Fort Worth Star Telegram Logo

Bill Schutt and J.R. Finch’s ‘Hell’s Gate’ knows what a hero is made of | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

×
  • E-edition
    • Customer Service
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters

    • Local
    • Fort Worth
    • Arlington
    • Northeast Tarrant
    • Texas
    • Crime & Courts
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • Bud Kennedy
    • Databases
    • Nation and World
    • Cowboys
    • Rangers
    • TCU
    • Mac Engel
    • Colleges
    • Mavericks
    • Motorsports
    • Stars
    • High School Sports
    • Scores & Schedules
    • All Sports
    • Football
    • Baseball
    • Softball
    • Volleyball
    • Boys Basketball
    • Girls Basketball
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Submit a letter
    • Cheers and Jeers
    • Submit a Cheer or Jeer
    • Bud Kennedy
    • Michael Ryan
    • Cynthia M. Allen
    • Other Voices
    • Business
    • Growth
    • Restaurants
    • Arts & Culture
    • Movies
    • Things To Do
    • Music
    • Nightlife
    • Party Pics
    • Horoscopes
    • Comics
    • Contests
    • Puzzles and Games
    • Food & Drink
    • Arts
    • Health & Fitness
    • Indulge
    • The Keller Magazine
    • Neil Sperry
    • Social Eyes
    • Dear Abby
    • Weddings
    • Arlington Citizen-Journal
    • Keller Citizen
    • Star-Telegram Northeast
    • Mansfield News-Mirror
    • Weatherford Star-Telegram
    • La Estrella
    • Locales
    • Noticias
    • Deportes
    • Entretenimiento
    • Contáctenos
    • Media Kit
    • Today's Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Submit an Obituary

    • All Weddings
    • Announcements
    • Bridal Show
    • Contact Us
    • Inspiration
    • News & Advice
    • Vendors
    • Hispanic Heritage
    • Cancer Awareness
    • Healthy Lifestyle
    • Dining, Entertaining
    • Breast Cancer Awareness
    • Think Green
    • Money Matters
    • All About Pets
    • Careers and Business
    • Health and Wellness
    • How To...
    • Women Today
    • Family and Parenting
    • Easy Living Tips
    • Lawn and Garden
    • Giving Back
    • Men Today
    • On the Road 1
    • On the Road 2
  • Public Notices
  • Local Deals
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
  • Mobile & Apps

Books

Bill Schutt and J.R. Finch’s ‘Hell’s Gate’ knows what a hero is made of

By David Martindale

Special to the Star-Telegram

    ORDER REPRINT →

June 08, 2016 10:49 AM

Indiana Jones doesn’t have the monopoly on World War II-era cliffhanger thrills.

Allow us to introduce you to Capt. R.J. MacCready of Hell’s Gate, the first in a series of adventure novels written by Bill Schutt and J.R. Finch.

MacCready is a wisecracking scientist and adventurer who travels into the Brazilian jungle in January 1944. He’s on a perilous solo mission that an entire team of tough Army Rangers couldn’t survive.

He’ll cross paths with nasty Nazis (who are developing a biological weapon and its rocket delivery system), a sadistic Japanese physician (Asia’s answer to Auschwitz’s Dr. Mengele), a bloodthirsty tribe of Xavante Indians and an even thirstier species of giant, super-intelligent vampire bats.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

MacCready’s specific area of scientific expertise is zoology (same as one of the authors, Schutt, who wrote a nonfiction book called Dark Banquet about “the curious lives of blood-feeding creatures”).

So it should come as no surprise that, even though our hero tangles with some very bad men, the colony of Desmodus draculae predators, which have 10-foot wingspans and were long believed to be extinct, is the baddest of them all.

Capt. R.J. MacCready’s specific area of scientific expertise is zoology — same as co-author Bill Schutt, who wrote a nonfiction book called Dark Banquet about “the curious lives of blood-feeding creatures.”

When we meet MacCready, he is fresh off a Solomon Islands search-and-rescue mission for a “rich Massachusetts kid” (could that kid have been none other than PT boat commander John F. Kennedy?).

Now he has been called in because a Japanese sub, one the length of a football field, is discovered abandoned 750 miles inland in the South American tropics. Maj. Patrick Hendry, MacCready’s superior, believes the sub brought German troops and scientists and their equipment to a place known as Hell’s Gate.

Perpetually shrouded in mist in a hard-to-reach canyon beneath 2,000-foot cliffs, Hell’s Gate is the perfect location for the Germans to hide their top-secret experiments from Allied reconnaissance.

So our man parachutes into the jungle (like Dr. Jones, he’s not strictly the academic type). He has no way of knowing what awaits, but the nefarious plot that he uncovers turns out to be a doozy.

It seems that Dr. Eugen Sanger, a colleague of Wernher von Braun, is honing his design for a suborbital space plane that can deliver bombs and chemical weapons. If perfected, this craft could be a game-changer for the Nazis — especially if it carries the mysterious yellow substance that Sanger’s colleagues have concocted, a poison that instantly reduces an entire army into bloody puddles of goo.

Through it all, MacCready displays a knack for getting into sticky situations and then cheating death at every turn. Usually he survives thanks to his resourcefulness and stubborn tenacity, but sometimes he’s just lucky.

That said, these human villains are all lightweights compared to the animal predators that roam the Brazilian interior. Among them are monstrous turtles whose bites can sever men’s limbs and snap their spines. There also are the tiny candiru, or vampire catfish, more feared in this region than piranha. One of these vicious critters attacks an unsuspecting German soldier by eating its way up the urethra!

Worse still are the giant vampire bats of Hell’s Gate. These sanguivores have a way of syncing mentally with their prey, convincing their victims to relax, think happy thoughts, be at peace (in other words, drop their guard), so the bats can strike without any resistance.

Then they sink their teeth in deep, releasing a clot-busting substance into the victim’s system, allowing them to drink, drink, drink — while their prey suffers excruciating pain until bleeding out.

There are no good ways to die, but this is a particularly ugly one.

Through it all, like the swashbuckler archeologist played by Harrison Ford in the “Indiana Jones” movies, MacCready displays a knack for getting into sticky situations and then cheating death at every turn.

Usually he survives thanks to his resourcefulness and stubborn tenacity, but sometimes he’s just lucky.

It’s good for a smile every time Col. Wolff, an evil-to-the-bone Nazi commander who has a mile-wide grudge against our hero, shows his exasperation. “Youuu … I knew you weren’t deaddd!”

It’s not much of a spoiler to reveal that Wolff will get his in the end, by the way. As for the specifics of how poetic justice is meted out, we’ll say only that it’ll make your skin crawl, but in a satisfying way.

The authors are working on a sequel to Hell’s Gate.

It’ll be interesting to see what fresh hell awaits.

Hell’s Gate

☆☆☆☆ (out of five)

  • By Bill Schutt and J.R. Finch
  • William Morrow, $26.99

  Comments  

Videos

Kyler Murray says he picked football over baseball because he loves it

Woodward says big part of first speech was “the belief”

View More Video

Trending Stories

When are we getting an H-E-B? The answer’s complicated

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Man was shot in north Fort Worth neighborhood, not near Dairy Queen, report says

February 17, 2019 07:08 PM

Update: Man was killed in north Fort Worth neighborhood, not by Dairy Queen, report says

February 17, 2019 10:12 AM

‘Threat to democracy:’ Trump’s national emergency draws angry crowd in Fort Worth

February 18, 2019 02:30 PM

In-depth Q&A with ex Rangers manager Banister: ‘It’s on me. Absolutely. That was on me’

February 18, 2019 06:00 AM

Read Next

A dinosaur, a llama and even an alligator can help little ones wind down at bedtime

Books

A dinosaur, a llama and even an alligator can help little ones wind down at bedtime

By Dawn Guest Special to the Star-Telegram

    ORDER REPRINT →

January 18, 2019 10:00 AM

Fort Worth Texas librarian recommends perfect books for helping a child wind down at the end of the day and get ready for sleep. Bedtime stories can become a treasured part of family life for parents and kids.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE BOOKS

How does playing with children help them get ready to read?

Books

How does playing with children help them get ready to read?

December 24, 2018 10:00 AM
Where does the magic happen? For young readers, it’s often the public library

Books

Where does the magic happen? For young readers, it’s often the public library

December 14, 2018 12:14 PM
Fort Worth novelist’s book tells the story of a woman high school football coach in 1944

Books

Fort Worth novelist’s book tells the story of a woman high school football coach in 1944

October 02, 2018 11:49 AM
Start with these first books to discover the next great young adult series

Books

Start with these first books to discover the next great young adult series

August 22, 2018 12:34 PM
For Amon G. Carter III, a Lucky find and a lesson on life and giving

Bud Kennedy

For Amon G. Carter III, a Lucky find and a lesson on life and giving

July 07, 2018 03:29 PM
Julia Heaberlin takes readers on a dark ride in ‘Paper Ghosts’

Books

Julia Heaberlin takes readers on a dark ride in ‘Paper Ghosts’

May 10, 2018 11:51 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
Advertising
  • Information
  • Place a Classified
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story