Clik here to view.
FFB: Dead to the World - David X Manners
THE STORY: Mystery writer James Stanley Hunt has been drowned in his bathtub. When he “wakes up” he discovers his wife Chili, a dancer in a musical revue, has summoned his ghost via a spiritualist. She...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: The Sutton Place Murders - Robert George Dean
THE STORY: Murder and mayhem in the financial world of 1930s Manhattan. Insurance investigator Paul Andrew Thompson (he goes by Pat, the first initials of his name) is hired to prove a suspicious death...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: Here's Murder Done - Charles Ashton
THE STORY: Irritating philatelist Ambrose Merrow was not liked by his neighbors for he never stopped talking about his treasured stamp collection. But was that any reason for someone to brutally stab...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: The Mystery of the Creeping Man - Frances Shelley Wees
THE STORY: Professor Edgar Murchison has vanished, but his family is not too concerned. His wife has not reported him missing and seems none too worried. But she becomes unusually alarmed when her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 1: The Shapes of Midnight - Joseph Payne Brennan
I've known Joseph Payne Brennan as the creator of Lucius Leffing, a Sherlockian style consulting detective, who appears in two books. Although I own one other collection of Brennan's more varied...
View ArticleClik here to view.
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2: Kthulhu Reich - Asamatsu Ken
Rudolf Hess battles the elder gods. Adolf Hitler monkeying around with black magic books after he dropped out of art school. A female vampire lures Nazi soldiers to her castle and tricks them into...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: The Reluctant Medium - L. P. Davies
THE STORY: A self-described "business consultant" is recruited into becoming a ghostbuster when strange apparitions manifest themselves at Butchart House. Either a ghost is seeking retribution or a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: Boo Hoo: Not So Scary Houses of Horror - Carolyn Wells & Michael Crombie
Today's Friday's Forgotten Book post is on two books that belong more to Alternative Mystery category and are forgotten with good reason. Both published in the early 1930s each book shares some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Wealth of Wells - Pulp Covers of Carolyn Wells' Stories & Serials
After finding a five page long list (!) of Carolyn Well's work published in magazines from 1897 - 1940 I was curious to see the covers that promoted her stories in the numerous pulp magazines over her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: The Triple Bite - Brian Flynn
THE STORY: A riddle in rhyme and a complicated alpha-numeric code are the key to a hidden treasure that lifelong criminal Sam Trout has left to two lucky people. One of them is Nigel Strachan, a lawyer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: Flying Clues - Charles J. Dutton
There are a handful of Charles J. Dutton’s books that I have recommended repeatedly and I’ll do that again right now before I launch into this review. Dutton had a fascination with criminal...
View ArticleWish I Had a River/That I Could Skate Away on
Winter is descending on this frigidly Windy City. Just stumbled on this James Taylor cover of a Joni Mitchell song that is tangentially about Christmas and winter, but really about something deep and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: Murder Comes Back - Harriette Ashbrook
THE STORY: Moira Ballinger, widow of department store millionaire, is found dead in her bedroom shot through the head, apparently self-inflicted. Twenty years earlier her husband supposedly committed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Best Vintage Mystery Reprint of 2019, part one
The Salvation Army is ringing their bells on street corners. The CTA has decked out their Holiday Train and Holiday Bus for the season. And I'm running around hitting Chicago theaters, bars and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: Nothing Is the Number When You Die - Joan Fleming
THE STORY: What seems to be a simple job of finding a university student who took an extended leave turns into an adventure worthy of a private eye movie. Nuri Iskirlak finds himself interrogation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Advent Ghosts 2019: And Since We Have No Place to Go
Each year at this time Loren Eaton who writes at his blog I Saw Lightning Fall invites creative writers to challenge themselves with the micro short story called a drabble. One hundred words -- no...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Best Vintage Mystery Reprint of 2019, part two
Here's my slightly overdue second nomination for Best Vintage Mystery Reprint of 2019. Based on my hints in last week's post one savvy reader correctly predicted what I would be writing about. Anyone...
View ArticleFrom Now On Our Troubles Will Be Miles Away
MerryChristmas, HappyHolidays, BlessedSolstice ...and all that jazz!I'm feeling ridiculously nostalgic this year at Christmastime. So here's a time travelling video to the good ol' days of Marshall...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: The Haunted River - Charlotte Riddell
THE STORY: Margaret and Georgie Vernam are sisters who have grown tired of living in London. They've spent much of the summer house hunting for a quaint cottage they can afford in the countryside....
View ArticleClik here to view.
FFB: Shimada & Yokomizo: A Showdown of Narrative Styles
Two books that were eligible for Best Vintage Mystery Reprint of the Year were the first English translations of decades old Japanese mystery novel. I read both in December and while I perhaps would’ve...
View Article