Hunter of Monsters: A Review of the Cal McDonald Novels by James Christopher Maddox |
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"In the car I popped a couple of pills from the hospital and washed it down with the booze. It occurred to me it might not be safe to mix the two, but I figured the results would become apparent soon enough."
Meet Cal McDonald.
Now, run.
The abovementioned quote comes from the novel Savage Membrane, written by Steve Niles, and exemplifies Cal's attitude toward doing things, which is "Do it and let the consequences come if they dare." True to the old detectives that wait for us with lit cigarettes, brown overcoats and fedoras, possibly a shotgun in the crook of their arm, Cal breathes hardboiled life into everything he does.
Savage Membrane is a mystery, but what separates it from The Big Sleep or The Glass Key is the use of the supernatural. The unabashed use of the supernatural. Not that Niles should be embarrassed of employing such a factor into his writing. This combining of two old genres works so well, it makes my teeth hurt. After reading through any Cal mystery, I automatically want to become a substance abusing detective with focuses on the undead and paranormal.
The only problem is that there is too little of Cal in print.
At present, Cal exists in written form via three books: Savage Membrane, Dial M for Monster (short stories), and Guns, Drugs, and Monsters. Published by IDW, the famed small press comics publisher, we can easily see why there are no more print versions of Cal. All other stories involving the detective and his ghoul have been made into comic books; and though these are damn good comic books, they still don't have the same attraction.
I mean how do you relate the following in panel form?
I sat in my chair and stared at the face of my probable future; the monster hunter, finally beaten. Finally outsmarted. Somebody, more likely something, had done this to him. Now it had been sent to me, I assumed, as some kind of twisted warning. Fuck them. It would take more then a head to frighten me. I wasn't scared in the least.
Not until the eyes fluttered. Not until the head moved.
It's writing like this that makes me a Cal reader. It's what got me hooked on the tales of this particular underdog detective.
Niles has written a number of other kinds of stories since writing his Cal mysteries, but for me, Cal's are the books I keep coming back to, the ones that get the re-reads, and the re-re-reads. They're fun and grotesque and strange as hell, but most of all, they are signature in a way that no other fiction can be, because Cal is the embodiment of all the things they Raymond Chandler may have wanted to symbolize with Philip Marlowe but ultimately only able to scratch the surface.
It's right there. Right in the text: the monster hunter. The same way Sam Spade went after the bad guys, Cal goes after the bad. Pairing the detective story with the monster influence does more to the crime genre than should be allowed. It's basic symbolism at its finest.
Of course, this symbolism may prove too obvious to some readers, thus making it a bit bland or overstated. Also, Cal's roots to comics and his off humor is not for everyone. At times rough, other times unsettled, a character like Cal is ripe for attracting a certain kind of audience, who just happen to buy into his grit and gruff like it's the most natural thing in the world. The same way that select people don't enjoy the hardboiled classics, readers are going to find Cal a tough pill to swallow if they don't go into the story with at least a sense of humor and the total suspension of disbelief.
For me, however, I'll say this: if you've never heard of Cal, you're in for a treat.
If you know of Cal, you're either nodding your head right now, or you've got you're nose and lips scrunched up in distaste of my claims.
Either way, I doubt Cal himself would really give a damn.
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