Curse of the Red Maggot

Captain Hazzard #3

by Ron Fortier, Chester Hawks

CAPTAIN HAZZARD - CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT... Thought to be lost for all time, this classic Captain Hazzard story by Chester Hawks has been unearthed and once more completely rewritten and edited by modern day pulpsmith Ron Fortier! This 1938 exploit that pulp readers never saw is now, at long last, in print!... A heart shaped, blood-red pearl, in the hands of a master criminal has the power to incite bloody native revolts throughout the South Seas. Now, Captain Hazzard and his team of adventurers must travel half-way around the world to put an end to... the Curse of the Red Maggot!... Cover by Mark Maddox, with interior art by Rob Davis, this fantastic book also contains an interview with Rob Davis, which is illustrated with brand-new pin-ups of Captain Hazzard and his entire team! Not to be missed! A Ron Fortier Production.

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Thomas Fortenberry]

This is a rediscovered lost book of the pulp era, reedited and restored for our enjoyment. Part of the resurrected Captain Hazzard series, it is a good, fun read. Good to see more and more of the purely escapist adventures and pulp heroes returning to print.

[Robert]

After penning comics for years, including fan favorite issues of THE TERMINATOR and GREEN HORNET, author Ron Fortier became a leading standard bearer in the realm of “new pulp” novels, which feature new stories about old pulp magazine characters or new characters that fit the mold of classic pulp. One of the pulp characters Fortier resurrected is Captain Hazzard, a Doc Savage-style hero created by Chester Hawks in the late 1930s. I enjoyed the Audible edition of Fortier’s first Captain Hazzard novel, CITADEL OF FEAR, so I decided to go on to the next one, CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT. I’m glad I tried the audiobook versions of these novels, because it was kind of a revelation. I found listening to such action/adventure yarns can be even more fun than reading print versions. The CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT takes Hazzard and his friends on an exotic, danger-filled adventure to the South Seas, where they tangle with a particularly evil, evil mastermind, vicious Dyaks and various types of killer creatures. The narrator, Stuart Gauffi, is quite good. His voice is clear; his reading style is unhurried. He gives the voices of different characters recognizable differences, but doesn’t totally overdo it like some narrators do. I discovered that the audio version added another dimension I don’t get from reading a printed pulp yarn. It’s almost like listening to an old time radio show. In fact, CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT would make a great OTR production and if you listen with that in mind, you can almost hear it. If you want to take your mind on a fun, pulp-flavored vacation, buy the audio version of CURSE OF THE RED MAGGOT, put in your earbuds and lay back and enjoy it. I certainly did.