THE ADVENTURES OF SMILIN' JACK (1943)

 Smilin' Jack Martin anchored the longest running aviation comic strip in history, 40 years, from October 1, 1933 to April 1, 1933.  Created by 27-year-old aviation enthusiast Zack Mosley, the strip was originally titled On the Wing and the character's original name was Mack Martin, neither of which appealed to Chicago Tribune editor Joseph Medell Patterson, who in a nod to the strip's creator, renamed the character to Smilin' Jack Martin (Mosley's nickname was Smilin' Zach), and retitled the strip to The Adventures of Smilin' Jack later to be shortened to just Smilin' Jack.  The Smilin' Jack of the comics strongly resembled Roscoe Turner, a notable air racing star of the time.

In the 1943 Universal movie serial, Smilin' Jack is portrayed by Tom Brown (Judge Priest, Anne of Green Gables, Buck Privates Come Home).  It's 1941, and Smilin' Jack wishes to resign as an advisor to the National Chinese Army in order to enlist as an aviator in the American military buildup prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The Chinese, however have discovered the existence of a "secret road" from India to China that will be crucial in the Allied war effort.  Working against Smilin' Jack, and determined to gain the secret for themselves are both "The Black Samurai" -- Japanese espionage agents -- and Fraulein von Teufel, a German agent posing as an American newspaper reporter.

Also featured are Rose Hobart (A Lady Surrenders, East of Borneo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) as Fraulein von Teufel, Edgar Barrier (Journey into Fear, Phantom of the Opera, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman) as Tommy Thompson, Marjorie Lord (Sherlock Holmes in Washington, Boy, Did I Get the Wrong Number!, and television's The Danny Thomas Show) as Janet Thompson;  Keye Luke ("Number One Son" in the Charlie Chan films, Kato in the Green Hornet Serials, Master Po in television's Kung Fu) as Captain Wing; Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan  in 22 films, Blonde Venus, Dark Hazard) as General Kai Ling, Turhan Bey (Background to Danger, The Mad Ghoul, Adventuress of Casanova) as Kegeyama, and Jay Novello (Pocketful of Miracles, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, The Man from the Diner's Club).

Directed  by Lewis D. Collins (Don Winslow of the Coast Guard, Secret Agent X-9, Lost City of the Jungle) and action specialist Ray Taylor (The Royal Mounted Rides Again, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, Tarzan the Mighty).  Written by Morgan Cox (Gang Busters, Drums of Fu Manchu, Zorro's Fighting Legion).

The link takes you to all thirteen episodes.  Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=2968

HYMN TIME

 Kori Withers and Friends -- Playing for Change

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_R6Gw9A-xA&list=RDb_R6Gw9A-xA&start_radio=1

SECRET AGENT X-9 (1936)

Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip distributed by King Features and created by Dashiell Hammett and originally drawn by Alex Raymond.  It ran from January 22, 1934 to February 10, 1996.  Hammett wrote the first four story arcs (through April 20, 1935), and was replaced by Don W. Moore (April 22 - September 21, 1935), Leslie Charteris (September 23, 1935 - March 28, 1936), "Robert Storm" (a "house" name hiding the identity of the real author; March 30, 1936 - sometime in 1945), Mel Graff (1945 - March 19, 1960), Bob Lubbers (March 21, 1960 - January 28, 1967), Archie Goodwin (January 30, 1967 - February 2, 1980), and George Evans (February 4, 1980 - February 10, 1996).

Alex Raymond drew the strip through November 16, 1935, followed by Charles Flanders (November 18, 1935 - April 9, 1938), Nicholas Afonsky (April 11 - November 5, 1938), Austin Briggs (November 7, 1938 - June 1, 1940; Mell Graff (June 3, 1940 - March 19, 1960), Bob Lubbers (March 21, 1960 - January 28, 1967), Al Williamson (January 30, 1967 - February 2, 1980), and George Evans, (February 4, 1980 - February 10, 1996).

Secret Agent X-9 was one of many Big Little Books published by Whitman Publishing, beginning in 1932.  They were juveniles, often featuring popular radio shows, films, movie actors, comic strips and pulp novel characters.  The  cheaply printed, hardbound volumes measured about 3.5 by 4.5 inches and could carry up to 400 pages or more, with text on the text on the left and full page illustrations on the right.  Authorship of Secret Agent X-9 was credited to Charles Flanders, the artist for the strip at the time of publication.  Whether Flanders wrote the text for the book is unknown.

In the beginning X-9 was an unknown agent who worked for an anonymous agency.  Hammett gave him the name Dexter -- "it's not my name, but it'll do" -- and he was occasionally referred as Dexter during the early year of the strip.  In the Forties (long after this book appeared), he was given the name Phil Corrigan by writer/artist Mel Graff.  During the run of Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, the strip was retitled Secret Agent Corrigan.  the anonymous agency employing X-9 was eventually revealed to be the FBI -- that is, until the 70s, when the FBI's reputation fell rather sharply and X-9's agency once again became anonymous.

This time around X-9 is after a gang of counterfeiters headed by the mysterious "Fang," who appears to have inside information about the operations of the secret service.  For this case, X-9 is teamed with Sally Ray, a young woman of whom we know little.

A bit about the link.  Somebody screwed up the page order of the book.  Page 1 of the comic books Plus link is actually page 168 of the book.  If you start at page 134 (the actual front cover of the book) and go page by page from there as the pages are actually in order.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=72621

FORGOTTEN BOOK : FACES OF FEAR

Faces of Fear by John Saul (2008)

This was John Saul's 30th, and penultimate, novel published under his own name.  (The count can be questioned.  His publisher claims this was his 35th novel, but they are counting the six separately published novellas that comprised The Blackstone Chronicles, while omitting the published version that contained the novellas; Wikipedia gives his count as 37 novels, but they are including all six novellas, as well as the published full version; he had previously published some ten books under unknown pseudonyms.  Whichever count you go by, Saul has racked up millions of sales over a period of thirty-three years, making him one of the best selling horror authors of the past half century.

Not unsurprisingly, Faces of Fear is another of Saul's trademarked children in danger stories.  Somewhat surprisingly, the book is not one of supernatural horror, but a serial killer novel with a hint of the mad scientist theme.

Alison Shaw is just a few months shy of her sixteenth birthday, an only child, not considered pretty by most and stuck with an adolescent's body, with small breasts and little chance for them to get larger.  Not that that bothers Alison.  She is content with her life, her studies, and her athletic abilities.  Her life comes crashing down when her father, a local television news executive, announces that he is leaving his wife for another man.  Although Alison's mother is devastated, she and Alison slowly come around to accepting what has happened.  Risa, the mother, eventually remains best friends with her ex-husband, as well as his lover, leaving Risa to move on with her life.

Conrad Dunn is universally accepted as the best plastic surgeon in the country, able to perform miracles with his scalpel, and donating much of his time to charity for birth defect and accident victims.  His wife, Margot, was one of his greatest successes.  Originally a good-looking woman, Conrad's skills turned her into the perfect woman and a top fashion model, acclaimed around the world.  Then she fell of their yacht when it was hit by a large wave and the boat's propellor severely scarred the right side of her face.  Margot considered her new look to be hideous and Conrad had not yet repaired the damage.  Margot's despondency became so extreme that she jumped off a cliff and smashed what was left of her face on the rocks below.

A year after Margot's death, Conrad and Risa married and Risa and Alison moved from Santa Monica to a rich enclave in Burbank, where Alison would start school at a posh and trendy academy.  Her new classmates were all rich and all appeared to already have had plastic surgery -- often breast implants -- courtesy of Conrad.  Alison was beginning to feel inadequate with her small breasts and Risa and Conrad suggested that he give her new breasts for her sixteenth birthday -- nothing odd about that, nosirree.

In the meantime, there is a serial killer on the loose, attacking young (and youngish) women, eviscerating them, taking their adrenal and thyroid glands, as well as a portion of their face -- ears, eyebrows, lips, nose, et cetera.  Ambitious reporter Tina Wong, who worked for Alison's father, has stumbled on a pattern to the killings and had uncovered similar killings in distant cities some fifteen years before, and has worked on the story for over a year, hoping this would lead to her big break with the networks.

Here's the spoiler,  but it's not a very big one since it had been telegraphed in large capital letters throughout the novel:  Conrad Dunn is an insane megalomaniac, obsessed with his dead wife and the "perfect" person he had made her into with his scalpel and his skills.  He wants recreate his dead wife but there's a problem.  Margot was made perfect because she had the rare bone structure to her skull that would allow it.  He had never come a cross a similar bone structure until he met Alison, who was to become his step-daughter.  No one realized then when he gave Alison her augmented breasts that they were identical to the breasts that Margot had had.  Conrad had blackmailed a former patient to harvest specific body parts from specific women -- each part identical to that which Margot had had.  He was going to recreate his wife -- his ultimate achievement -- with Alison.  He had even given Alison's her breast implants in order to get her to trust him; those implants would soon go because they were artificial (ptah!) to be replaced by real breasts harvested from one of his victims.

The book boils down to a deadly race against time to save Alison.  The plot is ludicrous from any common sense point of view, with holes large enough to drive a semi-tractor trailer through it, but somehow it works.  It is far-fetched enough that the abattoir nature of the novel, the stereotypical view of the ultra-rich and their offspring, and the hints of pedophilia -- augmented by a major plot twist -- can be minimized in a rush to turn the pages.

Uncomfortably effective.

SUSPENSE: A PASSAGE TO BENARES (SEPTEMBER 23, 1947)

The thirteenth episode of Suspense adapted T. S. Stribling's classic tale of exotic mystery, "A Passage to Benares" (Adventure, February 26, 2926; reprinted in Stribling's Clues of the Caribees, 1929).

From Old Time Radio Archive:  "[T]he exotic isle of Trinidad, where ancient temples hide dark secrets and every shadow tells a story.  In the heart of this tropical paradise, a gruesome discovery shocks then island's inhabitants:  a beautiful Hindu maiden is found beheaded in a sacred temple.  As the island's ragged beggars awake to find gold mysteriously placed in their pockets, the sense of unease deepens.  Who placed the gold there, and more importantly, who committed this horrific crime?  The story follows an American psychologist who arrives on the island, drawn by a fascination with the mystical and the unknown.  As he delves into the mysteries of the temple and the legends of the island, he encounters a world where the lines between life and the afterlife blur, and where every corner holds a potential clue to the dark truths hidden withing the temple walls.  With its vivid descriptions and haunting atmosphere, 'A Passage to Benares' weaves a tale of suspense that is both captivating and chilling.  The story builds to a shocking and unexpected climax that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew.  This episode is more than just a mystery; it's a journey into a realm where reality and mysticism intertwine, offering an experience that is as thrilling as it is thought-provoking."

The American psychologist is, of course, Dr. Henry Piggioli, Stribling's famous amateur detective, and the protagonist of some three dozen tales collected in Clues of the Caribees, Best Dr. Poggioli Detective Stories (1975), and Dr. Poggioli:  Criminologist (2005).  The stories in Clues of the Caribees are thought to be his weakest, although "A Passage to Benares," the final story in the book, remains his most famous Pogglioi story and a classic of the genre.  Outside of the mystery genre, Stribling wrote thirteen novels of social satire, most set in the South; The Store won the Pulitzer Prize in 1933.

The role of Poggioli was played by Paul Stewart.  Please note that the original story and the radio adaptation reflect attitudes of the time and may be off-putting for some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=islmWOxRHOo&list=PLvu2oOrWFl_NykNNccUdjcSUFk0tuXPkG&index=6

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: TAPPAN'S BURRO

"Tappan's Burro" by Zane Grey  (first published in Ladies' Home Journal, June 1923; reprinted in Pearson's Magazine, September 1923; in the author's Tappan's Burro (also published as Tappan's Burro and Other Stories), 1923; in Great Tales of the American West, edited by Harry E. Maule, 1945; in Zane Grey's Western Magazine, November 1951 [and in the Australian edition, February 1955]; in The Western Hall of Fame, edited by Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg, 1984; in The Best Western Stories, edited anonymously and published by Hamlyn, 1986; in The Best Western Stories, edited anonymously and published by Mallard [ different book from above], 1990; as "Prospector's Gold" in Prospector's Gold/Canyon Walls by Zane Grey, 1990; in A Century of Great Western Stories, edited by John Jakes; and in Stories of the Golden West:  Book Three, edited by Jon Tuska, 2002, later reprinted as The Golden West, 2003; also available online at Project Gutenberg)

From Google's AI Overview (take it for what it's worth):  "It follows the perilous desert adventures of a lonely prospector named Tappan and his Jenet, his exceptionally faithful and intelligent burro.  The narrative focuses in the deep bond between the prospector and the burro as they navigate the scorching heat of Death Valley and blinding blizzards in Arizona.  Jenet repeatedly saves Tappan's life by locating hidden waterholes and guiding him through brutal terrain.  The story is best known for exploring themes of loyalty, survival, and the harsh realities of the untamed American frontier."  AI gets some of the plot right, but misses a lot, while lifting some of its overview from a GoodReads review:

" 'Quite by chance, as he was looking for some of his burros, he struck his pick into a place no different from a thousand others there, and hit into a pocket of gold.  He cleaned out the pocket before sunset, the richer for several thousand dollars.  "You brought me luck," said Tappan, to the little gray burro staggering around its mother.  "Your name is Jenet, You're Tappan's burro, an' I reckon he'll stick to you." '  -- from the book.  Prospecting was a lonely business for Tappan, but his burro Jenet was good company, and more.  She knew the trails and waterholes better than Tappan, from the scorching heat and poison air of Death Valley to the blinding blizzards of Arizona's mountains, Jenet tracked with him, faithful, his only friend.  And he repaid her loyalty, with a final supreme effort of heart, will, and spirit."

A tale of friendship and of human betrayal, with a harrowing final elongated scene of bravery, as Tappan attempts to bring himself and his burro through the bone-chilling deep snows of the Rim Rock country in Tonto Basin.

A magnificent bit of writing which defies my description.

Zane Grey (1872-1939) wrote adventure stories to offset the tedium of his dental practice and became one of the first millionaire authors.  His romanticized American West and view of Manifest Destiny was based on extensive research.  Although early critics panned his work, the reading public did not.  He wrote over ninety books, some published posthumously, and his sales reached 40,000,000.  His works have been adapted into at least 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series.  

Erle Stanley Gardner said of Grey that he "had the knack of tying his characters into the land, and the land into the story.  There were other Western writers who had fast and furious action, but Zane Grey was the one who could make the action not only convincing but inevitable, and somehow you got the impression that the bigness of the country generated a bigness of character."  Which goes a long way to explaining why Grey was one of the greatest all-time author of westerns and remains highly popular today.

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929)

Ogden Nash famously write "Philo Vance needs a kick in the pance."  The pompous fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dine has had his share of detractors over the years.  Not only was Vance pompous, he was also talented:  "Vance was highly skilled at many things:  an expert 'fencer', a golfer with a three handicap, a breeder and shower of thoroughbred dogs, a talented polo player, a master poker player, a winning handicapper of racehorses, experience in archery [...], a patron of classical music, a connoisseur of fine food and drink, knowledgeable of chess, and of several foreign languages."  Vance was also a marksman and a decorated veteran of the Great War.  "He was something of an authority on Japanese and Chinese prints; he knew tapestries and ceramics."  His affectations -- a monocle, his impeccable clothing, his torturously quaint way of speaking -- made him appear to be a foppish dandy.  But above all, he was a masterful detective.

Some of these traits are evident in The Canary Murder Case, the 1929 film based on Van Dine's 1927 novel, the second book in the series, although the film was the first of several Philo Vance movies.

Banker Charles Spottswoode (Charles Willis Lane) is not happy about his son Jimmie's (James Hall) involvement with showgirl Margaret "The Canary" O'Dell (Louise Brooks).  He tries to bribe Margaret to leave Jimmie alone, but she refuses and threatens to expose Jimmie for embezzlement if he marries Alice La Fosse (Jean Arthur), Margaret's co-star.  Margaret has been blackmailing two club patrons, John Cleaver (Lawrence Grant) and Louis Mannix (Louis John Bartels), as well as the creepy Dr. Ambrose Lindquist (Gustav von Seyffertitz).  Margaret's ex-husband Tony Skeel (Ned Sparks) has broken out of jail and wants part of her blackmail money.  Margaret's body is found the next day; she had been killed about midnight.  Jimmie is arrested for the murder.

Enter Philo Vance (William Powell), a close friend of Charles Spottswoode.  Also on the case are District Attorney Markham (E. H. Calvert) and Police Sergeant Ernest Heath (Eugene Pallette).

The Canary Murder Case was originally filmed in 1928 as a silent film, but the first full talking picture, 1928's Lights of New York, proved to be a  major money maker and, by the end of the year, all the major studios were converting silent films into talkies.  This entailed recording the cast dubbing over scenes from the silent film, as well as shooting some additional footage.  Louise Brooks, however, had ended her contract with Paramount, so the studio hired Margaret Livingston to dub her part (Livingston only was seen in profile or from behind on the new footage). On December 28, 12928, Paramount had completed converting The Canary Murder Case into a talkie.  Despite critics having a field day panning the dubbing of Brooks' role, the film was successful enough to spawn two additional Philo Vance films with Paramount, and many more with Warner Brothers.

Directed by Malcolm St. Clair, with Frank Tuttle (uncredited) directing scenes for the talkie version. Adapted by Albert S. Le Vino with a script by Florence Ryerson; "Van Dine" (who was really art critic Willard Huntington Wright) may have contributed some dialogue.  Herman J. Mankiewitz, who went on to co-write Citizen Kane, wrote the never-used titles for the silent version.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51urwIAbkJY

IN HARMONY...

 As you know, today is National Barbershop Music Day.  So, without further ado...

"Annie Laurie" The Flat Foot Four  (1940)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7cuNCMV3h0&list=PLmCS9r-Qd485kvRJuGqgenHMsblVQ1vLX&index=1

"The Morning Glories Wake Up in the Morning (Then I'll Kiss Your Two Lips Goodnight)"  The Vikings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9hfRP1dDx4&list=PLmCS9r-Qd485kvRJuGqgenHMsblVQ1vLX&index=10

"Tennessee Waltz" Masterpiece  (2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJBKoSoot8

"Danny Boy" Oriole Four  (1970)

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

"Mr. Sandman"  Proper Sound Barbershop Quartet  (2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5_X-95YaWU

"Sidewalks of New York", "Sweet Rosie O'Grady", and "Don't Cry My Coney Island Baby" The Elastic Four  (1946)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64-ySaS2t50

"Sweet and Lovely"  Forefront (with special guest Mike Rowe)  (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLLx_7lTbFc

"Old McDonald's Deformed Farm"  Lunch Break (2011)

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

"Oh Ho Ho Ho (Got the Rhythm of My Heart)"  Lemon Squeezy  (2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZiumRsh1Xw

"Wait Til the Sun Shines Nellie"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtzDfqw_4jQ

"Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?"  Barbershop Balladeers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvZJLiLwab0

"Good Morning"  Gimme Four  (2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kYPAtTSfRA

HYMN TIME

 Jim Nabors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8zuyjdQ7VI

MORTIFIED #10 (UNDATED)

Mortified is a continuing series from CNCC Classic Comics.  On May 3, 2024 on this blog, I quoted the Comic Book Plus website:  "CNCC Classic Comics are digitally remastered reprints of Golden Age comics, focusing primarily on the output of Jack Kirby and  Mort Meskin during their tenure at Prize Comic Group.  The restorations begin by chemically removing the color from an original copy of the comic.  The line art is then tightened to remove printing imperfections and other errors.  Finally, the at is recolored using a palette of solid tones derived from samples of the original coloring."  There's some great work here from Jack Kirby, Mort Meslin, Frank Frazetta, Reed Crandall, and Bob Powell.

• Dan Brand and Tipi:  "The War of the River" (from The Durango Kid #3, February 1950; art by Frank Frazetta)  "The beat of log drums throb like a heart pulse through the backwoods wilderness.  Dotted clouds of smoke signal [sic ] The call of the tribes.  The ominous, pervading silence foretells the battle. the killing, the flaming passions to come!  Dan Brand and Tipi, intrepid trailblazers of our country's early history, can sense this lurking terror in the air!  Their eyes and ears finely tuned to the signs of coming horror, they make fast and heard decisions in -- 'The War of the River!'  "
• "A Handful of Death" (from Justice Traps the Guilty #24, March 1951; art [uncredited] by Mort Meskin)  "adapted from a TRUE Police Case...When Dutch Linden saw the jade statue, his hand reached out greedily!  How was he to know that, instead instead of a handful of riches, he was grasping...a HANDFUL OF DEATH!"
• Ken Shannon, Private Eye:  "The Evil Eye of Count Ducrie!" (from Ken Shannon #1, October 1951; story by Joe Millard; art by Reed Crandall)  "There's nothing delicate about the private detective racket!  At one time or another I've been shot, stabbed, slugged, choked, kicked, and blame near poisoned on some batty case...But I've never came closer to booting the well-known bucket than the night I got hit by a double whammy from...'The Evil Eye of Count Ducrie!' "
• American Eagle:  "Buffalo Stampede" (from Prize Comics Western #91, January 1952; art  by John Severin)  "Seething with fury to avenge a broken treaty, the savage Cheyennes seek to destroy the American Eagle for warning the white man of their deadly, bloodthirsty plans by binding him to a stake in the path of the...BUFFALO STAMPEDE"
• "I Talked With My Dead Wife!" (from Strange World of Your Dreams #1, August 1952; "Produced by Simon & Kirby; Mort Meskin, Associate Editor"; actual script and art by Jack Kirby)  "People will be affected by dreams in many ways...Some will act on them and make important decisions.  Others will see them as mystic symbols and gamble on their meaning!  This is the strange story of one such man -- a desperate man -- who gambled a human life on a pleading voice in his sleep -- a tormented man, who said -- I TALKED WITH MY DEAD WIFE!"
• Cave Girl: "The Shadow God of Korchak!"  (from Thun'da King of the Congo #4, art  by Bob Powell)  "It was a fantastic figment of a nightmare -- this great black god that ate living sacrifices that were chained to its huge altar on the terrace levels of ancient Korchak!  Living men and women from the jungles of the dawn world were ripped from their homes, and fed to this monstrous thing!  It ate them hair and flesh, bones and sinew!  And when Cave Girl found herself locked in those same golden chains, she the horrible fate that befell all victims of "THE SHADOW GOD OF KORCHAK!"

Some great stories here from the Golden Age of comics, along with enough interesting Good Girl Art to satisfy the  most jaded of fans.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96962

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE WATER OF THOUGHT

The Water of Thought by Fred Saberhagen  (first published as one half of an Ace Double, 1965; greatly expanded under the same title in 1981; included in the omnibus The Space Force Chronicles, 2014)

Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007) was a popular and best-selling science fiction author, best known for his Berserker series and novels about killer machines that roamed the universe looking for intelligent life to exterminate.  The Water of Thought, published two years before his first Berserker collection, was Saberhagen's second published book and the third  and final entry in his Space Force series, which began with his second published story, "Planeteer" (Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1961), and continued with his first novel The Golden People (1964, another Ace Double).   The first Berserker story, "Fortress Ship," was published in January 1963 and appears to have influenced a portion of The Water of Thought (and, possibly, also The Golden People, which I have not read).

The protagonist of the Space Force series is Boris Brazil, a planeteer (or planetary explorer) for the all encompassing Space Force.  Much of the galaxy has been settled in one fashion or another and explored (although at times rather incompletely), including the planet Kappa, located in a remote, less traveled section of the galaxy.  Humanity's presence on Kappa appears to be only a small enclave situation far enough away from the natives to have only occasional contact with the primitive Kappans, who are somewhat humanoid in appearance.  The Kappan society is divided among the workers, the warriors, and the priests.

Located somewhere on the planet is the Water of Thought, a strange elixir of almost magical powers.  It is actually water from a pool deep in the territory of the hominids, a race of primitive pre-humans unknown to the few Earthmen on the planet.  The hominid society is far more primitive than that of the Kappans, and the Kappans have been known to take the hominids as slaves to be worked to death and brutalized.  Both the Kappan and hominid societies are far more complex than anyone, even themselves, realize.

From the interior cover blurb:  

"Was that the key to a world forgotten?

"One explorer had already disappeared on the primitive planet, Kappa.  So the day a second Terrestrial, Jones, ran away after drinking the sacred Kappan water that he had coerced the natives into giving him, the remaining planetologists meant to find out just what was going on.

"Questioning the aliens only deepened the mystery.  For they said that what Jones had drunk would enable him to communicate with his animal ancestors.  It was their most precious and sacred possession.

"But how could it effect a person never born on Kappa, a person without such 'animal' ancestors?  what would really happen if either of them managed to bring this incredible liquid back to Earth?

Given the bloviated and often inaccurate plot descriptions common to Ace Doubles, it's obvious that there is more going on here.  The book centers on seven Terrestrials:

• Boris Brazil, the planeteer protagonist and hero of the novel; he landed on Kappa for a brief stopover until a scheduled Space Force ship will be able to take him to Earth for some much needed R-and-R.  When he first tasted the Water of Thought he lost all free will and had to obey every command from...
• Edmund Jones, another planeteer, one who plans to spend his time on Kappa.  When he first tasted the Water of Thought, he had visions that obliterated everything but the desire to have more, whatever the cost.
• Emanuel Magnuson, a local anthropologist who had vanished the year before.  Magnuson had discovered the powers of the Water of Thought, which had increased his mania to become the salvation of Mankind, leading it newer and greater glories, even if that meant thinning  the herd of undesirable humans; Magnuson was also convinced that he could make the hominids "evolve" to full humanity and thus usher in a glorious new age.  To help in his plan, he contacted...
• Don Morton, a local smuggler.  Magnuson managed to get sample of the Water of Thought to Morton, who arranged for them to be shipped to a large criminal cartel.  The profits from selling just a small amount of the elixir were astounding.  Morton was a naturally cruel and avaricious person.  Drinking the water mad his rage, greed, and egomania expand many-fold into a homicidal mania.  To aid in getting the water off-planet, Morton brought in a partner...
• Mayor Pete Kaleta, the leader of the small Terrestrial enclave.  Kaleta is weak and greedy.  The water made his greed an obsession, erasing any bit of common sense he might have had.
• Brenda, one of the few local unattached women in the enclave.  She finds herself attracted to Brazil, and he to her.  The water has made her inhibitions vanish and she offers herself to Brazil, and she risks her own life to aid him.
• Jane, the other "unattached" woman in the enclave, although she is in reality heavily attached to Morton.  Jane has a weak will and knows that she is doing wrong, but has a hard time preventing it.

For a short novel, The Water of Thought packs a lot into it.  Often chaotic in its reading, the book manages to pull most of the threads together in the end.  The most interesting parts include the dissection of the to alien societies, the true planarian-like secret of the Water of Thought, and Brazil's attempt to stop the homicidal Morton, who is wearing an invulnerable and deadly "groundsuit," sort of a precursor to Saberhagen's berserkers.

A fast read with more to it than appears on the surface.

LUX RADIO THEATER: THE FALLEN SPARROW (FEBRUARY 14, 1944)

Robert Young, Maureen O'Hara, and Walter Slezak headline this radio dramatization of the 1943 film based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes.  Young takes over the role that John Garfield had in the original film.

"Kit" McKittrick has managed to escape to years of torture after being captured in the Spanish Civil War, managing to keep vital information from his captors the entire time.  His escape was arranged by his friend Louis, a New York City police detective.  When Louie dies under mysterious circumstances in a fatal fall, Kit -- still recuperating from his ordeal -- travels from Arizona to New York to investigate.  Kit meets pretty Toni, who happens to be only witness to Louie's fall.  The suspects are the many people who attended the party where Louie met his death, and always in the background are Kit's memories of his torture.  The never-seen Nazi with a limp who had been both instrumental in the torture and angered that Kit never revealed the secrets he had been holding, may or may not be lurking -- could this be Kit's imagination?

There is murder, Nazis, danger, blackmail, a threatened child, romance, betrayal, and the question of Kit's own grip on sanity.  A potent mix for suspenseful entertainment.

Introduced by Cecil B. DeMille...and don't forget to use Lux dishwashing flakes!

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

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: BLACK STUFF

 "Black Stuff" by Ken Bruen  (from Dublin Noir, edited  by Ken Bruen, 2006)

The world lost one of its greatest hardboiled and noir fiction writers last year with the passing of Ken Bruen at age74.

No.  That's not right.  Let me try again,

The world lost one of its great writers -- hands down, period --last year with the passing of Ken Bruen at the age of 74.

There.  That's much better.

Bruen has a rather unique background for a crime fiction writer.  He had a PhD in Metaphysics and had spent twenty-five years as an English teacher in Africa, Asia, and South America.  He had a poet's ear, punk-rock sensibilities, and a love for literature, especially mystery fiction.  His first published work was Funerals:  Tales of Irish Morbidity (1991).  His first four books were not a financial success; they began to get the recognition they deserved after the success of his Tom Brandt series and his Jack Tsylor series, when they were reprinted as A Fifth of Bruen (2006); it was then that people began to realize that the fabulous author of those series had been hiding in the bushes for years before with works equally brilliant.

Bruen set most of his books in his beloved Galway, carefully dissecting the decline of the Catholic church and Ireland's waning economic power, "which has left Ireland as a materialistic and spiritually drained society which still harbors deep social inequality."  His characters are flawed human beings, often alcoholic or drug addicted, capable of rage, violence, self-reflection, and compassion.  He had an elliptical style, often meandering, yet always honing in the essence of his characters.  To read Bruen is unlike reading any other writer.  The poetry sings from the page.

"Black Stuff" is a very short tale featuring a black Irisher who uses the name of Phil Lynott, the black co-founder of the hard rock band Thin Lizzy.  Phil is bitter, antisocial, and a heavy drinker; he never really realized he was black until he was fourteen, and even then he was not goaded by his classmates because of his race, but because he "was shit at hurling."  Phil has two crushed fingers on his right hand given to him because a getaway car he had been driving stalled, angering the crooks who had drafted him.  One evening Phil is at a bar when a white man named Charlie Bowman enters and strikes up a conversation, seemingly amazed that Phil is both black and an Irishman.   Bowman says that he is an American and actually seems to embody all the negative stereotypes given to Americans.  

James Whistler's famous portrait of his mother, Arrangement in Black and Gray, is currently on loan to the city of Dublin and Bowman wants to steal it, and elicits Phil's help.  The way Bowman had it figured it would be an easy job,  but a soldier appeared out of nowhere and Bowman shot him in the gut.  A month later, Phil and Bowman meet up, supposedly to split the profits, and Bowman pulls a gun on Phil.  But Bowman had been too cocky all along; his I-am-an-American act was good but not perfect and Phil knew all along not to trust him.  And Bowman was also too cocky to realize that Phil had something up his sleeve.  Actually, in his damaged hand...

A minor story, perhaps, but one with those lovely Bruen touches.  Well worthy of the few minutes it takes to read this tale.

I WANT TO BE A COWGIRL

Posted for no special reason except that I like the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQMH3KgYsTY

THE GOAT (1921)

Buster Keaton could always put a smile on my face.  His timing and comic control truly made him a candidate for the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), as well as the hapless "goat" on this silent two-reeler.  Here, through a series of mistaken identities, Keaton is mistaken for a murderer who is pursued by a posse, lead by the father of the woman he loves.

Also starring Virginia Fox, who was the leading lady in many of Keaton's early films, and went on to marry producer Darryl F. Zanuck; she died at age 83 or maybe age 76 or perhaps somewhere in between -- her given birthdates had an eight-year discrepancy.  Joe Roberts played the police chief; Roberts had become a friend of Keaton's father and the Keaton family and was asked by Keaton to appear in 16 of Keaton's 19 silent short films of the 1920s. Playing the actual murderer was Malcolm St. Clair, a producer, director, writer and actor who also co-wrote and co-directed The Goat with Keaton; Keaton's influence on St. Clair has been described as "transformative" and his directing work is distinctly divided between pre- and post-Keaton.

Enjoy this comic gem from more than a century ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6kE2JfkJ1c

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SMILEY LEWIS! (AND A HAT TIP TO THE TWO-PIECE)

 Overton Amos Lemons (1913-1966), a.k.a. Smiley Lewis, was "the unluckiest many in New Orleans.  He hit on a formula for slow-rocking small-band numbers like 'The Bells Are Ringing' and 'I Hear You Knocking' only to have Fats Domino come up behind him with similar music and a more ingratiating delivery.  Lewis was practically drowned in Domino's backwash."  Other songs Lewis recorded were "The Bells Are Ringing," "Blue Monday," "One Night," and "Shame, Shame, Shame"  -- most of these became hits for other artists.

"I Hear You Knockin' "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeY7J9kjg0

"Shame, Shame, Shame"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctLKz-ZLbMU

"Blue Monday"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxdRFTa0sg

"The Bells Are Ringing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKsnw0ZH7gY

"Tee-Nah-Nah"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIu6fnUNP0U

"Can't Stop Loving You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnAckkJ-ncI

"One Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yks0vvhF9c

"I Love You for Sentimental Reasons"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tN8UY2P_sw

"She's Got Me Hook, Line, and Sinker"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg2VtGYyXHE

"Bumpity Bump"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-vwQMi6lsY

"Someday You'll Want Me"

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

"Go On Fool"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPTzS38c_E

BONUS:  Did you really think I would let the 80th anniversary of the two-piece swim suit -- the bikini -- got unnoticed?  When runway models refused to model the revealing swim suit, designer Louis Reard hired Micheline Bernardini, an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, to model the 30 square inches of cloth at a press conference at a public pool in Paris on July 5, 1946.  Thus was history made.  Bernardini, bless her, is still alive at age 98.

In tribute, here's Bryan Hyland with "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9Ou3-YyqU&t=3s

HYMN TIME

 The Golden Gate Quartet.

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

100 YEARS AGO: THE FOURTH OF JULY AX MURDER IN PENSACOLA

This was less than a decade after the notorious "Axman" murders in New Orleans during 1918 and 1919.  As with the New Orleans Axman, the Pensacola murderer remains unknown.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-century-later-pensacola-s-july-4-1926-ax-murder-still-unsolved/ar-AA27c5S4?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=464632e1990540b5e3865445fe448cbb&ei=86

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! SEEING WASHINGTON (1957)

I freely admit that I have a love affair with Washington, D.C.  There is a sense of grandeur that I got sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Monument overlooking the Reflecting Pool, a feeling of reverence as I viewed the Vietnam Wall, and a sense of being near greatness as I entered the Jefferson Memorial.  I've been on a special tour of the White House and drank cups of sickly sweet lemonade.  I walked the steps of the Capital Building during the Vietnam War and saw students there quietly protesting the war.  I stood in the Rotunda as people were singing Phil Ochs' "The Power and the Glory" to the tune of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" -- people who were supporting Nixon and had no idea what the song was really about, and though I did not agree with them I was glad they could voice their opinion.  I spent hours admiring the magnificence of the animals at the National Zoo, braving the yellow jackets that swarmed through its luncheon areas, especially admiring a newly-born baby hippo, and I stayed at a home that was once part of Washington's Mount Vernon estate.  I walked with awe through the sacred and hallow Arlington Cemetery.  I found myself weeping at the National Medical Museum in Silver Spring when I saw that they had a portion of Abraham Lincoln's shattered skull on display.  I have sailed the Potomac on Thanksgiving Day.  I have been to book signings where I met Dick Francis and Elizabeth Peters and many others.  I have picnicked along with many happy families.  My girls went to school in the area so I spent a lot of time at George Washington University and Marymount College.  My eldest grandchild was born at Georgetown University Hospital, but all remember nothing of that place, only the tightly swaddled, beautiful and calm infant that was placed in my arms that day.  The statues, the monuments, the National Cathedral, the parks, the museums, the historical sights, the many venues for culture and the arts, the restaurants, the theaters...all of them are etched in my memory.  I spent too many hours at the Washington Children's Hospital where so much was being done to help young people.  So, too, are the poorer sections of the city and the people of all stripes, colors, creeds, and ethnic origins, and the many rats that seemed to appear at night.  All of this -- the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the tacky -- combined to form a city that I love, a city that represents some of the best of America, and a city that has helped us move toward that more perfect nation we all strive for.

Things have changed now.  Efforts are being made to turn Washington, D.C., into another Trump Mar-a-Lago.  I compare the Hillwood Estate in Washington of Marjorie Merriweather Post to her other mansion, Mar-a-Lago in Peach Beach, which has been (in my considered opinion) demeaned and cheapened by its latest owner.  We once took a clipping of ivy from Hillwood that had originally been planted at Buckingham Palace and planted at our then house in Maryland; I fear that if we took anything from Mar-a-Lago today, it would rot and decay.

This promotional, educational comic book points out some of the magnificent and historic sights of Washington in the late 1950s, back when the White House had an East Wing that was not rubble and when tacky gold leaf was not the dominant aesthetic.

"Seeing Washington is designed to highlight but a few of the countless points of interest which annually attract millions of visitors to Our Nation's Capital.  The magazine is published by Commercial Comics, Inc., a firm specializing in the production of custom-made educational comic booklets for government, business and industry.

"It is our wish that this magazine will bring to everyone who reads it a better understanding of what Washington, D.C. means to our nation and to the world, and that it will arouse a greater appreciation for the privilege to say 'America, My Home.' "

The Washington, D.C. of my memory, the Washington, D.C. I knew, is part of my America.  With courage and determination, we can once again return this magnificent city to that shining beacon of freedom and liberty.

Enjoy this brief trip through my -- our -- city.  And Happy Fourth!

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102130&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE FURY AND THE TERROR

The Fury and the Terror  by John Farris, 2001

This is the first sequel to the author's bestselling horror novel The Fury, which was published twenty-five years earlier, sold more than a million copies, and was made into a major film starring Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving in 1978.  Farris has since published two further sequels:  The Fury and the Power (2003) and Avenging Fury (2008).  Knowledge of the first book is helpful, but not essential as the significant background details are revealed over the long course of The Fury and the Terror.

I mention the long course of the book because it is a sprawling work covering an array of themes.  Although set in contemporary times (with many cultural references to date it), it portrays an America just bursting with people with newly-found psychic powers who are hiding behind the scenes.  Two opposing political groups are vying for supremacy.

MORG is a secret paramilitary group with unlimited funds and power that is working to subvert the Constitution and brings about a Fascist rule; it is run by the unscrupulous Victor Wilding, the lover of First Lady Rona Harvester.  The two have managed to "brain block" Rona's husband, the President, who now sits in a vegetative state in a secret location, supposedly recover from a stroke.  Wilding is actually a psychic doppelganger of Robin Sandza, a powerful teenage psychic who was thrown from a roof to his supposed death by his father at the end of the first book.   Robin lives, however, also in a forced vegetative state; if Robin dies, then Victor, as his doppelganger, would also die.

The other political is organized by the Director of the FBI and opposes MORG.  Both groups are evil and often resort to violence and murder to achieve their ends.  The director's son, using the name Geoff McIntyre, has been tasked to seduce young Eden Waring, who, unknown to her, may become the next Avatar, the powerful leader of psychics of many stripes and powers around the country.

The current Avatar, Kelane Cheng, had been captured by MORG and was being taken to their secret base in Plenty Coups, Montana, when she managed to psychically take over the controls of the airplane and crash it into a college graduation ceremony in Northern California.  The Valedictorian at the ceremony happened to be Eden, who suddenly had a vision of the impending air crash, and managed to get most of those present to safety.  Eden now finds herself on the run from both covert groups, as well as from confused citizens demanding an explanation.

Tom Sherard is a former South African big game hunter who had been married to the Avatar before Kelane, Gillian Bellevar, the daughter of rich and influential parents.  Now, here's where it gets tricky.  Gillian was the "psychic twin" of Robin Sandza.  Robin's father, Pete, impregnated Gillian in Robin's stead and Gillian gave birth to a baby girl, who turned out to be Eden.  Gillian's memory of the whole thing was psychically blocked.  Gillian was assassinated in a hail of bullets in front of Tom, who also bore the scars of the assassination attempt.  Now that Eden nis on the run, her grandmother, Katherine Bellevar, has asked Tom to find Eden and bring her granddaughter to her for safety from MORG.  And, yes, there is a history between Katherine and Rona.

Just to make things interesting, the country is still reeling from a nuclear attack that wiped out Portland Maine, secretly orchestrated by MORG.  Rona and Victor plan to release another nuclear device over the next few days in Madison, Wisconsin.  A shift in prevailing winds have forced them to shift their target to Nashville, where Garth Brooks will be performing to a crowd of over 70,000.  Can Tom, Eden, and a kick-ass high-fashion Somali-Chinese supermodel stop the explosion in time?  And can Eden's reluctant doppelganger (yes, she has one) aid in the defeat of MORG?

There's psychics galore, shape changers, ghost and revenants, time travel, other dimensions, incest, prophecy, and the Good Lord knows what else.  It's a lot to pack into some 500 pages of small type.

Confused?  Join the club.  But somehow it all makes sense.  Sort of.

An exciting, wide-ranging extravaganza that is hard to put down, with just a few (very few) hints of snark in the writing. 

John Farris (b. 1936, and still alive; he'll be 90 this month) is a best -selling author of horror, suspense, and /southern Gothic novels.  His first novels, beginning when he was 19, were crime and hardboiled mysteries.  His first bestselling novel, written when the author was twenty and published two years later, Harrison High (think Peyton Place set in a high school), was filmed as the Dick Clark vehicle Because They're Young in 1960; any problems with the film can be forgiven because it also starred Tuesday Weld.  From 1968 to 1974, Farris published five other Harrison High novels as paperback originals.  When Michael Calls, published in 1967, gave Farris a solid foothold into the horror/thriller genre.  It was filmed as ABC Movie of the Week starring Ben Gazarra, Elizabeth Ashley, and Michael Douglas in 1972.  The Fury, with its plethora of psychic intrigue, made the bestseller lists in 1976 and was the basis of the noted 1978 Brian DePalma film.  Among Farris's other bestselling books are All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By, Shatter, The Catacombs, The Uninvited, and Son of the Endless Night.  Despite some of his work being flamboyant, it is uniquely effective.  In 2001, Farris was presented with the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.  Although he has not published a novel since 2009, he did script a 2019 film, No Sin Unpunished.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: DR. WATSON MEETS SHERLOCK HOLMES (1954)

 Come back to the beginning.  The game is afoot!

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was a 1954-54 joint British and American venture starring Sir John Gielgud as Sherlock Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Dr. John Watson.  This episode was the first of sixteen produced, although only twelve were aired in England; the show was aired in the UK on the BBC Light Programme, and in the United States on the ABC network.

The series was produced by Harry Alan Towers and was directed by Val Gielgud, Sir John's brother; Val Gielgud would occasionally be featured on the series as Sherlock's brother, Mycroft.  The series was scripted by John Keir Cross.

This first episode, depicting the meeting between Holmes and Watson, was based on the first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, and on the first Holmes short story, "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" (also known as "Charles Augustus Milverton," "The Blackmailer," and "The First Case").  It first aired in the UK on October 5, 1954, and in the United States on January 2, 1955.  (Sir Arthir Conan Doyle based the short story on the real-life villain Charles Augustus Howell, an art dealer who preyed on many, including famous artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Howell died in 1880, his throat slit posthumously and a coin inserted in his mouth -- he may or may not have been still alive when his body was found, accounts differ.  Officially, the police concluded that he died of "pneumonic phthisis," which determination avoided a public inquiry; the circumstances of his death have never been satisfactorily explained.  According to scholar Richard Lancelyn Green, Doyl's short story was also inspired by the A. J. Raffles short story "Willful Murder" by Doyle's brother-in-law, E. J. Hornung.)

Also featured in the cast were Philip Leaver as Middleton, John Cazabon as Inspector Lestrade, Norman Claridge as Stamford, and Monica Gray as "the woman" -- not, mind you, The Woman, whom as we all know was Irene Adler; her appearance was to wait until the next episode of the series, "A Scandal in Bohemia," in which she was played by Margaret Ward; I'll try to bring you that episode shortly.

In the meantime, enjoy this bit of Holmesian history, mystery, and deduction:

(2739) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Dr. Watson meets Sherlock Holmes - John Gielgud - 1954 - YouTube

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE LADY FROM YESTERDAY

"The Lady from Yesterday" by Jeremiah Healy  (published in the MWA anthology Blood on their Hands, edited by Lawrence Block, 2003)

Jeremiah Healy (1948-2014) was a lawyer, academic, and crime novelist best known for his character John Francis Cuddy, a Boston private investigator.  As "Terry Devane," he also penned three legal thrillers and one short story featuring defense attorney Mairead O'Clair.  "The Lady from Yesterday" is one of at least three short stories to feature Lauderdale "tennis bum" and private eye Rory Calhoun, (whose mother had a thing for the mid-20th century actor).

Calhoun is approached at the Lauderdale Tennis Club by Monica Lewis, an veteran exotic dancer whose career is on the downswing due to age and gravity.  Monica is the primary suspect in the murder of Tara "T.N.T." Tate, an up-and-coming dancer at the Cottontails, the "gentleman's club" where both worked.  The night before Tara was killed, she and Monica had gotten into an argument, during which Tara had scratched Monica on the arm, leaving Monica's DNA under her fingernails.  That, plus the fact that Tara was bucking for the top spot at the club, replacing Monica, provided enough  motive to convince the incompetent detective in charge of the case that Monica was guilty.  Monica wanted Rory to investigate and prove that she did not murder Tara.  Rory felt uneasy because it was still an open case with the police and turned Monica down.

The following day, the newspaper headline read SECOND DANCER'S DEATH SOLVES FIRST.  Monica was presumed to have hung herself either out of guilt, or because the police were closing in.  Rory went to see the cop in charge, who was all too willing to have everything tied up in a nice, neat package.  Because of his own feeling of guilt, Rory decides to investigate.

After talking with Rocky, the hard-shelled female owner/manager of Cottontails, Rory up with three people he wanted to talk to:  "The Professor," a steady customer who would come not just to ogle, but to stare at Tara; Lacey Peevers, another dancer at the club, who would most likely taken over Monica's spot if Tara had not arrived on the scene; and Tara's husband, Barry Cardiff, who did not want Tara dancing at all, resented when she went on tour throughout the South, and had to stay at home taking care of his invalid mother while Tara was off shaking her booty.  Rocky also told Rory that Tara was saving every bit of money she could to build a nest egg and retire from the business and that Tare had told she had almost accrued enough money for that purpose.

The Professor turned out to be Jason Nolan, an English teacher at the local college, and who claimed to appreciate exotic dance as an art form and quoted various works of literature to prove his point.  He told Rory that he suspected Tara's murderer was actually Lacey Peevers.

Lacy Peevers turned out to be a young mother devoted more to her infant son than to her dance career.  She suspected the Professor.

Barry Cardiff was a man who, despite everything, still loved his wife.  He suspected that Tara was having affairs while she was on the road -- sometimes for a month or more -- and that he had recently learned that Tara was turning tricks and filming herself with unsuspecting men for blackmail; he gave Rory a recording marked TARA DOES FRANK that he had found hidden in her bureau after she had been killed.  Cardiff also resented that Tara refused to help him care for his mother, who was basically a vegetable for the past two and a half years but showed no sign of dying.  But Cardiff had loved Tara deeply.  He thought Monica was the person who had killed her.

The case seemed to be leading nowhere, and Rory's obsession with it was affecting his concentration on his tennis game.  While Rory was trying to limber up, Don Floyd, an eighty-year-old tennis pro, noted that Rory was concentrating too hard on his first serve.  He said, "Rory, when I can't ever get the first one in, I generally try to focus on the second service."

Bingo!  The second service!  Rory suddenly knew which of his three suspects was guilty...

An interesting story, but very flawed.  First, we have to accept that the murderer was one of the three suspects, leaving out anyone else Tara might have met or blackmailed while building up her cash reserve, and that includes the anonymous "Frank" from the porno tape.  Also, Monica was a heavy drug user, with track marks on her arms.  She had worn a long-sleeved blouse when Rory had met her, so he didn't notice, but I find it hard to picture a stripper being able hide such track marks while performing.  And, Rory's solution to the puzzle was just a guess, nothing more.  He had to set a trap to be sure.  And the denouement to the story was very unsatisfying, leaving Monica as the murderer in the eyes of the public, and not clearing her name -- which is what she had wanted Rory to do.

Basically, a by-the-numbers story that clearly shows that Healy expended his energy and talent far more his stories about John Francis Cuddy that Rory Calhoun.  Is it still worth reading?  Yeah, I think so, but just don't expect a Cuddy-like plot or experience.

Jeremiah Healey was an interesting character.  He approached his writing career much like the lawyer he was, examining pros and cons and building a case from the ground up.  He had researched the novel market and learned that some 70% of novels at the tine were bought by women so he deliberately shaped the Cuddy character to appeal to that market, while retaining many of the private eye tropes that have made the genre so popular.  He attacked issues of the day,  but not in a hardboiled manner -- more like soft-boiled with a hard edge.  During interviews, he laid his many books in front of him, using them as props and evidence, picking each on up as he pointed out plots and themes in each; the attorney in him was selling his entire career and not just his latest release.  As a law professor at the New England School of Law, he prided himself on being a hard-ass, wanting to push his students to be the very best they could be.  Healy was personable, generous, and had a great sense of humor.  I remember him taking newly published, first-time author Brendan DuBois aside and giving him useful career tips (DuBois, who was a talented writer from the start, went on to have a long career, publishing 29 novels, until his own personal demons derailed it in 2024); Healy also gave his time, support, and knowing advice to many other writers.  He served as president of the Private Eye Writers of America  (travelling the roads in his Volkswagon, dubbed "PWI-One") and the International Association of Crime Writers.  I did not know him very well, but I liked him a lot.  He survived a bout of prostate cancer in 2003 (about the time of the writing of "The Lady from Yesterday," which may have affected the quality of the story -- my speculation only).  I was surprised and saddened when I learned that he had committed suicide at age 66 in 2014.  He had evidently been suffering from depression, a disease that can destroy the best of us.