#23: Welcome to the Octagon by Jack Tunney and Gerard Brennan

An MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter in Belfast, raising a kid on his own, gets into underground fighting with the expected results in Welcome to the Octagon, the first entry in the new Fight Card MMA ebook series.

I picked this up for my beloved Kindle because of my interest in Irish author Gerard Brennan, as well as a general enjoyment of the earlier Fight Card books, a period series that harkens back to pulp stories of old.

Even with the MMA trappings, it's still an old-school story of a palooka who makes a wrong turn, and those who like this type of stories will enjoy it fine.

Although the Fight Card novels are always short, Welcome to the Octagon seemed not only short but rather abrupt; I would have liked it to be fleshed out quite a bit more, especially in the third act.

That being said, I am sure I will continue to read the Fight Card series.

#13: Bluff City Brawler by Heath Lowrance and Jack Tunney

A palooka accidentally kills a mobster in a bar fight, and goes on the run; naturally, he doesn't run quite far enough in Bluff City Brawler, a brawny entry in the Fight Card ebook series.

I have, by and large, enjoyed this compact, unassuming series of books harking back to the dime novels of old.  I selected this one because of interest in the author and found that it hit all the right beats (so to speak) as our protagonist brushes up against cold-blooded henchmen, gold-hearted women, craggy-faced managers, and straight-arrow cops (among other archetypes).

Enjoyable for fans of old-fashioned adventure and crime stories.  I bought this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#44: The Cutman by Mel Odom and Jack Tunney

A sailor docks in pre-Castro Havana and quickly falls in with a Latin beauty, and runs afoul of local mobsters, in Jack Tunney's The Cutman, the second entry in the Fight Card ebook series.

The Fight Card series emulates the pulpy boxing novels of the Golden Age of paperbacks and boxing magazines, and this volume (penned by Mel Odom under the house pseudonym) is a particularly rollicking entry chockablock full of action. 

Our protagonist (the brother of the lead in Felony Fists, which is a tenuous enough tie between the novels) is a bare-knuckle brawler who, through circumstance, ends up having to fight a superior boxer in a winner-take-all match set up by the ship's crew and the mob muscling into Cuba.  The story pretty much hits the points you would imagine, but is ultimately a satisfying read.

I have been enjoying these Fight Card novels for my beloved Kindle and will seek out more of them as they come out.

#42: Felony Fists by Paul Bishop and Jack Tunney

In the 1950s, a beat cop and amateur boxer helps LA's notorious Hat Squad detectives bring down a crime kingpin in Jack Tunney's initial entry in the Fight Card ebook series, Felony Fists.

The Fight Card series is harking back to the pulp novels, specifically the boxing novels, of yore and does an admirable job with a quick, muscular read.  Jack Tunney is the house pseudonym for a bevy of writers, with Paul Bishop at the helm for this one.

Bishop hits the standard beats as our protagonist rises from an orphanage, where he was taught boxing (naturally), to being a warm-hearted cop in a bad neighborhood, on up to being the underdog in a big fight.

Felony Fists is enjoyable yet undemanding, but I will certainly grab the next one in the series.

I got this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.