October, 1974 Holloway House
I recently came across this fifth installment of The Iceman and thought I’d check it out, even though I haven’t been the greatest fan of the previous volumes I’ve read. But as it turns out, #4: Sunday Fix was the last volume I had, and this one follows right after, with even a cursory mention of that novel’s events, so I figured I had nothing to lose. All told Spinning Target is on par with the other three volumes I’ve read.
Joseph Nazel again doles out a Blaxploitation yarn in what is for the most part a humdrum, meat-and-potatoes style, comparable in some ways to that of Ralph Hayes or Dan Streib. Particularly the latter, in that once again Nazel has made the curious decision to deliver a story featuring a protagonist who literally runs a whorehouse and “loves” all of his women – women who constantly tell him how much they want him – and Nazel delivers absolutely zero sex, similar to how Streib would also ignore all the explicit stuff in his series novels. The Iceman is almost PG, which is baffling. Compare to contemporary Blaxploitation paperback series Dark Angel, which was consistently raunchy; one wonders why Nazel even bothered with the entire “million-dollar cathouse in the Vegas desert” setup of the series. And yet, this is the domain of series hero Henry Highland West, often called “The Iceman,” but more often than not just referred to as “Ice.”
That said, I do enjoy the “seventies sci-fi” vibe of the Oasis, Ice’s Vegas bordello, with its “electronic brain” Matilda that is run by one of the resident girls. This at times gives The Iceman more of a futuristic vibe than other ‘70s sci-fi series, and curiously an “electronic brain” also factored into another Blaxploitation paperback of the day, The Gravy Train Hit. In another sci-fi bit, we learn that Ice’s Cadillac is “hot,” in that he can activate a low-wattage electrical forcefield around it to zap any would-be carjackers. Interesting then that it was the books with black protagonists that had more of a high-tech basis…oh wait, sorry. That should be “Black,” with the capital “B,” which is how Nazel writes it throughout…while “white” is never capitalized. I’d make fun of this, but sadly this has essentially become standard practice among the propaganda peddlers who work for mainstream “news” outlets these days. And their explanation for why they do so is humorously racist. (Bonus points if you guessed – correctly – that the person who wrote that explanation isn’t even black.)
But then, the “Black” stuff only adds to the charm of The Iceman, given the overall empowerment angle of the series and Holloway House publications in general. Nazel constantly reminds us of the hardscrabble roots of his black characters and the harsh world they had to survive to become who they now are. The opening in particular conveys this, as Ice and his usual entourage – jive-talking Christmas Tree, soul-sister Solema, and “Japanese” sisters Kim and Jan – head down the red carpet at a big Hollywood premiere for a big-deal “Black movie” that is supposed to be worlds beyond “the typical Black exploitation cinema” of the day. In other words Nazel is specifically calling out “Blaxploitation” movies, though not using that term (I believe the term came about in the ‘90s, didn’t it?), which I found humorous given that he wrote the novelization of the Blaxploitation flick Black Gestapo. And you’ve gotta think the dude at least hoped The Iceman would receive a film treatment, right?
If a movie had been made out of it, though, one would hope Nazel wouldn’t be the one who wrote the screenplay. Simply put, Spinning Target is the work of a writer who is exhausted from the relentless pace of writing an action series. The book is a study in how to draw out scenes past the breaking point, particularly scenes where nothing happens. There are endless sequences where characters stand around and talk…and talk…and talk, then we’ll break away to another group of characters who are talking endlessly, and then we’ll cut back to the first group, who talk some more. I’m not even really exaggerating. Action is infrequent, and when it happens, it too is weighed down by a curiously-deflated tone, as if Nazel were going through the motions. And as for the naughty stuff? Absolutely zilch! Hell, the female characters are barely even described, let alone exploited.
Ice’s blue-colored vehicles and gadgetry are downplayed as well; in truth, Spinning Target could just as easily be the novelization of a ‘70s TV show, and one filmed on the cheap, too. The biggest setpiece occurs in the opening, and is depicted on the cover: after the big Hollywood premiere, which stars Ice’s old childhood friend Gwen (who has since become a famous singer and now actress), Ice is lured away on false pretenses and a gang of thugs try to kill him with a bazooka. This setpiece though is more of an indication of the page-filling trickery Joseph Nazel will give us throughout: it goes on for like 40 pages, and most of that runtime is given over to the hapless thugs arguing with each other, as if they’re twenty years early for a Quentin Tarantino movie. Some of it is funny, though, but boy it goes on.
And another thing we learn here is that Joseph Navel POV-hops like a mother. By which I mean, we’ll be in the perspective of one character, and in the next paragraph we’re suddenly in the perspective of another, with absolutely nothing to warn us. This makes for a bumpy read as the reader is constantly knocked out of the narrative due to confusion: I mean Ice will be obliviously driving his Caddy in one paragraph, then in the next we’re abruptly in the thoughts of one of the hit-men who is waiting to kill him, then suddenly we’re in the thoughts of Gwen (who isn’t even there), and then we’re back to Ice…it’s like that through the entire book, so be prepared for some confusion if you attempt to read Spinning Target. This sort of thing drives me nuts, but others might not care as much.
Ice manages to turn the tables on the bazooka team, but from here on out it’s more of a looong-simmer mystery as Ice tries to figure out why Gwen is acting so weird. So basically Gwen grew up on the streets with Ice and Tree, but now she’s bigtime, only we readers know she’s hooked on heroin by her manager, Parsons – who himself is under the gun from his white Syndicate backers. Parsons is the one behind the opening hit on Ice, though really the job was forced on Parsons…and the dude doesn’t make for the most compelling villains. There’s a nigh-endless part midway through where Gwen tries to break away from him…and nearly kills the hulking guy, who is more than twice her size, beating the shit out of Parsons with an ash tray and other items. This scene though is another indication of how Nazel will take something and stretch it past the breaking point, with the two arguing, fighting…arguing some more, then fighting, then Gwen escaping…then stuff with her escaping with the kindly old black doctor (who despite being kindly has been secretly dosing her with junk per Parsons’s orders), and just on and on.
What makes it frustrating is all the missed opportunities. For one, Gwen. We’re told she became a famous singer and has done albums and all this, but she spends the entire novel running from Parsons and hoping for her latest heroin fix. There’s zero studio stuff and no spotlight for her to do anything. Same goes for Parsons, a mogul who runs an upstart music label with backing from the mob. Instead he spends the novel raging at Gwen, getting beaten up by her, and then hiring various thugs to go get her – thugs he usually spends pages and pages arguing with. About the most interesting thing we get is a brief visit Ice pays to a Los Angeles “jazz DJ” (who nonetheless plays songs by Gwen, which aren’t described as being “jazz;” but then they aren’t described at all) who gives Ice the scoop on pirating and bootlegging albums. Even this doesn’t pander out, however.
Ice doesn’t do much ass-kicking, either. He blows away the bazooka goons in the opening, then spends the rest of the novel trying to figure out what’s going on with Gwen. Tree, Solema, Kim, and Jan are usually his entourage, but only Tree stands out, mostly due to his affrontery over how Gwen failed to notice him at the Hollywood premiere. Ice does not “make use” of any of the girls, though we’re often reminded that he loves all of them…and plans to give them the goods eventually! It’s all very curious. The girls get in on the other variety of action, though; late in the game they all get out their nickel-plated revolvers and hit the streets of L.A. as they try to help Ice. Nazel has toned the violence way down from the first volume, with gore nonexistent; more detail is placed on Ice’s “nunchaku,” illegal in Californa as Nazel informs us; Ice carries the pair around in his powder-blue suit and bashes in a couple of heads with them.
The finale is somewhat memorable, with all the characters converging on the Hollywood sign. Here Ice, armed only with his .38, takes on a group of black thugs led by “Big Man,” who is another character that does a helluva lot of talking with not much in the way of action. Big Man however takes up a lot of the novel, bossing around Parsons. Nazel has so much fun with all the “goon chatter” that he can’t help himself; even during a climactic raid on Parson’s warehouse, Nazel briefly features a trio of goons – named, seriously, Rastus, Rufus, and Remus – and gives them a couple pages of banter before Ice shows up with his .38.
There were a few more volumes after this, and I’d be curious to find out someday if Gwen becomes a recurring character in the series; the end of the novel occurs a few months later, and we’re told that Gwen has not only kicked horse but has also won the Oscar. And also, she’s become part of Ice’s retinue, signing a contract to perform at the Oasis. This could mean that Gwen might become one of the faceless, nondescript female characters who populate The Iceman, but as of now Spinning Target is the latest volume of the series I have, so I have no way of confirming.
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