Reading Report April/May 2026

Got a lot more writing than reading done this period (see my April/May Progress Report) but I did manage to read through a few things.

Read “A Night In King’s College Chapel” by M. R. James. Best known for his scary ghost stories, this James story is a comedic fantasy that was rediscovered and published in the Nineteen-Eighties. Fun, and still under copyright.

Read some of the stories in the new Crippen and Landru collection “Cardula And the Locked Rooms” by Jack Ritchie, prior to reviewing it.

Read some of the stories in John Floyd’s new Crippen and Landru collection “River Road And Other Stories.” Again prior to reviewing it.

Both Floyd’s and Ritchie’s books are highly recommended here!

Read Jeffrey Ricker’s story “Charlotte’s Mother,” on the Saturday Evening Post website. It was a runner-up in the Post’s “Great American Fiction Contest” in 2019. My gosh, I know Jeff! (All Jeffs know each other; it’s a rule!)

Read a chapter in the YA mystery novel “The Flying Stingaree” by John Blaine that I mentioned in an earlier Report.

Included the line: “You might say that the first glimmer of daylight is man’s worst hour…”

And I’m about halfway through “The Riddle Of the Stone Elephant” by Bruce Campbell. The nearly Eighty-Year-old YA mystery series I mentioned in an earlier report. Both of these old books are fun.

A caveat here; apparently, the Blaine series (About Rick Brandt) has some racist language in a couple of the earlier books in the series. Oh well, I’m not going to read them all.

As always, I read the usual weekly stories by Kaje Harper and the monthly flash fiction by E. H. Timms. Well worth it.

—-jeff baker May 21, 2026