Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Almost guaranteed to be the last novel-length Mystery novel I read before Halloween - and despite the snowy cover, it’s perfect for end of October (or even Halloween night). A seance in a Crime & Mystery novel is always welcome, by me, and this seance was a corker. This is book has come out of nowhere, but the Intro to the new edition, sets expectations quite high, with the comparison to JDC’s The Hollow Man.

I’m almost halfway, already. I may just go ahead and finish it tonight - it’s hard to put aside - or I’ll see how it all turns out tomorrow morning. Of course the last book I read that was a bit similar was River Girl, by Charles Williams. This one is even pulpier, IMO. I may have to find more ‘swamp noir’.

Eight pages in, and I feel intoxicated. Now that’s how you start a Crime novel! To read the first eight pages of this, immediately after reading the last one hundred and fifteen pages of Fredric Brown’s The Office, is to love life again. And to think I was going to leave the coffee shop after finishing The Office, without a taste of Whittington - that would have been an unwitting and dreadful mistake.

Enjoying this uncensored, original-manuscript version of The Office. I’m basically getting the same story I had with the 1958 Dutton edition, but just a few slight differences…well, if anything, it teaches me what you could expect to be cut from a ‘mainstream’-demographic novel.

Right - so according to the Introduction, this is the uncensored first version of The Office, Brown's original manuscript. Dutton, when they published it in 1958, cleaned out certain 'naughty' words and phrases. I don't own the Dutton edition anymore, so I won't be able to compare in detail, but I've already hit a few words I don't think I recall from the censored edition. I guess the story will be the same.

This is a re-read - or is it, really? I have a new (old) edition, one from Dennis McMillan Publications. I’ve just examined it - apparently, this may differ somewhat from the Dutton hardcover I used to own. What I have now proclaims itself to be an ‘original draft’! It is introduced, and signed by, Philip Jose Farmer. Wrong cover art on the Goodreads listing, at this time - wish you could see the Joe Servello art.

Really enjoyed the 1919 story 'The Mind Machine, by Michael Williams. The focus of the stories has enlarged all of a sudden, and wonky machines with their own agendas are no longer a laughing matter. Next is 'Automata', by S. Fowler Wright; I am a huge fan of his novel Deluge, so I'm ready for one of his short works.

Fabulous first chapter. Going to a Maigret novel in October is sort of a last minute decision, came on me suddenly. I was going to go with Maigret's Patience, on the basis of a somewhat eerie cover, and that none of them were going to sound very "Halloween-y" in synopsis...but the very quick summary of Maigret's Secret described Maigret as "haunted" by something. Memories, yes - but haunted. It has started well.

Yeah, I mean, it’s not the scariest Horror novel I ever read in my life - but I don’t care. I still love it.

Enjoying it. Kari’s visions and dreams are creepy.

I love the movie; basically, the plot I know from the film is intact - but of course several things were modified, or dropped, when they adapted this terrific novel. It’s hard not to see the nanny as Bette Davis, though physically she’s different, here. The book is more obvious about who is actually the threat, the nanny or the kid. That’s fine with me - but I like that the film had me guessing.

I just tackled Mike Ashley’s Introduction, and the first story, ‘Moxon’s Master’ by Ambrose Bierce. I learned lots of new things from the Intro, regarding the true origins of AI, and automaton, proto-SF and SF. I knew where the word ‘robot’ originated, but not the world ‘android’. I learned which story helped inspire the Internet (and it’s in this book!). The Bierce story was creepy and a great start to the book.

Well, running out of time to turn books into October picks - only a few will make it. Needful Things probably right near the end (spilling into November). Before that - Courtney at work will be ticked if I do not get back to Lockwood & Co. before October ends…so, Book 4, at least. Also eyeing White Horse, and Exquisite Corpse. For now, Menace of the Machine tales, and The Nanny, which is a film I love.

An after-lunch resolution for me!

It’s enthralling.

Loved the eerie opening chapter. Almost didn't go to this book next - my urge to read still more short stories almost diverted me to a book called Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen: The Detective Story World in Japan. And a novel called The Nanny just arrived - I love love the Bette Davis film! - and was very tempting. But I did not bend, and now I'm glad I didn't. I think this one will be a blast.

If I had a creepy-looking SF novel lying around, I would probably go to it in October. But the Expanse books don’t seem right, The Steel Crocodile by Compton is about religion (apparently) as well as AI and I don’t want that combo right now. Insatiability, from the Radium Age, looks appropriately bleak but also very intimidating and maybe slowish. So, more short stories! Moore & Kuttner! S. Fowler Wright! Many more!

Short story books have really got their hooks into me - but I do feel like it’s time for a novel. I like this author, the title and synopsis - especially the reference to the family of the deceased attempting divinations to speak with him - mean I feel great going to this in October. Let’s hope!

I'm coming off the story collection Seven Slayers by Paul Cain, thinking about why I gave it 3 stars, instead of rating high like I do with Fred Brown or, recently, Woolrich. At first glance, all very similar - emphasis on plot and action, less time for fully-formed characters. But I think Woolrich and Brown at least give more emotional life to characters, and also use livelier turns of phrase, style creates mood.

This was the first book I bought and read when it comes to the Fredric Brown in the Detective Pulps series. I may have read ‘Arena’ previously - Brown’s classic SF short story - but the Crime & Mystery short story catalogue by this author was new to me. Just about 40 years later, I’m more than ready for this re-read, and Brown is easily my favourite short story writer in the Crime/Mystery field.