Stars & Stripes: The Third Diary

July 11, 2011
At the start of this disappointing thriller from Benson (Evil Hours), 48-year-old Martin Talbot learns from a confessional letter that his 72-year-old, Alzheimer's-afflicted mother, Judy, wrote years earlier that she was the Black Stiletto, "ne of the most famous people on the planet," a costumed vigilante who began to operate in New York City in 1958. Extracts from Judy's diary tell her story. When puberty hits, Judy Cooper finds she has superhuman vision and hearing as well as an "intuition" that can tell her whether a person is good or bad. After being sexually abused by her stepfather, she flees her Texas home for the Big Apple, where she finds someone willing to teach her boxing. When the gangster she falls for is killed, Judy, inspired by reading a Batman comic, adopts the persona of the costumed hero to take on the mob. Fans of Alan Moore's work incorporating superheroes into a realistic world will find this similar effort doesn't measure up.

February 11, 2013
Excerpts from Judy Cooper’s 1960 diary provide the main narrative for Benson’s diverting, nostalgia-filled third thriller featuring the costumed vigilante known as the Black Stiletto (after 2012’s The Black Stiletto: Black and White). In the present, Judy’s grown son, Martin Talbot, tries to come to terms with the past of his mother, who’s now afflicted with Alzheimer’s. That past is revealed by her diaries. In Eisenhower-era New York City, Judy has various adventures that touch on such burning issues of the day as the communist menace and race relations. In particular, the naïve but game Judy attempts to help teen Billy Shen Lee, whose father was killed by neighborhood gangsters in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Later, she becomes a “Kennedy Girl” and meets the candidate (“I swear, if he wasn’t married, I’d be all over him”). Judy gives and takes a lot of punishment as the misunderstood Black Stiletto literally fights crime with girlish enthusiasm. Agent: Peter Miller, Global Lion.

April 1, 2013

Middle-aged Martin knows his mother, who has Alzheimer's, was once the Black Stiletto, a vigilante heroine who fought crime in New York, but he's determined not to betray her secrets. But through Judy Cooper's diary entries readers learn of her adventures in 1960. Judy's martial arts skills prove crucial as she helps protect presidential candidate John F. Kennedy; in her spare time she also tackles the local gang wars in New York's Chinatown and takes a stab at civil rights work. In the present day Martin suspects his college-age daughter is exhibiting talents similar to her grandmother's. The sandwich-generation Martin must act. VERDICT This action-packed thriller, told through diary entries, conveys the spirit of 1960, as an exciting presidential hopeful captures the nation's hearts. While the third entry in Benson's series (after The Black Stiletto: Black & White) is occasionally off-putting (the diary format isn't for everyone), Benson's knack for toggling back and forth in time gives readers two engaging storylines to pursue. The Black Stiletto isn't Wonder Woman, but her moxie is sure to be a hit with the Comic-Con crowd.

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