Published in 1971, THE DEATH MERCHANT launched a series of books that would survive even its publisher, Pinnacle Books. After Pinnacle folded, the series was picked up by Dell Books until the books met their eventual demise.
Other than some interesting and fantastic plots, THE DEATH MERCHANT books never really had that much to keep me interested. However, I stayed with the series off and on – mostly off. Some books were better than others.
This first volume was released at the time that Pinnacle was starting to make some publishing hay with THE EXECUTIONER. Therefore the “Gee, let’s kill mafia goons” books were coming into vogue and everyone wanted to get their piece of this publishing pie. Most series of this type, deservedly, went the way of the dodo bird. However, THE DEATH MERCHANT lingered. Like bad gas.
The cover of the book claims that it is “The most inside, the most accurate, the most incredible account of the syndicate that has ever been published.” Sorry, I’m not buying into that.
What can I say about the book other than to mention that I believe it to be atypical of novels of this type in that there is virtually NOTHING really about this character that is likeable. Yeah, he gives a woman 5 K to pay for plastic surgery after her boyfriend throws scalding coffee in her face. Then, too, as he later executes the boyfriend, he says, “Edie Boland wants you to know that she made all this possible. She came and told me about your little ambush. You should have kept your mouth shut around her, Charley, and you shouldn’t have thrown hot coffee into her face. Are you looking into the barrels, Charley?” Other than that, Richard Camellion is quite charm-free.
Another thing that bugged me (and in some way still does) is Camellion’s/Rosenberger’s absolute contempt for anyone who has religious beliefs. Anyone can believe what they want to believe in this country, but I don’t subsidize the idea that someone should be allowed to hammer/insult you about your own beliefs. Unless one’s beliefs are stupid – like a cult I learned of one time that worships what they believe is a battery from extraterrestrial spacecraft. Wail away on those cats if you want to!
Disturbing thing #2: “The Cosmic Lord of Death”. Rosenberger dedicated one of his books to this entity, saying that it was the best friend mankind could ever have, or words to that effect. Fairly screams of someone in the throes of depression, doesn’t it? I’m no psychiatrist, but if someone I knew said something like that, I’d suspect they were suffering from some form of mental illness.
Disturbing thing #3: The one and only “Super” (double length) Death Merchant novel, called “Apocalypse” featured America going into nuclear war, much to Camellion’s glee. Mental illness via the author? Again?
If Mr. Rosenberger is still alive these days, he would be right at 86 or 87 years of age. If not, I guess his best friend, The Cosmic Lord of Death, paid him a final visit. Hope they were very happy when they both walked/floated off together into the sunset.
By the way, for those of you who are interested, Joe Kenney recently posted a 1981 interview held with Rosenberger from a magazine called SKULLDUGGERY on his blog http://glorioustrash.blogspot.com. The interview is disappointingly short and doesn’t really make Rosenberger come off as anything other than borderline obnoxious. But perhaps I’m reading something into it that wasn’t intended.
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