Reading Report April/May 2024

I actually think I did more reading than writing this time around!

Started reading some of the stories in the Crippen and Landru collection of Frances and Richard Lockridge’s “Flair For Murder.” It includes all of their crime stories and their only short mystery story about Mr. And Mrs North. The bulk of the stories are about police Lt. Heimrich, who pops up in one of the North novels and in a bunch of novels all his own. Lots of classic Golden Age fun! (And cats!)

Read “A Haunted Ship,” a.k.a. “A True Story—As Far As It Goes” by Washington Irving which appeared in the Sat. Eve. Post in 1881 and was reprinted on the Post’s website. Irving apparently said it was a true story told to him by a sailor.

Got the graphic novel “The Sandman, Volume 3, Dream Country,” just to read “A Dream of 1,000 Cats,” Neil Gaiman’s homage to Fritz Leiber. More impactful than I thought to me, a cat lover. Also read “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which won the World Fantasy Award, and “Facade” which features a forgotten DC Comics character I did not expect to see!

All the stories excellent and perfectly illustrated.

Read some of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s fine “Triad Magic.” Need to finish it!

Of course, I read Kaje Harper’s weekly offerings as well as E. H. Timm’s “Stranger Safety” which was her Flash Fiction Draw Challenge” story for May.

Finally getting back to my Poe Project, reading neglected, not-as-well-known tales by the Master. Read “Thou Art The Man,” an excellent mystery which I have gone into more (spoiler-free) detail in a separate post.

Read “The Pain Peddlers” by Robert Silverberg in the relaunched “Worlds Of If” Magazine (Issue # 177, Feb. 2024.) A reprint from Galaxy in 1969 but I kept forgetting it hadn’t been written today! Perfect with the amoral producer of a reality TV show and futuristic touches that didn’t feel dated fifty-some years later!

Read “The Witching Hour” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. Also read his “The Mannequin Challenge,” a story with an astounding ending! Both in the anthology “Between Dystopias: The Road to Afropantheology.”

Got a reprint of Rafael Sabatini’s collection “Turbulent Tales,” first published in the late 1940s. I’d never read Sabatini! Read “The Kneeling Cupid,” which was clever!

Started reading J. Scott Coatsworth’s “River City Chronicles.” Originally serialized on his blog (where I DID read some of it.) Now Scott has started writing a sequel; “Down the River; the River City Chronicles Book Two,” which is being serialized on Scott’s blog. https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/category/features/serial/ (Yes, I’m reading that too!)

Celebrated Leslie Charteris’ birthday week by reading his “Fish Story.” Collected in “Mermaids!” Edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Very clever!

Read a nice story by Fiona Glass “The Visitor” in the 2009 anthology “Queer Dimensions,” which I bought long before I knew Fiona! She has now expanded the story into a novel. Read the 1939 Henry Kuttner story “The Curse Of the Crocodile,” in “The Watcher At the Door.” African setting, oh-so-superior white explorers who scoff at native superstition and fall prey to the juju. A scary horror tale!

And, I have been reading stories in a fine (and very big! 700+ pages!) anthology of Irish genre fiction: “Shadow Voices,” edited by John Connoly which I found at the Library and bought for myself. Covering works from four centuries, the informative introductions are worth the price of the book!

It included Oscar Wilde’s “Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime.” I’d heard about it, never read it before. I did not expect it to be as funny as it was! Lord Arthur’s attempts at murder played out like something Wilie E. Coyote would do!

Lady Jane Wilde’s “The Holly Well and the Murder,” a short fable. Lady Wilde sometimes used the pen-name “Speranza.” And yes, she was Oscar Wilde’s Mother!

“Frank Martin And the Fairies,” by William Carleton.

“The Man In the Bell,” by William Maginn. A story which may have inspired Poe’s “Pit and the Pendulum.” Poe was a Maginn admirer.

Editor Connoly included one of his own stories: “On The Anatomisation Of An Unknown Man (1637) By Franz Mier.” Incidentally, the artist and the work cited were real. I highly recommend this collection!

—-jeff baker, May 20^th, 2024.