{"id":21017,"date":"2025-12-31T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=21017"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:43:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:43:49","slug":"cni-classified-v1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2025\/12\/31\/cni-classified-v1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"‘CNI: Classified,’ Vol. 1 & 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Code Name: Intrepid<\/a><\/strong> is an interesting series from Robert J. Mendenhall<\/a><\/strong>, available through his own imprint Blue Planet Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"CNI:<\/a>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\u2019s tied to a foreign nation.<\/p>\n

It started as a short-story collection from Airship 27<\/a>. It now consists of five novels, a short-story collection, and five anthologies with stories by other authors. All the books now sport covers and logos created by Jeffrey Ray Hayes<\/a><\/strong>, who has been doing work on the rest of the series, as well as other New Pulp works and series. This time, I\u2019m looking at the first two anthology volumes.<\/p>\n

Mendenhall\u2019s background is as a former policeman, a former member of the U.S. Air Force, and a former journalist. This gives him the foundation for this series. And it\u2019s not his only work, as he also has an SF series called Far Futures.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

Then you have Lt. Cmdr. Roger “Sky Hawk” Winchester<\/strong>, USN, who is a WWI ace. He is described as looking like Clark Gable<\/strong>. There is Gunnery Sgt. Dexter “Guns” Preston<\/strong>, who is a Marine and fighter. And there is Master Sgt. Michael “Hammer” Downe<\/strong>, who is a mechanic and test pilot. Rita Marshall<\/strong> 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<\/strong>, a former field surgeon in WWI, now works in forensics.<\/p>\n

Over time, they are joined by other experts, both military and civilian, including Professor Lucius “Specs” Wellington<\/strong>, Professor Reginald “Digs” Jasper<\/strong>, Navy pilot and diver Lt. Cmdr. Kenneth “Sting Ray” Niles<\/strong>, Maj. George “Man Mountain” McGuire<\/strong> of the Army Corps of Engineers, and others. Early on, they get their own base with a dirigible and later add a decommissioned sub.<\/p>\n

CNI: Classified<\/em>, Vol. 1, gives us five stories by different authors. In addition to Mendenhall, there is Wayne Carey<\/a><\/strong>, Teel James Glenn<\/a><\/strong>, Charles F. Millhouse<\/a><\/strong>, and Bobby Nash<\/a><\/strong>. These stories are set from 1933 to 1940.<\/p>\n

We kick off with “Case Gray” by Mendenhall, set in 1933, when the group is still fairly new. Bodies of civilian workers with the War Department are washing up on shore and turning into some kind of zombies. Clearly, their enemy, the German Sonderstaffel<\/em>, is up to its usual evil schemes. They figure the source must be either a hidden island or a ship, and go after it. They find their foe Scarlet<\/strong> (see the earlier novels) is behind it. Can they put a stop to the scheme and rescue as many of the civilian workers as they can?<\/p>\n

Bobby Nash takes us to the Pacific in “The Deep Six Affair” from 1937. Sting Ray Niles and Digs Jasper are on site before the rest of the core team joins them. They are looking for something that hit the ocean near a volcanic island. Is it a meteor? Is it a UFO? Before the rest of the team arrives in their sub, Sting Ray disappears looking for the object. In the process, he finds an underground world on the island, where people who escaped the Napoleonic Wars have built a new life. But they don\u2019t want Intrepid to leave and expose their world. Will Intrepid be trapped here forever?<\/p>\n

Some of the team are in Louisiana in 1938, on the search for oil, in Teel James Glenn\u2019s “The Dragon of Atchafalaya.” Rick, Rita, and Man Mountain McGuire are meeting with the local naval admiral when he is called away as his stepson is in the hospital, suffering from exposure and babbling about dragons. But while visiting with him, someone shoots him. Rick goes after the gunman, who is revealed to be a member of the Sonderstaffel<\/em>. Clearly, something is going on. Are there really dragons? What will they find in the bayou?<\/p>\n

We find some of our team back in the Pacific in 1939 in Charles F. Millhouse\u2019s “The Survivors of Ghost Island.” They are flying from the Philippines to Hawaii when a strange phenomenon strikes their PBY Catalina plane, and they need to make a landing. Fortunately, there is an island nearby. We have Rick Justice, along with Sky Hawk Winchester, Hammer Downe, and new recruit Private Huckson<\/strong>. But they find something strange on the island, and then the Japanese show up looking for it as well. Will they all be able to escape unharmed?<\/p>\n

Finally, we have a case set in Shanghai in 1940. “The Menace of Ruyi Jinga Bang,” by Wayne Carey, starts off with the Sonderstaffel<\/em>, led by The White Man<\/strong> (not seen in a while), searching for an old staff in a Buddhist temple. What are they after this time? The core team, sans Hammer Downe, comes in after a Buddhist monk, Brother Sun<\/strong>, alerts the China Marines. Can they, with the help of Brother Sun, keep the staff out of their hands? And if so, what will become of it?<\/p>\n

\"CNI:<\/a>Vol. 2 gives us six stories by different authors. This time we get Mendenhall joined by Michael A. Black<\/a><\/strong>, John C. Bruening<\/a><\/strong>, Nancy Hansen<\/a><\/strong>, Ray Lovato<\/a><\/strong>, Jonathan W. Sweet<\/a><\/strong>, and George Tackes<\/a><\/strong>. Stories are set between 1936 and 1941, before the U.S. got into WWII.<\/p>\n

Mendenhall starts things off with a story set in 1936 that takes the core team, along with Digs Jasper, to the Netherlands. RAF pilot Squadron Leader Cecil “Wildcat” Beckham<\/strong>, who has worked with the team before, calls them in after finding the body of a young woman who seems to be the victim of a vampire. Getting to their target area, they run into and team up with Angelique “Angel” Giacomo<\/strong>, a member of a secret Vatican group similar to Intrepid. It seems our old friends the Sonderstaffel<\/em>, under the leadership of someone known as Blu Dog<\/strong>, are looking for an ancient imprisoned vampire for their own purposes. Can the team put a stop to this before more lives are lost?<\/p>\n

In Nancy Hansen\u2019s “The Extrasensory Connection,” set in 1937, the core team, along with Sting Ray Niles, heads to the Sargasso Sea to look for a possible downed UFO. But not before Rita picks up both Specs Wellington and an old friend of hers, Misty Blanchette<\/strong>, who has some unique skills. So what will they find? Little green men? And will the Sonderstaffel<\/em> be there to make things difficult, as usual?<\/p>\n

Set in the Catskills, John C. Bruening\u2019s “The Menace of the Twin Men” gets right into the action with a group of soldiers and FBI agents being brutally attacked by a group of identical men. Or are they? Not all the men survive. Intrepid is informed of the event, which occurred near a bund summer camp, now closed for the season. They head out. Is the Sonderstaffel<\/em> behind this new horror, and what will the team find when they get there?<\/p>\n

“Hatchet Job,” by George Takes, is set in the woods of Wisconsin. The core team, along with Digs Jasper and a pair of Army sergeants, is there looking for something. But two team members are terribly injured and might have to retire from the team. Can the rest find their objective? They are looking for the hatchet that George Washington<\/strong> used to chop down the cherry tree as a child. Will they find it or something else? And will the team be down two members?<\/p>\n

Michael A. Black\u2019s “Tracks of the Beast” is set in the woods of Minnesota. Guns Preston is contacted by David Walks-As-Bear<\/strong>, who knew him in the Marines in WWI. People have been going missing in the woods, the latest being a guide who was savagely killed and a female photographer who was knocked out. He thinks there is a wendigo about. Rick Justice, Rita, and Guns head there to help. Is there a wendigo, or something else? Will they figure things out before more go missing?<\/p>\n

Rick, Sky Hawk, and Digs are in the U.K. in Jonathan W. Sweet\u2019s “Caging the Lion,” set in 1940, when they get called in by British intelligence. It seems the Sonderstaffel<\/em> is on a mission to get hold of something that has been protecting England for centuries, and the government wants to move it to a safer location. Will they do so easily, or will the Nazis succeed in getting it?<\/p>\n

Finally, in Ray Lovato\u2019s “Threat of the Ghost Warrior,” set a few months before Pearl Harbor, we find the team in New York guarding a scientist with a new and more powerful radar prototype. A group of Nazis and a group of ninjas both try to grab the scientist. Worse, the ninjas seem to be able to summon some kind of ghostly samurai. They fight them off, though some American servicemen are killed. The action moves to California, where the scientist\u2019s lab is located. Intrepid is joined there by a new ally: a masked vigilante called The Rogue<\/strong>. But some don\u2019t trust him. Yakuza again try to take the scientist\u2019s prototype, but will they succeed? And is The Rogue an ally or not?<\/p>\n

Overall, these are two great collections of stories. There is a lot of variety in terms of locations and the threats the team faces. There is also variety in that we get added people in some stories, while in others, not everyone is involved.<\/p>\n

Next up will be two more anthologies. If these are your first introduction to this series, please don\u2019t overlook the short-story collection or the five novels. Another short-story collection is coming in Summer 2026.<\/p>\n

This is a very good series, and it\u2019s great that other New Pulp<\/a> authors are able to play in the author\u2019s sandbox, so to speak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s tied to a foreign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":{"highlight_sharing":"default","image_sharing":"default","headline_sharing":"default"},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at the anthologies 'CNI: Classified,' Vol. 1 & 2.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[7,14],"tags":[329,476,2289,2346,1540,1984,377,2260,1082,1724,2060,1972,413,2073],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-21017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-pulp","category-review","tag-bobby-nash","tag-charles-f-millhouse","tag-code-name-intrepid","tag-george-tackes","tag-jeffrey-ray-hayes","tag-john-c-bruening","tag-jonathan-w-sweet","tag-michael-a-black","tag-nancy-a-hansen","tag-nancy-hansen","tag-ray-lovato","tag-robert-j-mendenhall","tag-teel-james-glenn","tag-wayne-carey"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2025\/09\/cni-classified-2-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-5sZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21017"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22715,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21017\/revisions\/22715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21017"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=21017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}