Next Friday (Jan. 25) Todd Mason will handle the links. On Feb. 1 it's back to me, then Todd on Feb. 8, me again on Feb. 15, and Todd on Feb. 22. Are you dizzy yet?
These fine reviews are up now:
Patti Abbott: The Assault by Harry Mullish
Joe Barone: Good Behavior by Donald E. Westlake
Brian Busby: The works of Gwethalyn Graham
Bill Crider: Buffalo Hunter: Hellhole by Ralph Hayes
Scott Cupp: Wave Rider by Hilbert Schenk
Martin Edwards: Burglars in Buck by G.D.H and Margaret Cole
Curt Evans: Mr. Campion's Farthing by Philip Youngman Carter
Jerry House: The Metal Monster by A. Merritt
Randy Johnson: Blood of the Breed by T.V. Olsen
Nick Jones: Unknown Man #89 by Elmore Leonard
George Kelley: Totally Mad: John Ficarra, ed.
Rob Kitchin: Go With Me by Castle Freeman
B.V. Lawson: Naked Villainy by Sara Woods
Todd Mason: Some first issues of fantasy magazines
Mike Slind: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Steve Nester: Bimini Run by E. Howard Hunt
J.F. Norris: The Dark Light by Bart Spicer
James Reasoner: The Farmers Hotel by John O'Hara
Richard Robinson: The Mankiller of Poojegai by Walter Satterthwait
Kathleen Ryan: The crime novels of Flannery O'Connor
Gerard Saylor: Dead in the Water by Ted Wood
Ron Scheer: The Hi Lo Country by Max Evans
Kevin Tipple: Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins
Prashant Trikannad: The Trojan Horse by Hammond Innes
Zybahn: The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton
I'll be updating this post as more reviews appear. If I miss yours, please let me know here - or at delewis1@hotmail.com.
AND HERE'S MINE:
CLUES: Focus on Pulp Detective Fiction
OK, this is technically a magazine, not a book. But it looks like a book, feels like a book and reads like a book, and I'm sort of prejudiced because I have an article in it, so I'm cutting it some slack.
This Fall/Winter 1981 issue of CLUES leads off with four scholarly articles with titles like "The Detective as Therapist" and "A Dream of Reason" by folks I've no doubt were (or still are) respected scholars in the field. But I have to admit I never paid any attention to that stuff. For me, the mag began on page 38 and ran all the way to page 153. This was the special "Indepth Section on Pulp Detective Fiction" edited by E.R. Hagemann. I read and enjoyed every word of that section, and have referred back to it several times over the years.
At the time, Prof. Hagemann was working on his book A Comprehensive Index to Black Mask, 1920-1951, and had made a lot of contacts in the world of detective pulps. He gathered many of those contacts together here, to produce what I believe is STILL one of the best single volumes on the subject.
This Fall/Winter 1981 issue of CLUES leads off with four scholarly articles with titles like "The Detective as Therapist" and "A Dream of Reason" by folks I've no doubt were (or still are) respected scholars in the field. But I have to admit I never paid any attention to that stuff. For me, the mag began on page 38 and ran all the way to page 153. This was the special "Indepth Section on Pulp Detective Fiction" edited by E.R. Hagemann. I read and enjoyed every word of that section, and have referred back to it several times over the years.
At the time, Prof. Hagemann was working on his book A Comprehensive Index to Black Mask, 1920-1951, and had made a lot of contacts in the world of detective pulps. He gathered many of those contacts together here, to produce what I believe is STILL one of the best single volumes on the subject.
Here's the line-up:
A Walk in the Pulpwoods: Random Recollections by William F. Nolan (this being a memoir about growing up reading pulps and beginning his career at the tail end of the era)
Ante-Bellem Days or "My Roscoe Sneezed Ka-Chee" by Bill Pronzini (a study of Robert Leslie Bellem's Dan Turner, including a selection of some of his most outrageous language)
Break It Up! by Robert Leslie Bellem (a brief article on how to write for the pulps, reprinted from a 1944 issue of Writer's Digest)
More Mystery for a Dime: Street & Smith and the First Pulp Detective Magazine by J. Randolph Cox (an introduction to and history of Street & Smith's Detective Story)
Life as a Series of Abstract Analyses by Robert Sampson (an indepth study of T.S. Stribling's Dr. Poggioli series)
The Barbless Arrow by Herman Peterson (a complete story reprinted in facsimile from Action Stories)
Ho-Hoh to Satan: Detective Fiction Weekly's Nutty Series Heroes of the 1930s by Bernard A. Drew (and yes, this group included Richard Sale's Daffy Dill and Carroll John Daly's Satan Hall)
"There's No Sex in Crime": The Two-Fisted Homilies of Race Williams by Michael S. Baron
The Ambulating Lady by Carroll John Daly (a how to write for the pulps piece from Writer's Digest, 1947)
The Backbone of Black Mask by Dave Lewis (me in a former life) (a short bio and study of Frederick Nebel's detective fiction)
Lester Dent, the Last of Joe Shaw's Black Mask Boys by Will Murray
Including Murder: An Unpublished Hammett Collection by Robert S. Powell (the rundown on a story collection Hammett considered assembling back in 1925)
Cap Shaw and his "Great Regular Fellows": The Making of The Hard-Boiled Omnibus, 1945-1946 by E.R. Hagemann.
Thanks for hosting FFB this week!
ReplyDeleteHear hear! It's a thankless task, I'm sure – so thank you!
ReplyDeleteNot thankless at all, Nick. As you see, I got two already, plus one from Patti.
ReplyDeleteWell, I get to thank you for inspiring my substitute post (still in its larval form) as well as hosting this week...and perhaps the other articles in that issue of CLUES are worth a look, too...but that central section would be where most of my eyetracks would be found, as well...
ReplyDeleteI have one that I was lead to by a previous FFB post.
ReplyDeletehttp://booksareforsquares.blogspot.com/2013/01/done-dead-in-water-by-ted-wood.html
Thanks Gerard!
ReplyDeleteHi Evan, Thanks for posting my review, but you posted one from December. This week I've tackled Michael Crichton's second novel, The Terminal Man: Casual Debris.
ReplyDeleteThanks for updating.
Thank you, Z. I fixed it.
ReplyDeleteI love CLUES. It is online now and I love reading it.
ReplyDeleteEvan -
ReplyDeleteWill you please add me to the list of usual suspects? Here's the link to my post on The Dark Lgiht by Bart Spicer.
Thanks for filling in for Patti, too!
John
You might want to include Jeff Pierce's contribution at "The Rap Sheet" as well:
ReplyDeletehttp://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-book-you-have-to-read-bimini-run-by.html
Thanks John. Gotcha covered.
ReplyDeleteThanks. You should correct the link for The Name of the Rose. The author of the Only Detect website is Mike Slind, not Neer.
ReplyDeleteWill do.
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