{"id":9898,"date":"2023-12-08T01:41:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T05:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=9898"},"modified":"2023-12-08T01:42:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T05:42:55","slug":"book-review-conquer-fear-of-a-black-cat-by-ed-erdelac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-conquer-fear-of-a-black-cat-by-ed-erdelac\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Conquer: Fear of a Black Cat by Edward M. Erdelac"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Conquer: Fear of a Black Cat <\/em>(John Conquer<\/em> series, book 2) by Edward M. Erdelac<\/p>\n

Self-published, 2023<\/p>\n

ISBN-13 \u200f : \u200e\u00a0<\/span>979-8856895413<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Buy:\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Forget about those silly excuses for black heroes that Marvel comes up with: if you want a real<\/em> black hero-you call John Conquer.\u00a0 Whereas book 1 in the series was a collection of short stories, Conquer gets his own full-length (over 500 pages) novel this time. \u00a0\u00a0The book succeeds on all levels, and hopefully won’t be the last one in the series.\u00a0 John Conquer is without a doubt one of the most interesting book characters out there today.<\/p>\n

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Set in 1978 Harlem, private investigator John Conquer has finally got a case that may be too much for him.\u00a0 People are turning up dead all over Harlem with their hands cut off.\u00a0 For Conquer, this case is personal- one of the victims is the lady who raised him.\u00a0 What follows is a good detective crime story that races all over the city, from Studio 54, to CBGB’s, to Untermeyer Park, as Conquer tries to put the pieces together.<\/p>\n

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This book is a period piece, and in that aspect, it’s absolutely perfect.\u00a0 The author did a staggering job of making 1970’s NYC seem real: this seems so true to life you can almost smell the spray from the graffiti on the subways.\u00a0 The descriptions, the mannerisms, the dialogue: it’s all perfectly true to life.\u00a0 The book is a phenomenal example of world-building: .<\/p>\n

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The plot itself is a good one. The author again does a fantastic job of mixing voodoo and all sorts of magic into a standard detective story. It’s what gives the Conquer<\/em> stories their unique flavor.\u00a0 Sometimes Conquer has to pound the pavement like a normal detective, but often he has voodoo tricks he can use to help solve the case.\u00a0 One improvement over the last book is this time, some of the lesser-known gods and magic items come with a bit of background, so readers won’t need to make Wikipedia runs.\u00a0 Some of the characters from the previous stories return. Detective Lou Lazzaroni plays a part, and Conquer is, thankfully, still driving the Cordoba inhabited by the wise-cracking ghost, Pope.\u00a0 Conquer and Pope make a perfectly mismatched team, especially when they are squabbling about disco.\u00a0 Some real people from the 1970s also pop up in the story.\u00a0 David ‘Son of Sam’ Berkowitz plays a part, and there are also appearances by Muhammed Ali, Andy Warhol, and\u2026Donald Trump.\u00a0 (anti-Trumpers will be ecstatic with Trump’s part)\u00a0 The gangs from the 1970’s cult classic film The Warriors<\/em> also pop up in the narrative.\u00a0 The new characters in the book are quite intriguing, with Conquer’s drunken sort-of security guard Oshkosh being one of the most fun.\u00a0 For a detective story, this one has a fair amount to keep track of, but the author wisely inserted a recap into the story around page 300 for any readers who might have gotten a bit lost.<\/p>\n

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‘Da bottom line here: this is a fantastic knockout of a story.\u00a0 You wanna hang with the slickest, baddest cat out there? You’ve gotta read Conquer.\u00a0 Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ll see of him.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

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

Conquer: Fear of a Black Cat (John Conquer series, book 2) by Edward M. Erdelac Self-published, 2023 ISBN-13 \u200f : \u200e\u00a0979-8856895413 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy:\u00a0Amazon.com     Forget about those silly excuses for black heroes that Marvel comes up with: if you want a real black hero-you call John Conquer.\u00a0 Whereas book 1 in<\/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":[4775,5454,5506,458,4774,5504,645,749,4776,4845,5505,3406],"class_list":["post-9898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1970s","tag-black-representation","tag-conquer-fear-of-a-black-cat","tag-detective-fiction","tag-edward-m-erdelac","tag-harlem","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-books","tag-john-conquer","tag-son-of-sam","tag-supernatural-detectives","tag-voodoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898","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=9898"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9977,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions\/9977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}