Openers: The white-painted fruit steamer steamed out between the forts and turned toward the south. She only touched at Bahia del Toro to drop the mail on her downward trip, though on her return toward the north she paused to take on a portion of her cargo. The Stars and Stripes at her masthead fluttered brightly in the golden sunshine of midday, and the same sunshine made the sea seem bluer, and the palms greener and vividly alive. Half a dozen small launches that had clustered about the white ship scattered and made for different points along the waterfront of the city.
El Senor Beckwith was seated in a great cane chair on the veranda of the white house that sprawled over the hillside. He looked at the ship and heaved a sigh. It was not a wistful sigh, nor was there pathos concealed anywhere about it. The sigh was a sign of the satisfaction that filled him. He sat at ease, puffing a long black cigar. At his elbow a glass tinkled musically when he moved. His huge frame, now clad in spotless white duck, was eloquent of content. Only his left thumb, bandgaed and in splints, gave the cumbrance of the wrppings. It was a souvenir of the incident that caused his sensation of complete satisfaction. Conway had broken that thumb in his last struggle, two weeks before. Conway was dead.
-- "The Gallery Gods" by "Murray Leinster" (Will F. Jenkins) (first published in Argosy All-Story Weekly, August 21, 1920; reprinted in in Leinster's The Runaway Skyscraper and Other Tales from the Pulps, 2007; in The Murray Leinster Megapack, 2012 [ also published as The First Murray Leinster Megapack, 2015]; and in The Second Murray Leinster Megapack, 2015)
Regular readers of this blog (both of them) know that I am a big fan of Murray Leinster. I am also a big fan of Will F. Jenkins and of William Fitzgerald. (I would probably also be a big fan of Jean farquar, Pepe Gomez, Joe Gregg, Kenny Kenmare, Louisa Carter Lee, Florinda Martel, and Rafaele Yborra, but I haven't read his work under those pseudonyms.) Leinster/Jenkins published well over a thousand science fiction, western, mystery, romance, adventure, horror, and mainstream stories over his career. He was extremely readable.
Minor Leinster. But even minor Leonster eas heads above many of his competitors.
Incoming: There's a lot of Lee Goldberg and F. Paul Wilson books this week, probably because I like both authors.
- Kevin J. Anderson, Janet Berliner, Matthew J, Costello, & E, Paul Wilson, The Artifact. Thriller. "Six adrenalin junkies who call themselves the Daredevils Club hold the fate of the world in their hands. In an ancient undersea cavern, one of them, oil man Frik von Alman, discovers a set of stones that are unlike anything else on Earth. Fitted together, the stones form an object that promises limitless free energy for the world."
- Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg, Pros and Cons and The Shell Game. Two novellas in the Fox and O'Hare series. Evanovich teamed with Goldberg to write the first five books in the best-selling series; two other novels followed, one written with Peter Evanovich and one with Steve Hamilton.
- Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Troubled Trustee. A Perry Mason mystery. "Investment counselor Kerry Dutton has his hands full as trustee for Desere Ellis, a young woman with a talent for spending money. To protect her interests, Dutton performed some 'creative accounting,' and multiplied that modest fund several times over. Yet now that trust is expiring, he fears his financial finagling will brand him as an embezzler -- and destroy him in the eyes of the woman he loves. Romance isn't Perry Mason's forte, but the lawyer agrees to help with Dutton's money mix-up. True to its reputation as the root of all evil, the controversial capital soon yields murder." A late in the series novel marred slightly by Gardner's conservative and somewhat crankypants "Hey, you kids get off my lawn!" attitude. I read this one over the weekend, completing my read of all 57 novels and four short stories in the series; this is the only one of Gardner's many novels and non-fiction books that I had read. Not to worry, though, there are still a slew of short story collections ahead of me.
- Lee Goldberg, Fast Track. A racing novel based on Goldberg's film Fast Track: No Limits. Also, Three Ways to Die, a collection of three novellas; Ella Clah: The Pilot Script, with William Rabkin, based on Aimee & David Thurlo's Navajo police detective; and Dame Edna: Detective, a film script written for the late Barry Humphries' Dame Edna Everage character (Humphries died in April and I have no idea of the status of the film, but there is no mention of it on Humphries IMDb page).
- Steve Hockensmith, Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Horror/literary mash-up, the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
- J. A. Konrath, Ann Voss Peterson, & F. Paul Wilson, The Fix. Nov ella, the seventh in the Code Name: Chandler series about a female spy for a secret government agency. F. Paul Wilson was brought along for this entry because Chandler meets up with Repairman Jack and the two have to scramble to save the city from terrorists.
- "Murray Leinster" (Will F. Jenkins), The Runaway Skyscraper and Other Stories. A mixed collection of eight science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and adventure stories first published in various pulps from 1919 to 1931. See Openers, above.
- Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson, A Necessary End. Thriller. "Set against a worldwide apocalypse, it takes the eteranl struggle between faith and reason and makes it real. LIFE CAME OUT OF AFRICA...But now it's death's turn...It spreads like a plague but it's not a disease." the book was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award.
- Daniel Stashower, The Floating Lady Mystery. A Harry Houdini mystery. "In turn-of-the-century New York City, struggling young performer Harry Houdini is working for the renowned magician Kellar. One night his master's astonishing illusion The Floating Lady goes horribly wrong, with Kellar's levitating assistant apparently plunging to her death. Houdini, along with his wife Bess and brother Dash, must solve the mystery and figure out how the young lady died from from a drowning rather than a fatal fall."
- F. Paul Wilson, Ephemerata V5.0: The Odds and Ends of a Writing Life. Miscellany. Introductions, forewords, afterwords, reviews, obituaries, rants, guest blogs, and whathaveyou. Over 100 pieces in all. Also, The Last Christmas: A Repairman Jack Novel, taking place in late December between Ground Zero and Fatal Error. Jack is convinced "to take on a missing-person fix. As usual, nothing is as it seems, and the missing person isn't exactly a person. In fact, it's like nothing anyone has ever seen. And in the middle of this, the mysterious Madame Medici hires him to safeguard a valuable object. Simple, right? Not even close."
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