Brother Bones Review

 

I’ve reviewed several Airship 27 series already (see here, here, and here). This time, though, the series is not one from the golden age of pulp, but a new one: “Brother Bones,” The Undead Avenger.

As the ‘undead’ part of the title suggests, Brother Bones is indeed a horror title, the main character being a zombie. It’s also a title mainly written by one author, Ron Frontier himself (he owns Airship 27). Merely the second book and only full novel, “Six Days of the Dragon,” was not written by him. The other three books are filled with his stories. Because of this, the stories show a progression of the main characters, which include, in addition to Brother Bones, formerly Tommy Bonello, about half a dozen other characters, from his at first unwilling helper Bobby Crandall over Bobby’s love interest Paula Wozcheski to Lieutenant Detective Dan Rains and reporter Sally Paige. On the other side of the law, there’s people like Harry Beest and Alexis Wyld, who turn up every now and then, as does the mad Doctor Bugosi, at least until his demise in the fourth book.

As a matter of fact, the reader spends little time in Brother Bones’ head. Bones is undead, has come back from the limbo between heaven and hell for a chance to clean his soul of the many, many sins he committed in life. When he’s not out dealing out revenge and justice for the innocent dead, he is sitting in a chair in a dark bedroom and simply waiting for the next assignment. The other characters of the stories are much more interesting, because they still do have a life. Yet, it is Brother Bones who brings them together and who often brings about the conclusion of the story.

The first story of the first book, “The Bone Brothers,” tells the origin story of the Undead Avenger. Once he was one half of the most deadly, ruthless, and brutal pair of killers in the employ of Topper Wyld, one of the two major crime bosses of the fictional northwest harbour city of Cape Noir. Jack and Tommy Bonello were twins, looking so much like each other that it took the tattoos on their right hands to know one from the other. They had no conscience and enjoyed wreaking havoc and ending lives. Until, one night, one of their victims thanked Tommy for her death. He couldn’t forget the girl’s voice, saw her in his dreams every night, almost went mad with it. He disappeared and joined a monastery. His calm second life lasted for a few months, until his brother found him and killed not only Tommy, but also the other monks, before setting the monastery on fire. Tommy found himself in a limbo between heaven and hell and stayed there for a while, until the girl turned up as his spiritual guide and gave him a choice: return to the world of the living to make up for his sins or go straight to hell. Tommy chose atonement and was sent back. He materialized as a ghost in a warehouse, where his brother had just burned the second big boss of the city alive, ended Jack’s life, and took over his dead body. He forced the second victim of the night, Blackjack Bobby Crandall, the recently deceased boss’ driver, into his service, and had him drive them to the burned-down monastery, where he found a face mask looking like a skull (made by one of the other monks before their deaths) and took it for his work.

Brother Bones’ signature look are his skull mask, which hides his decaying face, a wide-brimmed Fedora, a more and more tattered black coat, and two silver-plated .45 automatic pistols, which he dual-wields like no living being ever could. Bones knows no fear and feels no pain, which makes him a frightening foe to fight. He is almost indestructible and can return to his body even after another ‘death’ after twenty-four hours (as demonstrated in “The Synthetic Man”). Only magic can truly endanger him.

Yet, he doesn’t choose his targets himself, they are chosen for him by the powers that be. And while he’s not worried about killing more crooks, if they are between him and his target, he will not kill or endanger the innocent.

Paula Wozcheski, however, might be the character which changes most throughout the stories. In “The Scales of Terror,” she is introduced as the wife of a harbour worker who works in the same casino as Bobby and thinks her husband is cheating on her. She finds out it’s much worse and only comes out alive due to Brother Bones’ intervention. Afterwards, now widowed, she gets closer and closer to Bobby, until they become an on-off couple. Then, in “The Bruiser from Bavaria,” she is turned into a vampire, but Bones doesn’t go after her. He gives her one rule, though: not to kill the innocent, but still her hunger on the criminals of Cape Noir, which are plentiful. Paula adheres to that rule and, over time, takes on the identity of ‘Sister Blood,’ turning herself into the guardian of the women of Cape Noir and going for men who mistreat them (justifying her identity as Sister Blood with ‘you started that’ when Bones asks her about it). More than once, she fights by Bones’ side and, after initially trying to push him away, she stays in a relationship with Bobby, who doesn’t mind a vampire for a girlfriend (although, to be fair, he’s been sharing his flat with a zombie for about three years already).

The change which the characters show is a nice difference to Airship 27’s other publications which, due to their many authors, leave the characters more or less untouched by any events which unfold. Because there’s (almost) only one author writing the stories, Brother Bones and the others are allowed to grow.

Another nice touch are the female main characters of the story. Neither Sally, nor Paula, nor Alexis are likely to be easily threatened. Paula gets damselled twice: once in “The Scales of Terror” and once in “The Bruiser from Bavaria,” but comes out stronger after both encounters (a lot stronger after the second one, since she is turned into a vampire). Sally holds herself rather well, even in dangerous situations, and Alexis is no less cold-blooded or ruthless than her father, as she proves several times throughout the stories, too.

The stories themselves are what you might expect from a horror pulp about a zombie avenger. There’s the classic horror creatures such as werewolves (“Shield & Claw”), vampires (“The Bruiser from Bavaria”), zombies (“See Spot Kill”), Lovecraftian horrors (“The Scales of Terror”), man-made monsters (“The Synthetic Man” or “The Plastic Army”), human monsters (“The Butcher’s Festival”) and much more.

The only negative aspect of the stories is the editing, I’m afraid. I’ve not read the stories with my editor’s eye on, but easily spotted many errors which should have been found and corrected before the stories were released. While it’s easy enough to ignore them, because the stories are interesting to read and well-written on the whole, it’s something which a professional publishing house should have been able to catch. I do catch most errors, even while I’m just doing my own editing, yet if I could employ another editor for a second pair of eyes, I certainly would do so.

Editing notwithstanding, I can only recommend the series. The stories are well-written, the quality is good to excellent, the characters are engaging and allowed to grow, and the setting is one to quickly get comfortable in. A trip to Cape Noir can be a lot of fun, even with the black-clad avenger who calls himself “Brother Bones.”