Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

This seems like a natural for ‘Giallo July’. There was a recent video featuring Tarantino praising the film version of Japrisot’s The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun, and saying it’s much in the style of a Giallo film. That novel is my fave by Japrisot so far - and we’ll see how this one compares.

I’m absolutely loving it. Just what I wanted. Action, a Mystery, great SF world-building; the characters are strong. There are a few turns of phrase in here that reveal it was written in 1981…but I’m not being bombarded with content that hasn’t aged well. I may have to seek out books 1 and 3.

Despite this being the exact opposite of everything I thought it was going to be, I’m loving it.

McQuay was hit or miss for me, but I stayed loyal to him - and then I read his novel Memories, which lives in the realm of my Top Ten SF Books of ever. I read it Summer of 2003, just before going to TorCon…and I remember I got to describe a scene from it to author Liz Williams, at a forum about sex in SF, at that Convention. Anyway, Memories is one of those mind-blowing books for me. Back to McQuay!

I’m not sure this actually has any supernatural Horror elements, even though that’s what I wanted as a break from doing two Crime/Mystery in a row for most of (Giallo) July. This sounds like a Crime Thriller - like a 1919 version of In a Lonely Place or Wisteria Cottage - so if I am doing yet another Crime story…that’s okay, but some SF for right after should be…wait, the SF I picked features a Private Eye?!

Really ecstatic over this one - it could be a big favourite of the year…unless it unravels anywhere in the last 100 pages.

Love it! Love the creep in yellow, plus everything else.

My sketchy attempt at something resembling ‘Giallo July’ has gone…decently, I guess. Been more Gothic than Gore-Fest, so I might wanna switch it up, at some point. I guess any Thriller or Detective novel qualifies, in the broadest sense. I am trying to read more Crime novels and Thrillers beyond even what is normal for me in a month…and I am excited about what is yet to come before it’s all over.

I’m going to finish this book up tomorrow, at the very latest. Um…things have been okay here, so far. I just read the Fu Manchu story - which, y’know, was always going to be at least slightly Cringe - and then the story after that also had some dated aspects. This hadn’t really been a problem up until these tales. Besides all that, the stories are decent, kind of fun, although the style is a bit clunk-oid.

I like it. It’s a bit like Celia Fremlin, or even Saskia Noort.

I’m gonna go with this just ahead of Boucher’s Nine Times Nine, even though that’s flipping around the original plan. It means I’m gonna read a book by an Ursula, followed by a book starring an Ursula…and, I might go to Murder Within Murder after Nine Times Nine. Title structure similarity, right? But I rarely read three of one genre in a row, so Boucher and the Lockridges may have a book between them.

Pretty intriguing first few chapters…with some dated content. Waiting for an ear in a box.

I found this in the basement of a Crime & Mystery bookstore, a thin book with an ugly green cover, full of SF stories mostly with schlocky titles, by an author I have never heard of. I had to force myself not to buy it. I failed.

I’ve decided, late, to read some stuff that is at least in the spirit of Giallo, for Giallo July. I’ll be sort of winging it, with what I have handy…but Scarlet Night is a good lead-in. I’ve got One for the Road, by Fredric Brown, and since he wrote the book that led to the movie The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, he’s in. I’ve got an Italian Crime novel, The Cold Summer. And some Etc.!! Like The Wasp!

This book looks eerie as Lake Erie and purty durn skeery. Me leery, not cheery, but gonna Gogh for it!

I love when something stupendous happens.