Satan Paints the Sky (G-8 and His Battle Aces #52) (Robert J. Hogan) Review
The bad guy has a dagger stuck in his head. The point is in his brain and the hilt is just sticking out there. He's not very happy about this ... but I am.
Although there is far more to this book than this particularly strong visual idea, this idea is really something. (This is shown on both the cover and the very first page of the story, so I'm not spoiling anything.)
Recommended in Ed Hulse's indispensable The Blood 'N' Thunder Guide To Collecting Pulps, the aeronautical adventure of G-8 entitled Satan Paints the Sky is a nearly perfect example of how a few strong visual ideas (there are others besides the villain, especially one involving picnic baskets), some especially fluid/invisible prose, and a particularly well turned plot can be all that is required for an engaging reading experience. The various plot inversions are logical but rarely foreseeable, especially at the speed that Robert J. Hogan moves this WWI flying spy tale.
I've enjoyed the other G-8 adventures that I've read, but this one compares to my hero pulp favorites, The Spider and Operator #5.