Code Name: Intrepid is an interesting series from Robert J. Mendenhall, available through his own imprint Blue Planet Press.
CNI is a special team of military and civilian experts who handle cases that are extraordinary or of an unusual order in the 1930s. Think strange creatures and tech, especially if it’s tied to a foreign nation.
It started as a short-story collection from Airship 27. It now consists of five novels, a short-story collection, and four anthologies with stories by other authors. The short-story collection and anthologies sport covers and logos created by Jeffrey Ray Hayes, who has been doing work on the Captain Hawklin series and more at Stormgate Press.
Mendenhall’s background is a former policeman, a former member of the U.S. Air Force, and a former journalist. So this gives him the background for this series. And it’s not his only work, as he also has an sf series called Far Futures.
Formed in 1932, Code Name: Intrepid operates under the fictitious Office of Special Actions in the Department of War. The core team has five members, plus a consultant. Its leader is Lt. Col. Rick Justice, Army Air Corps. A double ace in World War I, he is a large man who is a capable leader, as well as a good observer. He is the character you see on all the covers. Then you have Lt. Cmdr. Roger “Sky Hawk” Winchester, USN, who is a WWI ace. He is described as looking like Clark Gable. There is Gunnery Sgt. Dexter “Guns” Preston, who is a Marine and fighter. And Master Sgt. Michael “Hammer” Downe, who is a mechanic and test pilot. Rita Marshall is a former Department of War analyst and the daughter of an admiral. But she is just as capable a fighter as the rest. Finally, Dr. Stephen Lester, a former field surgeon in WWI and now working in forensics. Over time, they will be joined by other experts, both military and civilian.
The first novel, titled appropriately First Case, introduces our characters, who are not yet a team. It looks like a German group is plotting something against in U.S. in January 1932. A U.S. Bureau of Investigation agent (it wasn’t yet the FBI) is looking into it, but is caught and turned into something.
We then start meeting our group. Maj. Rick Justice is frustrated with his career as an Army Air Corps officer. Sky Hawk Winchester and Guns Preston are taking Gov. Roosevelt to Lake Placid, which will be the location of the upcoming Winter Olympics, but see something strange. And Rita Marshall is frustrated with her boss at the Department of War not passing along reports of strange things she is noting. Maybe this is all connected?
Then the father of that BOI agent comes to Rick, as the agent was a boyhood friend of his. The agent’s body has washed up, but the cause of death is unknown. On his own, Rick goes looking into it, and it’s fortunate that Dr. Lester did the autopsy, as they know each other from WWI. But the doctor is only able to tell him so much. And Rita, annoyed by things, has decided to head to Lake Placid to look into the strange things she has noted.
Rick is then summoned to the Department of War. It seems others have also noted things, even being aware that Rita’s reports were not being forwarded, but not everything. Rick, along with Hammer Downe, now heads to Lake Placid as well. Only to deal with an air attack, thankfully aided by Winchester and Preston. Soon they, joined by Rita, are looking into goings on.
The story moves along quickly, as should any New Pulp story, with danger and action, with the good guys figuring out most of what is going on, as well as the strange creatures that are part of the story. Thankfully, the good guys succeed, but the main villain is able to escape. He will definitely return. And as we learn that Germany was able to sneak in many agents into the U.S., this will clearly have repercussions down the road.
In the end, Rick Justice, now a lieutenant colonel, is tasked with leading and forming the core team of Code Name: Intrepid.
I also read the short-story collection, CNI: Secret Missions. It contains five stories, three coming from the prior Airship 27 collection, and the rest are new. They are set from 1933 to 1941.
In the first three stories, we get the same Nazi group introduced in the novel, the Sonderstaffel, but lead by a man known initially as “The White Man.” The first two stories are set between the third and fourth novels. In between, we get one-page dossiers on our five main characters.
The first story takes the team to the Florida Everglades. Something (or maybe someone) is turning Seminole Indians into some kind of gillmen. Can the team figure this out and stop it before more are affected? As someone from Southwest Florida who is also familiar with the Seminoles, this was interesting for me. There were a few inaccuracies. And I am not sure where this fictional air base is. We see that the team has its own unique airship to use. And we meet a new consulting member of the group, Professor Lucius “Specs” Wellington, who joined the team in the second novel.
The second story has the team expanded by Navy pilot and diver Lt. Cmdr. Kenneth “Sting Ray” Niles, introduced in the prior story, and Professor Reginald “Digs” Jasper, who joined in the third novel. The death of a colleague of Jasper’s brings them their next mission.
The Sonderstaffel has found the clues that will give them access to another world: the world of the dwarves from Norse mythology, Svartalfheim. There the Nazis hope to force the dwarves to forge them powerful weapons. Hopefully, the team can stop this from happening.
The third story, set in 1935, starts when Digs Jasper comes to the team’s base half dead. The Sonderstaffel is working to revive an Egyptian priest of Set, who is buried in Libya. Doing so, they hope to gain control of him and his powers to resurrect and control the dead. The team heads out to stop this. Can they succeed?
The fourth story, set in 1936, takes place in Delaware. Work on a dam and levees is being interrupted by witches. So CNI is called in. They have to deal with Maj. George “Man Mountain” McGuire, Army Corps of Engineers. They soon figure out that the American Bund is behind this, part of a Nazi plot tied to a nearby Bund camp. But whose side are the witches on? In the end, Man Mountain McGuire also joins the team.
The last story, set a few months before Pearl Harbor, has part of the team heading to Scotland. They are joined by new members Group Capt. Cecil “Wild Cat” Beckham, RAF, who has been part of the team for three years and first appeared in the fourth novel, and Army nurse Lt. Helen Sanders.
In Scotland, they learn of information from the recently defected Rudolf Hess: The Nazis are creating werewolves in Spain. With a group of British commandos, the team heads out. Will they succeed?
This is a great collection of shorter adventures that fit in between the novels. Hopefully, Mendenhall has worked out a chronology for all these stories.
Overall, this is a fun series. I am looking to get into the novels first before moving to the anthologies. I think the plans are to come out with a second short-story collection and a fifth anthology volume (CNI: Classified, Vol. 5). In addition, I think they will be updating the covers of the novels with art and logos by Jeffrey Ray Hayes. I think that would be great, as his covers make the books stand out.
If you haven’t, check this series as well as his sf series Far Futures.
