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: September Reads (and comments)
Mark Baker: The Gatehouse Mystery (Trixie Belden #3) by Julie Campbell
Paul Barnett/"John Grant": The Swimmer by Joakim Zander (translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel)
Les Blatt: The Greek Coffin Mystery by "Ellery Queen" (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee)
Elgin Bleecker: High Sierra by W. R. Burnett
Brian Busby: The Obstinate Virgin by "Sinclair Murray" (Alan Sullivan); What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies pirated
Douglas Cohen: Realms of Fantasy, June 1996, edited by Shawna McCarthy
Liz Dexter: The Camomile by Catherine Carswell
Michael Dirda: greenhouses make poor book storehouses
Brian Durant: The Twilight Zone: The Movie (script recast in prose) by Robert Bloch
Scott Edelman: Farah Mendlesohn
Martin Edwards: The Evil Wish by Jean Potts
Peter Enfantino and Jack Seabrook: Warren horror comics, June/July 1973
Will Errickson: Night, Winter and Death by "Lee Hawks" (Dave Pedneau)
José Ignacio Escribano: Mystery at Lynden Sands by "J. J. Connington" (Alfred Stewart)
Curtis Evans: Too Many Clients by Rex Stout; Friday Fright Night and Mr. Splitfoot by Helen McCloy
"Olman Feelyus": The Duplicate by William Sleator; The Jook by Gary Phillips
Elizabeth Foxwell: Velona Pilcher and Lucy Maud Montgomery
Paul Fraser: New Worlds SF, December 1965, edited by Michael Moorcock and Langdon Jones
Cullen Gallagher: Satan Takes the Helm by Calvin Clements; Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale; David Goodis on his intellectual property adapted for Shoot the Piano Player, Esquire, January 1965, edited by Harold Hayes
Michael A. Gonzales: Iced by Ray Shell
Aubrey Hamilton: The Knife Slipped by "A. A. Fair" (Erle Stanley Gardner); Murder in Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger
Bev Hankins: The Avon Ghost Reader edited by Herbert Williams; Avon Mystery Story Teller edited by Joseph Meyers and E. B. Williams; Seven Footprints to Satan by A. Merritt; The Clue in the Clay by "D. B. Olsen" (Dolores Hitchens); 4 Feet in the Grave by Amelia Reynolds Long; The Seventh Mourner by Dorothy Gardner; The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart; Friday Fright Night roundup
James W. Harris: Do people still read short stories?
Rich Horton, newly a grandfather: Bryce Walton stories; Caitlin K. Kiernan stories; Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger; The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe
Jerry House: Hick's Inventions with a Kick by "Henry Hugh Simmons" (Clement Fezandié), Amazing Stories, April, August and December 1927; August 1928, edited by Hugo Gernsback; The Male Response by Brian Aldiss; the Galaxy Science Fiction Novels series; Pulp Fictions edited by Peter Haining
Kate Jackson: Under the Influence by Geoffrey Kerr; Friday Fright Night: 13 novels: Which is the Most Frightening Situation to Find One's Self In?
Tracy K: The Way Some People Die by Ross Macdonald
Colman Keane: Graveyard Plots by Bill Pronzini; Harry Starke by Blair Howard; In the Shadow of El Paso by Frank Zafiro; Bank Blogger by Jeffrey Frye
George Kelley: The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries edited by Mike Ashley; Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch; The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books that Changed Their Lives edited by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager
Mark R. Kelly: A Fall of Moondust and Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke
Joe Kenney: Special People by "Hugh Barron" (Burt Hirschfield); The Marksman #18: Icepick in the Spine by "Frank Scarpetta" (George Harmon Smith)
Margot Kinberg: orphans and foundlings in crime fiction
Rob Kitchin: Neuromancer by William Gibson
Karen Langley: The Nose and Other Stories by Nicolai Gogol (translated by Susanne Fusso); more Gogol in translation
B. V. Lawson: Detective Fiction (Cultural History of Literature) by Charles J. Rzepka
Xavier Lechard: The Blind Barber by John Dickson Carr
David Levinson: Worlds of If, November 1965, edited by Frederik Pohl
Des/D. F. Lewis: The Neo-Decadent Cookbook edited by Brendan Connell and Justin Isis
Steve Lewis: Weave a Wicked Web by Paul Kruger
Gideon Marcus: Analog Science Fiction->Science Fact, November 1965, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Todd Mason: E Pluribus Unicorn by Theodore Sturgeon; Nine Horrors and a Dream by Joseph Payne Brennan; (Horror Stories from) Tales to be Told in the Dark edited by Basil Davenport (Ballantine Horror items for Friday Fright Night); Databases of some horror and fantasy literary awards, and some related sources of background information
Ed McBride: Standoff in Labyrinth by "J. R. Roberts" (Robert Randisi); Mack Bolan #43: Return to Vietnam as by Don Pendleton (Stephen Mertz in this case)
Steven J. McDermott: Unfaithful Wives by Orrie Hitt
Jeff Meyerson: Dead Anyway by Chris Knopf
Neeru: Eighty Dollars to Stamford by Lucille Fletcher
Steven Nester: King Suckerman by George Pelecanos
Francis M. Nevins: Turn on the Heat and Gold Comes in Bricks by "A. A. Fair" (Erle Stanley Gardner)
Jess Nevins: origins of fantasy literature
John F. Norris: Death's Bright Angel by Thurman Warriner
John O'Neill: The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris; The Best Science Fiction of the Year (Volume 1) edited by Jonathan Strahan; The Best Science Fiction of the Year (Volume 5) edited by Neil Clarke
Paperback Warrior: The Pace that Kills by William Fuller; Dial M for Man by Orrie Hitt; Man Bait by "Jack Liston" (Ralph Maloney); A Great Day for Dying by Jack Dillon
Matt Paust: The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War by Michael Gorra
Mildred Perkins: The Courier by Gerald Brandt; the film adaptation of sorts
Jordan Prejean: The Twilight Zone Magazine, January/February 1983, edited by T. E. D. Klein
James Reasoner: Her Cheating Heart by "Lloyd Kevin" (Harold G. Sweet)
D. M. Ritzlin: the 10 best sword & sorcery stories by Robert E. Howard
Gerard Saylor: Solo by William Boyd; The Acolyte by Nick Cutter; What You Break by Reed Farrel Coleman; I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Kerrie Smith: Aunty Lee's Delights by Ovidia Yu
Marina Sofia: Negative Capability by Michèle Roberts
Meilan Solly: 24 Women Who Helped Shape the Last Century of American Literature
Jonathan Strahan: Ruoxi Chen, Tor.com editor
Scott Thompson: Summer in the Country by Edith Templeton
Kevin Tipple: Dragon by the Bay by Garnett Elliott
"TomCat": "The Invisible Tomb" by Arthur Porges, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, February 1967, edited by G. F. Foster; "The Flying Fiend" by Edward D. Hoch, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Mid-July 1982, edited by Eleanor Sullivan; Exit for a Dame by Richard Ellington
Bill Wallace: The Chrysalids by "John Wyndham" (John Benyon Harris); Monsieur de Bougrelon by Jean Lorrain (translated by Brian Stableford); Evergreen Review, April 1968, edited by Barney Rosset; Scary Dark Rides by Doug Higley
Gary K. Wolfe: Julie Phillips, biographer
...and...
13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels
1. Hell! Said the Duchess by Michael Arlen
2. The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr
3. Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers
4. Dark Sanctuary by H. B. Gregory
5. Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg
6. Maker of Shadows by Jack Mann
7. The Yellow Mistletoe by Walter S. Masterman
8. Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin
9. Burn Witch Burn by A. Merritt
10. Fingers of Fear by J. U. Nicolson
11. Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven
12. Echo of a Curse by R. R. Ryan
13. Medusa by E. H. Visiak
13 Best Non-Supernatural Horror Novels [suspense novels, says Mason]
1. The Deadly Percheron by John Franklin Bardin
2. Psycho by Robert Bloch
3. Here Comes a Candle by Fredric Brown
4. The Screaming Mimi by Fredric Brown
5. The Fire-Spirits by Paul Busson
6. The Crooked Hinge by John Dickson Carr
7. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Hanns Heinz Ewers
8. Vampire by Hanns Heinz Ewers
9. Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind by Michael Fessier
10. The Shadow on the House by Mark Hansom
11. Torture Garden by Octave Mirabeau
12. The Master of the Day of Judgement by Leo Perutz
13. The Subjugated Beast by R. R. Ryan
13 Best Science Fictional Horror Novels
1. The Death Guard by Philip George Chadwick
2. Final Blackout by L. Ron Hubbard
3. Vampires Overhead by Alan Hyder
4. The Quatermass Experiment by Nigel Kneale
5. Quatermass and the Pit by Nigel Kneale
6. The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck by Alexander Laing
7. The Flying Beast by Walter S. Masterman
8. The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock
9. Land Under England by Joseph O’Neil
10. The Cross of Carl by Walter Owen
11. Freak Museum by R. R. Ryan
12. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
13. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Thanks for this labor on the behalf of readers.
ReplyDeleteAs to your contemplation of Wagner's lists, I do recall that he spoke favorably of _Conjure Wife_, but, perhaps, thought it only 13th of 14th best.
Could be, John! I have my suspicions that my father, professionally an engineer and a devotee of hard-science sf and somewhat disdainful of horror fiction in his worst moments, enthusiastically endorsed the 1963 film THE HAUNTING (based, of course, on Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE) as the most frightening movie he'd ever seen, I think in part because the approach taken to the supernatural there (and in the novel) is rather sfnal...
ReplyDeleteYou're quite welcome, and thank you.
Thank you for all the links, and for posting those lists. Glad to see Fredric Brown so high on Karl Edward Wagner's list, lots of others I don't know so I will be researching those.
ReplyDeleteNot at all, Cullen, and thank you. Some of the Wagner listees are definitely relatively obscure today, but, for example, Alexander Laing was the author of Robert Bloch's choice for the 100 BEST HORROR BOOKS essays volume, even given the quality of some of the prose, as Bloch was quick to note; Laing also edited some rather impressive bug-crushing horror anthologies in the '30s, the NOT AT NIGHT era when such were at least as popular as they tend to be now. (Bloch, as a noted contributor to Farnsworth Wright's WEIRD TALES, as initially a protege of H. P. Lovecraft, definitely learned how to mine bad prose for the nuggets! Bloch as a writer in his own voice was already emerging by the time Dorothy McIlwraith took over at WT, and produced what some of us think were the better issues of the magazine, with Bloch as one of the stars there, as well as contributing widely to other markets.)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Todd!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jack.
ReplyDelete