Black Samurai #5: The Inquisition

Black Samurai #5: The Inquisition, by Marc Olden

November, 1974  Signet Books

The most low-key entry yet, this fifth volume of Black Samurai finds our hero Robert Sand trying to rescue the abducted daughter of Sand’s boss, former president William Baron Clarke. But as the narrative plays out, Sand spends more time investigating than he does rescuing. Also, the titular “Inquisition,” a radical group that has kidnapped Clarke’s daughter, isn’t much exploited, and there are less action scenes than any previous installment. Plus, Sand doesn’t even get any nookie. 

The villains are led by Dessalines, a black radical whose Inquisition is a terrorist group that captures wealthy people and holds them for ransom. They also live up to their name and put their captives under an inquisition, accusing them of capitalist crimes and whatnot in a kangaroo court, with a guilty verdict already in mind. (I think a lot of these former Inquisition freaks grew up to start the whole lawfare game.) Twenty-year-old Mary Baron Clarke is their latest victim, and the opening is an effective scene in which they kidnap her on the groups of her college in New York; Olden filters the scene through the perspective of two of Mary’s bodyguards, and we learn that one of them has developed a thing for the pretty young woman. 

It takes a bit for series hero Robert “The Black Samurai” Sand to appear. When we meet him he’s in Japan, where he’s testing himself against the emperor’s bodyguards, something he does regularly to keep himself in fighting prime. As if he doesn’t get enough real-world experience on the job! But then once again Marc Olden somehow manages to make Sand seem human, despite how superhumanly skilled he is. Plus we get some of the series’ mandatory black empowerment, as Sand finds himself squaring off against a racist Japanese who doesn’t believe a black American can be a true samurai. It goes without saying that Sand savagely corrects his way of thinking. 

Olden is also at pains to remind us that Robert Sand isn’t just a man of action; he does a fair bit of investigating in The Inquisition, even staying a few steps ahead of President Clarke in trying to guess what Dessalines is up to, and where Dessalines is keeping Mary. There’s also the respectful rivalry between Sand and Clarke’s top Secret Service man, Frank Pines – wow, a male secret service agent guarding a former president, imagine that! Oh and to continue with my topical real-world allusions, there is a part in this one where Sand, I kid you not, is shot in the head, but it’s a glancing blow that he miraculously survives due to having moved out of the path of the bullet in the nick of time. Sure, Sand doesn’t get up and yell “Fight! Fight! Fight!,” but I still thought it was a crazy synchronicity, given that I was reading this scene right around the time of the incidents in Butler, PA…which happened shortly after I posted a review of Butler! 

But then, Sand does relatively little fighting this time. He acts more as an investigator for the most part, working his way into the underworld to get a lead on Dessalines. The action, like the previous volume, is very urban, and one can almost hear the chocka-wocka wah-wah guitars in the soundtrack that plays in your mind as Sand takes on a roomful of black thugs early in the book; again Olden stresses how Sand is cautious here, uncertain of easy victory, despite being in a completely different league than his opponents. The only real struggle he faces is in Dessalines’ top two henchmen: Swahili, a hulking black fighter, and Machete, a greasy-haired Mexican sadist who enjoys using his titular weapon on prey. As ever with Olden we get lots of scenes with the villains and see these two brutally carrying out Dessalines’ orders on victims, but when it comes to their fight with Sand I didn’t feel that Olden exploited the potential very much. Same goes with Dessalines, whose confrontation with Sand in the finale is anticlimactic. 

As mentioned Sand goes without any tail this time, though Olden teases the opportunity: midway through the novel a female character named Michael Bianca is introduced, an investigative reporter who has a source in the Inquisition and is trying to break the story. We are told Michael is, of course, attractive, and also she’s feisty, and Olden seems to intimate that she and Sand will become an item, particularly given how Michael begins to care about Sand, even after only meeting him briefly. But nothing happens and Michael is another character who initially seems to have more narrative importance than she ultimately will. Sandy Baron Clarke also doesn’t feature much in the novel, other than infrequent cutovers to her panicked state as she sits alone in an Inquisition cell, but we do get the interesting note that she too has a thing for Robert Sand, though it is more of a crush on her part and Sand is seemingly unaware of it. 

As for Clarke himself, he appears in The Inquisition a bit more than in previous volumes. There are several scenes where Sand, Clarke, and Frank Pines sit around and discuss how to get Mary back, with Clarke always doing what Sand suggests. Marc Olden also often reminds us that Clarke, the wealthy Texan former president, has this much respect for a black man. But again, the Black Samurai series never goes to the full-on black empowerment of, say, The Iceman, and Olden’s narratorial tone is just as reserved as Robert Sand is himself. Yet despite this Sand always proves himself to be one of the more memorable protagonists in men’s adventure, and I’m starting to suspect it’s because he comes off as so relatable – at least when it comes to his lack of overconfidence. 

Olden typically tosses too many villains into his novels, and The Inquisition is no different. With the introduction of Michael, we also get the intro of a right-wing gang of ‘Nam vets who have banded together to stop Dessalines and his left-wing radicals. This is a cool subplot but unfortunately Olden spends more time showing these guys trying to intimidate Michael, and then getting their asses kicked by Sand. I was hoping for a couple of pitched battles between ‘Nam vets and leftist scumbag radicals, but it wasn’t to be. These guys turn out to be more of an inconvenience than an item of interest, and ultimately come off as a way for Olden to meet his word count. 

Ultimately I’d have to say The Inquisition was my least favorite Black Samurai yet, but that’s not to say it’s bad or anything. Marc Olden is still invested in the series, and particularly in his hero, but he likely was feeling the burn around this time, what with writing both this series and Narc at the same time. Having read the following volume, I know Olden will get back on track, and in a big way, and in fact I look forward to reading The Warlock again.