SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE WILD WOLF OF KOSTOPCHIN

"The Wild Wolf of Kostopchin" by Sir Gilbert Campbell  (from Campbell's book Wild and Weird:  or, Remarkable Stories of  Russian Life, 1899; that book was incorporated into the omnibus Wild and Weird:  Tales of Mystery and Imagination , 1899 [which also included Campbell's Mysteries of the Unseen: or Supernatural Stories of English Life, 1899, and Dark Stories from the Sunny South: or, Legends of the Mediterranean, 1899]; reprinted in Upon the Midnight, edited by R. C. Bull, 1957; in Book of the Werewolf, edited by Brian J. Frost, 1973; in The Werewolf Pack, edited by Mark Valentine, 2008; in Wulf:  Tales of Wolves and Werewolves, edited by Chad Arment, 2010; in Terrifying Transformations:  An Anthology of Victorian Werewolf Fiction, 1838-1896, edited by Alexis Easley & Shannon Scott, 2012;  in The Werewolf Megapack, edited  by John Betancourt, 2013; in Black Book of the Werewolf, editor uncredited, 2017; in Silver Bullets, edited by Eleanor Dobson, 2017; in Fireside Horror Stories about Werewolves, edited by M. Grant Kellermeyer, 2017; and in Were Wolf Short Stories, editor unknown, 2025)

Yep.  This is a werewolf story.  This one looks to be a classic, but does mean that it is any good?  let's see.

The author, Gilbert Campbell, 3rd Baronet, was one of the more interesting of the Victorian writers.  Born in 1838, Campbell attended Harrow before joining the army and serving as an officer before the Sepoy Rebellion.  He succeeded his father as baronet in 1870.  He married Esther Selina Maynham.  "The couple had one child, Claude Robert Campbell.  Shortly thereafter, husband and wife separated.  Thereafter, his life descended into a life of crime and literary hackdom.  Of the latter, he began contributing work to various periodicals such as Bow Bells and Judy's Annual, translating French detective fiction, writing sensation fiction, and editing Lambert's Monthly.  Always struggling for money, Campbell initiated or furthered various frauds such as beginning the Carlist Committee to fund a Spanish civil war, attempting insurance fraud, lending his name to various shaky business schemes, and serving on the board of a fake literary society.  The latter drew the attention of Henry Labouchere's newspaper Truth, prompted a criminal trial, and led to conviction in 1892.  Campbell was released from prison in 1894 and went on to publish a collection Through an Indian Mirror (1894).  He died in the second quarter of 1896 in London.  His sone assumed the title before dying himself ion 1900.  One of the more colorful characters in Victorian literary life. [my emphasis]."  

Also note that some sources list his death date as 1899, the same year that five of his books were published.  Other works include In the Shadow of Death (1888), New Detective Stories (1891), and The Vanishing Diamond:  A Story of the Himalayas (1891).

An online check finds that Wild and Weird is listed in eBay for $1200, plus shipping.  (Gulp!)  There is no indication which 1899 version of the book it is. the shorter book, or the omnibus.

About "The White Wolf of Kostopchin":

Paul Sergevitch is the reprobate owner of Kostopchin, an estate in what us now Lithuania.  He spends his time drinking, gambling, and living the high life in Moscow, but his vices are expensive, so has to regularly demand money from the estate, where he has not set foot since childhood.  A drunken argument with the well-connected son of a foreign dignitary led to a duel in which Paul killed the foreigner.  This displeased the Czar, who ordered Paul banished to Kostopshin.  the estate is now in sad disrepair due to Paul's wasteful life.  He is bitter about having to live in such a desolate and poverty-stricken place.  Rather than trying to revive the estate, Paul spends his days hunting, drinking, and cursing both his lot and the Czar.  Eventually Paul marries, but he is a violent and bitter man and his wife dies -- perhaps due to his overt cruelty -- several years later,  but after giving birth to two children.  For some reason, Paul is devoted to his daughter, Katrina, now age five, but he remains bitter and unloving to her brother, Alexis, age seven.

As Paul is about to go hunting one day, Katrina reminds him that he has promised her some gray squirrel pelts.  Paul replies that he will into the woods and find an old poacher, who surely would lead him to the squirrels.  Old Mikhal, the estate manager, who had been a valet for Paul's family for over fifty years, warned him against going into the woods, citing stories of supernatural beings...and of wolves.  Mikhal had recently been in the woods when he was confronted by a large pack of wolves.  Mikhal's crucifix had frightened the pack away, except for the leader, an enormous gray she-wolf, who kept her distance from the crucifix, but was obviously looking for a way to get around it.  The wolf followed Mikal back to estate, constantly looking for a way to attack him.

Paul poo-pooed the old man's warnings, stating that, if the she=wolf actually existing, she would not be about to stand against his shotgun.  Now in the forest, Paul's dog began acting strangely, and led him to a part of the woods he did not recognize.  The dog, obviously in terror, was compelled to lead Paul on to an opening, where he found the body of the old poacher, torn to shreds by some wild beast, lying at the base of a shattered stone cross.  The only animals found in the forests of Russia that were capable of such damage were the bear and the wolf, and near the body, Paul found the large tracks of a wolf.   As he made his way home, Paul felt that some thing, some shadow, was lurking in the distance, watching him.

When Paul had returned  home, he learned that a local girl had gone missing.  Her father was dying from a venomous snake bite and the girl had gone to fetch a priest.  The old man died and the girl never returned.  The girl's body was found on the marsh, killed and savaged by wolves.  The girl had ben mutilated in exactly the same manner as the poacher.  The next day an old man staggered out of the vodki shop on his way home.  He never made it and his mangled body was found nearby.  Then there were three  more deaths -- a little child, an able-bodies laborer, and an old woman.

The serfs demanded that Paul, as master of Kospotchin, do something.

Paul and an army of bearers searched the area thoroughly for the giant white she-wolf with no luck.  then one of the bearers screamed.  Still barely alive, he told Paul that he had been attacked by the white wolf, who ran off into the thicket.  The group was about to set fire to the thicket when a feminine voice called out, asking them tom hold their flames until she exited the thicket.  It was an aristocratic appearing woman, fair of face, with titian hair, and wearing a mantle of white fur.  She said a terrible white wolf had run past her and dived into a cavity in the earth in the center of the thicket.  As Paul ordered his men to dig out the cavity and get to the wolf, he  noticed that the woman's hands were stained with fresh blood, presumably from the wolf as it brushed past her. 

The mysterious woman claims to have been on the run from the police for speaking out on some sensitive subject.  She asks Paul to provide her shelter from the police.  Paul, having been exiled himself and having not fondness for the police, agrees.  In the meantime, Pal's crew fund no trace of the wolf in the newly-dug crevice.

We all know where this is going.  Paul takes her home; the woman gives her name as Ravina.  Katrina, ever trusting, loves her; Alexis, however, dislikes her, as does Mikhal, who says she reminds him of the white wolf.  Paul proposed marriage.  She agrees conditionally:  for a month she will stay there and visit Paul for only two hours a day, and after a month she will make her final decision.  'then, shortly before the month was over, Mikhal tells Paul that he has once again seen the white wolf.  In the house.  Just outside Ravina's apartments.  But Paul is getting more and more infatuated with Ravina's charms.

Things come to a head.  Katrina is in danger.  Paul is uselessly smitten.  Mikhals has been banished by Paul.  But seven-year-old Alexis has a pistol...

An interesting story.  Part fairy tale, part shilling shocker, and part atmospheric thriller.  In answer to my earlier question, is the story any good?, I would have to give a qualified yes. if only because the modern reader would see through the tropes which were not that common a century and a quarter ago.  Also, I have to admit that I had a constant urge to whack Paul on the side of the head with a large stick; but that's just me -- your mileage may differ.

The story can be read at the University of Pennsylvania's Online Books Page.

COLONEL MARCH OF SCOTLAND YARD: THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (OCTOBER 8, 1955)

Once again let's visit Boris Karloff as Colonel March of "The Department of Queer Complaints," created by John Dickson Carr writing as "Carter Dickson."

"Members of a British mountain climbing club are seemingly terrorized by an abominable snow man after film of the tracks belonging to the creature are released.  March struggles to accpet the nature of the creature, and what its real motivations are."

Directed  by Bernard Knowles and scripted by Leslie Slote.  Also featured are Ewan Roberts, Doris Nolan, Ivan Craig, Olaf Pooley, Alec Mango, and Peter Bathurst.  A minor subplot has a woman (horrors!) applying to join the club, with Colonel March strongly advocating for her.

An interesting bit of nonsense all around.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3uduVrfmQY

TODAY

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaMbkTQC8_o

INCOMING

Let's start June off with a pile of books.

Incoming:

• Poul Anderson, All One Universe.  Retrospective collection of 18 science fiction stories and articles.  Also, The Fleet of Stars.  Science fiction, the fourth novel in the Harvest of Stars series and a sequel to 1995's Harvest the Fire.  Anderson  "brings  back the wildly colorful Anson Guthrie, the iconoclastic hero of Harvest the Stars.  The staid, somber people of Earth are not only dependent on technology, they are all but ruled by machine intelligence.  suspecting a conspiracy to suppress the last vestiges of freedom known to humankind, Guthrie sets out on a dangerous and hair-raising journey encompassing the realm of the comets, the asteroids, and the stars themselves.  Among the many exciting characters he meets along the way are the brave, beautiful Kinna Ronay and her courageous friend Finn, who against the advice of the wise and cautious Chuan, will join Guthrie in his attempt to stop the Terrans.  Guthrie and his friends are determined that humankind will travel to the stars and roam the galaxies, even the universe itself, or die trying."
• Isaac Asimov, Understanding Physics, Volume II:  Light Magnetism, and Electricity.  Part of a 1966 tome that, while outdated, is still as relevant today as it was then.  Asimov's prose is clear and a pleasure to read and explains why he has been called America's Explainer.
• Katie Bernet, Beth Is Dead.  Mystery, an updated riff on Little Women.  "When Beth March is found dead, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer -- until they begin to suspect one another.  Jo, an aspiring author, with a huge social media following, would do anything to hook readers.  Did she kill her sister for the story?   Amy is desperate to study art in Europe, but she needs money from her aunt -- money that's always been earmarked for Beth.  Meg wouldn't dream of hurting her sister,  but her boyfriend might have done it -- and she'll protect him at all costs.  And the March sisters aren't the only ones with a story to tell.  There's Theodore Laurence, the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two sisters. Meg's manipulative best friend, Amy's flirtatious mentor, and Beth's lionhearted first ,love.  But the suspect pool stretches far outside family and friends. Months ago, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own neighbors, so anyone could have wanted Beth dead..."  I'm looking forward to this one, but I have to admit that I have never read Little Women and ;probably never will.
• David Brin, Existence.  Science fiction.  "Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector.  For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up.  But there's something spinning a little higher than he expects, something that isn't on the decades-old orbital maps.  An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth's infomesh about an 'alien artifact.'  Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game changer.  A message in a bottle: an alien capsule that wants to communicate.  The world reacts as hun]mans always do:  with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence.  And incredible curiosity."
• Algis Budrys, editor, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XXII.  Annual volume presenting the winners of the Writer of the Future and the Illustrator of the Future contests of 2006.  Basically a contest for unpublished authors, most of the winners -- as expected -- are not that good, and most do not go on to greater things.  But there are some who make it; the inaugural class of 1985 included Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Leonard Carpenter, David Zindell, Dean Wesley smith, and Karen Joy Fowler; 1986 had Robert Reed and Howard Hendrix; bugt over the years, most of the authors and their stories vanished in the dust.  The WOTF contest is a big deal, however, drawing a lot of support from the writing and publishing community, but -- at tis heart -- it's just a promotional gimmick for scientology and its founder, the sometimes talented and often erratic L. Ron Hubbard.  Authors included in this volume are Blake Hutchins, Judith Tabron, Michael Velichansky, Lee Beevington, David Sakmyser, Diana Rowland, David John Baker, Brandon Sigrist, Joseph Jordan, Richard Kirslake, Sarah Totton, and Brian Rappatta -- the only name I recognize here is Diana Rowland, who has published six novels in the Angel Crawford/White Trash Zombie series and nine novels in the Kara Gillian/Demon series, but whose name I recognized only because she published in just one of G.R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series of "mosaic novels."  How many of these names did you recognize?  Also included are four article from Hubbard, Bob Eggleton, Robert J. Sawyer, and Orson Scott Card.  B ot, I'm afraid, a very worthwhile anthology.
• Gwendoline Butler, Coffin's Game.  The 29th (of 34) mysteries featuring John /Coffin.  "A series of random terrorist acts have struck the heart of Commander John Coffin's Docklands area.  The  body of a dead woman, rendered unidentifiable by her killer, is at first believed to be Stella Pinero, Coffin's wife.  While Coffin confirms it is not, he cannot explain the disappearance of Stella, or the treachery that is poised to shatter his personal and professional world.  A second body, obscenely costumed in theater clippings, implicates Stella in a double murder.  Coffin's deepest motivations and loyalties are put to the test as a puzzle of evil and deceit unfolds.  Only a third murder will tip the killer's hand, revealing a twisted, tragic mystery of blackmail, revenge, and madness unlike any other that /Coffin has faced."  Butler also wrote the Charmian Daniels series as "Jennie Melville."
• Michael Connelly, Lost Light.  A Harry Bosch novel, the ninth in the series.  "Only the money was real.  Four years ago, LAPD detective Harry Bosxh was on a movie set asking questions about the murder of a young production assistant when an armored car arrived with two million dollars cash for use in a heist scene.  In a life-imitates-art firestorm, a gang of masked men converged on the delivery and robbed the armored car with guns blazing.  Bosch got off a shot that struck one of the robbers as their van sped away, but the money was never recovered.  And the young woman's murder was in the stack of unsolved-case files Bosch carried home the night he left the LAPD.  Now Bosch moves back full bore into that case, determined to find justice for thee young woman.  Without a badge to open doors and strike fear into the guilty, he learns afresh how brutally indifferent the world can be.  But something draws him on, past humiliation and harassment.  It's not just that the dead woman had no discernable link to the robbery.  Nor is it his sympathy for the cops who took over the case, one of them killed on duty and the other paralyzed from the same attack.  With every conversation and every shred of evidence, Bosch senses a larger presence, an organization bigger than the movie studios and more ruthless than even the LAPD." 
• John Darton, Neanderthal.  Suspense thriller.  "In the  mountains of northern Asia, a guerilla fighter vanishes, a schoolgirl is  murdered, and an eminent Harvard paleontologist disappears.  To a shadowy government agency in Maryland, these are all signs that something has gone terribly wrong with the  most extraordinary expedition ever mounted.  Matt Mattison and Susan Arnot, who were once lovers and are now academic rivals, are dispatched to find the secret their Harvard mentor was seeking:  a species linked to the origins of mankind.  They have existed for over forty thousand years.  They possess powers man cannot even imagine.  And in a world dominated by humans, they are about to alter the face of civilization forever."
• Joe Gores, Glass Tiger.  Thriller.  "Brendan Thorne, ex-ranger in Panama, ex-sniper for a CIA front in Cambodia, has foresworn violence and is living in Kenya when FBI agent Terrill Hatfield arranges for Thorne's deportation back to the United States.  In a top secret meeting. Thorne is told that Halden Corwin, legendary Vietnam sniper and mercenary, has vowed to assassin ate the recently elected president of the United States.  The government's computers have picked Thorne as the most likely person to find Corwin and stop him.  Thorne won't have to kill anyone:  Hatfield's crack FBI tam will take care of that.  But when the plan doesn't go as described, Thonre discovers he can't trust anyone of anything he's been told.  Drawn into a wed of lies, ambitions, and double-crosses, Thorne must run for his life and, ultimately, stand and fight."
• Donald Hamilton, The Retaliators.  A Matt Helm spy-guy novel, the 17th (of 27) in the series.  "Matt Helm was unexpectedly rich and he didn't like it.  The $20,000 that had been deposited in his account was a complete surprise.  Very nice.  Except Matt knew that someone was setting him up, making it look as though he was a traitor and getting a payoff.  Someone who wanted Matt out of  business.  Suddenly, another secret agent with an unexplained surplus in his bank account was murdered.  Matt figured he'd better track down the 'benefactors' before they retired him for good."
• Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders.  Mystery, the first novel in the Susan Ryeland series.  "Alan Conway is a bestselling crime writer.  His editor, Susan Ryeland, has worked with him for years, and she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pund, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages.  Alan's traditional formula pays homage to queens of classic Briitish crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.  It's proved hugely successful.  So successful that Susan must continue to pout up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.  When Susan receives Alan's latest manuscript, in which Atticus Pund investigates a murder in an English manor house, Pye Hall, she has no reason to think it will be any different from the others.  there will be dead bodies, a cast of intriguing suspects, plenty of red herrings and clues.  but the more Susan reads, the  more she realizes that there's another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript -- one of ruthless ambition, jealousy, and greed -- and that it will soon lead to murder."
• Joan Kahn, editor, The Edge of the Chair.  Suspense anthology with 35 stories and essays.  Kahn (1914-1994) was the legendary mystery/suspense editor at Harper & Row for nearly thirty-five years (which included the launch of her own imprint, Joan Kahn books); among her signing were John Creasey, Patricia Highsmith, Julian Symons, Dick Francis, and Tony Hillerman.  she has long been considered one of the premiere editors in the field.  The Edge of the Chair was the first of at least ten highly respected anthologies published over a twenty-year period, blending the usual suspects with writers from mainstream litersature, past and present.  An excellent anthology on every level.
• Elmer Kelton, Many a River.  Western.  "The Barfield family, Arkansas sharecroppers, are headed west with their sons, Jeffrey and Todd. to find good farmland they can call their own.  In far West Texas their camp is attacked by Comanche raiders, and the elder Barfields are savagely killed.  Todd, the younger son, is taken captive by the Indians.  Jeffrey manages to hide and is rescued by white militiamen.  While his older brother is given in the care of a homesteading family, Todd is sold -- for a rifle and gunpowder -- to a Comanchero trader named January.  Years later, after escaping from near-slavery with the trader, Todd, now fluent in the Spanish language, serves and an interpreter for Confederate troops marching to Santa Fe.  Jeffrey and his adopted family are forced to flee their North Texas farm and head south for the Mexican border to escape the turbulent battles between Unionists and Confederates.  Brothers Jeffrey and Todd, separated by violence, have crossed many rivers, but are determined to be reunited and discover hoe their separate lives have changed them."  Kelton was a seven-time Spur winner.  
• "Freida McFadden" (Sara Cohen), The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie.  Satirical novella.  "My husband is dead.  I attended his funeral.  I watched his casket be lowered six feet into the ground.  (Actually, it may have been only five feet, but that still seems like more than enough.)  And then we ate an array of finger sandwiches and deviled eggs and miniature beef wellingtons that cost more than my first car.  My pint is, Grant is gone.  And so are all his many, many deep, dark secrets which I never really bothered to ask him about.  He is never coming back.  So why do I still see his face everywhere I  go?"  The acclaimed author of thirty novels was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the year, so i thought I'd see what all the hubbub was about  and am staring with this novella.
• Jo Nesbo, Cockroaches.  The second Inspector Harry Hole novel.  "When Norway's ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, Inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help with the case.  Once he arrives Harry discovers that this case is about much more thana random murder.  Something else. something more pervasive, is scrabbling around behind the scenes:  for every cockroach you see, there are hundreds behind the walls.  Assaulted round-the-clock by traffic noise, Harry wanders the streets of Bangkok -- lined with go-go bars, temples, tourist traps, and opium dens -- trying to peace together the truth behind the ambassador's death even though no one asked him to, and no one wants him to -- not even Harry himself."
• Kim Newman, The Man from the Diogenes Club.  The first collection of mystery/fantasy/horror stories about the Diogenes Club, with eight stories.  "Introducing Richard Jeperson...in the 1970s the  most valued member of the Diogenes Club -- the least publicized of Britain's law enforcement and intelligence agencies.  his cases involved haunted trains and seaside resorts, murder in utopian communities and London's vice district, voodoo and mind-altering therapists.  His fashion sense is gaudy, his enemies deadly,  and his associates glamourous."  The Diogenes Club may ring a bell with long-time mystery fans.
• Warren Norwood (& Mel Odom, uncredited), Time Police, Volume 2:  Trapped!  The second of four science fiction novels in a series created buy Byron Preuss.  "Jackson Dubcheck's family  has vanished!  As if they never existed, Jackson's sister-in-law, mom, and nephew have disappeared.  Even their names had been erased from public records.  He must find them and knows where to look -- in the past.  The Second Republic, the dictators of 2249 and inventors of time travel, preserve their future by changing the past.  Jackson, an ordinary citizen, was no threat to the Republic until he discovered their secret.  Now Jackson is on the run.  With the Time Police hot non his track, can he help overthrow the Republic?  Can he rescue his future by fixing his past?"
• "Ellis Peters" (Edith Pargeter), The Confession of Brother Haluin.  The fifteenth chronicle of Brother Cadfael.  "After a mild autumn, December of 1142 brings a smothering, silent blanket of snow.  Thus it comes about that the great hall of the Bendictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is damaged, and the brothers must repair its roof before the damage worsens.  The treacherous icy conditions are to prove near-fatal for Brother Haluin.  He slips from the roof in a terrible fall., sustaining such grave injuries that he makes his deathbed confession to the Abbot and Brother Cadfael.  A startling story of trespasses hard for God or man to forgive emerges.  But Haluin does not die.  On his recovery, he sets out on a journey of expiation, with Cadfael as his sole companion.  An arduous trip, it leads to some shocking discoveries, and to murder."  Also, The Summer of the Danes.  The eighteenth chronicle of Brother Cadfael.  "In the summer of 1144, a strange calm has settled over England.  The armies of King Stephen and Empress Maud have temporarily exhausted each other.   Brother Cadfael considers peace a blessing, but a little excitement never comes amiss to a former soldier and Cadfael is delighted to accompany his young friend, Brother Mark, not expecting to be caught up in yet another royal feud.  The Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd has banished his brother Cadwaladr, accusing him of the treacherous murder of an ally.  The reckless Cadwaladr has retaliated by leading an army of Danish mercenaries, poised to invade Wales and retake his Just lands.  As the two armies teeter on the brink of bloody civil war, Cadfael is captured by the Danes, together with a headstrong young woman fleeing an arranged marriage, but before he can untangle such domestic passions, Cadfael has to survive the brotherly quarrel that could plunge an entire kingdom into deadly chaos."  I had a signed copy of this book years ago that went walkabout before I had a chance to read it, so I'm grateful for this copy.
• John Saul, Three Complete Novels.  Horror omnibus containing Hellfire (1986), The Unwanted (1987), and Sleepwalk (1990).  Hellfire:  "Westover's old mill hides a horrifying act behind the doors that slammed shut a century before.  The eleven youngsters caught within those doors faced a fierce inferno.  Just as the secretive townspeople must face a long-overdue vengeance."  The Unwanted:  "When her mother dies in a violent accident, sixteen-year-old Cassie Winslow goes to live with her father's new family.  Her increasingly bizarre dreams leave her to discover the frightening psychic forces of The Unwanted."  Sleepwalk:  "A sleepy New Mexico Town becomes the scene of nightmares that appear deathly real to the victims.  but what -- or who -- is the sources of these psychic attacks?"  Saul (b. 1944) made his bones with more than three dozen best-selling suspense and horror novels beginning in 1977, many of them dealing with children either in peril or causing peril.  his books readable, but because of his emphasis on putting kids through the wringer, I have to space reading them far apart.  He should not be confused with Canadian author and political philosopher John Ralston Saul (b. 1947).
• Mark Schorr, Diamond Rock.  The third, and thus far final, adventure of Red Diamond. Private Eye.  Simon Jaffe, New York cabbie, believes himself to be a tough 1940''s PI named Red Diamond in this series of hard-boiled detective novels.  Simon Jaffe, aka Red Diamond, has a .38 in his pocket and steel in his fists, and he's right on the money when it comes to cracking a case, catching a killer, or cuddling up to the doll of his dreams, Fifi La Roche.  This time out Red's looking for a mob boss named Becker who hustles all the angles.  But the angle that sends Red north on the West Side Highway and into a sharp left over the George is a fast lane straight to L.A. where an  eighties' scene of rock stars and dirty deals introduces Red Diamond to a deadly world of soft porn, hard drugs, and heavy metal -- heavy like the lead that's got his name and address on it."  I read the first book in  the series when it came out in 1983 and was impressed by the writing and the introduction of a delusional detective; for some reason I never followed up with the sequels.
• Jack Seabrook, Sources of Suspense:  Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Stories That Shaped It.  Reference.  Covers all 268 episodes from the seven seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) in chronological order.  Included is information about the source material, plots of both the episodes and the source material, details on the filming (including innovative camera angles), and details about the cast, directors, script writers, and authors of the source material, plus a plethora of interesting tidbits that Seabrook throw in gratis.  It is based on the long-running The Hitchcock project that Seabrook penned for the bare*bones website.  This is a heft oversized book with small, two-column type, one that is best reading in small doses to avoid being overwhelmed.  An essential book for fans of Hitchcock, his program, television history, and the suspense field in general.  Seabrook is now working on a companion volume detailing The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• Dan Simmons, Flashback.  Dystopian science fiction thriller.  "Some twenty years from now, the United States is near total collapse.  But 85 percent of the population doesn't care.  They're addicted to Flashback, a drug that allows its users to experience the best moments of their lives.  After former detective Nick Bottom's wife dies in a car accident, he started going under the flash to be with her; now an addict, he's lost his job and is estranged from his teenage son.  Nick may be a tortured soul, but he's still a good cop, so he's hired by a top government advisor to investigate the murder of the advisor's son.  Soon Nick becomes the one man who can change the course of an entire nation turning away from tomorrow to live in the past."
• Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysics for People in Hurry.  Non-fiction.  Popularized description of our essential universe by one of the great explainers in the field.  Black holes, quarks, quantum mechanics, the search for planets and the search for extraterrestrial life, and more...  A  nifty book to read when I want to appear smart.
• Amanda Eyre Ward, The Lifeguards.  Suspense novel, the May pick for Erin's Family Book Club.  "Austin's Zilker Park neighborhood is a wonderland of greenbelt trails, live music, and moms who drink a few too many margaritas.  Whitney. Annette, and Liza have grown thick as thieves as they have raised their children together for fifteen years, believing they can shelter their children from an increasingly dangerous world.  Their friendship is unbreakable -- as safe as the neighborhood where they have raised their sweet little boys.  Or so they think.  One night, the three women have been enjoying happy hour when their boys, lifeguards for the summer, come back on bicycles from a late-night dip in their favorite swimming hole.  The boys share a secret -- news that will shatter the perfect world their mothers have so painstakingly created."  This one got a lot of good revues and I zipped through it quickly; I enjoyed the book despite some glaring plot holes.
• David Weber, Worlds of Honor #3:  Changer of Worlds.  Military science fiction collection in the Honor Harrington universe, including a novel, a short story, and a novella  by Weber, plus a novella by Eric Flint.  "Lady Dame Honor Harrington -- starship captain, admiral, Steadholder, and Duchess -- has spent decades defending the Star Kingdom of Manticore.   But it's a big universe, and Honor's actions affect a lot of lives, not all of them human."
• Dave Wolverton, editor, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 30.  Annual collection of winning stories from the Writers of the Future Contest, along with illustrations from winners of the Illustrators of the Future Contest.  I find these compilations to be a mixed bag:  some previous winners have gone to have distinguished careers, while others sink into obscurity with tales that are IMHO pure dreck.  I am prejudiced because, despite the support of the project from many professionals I admire, I still consider this contest to be pure Scientology PR, and= part of their continuous effort to deify Hubbard  This volume covers  the year 2014 and also includes short stories from Orson Scott Card, Mike Resnick, and the long-dead Hubbard, as well as essays from Robert Silverberg, Val Lakey Lindahn, and the still-dead Hubbard.  For what it's worth, I do not recognize any of the names of that year's winners presented here.

HYMN TIME

The story of Noah told through country music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hucLYuYvL8

DELL FOUR COLOR (1939 SERIES) #6: DICK TRACY

This issue collects 64 Sunday strips featuring Chester Gould's famous detective.

It starts when Tracy arrests a gang of female perfume thieves and he meets spoiled Johnny Mintworth, who is sweet on one of the crooks.  Johnny is being blackmailed by racketeer "Collie" Vinsso, but the picture that Vinsso is blackmailing him for is a fake, showing Collie with the wife of a man willing to kill out of jealousy; fearing for his life, Collie pays the up.  Again, Tracy puts the kibosh on that.  But Johnny isn't through acting dumb' he attempts to break his girlfriend out of jail, is caught, and then escapes.  Now a fugitive, he is targeted by underworld lawyer Danny Supeena, who knows he comes from a very wealthy family.  Supeena takes out accident insurance policies on Johnny and the proceeds to break his arm.  Supeena kills Johhny's mother, making it look like suicide, but that does not fool Tracy.  In the meantime Supeena talks Johnny into faking a drowning for the insurance money; Johnny tries to drown himself but is rescues by swimmers.  Supeena shoots at Johnny, wounding him,  but johnny makes his way to the police where he is arrested for his mother's murder.  Things just don't seem to be going well for Johnny Mintworth...but there's worse to come.

In typical dick Tracy fashion, one crime leads to another:  "Little crimes lead to big ones.  Crime not only doesn't pay --  but it can't pay -- It has the world against it.  Remember that, boys."  Tracy not only uses his intuition and displays bravery, but he also has the latest crime solving techniques at his fingertips.  Tracy (of course) also enters a death traps, as usual, and comes out unscathed -- not that the same can be said foe a progressive lit of bad guys.  Pat Patton is here, and Junior, bot not Tess Trueheart.  Nor are there Gould's patented, deformed super villains.  Still, all in all, it's not a bad look at Dick Tracy in the Thirties.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95726

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE LOST CITY

 The Lost City by "John Blaine" (Harold L. Goodwin & Peter J. Harkins)  (1947)

Book Two in a series of twenty-four, with the first three written by Goodwin & Harkins, and the remaining twenty-one by Goodwin alone.  This was a boy's series, inaugurated before the young adult genre came into it's own, but it was aimed at a slightly older audience than the typical Grosset & Dunlop juvenile series; it combined science fiction, mystery, and adventure tropes.  The first few books books were termed "Electronic Adventures," then "Science-Adventure Stories," and finally "SCIENCE Adventures."  the first twenty-three books were published from 1947 and 1968, with a previously unpublished book ending the series in 1990.

Under his own name, Goodwin wrote popular science books, many about space exploration.  Goodwin had a strong technological background.  It is interesting to note that The Lost City was published only two years after Arthur C. Clarke first proposed satellite communication via geostationary orbits -- an idea which was modified to provide the scientific background for this book.

Rick Brant is the teenaged sone of Hartson Brant, a world-famous electronics scient who heads the Spindrift Foundation, a group of scientists headquartered on Spindrift Island off the coast of New Jersey.  In addition to being a good athlete and a private pilot, Rick invents various electronic devices.  He often accompanies his father on scientific expeditions.

Rick's best friend is Donald "Scotty" Scott, a boy of his own age, an ex-marine who lied about his age to join in World War II.  Scotty is strong, tough, fiercely loyal, and is enamored with weaponry.  Originally hire as an employee of the Spindrift Foundation, Scotty is now a firm part of the Brant family.

The other member of the brant family are Rick's mother, who serves merely as a placeholder -- over the course of twenty-four books we never learn her first name, and Rick's younger (by one year) sister Barby, a pretty and extremely spunky girl, who appears only briefly in this book.

When we open, Rick is feeling verklempt, he is about go on an expedition with Scotty that will take him from his home and his father for a full year.  They will accompanying noted mathematician Julius Weiss and Hobert Zircon, who is almost as famous an electronics scientist as Hartson Brant, on a journey to a desolate region of Tibet to perform one leg of an important scientific experiment.  the theory is to establish the beginnings of a world-wide communications network by shooting a signal to the moon, which would then beam back to a distant corner of the Earth.  (Clarke's proposal was to one day use artificial satellites for this purpose, but the first artificial satellite would not be launched until ten years into the future, so for the novel's purpose, the moon would have to do.)  As you can imagine, this was a majorly big deal for the time and had the potential to be a game-changer.  The remote regions of Tibet were about as far as one could get from Spindrift Island and an ideal location for Rick's end of the experiment.  The experiment also required a number of uniquely designed and manufactured pieces of  equipment, all of which had been carefully crated for the journey to Tibet.

The first leg of the trip was by freighter to Bombay, where the expedition would wend their way to Tibet.  There appeared to be no logical reason for anyone to want to throw a monkey wrench into the experiment, but several attempts were made to destroy the vital equipment on the voyage to Bombay.  Rick and Scotty managed to catch the saboteur  but all they could learn was that he was paid by a mysterious "Mr. Conway"; why remained a mystery.  Then, the equipment was stolen from the Bombay docks by a vicious gang.. Again, Rick and Scotty manage to recover everything, with the help of a young young beggar named Chahda -- who would soon become a regular character in the series.

The thing to understand is that all the troubles could have been avoided had not Weiss and Zircon -- as brilliant as each is -- not been absolute idiots.  Their every decision sets off warning flags with the reader.  But let's be kind and assume that they are just naive, trusting, and gullible.  Another obvious bad guy, the oleaginous Hendrick Van Groot, supplies Weiss and Zircon with a wrong map for the trek from Bombay to Tibet, and they blithely go on their merry mistaken way.  Speaking of idiots, Rick and Scotty do not show much initiative in the smarts department, either; only Chahda appears to have any common sense, perhaps because the has read only one book in his short life -- The World Book Almanac.

Despite all their travails, our heroes finally cross into Tiber at the half-way point of the book.  And now they are on the road to Lhasa, "the holy city of the Tibetans, where sits the boy ruler...the Dalai Lama."  Their ultimate destination is the city of Tengi-Bu.  But the man they hired to lead their group turns out to be in the pay of Conway, and is  leading them down the false trail from the map provided by Van Groot.  But, fear not campers!  Chahda, who had been left behind at the Bombay railway station, has managed to follow them into Tibet with the correct map.  But our ragged little  group is being followed and watched...by who?  Could it be ancient Mongols, not seen in this area for six hundred years?

Our expedition of four woke up one morning to find that their not-very-trustworthy guide and all the bearers had absconded, along with most of their supplies and animals.  The scientific equipment remained but there was no way to transport it, and the nearest village was a two-week walk way.  Worse, Chahda was among the missing, but Rick felt that he had gone to get help. 

By now the reader is wondering, where the heck is the "Lost City" of the book's title, and what does that have to do with geosynchronic satellite transmissions?

As Rick climbs a cliff to scout the area, Scotty, Weiss, and Zircon are taken captive  by strange warriors from a distant age.  Rick goes through a cave tunnel and emerges at a lost city of ancient Mongols!  Finally! And on page 153, to boot!

Can Rick save his friends and solve the mystery of the lost city?  Will they be able to foil Conway and Van Groot and complete the experiment?  And why were they so determined to stop the experiment?   And who the heck was Conway, anyway? And will loyal Chahda be able to rescue Rick and his friends?  And what was the gift that Barby gave the boys before their journey, telling them not to open it until the Fourth of July?  (Well, the answer to that question is pretty obvious, don't you think?)

The Rick Brant series of scientific adventures was surprisingly popular, and the books are still highly sought after.  But, for reasons I can't understand, they did not transcend beyond the actual series...no spin-offs, and no media media offshoots (although, if you squint real heard, you might believe they influenced the Johnny Quest franchise).  Grosset & Dunlap began transferring the rights to the series to Goodwin in the 1980s.  The Goodwin family is currently working to bring the books back in print.

A personal confession:  Prior to reading this book, I had only read one other Rick Brant adventure, number 15 in the series, The Blue Ghost Mystery (1960).  I was not impressed.  It turns out that the publisher refused to have any supernatural element in the books, and the original novel was modified to reflect that, and I suspect they did a poor job of it, which goes a long to explaining why I did not care for the book.  (They also rejected an entire novel for that reason; The Magic Talisman had elements of ESP in it, and remained unpublished until it was released in 1990 as the final book in the series.)   The Rick Brant series based its science fictional background as close as possible to real science, unlike, say, the many novels in the Tom Swift and Tom Swift Junior series, both of which went far afield in scientific extrapolation.  As flawed as they were, the Rick Brant stories were exciting reading for their time, and their original magic still remains for those wishing to recapture those days.

And, yes, I am planning to read many more entries in the series.  I may carp and bitch, but I can be amazingly enthusiastic and uncritical in my reading.