Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

I've got the re-issue of this with the 'Paperbacks from Hell' banner on the cover, but I don't have that reading guide, and I didn't go to this novel from that angle. But this book is part of a long list of 'Further Recommendations' included at the back of a 'Horror: 100 Best Books' reading guide from around 1988, and I'm being the eventual completist about the main '100' there, and all bonus suggestions.

Just how sad am I gonna get, through all this?

Very enjoyable. However, if I had known - and I probably should have seen it coming, if I had just given it a little attention - if I had known this was going to be so much like a Freeman Wills Crofts novel, I wouldn’t have picked it so close to Found Floating. But it’s okay; flipping that to a positive, at least I get to do a detailed comparison. Firstly, Onitsura is almost a bachelor version of Inspector French…

This is part of a 30-book TBR I had designated for Sept. 21-Dec. 21 - call it Fall - but I'm used to reading a lot of Horror starting Sept. 1st, to Oct. 31st. So, my 'Horror and Creepy Mysteries' reading project has turned into a 'Sept. 1st to Dec. 21st' reading project (I'll probably be done before Dec. 21). Clear? Anyway, I've been wanting to get to my first Tessier novel for a long time, and here we go!

I should be able to read this entire book tomorrow morning. If I love it, it will go fast. If I do not love it, I will be inspired to make it go even faster.

Wow. Only 4 books left in my Summer of John Dickson Carr and Friends reading project. This was a late substitution, but I wanna get out of England or the USA for at least one book. I’ve also swapped out an Anthony Berkeley novel at the last minute, just for the childish reason of having two whodunits with trains on the cover! Meanwhile, I will be starting my Horror and Creepy Mystery reading project soon…

Loving it.

I’m sure I got recommended this book by a list of “neglected SF” picks, where I also found out about Motorman, and which I originally discovered by Googling an obscure SF novel I had just read (it’s on the list, hence the link showing up). But I don’t think this book has ever been marketed as Science Fiction. This is the kind of stuff I love to find out about, though…bring me your neglected, your mis-labeled…!

I wasn’t sure I was in the mood for this sort of thing…but once I gave it a chance, I’m reminded that I do like Cabell’s style and strangeness. We’ll see if he can match The High Place. This will be my third by JBC. It’s fun.

I like these stories, but they’re tricky. They seem straightforward, but they are not. One has to try and understand…

Of the three John Dickson Carr novels I have left for my summer reading challenge, this is the last one I have that is not a Historical Mystery. It will be my final visit with Sir Henry Merrivale for a while, and who knows when I’ll be with Dr Gideon Fell again. But, the first JDC book I ever read was one of his Historical Mysteries - with time travel! - called The Devil in Velvet. So, I’m ready for more…

I have two suspects in mind...but one is a little more obvious, to the point of even being on the radar of French and the other coppers, during their discussions. One is a little more outlandish, but of course a suspect really "hidden in the shadows/person least suspected", and all that, can be a good one to latch on to.

I’m glad I decided to read the ‘extra’ sections that have been re-inserted into this novel after decades…where a retired Scotland Yard detective interrupts Crofts’ chapters with his attempts to solve the case. This seems no more a momentum-killing interruption than the fictional equivalent of 30 or so pages of verbal-summarizing-and-theorizing dialogue between a sleuth and a copper in a JDC novel…but done in 8 pages!

I’m really enjoying this; it’s a good one to read amidst all the John Dickson Carr novels I’ve digested recently, because we have something resembling an “Impossible Crime” situation here…and that’s just a prelude to worse yet to come! The fun I have had with my 30-book Summer reading project has inspired me to create new projects for Fall, and Winter.

So, this latest edition includes the sections that show up intermittently, added by a Scotland Yard Detective who was asked to try and solve the case. This was inspired by the success of a short-story book called Six Against the Yard, which had the same bonus feature. I could live without this, as it will kill momentum just a tad; plus, I prefer to work on a whodunit "by myself". But I'll read the added sections.

The back of my old Dell First Edition paperback says "With over 5 million copies of his scorching books in print, FRANK KANE is recognized as one of the world's top writers of mystery and suspense.". From that, to out of print and the void of obscurity...while Hammett and Chandler, even Spillane, keep coming back into print. And all I do is confuse Frank Kane with Henry Kane, so that doesn't help! Good book, though.

Sleazy start, full of conniving people. Someone probably gonna get dead. I think this should be fun.

‘The Prayer’, by Violet Hunt, was a bit of a recovery from what’s been going on in this book for a while, and as depressing as it was, I liked it a lot. This book is relentlessly perplexing…most of the stories are Horror stories, not Crime tales. The title of the book is completely misleading. It does taint one’s attitude to the book.