Movie Review: High Plains Drifter

Mordecai attempts to ingratiate himself with the Stranger. (With Live Undertaker Reaction.)

Movie Review: High Plains Drifter (1973) directed by Clint Eastwood The people of Lago are in fear. And perhaps they have good reason for it. A year ago, three outlaws whipped the town marshal to death in the street of this tiny lakeside mining town. They were caught and imprisoned for an entirely different crime, vowing… Continue reading Movie Review: High Plains Drifter

Magazine Review: The Scots Magazine October 1978

Cover photo by Jim Giles of Loch Voil.

Magazine Review: The Scots Magazine October 1978 Like many people of Scots descent, I have a mild interest in the country and customs of my ancestors. I even wonder sometimes what the place is currently like. For me and people like me, there’s the regional interest publication, The Scots Magazine. First published in 1739 as… Continue reading Magazine Review: The Scots Magazine October 1978

Book Review: Dick Tracy: The Secret Files

Book Review: Dick Tracy: The Secret Files edited by Max Allan Collins and Martin H. Greenberg In 1990, the venerable Dick Tracy comic strip got a movie adaptation, Dick Tracy, starring Warren Beatty and Madonna. To cash in on the publicity, the then-writer of the strip, Max Allan Collins, was asked to do both a… Continue reading Book Review: Dick Tracy: The Secret Files

Book Review: The Book of Cthulhu II

Book Review: The Book of Cthulhu II edited by Ross E. Lockhart It’s spooky stuff month again, so I sat down with this thick volume (24 stories) of tales inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft for a couple of weeks. This is a sequel to The Book of Cthulhu that I reviewed earlier on… Continue reading Book Review: The Book of Cthulhu II

Book Review: The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories Vol. 1

Book Review: The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories Vol. 1 Edited by James D. Jenkins & Ryan Cagle As has been mentioned in reviews on this blog before, there is a lot of literature from around the world published every year that English-only folks never get to read because it’s in other languages and… Continue reading Book Review: The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories Vol. 1

Manga Review: Case Closed Vol. 62

Manga Review: Case Closed Vol. 62 by Gosho Aoyama It’s time for yet another volume of the manga series about a teen genius detective trapped in the body of a child! We open with the conclusion of a case where Cafe Poirot’s waitress Azusa has vanished after her brother was accused of killing his boss… Continue reading Manga Review: Case Closed Vol. 62

Book Review: The Beast with Five Fingers

Book Review: The Beast with Five Fingers by W.F. Harvey W.F. Harvey (1885-1937) was born in Yorkshire, of Quaker family, and became a doctor. However, his health was poor and he was often unable to practice, so he wrote short stories on the side, many of them falling generally into the “weird” category. This volume… Continue reading Book Review: The Beast with Five Fingers

Book Review: Stories from Everywhere

Book Review: Stories from Everywhere by various authors One of the joys of picking up random old books from Little Free Libraries, garage sales and discard bins is discovering rare volumes that have strayed far from their starting point.  In this case, it’s a Developmental Reader from the California school system printed in 1954.  A… Continue reading Book Review: Stories from Everywhere

Book Review: Old Celtic Romances

Book Review: Old Celtic Romances by P.W. Joyce The Gaelic-speaking people of ancient Ireland told tales of their mighty ancestors and great men, not unlike the people of every nation and tribe.  When writing came, they began to put these tales into manuscripts.  Out of the large body of remaining literature, in 1879 P.W. Joyce… Continue reading Book Review: Old Celtic Romances

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