The Fury of Blacky Jaguar by Angel Luis Colón

“Fuck discreet. The boy needs a proper beating—no other way to handle it.” — Blacky Jaguar

Subtle is not a word Blacky Jaguar is familiar with. The ex-IRA enforcer, formerly known as Danny Clarke, lives his life at two speeds: idling or pushing the redline—there is no in-between.

So when his beloved 1959 Plymouth Fury goes missing, Blacky launches his own personal crusade to get the car back, and woe be it to whoever took his beloved “Polly,” or anyone standing between him and the goal of retrieving his ride.

Unfortunately for Blacky, once he starts down the warpath his familiar brand of over-the-top mayhem puts him on the radar of FBI Agent Linda Chen, a woman as dedicated to achieving her goal—busting Blacky—as he is to rescuing Polly. Chen also happens to be Blacky’s ex, so she’s double-barrel loaded for Blacky’s backside.

When their paths finally cross at a house in the Bronx owned by a gangster known as Osito, the Little Bear, the runaway train that is the fury of Blacky Jaguar finally runs completely off the rails in a blaze of retribution, righteous indignation, and glorious mayhem.

Though it weighs in at a trim 128 pages, Angel Luis Colón’s The Fury of Blacky Jaguar hits as hard as its Irish antihero Blacky does, mugging the reader and dragging him along for the ride, like it or not. But like it you will if you’re a fan of flying fists and good old fashioned pulp, as Colón has created in Blacky a character who deftly walks the line between cartoonish and compelling.

With his ’50s-style greaser hair and attire, machine gun one-liners and seemingly inhuman ability to both dish out and take physical abuse, Blacky is larger-than-life. But as events in the Bronx unfold and take a sharp turn you will not see coming, it quickly becomes clear that Blacky possesses a big heart, deeply-held moral code, and is willing to do the right thing even if he sometimes goes about it the wrong way.

With The Fury of Blacky Jaguar Angel Luis Colón has both delivered a winner and piqued my desire for more adventures featuring Blacky. It gives nothing away to say that when all’s said and done Blacky lives to fight another day, and I for one sure hope that day comes sooner than later.

The Fury of Blacky Jaguar is available from One Eye Press Singles (978-0692470169).

Angel Luis Colon’s fiction has appeared in multiple print and web publications like All Due Respect, Thuglit, Big Pulp, and Spinetingler. He reviews mystery/suspense novels for My Bookish Ways, an award-winning book blogging and review site, and is an editor for Shotgun Honey. He’s been nominated for the Derringer Award and has won a writing contest or two. Keep up with him at his site, or follow him on Twitter.