Logan

by Alan Joseph

The first of two fast-moving, thrill-packed novels about a man-of-action known simply as Logan, a sea-faring adventurer with a dark, mysterious past...and a hair-trigger temper. He can't be scared. He can't be bought. And he's as turbulent and dangerous as the seven seas.

Logan is docked in Panama. He returns to his boat with a lusty lady that he picked up in a bar...and finds a dead woman already in his bed. So it's no surprise to Logan when the police arrive moments later, tipped off by an anonymous caller. Logan is sure the frame-up has something to do with refusing, the night before, a $10,000 offer from a stranger to take care of a "delicate job." The stranger had warned him that they wouldn't take no for an answer. Now, to avoid torture and prison, Logan is forced into doing a dangerous sailing his boat and a sexy, mysterious woman into a South American war zone to dig up a corpse of a supposedly dead revolutionary for a positive I.D...and that's only the beginning of his troubles.

"Alan Joseph" was the pseudonym of the amazingly prolific Jon Messmann, author of the Revenger, Handyman and The Trailsman (as Jon Sharpe) series.

117 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 19, 2022

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jon Messman, writing as Alan Joseph, put out a series of two novels starring a taciturn moody guy name Logan, one name only like Westlake’s Parker. This might loosely fall into the category of nautical pulp, but one might more accurately categorize it as a nautical thriller. We never learn much about Logan’s mysterious past. We just know that he had some bad, painful chapters and he is mostly done with people except when he has to put up with them. He has a boat the Urchin, which looks like nothing on the outside, but has engines below deck to match anything else out there. He does odd jobs and heads from port to port without putting down any roots. Logan is not a white knight in shining armor the way Travis McGee, another nautical thriller kind of guy, is. Instead, Logan reluctantly gets pulled into situations he just does not really want to be a part of and the people he meets along the way generally meet his expectations, meaning they are all lying, backstabbing, misleading folks. The tale is filled with fast-paced, hard-edged action and passionate sex.

As our story opens, Logan is docked in Panama City, having brought a young girl he had met in a bar (Julie) who seemed like a Venus, Aphrodite, or Helen of Troy. He watches her start down the companionway to the cabin, “her firm, young rear wriggling in the too-tight black skirt.” But she never makes it to the cabin as a lifeless corpse is lying on the floor of the cabin. Moments later, the police arrive, having been the recipients of an anonymous tip. Logan quickly realizes he has been set up and, for some reason having to do with the man he met yesterday whose proposition he turned down from Senor Alvarez, is going to prison for a long time. The police see the body on his boat and no amount of explaining away will make any sense to them. This American came to Panama and killed a local woman on his boat. And, they are going to beat a confession out of him if it is the last thing they do.

You might assume that the story is all about Logan escaping from the local holding pen and somehow with the law and the bad guys after him, proving that some other dude did it. But that is not where this story goes. The corpse on Logan’s boat is only the stick Logan is being offered and he is quickly assured that the murder charge can go away if he cooperates with the Peruvian government who want him to take his small boat up a river into rebel territory with one agent as a passenger who can identify whether the rebel leader Panico has been killed or not.

What follows then is a men’s adventure tale up a mysterious river in rebel territory with the river patrolled by schools of piranhas and the left-wing revolutionaries ready to outsmart Logan at every turn. As it turns out, his passenger is the beautiful Ariana dos Vayez and she claims that she knew Panico from dating him in college and can readily identify his body. To Logan, it stinks. The whole thing makes little sense. But he looks at the wind blowing against her breasts and felt “the unsatisfied hunger inside himself rise like a dull ache.” He doesn’t necessarily trust Ariana, but figures that, if she wanted to play games, he would play too.

This distrust and uneasiness is a theme throughout both Logan novels. He feels passionate desire for Ariana, but feels that things do not add up and does not trust her. At any moment, he suspects the knife will be placed in his back.

The story is full of action and adventure and would have certainly made a terrific movie.

[Joshua Taj Bozeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, I this seemed kinda bad when I started. I had no idea where it would go, and I was definitely thrown off by the numerous somewhat extended sex scenes that kept taking place. I would probably put this, broadly, into the "men's adventure" genre, but they tend not to have so much sex, so that was like- whoa. Nothing too graphic. I have looked nothing up about this book, but I suspect it's from the 60's? I wanted to write this without any further information. I guess the word "nipples" was banned, because he talked about the "tips" of her breasts a lot.

Anyhow, Logan is a fun character if not a bit confusing. Not sure what he does for a living or how he made the money to buy a boat, I think the author did not mention this(?), but it works here. He's mysterious, somewhat of a bad ass, smart on a lot of different subjects, is filled with rage at some likely shitty past events, and he's given up on love and stuff like that. The backstory with the girl worked well, and the adventure parts were well written, nicely paced, and did not seem too crazy to buy into really.

I thought the reveal of what they were looking for was super clever, and I would have never thought to add an element like that. Was impressed to the point I mentioned this aspect of the plot to my next door neighbor. Perhaps I am easily impressed?

I liked it enough to head into the second and final book tonight. Fairly swift read, but nice ending...poignant and badass at the same time. Interested to see what part 2 brings and read more about the author (he wrote many books under pennames, I believe), and the timeframe in which it was written.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, tense, give it a read.

This book is hard to categorize. Sort of an adventure novel with thriller, mystery, and spy elements mixed in. It's a fast, fun read. Definitely worth giving it a shot.