The Black Stiletto

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.

March 19, 2012
Benson’s The Black Stiletto (2011) introduced masked crime fighter Judy Cooper, who fought crime, inflamed public imagination, and, like many vigilante heroes, got mixed reviews from law enforcement as she roamed 1958 New York City. In this cartoonish sequel set the next year, Judy takes on an established mob (Italian) and an emerging mob (Negro) with her fists, feet, and trademark stiletto while flirting with FBI agent John Richardson. In the present, Martin Talbot, Judy Cooper Talbot’s son, discovers his aged mother’s long-buried secrets as revealed in her diaries and an old 8-mm film. Tacking back and forth between the diaries and Talbot’s dilemma when someone else produces the same film, Benson crafts dual dramas. Stiletto’s girlish diary touches on cultural milestones while she strikes literal blows for the downtrodden. This lightweight entertainment will most likely to appeal to fans of comic book heroines. Agent: Peter Miller, Global Lion.

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.

November 11, 2013
Judy Cooper (aka the Black Stiletto) meets Leo Kelly, a suave ladies’ man in New York City, who persuades her to relocate to Los Angeles, in Benson’s appealing fourth novel featuring the masked vigilante (after 2013’s The Black Stiletto: Stars and Stripes). The LAPD proves more willing than the NYPD to accept unconventional allies like Judy, but disillusionment comes in the form of two gradual epiphanies: Leo not only is incapable of making the commitment Judy yearns for but is also a ruthless criminal, the Black Stiletto’s natural prey. Judy is canny and skilled enough to stay alive while tackling gun-wielding thugs, though she is armed with only a knife, but she’s not insightful enough to realize that she’s once again dating the villain. Reminiscent of heroes from the Golden Age of comics like the Black Canary and Lady Luck, thrill-seeking Judy makes an endearing protagonist. Agent: Peter Miller, Global Lion.

September 15, 2014
Old grudges and fresh starts set the tone in Benson’s engaging fifth and final Black Stiletto novel (after The Black Stiletto: Secrets & Lies) as Judy Cooper’s son, Martin Talbot, reads her last diary from her hidden life as a masked crime fighter. His daughter, Gina, means to know more about her superhero grandmother before Alzheimer’s and old age win out, but the two have opened doors into the past that lead to deadly consequences. The Black Stiletto spent years in the world of private eyes and mobsters; the latter are not going to let her die in peace while there are still scores to settle. Gangster Leo Kelly already betrayed her, but his sister, Christina Kelly, proves to be truly vicious in the relentless hunt for revenge and for a diamond stolen years ago. Multiple points of view help enliven this daring woman’s tale, leaving readers wishing for more. Agent: Peter Miller, Global Lion.