Street Corner: Max Thaler, aka Whisper (and a book review)

Since I'm painting all the suits in muted colors, this figure allowed me to add a little bit of bright color with the blue on the vest.
This figure reminds me of the character Max Thaler from the book "Red Harvest." Thaler is only able to speak in a low, strained voice, which has earned him the alias "Whisper." Whisper is the head of one of the five or six factions battling for control of Poisonville. Whisper and Chief Noonan are arch-enemies; so I'll have at least two factions from the book to have some skirmishes with.
Since I'm starting to flesh out the characters from Red Harvest, I think I'll go ahead and order Copplestone's Sleuths pack which has the Continental Op, the main character in Red Harvest. Hey, and the pack has a dog, too. I think my tramp steamer could use a dog.

Speaking of tramp steamers...
I've been reading a book called "Whither O Ship" by Stanley Rodger Green. I picked up a used copy on Amazon for all of $5. It's a short memoir of the author who, as a teenager, was a cadet on a company tramp steamer (British) at the end of World War 2.
 It's a great little book that gives a good look at life on a steamer. He's got a lot of little stories about the all the ports he visits including (what I've read so far) dealing with a below-deck crew "swept up from Liverpool gaol;" confronting cargo thieves for the first time; almost colliding with a Portuguese Liner with no one on board (a ghost ship???); living with cockroaches (you'll see); paying off corrupt cops for the release of jailed crewmates (and what an American victory ship crew did in the same situation ((USA! USA!))); losing his virginity to a Palestinian girl (a poetic, verging on pornographic description); being shot at by a jealous, drunk British soldier in a dark cafe owned by a French woman in Palestine; a solemn and sad bareknuckle fight on the main deck; and -- my favorite so far -- the gulli-gulli man of Port Said. That's just what I remember, and I'm only halfway done with the book. You'll almost forget the stories are true (with only some of the names being changed for the reason of "tact." I can only imagine.)

Definitely worth the $5 (plus shipping.)

If the subject interest you and you can find a decent copy, give it a read! There may be a few Pulp wargame scenario ideas in it, too. Though, most of them will probably begin with, "your crewmates are all drunk on stolen sacremental wine again ..."