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.
This week dedicated to the memories of Sandra Seamans, Dennis Etchison and Anthony Price.
Patti Abbott: The Devil's Own Ragdoll by Mitchell Bartoy; Sandra Seamans, RIP
Frank Babics: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Brad Bigelow: My Heart for a Hostage by Robert Hillyer
Les Blatt: The Clocks by Agatha Christie
Joachim Boaz: The 1972 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim
Ben Boulden: Lynched by Ed Gorman
Brian Busby: The Phantom Freighter by "Franklin W. Dixon" (in this case Amy McFarlane)
Bob Byrne: The Khoraja stories by Robert E. Howard and others
Martin Edwards: Anthony Price, RIP
Peter Enfantino: Atlas (proto-Marvel) Horror Comics: May 1952
Will Errickson: Dennis Etchison, RIP; Carnosaur by Harry Adam Knight
José Ignacio Escribano: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Curtis Evans: Melora by Mignon G. Eberhart; "How to Stop Hitler" by "Q. Patrick" (Hugh Wheeler and Richard Webb)
Olman Feelyus: Queenpin by Megan Abbott
Jeremy Finley: Peter's Pence by Jon Cleary
Paul Fraser: Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1943, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.
John Grant: The Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins; The Murder of Ann Avery by Henry Kuttner (presumably with input from Catherine L. Moore)
Aubrey Hamilton: Death and the Icebox by Linda Berry
James Wallace Harris: Phoenix among other books by Dorothy Mills
Rich Horton: The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank; Needle, Iceworld and short stories by "Hal Clement" (Harry C. Stubbs); Mars Crossing and short fiction by Geoffrey Landis; A Posse of Princesses and Senrid by Sherwood Smith; Matthew Hughes stories; Nina Allan stories; Threshold Shift by Eric Brown; Alec Nevala-Lee stories
Jerry House: "The Bacteriological Detective" by Arthur B. Reeve, Cosmopolitan, February 1911, edited by C. P. Narcross; Captain Jet, May 1952, edited by Ruth Roche
Kate Jackson: ...And Presumed Dead by Lucille Fletcher; A High Mortality of Doves by Kate Ellis
Tracy K: Death Sends a Cable by Margaret Taylor Yates
Colman Keane: "The Ehrengraf Fandango" by Lawrence Block (LB Publications e-chapbook, 2014)
George Kelley: The Hugo Winners, Volumes 1 & 2, introduced by Isaac Asimov
Joe Kenney: Room at the Bottom by J. L. Potter; Mafia Women by "Joseph Cenni" (Miles Donis)
Rob Kitchin: A Decline in Prophets by Sulari Gentill
B. V. Lawson: The Yellow Turban by "Charlotte Jay" (Geraldine Halls)
Evan Lewis: Wild Times by Brian Garfield
Steve Lewis: "Half Past Fear" by John Jakes, Super Science Stories, August 1951, edited by Ejler Jakobsson; "Woman Missing" by Helen Neilsen, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, May 1960, edited by William Manners; Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay comics magazine, August 2014, script by Harlan Ellison as adapted by Scott and David Tipton, illustrated by J. K. Woodward; "Persons or Things Unknown" by "Carter Dickson" (John Dickson Carr), The Sketch, Christmas 1938, edited by Bruce Ingram
Todd Mason: The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series VII edited by Gerald W. Page
John O'Neill: Emergence by David R. Palmer; If This Goes On, anthologies edited by Charles Neutzel and by Cat Rambo
Matt Paust: Alligators at Night by Meg Pokrass
Tim Powers: "Who?" by Algis Budrys, Fantastic Universe, April 1955, edited by Leo Margulies
James Reasoner: Run the Wild River by D. L. Champion
Richard Robinson: The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein
Gerard Saylor: We Few: U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam by Nick Brokhausen; Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger (translated by Michael Hoffman)
Jack Seabrook and Peter Enfantino: DC War Comics: January 1975
Victoria Silverwolf: Worlds of Tomorrow, October 1963, edited by Frederik Pohl
Kerrie Smith: Where the Dead Lay by David Levien
Kevin Tipple: The Splintered Paddle by Mark Troy
"TomCat": Moorden in Maastricht by "F. van Overvoorde" (F.A. Haak-Ochsendorf)
A. J. Wright: Through the First Gate and other work by John Craig Stewart
Lisa Yaszek: "Created He Them" by Alice Eleanor Jones, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1955, edited by "Anthony Boucher" (William White)
Dennis Etchison died this past week, after a long career (and, I'm sure, a too-brief life) of good to brilliant work as a writer and editor.
I thought I'd take a minute to recall not quite the first story I read by him, but the first brilliant one that came to mind (the first I read was the good but slightly less effective psychodrama "The Soft Wall" in First World Fantasy Awards, edited by Gahan Wilson, where it was included as an example of the kind of fiction Whispers magazine would feature--Stuart David Schiff, editor and publisher of the little magazine of horror and fantasy, won the Special Award for Non-Professional work, not quite true but certainly Schiff wasn't making his living from Whispers). "The Pitch" leads off the seventh and last volume of The Year's Best Horror Stories that Jerry Page would edit, before handing it off to Karl Edward Wagner for the rest of the run. Such a nest of memories and connections, given how important Page's and Wagner's volumes of the series were to me, and that Page would work at TV Guide's Atlanta bureau for some years before I would work the Radnor home office for more than 17 years, and Wagner would send me a very nice letter after reading my first published story.
"The Pitch", like "The Soft Wall", is actually not horror fiction so much as realistic, intense suspense fiction. Much of it describes the demonstration pitch made for a vegetable chopping device by the protagonist to a department store audience...and what that might lead lead to. It makes sure to be subtly unsettling from jump, deftly exploiting the contrast of the prosaic circumstances in which it is set with the not altogether wholesome drives of the accomplished pitchman and his sharp-edged product, and what, we eventually learn, set the events of the story in motion and what will happen after the story's end. Lean and understated and disturbing.
Like a lot of Etchison's fiction, and much of the best of what he would present in his impressive series of anthologies...one of the most atypical, and wide-ranging, will be the subject of another FFB entry here soon.
The rest of this volume (or, for that matter, the 1978 Whispers issue pictured above which first ran "The Pitch") is full of impressive work as well, which I shall re-read and review in greater detail later on:
The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VII ed. Gerald W. Page (DAW 0-87997-476-1, Jul ’79, $1.95, 221pp, pb)
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.
Patricia Abbott: Let Him Go by Larry Watson
Mark Baker: Forget Me Knot by Mary Marks
Brad Bigelow: The Rabbit's Umbrella by George Plimpton
Les Blatt: Night of the Jabberwock by Fredric Brown
Joachim Boaz: A Man of Double Deed by Leonard Daventry; Cancerqueen by Tommaso Landolfi (translated by Raymond Rosenthal)
Ben Boulden: my favorite short crime fiction read in 2018
Joe Brosnan: The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin (Karyn Reeves on the Ellin)
Bob Byrne: 'Rogues in the House" by Robert E. Howard, Weird Tales, January 1934, edited by Farnsworth Wright
Martin Edwards: Night's Black Agent by John Bingham
Peter Enfantino and Jack Seabrook: Warren Comics, September/October 1966
Will Errickson: Dark Forces edited by Kirby McCauley
José Ignacio Escribano: Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri (translated by Stephen Sartarelli)
Curtis Evans: The Molly Maguires and The Valley of Fear by A. C. Doyle among other fiction; Murder for Pleasure by Howard Haycraft and Had I But Known plotting
Olman Feelyus: Maneater by Ted Willis
Paul Fraser: Tor.com Short Fiction, January/February 2019, edited by Ellen Datlow, Lindsey Hall, Beth Meacham, Marco Palmieri and Ann VanderMeer
John Grant: Take Two at Bedtime (aka Deadly Duo) by Margery Allingham; The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins; Follow Her Home by Steph Cha
Aubrey Hamilton: The Emperor's Snuffbox by John Dickson Carr
Rich Horton: Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick; Adam-Troy Castro short fiction; New Dreams This Morning edited by James Blish
Jerry House: Super-Mystery Comics #19, January 1944, produced by Lou Ferstadt et al.
Kate Jackson: Dead March in Three Keys by "Peter Curtis" (Norah Lofts); A Man Called Jones by Julian Symons; An Afternoon to Kill by Shelley Smith
Tracy K: On the Beach by Nevil Shute
Colman Keane: The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis
George Kelley: Madball by Fredric Brown; The Nostalgic Imagination: History in English Criticism by Stephan Collins
Joe Kenney: The Red Horse Caper by L. V. Roper
Rob Kitchin: The Secret Listeners by Sinclair McKay; The Last Time We Spoke by Fiona Sussman
B. V. Lawson: The Best American Mystery Stories 1997, edited by Robert B. Parker and Otto Penzler
Evan Lewis: "Jon Jarl of the Space Patrol" prose vignettes (for periodical rates postage qualification) by Otto Binder (usually as by "Eando" Binder), Captain Marvel Adventures, 1946
Steve Lewis: Moonmilk and Murder by Aaron Marc Stein; "The Case of the Emerald Sky" by Eric Ambler, The Sketch, 10 July 1940; "The Shadow's Shadow" by Wyndham Martyn, Flynn's Weekly Detective, 14 May 1927; The Recycled Citizen by Charlotte MacLeod; "Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog" by B(renda) W. Clough, Twilight Zone Magazine, June 1988; Some Like It Cool by Robert Kyle
Todd Mason: The Ed Gorman/Martin H. Greenberg Best Crime Fiction of the Year Annuals
John F. Norris: Ominous Star by Rae Foley
Matt Paust: Baffled in Boston by Gary Provost
James Reasoner: "Terror Wears No Shoes" by "Keith Robeson" (Lester Dent), Doc Savage Science Detective, May-June 1948
Richard Robinson: The Minerva Club by Victor Canning
Gerard Saylor: Honky Tonk Samurai by Joe R. Lansdale; Doors Open by Ian Rankin
Jack Seabrook: "Trifles", and "A Jury of Her Peers" (EveryWeek, 5 March 1917) by Susan Glaspell
Steven H Silver: Manly Wade Wellman; Universe 9, edited by Terry Carr
Victoria Silverwolf: Fantastic: Stories of Imagination, June 1964, edited by Cele Goldsmith Lalli
Kerrie Smith: All Our Secrets by Jennifer Lane
Kevin Tipple: Styx and Stone by James W. Ziskin
"TomCat": "The Bizarre Case Expert" by "William Arden" (Dennis Lynds), Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 1970, edited by Frederic Dannay/"EQ"
Mike Toomey: Give Me That Old Time Detection, Spring 2019
David Vineyard: The Radium Terrors by Albert Dorrington (The Pall Mall Magazine, January-June 1911)
Lisa Yaszek: "The New You" by Kit Reed, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1962, edited by Avram Davidson
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
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")
