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Stein & Candle Detective Agency #1
American Nightmares
Morton Candle is a tough guy.
He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler. That's where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich's war effort.
Morton Candle got Weatherby to safety, but the kid's parents didn't make it.
Now it's the 1950s.
Weatherby's a teenager, with his father's knowledge and a chip on his shoulder from the indignities of the modern world. Morton bumps into him again and they decide to go into the only business they can - paranormal private detectives.
This time, Weatherby and Mort have cases that will take them from a vampire's decaying mansion to the mob-controlled streets of Havana. They'll take on roadside attractions gone wrong, hordes of the living dead, and ride against the devil in a high speed car race to the death.
Between them, Weatherby and Mort have a small arsenal and a deep knowledge of matters arcane and bizarre. They'll need brains and brawn to survive in a world where horror, action and hardboiled noir come together in a cataclysmic mix.
He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler. That's where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich's war effort.
Morton Candle got Weatherby to safety, but the kid's parents didn't make it.
Now it's the 1950s.
Weatherby's a teenager, with his father's knowledge and a chip on his shoulder from the indignities of the modern world. Morton bumps into him again and they decide to go into the only business they can - paranormal private detectives.
This time, Weatherby and Mort have cases that will take them from a vampire's decaying mansion to the mob-controlled streets of Havana. They'll take on roadside attractions gone wrong, hordes of the living dead, and ride against the devil in a high speed car race to the death.
Between them, Weatherby and Mort have a small arsenal and a deep knowledge of matters arcane and bizarre. They'll need brains and brawn to survive in a world where horror, action and hardboiled noir come together in a cataclysmic mix.
254 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 9, 2012
9 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Michael Panush
31 books35 followersMichael Panush has distinguished himself as one of Sacramento’s most promising young writers.
His books with Curiosity Quills include The Stein and Candle Detective Agency, Volume 1: American Nightmares, Volume 2: Cold Wars, and Volume 3: Red Reunion, all featuring a pair of occult detectives in the 1950s, Dinosaur Jazz— where The Great Gatsby meets Jurassic Park — a story about a Lost World battling against the forces of modernization; El Mosaico, Volume 1: Scarred Souls, Volume 2: The Road to Hellfire, and El Mosaico, Volume 3: Hellfire, a Western about a bounty hunter whose body was assembled from the remains of dead Civil War soldiers and brought to life by mad science; and Dead Man’s Drive, a 1950s urban fantasy about a hot rod-riding zombie. With Airship 27, he created the Clay Shamus—a story of a golem detective. His short fiction has been published in Towers of Metropolis and George Chance: The Green Ghost from Airship 27. His Latest book is Ape's Honor, a Novel of Victoria's Ape, from Pro Se Press.
Michael began telling stories when he was only nine years old. He won first place in the Sacramento Storyteller’s Guild “Liar’s Contest” in 2002 and was a finalist in the National Youth Storytelling Olympics in 2003.
In 2007, Michael was selected as a California Art’s Scholar and attended the Innerspark Summer Writing Program at the CalArts Institute. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2012, recently attended the School of Education at the Loyola-Marymount University and currently resides in Sacramento.
Follow him on twitter at https://twitter.com/Michael_Panush
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 6, 2020
I had absolutely no idea about what to expect from this book. Frankly speaking, the notion of a hardboiled PI and a teenager doubling up to solve supernatural crimes had seemed pretty laughable. But...
The book turned out to be possessing unexpected depths!
It didn’t have any preamble. Instead, we drove into the narrative very-very directly. The stories were:
(*) Candle and Stein Cases:
1. The Bloodsucker's Goodbye
2. Black Havana
3. I Rode in the Devil's Hot Rod
4. Monsters of Mallet
5. Zombies in Paradise
6. War Stories
7. Roadside Rampage
(*) Sampler:
[1] A Taste of El Mosaico: The Road to Hellfire
[2] A Taste of Dinosaur Jazz
I loved the stories, even the samplers. They seemed to be some of the finest examples of new pulp— sensitive yet fast, humorous yet dark, ruthless yet poignant. Most importantly, the stories showcased the fact that humans are the worst monsters— again and again.
I would revisit the world of Candle and Stein as early as possible. Wish you to do the same, ASAP.
Highly recommended.
The book turned out to be possessing unexpected depths!
It didn’t have any preamble. Instead, we drove into the narrative very-very directly. The stories were:
(*) Candle and Stein Cases:
1. The Bloodsucker's Goodbye
2. Black Havana
3. I Rode in the Devil's Hot Rod
4. Monsters of Mallet
5. Zombies in Paradise
6. War Stories
7. Roadside Rampage
(*) Sampler:
[1] A Taste of El Mosaico: The Road to Hellfire
[2] A Taste of Dinosaur Jazz
I loved the stories, even the samplers. They seemed to be some of the finest examples of new pulp— sensitive yet fast, humorous yet dark, ruthless yet poignant. Most importantly, the stories showcased the fact that humans are the worst monsters— again and again.
I would revisit the world of Candle and Stein as early as possible. Wish you to do the same, ASAP.
Highly recommended.
July 20, 2012
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
I don't know if it's been simple mistakes I've been experiencing recently, or if the public is having a harder and harder time telling the difference, or if it's a case of publishers trying to eat their cake and have it too, but it seems lately that I've been receiving a growing amount of review books specifically marketed to me as grown-up titles, when after reading them I've realized that they are actually Young Adult at best, or even juvenilia at worst. I mean, take Michael Panush's The Stein & Candle Detective Agency, Volume 1 for example, which I know for a fact was publicized as adult fiction when first pitched to me at the electronic ARC service NetGalley.com, because I just checked again right this second and it's still listed there as such; but after reading just the first few stories in this blam-blam alt-history serial actioner, I came to realize not only that it's something only an overly caffeinated thirteen-year-old boy could love, but that it even sounds like an overly caffeinated thirteen-year-old boy wrote it, a cartoonishly immature thriller in which a whole series of easy cliches (steampunk, private eyes, Nazis, '50s biker gangs, vampires, etc) are haphazardly stirred together into a muddled, unsatisfying stew, and then garnished with the kinds of jokes you might hear at a junior-high-school talent show. I'm not sure whether to be more troubled by the fact that this was thought to be appropriate to pitch to me as a middle-aged reviewer of exclusively adult fiction, or that this would indeed be appropriate anymore with an alarmingly high number of genre-fiction litbloggers; and while I agree that it's unfair to single out Stein & Candle for this entire phenomenon, this is certainly the first time that I've specifically stopped and thought out loud, "This was glaringly inappropriate to publicize to someone like me, and it really bothers me that the publisher has received justification from our arrested-development culture at large to do so anyway." Buyer beware.
Out of 10: 6.4
I don't know if it's been simple mistakes I've been experiencing recently, or if the public is having a harder and harder time telling the difference, or if it's a case of publishers trying to eat their cake and have it too, but it seems lately that I've been receiving a growing amount of review books specifically marketed to me as grown-up titles, when after reading them I've realized that they are actually Young Adult at best, or even juvenilia at worst. I mean, take Michael Panush's The Stein & Candle Detective Agency, Volume 1 for example, which I know for a fact was publicized as adult fiction when first pitched to me at the electronic ARC service NetGalley.com, because I just checked again right this second and it's still listed there as such; but after reading just the first few stories in this blam-blam alt-history serial actioner, I came to realize not only that it's something only an overly caffeinated thirteen-year-old boy could love, but that it even sounds like an overly caffeinated thirteen-year-old boy wrote it, a cartoonishly immature thriller in which a whole series of easy cliches (steampunk, private eyes, Nazis, '50s biker gangs, vampires, etc) are haphazardly stirred together into a muddled, unsatisfying stew, and then garnished with the kinds of jokes you might hear at a junior-high-school talent show. I'm not sure whether to be more troubled by the fact that this was thought to be appropriate to pitch to me as a middle-aged reviewer of exclusively adult fiction, or that this would indeed be appropriate anymore with an alarmingly high number of genre-fiction litbloggers; and while I agree that it's unfair to single out Stein & Candle for this entire phenomenon, this is certainly the first time that I've specifically stopped and thought out loud, "This was glaringly inappropriate to publicize to someone like me, and it really bothers me that the publisher has received justification from our arrested-development culture at large to do so anyway." Buyer beware.
Out of 10: 6.4
April 16, 2012
Book Info: Genre: Action & Adventure (per the publisher); paranormal noir (per me) Reading Level: Adult but has YA character
Disclosure: I was offered an eGalley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I already had a copy I had picked up free from Amazon, but was more than happy to accept the offer from NetGalley so I could read the book a bit sooner. Thanks NetGalley!
Synopsis: Morton Candle is a tough guy. He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler. That's where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich's war effort.
Morton Candle got Weatherby to safety, but the kid's parents didn't make it. Now it's the 1950s.
Weatherby's a teenager, with his father's knowledge and a chip on his shoulder from the indignities of the modern world. Morton bumps into him again and they decide to go into the only business they can – paranormal private detectives.
This time, Weatherby and Mort have cases that will take them from a vampire's decaying mansion to the mob-controlled streets of Havana. They'll take on roadside attractions gone wrong, hordes of the living dead, and ride against the devil in a high speed car race to the death.
Between them, Weatherby and Mort have a small arsenal and a deep knowledge of matters arcane and bizarre. They'll need brains and brawn to survive in a world where horror, action and hardboiled noir come together in a cataclysmic mix.
My Thoughts: I just couldn’t resist a book with that description; it has all the elements I love – monsters, strange partnerships, mystery... I mean, what’s not to love, right?
Right! This is pulp fiction at its pulpiest, full of fighting, bad guys, monsters, tough guys, lots of guns, and all the goodness you would expect from high-octane fiction. The book contains of several short stories/novellas outlining different cases that Mort Candle and Weatherby Stein take together. While it could have used some more editing (cars have “brakes” not “breaks”, as an example, although a car will certainly break if the brake is not applied in a proper manner... ), the pace was fast enough that I often didn’t really notice the grammatical problems or poorly structured sentences, except subconsciously. I quite enjoyed most of the book and mostly it was easy enough to suspend belief and go with it: except the Route 66/Roadside Mafia story, which sent me into fits of giggles. First of all, a bunch of venomous snakes, let loose together, are not going to, en masse, attack a bunch of humans. They would all be trying to get away from any people, and possibly fighting amongst themselves. Also, when Mort punched that alligator... snicker That one is still making me want to giggle... And the whole thing with the rats? Oh, man – rats are shy creatures, they won’t attack, unless these were super-radiated, evil rats (and they must have been, as they were mutated).
But I really enjoyed these fun little stories – vampires and zombies and mutated rats and all. Great stuff, really fun. If you enjoy pulp fiction, you’ll get a kick out of this book.
Disclosure: I was offered an eGalley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I already had a copy I had picked up free from Amazon, but was more than happy to accept the offer from NetGalley so I could read the book a bit sooner. Thanks NetGalley!
Synopsis: Morton Candle is a tough guy. He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler. That's where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich's war effort.
Morton Candle got Weatherby to safety, but the kid's parents didn't make it. Now it's the 1950s.
Weatherby's a teenager, with his father's knowledge and a chip on his shoulder from the indignities of the modern world. Morton bumps into him again and they decide to go into the only business they can – paranormal private detectives.
This time, Weatherby and Mort have cases that will take them from a vampire's decaying mansion to the mob-controlled streets of Havana. They'll take on roadside attractions gone wrong, hordes of the living dead, and ride against the devil in a high speed car race to the death.
Between them, Weatherby and Mort have a small arsenal and a deep knowledge of matters arcane and bizarre. They'll need brains and brawn to survive in a world where horror, action and hardboiled noir come together in a cataclysmic mix.
My Thoughts: I just couldn’t resist a book with that description; it has all the elements I love – monsters, strange partnerships, mystery... I mean, what’s not to love, right?
Right! This is pulp fiction at its pulpiest, full of fighting, bad guys, monsters, tough guys, lots of guns, and all the goodness you would expect from high-octane fiction. The book contains of several short stories/novellas outlining different cases that Mort Candle and Weatherby Stein take together. While it could have used some more editing (cars have “brakes” not “breaks”, as an example, although a car will certainly break if the brake is not applied in a proper manner... ), the pace was fast enough that I often didn’t really notice the grammatical problems or poorly structured sentences, except subconsciously. I quite enjoyed most of the book and mostly it was easy enough to suspend belief and go with it: except the Route 66/Roadside Mafia story, which sent me into fits of giggles. First of all, a bunch of venomous snakes, let loose together, are not going to, en masse, attack a bunch of humans. They would all be trying to get away from any people, and possibly fighting amongst themselves. Also, when Mort punched that alligator... snicker That one is still making me want to giggle... And the whole thing with the rats? Oh, man – rats are shy creatures, they won’t attack, unless these were super-radiated, evil rats (and they must have been, as they were mutated).
But I really enjoyed these fun little stories – vampires and zombies and mutated rats and all. Great stuff, really fun. If you enjoy pulp fiction, you’ll get a kick out of this book.
April 21, 2012
Originally posted at:
Move over Mike Hammer and Sam Spade, here comes Morton Candle. If you like 1940’s/1950’s detective stories, you are going to love Michael Panush’s The Stein and Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 1.: American Nightmare This is book noir with a paranormal twist. The bad guys are frequently monsters—literally.
Written as a chapter book, with one case per chapter, this is marketed as a Suspense/Mystery, but I think the real target audience is young adults, especially boys age 10 and up, depending of their reading level. As a mother of boys, I know how rare it is to find a good “boy book”--something featuring boys that's exciting enough to hold their interest but not too graphic to bother their mother. The Stein and Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 1 has monster/comic book style violence that's perfect for this age group. I think my thirteen year old will love this. The fact that each chapter comes with its own “cover” adds to its appeal and the young adult feel of this book.
My only complaint is character development. Because of the presentation—separate stories for each chapter—there was no particular chronology and therefore, no character growth. If you read each story as a tale in itself, this isn’t too objectionable. But if you read it as a novel, it may bother you. I don’t think it will bother my son at all.
It’s a credit to Mr. Panush that, while reading, I kept “seeing” the scenes in black and white. If you’re a film noir fan or have a son you want to entice into reading, you might want to pick up a copy of The Stein and Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 1: American Nightmare.
Move over Mike Hammer and Sam Spade, here comes Morton Candle. If you like 1940’s/1950’s detective stories, you are going to love Michael Panush’s The Stein and Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 1.: American Nightmare This is book noir with a paranormal twist. The bad guys are frequently monsters—literally.
Written as a chapter book, with one case per chapter, this is marketed as a Suspense/Mystery, but I think the real target audience is young adults, especially boys age 10 and up, depending of their reading level. As a mother of boys, I know how rare it is to find a good “boy book”--something featuring boys that's exciting enough to hold their interest but not too graphic to bother their mother. The Stein and Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 1 has monster/comic book style violence that's perfect for this age group. I think my thirteen year old will love this. The fact that each chapter comes with its own “cover” adds to its appeal and the young adult feel of this book.
My only complaint is character development. Because of the presentation—separate stories for each chapter—there was no particular chronology and therefore, no character growth. If you read each story as a tale in itself, this isn’t too objectionable. But if you read it as a novel, it may bother you. I don’t think it will bother my son at all.
It’s a credit to Mr. Panush that, while reading, I kept “seeing” the scenes in black and white. If you’re a film noir fan or have a son you want to entice into reading, you might want to pick up a copy of The Stein and Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 1: American Nightmare.
November 9, 2025
Hardboiled detective, Mort Candle, has teamed with the German teenage mage he rescued from Nazis during the war. They roam the country fighting things that go bump in the night. Tons of action, some great urban fantasy/horror, and a nice '50s feel.
March 10, 2018
The typos are the only thing keeping this from being a 5 star read. Love this kind of stuff and enjoyed the stories immensely. Look forward to reading the other 2 volumes.
April 16, 2012
OMG I loved STEIN & CANDLE so much I can't even tell you. It had the perfect amounts of cheese, campiness and noir all mixed in together. I can't tell you what it was specifically that I loved about this book but I can say it hit me just right in the cockle area that it made me a little giddy. Seriously, it was wonderful.
I will say the one thing that did irk me a bit was Candle's constant PTSD flashbacks/mentions to his war days. Those became a little much. I understand it was a part of Candle but for the most part I don't believe that's how most veterans go around thinking. For Candle everything reminded him of bullets or explosions or tanks or something. I'd imagine that kind of thinking would drive someone insane because they wouldn't be able to leave the battlefield. And Candle wasn't all that crazy compared so some of his former military buddies he came across in the stories. So I'd have to say that'd be my one complaint.
Everything else? LOVED IT! Weatherby Stein was, of course, my favorite. He is the Brain to Candle's Pinky. Well, no, not really. Candle's actually a pretty smart guy but it's obvious he's the muscle and Weatherby's the smarts. He's just 14 I believe but he has the air or someone that could be his father. You get a look at him in his own story's section when he was little, maybe 8, and he was like that even then. Just far smarter and more mature than his age dictated. But he wasn't annoying about it. He was constantly endearing, especially when it came to one boy he rescued a couple of times. He felt an affinity for him and had a need to constantly protect him (a by-product of not being able to product those around him whom he loved, I would imagine) when he's near. The kid, for the most part, always has his head about him and Candle really relies on him as much as he wants to protect him as his own. He's a great character; possibly one of the best I've come across in my reading ventures.
Candle is another great guy. Like genuinely just a good guy that happens to break some kneecaps if the situation calls for it. He's a bit of a hardass on the outside but since all of the stories are in his POV you get to see just how he feels about things, the soft spot he has for Weatherby and even for some of the people in the cases he works. He's far more intelligent than his outward demeanor would otherwise say and I just loved being in his head. I was never bored and he told a damn good story.
STEIN & CANDLE is a series of individual stories set apart as chapters but loosely linked together through minute mentions of previous stories. For instance mentioning Havana when they come across a couple of the same characters in Las Vegas or Candle's new car when he previous lost it in Vegas. Outside of those small mentions there isn't much stringing the chapters together. They can rightly stand on their own as their own individual stories and, for the most part, they do. The best part about them, though, is their feel. Panush has done a great job of capturing that cusp feel of a society switching from a war-geared gangster-fueled era into one greater led by the Mary Tyler Moores of the world. There's a crime-fighting noir about it reminiscent of Dick Tracy just with vampires and zombies and hoodoo. Loved the hoodoo, by the way. It's not an element seen very often and I just squeal a little every time I do see it.
Anyway, each story had it's particular feel led, of course, by Candle's voice. Aside from the flashback thingy I mentioned earlier, it has a little bit of wise guy attitude fresh off the battle field but without being overly obnoxious. Everywhere they go I can feel the time in which they're in. Havana in the early 50s, pre-revolution. If you know anything about it you'll be able to picture it in your mind. Or a drag race with the devil in a hot ass muscle car in California when cars still had real muscles. Or even the smartly-dressed aristocratic vamps wanting to get their money back. My favorite was Weatherby's story, about what happened to him and his parents in Castle Stein with the Nazis. It was a great departure from the tone of the rest of the stories but one that needed to be told just to give Weatherby some more depth, although he already had plenty.
Seriously, I can't say enough good things about THE STEIN & CANDLE DETECTIVE AGENCY. I'd love to see it as a comic because, well, that would just be epic. It has the feel for it and I really hope that's a possibility in the future. But between the most excellent characters, the settings to vivid you'll see them in your dreams and all of the crazy paranormal shenanigannery Stein and Candle get into, there's not much left to NOT love. It's campy, it's crazy and most of all it's fun. You really can't beat that. It's not to often I find a genuinely fun read; one that riles me up and makes me want to get up and do something. STEIN & CANDLE is a different incarnation of Sam and Dean, when Dean can go all Untouchable to his heart's content. Yeah, I can see it. And I love it.
I will say the one thing that did irk me a bit was Candle's constant PTSD flashbacks/mentions to his war days. Those became a little much. I understand it was a part of Candle but for the most part I don't believe that's how most veterans go around thinking. For Candle everything reminded him of bullets or explosions or tanks or something. I'd imagine that kind of thinking would drive someone insane because they wouldn't be able to leave the battlefield. And Candle wasn't all that crazy compared so some of his former military buddies he came across in the stories. So I'd have to say that'd be my one complaint.
Everything else? LOVED IT! Weatherby Stein was, of course, my favorite. He is the Brain to Candle's Pinky. Well, no, not really. Candle's actually a pretty smart guy but it's obvious he's the muscle and Weatherby's the smarts. He's just 14 I believe but he has the air or someone that could be his father. You get a look at him in his own story's section when he was little, maybe 8, and he was like that even then. Just far smarter and more mature than his age dictated. But he wasn't annoying about it. He was constantly endearing, especially when it came to one boy he rescued a couple of times. He felt an affinity for him and had a need to constantly protect him (a by-product of not being able to product those around him whom he loved, I would imagine) when he's near. The kid, for the most part, always has his head about him and Candle really relies on him as much as he wants to protect him as his own. He's a great character; possibly one of the best I've come across in my reading ventures.
Candle is another great guy. Like genuinely just a good guy that happens to break some kneecaps if the situation calls for it. He's a bit of a hardass on the outside but since all of the stories are in his POV you get to see just how he feels about things, the soft spot he has for Weatherby and even for some of the people in the cases he works. He's far more intelligent than his outward demeanor would otherwise say and I just loved being in his head. I was never bored and he told a damn good story.
STEIN & CANDLE is a series of individual stories set apart as chapters but loosely linked together through minute mentions of previous stories. For instance mentioning Havana when they come across a couple of the same characters in Las Vegas or Candle's new car when he previous lost it in Vegas. Outside of those small mentions there isn't much stringing the chapters together. They can rightly stand on their own as their own individual stories and, for the most part, they do. The best part about them, though, is their feel. Panush has done a great job of capturing that cusp feel of a society switching from a war-geared gangster-fueled era into one greater led by the Mary Tyler Moores of the world. There's a crime-fighting noir about it reminiscent of Dick Tracy just with vampires and zombies and hoodoo. Loved the hoodoo, by the way. It's not an element seen very often and I just squeal a little every time I do see it.
Anyway, each story had it's particular feel led, of course, by Candle's voice. Aside from the flashback thingy I mentioned earlier, it has a little bit of wise guy attitude fresh off the battle field but without being overly obnoxious. Everywhere they go I can feel the time in which they're in. Havana in the early 50s, pre-revolution. If you know anything about it you'll be able to picture it in your mind. Or a drag race with the devil in a hot ass muscle car in California when cars still had real muscles. Or even the smartly-dressed aristocratic vamps wanting to get their money back. My favorite was Weatherby's story, about what happened to him and his parents in Castle Stein with the Nazis. It was a great departure from the tone of the rest of the stories but one that needed to be told just to give Weatherby some more depth, although he already had plenty.
Seriously, I can't say enough good things about THE STEIN & CANDLE DETECTIVE AGENCY. I'd love to see it as a comic because, well, that would just be epic. It has the feel for it and I really hope that's a possibility in the future. But between the most excellent characters, the settings to vivid you'll see them in your dreams and all of the crazy paranormal shenanigannery Stein and Candle get into, there's not much left to NOT love. It's campy, it's crazy and most of all it's fun. You really can't beat that. It's not to often I find a genuinely fun read; one that riles me up and makes me want to get up and do something. STEIN & CANDLE is a different incarnation of Sam and Dean, when Dean can go all Untouchable to his heart's content. Yeah, I can see it. And I love it.
April 22, 2012
Morton Candle is a tough guy.
He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler. That’s where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich’s war effort.
Morton Candle got Weatherby to safety, but the kid’s parents didn’t make it.
Now it’s the 1950s.
Weatherby’s a teenager, with his father’s knowledge and a chip on his shoulder from the indignities of the modern world. Morton bumps into him again and they decide to go into the only business they can – paranormal private detectives.
This time, Weatherby and Mort have cases that will take them from a vampire’s decaying mansion to the mob-controlled streets of Havana. They’ll take on roadside attractions gone wrong, hordes of the living dead, and ride against the devil in a high speed car race to the death.
Between them, Weatherby and Mort have a small arsenal and a deep knowledge of matters arcane and bizarre. They’ll need brains and brawn to survive in a world where horror, action and hardboiled noir come together in a cataclysmic mix.
This first collection brings together seven short stories from the Stein & Candle case files.
The Bloodsucker’s Goodbye: In rural Nebraska a vampire, Baron Exham, and his wife Lenore are having a tough time with the local biker gang. It’s up to Stein and Candle to sort things out, if only there wasn’t a group of renegade Nazis to contend with as well.
Black Havana: Nothing could spoil the tropical Cuban paradise of Havana except perhaps a kidnap gone wrong, a zombie horde and some nasty communist guerrillas with a grudge.
I Rode in the Devil’s Hot Rod: The Devil enjoys a competition as much as the next man, but when Weatherby Stein’s old sister, Selena, gets involved there is going to be hell to pay. Muscle cars and dark deals on the back roads of America. Fans of the 1950s are going to relish the petrol-head references in this story.
Monsters of Mallet: Stein and Candle visit foggy old England (as an aside I can confirm that yes, it really is like that all the time) and the set of the latest Mallet Films production. Their latest magnum opus, Curse of the Witch Queen, has been plagued by problems of a supernatural nature. Hmmm, Mallet Films who could that be an homage to I wonder? Add just a dash of Herne the Hunter and smidge of Sawney Bean (14th Century Scottish cannibal fact fans) for a bloody monster movie mash up.
Zombies in Paradise: Picking up for the after the events of Black Havana Stein & Candle face off against another horde of zombies in a desert resort. This time, however, the zombies are a lot more violent and a good bit faster than before. Just what is Project Lugosi and who is behind it all? Government conspiracies, more angry gangsters than you could shake a stick at and a big old explosion, cracking stuff.
War Stories: For the second to last story in this collection its back to the last days of World War II and the first meeting of Sgt. Mort Candle and an eight year old Weatherby Stein. It seems entirely appropriate that we finally get to learn the backstory of the young Weatherby Stein and the tragic circumstances of how he lost his parents in the war.
Roadside Rampage: Travelling Route 66 Stein and Candle come face to face with the mysterious Wild Man but who is he and why are the Roadside Mafia so keen on tracking him down?
The Stein and Candle Detective Agency Volume 1: American Nightmares won me over right from the get go. This is the first time I have ever read and of Michael Panush’s writing and he deftly captures the sights and sounds of the American post-war era. This is a world of made men and government spies, gamblers and ex-Nazis. Add to that an assortment of supernatural staples like vampires, werewolves and zombies and you can guarantee a sense of horrific fun on every page. Each individual tale has a marvelous B-movie-esque quality that works very well. I was also pleased to note that as the individual plots unfolded I was also getting a sense of how they all tied in together. There is a properly established timeline and everything slots neatly into place.
If I had to pick a favourite (I just knew you were going to ask) I would probably have to go with Monsters of Mallet. C’mon, how could I not, I’m a Brit after all.
A hard-boiled slice of Americana with a supernatural twist The Stein and Candle Detective Agency Volume 1: American Nightmares is available now from Curiosity Quills. I checked out their website and it looks like there will be a second collection at some point in the future – I look forward to it.
He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, dodging from mobster-ruled neighborhoods to reform school before the army snapped him up and sent him to Europe to fight Hitler. That’s where he met Weatherby Stein, the scion to one of the greatest occult families of Europe. Weatherby and his parents were being held prisoner by the Nazis, forced to use their supernatural knowledge to aid the Third Reich’s war effort.
Morton Candle got Weatherby to safety, but the kid’s parents didn’t make it.
Now it’s the 1950s.
Weatherby’s a teenager, with his father’s knowledge and a chip on his shoulder from the indignities of the modern world. Morton bumps into him again and they decide to go into the only business they can – paranormal private detectives.
This time, Weatherby and Mort have cases that will take them from a vampire’s decaying mansion to the mob-controlled streets of Havana. They’ll take on roadside attractions gone wrong, hordes of the living dead, and ride against the devil in a high speed car race to the death.
Between them, Weatherby and Mort have a small arsenal and a deep knowledge of matters arcane and bizarre. They’ll need brains and brawn to survive in a world where horror, action and hardboiled noir come together in a cataclysmic mix.
This first collection brings together seven short stories from the Stein & Candle case files.
The Bloodsucker’s Goodbye: In rural Nebraska a vampire, Baron Exham, and his wife Lenore are having a tough time with the local biker gang. It’s up to Stein and Candle to sort things out, if only there wasn’t a group of renegade Nazis to contend with as well.
Black Havana: Nothing could spoil the tropical Cuban paradise of Havana except perhaps a kidnap gone wrong, a zombie horde and some nasty communist guerrillas with a grudge.
I Rode in the Devil’s Hot Rod: The Devil enjoys a competition as much as the next man, but when Weatherby Stein’s old sister, Selena, gets involved there is going to be hell to pay. Muscle cars and dark deals on the back roads of America. Fans of the 1950s are going to relish the petrol-head references in this story.
Monsters of Mallet: Stein and Candle visit foggy old England (as an aside I can confirm that yes, it really is like that all the time) and the set of the latest Mallet Films production. Their latest magnum opus, Curse of the Witch Queen, has been plagued by problems of a supernatural nature. Hmmm, Mallet Films who could that be an homage to I wonder? Add just a dash of Herne the Hunter and smidge of Sawney Bean (14th Century Scottish cannibal fact fans) for a bloody monster movie mash up.
Zombies in Paradise: Picking up for the after the events of Black Havana Stein & Candle face off against another horde of zombies in a desert resort. This time, however, the zombies are a lot more violent and a good bit faster than before. Just what is Project Lugosi and who is behind it all? Government conspiracies, more angry gangsters than you could shake a stick at and a big old explosion, cracking stuff.
War Stories: For the second to last story in this collection its back to the last days of World War II and the first meeting of Sgt. Mort Candle and an eight year old Weatherby Stein. It seems entirely appropriate that we finally get to learn the backstory of the young Weatherby Stein and the tragic circumstances of how he lost his parents in the war.
Roadside Rampage: Travelling Route 66 Stein and Candle come face to face with the mysterious Wild Man but who is he and why are the Roadside Mafia so keen on tracking him down?
The Stein and Candle Detective Agency Volume 1: American Nightmares won me over right from the get go. This is the first time I have ever read and of Michael Panush’s writing and he deftly captures the sights and sounds of the American post-war era. This is a world of made men and government spies, gamblers and ex-Nazis. Add to that an assortment of supernatural staples like vampires, werewolves and zombies and you can guarantee a sense of horrific fun on every page. Each individual tale has a marvelous B-movie-esque quality that works very well. I was also pleased to note that as the individual plots unfolded I was also getting a sense of how they all tied in together. There is a properly established timeline and everything slots neatly into place.
If I had to pick a favourite (I just knew you were going to ask) I would probably have to go with Monsters of Mallet. C’mon, how could I not, I’m a Brit after all.
A hard-boiled slice of Americana with a supernatural twist The Stein and Candle Detective Agency Volume 1: American Nightmares is available now from Curiosity Quills. I checked out their website and it looks like there will be a second collection at some point in the future – I look forward to it.
April 10, 2012
Expecting literary genius from this book is like expecting Olivier to turn up in Hammer Horror and who wants Olivier ruining a good Hammer movie?
The title gives it away, it's detective pulp fiction, but with a supernatural twist and it is a rip-roaring romp through that genre :). Mort Candle and Weatherby Stein, I bet you can guess a lot about these two with just their names, and that's the point, what you read is what you get. No horrendously devious plot twists, not too much angst (just enough to give our boys some depth) and short, pacey stories that are plain fun to read.
There are seven short stories in this book in all with vampires, zombies, mobsters, circus freaks et al. My favourite is the car race with the devil!
I'm a sidekick gal myself, I always root for the sidekick and that's Weatherby, priggish, prickly and damaged and all that by 14, he brings out the mothering instinct in me. I'd love to read a story where they go back to Castle Stein. See, I must love it, I'm wanting more and I want it now - can't find a volume 2 though *pout*!
I even warmed to Mort in the end: he's our narrator and a hard-ass ex-marine: Sam Spade for the zombie generation.
The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that I like my pulp just a teensie little bit better edited, some sentences I had to work out what they were meant to say. Still, didn't stop me reading the book! And the short stories make it easy to pick up and put down at will. In fact, these stories would even make a good old-fashioned TV series, episodic with just enough arc to carry the viewer from week to week, but also a viewer could pick it up at any point in the series.
The title gives it away, it's detective pulp fiction, but with a supernatural twist and it is a rip-roaring romp through that genre :). Mort Candle and Weatherby Stein, I bet you can guess a lot about these two with just their names, and that's the point, what you read is what you get. No horrendously devious plot twists, not too much angst (just enough to give our boys some depth) and short, pacey stories that are plain fun to read.
There are seven short stories in this book in all with vampires, zombies, mobsters, circus freaks et al. My favourite is the car race with the devil!
I'm a sidekick gal myself, I always root for the sidekick and that's Weatherby, priggish, prickly and damaged and all that by 14, he brings out the mothering instinct in me. I'd love to read a story where they go back to Castle Stein. See, I must love it, I'm wanting more and I want it now - can't find a volume 2 though *pout*!
I even warmed to Mort in the end: he's our narrator and a hard-ass ex-marine: Sam Spade for the zombie generation.
The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that I like my pulp just a teensie little bit better edited, some sentences I had to work out what they were meant to say. Still, didn't stop me reading the book! And the short stories make it easy to pick up and put down at will. In fact, these stories would even make a good old-fashioned TV series, episodic with just enough arc to carry the viewer from week to week, but also a viewer could pick it up at any point in the series.
March 19, 2012
Got this free off Amazon, and I'm glad. While it's a great premise, and great writing, it's just not quite polished enough to be worth paying for.
Aside from a larger number of typos than one would normally find, the characters often make bad or unrealistic decisions that make it difficult for the reader to identify with them. Altogether, it feels like a first or second draft, like it still needs to go through editing.
On the other hand, Panush is clearly a gifted writer, with good vision and storytelling ability. His characters are likeable, yet flawed, like all good characters, and his voice is a delightful blend of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden and old PI serials.
Aside from a larger number of typos than one would normally find, the characters often make bad or unrealistic decisions that make it difficult for the reader to identify with them. Altogether, it feels like a first or second draft, like it still needs to go through editing.
On the other hand, Panush is clearly a gifted writer, with good vision and storytelling ability. His characters are likeable, yet flawed, like all good characters, and his voice is a delightful blend of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden and old PI serials.
March 18, 2024
This is a first book in a series. It follows a veteran named Morton Candle and his young associate from Germany called Weatherby Stein. They travel around working for hire as detectives and normally end up fighting supernatural beings. It was a quick and fun read! Very pulp like. I’m excited to read the 2nd book
March 22, 2012
Straight forward well written pulp. Delivers exactly what it promises.
August 28, 2012
Funny stories even if some of them are not my usual genre...
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND CURIOSITY QUILLS PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND CURIOSITY QUILLS PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews