This fortnight'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. Hope to not skip any more weeks soon, as this is a huge file even for 14+ days; also hope not to lose so many people in such a short period again: M. C. Beaton/Marion Chesney, (I didn't know her personally, but had at least some correspondence when not face to face interaction with) Mike Resnick, Earl Staggs, and Steve Stiles...and at least one old friend of the blog is facing some similarly tough health problems.Paul Bishop: On the Fringe and Other Uncommon Tales of Golf by Gregory G. Barton; golf stories from the sports pulps; the golf fiction legacy of the sports pulps
Les Blatt: The Best Max Carrados Detective Stories by Ernest Bramah; Fell Murder by "E. C. R. Lorac" (Edith C. Rivett); Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer
Joachim Boaz: The Night of Kadar by Gary Kilworth; 2019 best items reviewed; Mindbridge by Joe Haldeman; Captive Universe by Harry Harrison; The Death of Grass (aka No Blade of Grass) by "John Christopher" (Christopher Youd); An Alien Light by Nancy Kress
Liz Dexter: Vittoria Cottage by D. E. Stevenson
Scott Edelman: Steve Stiles (podcast interview)
Martin Edwards: The Deep End by Fredric Brown; The Marriage Bureau Murders by John Bingham
Peter Enfantino: Atlas (proto-Marvel) horror comics, February 1953
Peter Enfantino and Jack Seabrook: Warren horror comics, June/July 1970; DC war comics, April 1976
Will Errickson: The Totem by David Morrell; some Jeff Jones covers; some Dean Koontz pseudonymous novels
José Ignacio Escribano: The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye by Brian Flynn; Curtain by Agatha Christie; 10 favorite Christie Poirot novels; 2019 reviews
Curtis Evans: The Case of the Nervous Accomplice by Erle Stanley Gardner; Death in Five Boxes (as by "Carter Dickson") and Till Death Do Us Part by John Dickson Carr
"Olman Feelyus": Catch-As-Catch-Can by Charlotte Armstrong; Bearskin by James McLaughlin; Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh; Crown: Macao Mayhem by Terry Harknett; 2019 in review
Paul Fraser: Astounding Science Fiction, February 1944, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.; Analog Science Fact --> Science Fiction, January/February 2020 (90th Anniversary); edited by Trevor Quarchi
Barry Gardner: Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go by George Pelecanos; Bone in the Throat by Anthony Bourdain
The Swimmer by Joakim Zander (translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel); Once on a Moonless Night by Dai Sijie (translated by Adriana Hunter); The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri (translated by Stephen Sartarelli); The Face of Trespass by Ruth Rendell
Aubrey Hamilton: The Cornish Coast Mystery by "John Bude" (Ernest Carpenter Elmore); There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes; Favorite Books 2919
Bev Hankins: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie; "An Official Position" by W. Somerset Maugham, Cosmopolitan, July 1937, edited by Harry Payne Burton; some Big Little Books; Star Over Bethlehem by Agatha Christie; Mystery of the Haunted Pool by Phyllis A. Whitney
James Harris: "Tani of Ekkis" by "Aladra Septama" (James Reeves), Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter 1930, edited by T. O'Conor Sloane
Rich Horton: In Memoriam, Mike Resnick: some later stories; Eric Frank Russell: Dreadful Sanctuary, Three to Conquer, and other stories; Isaac Asimov short fiction; "Basilisk" by Harlan Ellison, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1972, edited by Edward Ferman
Jerry House: 7 Steps to Midnight by Richard Matheson; Life in the West by Brian W. Aldiss; "Recommended Reading" by "Anthony Boucher" (William White) and J. Francis McComas, the book review columns in 1950 issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Boucher and McComas
Kate Jackson: Home is the Prisoner and The Little Lie by Jean Potts; Frog in the Throat by "Elizabeth Ferrars" (Morna MacTaggart); The Obstinate Murderer by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding; The Elephant Never Forgets by Ethel Lina White; Death in Fancy Dress by "Anthony Gilbert" (Lucy Malleson); crime fiction and individualism/ collectivism; The Menace Within by Ursula Curtiss; Crimson Friday by Dorothy Cameron Disney; Case without a Corpse by Leo Bruce; Leo Bruce's Sgt. Beef novels
Tracy K: Death in Blue Folders by Margaret Maron; The Twelve Deaths of Christmas by Marian Babson; December reading: Graham Greene, Caroline Graham, Stuart Kaminsky, et al.
George Kelley: The Best from Orbit edited by Damon Knight; The Pleasant Profession of Robert A, Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn
Joe Kenney: Springblade #3: Stiletto by Greg Walker; The Penetrator #36: Deadly Silence by "Lionel Derrick" (Chet Cunningham); The Spider #22: The Red Death Rain by "Grant Stockbridge" (Norvell Page); The Aquanauts #7: Operation Deep Six by "Ken Stanton" (Manning Lee Coles)
Ausma Zehanat Khan: The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
Rob Kitchin: Best of 2019; around the world in 2019
Evan Lewis: "Ham for a Yegg!" by Mickey Spillane, text vignette in Blue Bolt comics, September 1942, edited by Stanley Beaman (? Grand Comics Database is uncertain); Meet the Tiger by Leslie Charteris; Nero Wolfe, the comic strip; Hammett Herald-Tribune
Steve Lewis: Big City Bad Blood by Sean Chercover; Vital Statistics by Thomas Chastain; Mike Resnick 1942-2020; Afterlift by Chip Zdarsky, Jason Loo and Paris Alleyne; "War Games" by James Reasoner, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, April 1982, edited by Charles Fritch; Young Mrs. Cavendish and the Kaiser's Men by K. K. Beck; M. C. Beaton (Marion Gibbons) (1936-2020); "Mystery of the Mexicali Murders" by "J. Lane Linklater" (Alexander William Watkins), 10-Story Detective, January 1941, edited by Harry Widmer and A. A. Wyn; "A Dead Djinn in Cairo" by P. Djèlí Clark, Tor.com, 16 May 2016, edited by Diana Pho; Smear Job by James Mitchell; "Bandit Territory" by Paul Bishop, from Bandit Territory: Ten Tales of Murder and Mayhem by Bishop; Jump by Mike Lupica
Mark: Beyond Time edited by Sandra Ley (J. Kingston Pierce on Harry Bennett cover paintings)
Todd Mason: Vanity Fair, edited by Clifford Amory and Frederic Bradlee; The Men in My Life by Vivian Gornick; Benchmarks Continued by Algis Budrys; The Shape of Things edited by Damon Knight; The Best from Startling Stories edited by Samuel Mines; Wonder Stories and successors edited by James Hendryx, Jr.; Shirley Jackson stories first published in fantasy-fiction magazines
Francis M. Nevins: A Stab in the Dark, Eight Million Ways to Die and (with Ernie Bulow) After Hours by Lawrence Block
Jess Nevins: Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
John F. Norris: Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada; The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo (both translated by Louise Heal Kawai)
Jess Nevins: Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
John F. Norris: Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada; The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo (both translated by Louise Heal Kawai)
John O'Neill: Lunar sf anthologies; The Space Magicians edited by Alden H. Norton and Sam Moskowitz; Fighters of Fear: Occult Detective Stories edited by Mike Ashley
Matt Paust: Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy
Mildred Perkins: The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack by Nate Crowley
James Reasoner: Ki-Gor: "The Beast-Gods of Atlantis" by "John Peter Drummond" (anon.), Jungle Stories, Summer 1950, edited by Jerome Bixby; Spawn of the Flames by "Wayne Rogers" (Archibald Bittner)
Richard Robinson: They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker; The Best of Jerry Pournelle edited by John F. Carr; The Chinese Orange Mystery and The Dutch Shoe Mystery by "Ellery Queen" (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee); Murder in the Mill Race by "E. C. R. Lorac" (Edith C. Rivett); Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life edited and annotated by Marta McDowell; The Bellamy Trial by Francis Noyes Hart; The Complete Casebook of Sgt. Brinkhaus by Frederick Nebel; The Complete Cases of the Rambler by Fred MacIsaac
Hank Phillippi Ryan: Citizen Vince by Jess Walter
Gerard Saylor: Frantic by Noël Calef (translated by R. F. Tannenbaum); Belfast Noir edited by Adrian McKinty and Stuart Neville; Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty
Ron Scheer: Richard S. Wheeler
Marina Sofia: Heaven's Wind edited and translated by Angus Turvill; Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada (translated by Louise Heal Kawai)
Mike Springer: "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor (read by the author) (courtesy Paul Brazill)
Steve Stiles: Pogo by Walt Kelly; Arnold Roth; Krazy Kat by George Herriman; Panic edited by Al Feldstein
Dan Stumpf: Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, Then You Die by Francis M. Nevins; Just Plain Scum by Brett McKinley
"TomCat":"Miracle on Vine Street" and "The Sematic Crocodile" by Fredric Brown, The Layman's Magazine of the Living Church, respectively January and February 1941, edited by Clifford P. Morehouse; The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo (translated by Louise Heal Kawai); Policeman in Armour by Rupert Penny; "The Affair at the Circle T" by Clifford Knight, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, October 1946, edited by Frederic Dannay; Murder Comes Back by Harriette Ashbrook; Framed in Guilt by "John Slate" (John Russell Fearn); Plain Sailing by Douglas Clark
12 comments:
Thank you Todd!
As always, thank you, José!
Todd – Thanks for compiling this big list. And hope you are over whatever ailment had you down.
Thank you, Elgin...it still has my sleep schedule out of whack, but I think I'm otherwise OK...
Many thanks for putting this all together, Todd. And I hope you are much better now.
Thank you, Tracy! I am feeling up to some chores today (the rewards of adulthood).
Thanks, Todd! Glad to hear you're on the mend.
Thank you, Jack, on both counts.
Thanks, Todd! Appreciate the weekly effort. Can't be easy. I seemed to be scrolling down forever which in a way is a good thing for FFB.
Thank you, Prashant! I only hope it doesn't get to be too much of a muchness for the casual reader...
Is FFB still alive? Did it move to another site? I miss it!
Thanks, Bkln (Brooklyn?), for the concern and the benison! It's still alive, though it's been unconscionably delayed by a confluence of relatively minor distractions and misfortunes--some broken bones in my left hand as well as my coccyx being the worst physically, the idiocy of our political season being the most recent in terms of both d&m...a world in which Elizabeth Warren would be facing William Weld and Vermin Supreme (currently the nom polititique of a primary-winning Libertarian contender, rather than a designation of the current incumbent and too many of his peers worldwide) in the general election, for example, would be a less monstrous world...but while there are life and book reviewers, there is hope!
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