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Case of the Laughing Virgin - Jonathan Craig
It was bound to happen. I have been disappointed by the latest Jonathan Craig novel I’ve read. This is number eight in the series and there are only two more left. With the best of the lot already...
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IN BRIEF: The Death Pool - Vernon Loder
US 1st edition (William Morrow & Co., 1931)Mystery writer Ned Hope is excited to have purchased Fen Court for the unheard of sum of £750 when at face value the property is worth several times...
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FFB: Blues for the Prince - Bart Spicer
Harold Morton Prince, popular jazz composer and musician is shot dead in his home at the start of Blues for the Prince (1950). His collaborator, a song arranger named "Stuff" Magee, is seen fleeing the...
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SUMMER PHOTOS: Alien Visitation and High Trestle Trail
It's summer time and that means less blogging, more travel, more bike trail explorations, and lots of tending to the several gardens we have. I was watering the plants up on our newly stained roof top...
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VIDEO: Water's Edge - Robert Bloch
One of the few examples of true noir that show up on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour "Water's Edge" (season 3, episode 3 - 1964) is adapted from the short story by Robert Bloch. The story originally appeared...
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FFB: The Dogs Do Bark - Jonathan Stagge
I have this idea that Richard Wilson Webb still hadn't recovered from his intensely lurid thrill ride with his writing partner Mary Aswell when the two of them concocted the brutal and savage crimes...
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LEFT INSIDE: Smith & Wesson Advertisement
Not really left inside, but found inside a 1915 magazine while I was doing some research for an article. Thought it a timely example of how some things haven't changed in over a...
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FFB: Powers of Darkness - Robert Aickman
1st UK edition (Collins, 1966)I love reading ghost stories just before I go to sleep. Crazy, isn't it? While most people headed for slumberland will reach for soothing poetry, inspirational passages...
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FFB: Space Opera - Jack Vance
Pyramid Books (R-1140), 19651st paperback editionLike most people who might see Space Opera on a shelf I figured the title was a nod to that denigrating phrase used to describe science fiction books...
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FFB: The Eighth Square - Herbert Lieberman
Getting lost in the woods. Anyone who has experienced that sensation -- no matter if for a few minutes or a couple of hours -- knows that it can unleash some of your repressed fears. From Hansel and...
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FFB: The Crippled Muse - Hugh Wheeler
“Merape is a charming woman and distinguished poet. […] She is also a beautiful ruin. Ruins have gaping cracks in their battlements, rats in their armouries, jackdaws in their bell towers. And this,...
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Late Summer Hiatus
"There comes a time," the Walrus said...To be frank, I'm sort of tired of talking of -- or writing about -- shoes and ship and sealing wax, so to speak. Essays about fictional events and the history of...
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FFB: They Can't Hang Me - James Ronald
James Ronald received quite a bit of praise with his first few detective novels from writer August Derleth to novelist and book reviewer Harriette Ashbrook all pointing out his ingenuity and freshness....
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FLASH FICTION: A Taste of Temptation
Here's another of Patti Abbot's Flash Fiction Challenges. This time the idea came from her perusing an old newspaper and being intrigued by the headline "Michigan Man's Taste Gets Him into Trouble." We...
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FFB: The Tremor of Forgery - Patricia Highsmith
UK Edition (Heinemann, 1969)Despite its exotic and desert landscape filled setting of Tunisia The Tremor of Forgery (1969) covers some familiar territory for Patricia Highsmith. There is the usual...
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FFB: The Detective Novels of Harriette Ashbrook
If it hadn't been for an unmentionable book by a writer known only by his initials Harriette Ashbrook might never have become a mystery writer. Just as Agatha Christie was inspired to pen her first...
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FFB: Policeman's Holiday - Rupert Penny
Though Rupert Penny only wrote a handful of books, all published by the esteemed Collins Crime Club, not a single one of his books was published in the United States during his lifetime. It took the...
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Raven's Head Press Takes Flight
"Never say Nevermore!"At long last I can formally announce my involvement with the new independent publisher Raven's Head Press. Our first book -- reviewed here back in March -- is The Starkenden Quest...
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Winners of the Raven's Head Press Giveaway
Though I am reluctant to reveal the unusual process by which the winners were selected at random (a pasta bowl was involved and I will say no more) I am nonetheless happy to announce the winners of the...
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FFB: To the Devil -- a Daughter - Dennis Wheatley
Christina Mordant cannot enter a church without getting ill. The very smell of a chapel is enough to make her nauseated. Animals shy away from her and growl for apparently no reason when she walks by....
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