One of the first stories I can remember being crazy for -- reading over and over -- was in an issue of a ‘70s Marvel Comics horror/suspense/EC Comics knock-off anthology comic book (to come up with the title, I’d have to go digging through the boxes of comics in my mom’s basement to find it, and that way lies madness).
Set on Devil’s Island, it was the story of one prisoner’s single-minded determination to escape. None of Papillon’s nobility for this guy: he screws over everyone to have his chance. In the end, justice is served, to put it mildly.
I hadn’t realized I’d been looking high and low for a final wallop with the same distinct flavor as that one until I ran across Honey In His Mouth, the Lester Dent novel that Hard Case Crime prized from oblivion this summer.
This book -- especially its ending -- made the seven-year old in me very, very happy.
