One of my pulp magazine guilty pleasures are the back stories in issues of Jungle Stories. Jungle Stories was a hero pulp featuring Ki-Gor from 1938 to 1954. It was a quarterly magazine from Fiction House with a lead novella featuring Ki-Gor as written by “John Peter Drummond.” Some of those are well worth reading as they were among the best Tarzan imitations ever written.

There were generally four to five back up stories including a novelette. Surprises include Day Keene, James Blish, and Wyndham Martyn who all had back up stories. One of my favorites is Armand Brigaud who supposedly served in the French Army in Africa. He had some entertaining stories set in the region of Lake Chad with lots of authentic local color.

A major back up character in Jungle Stories was Dan Cushman’s “Armless O’Neil.” Cushman became a well respected writer of westerns and the non-fiction book The Great Northern Trail. His novel Stay Away, Joe was made into a movie starring Elvis Presley.

Altus Press/Steeger Books has collected the Armless O’Neil stories. Seekers of the Glittering Fetish contains the first six stories.

Contents:

Armless O’Neil is described as in his mid-30s, short but well built. His left hand is missing and he has a hook that he uses frequently. He has been in Africa for around 15 years looking for the big score so he can return one day to Chicago. He carries a pistol. In one story, it is a Luger, a Walther in another story.

This is not the sunny and dry South Africa of L. Patrick Greene or British East Africa of Charles Beadle. The Armless O’Neil stories are in the Belgian Congo and French Equatorial Africa. It is constantly hot and humid, everything is rotting from fungus and termites. Black water fever and other diseases are a constant threat.

Cushman combines the hard-boiled crime story of Black Mask magazine with jungle adventure. O’Neil finds himself in conflict with villainous men, generally Europeans. There are safaris looking for lost ruins full of gems and gold that O’Neil is always skeptical of. The climax is generally O’Neil saving his friend Tommy Huston aided by his servant, the native Bobolongonga.

I enjoyed this book. If you are in the mood for some period jungle adventure, you can order Seekers of the Glittering Fetish from Steeger Books in eBook, softcover, or hardcover format. Steeger Books has periodic sales so get signed up to receive updates on sales and new titles.