Odd Job #101, and Other Future Crimes and Intrigues

by Ron Goulart

Book by Goulart, Ron

166 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner.
Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award.

In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of some of Goulart's best early stories about detectives and investigators. Four of the stories originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, one is from Fantastic, one from the Infinity original anthology series, and one, improbably, was first published in Analog. (Analog was known for science and technology stories, not Goulart's brand of satire and humor.) Three of the stories feature Jose Silvera, Goulart's freelance writer who always seems to have trouble getting payment for his work on the planet Murdstone of the Barnum System. My favorite in the book is the title story, which introduces Odd Jobs, Inc., a detective service owned and operated by the married Pace couple, my pick as Goulart's best characters. (Here it's Jake and Hilda, not Hildy.) Though some bits and pieces haven't aged well (the stories range from 1961 to 1974), Goulart's sharp wit, charm, and no-holds-barred humor is always good for an eye-roll and a chuckle, and will brighten a dreary day.

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ron Goulart is not everybody's cup of tea; his stories have racy humor and sometimes violence in it. That said, these are six short crime-themed stories in the future with aliens, several of which take place in the world of Murdstone and featuring freelance ghost writer Silvera whose purpose in the stories he appears in is to get money that his customers owe him. By luck and subterfuge, he does, helping the good guys along the way.

As I said, if this material entertains you you are in luck.