The Black Stiletto

The Black Stiletto

Creator: Raymond Benson

Characters

Judy Cooper (The Black Stiletto)

Martin Talbot

Soichiro Tachikawa

Freddie Barnes

Lucy

Franco DeLuca

Judy Cooper ran away from Odessa, Texas at 14 because of her stepfather. Ending up in New York she finds employment at the Second Avenue Gym, cleaning the building. It’s here that she learns to box. Falling in love with a mobster named Fiorello, she lives with him until he’s murdered by his Mafia pals. Becoming The Black Stiletto, she goes after his killers. Now she doesn’t want to quit, and fights crime in the city as a masked vigilante.  She’s twenty, a tall woman in black costume; a mask covered the top half of her head and face. Dark eyes sparkled through holes in the black leather; a sweet smile, mouth covered in lipstick. A knife sheath is strapped to her thigh, a stiletto blade inside. Her costume is black leather jacket and belt, tight leather pants, knee-high boots, small backpack and half hood-mask. Behind the costume, she has a bubbly personality, and maybe falls in love too easily.

Freddie Barnes runs the Second Avenue Gym, and has become her second father, taking care of her, and giving her a place to live on the premises. She keeps the gym clean, and eventually becomes a trainer.

Soichiro Tachikawa is her third father, teaching her karate and judo.  His wife was killed at Hiroshima. He has a daughter named Isuzu. She is kidnapped and hooked on Heroin by a black gangster. After The Black Stiletto rescues her, the drug lord killed Soichiro in the second novel.

Lucy is a waitress at the East Side Café, and a fried of Judy’s.

Martin Talbot is the son of Judy Talbot, nee Cooper. Divorced, with a teenage daughter, he’s 49, and his mother is 73, suffering Alzheimer’s in a nursing home. Martin was not aware of his mother’s crime fighting in the 1950s as The Black Stiletto until he discovers a hidden room behind a closet, where he found the costume of The Black Stiletto, and her diary telling of her exploits. She had been famous, though wanted by the police and FBI as a vigilante. Now Martin was make sure her past remains a secret.

The Black Stiletto was a costumed vigilante who operated in New York from 1958 to 1963, fighting petty criminals, the Mafia, communist spies, as well as drug lords. Fast-forward to the current time, and 73 year old Judy Talbot, nee Cooper, is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s. Her son, Martin was not aware of her past until discovering a secret closet in their old home, and finding The Black Stiletto’s black costume and mask, along with her diary telling about her deeds as the masked vigilante. A secret he must keep without fail.

            There have been five books so far in the series.

“The Black Stiletto”

“Black & White”

“Stars & Stripes”

“Secrets & Lies”

“Endings & Beginnings”