The Dagger Men: A Novel of the Clay Shamus

by Michael Panush, Zachary Brunner (Illustrations)

THE CLAY SHAMUSSickle City is a magnet for the bizarre and unholy. When a legion of dead Roman soldiers converges on the modern metropolis, its salvation will lie in the hands of three unique warriors employed by Herman Holtz, a corrupt, bootlegging Jewish rabbi. Emmet Clay is a golem built by Holtz’ older brother, a powerful Russian rabbi. As Holtz’ chief enforcer, he disguises himself as a detective. His two loyal allies are the beautiful and fiery Zipporah Sarfati, a deadly Sephardic swordswoman and the young Harvey Holtz, the rabbi’s son; a devoted student of Jewish mysticism. Together the three of them must uncover the secret of the Dagger Men, a secret society of Jewish warriors that traces its origins back to the bloody destruction of Judea.Writer Michael Panush (creator of El Mosaico and Stein & Candle series) offers up a terrific, fast-paced supernatural thriller filled with some of the most original, fanciful characters ever imagined. “The Dagger Men” is roller-coaster pulp ride that doesn’t slow down until the very last page!

270 pages, Paperback

Published March 27, 2016

About the author

Michael 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

Reviews

[Mark Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddball pulp/urban fantasy/religious allegory mishmash. A golem is the family protector of a rabbi/bootlegger in 1920s Sickle City, a city rife with racial hatred, organized crime, and official corruption. The rabbi's 12-year-old son (who is a budding Talmudic scholar), a swordswoman veteran of WWI in the Middle East, and the golem, Emmet Clay, battle occult threats to the Jewish enclave in Sickle City. The Dagger Men are a 2000-year-old cult of the original Sicarii who assassinated both Romans and Jews who didn't follow their strict code of religious observance. They now seek to remake Sickle City into a Second Jerusalem by harnessing demonic forces. In order to fight apocalyptic religious fundamentalism, all the various criminal elements of the city must overcome their racial and religious animosity to come together to fight for good old messy, crass, and secular American freedom in diversity.

There are some flaws. With several dozen named characters, I had to keep a written list to keep everyone straight, especially when in just the rabbi's family, you have a Chaim, a Herman, a Herbert, a Harvey, and a Henry. In addition, there are stretches that seem to be little more than hectic running back and forth, like one of the older Doctor Who episodes. The battles get repetitive.

But I did enjoy the eccentric characters and unique settings, and I would enjoy more adventures of Emmet Clay & company.

[Max Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but it has the problem pertaining to the chosen genre - its length. Full 300 pages (240 in that case) is too much for a single pulp story. The first third has everything fine - we've got the protags, the antags, the factions, the key plot problem set up, the action is high and the nuances of the setting are described good. But after that nothing new appears, the author slowly resolves the main thread he set up in the first third and the protags just run around the city engaging in details unnecessary for pulp story.

In my opinion, the book would've been much better if it had three distinctly separate parts with each having a clear start and satisfying ending all revolving around the evil Dagger Men. That way the elements of the larger story could all be there without them cluttering the narrative and the various mob factions (and soldiers) that appear out of nowhere in the last third of the book for the climactic battle would all have a proper place and motivation in the plot in addition to the basic "it's OUR city, dammit" that the author went for.