Killer in Drag

Ed Wood

Ed Wood will forever be remembered as the man who made Hollywood's worst movies. It probably shouldn't be a surprise that his novels are about half a step above stock porn writing. I knew what to expect when I picked up *Killer in Drag*; somehow, though, I expected it to have the naïve charm of a *Plan Nine from Outer Space*. More fool me; I should have realized earlier on that books don't have cardboard props that can fall over in the stiff breeze caused by an actor walking past them.

Wood resurrects Glen/da, the transvestite he made infamous in *Glen or Glenda?*, this time as a Syndicate hit man. Erm, woman. Oh, you know the drill. Glen... er, Glenda... wants to get out of the business, and has resigned herself to an assignation with a very rich old queen in order to get the money to finance a sex-change operation, flee to the islands, and get out of the murder business for good. Except that an ex-boyfriend of said old queen bursts in during the height of passion and murders him, leaving Glen a prime suspect (in pumps, no less) and mandating his fleeing the city. It only gets more twisted from there.

It's your basic pulp novel-- square jaws and big bosoms (as a recent Russ Meyer biography was titled), even if the bosoms, in this case, are falsies. Wood does impart a little extra dimension into his main character, as the fight for dominance between Glen's and Glenda's personalities raises what would be some interesting opportunities for Wood to really make Glen into a three-dimensional character. Unfortunately, though, Wood chooses to use these bits in the pursuit of quick suspense more than anything else, and they don't go anywhere.

Silly and predictable, but certainly no more so (and even a tad less so) than most books of its type. Recommended for Wood and pulp fans, but the rest of you can probably ignore it.