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A Valentine for the Silencer (The Silencer, Book 10) by Cora Buhlert

Release date: February 12, 2019
Subgenre: Pulp thriller, Men's Adventure

About A Valentine for the Silencer:

 

Valentine's Day 1938: All Richard Blakemore a.k.a. the masked crimefighter known only as the Silencer wants is to have a romantic dinner with his beautiful fiancée Constance Allen.

But on his way to his date, Richard happens upon a mugging in progress. Can he save the victim and make sure that young Thomas Walden has the chance to propose to his girlfriend? And will he make it to dinner with Constance on time?

This is a short Valentine's Day story of 7200 words or approx. 24 print pages in the Silencer series, but may be read as a standalone.

 

Excerpt:

 

At around the same time, Richard Blakemore, pulp writer by day and the steel-masked crimefighter known only as the Silencer by night, was walking up Nassau Street at a brisk pace.
For though the sun was still up — in theory at least, for that blasted Equitable Building was plunging all of lower Manhattan into shadow — the Silencer had already completed his mission for the day and has spent the afternoon putting the fear of God into a crooked banker who had cheated sweet little old ladies out of their life savings.
The banker had promised to pay back his ill-gotten gains — all of them — and donate the rest to the Littlest Angels Home for Orphans in Hell’s Kitchen. And just to make sure that the man kept his promise, Richard had personally watched him write the respective cheques, while he kept the Silencer’s silver-plated twin .45 automatics trained on the banker all the time.
He’d left the twin .45 automatics along with the Silencer’s steel mask locked in the trunk of his Maybach Zeppelin that was parked in the shadow of the Singer Building a few blocks away. And now he was just Richard Blakemore, pulp writer and man about town, on his way to a romantic dinner with his beautiful fiancée.
In his hand, he held a heart-shaped box of fine chocolates he’d picked up at a chocolatier on Maiden Lane. And in one of the many pockets of his swirling black coat — the same swirling black coat the Silencer wore — was a jewellery box holding a slender bracelet studded with diamonds and emeralds that matched Constance’s green eyes.
An icy wind whistled down Nassau Street, blowing snowflakes into his face, so Richard turned up the collar of his coat, tightened his blood-red silk scarf and pulled the brim of his fedora — the same fedora the Silencer always wore — deeper into his face.
Tomorrow he would start typing up the latest Silencer adventure, the one with the crooked banker. Though he would have to come up with a better title than that. Hmm, what about The Werewolf of Wall Street? Or maybe The Vampire of Wall Street?
He’d ask Constance which one she liked better. After all, he’d meet her soon. Most likely, she was already waiting for him at The Edgar, a restaurant in the atrium of the Temple Court Building, named after Edgar Allan Poe who’d once lived at that address, long before even there was a Temple Court Building, supposedly New York City’s first skyscraper, on the corner of Nassau and Beekman Street.
Richard smiled. He’d always liked The Edgar with its cosy mahogany and burgundy leather interior. And besides, as a writer of mysteries and crime fiction, Edgar Allan Poe was his patron saint of sorts. Hell, considering that Poe had not just invented the murder mystery, but also wrote adventure stories, satire, fantasy, horror and science fiction, he was the patron saint of all pulp writers everywhere. And so it was only appropriate to pay his respects to old Edgar and raise a glass in his honour once in a while.
The red brick façade and twin pyramidal peaks of the Temple Court Building were already in view, when Richard noticed a young man with curly hair walking maybe fifteen yards ahead of him. He seemed nervous, his right hand constantly fingering something in the pocket of his tweed coat. The young man stopped, glanced at his wrist watch, and abruptly turned into an alley that ran from Nassau Street to Park Row.
A few seconds later, another man in baggy pants and a herringbone newsboy cap, followed. Something gleamed in his hand, struck by a stray ray of light from a streetlamp. A switchblade knife.
Richard swore. He pulled his silk scarf over his face in lieu of a mask and set off in pursuit.

 

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About the Silencer series:

Hardworking pulp writer by day and steel-masked vigilante by night, Richard Blakemore a.k.a. the Silencer fights both larger than life villains and ordinary crooks and keeps Depression era New York City safe from criminal low-lives in these high octane adventure stories.

The Silencer is an homage to the heroic pulp vigilantes of the 1930s such as the Shadow, the Spider and Doc Savage and the writers who brought them to life.

 

About Cora Buhlert: 

Cora Buhlert was born and bred in North Germany, where she still lives today – after time spent in London, Singapore, Rotterdam and Mississippi. Cora holds an MA degree in English from the University of Bremen and is currently working towards her PhD. 
Cora has been writing, since she was a teenager, and has published stories, articles and poetry in various international magazines. She is the author of the Silencer series of pulp style thrillers, the Shattered Empire space opera series, the In Love and War science fiction romance series, the Helen Shepherd Mysteries and plenty of standalone stories in multiple genres. When Cora is not writing, she works as a translator and teacher.

 

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