about to end. The commies are chomping at the bit. That’s when ex-serviceman Mate Buchanan is recruited by an unnamed agency to save the world. Or so he’s told.
A Japanese scientist, the story goes, created a virus that healed radiation on a test subjects after the bomb hit Hiroshima. Mate’s job is to get that virus, by any means necessary, before the Reds get it, and before the old guy has a chance to destroy it. The plan is for Mate to seduce the scientist’s daughter, in hopes of ferreting out his hiding place.
But before finding the daughter, Mate foils an assassination attempt on the Tokyo Doll—a lovely American babe who sings to GIs on Armed Forces Radio—and falls hard. The Doll, another tall leggy blonde (methinks McPartland has a type), claims to fall for him too, but she’s messing around with a wealthy Japanese dude, and Army Intelligence suspects her of being a Red.
Meanwhile, the scientist’s daughter, also a beauty, dims Mate’s ardor by chopping off her current boyfriend’s manhood. Seems the guy—a U.S. Army officer--was dumping her and returning to his wife. Now Mate has to hide her from both the police and the army while he makes unwilling love to her, all the while pining for the Tokyo Doll.
More trouble: The police suspect him of murder, a guy twice his size want to murder him, and the Army thinks he’s a traitor. They’re convinced the virus is a weapon rather a cure, and are frantic to destroy it before the Reds get it. And the Tokyo Doll? She’s still professing her love, while messing around with Mate’s arch enemy and acting Redder than ever.
What to believe? Who to believe? And what the heck to do about it? If Mate completes his mission, will he be saving the world or dooming it? Yikes!
Two great reads, one great writer. You can’t lose on this one.
These two novels are extremely different in cast in setting, but have several things in common. Both are narrated by first-person tough guys, and the prose is top notch. Both narrators are good with their fists and enjoy using them, even when they lose. And each encounters a babe who immediately becomes THE woman, the only woman who matters and who could ever matter. And both novels are of the grab the reader by the throat and drag him all the way to the end variety I’ve come to expect in Stark House’s line of Crime Classics.
Big Red’s Daughter plays out against the bohemian jazz scene in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Our hero Jim Work is fresh out of the navy and looking to start college. But his life takes a crazy turn when his car smacks into an MG driven by a world class asshole called Buddy Brown. After a brutal fist fight, he meets—and falls for—Buddy’s girl, a tall long-legged blonde named Wild Kearney. Yep, “Wild” is her real name, as well as her demeanor.
Jim is instantly sucked into Wild’s world of spoiled twenty-somethings rebelling with whatever methods are at hand—in this case drugs, booze, jazz and sex. That wouldn’t be so bad if not for the presence of Buddy Brown, a sadistic psychopath who is addictive to all women, and Wild in particular.
Next thing he knows, Jim is dodging the cops who want him first for one murder, then another. Buddy’s evil aura looms over the whole landscape, while Jim’s obsession with Wild colors his every move.
When he’s caught, this exchange sums it up:
“Quite a week end for you, Work,” said the policeman next to me in the back of the car. “Kill a girl. Kill a guy. Escape from jail. Almost beat a man to death in front of his mother. Shoot another man.”
“It’s been quite a week end,” I agreed.
And there’s more to come. Read it and see.
Tokyo Doll is a high octane thriller set—you guessed it—in Tokyo. It’s 1949, and the U.S. Occupation is about to end. The commies are chomping at the bit. That’s when ex-serviceman Mate Buchanan is recruited by an unnamed agency to save the world. Or so he’s told.
A Japanese scientist, the story goes, created a virus that healed radiation on a test subjects after the bomb hit Hiroshima. Mate’s job is to get that virus, by any means necessary, before the Reds get it, and before the old guy has a chance to destroy it. The plan is for Mate to seduce the scientist’s daughter, in hopes of ferreting out his hiding place.
But before finding the daughter, Mate foils an assassination attempt on the Tokyo Doll—a lovely American babe who sings to GIs on Armed Forces Radio—and falls hard. The Doll, another tall leggy blonde (methinks McPartland has a type), claims to fall for him too, but she’s messing around with a wealthy Japanese dude, and Army Intelligence suspects her of being a Red.
Meanwhile, the scientist’s daughter, also a beauty, dims Mate’s ardor by chopping off her current boyfriend’s manhood. Seems the guy—a U.S. Army officer--was dumping her and returning to his wife. Now Mate has to hide her from both the police and the army while he makes unwilling love to her, all the while pining for the Tokyo Doll.
More trouble: The police suspect him of murder, a guy twice his size want to murder him, and the Army thinks he’s a traitor. They’re convinced the virus is a weapon rather a cure, and are frantic to destroy it before the Reds get it. And the Tokyo Doll? She’s still professing her love, while messing around with Mate’s arch enemy and acting Redder than ever.
What to believe? Who to believe? And what the heck to do about it? If Mate completes his mission, will he be saving the world or dooming it? Yikes!
Two great reads, one great writer. You can’t lose on this one.
February 1, 2019
This is the first time I’ve read John McPartland’s work and I simply loved it. In this novel, readers are introduced to Jim Work who has just returned from Korea and driving around Carmel. He gets into a fender bender with Buddy Brown who beats him up. While this is happening, Jim gets smitten by Wild Kearny, Buddy’s girlfriend who watched the fight.
If that wasn’t enough, Jim follows them up to Wild’s place, called the Zoo and meets her rich friends. Jim then challenges Buddy again and gets the brunt of Buddy’s knuckles. Buddy leaves to get his car fixed and that’s when Wild makes a proposal to Jim. She wants him to act as her boyfriend and to meet her father, Big Red Kearny. Unbeknownst to her Big Red wants to her get married immediately and all hell broke loose when Big Red realizes that Buddy was his daughter’s boyfriend and not Jim. But Jim is on a mission to make Wild his girl and the only way to do that would be to get Buddy out of the way.
Things then went all kinds of left: Wild’s friend, Pen Brooks is in love with Buddy, but engaged to Pete Barrow, Pen is killed with a pair of scissors, Jim is accused of murder, then there’s drug smuggling ring, alibis and more lies. This was definitely a roller coaster ride and I enjoyed every minute of the description, dialogue and romantic entanglements.
Great read! Two thumbs up!
My favorite lines:
“I’m Jim Work,” I told the police. "Wild Kearny is in the cabin of a boat at the end of the Fishermen’s Wharf, bound and gagged. Better hurry.”
They hustled me into the back of a squad car and sirened down the black and out of the end of the wharf.
Quite a weekend for you, Work,” said the policeman next to me in the back of the car. “Kill a girl. Kill a guy. Escape from jail. Almost beat a man to death in front of his mother. Shoot another man.”
It’s been quite a weekend,” I agreed.
What a character!”
If that wasn’t enough, Jim follows them up to Wild’s place, called the Zoo and meets her rich friends. Jim then challenges Buddy again and gets the brunt of Buddy’s knuckles. Buddy leaves to get his car fixed and that’s when Wild makes a proposal to Jim. She wants him to act as her boyfriend and to meet her father, Big Red Kearny. Unbeknownst to her Big Red wants to her get married immediately and all hell broke loose when Big Red realizes that Buddy was his daughter’s boyfriend and not Jim. But Jim is on a mission to make Wild his girl and the only way to do that would be to get Buddy out of the way.
Things then went all kinds of left: Wild’s friend, Pen Brooks is in love with Buddy, but engaged to Pete Barrow, Pen is killed with a pair of scissors, Jim is accused of murder, then there’s drug smuggling ring, alibis and more lies. This was definitely a roller coaster ride and I enjoyed every minute of the description, dialogue and romantic entanglements.
Great read! Two thumbs up!
My favorite lines:
“I’m Jim Work,” I told the police. "Wild Kearny is in the cabin of a boat at the end of the Fishermen’s Wharf, bound and gagged. Better hurry.”
They hustled me into the back of a squad car and sirened down the black and out of the end of the wharf.
Quite a weekend for you, Work,” said the policeman next to me in the back of the car. “Kill a girl. Kill a guy. Escape from jail. Almost beat a man to death in front of his mother. Shoot another man.”
It’s been quite a weekend,” I agreed.
What a character!”
March 19, 2026
“Big Red’s Daughter/Tokyo Doll” isn’t the kind of book I normally pick up, but I ended up loving it. The two stories are fast‑paced and full of action, and they pulled me in right from the start. The characters feel alive, and the first‑person, past‑tense narration gives the whole book an immediacy that works really well. The main characters go through one trial after another—some of them nearly break them—but that journey makes the payoff at the end even more satisfying. The plots are tight, the momentum never lags, and everything comes together in a way that feels earned. A gripping read with a rewarding finish, especially for readers who enjoy character‑driven action with a touch of romance.”
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews