Jerry's House of Everything

Monday, August 13, 2012

INCOMING

Jan Adkins, Young Zorro: The Iron Brand. Once upon a time there was a bold renegade who carved a Z with his blade. This one is based on Isabelle Allende's novel Zorro, rather than Johnston McCully's Zorro. BTW, this one is bylined Diego Vega, "as told to" Jan Adkins.
Lloyd Alexander, Westmark. YA fantasy.
Robert Asprin, Sweet Myth-tery of Life. Number ten in the humorous fantasy series.
Michael Bishop, Unicorn Mountain. Fantasy
Marion Zimmer Bradley, Lythande. Collection of five heroic fantasy stories in the shared-world universe of Thieves' World, with a bonus story by Vonda McIntyre.
Reginald Bretnor, editor, Science Fiction, Today and Tomorrow. Fifteen articles by top science fiction writers of the Seventies; a follow-up to Bretnor's 1953 symposium Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future.
Ramsey Campbell, The Nameless. Horror.
Hal Cannon, editor, Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering. I'm sad to say that I don't know much about cowboy poetry and that the only poets in this book that I've heard of are S. Omar Barker and Baxter Black, but this collection seems like a gem.
George C. Chesbro, Dark Chant in a Crimson Key. A Mongo mystery novel.
James Crumley, The Right Madness. A C. W. Sughrue mystery. This copy is a 2005 ARC.
Gordon R. Dickson with Roland Green, Jamie the Red. Another fantasy in the Thieves' World universe.
Carole Nelson Douglas, editor, Midnight Louie's Pet Detectives. Mystery anthology with seventeen stories.
David Drake and Bill Fawcett, editors, Battlestation: Book Two: Vanguard. Anthology with twelve military SF stories.
Bill Eidson, The Mayday. A Jack Merchant & Sarah Ballard thriller published under the Kate's Mystery Books imprint. I've never gone wrong with any of Kate's suggestions.
Peter Berresford Ellis, Celtic Myths and Legends. Nonfiction. Ellis, a Celtic authority, is also mystery writer "Peter Tremayne."
Michael Gilbert, The Killing of Katie Steelstock. Mystery.
Martin H. Greenberg (with others), editor, Murder Most, an omnibus collection of three anthologies: Murder Most Romantic (edited by Greenberg and Denise Little, twelve stories), Murder Most Medieval (edited by Greenberg and John Helfers, thirteen stories), and Murder Most Divine (edited by Ralph McInerny and Greenberg, eighteen stories).
"Alfred Hitchcock", editor, Alfred Hitchcock's Skull Session. Fourteen stories from Alfed Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
Ruby Jean Jensen, Death Stone. Horror.
Cameron Judd, The Treasure of Jericho Mountain. Western.
Garry Kilworth, Attica. YA fantasy.
Victor C. Klein, New Orleans Ghosts. Collection of ghostly legends from the Big Easy. Interestingly, the previous owner left a bookmark -- a photo of Anne Rice's house in the Garden District of New Orleans.
Louis L'Amour, Sitka. Northwestern.
Tanith Lee, Piratica II: Return to Parrot Island. YA fantasy wherein buckles are swashed.
Patricia MacDonald, Mother's Day. Suspense.
"Michael Marshall" (Michael Marshall Smith), Blood of Angels. Horror novel, the conclusion to The Straw Men trilogy.
Douglas R. Mason, Eight Against Utopia. SF. Originally titled, From Carthage Then I Came.
Barbara Neely, Blanche on the Lam. Mystery.
Sara Paretsky, editor, Sisters on the Case. Twenty stories to celebrate twenty years of Sisters in Crime.
T. Jefferson Parker, California Girl. Mystery, an Edgar-winning novel.
Stewart Robb, translator and "interpreter", Prophecies on World Events by Nostradamus. Quackery.
"J. R. Roberts" (Robert Randisi), The Gunsmith #260: Faces of the Dead. Adult western. I truly believe that Randisi does not sleep.
Greg Rucka, Critical Space. Suspense, an Atticus Kodiak thriller.
Fed Saberhagen, Berserker's Planet and The Lost Swords: The Second Triad (containing The Fourth Book of Swords: Farslayer's Story, The Fifth Book of Swords: Coinspinner's Story, and The Sixth Book of Swords: Mindsword's Story). Books from two of Saberhagan's most popular series.
E. E. "Doc" Smith with Stephen Goldin, The Family D'Alembert Series #2: Stranglers' Moon. SF, written by Golden and copyrighted by Smith's widow.
Ian Wallace, The World Asunder. SF, with one of the worst cover paintings ever.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

HYMN TIME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMbxg5jh0Fo

Friday, August 10, 2012

FORGOTTEN BOOK: TALES FOR A RAINY NIGHT

Tales for a Rainy Night edited by David Alexander (1962)

Not much time to post something for today's Forgotten Books. We just rescued an eight-year-old Black Lab from the animal shelter and most of our time will be spent getting to know one another. It seems to be working out and he is a sweet dog, but for today's post, I'm going to reach back in memory to pluck out a book I read years ago.

     David Alexander (1907-1973) published fifteen mystery novel from 1951 to 1962, many of which were reprinted by Bantam Books during those two decades. One non-series novel, The Madhouse in Washington Square (1958), was nominated for an Edgar award. Alexander is best known for his series of eight novels featuring Broadway columnist Bret Hardin; other series characters were Tommy Twotoes and Terry Rooke (Twotoes was a penguin fancier, Rooke a private detective), Marty Land (a Broadway lawyer), and Lieutenant Romano (who was usually featured with Bret Hardin but soloed in one book). Alexander also produced a respected collection of short stories, Hangman's Dozen (1961). In his later years, Alexander returned to his first love as a horse racing as a columnist and nonfiction author.

    Alexander's plots were unusual (murder in a flea circus, a mad ventriloquist, a card-carrying homicidal maniac, etc.) so it's no wonder that this anthology is crammed with eighteen unusual crime stories covering the gamut from detection to humor to horror.

     The Mystery Writers of America used to issue an annual anthology edited by a different member each year and containing short stories by active members; each editor seems to have been given complete autonomy over the volume, its theme (if any), and its tone. (The MWA anthologies still continue, I believe, but not on an annual basis. [Please let me know if I'm wrong about this.]) Tales for a Rainy Night was the fourteenth in the series.

     Check out the table of contents. I'veincluded the original publication information, when known.

Robert by Stanley Ellin (Sleuth Mystery Magazine, October 1958)
The Human Chair by Edogawa Rampo, the influential Japanese mystery author (originally published in 1925 in Japan -- a classic)
Pressure by Morris Hershman (Manhunt, February 1958, as by "Arnold English")
The Murder of George Washington by Richard M. Gordon (originally published in 1959, in EQMM, if I recall correctly)
The Widow of Ephesus by Margaret Manners (originally published in 1958)
Lost Leader by Michael Gilbert (Argosy [UK], November 1957, as "The Merry Band")
Doctor's Orders by John F. Suter (EQMM, May 1959)
Walking Alone by Miriam Allen deFord (EQMM, October 1957)
The Twenty Friends of William Shaw by Raymond E. Banks (Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine, March 1960)
Inspector's Lunch by Donald A. Yates (originally published in Britain in 1955; The Saint Mystery Magazine, May 1959)
Reflection on Murder by Nedra Tyre (originally published in 1958)
West Riding in Maryland by Maurice Procter (originally published in 1956)
The Pink Caterpillar by Anthony Boucher (Adventure Magazine, February 1945)
Flash Attachment by "Dell Shannon" (Elizabeth Linington) (original publication?)
Death and the Compass by Jorge Luis Borges (English translation [by Donald A. Yates?] original to this volume?)
Have You Lost Your Head? by Joseph Commings (original publication?)
The Child Watcher by Ernest Harrison (EQMM, October 1958)
View From the Terrace by Mike Marmer (Cosmopolitan, December 1960)

     Some of the above authors are familiar to today's reader (Boucher, Borges, Ellin), many more should be (Commings, Shannon, Proctor, Tyre). Hershman is (thankfully) still with us. Yates is a well-known scholar and translator. Gilbert was one of England's brightest detection writers. Some of Commings' pulp stories were recently collected by Crippen & Landru. Gordon published a baker's dozen of ingenious stories and poems in EQMM that I still remember fondly. Suter may be best remembered for his series of "Uncle Abner" detective pastiches. DeFord is not best known for her Dr. Sam:Johnson stories, because she didn't write them; Lillian de la Torre did. (I had a brain fart when I wrote that mistake) DeFord wrote mysteries, SF, and true crime (winning an Edgar in that last catagory); she was also once an assistant to Charles Fort, investigating "impossible" occurances. Banks was also a popular writer of SF and mysteries. Marmer I keep confusing with Arnold Marmor. Manners wrote a number of notable short stories in the field. I don't know anything about Harrison.

     What I do know is the each story in this book is a tiny gem -- I remember wishing this book were much longer. Alexander did a fantastic job on his sole etitorial stint. Copies are readily and cheaply available from on-line sellers. Recommended.

**********

      For more of today's Friday's Forgotten Books, go to pattinase.com where Patti Abbott will have more reviews and the links.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

ODD APOCALYPSE

Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz (2012)

I still have not figured out why I am a Dean Koontz fan. His books can be manipulative and his themes repetative. Somehow they work for me. His character Odd Thomas, fry cook extraordinaire and defender of the innocent, rings looud and clear.

     The rambling narrative of the book reflects Odd's talent of psychic magnetism. Odd can find just about anything or anyone; he places an image in his mind and begins walking in any direction, his subconscience eventually leading him to the object or person he was seeking. As he narrates this book, Odd slowly discovers his purpose within its framework. And Odd himself tells us that his writer friend Ozzie Boone has told him to keep his stories light for, if he did not, his adventures might be to horrible to read. These to factors combined may be off-putting for some readers but, as I said, they work for me.

     Odd Apocalyse starts soon after the events in the preceding book in the series, Odd Hours. Odd and Annamaria, the strange pregnant woman he met in Odd Hours, are stating in the guest house on Noah Wolflaw's vast estate, Roseland. Wolflaw has an undefinable fasciniation for Annamaria. Roseland, built in the 1920's by a newpaper mogul who had switched to producing silent films, has an unusaul aura about it. The house and grounds are both in perfect condition and remain so, even though there is no evidence of anyone maintaining the property. The half a dozen members of the estate's staff seem to go through the motions of their duties without ever performing them.

     A woman's ghost tries to communicate with Odd. She is a beautiful nightgowned blonde on a black stallion, a bloodied gunshot wound plaining visible over her heart. Odd can see ghosts of the lingering dead -- those who, for some reason, cannot travel on. The ghosts, however, are always silent and Odd's task is to find out what they want from him. Slowly he learns that the ghost had been Noah Wolflaw's wife and that her ten-year old son is in danger.

     Soon reality is shifting around Odd. People -- not ghosts -- appear and vanish without warning. Night comes at midday. Giant, mutated, deadly hog-like creatures invade the estate. Leathery bat-like monsters swarm the sky. Odd stumbles upon dead women, thirty-five of them, all appranetly freshly dead, visciously slain and laid out nude in obscene poses, the last -- the only one not nude, is of the ghostly woman who rode the black stallion. In a deserted room, he finds the ten-year-old boy who has been held a prisoner for eighty-five years while remaininig in a boy's body. And Odd meets the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock and the energy (can't really call him a ghost) of Nikolai Tesla.

     True to the book's title, there is an apocalyse coming -- or perhaps has already come.

     This adventure will take Odd to the darkest part of his soul and may change him permanently.

     Odd Apocalypse is the fifth book in the series, following Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, and Odd Hours. The penultimate book in the series, Deeply Odd, will be published on March 12, 2013. Koontz has also written a three-part adventure, Odd Interlude, available only as e-Books. In addition, Koontzhas published three graphic novels about the character: In Odd We Trust (writen with and drawn by Queenie Chan), Odd Is on Our Side (written with Fred van Lente and drawn by Chan), and House of Odd (written with van Lente and drawn by Chan). On Koontz's website there is "Odd Passenger" (a four-part web-episode), some trailers and a video bio of Odd Thomas. To my kowledge that is all Koontz has written/sponsored thus far about the character.

    With only two more novels to go, I will deeply miss Koontz's gentle fry-cook.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

From Up-To-Date Minstrel Jokes, compiled by H. H. Wheeler (1902). This one was one of the least offensive, even though it gives a tacit nod to racism and abuse. (In this instance times have changed for the better.)

Tambo.--Did you see that lady I was walking down the street with to-day?
Int.--I certainly did.
Tambo.--That's my best girl. Did you see that black silk dress she had on?
Int.--Yes.
Tambo.--I gave her that.
Int.--Did you?
Tambo.--Did you see those solitaire diamonds she had in her ears?
Int.--Yes.
Tambo.--They cost me three hundred dollars. I gave her them.
Int. (with surprise)--Did you?
Tambo.--She's very pretty--nice black eyes hasn't she? Did you notice those black eyes?
Int.--I should I did.
Tambo.--I gave her them.
Int.--Did you?
Tambo.--And of course you saw that little baby she had?
Int.--Yes, a very pretty child.
Tambo.--That belongs to her sister.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

FREE LOVECRAFT MOVIES

Watch 'em now!

http://lovecraftzine.com/2012/08/06/a-list-of-free-lovecraftian-movies/