Friday 's Forgotten Books Archives

Friday’s Forgotten Books, Friday, May 3, 2013

May 032013

Ed Gorman is the author of several series of crime fiction books as well as standalone mysteries, westerns, and the editor of many anthologies.

Rendezvous In Black by Cornell Woolrich

Forgotten Books: Rendezvous In Black by Cornell Woolrich

This is one of Woolrich's famous "Black" books and black it is. Bleak as David Goodis gets his protagonists usually attempt to make some kind of connection to another human being. Not with with Woolrich.

I'm not going to describe the set-up here because laid it flat it is so outlandish you might think twice about reading the book. But Cornell Woolrich was nothing if not shrewd. By the time you figure out what's going on you've had a chance to prepare yourself. You've been putting it all together piece by piece so when the picture is complete you just nod and accept it.

And anyway as with most Woolrich books and stories the set-up doesn't matter all that much anyway. What makes Woolrich Woolrich is how his protagonists respond to the set-up. This novel is built on a series of richly detailed character studies of several men who have begun dying in ways that would be ironic even to them if they could step back and see it with any objectivity.

Woolrich is often compared to Poe and while I think that's fair--they are both masters of claustrophobia and obsession--I think in all Woolrich's real literary father was Guy de Mauppassant. Woolrich has de Mauppassant's fascination with society high and low for one thing, and a sly ear and eye for realistic daily life. There is a lot of Edward Hopper in Woolrich's word paintings of the Thirties and Forties. I'm not sure that Poe an equivalent interest in his own time.

This is my favorite Woolrich novel which is to say that he has told a story of such cleverness and nihilistic power you see why Woolrich is so revered. This is one of those books, one of those books that crush, and linger on long after you finish it.

Patricia Abbott is your host. Patricia Moyes' series. (from 2008)

I don't have adequate time to do Patricia Moyes justice, but when I think back to the various detective series I read in my twenties, one that stands out for me is

Patricia Moyes' series of mysteries about Inspector Henry Tibbett, who solved many of his cases with the help of his wife, Emmy. I found their marriage as well as their cases fun.

Anthony Boucher wrote this in the NYT at the time of the first of the series, DEAD MEN DON'T SKI.

“If you’re as hungry as I am for a really good whodunit. you will welcome the debut of Patricia Moyes."

We may not be as hungry for whodunits as we were then, but they can still be very satisfying when done well. If I can count on my memory, these were.

The setting for that first book DEAD MEN DON'T SKI was the Italian Alps, where Henry Tibbett, on vacation from Scotland Yard. Henry and his wife. Emmy, have settled in for some skiing, when Henry uncovers a smuggling ring, which includes hotel guests.
Then a guest who was alive when the ski lift began its descent is found dead when the lift touches bottom.

Henry Tibbett, Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard, gave me many hours of pleasure and I remember sadly the day when I learned of Moyes' death.

Here are the books in the series:

Dead Men Don't Ski (1958)
The Sunken Sailor (1961)
aka Down Among the Dead Men
Death On the Agenda (1962)
Murder a La Mode (1963)
Falling Star (1964)
Johnny Underground (1965)
Murder By Threes (1965)
Murder Fantastical (1967)
Death and the Dutch Uncle (1968)
Who Saw Her Die? (1970)
aka Many Deadly Returns
Season of Snows and Sins (1971)
The Curious Affair of the Third Dog (1973)
Black Widower (1975)
To Kill a Coconut (1977)
aka The Coconut Killings
Who Is Simon Warwick? (1978)
Angel Death (1980)
A Six Letter Word for Death (1983)
Night Ferry to Death (1985)
Black Girl, White Girl (1989)
Twice in a Blue Moon (1993)
Collections:
Who Killed Father Christmas?: And Other Unseasonable Demises (1996)

Sergio Angelini
Les Blatt, VULTURES IN THE SKY, Todd Downing
Brian Busby, STORIES FOR LATE NIGHT DRINKERS, Michael Tremblays
Bill Crider, THE STARTLING WORLDS OF HENRY KUTTNER, Henry Kuttner
Scott Cupp, DOC SAVAGE: SKULL ISLAND, Will Murray
Martin Edwards, CORPSE GUARDS PARADE, Milward Kennedy
Curt Evans, UP HILL AND DOWN DALE: DEATH OF A CURATE, Kenneth Ashley
Jerry House, TARZAN, JR, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Randy Johnson, THE SHORES OF SPACE, Richard Matheson
Nick Jones, DR. WHO AND THE DALEKS, David Whitaker
George Kelley, SLAM THE BIG DOOR, John D. MacDonald
Margot Kinberg, A IS FOR ALIBI, Sue Grafton
B.V. Lawson, THE COMFORTABLE COFFIN, Richard S.Prather
Evan Lewis, WHAT PRICE MURDER, Cleve F. Adams
Steve Lewis, SCATTERSHOT, Bill Pronzini
Todd Mason, Some Anthologies from WEIRD TALES
J.V. Norris,ALARUM AND EXCURSION, Virginia Perdue
Neer, THE AFFAIR AT ALIQUID and BURGLARS IN BUCKS, Margaret and G.D.H. Cole
James Reasoner, THE BEST OF SPICY MYSTERY: VOL. 1, Al Jan editor
Gerard Saylor, GHOSTS OF BELFAST, Stuart Neville
Ron Scheer, THE PRAIRIE WIFE, Arthur Stringer
Michael Slind, DISSOLUTION, C.J. Sansom
Kerrie Smith, THROUGH THE WALL, Patricia Wentworth
Kevin Tipple, SHOTGUN SATURDAY NIGHT, Bill Crider
TomCat, THE TITANIC MURDERS, Max Allan Collins
Jim Winter, OUT OF SIGHT, Elmore Leonard

Friday’s Forgotten Books, Friday, April 28, 2013

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Apr 262013

Desperate Characters by Paula Fox (the first forgotten book)

It's difficult to remember, thirty years on, New York in the seventies, The City was facing bankruptcy, the streets were dangerous, frequent strikes left unattended garbage for the rodents, buildings crumbled. Paula Fox's novel Desperate Characters perfectly captures that time along with the similarly disintegrating marriage of Sophie and Otto Bentwood. The story begins with an unexpected cat bite. "Because it's savage," Otto answers Sophie's puzzled, "why?" It was a cat she was trying to feed that bit her. This well-intentioned act, this McGuffin, sends the couple off on a weekend odyssey, where ominous events continue to haunt the childless couple. They find little solace in each other and there is no easy resolution at the end. The quiet desperation that suffuses their story is heart-breaking. The writing is haunting, lucid, and succinct.

Fox has also written two books about her life (Borrowed Finery and The Coldest Winter), a few other novels (The Widow's Children) and many children's books. But nothing is finer than this one for me.

Ed Gorman is home again. Yippee!

TEXAS WIND, James Reasoner

We all have books we go back to several times over the years. For me one of the finest private eye novels I've ever read is Texas Wind by James Reasoner. It is a virtually perfect utterance, a story of a man, an era and a place.

While the set-up is familiar, "a missing daughter job" as Hammett once began a story of his, the op here, named Cody, gives us a Texas I'd never seen before and a private eye who might be the guy you have coffee with at the donut shop counter a couple days a week. The reality is what makes the dark surprises of the book stay real. A real person is telling you the story.

Texas is too often writ so large it becomes comic without meaning to be. James' social observations are worth the price alone. My favorite is a scene where Cody, a Southerner, wonders about a man because he's a Northerner. I've seen this written so many times by Yankees that it was a jolt realizing that it cuts both ways. I loved it.

Filled with exciting incident and humane observation, Texas Wind is one of those books that should be read by everyone who wants to write a mystery novel. This will show you how.

Livia Washburn, James' talented and lovely writer wife, is also a talented and lovely artist. Who knew? Here's her new cover for Texas Wind.

Sergio Angelini, MEMOS FROM PURGATORY, Harlan Ellison
Joe Barone, THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD, Debra Dean
Randal S. Brandt, CARAMBOLA by David Dodge.

Brian Busby, TORONTO DOCTOR, Sol Allen

Randall S. Brandt, CARAMBOLA, David Dodge
Bill Crider, DARK TRAVELING, Roger Zelazny
Martin Edwards, GARSTONS, H.C. Bailey
Curt Evans, THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS, John Buchan
Michael Gregorio, YARDIE, Victor Headley
Jerry House, ATOMIC CHILI: THE ILLUSTRATED JOE LANSDALE, ed. Rick Klaw
Randy Johnson, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, John Burke
Nick Jones, Richard Stark's Parker Series
George Kelley, THE END OF THE NIGHT, John D. MacDonald
MARGOT KINBERG, DIGGER REST HOTEL, GEOFFREY McGeachin
B.V. Lawson, THE ABANDONED ROOM, Charles Wadsworth Camp
Steve Lewis/ Michael Shonk, RISING DOG, Vince Kohler
Todd Mason, INTERSECTIONS: THE SYCAMORE HILL ANTHOLOGY edited by John Kessel, Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner; MIRRORSHADES: THE CYBERPUNK ANTHOLOGY, edited by Bruce Sterling
Jeff Meyerson, KILLING CASTRO, Lawrence Block
J.F. Norris, BENIGHTED, J.B. Priestley
Ayo Onadate, A RAGE IN HARLEM, Chester Himes
James Reasoner, BEST OFFER, Robert Calder
Gerard Saylor, THE CONSUMMATA, Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
Ron Sheer, THE MANTLE OF RED EVANS, Hugh Pendexter
Michael Slind, BLOOD UPON SNOW, Hilda Lawrence
Kerrie Smith, DEATH MASK, Ellis Peters
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, BURN, John Lutz
TomCat, MURDER AT THE ABA, Isaac Asimov
Rich Westwood, REVELATIONS OF A LADY DETECTIVE, William Stephens Hayward
Jim Winter, CHARLIE OPERA, Charlie Stella

Friday’s Forgotten Books, Friday, April 12, 2013

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Apr 122013

Happy Birthday this week to Bill Pronzini. April 15th.

"Death of a Nobody" by Bill Pronzini was first published in 1970 and was later collected in ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE'S FIFTY YEARS OF CRIME AND SUSPENSE, edited by Linda Landrigan.

You don't find many stories like this one nowadays-where a P.I follows the clues, none of them particularly surprising, to the conclusion of a case. What makes this story work, in fact, is its ordinariness. This gives the story complete authenticity. That and lovely writing and fine details. And the voice is perfect. If someone wants to learn to write a P.I story, this one could be a model.
A skid row denizen, Nello, comes to the detective to tell him of the recent death of his friend, another skid-row fellow. He is convinced the police will do nothing to solve the crime of a bum. But the P.I., with the help of a cop, follow the trail to a satisfying conclusion. Thus he proves to Nello that both he and the cops do care. There is no real villain in the piece-it is the sort of crime that has no big payoff other than the satisfaction of a mystery solved.

Ed Gorman

THE CRIMES OF JORDAN WISE, Bill Pronzini

While this fine novel was published in 2006, I think it's appropriate here because while it got its due critically, it deserved a much larger audience.Actuary Jordan Wise tells a joke on himself a third of the way through the novel: (paraphrase) an actuary is som

ebody who doesn’t have the personality to be an accountant. If you watch many true crime shows, you see a lot of Jordan Wises. People who fall into crime through circumstance rather than those who go looking for it.

Jordan becomes a criminal only after meeting Annalise, a troubled and very attractive young woman who needs two things badly – sex and money. But in order to get the sex on a regular basis, Jordan must first provide the money.
He embezzles a half million dollars and flees with Annalise to the Virgin Islands. In this first part of the novel, there’s nice James M. Cainian detail about how Jordan comes alive for the first time in his life. Some of this is due, whether he admits it or not, to the danger of committing a serious crime. But most of it is due to Annalise and his profound sexual awakening. The central section of the book reminds me of one of Maugham’s great South Seas tales – lust, betrayal, shame played out against vast natural beauty and a native society that, thanks to an old sea man named Bone, that Jordan comes to see value in – even if Annalise, her head filled with dreams of Paris and glamor, does not. Old Maugham got one thing right for sure – as Pronzini demonstrates here – a good share of humanity, wherever you find them, are both treacherous and more than slightly insane. There are amazing sections of writing about sea craft and sailing that remind me not of old Travis McGee but of the profoundly more troubled and desperate men of Charles Williams who find purity and peace only in the great and epic truths of the sea. That they may be as crazed and treacherous as everybody else does not seem to bother them unduly. There are also amazing sections (almost diaristic sections) where Jordan tells of us his fears and desires, his failings and his dreams. In places he deals vividly, painfully with his secret terror of not being enough of a man in any sense to hold Annalise. The publisher calls this a novel and so it is.
Pronzini brings great original width and breadth to the telling of this dark adventure that is both physical and spiritual. He has never written a better novel, the prose here literaryin the best sense, lucid and compelling, fit for both action and introspection. You can’t read a page of this without seeing it in movie terms. The psychologically violent love story played out against a variety of contemporary settings gives the narrative great scope. And in Jordan Wise and Annalise he has created two timeless people. This story could have been set in ancient Egypt or Harlem in 1903 or an LA roller skating disco in 1981. As Faulkner said, neither the human heart nor the human dilemma ever changes.

THE LOVE CURSE OF THE RUMBAUGHS by Jack Gantos

(Review by Deb)

I came across this odd little book a few years ago when I was working in a junior high school library. It arrived with a batch of new books for in-processing; the title grabbed me, so I started reading. Within a few pages, I was both hooked on the story and baffled as to why it was marketed as Young Adult fiction. I can’t imagine many teenagers getting into the story of a young girl named Ivy, her beloved mother, and their unusual relationship with twin albino pharmacists, Abner and Adolph Rumbaugh. On the other hand, adult readers looking for something off the beaten path might enjoy this gothic meditation on nature-versus-nurture, extreme love for one’s mother, the Catholic belief system, and the notion of free will all told in the deadpan first-person narration of the aforementioned Ivy.

The story is set in a small Pennsylvania town. There are few markers as to the time period; the sense of the book is almost early 20^th-Century (for some reason, I kept thinking of Booth Tarkington’s Penrod books), so when there are occasional references to phones, radios, interstates, and cars, it comes as a surprise; it’s as if the characters are living in another era entirely from the rest of the world. Ivy is an isolated young girl who is overly attached to her single mom. No husband or father is in the picture—or seems to ever have been, although this never bothers Ivy who expresses no curiosity about who or where her father might be. The only family friends Ivy and her mother have are the Rumbaugh twins who run the local pharmacy and are well-known in the area for their excellent skills as taxidermists.

Ivy’s mother works while Ivy attends a Catholic school with nuns as teachers and a Mother Superior as principal (one more way in which the book seems set in another era, because anyone who has been in a Catholic school in the past few decades knows that very few of them are staffed by nuns anymore). There are many passages where Ivy meditates the “big questions” that are always part of any faith journey, but appear more codified in the Catholic tradition: What is sin? Are we predestined to live a sinful life? If so, is there any real notion of free will or do we act in accordance with a predetermined pattern? Ivy is a good student, but she seems apart from the other girls in her class—although she makes some friends, they are mainly of a superficial nature—her emotions are completely wound up in her mother and the Rumbaughs.

In ways that a contemporary reader can’t help but find creepy, Ivy spends all her spare time at the drugstore with the middle-aged twins. She especially loves the little animals that the twins have stuffed, dressed up, and posed in various tableaux in glass cases (see—I told you it was creepy). Ivy herself longs to learn the intricacies of taxidermy and the twins are eager to show her. Soon she too is plying the taxidermist’s trade on squirrels, cats, and other small animals. These activities are described in a very detailed fashion. Again, this sounds very gruesome as I’m writing it, but Ivy’s narration is so matter-of-fact, we begin to accept the behavior of Ivy and the twins as normal.

What actually is the love curse of the Rumbaughs? Well, it’s excessive love for one’s mother—you can’t read this book without thinking of Psycho—and the twins suffer from it. Their love for their late mother is so extreme that…well, you only have to know about the twins hobby of taxidermy to guess what horrifying secret Ivy uncovers in the basement of the pharmacy one Easter morning.

And yet, because of Ivy’s straightforward style of explaining what has happened, the enormity of what the twins have done seems somehow less horrific. In fact, it fascinates Ivy, who loves her own living mother with as much devotion as the twins love theirs. As Ivy ages, she learns the truth about her own relationship to the Rumbaughs and begins to suffer anxiety and panic attacks whenever her mother is out of her sight. Is she too suffering from the love curse?

To say more would be to truly undermine the enjoyment of this weird little book. Let’s just say that Ivy gets to answer many of the abstract questions she had in Catholic school with a much more concrete set of real-life examples—and leave it at that.

Sergio Angelini, PROOF OF GUILT, Bill Pronzini
Yvette Banek, SIAMESE TWIN MYSTERY, Ellery Queen
Joe Barone, THE CLAIRVOYANT COUNTESS, Dorothy Gilman
Les Blatt, BLIND DRIFTS, Clyde B. Clason
Brian Busby, City of Peril, Arthur Stringer
Bill Crider, BARON SINISTER, Joseph Hilton
Martin Edwards, STILL DEAD, Ronald Knox
Curt Evans, ETERNITY RING, Patricia Wentworth
Jerry House, SIX-GUN IN CHEEK, Bill Pronzini
Randy Johnson, THE MARSHALL, Frank Gruber
Nick Jones, MURDER ME FOR NICKELS and ANATOMY OF A KILLER, Peter Rabe
George Kelley, A FLASH OF GREEN, John D. Macdonald
Margot Kinberg, THE CASE OF THE GILDED FLY. Edmund Crispin
B.V. Lawson, LOS ALAMOS, Joseph Kanon
Evan Lewis, LOVELY LADY, PITY ME, Roy Huggins
Steve Lewis, Dan Stumpf, THE OUT IS DEATH, Peter Rabe
Todd Mason GRAVEYARD PLOTS by Bill Pronzini (1985); WITCHES BREW (1984) and KILL OR CURE (1985), edited by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Neer, DEATH IN CYPRUS, M.M. Kaye
J.F. Norris, DEATH IN THE LIMELIGHT, A.E. Martin
J. Kingston Pierce/Linda Barnes, LIFE'S WORK, Jonathan Valin
James Reasoner, FANG-TUNG MAGICIAN, H. Beford-Jones
Gerard Saylor, THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, Alan Sillitoe
Ron Scheer, THE YOUNGEST WORLD, Robert Dunn
Michael Slind, BLACK WIDOW, Patrick Quentin
Kerrie Smith, THE 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON, Agatha Christie
Kevin Tipple, THE BOOK OF MURDOCK, Loren D. Estleman
Jim Winter, NEEDFUL THINGS, Stephen King

Friday’s Forgotten Books, Friday, April 5, 2012

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Apr 052013

Our friend Curt Evans reminded me that April 15 is Bill Pronzini's birthday. It is too late to designate next Friday as his day but if you've read a book of his recently enough to review it, join Curt in featuring his book. Even a short story would be a great addition.

Forgotten Stories: from SIMPLY THE BEST MYSTERIES, edited by Janet Hutchings in 1998. This is a book I dip into from time to time for a good classic mystery short story. This week I read "The Absence of Emily" by Jack Ritchie, which won the Edgar in 1981. Ritchie was known for his vast output of short stories. In this one, we are pretty sure we know where this story is going from the first page. A man is receiving letters, phonecalls and sightings of his absent wife. We think we know what has happened but Ritchie manages to twist the end just enough to satisfy us. Not a great story but well written and evocative of the kind of stories written a generation ago.This book collects Edgar winning stories from 1954 through 1995. Most of them are more familiar than this one.

Down There by David Goodis;(Ed Gorman archive)

"Love between the ugly/is the most beautiful love of all."
--Todd Rundgren

I haven't kept up with all the Goodis mania of the past five years or so so forgive me if what I'm about to say has been said not only better but quite often as well.

To me Down There is one of Goodis' finest novels filled with all his strengths and none of his weaknesses. The world here is his natural milieu, the world of America's underclass. Yes, there are working class men and women in Harriet's Hut, the tavern in which a good share of the action happens, but most of the book centers on two people, Eddie Lynn, the strange protagonist and piano player and Lena, the strange somewhat masochistic waitress. They live on pennies.

The story is this: Eddie's brother Turley is a criminal and a criminal being sought by two killers. In defending Turley, allowing him to escape, Eddie himself becomes a target. Not until well into the novel do we learn why the killers want to "talk" to Turley. It takes almost as long to learn Eddie's personal secret, that he was once a Carnegie Hall attraction with a golden future of him. What happened?

Triffault filmed this in the sixties. Much as I like Triffault's films I was disappointed by this one. There is a purity of composition here that Triffault missed entirely. Few crime writers have the skill to vary melodrama and comedy as well as Goodis did. Even fewer have the nerve to extend set pieces the way he do

For just one example there's a scene where the two killers have captured Eddie and Lena and are taking them to find Turley. The two men, Morris and Feather, begin to argue about Feather's driving. This becomes a mean, bitchy Laurel and Hardy sequence with the heavy threat of violence. This is a kidnapping scene. The comedy isn't foreshadowed. A high risk break in mood. And it works perfectly. And it is three or four times longer than most scenes found in the paperback originals of the time.

The Todd Rundgren quote applies to many of Goodis' lovers and never more so than here. Even by Goodis standards these two people are ugly with failure, with distrust of the world, with contempt for the values most people hold dear and most of all with loathing for what they've become. Goodis breaks your heart with them, especially in the surreal scene in which they are forced to hide out. Lena touches Eddie's arm--one of the first time they have any physical contact of any kind--and it's powerfully erotic because it is charged with desperation and an inkling of trust and forgiveness.

No matter where you look you won't find a novel as unique, and as shrewdly observed (there's a long bar scene that would fit perfectly into The Iceman Cometh) as Down There. I guess it's time I need to get all caught up in this Goodis mania after all.

Sergio Angelini, SOMEONE IS BLEEDING, Richard Matheson
Joe Barone, THE PAPER MOON, Andrea Camillieri
Les Blatt, THREE AT WOLFE'S DOOR, Rex Stout
Brian Busby, THE SIXTH OF DECEMBER, Jim Lotz
Bill Crider, A REQUIEM FOR ASTOUNDING, Alva Rogers
Martin Edward, MURDER OF MY AUNT, Richard Hull
Curt Evans, DEATH AT THE BAR, Ngaio Marsh
Ed Gorman, DOWN THERE, David Goodis
Jerry House, RIO RENEGADES, Terrence Duncan
Randy Johnson, THE C-BAR STORY, Mark Baugher
George Kelley, THE DROWNER, John D. MacDonald
Margot Kinberg, THE CROSSING PLACES, Elly Griffiths
Rob Kitchin, BLOOD FROM A STONE, Donna Leon
B.V. Lawson, HARD-BOILED DAMES, edited Bernard Drew
Evan Lewis, KILL THE BOSS GOODBYE, Peter Rabe
Steve Lewis/Doug Greene THE CASTLECOURT DIAMOND CASE, Geraldine Bonner
Todd Mason, I'M DYING HERE, Damien Broderick and Rory Barnes,
J.F. Norris, I AM JONATHAN SCRIVENER Claude Houghton
James Reasoner, BLACK ANGEL, Cornell Woolrich
Richard Robinson, THE BRAND OF THE BLACK BAT, Norman A. Daniels
Ron Scheer, LOS CERRITOS, Getrude Atherton
Kerrie Smith, SO MUCH BLOOD, Simon Brett
Kevin Tipple, GUN SHY, Ben Rehder
TomCat, DEATH DRAWS THE LINE, Jack Iams
Zybahn. HARVEST HOME, Thomas Tryon

Friday’s Forgotten Books, March 29, 2013

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Mar 292013

Todd Mason has the links right.here

Friday’s Forgotten Books, March 22, 2013

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Mar 222013

KINGSBLOOD ROYAL by Sinclair Lewis
(Review by Deb)

When Sinclair Lewis’s Kingsblood Royal was originally published in 1947, its subject matter was considered so controversial that the first edition’s dust jacket contained no endnotes and not a single inkling about the plot. Some 66 years on, as we enter the second term of America’s first black president, a novel about a white man whose comfortable existence is upended when he discovers that a distant ancestor was black might seem little more than quaint; but it is a good reminder that for several centuries our country was shaped by a notion that “one drop of black blood makes you black” and all the pernicious psychological, legal, social, and cultural baggage that went with that concept.

Books like Robert Penn Warren’s Band of Angels—involving females who are (or think they might be) of mixed-race ancestry—flourished in the early and mid-20^th century. In countless novels, the theme of the “beautiful, tragic mulatto” was played out for all its taboo-teasing, sexual, and sentimental worth, usually ending with the heroine’s death. Sinclair Lewis turns this trope on its head—because the main character of Kingsblood Royal is a man and one who, until he learns the truth about his ancestry, has lived the life of entitlement that came to white middle-class American males in the years immediately following World War II.

Neil Kingsblood is a veteran of that war, one who walks with a limp due to injuries sustained in the fighting. He works in a bank and has married the bank president’s daughter, the aptly-named Vestal. The couple have a young daughter and live in a house in a new development in the city of Grand Republic, Minnesota. There’s plenty of Main Street/Babbitt material here and Lewis makes good use of it (although, to say that Lewis’s satire here is a little heavy-handed is putting it mildly), introducing us to the leading lights of the town, all of whom are obvious buffoons, hypocrites, lechers, drinkers, and philistines of the first order.

Lewis first describes Neil in a way that makes him seem similar to his fellow citizens: a bluff, hearty, hail-fellow-well-met type whose mind is too clumsy to analyze his occasional discontent with the outwardly happy life he has chosen (or has it been chosen for him by virtue of his race, gender, class, and upwardly-mobile marriage?). The book leisurely develops Neil’s story—we meet his family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, bank customers, and how Neil interacts with all of them. We are almost 100 pages into the book before Neil, at his father’s urging, begins to research a family legend: could it possibly be true that the Kingsbloods are descended from Henry VIII? Of course, that story has no basis in fact, but while looking into his family’s roots, Neil discovers that one of his ancestors was a black man born in Martinique. The fact that this makes Neil all of 1/32 black seems utterly irrelevant to the modern reader, but in the strictly-segregated world of the late 1940s, Neil’s life is changed irrevocably by his discovery.

At this point, we understand why Lewis has spent 100 pages leading up to the moment of discovery; why early in the book there were long passages in the book detailing the Kingsbloods’ fraught relationship with their live-in black housekeeper and her flashy boyfriend or why Neil has spent quite a bit of time wondering about the interior life of the black porter who greets all of the train passengers by name; or even why the book contains a anecdote (presumably one that would have been considered funny in 1947) about the then-common practice of giving black dogs the name “Nigger” and the unsuccessful attempts the Kingsbloods make to rechristen their dog “Bandit.” Neil has been looking at racial prejudice from the lofty vantage point of someone uninvolved by its real, cruel consequences; but in the space of a few hours, Neil has moved from one side of the racial divide to the other. In his mind, he is now part of the world that includes housekeepers, porters, shoe-shiners, and even the quiet black doctor he has met through his work at the bank securing loans for veterans.

Lewis cleverly communicates Neil’s shock at his discovery: while Neil travels on the train back home after learning about his ancestry, his half-formed thoughts dart hither and yon in complete confusion and contradiction for several pages. At first he pledges he will never tell a soul; then he decides he will admit the truth; then he worries about what Vestal will do once she knows (in many parts of the United States at this time it would have been illegal for Vestal to be married to a man of mixed race). Neil’s outward appearance—red-headed, blue-eyed—has not changed; neither has his daughter’s blond and pink coloring altered, but Neil’s perception of himself and his child has changed utterly. He has so internalized the insidious indoctrination of his society—that being non-white is to be inferior and being any fraction non-white ancestry makes a person inferior—that he can no longer see himself living as a white man—although he realizes that to remain silent and continue to be white would be the “safe” thing to do. Neil also believes that his fellow citizens will be able to “see” that he is now black as he carefully examines the texture of his curly red hair and checks his fingernails for what he has been told are tell-tale bluish cuticles. The fact that nobody has previously been able to determine Neil’s ancestry does not change Neil’s belief that now he knows the truth, others will be able to discern it also.

I found the book palled to a certain degree after Neil decides to publicly admit his heritage. A number of predictable things happen: job loss, social ostracism, family anger (none of Neil’s siblings want to acknowledge their heritage), a divorce, a broken engagement, the death of Neil’s father being blamed on the stress of the situation, a mob gathering to try to force Neil to leave his home in an all-white suburb. I felt that Lewis had initially painted Neil too much as a “get along to go along” type to make his transformation into a courageous civil rights crusader completely believable. I also had a little bit of The Help déjà-vu: why is a white character always given more credit for doing things that the black characters have been doing, under far more onerous circumstances, for their entire lives? On the other hand, even if Lewis’s intentions outstripped his execution when he wrote this book, when we look at the long, complicated history of race in our nation’s history and consider how far we’ve come in just over half a century, this book is less a curiosity than an important time capsule that has perhaps been unjustly forgotten.

THE OLD FOREST and OTHER STORIES, by Peter Taylor

A book Phil was reading about Pat Nixon mentioned this story and I had to pull this collection out again. Peter Taylor was a terrific writer who wrote mostly short stories although I well remember reading his novel, A SUMMON TO MEMPHIS. And this story, THE OLD FOREST takes place in Memphis too. Taylor has an interesting way of framing the story: he looks back on it from old age and by doing this he deprives the story of a certain tension, but instead focuses the reader on the elements he wants to emphasize. Class, gender, culture.

Nat is a recent college graduate, now working for his father, and also recently engaged to a very nice girl--the kind of girl Memphis society expects him to make his wife. In Memphis in the late thirties, rich boys often had dalliances of various depths with town girls, even while engaged to others. The town girls were not necessarily loose girls but rather just not debutantes. Often they were smarter and more fun than the girls the boys eventually married. Nat invites one he has a relationship of sorts with to accompany him on a trip to his Latin class. They get into an accident and Lee Ann disappears. Everyone wonders what Nat's part in her disappearance is, including his fiance, of course. It is she who eventually takes the situation in hand. Nat comes across as a callow youth, unequal to either woman, who between them straighten things out.

This is an interesting look at class and gender in the late thirties in Memphis. There is a mystery of sorts but the real mystery is why people married people who were their social equals rather than the ones who they desired, found interesting, loved. Well worth reading Taylor to discover the social norms of the time.

This collection includes several other short stories as well.

Sergio Angelini, THE CASE OF THE LATE PIG, Margery Allingham
Joe Barone, DEATH OF A COZY WRITER, G. M. Malliet
Les Blatt, THE CHINESE ORANGE MYSTERY, Ellery Queen
Brian Busby, AIR FARE: THE ENTERTAINERS ENTERTAIN, Allan Gould
Bill Crider, I'LL FIND YOU, Richard Himmel
Scott Cupp, THE SORCERER'S HOUSE, Gene Wolfe
Martin Edwards, THE CASK, Freeman Wills Croft
Curt Evans, THE BARONET WHO CRIED WOLF: TWICE DEAD, John Rhode
Ed Gorman, THE BIRTHDAY MURDER, Lange Lewis
Randy Johnson, COPP FOR HIRE, Don Pendleton
Nick Jones, MY ENEMY'S ENEMY, Kingsley Amis
George Kelley, CHECKPOINT CHARLIE, Gerard de Villiers
Margot Kinberg, THE MYSTERY OF A BUTCHER'S SHOP, Gladys Mitchell
Rob Kitchin THE BIG GOLD DREAM, Chester Himes
B.V. Lawson. THE GREAT MILL STREET MYSTERY, Adeline Sergeant
Evan Lewis, PASSING STRANGE, Richard Sale
Steve Lewis, SHOOT TO KILL, Wade Miller
Todd Mason, GREAT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS OF 1960
J. F. Norris, VANISHING MEN, G. McLeod Winsor
David Rachels, BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL, Elliott Chaze
James Reasoner, SLETTERY'S HURRICANE, Herman Wouk
Ron Scheer, THE HEART OF THE NIGHT WIND, Vingie E. Roe
Michael Slind, LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE, Robert B. Parker
Kerrie Smith, MAIGRET'S SPECIAL MURDER, Georges Simenon
Kevin Tipple, OF ALL THE SAD WORDS, Bill Crider
TomCat, MURDER AMONG STUDENTS, Ton Vervoort

TODD MASON WILL COLLECT LINKS NEXT FRIDAY. To celebrate five years of forgotten books, I invite anyone who can make the time to write about a forgotten book. I will either post the link or post the review. Let's call Friday, April 19th the date.

Friday’s Forgotten Books, March 15, 2013

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Mar 152013

THE SPEED QUEEN by Stewart O'Nan

I believe that Stewart O'Nan can write any genre of novel, from a POV from either sex, set in any time period, and make it work. THE SPEED QUEEN, written in 1997 was his brilliant attempt at writing noir. The subject of a pre-publication controversy, O'Nan's original title was Dear Stephen King, but Doubleday changed the title under pressure from King's lawyers. (Later King wrote O'Nan a letter telling him how much he's enjoyed the book).

The book is framed as a series of questions answered into a tape player by murderer, Marjorie Standiford, nicknamed the Speed Queen because of her love of the drug and love of fast cars. Marjorie looks back at her life on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, her boyfriend, a car freak named Lamont, how she got pregnant, goes to car shows and learns to mainline speed. A story every mother yearns to read about their child.

Sent to jail for drug possession, she is seduced by another inmate. When the two are paroled, they move in with Lamont, Marjorie finds out that Natalie is sleeping with Lamont, just as a $9000 drug buy turns ugly. Under the influence, the three hit the open road, murder an elderly couple and botch a gory, Charles Manson-like robbery at a Sonic before being chased down by the police. There is the possibility for a stay of execution as Marjorie tells her story. She maintains her innocence in the murders until the end.

The thing that sells this rough, raucous and sad story is the voice O'Nan captures so well. The entire story moves as if on speed. Apparently a play has been made of it. Can't imagine why no movie.

Sergio Angelini, THE GREEN PLAID PANTS, Margaret Scherf
Les Blatt, THE NIGHTINGALE GALLERY, Paul Dougherty
Brian Busby, THE SIN SNIPER, Hugh Garner
Bill Crider, ME, HOOD, Mickey Spillane
Martin Edwards, MURDER AT CAMBRIDGE, Q. Patrick
Curt Evans, MURDER ON TOUR, Todd Downing
Ed Gorman, PLUNDER SQUAD, Richard Stark
Randy Johnson, BLONDE LIGHTNING, Terrill Lee Lankford
Nick Jones, STOP THIS MAN, BENNY MUSCLES IN, Peter Rabe
George Kelley, MAGIC HIGHWAY, Jack Vance
Rob Kitchin, THIRTEEN HOURS, Deon Myer
B.V. Lawson, MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE, edited by Otto Penzler
Evan Lewis, UNDER THE ANDES, Rex Stout
Steve Lewis, MISSING FROM HOME, Peter N. Walker
Todd Mason. 7 Quick Reviews: Harlan Ellison, Gary Jennings, R. A. Lafferty, John D. MacDonald, Evan Hunter, Avram Davidson, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, et al.
Steve Nester, TAPPING THE SOURCE, Ken Nunn
J.F. Norris, THE MAN WHO MISSED THE WAR, Dennis Wheatley
Juri Nummelin, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, Oscar Wilde
James Reasoner, PLAGUE OF THE GOLDEN DEATH, Brant House
Richard Robinson, THE COBRA, THE KING OF DETECTIVES, Richard B. Sale.
Gerard Saylor, ICE BREAKER, John Gardner
Ron Scheer, UNTAMED, Max Brand
and THE WEST WIND, Cyrus Townsend Brady
Michael Slind, MURDER AT HAZELMOOR, Agatha Christie
Kerrie Smith, THE WILL AND THE DEED, Ellis Peters writing as Edith Pargeter
Kevin Tipple, Patrick Ohl, BROKEN FACE MURDERS, Darwin and Hildegarde Teilhet

Friday’s Forgotten Books< Friday, March 1, 2013

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Mar 012013

BATYA GUR

1992 The Saturday Morning Murder: A Psychoanalytic Case
1993 Literary Murder: A Critical Case
1994 Murder on a Kibbutz: a Communal Case
2000 Murder Duet: a Musical Case
2004 Bethlehem Road Murder: A Michael Ohayon Mystery
2006 Murder in Jerusalem: A Michael Ohayon Mystery

Forgotten Writer: Batya Gur

I am not sure that Batya Gur is forgotten. Her last book is only seven years old. But I can't remember her ever being mentioned on here. And although I've only read 2-3 of her books, I enjoyed them. Gur's books are set in Israel and for me learning about another culture enhances almost any book. Even if the world is shrinking, and foreign doesn't mean what it once did, we are still transported geographically if in no other way.

Gur was born in 1947 to Holocaust survivors. She didn't begin the Ohayon series until she was in her late thirties. In each book she takes her detective into a closed society and lets him work his way in to solve the crime. In her first book THE SATURDAY MORNING MURDERS, he must come to understand something about psychoanalysis to solve the death of a female analyst. Likewise he must come to understand the closed society of a Kibbutz to crack the 1994 novel MURDER ON A KIBBUTZ, and then the life of concert musicians in MURDER DUET.

These are highly literate crime stories that often sacrifice immersion in detection for an exploration of another issue. It was a good tradeoff for me, but I am not sure how popular these novels were outside Israel and the Jewish community abroad. I thought the ones I read were very fine.

Gur died in her fifties, bringing an abrupt end to the series. I understand they were made into a TV series in Israel.

Today's Links

Sergio Angelini, DREADFUL SUMMIT, Stanley Ellin
Joe Barone, THE CON MAN, Ed McBain
Les Blatt, GAUDY NIGHT, Dorothy L. Sayers
Brian Busby, The Career of Canadian Writer, Elinor Glyn
Bill Crider, Loverlooked Magazines, SUSPENSE, Fall, 1951
Martin Edwards, SPEEDY DEATH, Gladys Mitchell
Curt Evans, A CRY FROM THE DARK, LAST POST, Robert Barnard
Ed Gorman, TREE OF SMOKE, Denis Johnson
Jerry House, STILL SMALL VOICE, THE BIOGRAPHY OF ZONA GALE, August Delerth
Randy Johnson, MOMENT OF UNTRUTH, Ed Lacy
Nick Jones, HIS NEIGHBOR"S WIFE, Peter Rabe
George Kelley, MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION, Vol 1-4, MACK REYNOLDS
Margot Kinberg, FULL DARK HOUSE, Christopher Fowler
Rob Kitchin, SIX BAD THINGS, Charlie Huston
B.V. Lawson, THE SLIPPER MYSTERY, Augusta Huiell Seaman
Evan Lewis. THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY, Ellery Queen
Steve Lewis, SHOOT HIM ON SIGHT, William Colt MacDonald
Todd Mason,THE UNKNOWN, edited by D.R. Bensen
Neer, THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH, Frantz Fanon
Mike Nevins, I, THE JURY, Mickey Spillane
J.F. Norris, SONG OF KALI, Dan Simmons
James Reasoner, BEGGARS OF LIFE, Jim Tully
Richard Robinson, CRIME THROUGH TIME, edited by Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharan Newman
Gerard Saylor WHEN THE KILLING STARTS, Ted Wood
Michael Slind, THE MASTER OF THE RAIN, Tom Bradby
Kerrie Smith, A SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE, P.D. James
Kevin Tipple, SHOT TO DEATH, 31 NEFARIOUS STORIES OF NEW ENGLAND, Stephen D. Rogers
TomCat, THE EASTERN SHIVER, Janwillem van de Wetering
Prashant Trikannad, THE HESSIAN, HOWARD FAST
Jim Winter, SEVEN UP, Janet Evanovich
Zybahn, CROW LAKE, Mary Lawson

A story of mine BURNT THE FIRE is up on Shotgun Honey today.

Friday’s Forgotten Books, Friday Februar 22, 2013

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Feb 222013

Deb Pfeiffer

BEAUTIFUL SHADOW: A LIFE OF PATRICIA HIGHSMITH by Andrew Wilson

About 25 years ago, I packed a copy of SLOWLY, SLOWLY IN THE WIND, a short story collection by Patricia Highsmith, to read on vacation. Halfway through the book, however, I had to stop reading--the sense of unease, even dread, evoked by the stories was ruining my holiday. Eventually, I got around to reading more of Highsmith's work--both short stories and novels--and found her writing interesting and inventive, but it never lost its power to ignite foreboding; I cannot say that I've ever found Highsmith a comfortable writer. And yet--there's something there, something that makes me keep reading, keep wanting to discover what happens next, even when I know the outcome will almost always be awful. Highsmith is a writer I can read only in daylight--never just before bedtime--and always with the lights on.

Andrew Wilson's BEAUTIFUL SHADOW (the title is the English translation of Belle Ombre, the name of the fictional Tom Ripley's French home) is a warts-and-all biography of the writer capable of creating that sense of disquiet. Making great use of Highsmith's trove of letters, journals, and other material that she collectively referred to as her "cahiers," Wilson attempts to get to the heart of Highsmith, a woman of whom Otto Penzler once observed, "She was a mean, hard, cruel, unlovable, unloving person. I could never penetrate how any human being could be that relentlessly ugly." In this book, Highsmith doesn't come across as a very approachable person, but one certainly gains a better understanding of why Highsmith was the way she was and why she wrote the way she did.

Born in Fort Worth in 1921, Highsmith's upbringing was tumultuous: Her parents divorced before she was born, her mother remarried three years later, and it was this husband, Stanley Highsmith, who gave Patricia the last name she had for the rest of her life. Highsmith never liked her step-father and never resolved the difficult relationship she had with her mother (who would sometimes claim she tried to abort Patricia by drinking turpentine during her pregnancy). The cruelty of their love-hate dynamic expressed itself in a number of Highsmith's dark stories of bad children and even worse parents. Frequently overlooked and unwanted, Highsmith was moved from Texas to New York and back to Texas again, living first with her mother and step-father and then with her grandmother. She was not a happy child, but she loved to read and made great use of her grandmother's library. She was also a writer from an early age--even at eight years old she was writing little sketches about the hidden lives of supposedly "normal" friends and neighbors. This would be a major theme throughout all of her work: The juxtaposition of a person's public facade against their private desires.

After graduating from Barnard College in 1942, Highsmith worked for comic book syndicates (she was one of the first women to write for the comics) while she spent her spare time writing and developing her own style. She eventually spent time at the Yaddo writer's colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. It was here that Highsmith wrote STRANGERS ON A TRAIN which was published in 1950 and provided her with her first major success, especially when it was adapted for film by Alfred Hitchcock the following year. She was fortunate that success came early. This permitted her to spend the rest of her life writing without needing an additional source of income.

Highsmith's popularity grew (especially in Europe) and the Ripley novels (five in all, published over a 36-year period) cemented her status. Tom Ripley, outwardly charming, inwardly a cold-blooded killer without conscience or compunction when it comes to protecting himself, personifies Highsmith's theme of the hidden interior life of people who appear quite affable on the surface. Highsmith herself was not immune from this dichotomy. She presented herself as an animal lover, a gourmet cook, and a good friend, when in actuality she alternately smothered and neglected her cats, was an atrocious cook who rarely ate (she had a drinking problem which only got worse as she aged and she always preferred drinking to eating), and was a terrible friend. None of her relationships (sexual or platonic, with men or with women) lasted very long because of her rages, unwillingness to compromise, and unreasonable demands.

If I have one problem with this biography, it is that is takes more than 300 pages before there is any mention that Highsmith may have suffered from undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome or another form of high-functioning autism, and even then the comment is made in an offhand way by one of Highsmith's acquaintances and is not really examined at all by Wilson. Having an Asperger's child myself (hopefully one who has been giving a more loving and secure home life than Highsmith received), and based on evidence of Highsmith's inability to relate to others and her social isolation, I think it's a very real possibility that Highsmith was functionally autistic and that idea should have been considered and explored much earlier in the book. It's very likely that someone with an autism spectrum disorder raised in the dysfunction and emotional deprivation of Highsmith's early life might easily evolve into the misanthropic and disassociative person that Highsmith became. As one of her friends observed, it was a good thing Highsmith could write, without that outlet she might have been committed to a mental institution. That, despite her alienating personality and worsening alcoholism, Highsmith could continue to produce quality work is an indication of her discipline (when it came to writing) and her undeniable talent--although some of the odd, violent, and unpleasant imagery served up by that talent may give one pause..

Highsmith's last years were plagued by ill-health and on-going self-imposed separation from those who wanted to help her. In addition, her nasty vein of racial prejudice and an almost demented anti-semtism began to disgust even the most tolerant of her acquaintances. Highsmith died of cancer in 1995 (outliving her mother by only four years), leaving the bulk of her estate to the Yaddo writer's colony. Several years after her death, the film version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" spiked renewed interest in her writing. She left behind a body of tense, uncomfortable, yet strangely hypnotic work and enough ancillary material to allow Andrew Wilson to fashion this thorough and thoughtful biography.

Charlie Stella reviews the same book right here.

And on other blogs
Sergio Angelini, BRAINWASH, John Wainwright
Joe Barone, OUT OF THE DEEP, I CRY, Julia Spencer Fleming
Les Blatt, NO COFFIN FOR THE CORPSE, Clayton Rawson
Bill Crider AND BE A VILLAIN, Rex Stout
Scott Cupp, THE PASTEL CITY, M. John Harrison
Curt Evans, DEATH OF AN OLD GOAT, Robert Barnard

Randy Johnson, SPECIMEN SONG, Peter Bowen
Nick Jones , A MURDER OF QUALITY, John LeCarre
George Kelley, THE PHARAOH CONTRACT, Ray Aldridge
Margot Kinberg UNEXPECTED NIGHT, Elizabeth Daly
B.V. Lawson. THE CHINK IN THE ARMOR, Marie Belloc Lowndes
Evan Lewis, UNSEEN SHADOWS, Jim Steranko
Steve Lewis, AFTER THE WIDOW CHANGED HER MIND, Cornelia Penfield
Steve Lewis' followup.
Todd Mason RAY RUSSELL'S FICTION ANTHOLOGIES FROM PLAYBOY MAGAZINE
Neer, THE LAST MOSHA'IRAH OF DELHI, Mirza Farhatullah Baig

Juri Nummelin,MY BONNIE LIES UNDER THE SEA, Ray Alan
J.F. Norris, PRESIDENT FU MANCHU, Sax Rohmer

David Rachels ,THE HOT ROCK, Donald E. Westlake; THE BLACK ICE SCORE, Richard Stark
Karyn Reeves, MEMOIRS OF A BRITISH AGENT, Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart
James Reasoner THE STERANKO HISTORY OF COMICS- Vol. 1 & 2, Jim Steranko
Richard Robinson, THE TROUBLE WITH ALIENS, Christopher Anvil, (Harry Crosby)
Gerard Saylor THE NEAREST EXIT, Olen Steinhauer
Ron Scheer The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old West, Harry Leon Wilson

Michael Slind, THE MURDER OF ANN AVERY, Henry Kuttner

Kerrie Smith, THE GRASS WIDOW'S TALE, Ellis Peters
Kevin Tipple,Patrick Ohl, THE SEVENTH HYPOTHESIS, Paul Halter

Jim Winters, WINTER'S END, John Rickards

Friday’s Forgotten Books, Friday, February 15, 2013

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Feb 152013

Having recently reread the amazing WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN A CASTLE, I am reminded of this review from 2009

PRIVATE DEMONS, THE LIFE OF SHIRLEY JACKSON, Judy Oppenheimer

I read this book in December, 1987, being a big fan of Shirley Jackson all my life. I once had a nice fat collection of Jackson's work, which was damaged by ice that broke through our ceiling, soaking everything beneath. I have never replaced most of it unfortunately. But I think I've probably read most of the collected pieces of fiction she wrote and all of the novels, enjoying the domestic stories as much as the very dark ones. Her bifurcated writing interests seem like two sides of a very familiar coin.

This book, and there may be a newer one by now, tries and succeeds in explaining much about Jackson's life. Raised by an abusive mother, married to a man (esteemed literary critic, Stanley Hyman) who recognized her brilliance but didn't let that interfere with his affairs, Jackson managed to write some of the most original stories of her era. She feared anonymity after death; feared the public would not understand the meaning of her stories. Jackson's accounts of family life (RAISING DEMONS, LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES) are as much fun to read as her darker novels and stories. Oppenheimer is very skilled at tying incidents in Jackson's life to stories she wrote at the time. She uses interviews and anecdotes to great effect. If you want to understand where stories like THE LOTTERY came from, this book will help.

For more Friday's Forgotten Books, see Evan Lewis

I will be back on my reliable computer next week. I am so grateful to Evan Lewis and Todd Mason for taking on this chore. And I am going to follow their example, and just post the links once each week making my Fridays much easier. So The Summing Up goes to archives.

My review of SIDE EFFECTS is on Crimespree Magazine.

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