Book Review: High Disaster by Lionel Derrick
Senator Harland Harrington used to be your typical Republican lawmaker. During his two terms in office, he stood for conservative family values, sensible government spending, and bringing home the bacon for his constituents in Oregon. But a man has needs. Two years ago, he hired Arlene Day to handle his “non-typing” secretarial duties, and also entertain the senator’s friends and special guests. A lot of her work was done in the horizontal position.
Unfortunately, Miss Day had a firm grasp on her self-worth, and asked for a severance bonus well beyond what Senator Harrington was willing to pay. Worse, she’d already made a book deal, and the senator’s refusal to pay up was the signal to publish. Now the public knows her as the Capitol Sex Bonus, and the party has asked Harland not to run for re-election.
Senator Harrington decides that it’s the fault of the Oregon voters who refused to support him despite his minor transgressions (this was back when Republicans still cared about sex scandals) and decides that if Oregon isn’t grateful for what he’s done for them, the entire state can burn. He shall become the Oregon Terror, and destroy them all!
This is the 22nd volume of The Penetrator series, yet another men’s adventure paperback series of the 1970s. Mark Hardin, the Penetrator, is in many ways typical of the genre. He’s a Vietnam veteran who got a medical discharge after being beaten nearly to death for exposing a military black market ring, then his girlfriend was killed by the Mafia. What makes him a little different is that he had a Cheyenne mother, something he was not aware of (due to being an orphan) until after his stint in ‘Nam. His wise Native American personal trainer David Red Eagle has trained Mark in the ways of their people, adding on to his already formidable skills.
Unlike some other men’s adventure heroes, the Penetrator does not have a secretive government agency backing him, just Red Eagle and Professor Haskins, the uncle of his dead girlfriend, and they work out of a converted mineshaft known as the Stronghold.
This volume is something of a change of pace for the series. Rather than the usual small army of Mafia hitmen or cultish terrorists seen in these types of stories, the enemy is one out-of-shape politician, his personal assistant, and a few goons hired through political connections. Mark mostly gets involved because one of the first targets harms the local Native American tribe. (I should mention that the story exclusively uses the term “Indian.”)
Mark tootles around Oregon listening to “soft music” and trying to figure out where the Oregon Terror will strike next. Once he figures out it’s Senator Harrington, Mark persuades the senator’s home office secretary to assist him. After several near misses, the Penetrator realizes the big target will be the McNary Dam and this leads to the climax.
The body count is pretty low in this one, with the Oregon Terror maxing out about six fatalities, and the Penetrator only killing one opponent directly. More like an Oregon vacation, really.
In addition to being the sort of fellow who bangs his secretarial staff, Senator Harrington is also kind of racist, thinking of his Native American constituents as “a special interest group” who are more trouble than their votes are worth. He also turns out to be frothingly homophobic, which comes across as much more villainous to a modern reader than it probably would have to a 1977 audience. (And his wife’s bisexuality that much more sympathetic.)
If you read this kind of book for the sex and violence, this one’s a snoozer. But as an advertisement for Oregon tourism, it’s a winner.
And let’s have some nice soft rock of the sort the Penetrator enjoys:
