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Like Wild
Returning to Florida after fighting guerrillas in Laos, Quint Napier found himself faced with corrupt Cline Listra who was determined to take possession of Quint’s vast tract of cyprus-rich swampland.As if that wasn’t enough, Quint found himself up to his ears in woman trouble. Fully intending to marry Trudy Kelsey, the girl he’d left behind, he had the misfortune to run into luscious Marian Listra—Cline’s young wife—who knew how to stake out a claim on a man no matter what his previous commitments. To complicate matters further, Lorrie Kelsey, his fiancée’s kid sister, had every intention of making him her own.An honest man, he wanted no part of extracurricular female entanglements. A brave man, he refused to give up his land. A susceptible man, he took what the women had to offer and still found time to wage a war against Listra and his hired thugs.
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Published January 1, 1963
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 6, 2021
Swamp Pulp Done Right
Swamp pulp was a thing in the late fifties and early sixties. Forget the sweat and muck and mosquitoes and unbearable heat. Swamp pulp told us that there were bewitching swamp women hidden in those far-off places and hot unbridled passion in the sweaty swamp. Most of the swamp pulp paperbacks were pure crap. "Like Wild" actually dies a really great job of succeeding with this genre and offering a hard-to-put-down story about a soldier returning in 1962 from fighting guerrillas in Laos as our involvement in Southeast Asia was starting to build.
Quinn's returning to marry his childhood sweetheart and sell off a fortune in swamp timber if anyone will lend him the money to get the operation started. But Quint didn't just leave behind gentle memories. The town is run kit and caboodle by a conniving bastard who had put Quinn's father in prison, Listra. The stepson of this Listra was the bully Quinn tangled with all through his teenage years. And now Listra's young bewitching femme fatale wife has her eyes on Quinn and he can't untangle himself from her seductive arms and legs. "Like Wild" is filled with that hot excitement most swamp pulps can only dream of. It draws the reader in slowly as the returning soldier rides a bus into the salty swamp with Marian Listra conveniently on the bus to seduce him only to feel like he's a stranger in a strange land in a hometown that drips nothing but hostility.
Swamp pulp was a thing in the late fifties and early sixties. Forget the sweat and muck and mosquitoes and unbearable heat. Swamp pulp told us that there were bewitching swamp women hidden in those far-off places and hot unbridled passion in the sweaty swamp. Most of the swamp pulp paperbacks were pure crap. "Like Wild" actually dies a really great job of succeeding with this genre and offering a hard-to-put-down story about a soldier returning in 1962 from fighting guerrillas in Laos as our involvement in Southeast Asia was starting to build.
Quinn's returning to marry his childhood sweetheart and sell off a fortune in swamp timber if anyone will lend him the money to get the operation started. But Quint didn't just leave behind gentle memories. The town is run kit and caboodle by a conniving bastard who had put Quinn's father in prison, Listra. The stepson of this Listra was the bully Quinn tangled with all through his teenage years. And now Listra's young bewitching femme fatale wife has her eyes on Quinn and he can't untangle himself from her seductive arms and legs. "Like Wild" is filled with that hot excitement most swamp pulps can only dream of. It draws the reader in slowly as the returning soldier rides a bus into the salty swamp with Marian Listra conveniently on the bus to seduce him only to feel like he's a stranger in a strange land in a hometown that drips nothing but hostility.
February 6, 2020
This is one of the few books, in which the back cover teaser actually gives a pretty good broad outline of the book and compels a reader.
I actually picked this book up thinking it would beat crime lit, judging from the title. It wasn't, but it was pretty good swamp lit with sex and crime and thrills in equal amounts. Here are my favorite passages:
"Quint was breathing hard, and his pulse was pounding strong in his throat and in his loins. He could hear her breathing, too, pulling in rapidly through parted lips. He swept back the sheet, rose and reached for her. He was no longer aware of any smallest urge to resist her. Here was a full-bodied woman, young and desirable, inviting him to taste of her lushness. Only a saint—or a fool—would pass up the chance."
"He saw her satin-smooth, golden legs spread wide, and heard her laugh with the ecstasy of anticipation. Then she fell completely back and he went down upon her, the hard, throbbing shaft of his manhood seeking full entry into her heat-drenched flesh."
I actually picked this book up thinking it would beat crime lit, judging from the title. It wasn't, but it was pretty good swamp lit with sex and crime and thrills in equal amounts. Here are my favorite passages:
"Quint was breathing hard, and his pulse was pounding strong in his throat and in his loins. He could hear her breathing, too, pulling in rapidly through parted lips. He swept back the sheet, rose and reached for her. He was no longer aware of any smallest urge to resist her. Here was a full-bodied woman, young and desirable, inviting him to taste of her lushness. Only a saint—or a fool—would pass up the chance."
"He saw her satin-smooth, golden legs spread wide, and heard her laugh with the ecstasy of anticipation. Then she fell completely back and he went down upon her, the hard, throbbing shaft of his manhood seeking full entry into her heat-drenched flesh."
June 25, 2021
It's 1962, and Quint Napier is returning to his home in the Florida swamps from a stint in Laos, training people to fight in the early days of the SouthEast Asian wars (though of course the author doesn't know that). Quint has plans to use log the family land and make a good business out of it. But even before he arrives, he meets an attractive young woman on the bus, and it turns out she's married to a man who has been the bane of the family for years, and had Quint's father sent to prison. He is also leasing that land from Quint's mother and brother (suffering PTSD since stint in Korea). Lots of blustering and threatening and violence work out. This is good "swamp noir," and the story is well told in fine prose with good characters.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews