{"id":8341,"date":"2021-02-16T17:22:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T21:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8341"},"modified":"2021-02-16T22:34:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T02:34:54","slug":"book-review-conquer-john-conquer-series-book-1-by-edward-m-erdelac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-conquer-john-conquer-series-book-1-by-edward-m-erdelac\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Conquer (John Conquer Series, Book 1) by Edward M. Erdelac"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(\u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a> | \u00a0Amazon.com<\/a> )<\/p>\n

Conquer (John Conquer Series, Book 1) <\/em>by Edward M. Erdelac<\/p>\n

Independently published, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9798579334848<\/p>\n

Available : Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harlem, 1976: an era of bad clothes, bad habits, and bad music.\u00a0 From this scene emerges John Conquer, private investigator, and the baddest brother around.\u00a0 How bad?\u00a0 Well, “didn’t he kung-fu Frankenstein off the marquee at the Apollo, and bust him to pieces with John Henry’s hammer?\u00a0 Didn’t he go fishin’ and catch the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and throw him back because he was too small!\u00a0 He played ball with Dr. J in Rucker Park, and let him win!”\u00a0 Conquer is a folk hero to Harlem, and his exploits have grown into legend among the locals.\u00a0 These are his stories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Conquer<\/em> consists of seven short stories, three were previously published in Occult Detective Quarterly<\/em> in 2017.\u00a0 The stories are consistently entertaining, if a bit formulaic at the beginning of each story.\u00a0 They usually start with Detective Lou Lazzaroni of the NYPD being assigned a case.\u00a0 Lou realizes that the cases have a supernatural bent to them, and that’s where John Conquer steps in.\u00a0 Although he’s a standard PI, Conquer also has a deep knowledge of voodoo, hoodoo, and all kinds of occult stuff, as he was partially raised in Louisiana, America’s capital of pagan weirdness.\u00a0 It’s up to Conquer to solve the cases and save the day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author Erdelac has done a nice job writing a horror period piece: his portrayal of the late 1970s feels quite authentic, both in terms of setting (ox-blood leather coats, linoleum, lava lamps, etc.) and dialogue.\u00a0 The dialogue feels very accurate with its terminology and phrasing, and does a good job transporting the reader back to another time in American history.\u00a0 After Conquer is brought onto each case, the author shifts gears and shows a strong flair for creativity.\u00a0 Readers might assume that voodoo automatically means zombies, but only one story actually has the undead.\u00a0 Instead, Erdelac does a nice job cross-pollinating various African and Asian mythologies into the story.\u00a0 Examples include a Slip-Skin Hag (or ‘boo hag’), a Popobawa (a bat-wing creature) and a monster based on Dahomeyan beliefs that defies easy categorization.\u00a0 He did an excellent job researching these creatures for the book, but there are times when a little more explanation would have helped.\u00a0 Unless you’ve read Wade Davis’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, <\/em>terms like bokor, vodoun, veve<\/em>, and Papa Legba are likely to sail over the heads of most readers, sending them scrambling for Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The stories are fast with no wasted time. Conquer dives right into the action, destroying villains with often-creative methods, such as cigarettes laced with sage for exorcising demons, and a pocket-coating powder that renders pickpockets immobile and subject to Conquer’s commands.\u00a0 Part of the character’s appeal is that he doesn’t just blast away with his Colt Python, but often relies on his own magic methods to beat the baddies at their own game.\u00a0 Special mention must be made of a fantastic secondary character, in the form of the ghost of a dead pimp that haunts Conquer’s car, and speaks to him through the radio.\u00a0 \u00a0This also allows Conquer to control the car through voice command, when the ghost agrees.\u00a0 It’s like a bizarre 1970s version of the television show Knight Rider<\/em>, and the back and forth squabbling provides unexpected and welcome hilarity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Overall, Conquer<\/em> is a welcome horror novel throwback to another era.\u00a0 Let’s hope for more from Conquer and company in the future.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contains:\u00a0 violence, profanity<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(\u00a0Bookshop.org | \u00a0Amazon.com ) Conquer (John Conquer Series, Book 1) by Edward M. Erdelac Independently published, 2020 ISBN: 9798579334848 Available : Paperback, Kindle edition   Harlem, 1976: an era of bad clothes, bad habits, and bad music.\u00a0 From this scene emerges John Conquer, private investigator, and the baddest brother around.\u00a0 How bad?\u00a0 Well, “didn’t he<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4775,3782,4773,4774,1970,83,4776,1179,2718,2912,1526],"class_list":["post-8341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1970s","tag-african-american-characters","tag-conquer","tag-edward-m-erdelac","tag-historical-horror","tag-horror-fiction","tag-john-conquer","tag-monsters","tag-occult-detectives","tag-occult-horror","tag-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8341"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8350,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341\/revisions\/8350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}