MONSTER HOLIDAY by Lon Chaney, Jr.

And now, one of everyone's most beloved Christmas carols . . .

Art Gallery: Conan of Pastichia

1990

1989

1994

Just Looking: Murder From the East by Carroll John Daly (1978 reprint)

Tom (Black Dog) Roberts - Award-Winning Western Author!

Thanks to Mr. J.M. Reasoner for this tip . . .

We now have proof that Tom Roberts, publisher of many fine story collections under the Black Dog Books imprint, is also a fine storyteller himself.  He's one of the cash prize winners of the first annual Rope and Wire Short Story Competition. Tom's story "Toby" is ready for your reading pleasure right HERE.

Meanwhile, Black Dog Books keeps chugging along. Among the many mystery, fantasy, adventure and horror titles available are the two western collections below, both highly recommended by yours truly. Visit BLACK DOG BOOKS and check them out!

Art Gallery: Johnny Mack Brown

1941

1942

1936

Christmas Songs by The Beatles??

Nah. But this may be the next best thing, by Beatles tribute band The Fab Four. I ran this post for last month's Forgotten Music, but it happened to fall on Thanksgiving Day, and I reckon most folks were too busy to listen. So here's another shot.

When it comes to Christmas music, I'm a Scrooge. Give me anything else, please! But a few years back my friend Drew Bentley, former rockin' deejay idol of the Omaha airwaves, sent me these two albums, released in 2002. I've since hauled them out at least once a year, and they always give me a smile. Each song is based on familiar Beatles tune, and you'll hear a lot of familiar riffs. I'd challenge you to guess which song is which, but YouTube spills the beans.

I see the original CDs are now pretty expensive (at least on Amazon), but you can get a digital download of Hark! for $8.99. This was a later release combining all 20 songs from the two albums above. It's also available in CD form on the band's website, HERE.

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Joy to the World

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Frosty the Snowman

Jingle Bells

Good King Wenceslas

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Let It Snow

Blue Christmas

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Forgotten Books: DECOY by Cleve F. Adams

Decoy, published in 1941, is the third book in the Rex McBride series, and also Cleve F. Adams’ third novel. I reviewed the first two, Sabotage and And Sudden Death in earlier Forgotten Books posts, and invite you to take a look.

Decoy picks up shortly after the events in And Sudden Death, in which McBride foiled a pre-war plot by Japanese agents. Rex is throwing an extravagant party at a fancy hotel to spend some of dough he made on the previous job. That’s when his usual employers, the execs of an insurance company, come begging him to take on a new case.

Three commercial airliners have crashed (one burning with all passengers) and the insurance companies are taking it in the shorts. When a fourth plane vanishes completely, they come begging McBride to save them. McBride tells them to go to hell until he learns that another insurance investigator - a man he likes - has also gone missing. His takes the case to find out what happened to his friend.

Rex McBride is never quite comfortable in his skin. He wear expensive clothes and drinks good liquor (or any other kind), but never forgets his roots. He came from the gutter, and is more at home with cab drivers, bellhops, barflies and petty grifters than with folks in his own income bracket. He has nothing but contempt for the insurance execs and captains of industry who employ him. They're phonies who pretend to have clean hands, but hire McBride to do their dirty work for them.

A stock element of Adams’ books is a temporary sidekick/drinking partner for the hero. In this one, that role goes to a down-on-his-luck pilot who’s lost his license to fly. He helps McBride in some tasks, but more often just helps him get into trouble. Every Adams novel also features at least one deadly dame who tries to cozy up to the detective, usually for nefarious purposes. Somehow, the hero’s inamorata (in McBride’s case that’s Miss Kay Ford, secretary to an insurance exec) always manages to walk in on one of the cozier moments and get her nose out of joint.

This evil babe factor was all the excuse a British publisher needed to issue a 1956 reprint under the title Decoy Doll. In the U.S., the 1944 Books Inc hardcover reprint isn't too hard to come by, but as far as I know the only paperback edition was an early Handi-books abridgment. Too bad. This is a good read. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe a youngster named James M. Reasoner, from a 1982 issue of The Not So Private Eye:

 

Adams' distinct prose style is tough to describe, but I find it infectious. It's what keeps me coming back for more. If you haven't tried him, click HERE for a complete 1938 novelette from Detective Fiction Weekly called "Jigsaw."

And after that, be sure to check out the latest slew of Forgotten Books at pattinase.

Art Gallery: The Prisoner - the Authorized Sequel (1988)