I had worked through the Captain Hawklin adventures, a New Pulp hero written by Charles F. Millhouse, a few months back, and recently got the latest novel, the eighth: Captain Hawklin and the Ghost Army.
Published in 2020, it is set in March 1936, just after Lost Land. I would recommend that you have read at least The Jade Dragon, as you’ll understand soon.
As I’ve noted, Captain Steven Hawklin was a World War I fighter pilot, now an inventor and adventurer, rich from his inventions. He lives and works in Crown City, located on the west coast of the United States. To me, he is more like the aviation pulp adventurers like Bill Barnes than Doc Savage. He is assisted by Hardy Regan Miller and Oscar (Oz) Lyman, but neither appear in this one.
This time, Hawklin finds himself kidnapped and taken to Columbia, and his half sister, Juno Li, is involved with it, if relunctently. She was introduced in Jade Dragon and hasn’t been seen since. What is this all about? Finding a lost Mayan city in South America, a bit away from the Yucatan. But its more complicated.
Hawklin is forced into a card game to play for the map. He’s competing against an Arab prince, an agent of Soviet Russia, and a Nazi general. A South American gangster is behind the game. And who has the map? Zane Carrington, whom Hawklin has encountered in some past adventures.
Things go awray, and the general heads off with the map, leaving his men to kill everyone else. But Zane’s men get the drop on them, and so they, along with Juno and Hawklin head to Zane’s ship. There Zane reveals the map the general has is a fake, and he has the original. And he reveals why the general wants the map to the city. The Mayans there had learned how to raise the dead and create a “ghost army.” The general wants that secret for the Nazis.
So Hawklin, Juno, and Zane and company head to the city, which requires a trip up the Amazon. Will they succeed in stopping the general? You’ll have to see.
At the end, Juno heads off with Zane. I assume at some point we’ll see one or both of them. Well, we kind of do. Chronologically, Zane shows up next in Skyhook Pirates, which is set after this, but written before. So there’s no mention of Juno in that one. Uh, oh. (tho it makes sense, as she hadn’t been written yet.)
What’s next for Hawlkin? We have two novels coming up. In 2021, we’ll get The Invisible Enemy, which is set after Monster Island. And in 2022, The Anubis Curse will appear, set after Skyhook Pirates. Also coming next year is Pulp Reality #1, a New Pulp magazine from Stormgate Press, which will have a couple of Hawklin short stories by other authors. Look forward to all of these.
