Magazine Review: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine December 1978 edited by Sam Merwin Jr. Private eye Michael “Mike” Shayne was created in 1939 by David Dresser, writing under the name “Brett Halliday”. The books were long-running and popular, and in 1956 Dresser licensed the character to a puiblishing company to be the headliner of a digest-sized… Continue reading Magazine Review: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine December 1978
Tag: dark secrets
Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales
Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz The definition of “thriller” is a little loose in this fun anthology, though most of the stories do have at least some suspense. It feels more like the compiler picked a bunch of the public domain stories he liked, but didn’t have a strong… Continue reading Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales
Book Review: A Life for a Life: A Mystery Novel
Book Review: A Life for a Life: A Mystery Novel by Lynda McDaniel Disclaimer: I received a download of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway to facilitate writing this review. No other compensation was requested or offered. There’s big doings down to Coburn’s Country Store. The new owner, Della Kincaid, used to be a big-city… Continue reading Book Review: A Life for a Life: A Mystery Novel
Book Review: Black Bird of the Gallows
Book Review: Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel Cadence, Pennsylvania used to be a mining town. The economy never fully recovered from the mines closing down, but the town survived. But there are some disturbing signs. There’s an unseasonably high number of crows for February, and an even more unseasonable number of unusually… Continue reading Book Review: Black Bird of the Gallows
Manga Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1 Phantom Blood 01
Manga Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1 Phantom Blood 01 by Hirohiko Araki Centuries ago in Mexico, an offshoot of the Aztecs discovered a method of attaining eternal life through the consumption of human blood. They ruled supreme for a while, then abruptly vanished from the pages of history. One of their mysterious stone masks… Continue reading Manga Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 1 Phantom Blood 01
Book Review: Oliver Twist
Book Review: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens An anonymous woman stumbles into a village about seventy-five miles from London, heavily pregnant and with her shoes in tatters. She collapses in the street, and is taken to the parochial workhouse. There, she gives birth to a boy and then perishes, seemingly leaving no clue to who… Continue reading Book Review: Oliver Twist
Book Review: Enchantment Lake
Book Review: Enchantment Lake by Margi Preus Francine Frye isn’t a detective. She played a detective on TV. On a children’s show. For a few episodes. But that still makes her the closest thing to a detective Francie’s eccentric aunts Astrid and Jeannette know. So when a series of perfectly explainable but statistically improbable deaths… Continue reading Book Review: Enchantment Lake
Book Review: Respectable Horror
Book Review: Respectable Horror by K.A. Laity Horror is a wide-ranging genre, which can be tailored to a variety of tastes. Some folks prefer their scary fiction with a maximum of gushing blood and sharp objects being plunged into soft flesh; others like a more genteel approach that emphasizes the subtle wrongnesses and growing atmospheric… Continue reading Book Review: Respectable Horror
Book Review: Penny Dreadfuls: Sensational Tales of Terror
Book Review: Penny Dreadfuls: Sensational Tales of Terror edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz While the term “penny dreadfuls” proper belongs to a particular type of inexpensive newsprint periodical, as explained in the introduction to this volume, the twenty stories chosen here can all be described as lowbrow sensationalist literature written for those seeking thrills in their… Continue reading Book Review: Penny Dreadfuls: Sensational Tales of Terror
Book Review: The Pavilion
Book Review: The Pavilion by Hilda Lawrence (also published as “The Pavilion of Death”) When Regan Carr’s mother passes away from illness, the young woman is hard-pressed. Her part-time job as a small town librarian for $25 a week (roughly equivalent to an $8/hr job in 2017) is not sufficient to cover the doctor’s bills… Continue reading Book Review: The Pavilion