Friday's "Forgotten" Books and More: the links to the reviews: 17 May 2019

This week's books and more, unfairly (or sometimes fairly) neglected, or simply those the reviewers below think you might find of some interest (or, infrequently, you should be warned away from); certainly, most weeks we have a few not at all forgotten titles...if I've missed your review or someone else's, please let me know in comments.

The coincidental inclusion of a review of Herman Wouk's least forgotten novel, The Caine Mutiny, might be forgiven on this day of the announcement of his death, 10 days before his 104th birthday. 

Patricia Abbott: Broken Harbor by Tana French

Frank Babics: Who Can Replace a Man? aka The Best Science Fiction Stories of Brian W. Aldiss 

Mark Baker: Murder in Little Italy by Victoria Thompson

Brad Bigelow: The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks

Paul Bishop: W. Glenn Duncan 1940-2019

Les Blatt: The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid by Erle Stanley Gardner

Joachim Boaz: The World Menders by Lloyd Biggle; The Sudden Star by Pamela Sargent; The Lost Face by Josef Nesvadba (translated by Iris Urwin)

John Boston: Amazing Stories: Fact and Science Fiction, June 1964, edited by Cele Goldsmith Lalli

Ben Boulden: Call Me Hazard by "Frank Wynne" (Brian Garfield); Closeup by Len Deighton 

Brian Busby: An Army Doctor's Romance by Grant Allen

Steve Case: The Deep by John Crowley

Ellison Cooper: The Lingala Code by Warren Kiefer

Hector DeJean: The Man in a Cage by (Jack aka) John Holbrook Vance

Martin Edwards: The Name of Annabel Lee by Julian Symons

Peter Enfantino: Atlas (proto-Marvel) horror comics, April 1952

Will Errickson: Finishing Touches by Thomas Tessier

José Ignacio Escribano: Big Sister by Gunnar Staalensen (tranlated by Don Bartlett)

Olman Feelyus: Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter 

Mark Finn: "The God in the Bowl" by Robert E. Howard

Paul Fraser: Astounding Science-Fiction, November 1943, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

John Grant: The Liar's Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard; Good Morning, Darkness by Ruth Francisco

Aubrey Hamilton: She Came Back by Patricia Wentworth

Rich Horton: The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackery; Roger Zelazny capsule reviews; Alter S. Reiss stories; The Ghost Brigades and The Lost Colony by John Scalzi 

Jerry House: Zane Grey Comics #246, 1949: Thunder Mountain adapted

Kate Jackson: A Knife for Harry Dodds by "George Bellairs" (Harold Blundell); Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie 

Tracy K: The Iron Gates by Margaret Millar; April reading

Colman Keane: "Sweet Little Hands" by Lawrence Block

George Kelley: The Great SF Stories #9 (1947) edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg

Joe Kenney: Chase by Norman Daniels

Rob Kitchin: The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan; The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

B. V. Lawson: A Bleeding of Innocents by Jo Bannister

Evan Lewis: "Tarzan" aka "Tarzan and the Tarmangani", a 1940s Tarzan comic book prose filler/mailing permit content attributed to Edgar Rice Burroughs, ghostwriter unknown

Steve Lewis: "Child of the Green Light" by Leigh Brackett, Super Science Stories February 1942, edited by Alden H. Norton; Saturday Night Dead by Richard Rosen; "The Eyes of Countess Gerda" by May Edginton, The Story-Teller, December 1911

John F. Norris: The Perfect Alibi by Christopher St. John Sprigg

John O'Neill: Davy by Edgar Pangborn; Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy

Matt Paust: The Last Supper by Charles McCarry

James Reasoner: The Land of Mist by "Arthur Quiller" (Kenneth Bulmer)

Gerard Saylor: The Night of the Soul Stealer by Joseph Delaney

Jack Seabrook and Peter Enfantino: DC war comics, December 1974 (and the best of 1974)

Steven H Silver: George Scithers (editor of Amra, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales)

Victoria Silverwolf: Worlds of Tomorrow, February 1964, edited by Frederik Pohl

Kerrie Smith: City of the Sun by David Levien

"TomCat": The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage by Enid Blyton

David Vineyard: Strip for Murder by Richard S. Prather

FRIDAY'S "FORGOTTEN" BOOKS And More: The Links to Reviews: 10 May 2019

This week's books and more, unfairly (or sometimes fairly) neglected, or simply those the reviewers below think you might find of some interest (or, infrequently, you should be warned away from); certainly, most weeks we have a few not at all forgotten titles...if I've missed your review or someone else's, please let me know in comments.









Mike Lind on this "Q. Patrick" novel: "This book nearly defies categorization, and for many readers it will defy all possibility of enjoyment."


Patricia Abbott: The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

Les Blatt: Charlie Chan Carries On by Earl Derr Biggers

Elgin Bleecker: The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

Joachim Boaz: New Dimensions III edited by Robert Silverberg

John Boston: Amazing: Fact and Science Fiction Stories, February 1962, edited by Cele Goldsmith Lalli

Ben Boulden: One for Hell by Jada M. Davis

Brian Busby: Exit Barney McGee by Claire Mackay

Steve Carper: "The Iron Teacher" in The Hotspur

Martin Edwards: The Accident of Robert Luman by "David Fletcher" (Dulan Barber)

Peter Enfantino and Jack Seabrook: Warren Comics, July/August 1966

Barry Ergang: Beware the Curves by "A. A. Fair" (Erle Stanley Gardner)

Will Errickson: Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti

José Ignacio Escribano: Maigret Hesitates by Georges Simenon (translated by Howard Curtis)

Curtis Evans: Chuckling Fingers by Mabel Seeley

Olman Feelyus: Route of the Red Gold by Dan J. Marlowe

Paul Fraser: Science Fiction Monthly, April 1976, edited by Julie Davis

Barry Gardner: Play It Again by Stephen Humphrey Bogart (and suspected ghostwriter/s)

John Grant: Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre (translated by Frank Wynne)

Brian Greene: The Progress of a Crime by Julian Symons

Aubrey Hamilton: Corpses in Enderby by "George Bellairs" (Harold Blundell)

Rich Horton: birthday review-sets: Annalee Newitz; Geoff Ryman; Jack Sharkey; Catherynne M. Valente; Gene Wolfe

Jerry House: The Vampire Affair: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #6 by David McDaniel; Western Adventures, October 1948

Kate Jackson: Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare

Tracy K: Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie 

Colman Keane: Goodbye to an Old Friend by Brian Freemantle

George Kelley: The Astounding Science-Fiction Anthology edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Joe Kenney: The New Stewardesses #2: The London Affair by "Judi Lynn"

Rob Kitchin: Detective Inspector Huss by Helen Tursten (translated by Steven T. Murray)

Paul Kresh: Mythology and folklore from around the world on spoken word recordings

B. V. Lawson: Suddenly at His Residence by "Christianna Brand" (Mary Christianna Milne/Lewis)

Evan Lewis: the Costain & McCall series by "Neil MacNeil" (W. T. Ballard); "Zorro Strikes Again" by Johnston McCulley, West, November 1954

Steve Lewis: The Smart Money by Lia Matera; "Sign of the White Feather" by Cliff Farrell, Fighting Western, March 1946; "Never Marry Murder" by "Roney Scott" (William Campbell Gault), Dime Mystery, December 1949

Mike Lind:  The Grindle Nightmare by "Quentin Patrick" (in this case, Richard Wilson Webb and Mary Louise Aswell)

Todd Mason: The Mystery Companion and The Armchair Companion edited by A. L. Furman, and their sequels

John F. Norris: Death Croons the Blues by James Ronald

John O'Neill: Infinite Dreams by Joe Haldeman

Thomas Parker: Edgar Allan Poe read by Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price (Caedmon recordings)

Simon Patterson: rating the Goodreads ratings

Matt Paust: New Hope for the Dead by Charles Willeford

Bill Pronzini; Death Wish by Brian Garfield

James Reasoner: "The Cannibal Horde" by "John Peter Drummond", Jungle Stories, Fall 1942

Richard Robinson: A Question of Proof by "Nicholas Blake" (Cecil Day-Lewis)

Jack Seabrook: "Coming, Mama" by Henriette McClelland, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September 1960, edited by Frederic Dannay

Gerard Saylor: Killing Time by Donald E. Westlake

Steven H Silver: Robert Heinlein: America as Science Fiction by H. Bruce Franklin

Victoria Silverwolf: Worlds of Tomorrow, February 1964, edited by Frederik Pohl 

Kerrie Smith: The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook

"TomCat": The Corpse with the Sunburned Face by Christopher St. John Sprigg

David Vineyard: "The Unstoppable Man" by Michael Gilbert, John Bull, 19 November 1949 (as "Amateur in Violence")

FFB: THE MYSTERY COMPANION and THE ARMCHAIR COMPANION edited by A. L. Furman (Gold Label Books, 1943 and 1944) and their sequels.

A. L. or Abraham Loew (or Louis) Furman, is apparently a man largely lost to time...William Contento's Index to SF Anthologies and Collections notes that he was "Manager of a publishing firm (Amour Press); lawyer; editor of juvenile [and adult -TM] books and anthologies"; his years are give as 1902-1972.  Ray Betzner on Facebook yesterday brought A. L. Furman back to mind for the first time in years; I remembered him for his YA anthologies mostly published around the turn of the 1960s with titles  (originally) given as Teen-Age ____ Stories or Young Readers' _____ Stories...which were notable, when I was sampling them as a reader of ten or twelve years old, for the utter mediocrity, at best, of nearly all the stories included (I think I missed Teen-Age Party Time Stories at that time, but can only imagine what camp value it currently has, for that matter instantly had). A(lice). M. Lightner was one of the better and more frequent contributors to his juvenile sf anthologies; no one as notable was included in his youngster's horror anthologies; Robert Arthur did a much better job, as did most other YA editors. But Betzner cited the first of his Mystery Companion annual series in his query for details about Furman, and this four-volume annual series looks far more promising, as one of the earlier US bugcrusher mystery/suspense/horror anthologies drawing most if not all its contents from the slick and pulp magazines. As there are (as far as I can find online) no full indices for any of the Mystery or the slightly later duo of Armchair Companions (there isn't even a complete contents of the Second Armchair Companion that I've found in searches over the last dozen hours or so), I figured I'd draw together what I could find. The earlier volumes of the series were published by Gold Seal Books, which as far as I can tell became Lantern Press in 1946, his primary publisher for the many later young readers' books as well (though Pocket Books would reprint a number of those in paperback in the latter '60s and '70s), as well as of the fourth Mystery and second Armchair volumes.

Index information brought together from WorldCat, The FictionMags Index and JG Mallard.

438 pages ; 21 cm New York : Gold Label Books, ©1943.

Active Duty · Richard Sale · ss  The Blue Book Magazine [v77 #1, May 1943]
The Body in the Ostrich Cage [Jimmie Lavender] · Vincent Starrett · ss  Mystery [v9 #5, May 1934]
The Sword of God  Hal Hode  
The Greek, Poropulos · Edgar Wallace · ss The Weekly Tale-Teller [#81, November 19, 1910]
Bond of Reunion  Carl Carmer  Saturday Review
Believe It or Die · Philip Ketchum · nv The Blue Book Magazine [v76 #5, March 1943]
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper · Robert Bloch · ss Weird Tales [v36 #12, July 1943]
The Street of the Little Candles  James Francis Cooke
The Blackout Murder · Allan Vaughan Elston · ss Short Stories [v182 #4, #892, February 25th, 1943]
“You’re Killing Me!” · "Dale Clark"  (Ronal Kayser) · nv Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine [v166 #2, June 1943]
If the Dead Could Talk · Cornell Woolrich · ss Black Mask [v25 #10, February 1943] 
America’s Most Famous Murder · George L. Porter · ar (Lincoln assassination) Star Magazine [v2 #3, July 1931]
The Judge Finds the Body "Geoffrey Homes" (Daniel Manwaring) Maclean's
The Phantom Slayer · Fritz Leiber, Jr. · ss Weird Tales [v36 #3, January 1942
Tears of the Virgin Thomas Grant Springer
Me and His Majesty and Trouble  Joseph C. Stacy (hu)
Death in a Gray Mist · Frank Owen · ss  Weird Tales [v37 #1, September 1943]
A Pair of Gloves Carl Carmer
The Man in the Cask · Vincent Starrett · nv Real Detective Tales and Mystery Stories [v11 #2, June/July 1927]

The Mystery Companion: abridged paperback (missing five items from the original selection)  Popular Library (Canada) 1943; 192 pp.

Active Duty · Richard Sale · ss  The Blue Book Magazine [v77 #1, May 1943]
The Body in the Ostrich Cage [Jimmie Lavender] · Vincent Starrett · ss  Mystery [v9 #5, May 1934]
The Sword of God  Hal Hode  
The Greek, Poropulos · Edgar Wallace · ss The Weekly Tale-Teller [#81, November 19, 1910]
Bond of Reunion  Carl Carmer  Saturday Review
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper · Robert Bloch · ss Weird Tales [v36 #12, July 1943]
The Street of the Little Candles  James Francis Cooke
The Blackout Murder · Allan Vaughan Elston · ss Short Stories [v182 #4, #892, February 25th, 1943]
“You’re Killing Me!” · "Dale Clark"  (Ronal Kayser) · nv Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine [v166 #2, June 1943]
If the Dead Could Talk · Cornell Woolrich · ss Black Mask [v25 #10, February 1943] 
The Judge Finds the Body "Geoffrey Homes" (Daniel Manwaring) Maclean's
The Phantom Slayer · Fritz Leiber, Jr. · ss Weird Tales [v36 #3, January 1942
Tears of the Virgin Thomas Grant Springer
Me and His Majesty and Trouble  Joseph C. Stacy (hu)
Death in a Gray Mist · Frank Owen · ss  Weird Tales [v37 #1, September 1943]

Second Mystery Companion (Gold Seal Books 1944)  410pp

The bedchamber mystery / C.S. Forester --
Delayed verdict / Allan Vaughan Elston --
The question mark / Margery Allingham --
Ghosts don't make no noise / Richard Sale --
Post-mortem / Cornell Woolrich --
The chopsticks of Confucius / Vincent Starrett --
The master of the murder castle / John Bartlow Martin --
The riddle of the whirling lights / Stuart Palmer --
Death by accident / Francis Cockrell --
The man who amazed fish / Frank Owen --
There are more to die / Philip Ketchum --
Radio patrol / Leslie T. White --
Scoundrels by night / Richard Kent --
The fluted arrow / William Byron Mowery --
Steve takes a hand / Hugh B. Cave --
Connoisseur of murder / Joseph C. Stacey --
Biographies. 

Third Mystery Companion (Gold Seal Books 1945) 395pp

The calling card of Mr. Engle / Louis Paul --
The unloaded gun / Allan Vaughan Elston --
The experts / Mindret Lord --
The Kiskadee bird / Elisabeth Sanxay Holding --
Face in the dark / High Pentecost --
Wet Saturday / John Collier --
One chance in a million / Will Payne --
Death had a pencil / Richard Sale --
The phantom of the Subway / Cornell Woolrich --
The mark of Maat / Sax Rohmer --
The third ladder / Philip Ketchum --
Hangin' crazy Benny / Leslie White --
The old man in the window / Margery Allingham --
The long still streets of evening / Frank Owen --
Crystal evidence / Donald Barr Chidsey --
The simple art of murder / Raymond Chandler --
The riddle of the blueblood murders / Stuart Palmer --
Ways that are dark / Thomas Grant Springer --
The case on Turkey Point / Howard Bloomfield --
The witness / William Brandon --
Murder at the opera / Vincent Starrett --
Biographies. 

Fourth Mystery Companion  (Lantern Press 1946) 396 pp

White carnations / Q. Patrick --
The painted nail / George Harmon Coxe --
Traitors trail / Hugh Pentecost --
The unbelievable baroness / Elizabeth Sanxay Holding --
A triumph in theory / Louis Paul --
The tenth clue / Dashiell Hammett --
The saint sits in / Leslie Charteris --
The white cat / Richard Kent --
The level crossing / Freeman Wills Crofts --
The case of the Calico dog / Mignon Eberhart --
Prelude to murder / Walter C. Brown --
Fog over Hong Kong / Vincent Starrett --
The adventure of the bearded lady / Ellery Queen --
Twice-trod path / William Irish --
Tomorrow we die / Frank Owen --
The important point / William MacHarg --
The secret of the ruins / Sax Rohmer --
Halloween assassin / Frederick Skerry --
Library book / Cornell Woolrich

The Armchair Companions:

The Armchair Companion (Gold Seal Books, 1944)  367pp Set the wild echoes flying / by James Street -- A man's mother / by Gladys H. Carroll -- Afternoon of a faun / by Vincent Starrett -- The red sash / by Ketti Frings -- The good neighbors / by Conrad Richter -- The Empire City angel / by Eustace Cockrell -- Remember this day / by Arch Whitehouse -- Wild Bill Hiccup / by Cornell Woolrich -- The night gown / by Camilla Holland -- Sharp work at the Duck and Egg / by F.L. Smith -- Lady square / by Richard English -- The street of faces / by Frank Owen -- Flight of the wawkus bird / by Richard Sale -- Penthouse for Nellie / by Florence B. Alexander -- A big day for Mr. Vane / by Edward Stevenson -- Red wine / by T.G. Springer -- The deceiving husband / by Margaret A. Barnes -- The last charge / by Edison Marshall -- Camp follower / by Robert Carson -- A kiss for Mr. Lincoln / by Louise K. Mabie -- Biographies. Second Armchair Companion (Lantern Press 1946) 351pp Contributing authors include Beryl Markham, James Street, Richard Wright, Libbie Block, R.H. Newman Stories include: "The Splendid Outcast" by Beryl Markham, "One Day Late" by Dorothy Canfield,  "Saturday at Ten" by Vincent Starrett

Spoken Word Mythology and Folklore Recordings

I still have the open-reel tape on which I dubbed this LP, borrowed from the Enfield Public Library, ca. 1974. We didn't yet have a cassette deck in the then-current stereo system.

I genuinely loved the mythology and folklore (as well as fiction/poetry-reading) spoken word (and sometimes music) albums I could find when very young, from such labels mentioned in the not-great but legible OCR'd NY Times article at the link. More of these should be available still than are...from such labels as Caedmon, Spoken Arts, CMS, Folkways, Miller-Brody Productions (which did the Newbery Award Records), and others cited. And certainly read the books by Harold Courlander and others as I found them...this NYT article being from 1977 so that cheerful references to "the Mysterious East" were still "A-OK"...

ARCHIVES | 1977

Spinning Around the World On Recorded Folk Tales

By PAUL KRESHJULY 17, 1977

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Folk tales have apparently existed ever since there were people to tell them to each other—”tales or stories,” as the dictionary puts it, “handed down by word of mouth, by the common people.” All literature has its roots in these oral origins, and it is surprising in how many guises and in different cultures the same basic situations turn up. Talking tortoises and frogs abound on every continent; Cinderella surfaces in Africa as Umusha Mwaice; the heron and crab who run their race along a Melanesian shore are surely distant relatives of Aesop's hare and tortoise. The foolish folk in the South American story who believe that the moon has drowned in local lake and must be fished out have their counterparts in Ireland's Hudden and Dudden, who leap into Brown Lake to retrieve the reflections of their lost sheep and cattle. The stock of plots is limited. Bruno Bettelheim has said that such stories are best conveyed to children in live readings, or better still recounted spontaneously by parents or patient uncles in their own words. That is not always possible, so the hundreds of, recordings available on tapes and disks would seem to be the next best thing, and the performances are likely to be a good deal more absorbing. Beginning our recorded journey close to home with America's own tall tales, we meet up with Paul Bunyan and his Southern counterpart Tony Beaver spinning hyperbolic yarns of their prodigious feats. The reader is Ennis Rees, the drawl echt Southern (The Song of Paul Bunyan and Tony Beaver, Spoken Arts SA 954). The late Ed Begley is a droll delight as he speaks gruffly and straightfacedly of the weeping Squonk, the enormous Moskittos that buzzed around Bunyan's lumber camp and the square eggs laid by the Gillygaloo bird, in two volumes of tall‐tale animal stories as set down by Adrien Stoutenberg (American Tall‐Tale Animal, Vol. 1 & 2, Caedmon TC 1317/8, cassette CDL 5137/8). J. Frank Dobie's tales of the Southwest get bucolic readings from their author (Southwestern Folk Tales, Spoken Arts SA 722, cassettes SAC 6127/8). Diane Wolkstein, in her level, honest, earnest way, reads California tales, some with Spanish roots, in prose supplied by Monica Sharon (Spoken Arts SA 1107, cassettes SAC Really native American folklore, of course, belongs to American Indians. They are well represented through bird tales recounted around their hogan fires by the Navajos, in legends that transform the sun into a youth at dawn and crimson swan at dusk, in numerous anecdotes about the cleverness of the coyote. Here Caedmon favors real Indian performers‐actor Arthur Junaluska, himself a full‐blooded Cherokee, reading Clah Chee's Navajo Bird Tales (TC 1375, cassette CDL 51375); Swift Eagle, a Pueblo Indian chief, telling the legends of Kuo‐Haya and other stories of his people in The Pueblo Indians (TC 1451, cassette CDL 51327); Jay Silverheels, another Indian actor, dealing authentically with The Fire Plume and other legends of the American Indians (TC 1451, cassette CDL 51451). • On Folkways, an Indian Princess named Nowedonah, born on a Shinnecock Indian reservation in Southampton, Long Island, reads a legend about the island in the days when its name was Paumanok, but the voice is nasal and dubbed‐in piano music doesn't help (The Enchanted Spring, Folkways FC 7753). Spoken Arts fares better with Diane Wolkstein, in tales that deal with an Indian boy's efforts to get hold of a hunting dog, Now the coyote learned his crying song and how he lost out to the rooster as official sunrise‐greeter in Tales of the Hopi Indians from Harold Courlander's collection (SA 1106, cassettes SAC 6121/2).

More at this link...