Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Okay, this wasn’t the plan, but I’m going to sneak this in ahead of The Hunting Party, instead of just after. The Scarf and Detour done in a row was like two Crime novels, even though I went to The Scarf as a Horror pick. It is kind of a Horror novel, but also a Crime novel, and I need a bit of a break from corpses turning up every 50 pages or so. I need another world…

Two excellent stories thus far. I can only hope the whole book keeps the high standard…and I love discovering new authors to follow up on again later.

No idea what to expect - but it's Bloch!

A great start.

More hardboiled/noir for me, as I go to Crime & Mystery picks roughly every second book. But I think after this, my next Crime novel will be by Freeman Wills Crofts, just for a little Golden Age-ish break. Anyway, Helen Nielsen did okay with Sing Me A Murder, but I’m hoping for a little more, this time around - something that really grabs me…we’ll see.

Not exactly what I thought I was getting - and that’s ok, because I’m happy, so far. Ummm…The Wasp Factory meets A Christmas Carol?

I definitely feel like a Horror novel next, but I’ve switched over from The Shaft, to this, at the very last minute. This book does not have a healthy ratings average at the website, but it is on a list of recommended Horror, and the premise has got me interested.

I just finished all the “Feedum & Weap” stories, had a great time with them. These 5 or 6 page tales were in Feedstuffs Magazine, and from the 1930s-40s; they were found in Brown’s files in a folder. This is a younger Brown honing his skills at (a) the short, short story form, (b) the clever, humorous twist, or “impossible” crime angle (very Scooby Doo, at times), and (c) pre-Fletch version of “over the phone” tale.

Off and running with this book, a collection of short fiction. This is another Fredric Brown book, like The Gibbering Night, I never thought I would own - but suddenly I do, even if I’m now on a severe book-buying ban for the next little (long?) while. The first story, ‘The Wench is Dead’, was very good, if nowhere near Brown’s best. There’s a short version of ‘Martians, Go Home!’ in here; I read the novel.

So, I happened to get to the chapter focusing on Ross MacDonald, just when a Goodreads friends has reviewed The Chill, which is a great read. I think The Blue Hammer is my fave by the author so far; it was also the last Lew Archer novel. The series ended with a terrific book.

4.5 stars, rounded up.

The pages seem to turn themselves - but, like yesterday, I have negotiated with the book for a lunch break and shall handle the withdrawal, and then get back to it, for the finale this time.

A captivating plot - I had something part-way sussed out, as far as a possible twist, and foresaw a possible murder on the water. But something very different happened, and I had quite a shock. It’s a hard book to put down, even for lunch!

It has started wonderfully; we’ll see how it goes, but it had me at Chapter 1. I know it’s going to be totally different…but it reminds me just the teeniest bit of the beginning of Very Old Money, by Stanley Ellin. New servant setting up at a fussily-run mansion where things can’t possibly be dull.

The first story is 'Don't Give Your Right Name' by Norbert Davis; I'm part-way through it. His private dick is Max Latin. Never read Davis before. The authors in here that I have read are Raoul Whitfield (loved Green Ice), Frank Gruber (loved The Whispering Master), and Erle Stanley Gardner. I know who Lester Dent is, but I've never read a Doc Savage novel; I will at some point.

So intrigued by what little I know of this!

It is what it is. It can't be anything else.

Love the cover, read one other book by this author a long time ago; time for another. I have recently acquired a bunch of Black Lizard books from a store that is closing later this year, and Whittington was the author most represented down in their basement…so now I have them!