Book Review: Cooked to Death edited by Rhonda Gilliland and Michael Allan Mallory Let’s return to the world of themed anthologies, a quick way to get a sample of various authors writing on a particular topic. In this case, it’s primarily Minnesota and other Midwestern writers doing crime and mystery short stories around the topic… Continue reading Book Review: Cooked to Death
Tag: critics
Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact December 1984
Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact December 1984 edited by Stanley Schmidt Continuing to dig through my pile of stuff that I’ve been meaning to reread, I found this issue from the year I actually subscribed to Analog.. This was an indulgence as I was underemployed at the time, but a magazine in the… Continue reading Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction Science Fact December 1984
Magazine Review: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May/June 2021
Magazine Review: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May/June 2021 edited by Linda Landrigan In 1956, HSD Publications wanted to create a new mystery story magazine. To boost sales, they licensed the name of Alfred Hitchcock, a famous director who was then the host of a popular television show. While Mr. Hitchcock otherwise had nothing to do… Continue reading Magazine Review: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May/June 2021
Manga Review: Iron Wok Jan! 2
Manga Review: Iron Wok Jan! 2 by Shinji Saijyo, with supervisor Keiko Oyama Jan Akiyama’s grandfather Kaiichiro was one of the two greatest chefs of Chinese cuisine in Japan. He took Jan into the mountains for years to train him in the culinary arts. But Kaiichiro Akiyama died, and his final instructions were for Jan… Continue reading Manga Review: Iron Wok Jan! 2
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3 by Robert Bloch Robert Bloch (1917-1994) was a prolific author of horror, science fiction and mystery works. (You may have seen, read or at least heard of Psycho.) This volume, originally “Selected Stories” and by no means complete, features 39 stories published between 1960 and… Continue reading Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan) Vol. 63/64
Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan) Vol. 63/64 by Gosho Aoyama Quick recap: When teen genius detective Shinichi Kudou (Jimmy Kudo in the American version) is shrunk to a childlike form in a botched assassination attempt, he takes the name Conan Edogawa and is taken in by bumbling private eye Kogoro Mouri (Richard Moore) and… Continue reading Manga Review: Case Closed (Detective Conan) Vol. 63/64
Book Review: The Book of Cthulhu
Book Review: The Book of Cthulhu edited by Ross E Lockhart Fantasy and horror author H.P. Lovecraft wasn’t a big seller during his lifetime, but the loose setting he created of the Cthulhu Mythos, where humans are only the most recent inhabitants of a cold and chaotic universe, and many of the previous inhabitants are… Continue reading Book Review: The Book of Cthulhu
Book Review: Space Opera
Book Review: Space Opera by Jack Vance It’s not that Roger Wool doesn’t want to work, as such. It’s that he doesn’t want to be tied down to a single job day after day, the same desk in the same office. And he’s too well-bred for most work that involves wandering from place to place… Continue reading Book Review: Space Opera
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine July 2016
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine July 2016 edited by Janet Hutchings Frederick Dannay, who along with Manfred B. Lee wrote the Ellery Queen mystery stories, was asked by Mercury Press to be the editor of a new magazine that would print a higher class of detective stories than the general run of pulps, with… Continue reading Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine July 2016
Book Review: Jewish Noir
Book Review: Jewish Noir edited by Kenneth Wishnia Many of the themes of noir fiction, alienation, hostile society, darkness and bitter endings, resonate with the experience of Jewish people. So it’s not surprising that it was easy to find submissions for an anthology of thirty-plus noir stories with Jewish themes. (Not all of the authors are… Continue reading Book Review: Jewish Noir