Friday's "Forgotten" Books: links to the reviews, et al. 26 September 2025

Patricia Abbott: Morningstar: Growing Up with Books by Ann Hood

Brad Bigelow: Bad Girl by Viña Delmar

Brian Busby: recent vintage Canadian lit reviews

Colman/Olman: A Chill Rain in January by L.R. Wright; Barking Dogs by Terence M. Green

This issue can be read at this link.

Tony Davis: Dorothy McIllwraith, editor of Short Stories and Weird Tales magazines

Martin Edwards: Words for Murder, Perhaps by "Edward Candy" (Barbara Neville); Dead Men at the Folly by John Rhode; Murder Squad

Eric: Missing in Action by William J. Linn; the short fiction of Charles Boeckman

Will Errickson: Such Nice People by Sandra Scoppetone; The Happy Man by Eric C. Higgs; The Farm by Richard Haigh: the final volumes of the Paperbacks from Hell reissue series

Curtis Evans: The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by John Dickson Carr and Adrian Conan Doyle

Paul Fraser: Future Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1943, edited by Robert W. Lowndes

Ted Gioia on David Foster Wallace and his more accessible work

Michael Gonzales: the prose and film-scripting of Eleanor Perry; The 1980s NYC Bookstore: Supper at Scribner's

Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meara: The Most Underrated Books of the Year

Aubrey Nye Hamilton: Pattern for Murder by Ione Sandberg Shriner (nee Elaine Mathilda Sandberg)

Bev Hankins: The Nine Waxed Faces by "Francis Beeding" (John Leslie Palmer & Hilary St. George Saunders)

 

Lisa Hill: Short Story September 2025

Lesa Holstine: "The Hunter" by Tim Sullivan (a DS Cross short story); Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner 

Rich Horton: Changelog: Collected Fiction by Rich Larson; Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

Jerry House: Black Creek Crossing by John Saul

Kate Jackson: Death in Ambush by "Susan Gilruth" (Susannah Margaret Hornsby-Wright); The Whisper in the Gloom by Nicholas Blake; The Immaterial Murder Case by Julian Symons; Death at Deepwood Grange by Michael Underwood 

George Kelley: Yalum by Matthew Hughes

Stephen King on Daphne du Maurier

Karen Langley: No Such Thing as a Free Lunch by Rosalind Brackenbury; Look at Me by Anita Brookner; Looking After Your Books by Francesca Galligan

Joe Kenney: Raga 6 by Frank Lauria

B. V. Lawson: Murderous Schemes edited by J. Madison Davis and Donald E. Westlake

Steve Lewis: Orbit 3 edited by Damon Knight ("Joachim Boaz", as well.)

Todd Mason: 2021 best horror fiction of the year annuals anthologies

Neeru: A Hundred Years Hence Reading Challenge

James Nicoll: Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack; Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu

J. F. Norris: Now Seek My Bones by S, H, Courtier

Jim Noy: Cat and Mouse by Christianna Brand

James Reasoner: Climb a Broken Ladder by Robert Novak; Shield for Murder by William P. McGivern; Montana Fury by "Al Cody" (Archie Joscelyn), Lariat Story Magazine, May 1927; Detective Action Stories, October 1936; The Sandhills Shootings by "Chap O'Keefe" (Keith Chapman); Jebediah Smith by Alfred Wallon

Gerard Saylor: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Mannie Murphy

Steven H. Silver: The Graveyard Heart by Roger Zelazny and Elegy for Angels and Dogs by Walter Jon Williams (Tor Double #24) 

Gay Talese and Edward Sorel, with Mark Rozzo: "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", Esquire, April 1966, edited by Harold Hayes

Kevin Tipple: Within Plain Sight by Bruce Robert Coffin

Bill Wallace: Weird Tales, October 1939, edited by Farnsworth Wright

...

Clarissa Brincat: Novels with a certain structure are more likely to be classics

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: links to the reviews and more: 19 September 2025

Patti Abbott: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Snyder)

Douglas A. Anderson: The Smoking Leg and Other Stories by John Metcalfe

Brian Busby: A Fair Affair by Paul Champagne

"Dead Yesterday": Sleep Long, My Love by Hillary Waugh

Eric: Crash Course by Kathryn Johnson

Martin Edwards: Dead Men at the Folly by John Rhode

Will Errickson: Night Visions: In the Blood: stories by Charles L. Grant, Tanith Lee and Steven Rasnic Tem, edited by Alan Ryan

Michael Gonzalez: Richard Prince prose and film-scripting, not least Sea of Love: Donald Westlake's Parker novels and their films, set in Harlem and elswhere

Charles Gramlich: the Sword and Planet fiction of Leigh Brackett

Bev Hankins: Panic in Paradise by "Alan Amos" (Kathleen Moore Knight)

Lesa Holstine: A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke

Rich Horton: "It Opens the Sky" among the stories of Theodore Sturgeon; The Blighted Stars by Megan  O'Keefe: Angel by Elizabeth Taylor

Jerry House: Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Terrall (aka "Robert Kyle"); Steve Lewis in 2023

Aubrey Hamilton: The Seven Black Chessman by John Huntingdon

Kate Jackson: The Jealous One by Celia Fremlin

George Kelley: Quicksand and The Book of John Brunner by John Brunner

Karen Langley: Mapping the North by Charlotta Forss; Jasmine Tea by Eileen Chang

B. V. Lawson: Thorne in the Flesh by Rhona Petrie

Todd Mason: Fantastic, August 1976, edited by Ted White, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August and September 1976, edited by Edward Ferman

Neeru: Exit John Horton by J. Jefferson Farjeon

James Nicoll: The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Moike, translated by Deborah Bolivar Boehm; Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois by (and presumably selected by) Gardner Dozois

J. F. Norris: Greymarsh by Arthur J. Rees; Death at Ash House aka The Undesirable Residence by Miles Burton

Jim Noy: The Secret of the Downs by Walter S. Masterman

Colman/Ohlman: A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul

J. Kingston Pierce: Ordinary Bear by C. B. Bernard

James Reasoner: Climb a Broken Ladder by Robert Novak

Steven H. Silver: A Tor Double: novellas Riding the Torch by Norman Spinrad and Tin Soldier by Joan D. Vinge

Kevin Tipple: Beyond the Truth by Bruce Robert Coffin

"TomCat": "Death at the Porthole" (1938) and "The Eye" (1945) by Baynard Kendrick

David Vineyard:  Who He? aka The Rat Race by Alfred Bester

A. J. Wright (III): Petrochemical Nocturne and Nobody Knows When It Got This Good by Amos Jasper Wright IV; 3 generations of A. J. Wrights' books at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Sterne Library

Todd Mason

Jackie Kashian interviews Nancy Kornfeld about the novels of Clive Cussler

podcasts with "strong" language:

Amber Benson joins Brea Grant and Mallory O'Meara for a discussion of romance fiction from the 198os through today: the Reading Smut podcast

If Books Could Kill podcast: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

Friday's "Forgotten' Books: the links to the reviews, 12 September 2025

Patti Abbott: please see Ron Scheer

Brian Busby: Carnac's Folly by Gilbert Parker

Martin Edwards: Safe Secret by "Harry Carmichael" (Leopold Ognall)

Eric: The Commandos by Elliott Arnold

Will Errickson: Under the Fang edited by Robert McCammon

Aubrey Nye Hamilton: Death at Four Corners by Anthony Gilbert

Bev Hankins: She Came Back (aka The Traveller Returns) by "Patricia Wentworth" (Dora Amy Turnbull)

Lesa Holstine: Sandwich by Catherine Newman

Rich Horton: The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen; Victims of the Nova by John Brunner

Jerry House: The Sargasso Ogre and Fear Cay, Doc Savage novels by "Kenneth Robeson" (Lester Dent)

John Howard: Christina Alberta's Father by H. G. Wells

Kate Jackson: the TBR pile

Jackie Kashian: sf writer Kage Baker (lo-fi but enthusiastic interview); Paul Caiola (@thatagedwell podcast) on LGBTQ+ lit (in much better audio)

George Kelley: Secret Agent of Terra by John Brunner/The Rim of Space by A. Bertram Chandler (a 1962 Ace Double)

Margot Kinberg: Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie

K. A. Laity: Black Magic by Marjorie Bowen

Karen Langley: Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie; Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio (translated by Mia Spangenberg)

B. V. Lawson: "The Problem of Cell 13" (collected in his The Thinking Machine) by Jacques Futrelle

Steve Lewis: Worlds of If: Science Fiction, November 1967, edited by Frederik Pohl  (this issue can be read here)

Todd Mason: The Case Against Satan by Ray Russell; Devil's Scrapbook by Jerome Bixby

Neeru: Mr. Babbacombe Dies by Miles Burton

James Nicholl: Galactic Empires edited by Brian Aldiss

J. F. Norris: Puzzle for Players by "Patrick Quentin" (Hugh Wheeler and Richard Wilson Webb)

Jim Noy: The Spiral Staircase (aka Some Must Watch) by Ethel Lina White

Colman/O: The Big Bite by Charles Williams

J. Kingston Pierce: Overboard by George F. Worts (the Bill Crider Memorial PaperBack series)

James Reasoner: Rogue Cop by William P. McGivern; Longhorn Stampede by Philip Ketchum

Ron Scheer: Karnak Cafe by Naguiz Mahfouz (David Cramner on Ron Scheer) (Scheer's original post)

Scott: Professor Borges: A Course in English Literature edited (from Borges's lectures) by Martín Arias and Martín Hadis

Steven Silver: The Jewel of Bas by Leigh Brackett and Thieves' Carnival by Karen Haber (a Tor Double)

Victoria Silverwolf: Fantastic Stories, October 1970, edited by Ted White

Kevin Tipple: Beneath the Depths by Bruce Robert Coffin

"TomCat": The Case of the Curious Heel by Ken Crossen

TM

Sergio Angelini and James Harrison: Film Noir Fest 2025

Women sf and fantasy magazine editors at mid-century

John D. MacDonald: "What is Talent?"

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the links to the reviews and more: 5 September 2025

Patti Abbott: A Loss for Words by Lou Ann Walker

Douglas A. Anderson: The Autobiography of A. Merritt; A. Merritt: Reflections in the Moon Pool by Sam Moskowitz; 1930s omnibus anthologies of crime and horror fiction among others, edited by Dorothy Tomlinson, or John Gawsworth, or others, published by Gollancz and Hutchinson, among others; Great Stories of Sport edited by Thomas Moult, featuring E. R. Eddison; the works of Bernard C. Blake

Sergio Angelini and Aidan Brack: King's Ransom by "Ed McBain" (Salvatore Lombino/eventually legally Evan Hunter) and the films based on it

Brad Bigelow: Pick Up by Eunice Chapin

Ben Boulden: Domino Island by Desmond Bagley

Brian Busby: Carnac's Folly by Gilbert Parker

Charles Gramlich: the novels of Mike Sirota

"DforDoom": The Wicked Gnomes and The Iron God (Modesty Blaise graphic novels) by Peter O'Donnell and Enrique Badia Romero

Martin Edwards: Be Shot for Sixpence by Michael Gilbert

Eric/Paperback Warrior: When Michael Calls by John Farris; The Damagers by Donald Hamilton

Will Errickson: Under the Fang edited by Robert McCammon

Jose Ignacio Escribano García-Bosque: The Leyton Court Mystery by Anthony Berkeley

Murray Ewing: An Echo of Children by Ramsey Campbell

Aubrey Nye Hamilton: Who Killed Aunt Maggie? by Medora Field

Lesa Holstine: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Rich Horton: Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! edited by Richard Wolinsky (transcriptions of Wolinsky and Richard Lupoff's Pacifica Radio/KPFA-FM San Francisco literary discussion series)

Jerry House: The Red Skull: A Doc Savage Novella by "Kenneth Robeson" (Lester Dent)

Kate Jackson: Writing the Murder: Essays on Crafting Crime Fiction edited by Dan Coxon and Richard V. Hirst; A Puzzle for Fools by "Patrick Quentin" (in this case, apparently Richard Webb and Hugh Wheeler): Death in the Backseat by Dorothy Cameron Disney

Tracy K: The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (with a callback to a review by the much-missed "John Grant")

Kaggsy: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac

George Kelley: All Roads Lead to Rome edited by Hank Davis and David Afsharirad

B. V. Lawson: Exeunt Murderers: The Best Mystery Stories of Anthony Boucher (William White) edited by Francis Nevins and Martin H. Greenberg (can also be read here at Typepad...for not much longer...and we might hope Archive.org might look into preserving the older posts  in that format, as B. V. migrates her back files to her new Blogspot site, necessarily with somewhat different formatting)

Steve Lewis: Blondes Don't Cry by Merlda Mace

Gideon Marcus: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1970, edited by Edward L. Ferman; "Leviathan!" by Larry Niven (a sequel to an earlier F&SF story, "Get a Horse!"), Playboy, August 1970, edited by Hugh Hefner (in comments, I briefly note the other fiction in that issue of the skin magazine--not so much the airbrushing).

Todd Mason: Fantastic anthologies and other best-of fiction magazines anthologies

New stories by Shirley Jackson and (in English) by B. Traven, and a reprint by John Collier

Mike: The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

Neeru: Follow This Fair Corpse by Laurence Dwight Smith

J. F. Norris: Greymarsh by Arthur J. Rees

Jim Noy: podcast: Martin Edwards on his 2025 books; Lord Darcy by Randall Garrett; Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

"Puzzle Doctor": Lies and Dolls by Nev Fountain; The Final Vow by M. W. Craven

James Reasoner: Blue Book, May 1938, edited by Donald Kennicott; West on 66 by James H. Cobb; Shakedown by "Ben Kerr" (William Ard)

Stephen Silver: Tor Double 21: "Home is the Hangman" by Roger Zelazny/"We, in Some Stranger Power's Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line" by Samuel R. Delany

Kevin Tipple: Among the Shadows by Bruce Robert Coffin

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the links to the reviews and more, 29 August 2025

Patti Abbott: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Brad Bigelow: The Great Day by Georgette Carneal

Ben Boulden: Front Sight: Three Swagger Novellas by Stephen Hunter

Cora Buhlert: Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith

Brian Busby: four of my father's books

John Coulthart: The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard

DforDoom: The Longest Second by Bill S. Ballinger

Glory Edim: Plum Bun by Jessie Redmon Fauset

Martin Edwards: The Hanging Woman by John Rhode

Will Errickson: The Snake by John Godey

Jose Ignacio Escribano García-Bosque: The Wrong Letter by Walter S. Masterman

Curtis Evans: Papa La-bas and The Ghosts' High Noon by John Dickson Carr (and, for me, at least, many interpolated targeted ads)

Michael Gonzales: Donald Westlake's "Parker" novels (as by Richard Stark)

Charles Gramlich: Battle in the Dawn by Manly Wade Wellman

Aubrey Hamilton: Dangerous Sea by David Roberts

Lesa Holstine: The Great American Retro Road Trip by Rolando Pujol

Rich Horton: The Female Man by Joanna Russ; The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (with Auguste Maquet) [the "forgotten" collaborator entry this week]

Jerry House: Nothing but a Drifter by Lee Hoffman (James Reasoner in 2023, as well)

Kate Jackson: Agatha Christie: A Very Short Introduction by Gill Plain

Kaggsy: The Stone Door by Leonora Carrington

George Kelley: The Outspoken and the Incendiary: Interviews with Radical Speculative Fiction Writers conducted (for the most part) by Terry Bisson

George Kelley and Bill Pronzini: The Garden of Weapons by John Gardner

B. V. Lawson: One Night's Mystery by May Agnes Fleming (and B. V. advises her blog will be relocated to Blogspot; the clumsiness of Blogspot layout functions at times may enervate you, B. V....)

Steve Lewis: The House of Brass by "Ellery Queen" (in this case, Frederic Dannay and Avram Davidson, then revised?/rewritten? by Manfred Lee); Death is the Last Lover by Peter Kane

Todd Mason: Midcentury Literary Ferment: some best-ofs from magazines and movements: TriQuarterly, If, Short Story International, Venture SF, and other bohemian expressions

Neeru: Who Died at the Grange? by "Michael Halliday" (John Creasey); No Comebacks by Frederick Forsyth

Jim Noy: The Black Angel by Cornell Woolrich; Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

"Paperback Warrior": Your Body Will Never Be Found by Jeff Strand

"Puzzle Doctor": As If by Magic: Locked Room Mysteries and Other Miraculous Crimes edited by Martin Edwards

James Reasoner: Suitable for Framing by James Atlee Phillips; Ranch Romances, First August Number (issue), 1955, edited by Helen Tono

Scott: A Dozen Books

Stephen H. Silver: "Ill Met in Lankhmar" by Fritz Leiber/"The Fair in Emain Mancha" by Charles de Lint; "The Pugnacious Peacemaker" by Harry Turtledove/"The Wheels of If" by L. Sprague de Camp

Kevin Tipple: Pesticide by Kim Hayes

TM

Philadephia Free Library Rare Book Department videos

Tracy K: Spell the Month in Books

short stories by Evelyn Waugh, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Sheckley and Kingsley Tufts: Short Story Wednesday

Lewis Lapham in 2009:

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the links to the reviews and more: 22 August 2025

Patti Abbott: The Dramatist by Ken Bruen

Tony Baer: Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday (with William Duffy)

Frank Babics: Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison

grouped presentations (audio links): Pacificon II, September, 1964:"Anthony Boucher" (William White): "Use of Crime and Suspense Fiction Ideas in Science Fiction"; Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson, Bruce Pelz, Dian Pelz, George Scithers: "The World of Sword and Sorcery"; Richard Lupoff, Ron Ellik, Wally Weber, Arthur Thomson, Joe Gibson: "Ideas and Imagination in Fanzines"

Ben Boulden: The Wolf in the Clouds by Ron Faust

Randal S. Brandt: Plunder of the Sun by David Dodge, and the film adapted from it

Brian Busby: A Japanese Nightingale by "Onoto Watanna" [Winnifred Eaton]

Bill Crider: Among the Gently Mad by Nicholas Basbanes

"DforDoom": Murder on the Way! by Theodore Roscoe

Martin Edwards: Dream of Fair Women by Charlotte Armstrong

Will Errickson: Moths by Rosalind Ashe

Curtis Evans: The Cavalier's Cup by "Carter Dickson"/John Dickson Carr

Jose Ignacio Escribano Garcia-Bosque: Murder, M.D. by John Street

Aubrey Hamilton: The Tunnel Mystery by J. Lenehan

Bev Hankins: Murder in the Caravan and Murder in the Grave by Irina Shapiro

grouped reviews: Maureen Hogan: Hour of the Horde by Gordon Dickson; Victoria Silverwolf: Gateway to Hell by Dennis Wheatley; Amber Dubin: The Star Virus by Barrington J. Bayley and Mask of Chaos by John Jakes

Lesa Holstine: Of All Sad Words by Bill Crider

Rich Horton: Hidden Folk by Eleanor Arnason

Jerry House: Cadaver in Chief: A Special Report from the Dawn of the Zombie Apocalypse by Steve Hockensmith

Kate Jackson: Death of a Stray Cat by Jean Potts; my top 5 mysteries of the 1920s

Tracy K: Death by Accident by Bill Crider

Kaggsy: The Reader and the Writer by Christa Wolf

George Kelley: Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends transcribed and edited by Richard Wolinsky

B. V. Lawson: Murder Among Friends by Elizabeth Ferrars

Steve Lewis: The House of Blue Lights by Robert J. Bowman

Todd Mason: You're All Alone (and variant version, The Sinful Ones) by Fritz Leiber (and some other 1950 fantasy-magazine fiction)

Marcia Muller: The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink by Erle Stanley Gardner

Neeru: Frame-Up by Andrew Garve

J. F. Norris: The Croaking Raven by Gladys Mitchell

Jim Noy: Sorceror's House by Gerald Verner

"Paperback Warrior": the Mac Bolan series, created by Don Pendleton

"Puzzle Doctor": The Judas Window by "Carter Dickson" (John Dickson Carr)

James Reasoner: The Fast Buck by Ross Laurence

Kevin Tipple: At What Cost by James L'Etoile

A Detective Penley Mystery

By 

By 

--TM

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/the-otherworldly-ambitions-of-r-f-kuang

Jack Seabrook: the complete Alfred Hitchcock Presents:/Hour Project

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: links to the reviews: 15 August 2025

Patti Abbott: A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George

Frank Babics: Research into Marginal Living: Selected Stories by John D. Keefauver; continues

Robert Bloch: "The Clown at Midnight", Rogue, March 1960

John Boston: Amazing Science Fiction Stories, September 1970, edited by Ted White

Ben Boulden: Chain of Evidence by Garry Disher

"DForDoom": Night and the City by Gerald Kersh

Martin Edwards: Invisible Green by John Sladek

Will Errickson: Orphans by Ed Naha

Curtis Evans: The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by John Dickson Carr and Adrian Conan Doyle

Aubrey Hamilton: Death in the Fifth Position by "Edgar Box"/Gore Vidal

Peter Handel: Running Wild by J. G. Ballard

Bev Hankins: Gently with the Innocents by Alan Hunter

Lesa Holstine: Knight's Castle by Edward Eager

Jerry House: In Waders from Mars by Keith, Joe R. and Karen Lansdale

Jose Ignacio Escribano: Constable Guard Thyself! by Henry Wade

Kate Jackson: The Battling Prophet by Arthur Upfield

Tracy K: At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie

Kaggsy: Vanity of Duluoz by Jack Kerouac

George Kelley: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

B. V. Lawson: Lonelyheart 4122 by Colin Watson

Evan Lewis: the first "Jumpin' Jupiter" comics story by Basil Wolverton, Weird Tales of the Future #2, June 1952

Steve Lewis: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 1967, edited by Frederic Dannay; Star Quest by Dean R. Koontz

Todd Mason: What Really Happened to the Class of '65? by David Wallechinsky and Michael Medved

Winona Menezes: New Worlds of Fantasy #2 edited by Terry Carr

Neeru: With Willing Hands by Diana Ridley

J. F. Norris: Murder in the Procession by Leslie Cargill

Jim Noy: Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke by R. Austin Freeman

"Paperback Warrior": The Shadow Guest by Hillary Waugh

"Puzzle Doctor": Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper

James Reasoner: The Tavern by Orrie Hitt

Steven H Silver: Tor SF Double #18: "Vintage Season" by Catherine L. Moore and "In Another Country" by Robert Silverberg

TomKat: Strange Houses by Uketsu (translated by Jim Rion)