Comic Book Review: Batman: Earth One Volume Two

Comic Book Review: Batman: Earth One Volume Two story by Geoff Johns, pencils by Gary Frank and inks by Jon Sibal Disclaimer:  I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.  No other compensation was involved. The corrupt Mayor Cobblepot may be dead, but that doesn’t mean that… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Batman: Earth One Volume Two

Magazine Review: Cosmic Crime Stories July 2012

Magazine Review: Cosmic Crime Stories July 2012 edited by Tyree Campbell If you want to stand out in the crowded field of speculative fiction, one of the ways is “genre-blending,” taking two different popular genres and splicing them together.  For example, horror and romance to create the vampire love stories so immensely popular in recent times.… Continue reading Magazine Review: Cosmic Crime Stories July 2012

Book Review: Double Jump

Book Review: Double Jump by Jason Glaser Jeremy Chin didn’t notice anything odd about his world until the day it was destroyed by a sparkling dust dumped from an airship.  He dives into a swimming pool, and blacks out.  When he awakens in a hospital, Jeremy appears to be in a different world altogether.  He’s… Continue reading Book Review: Double Jump

Manga Review: Master Keaton, Volume 1

Manga Review: Master Keaton, Volume 1 art by Naoki Urasawa, story by Hokusei Katsushika & Takashi Nagasaki Taichi Hiraga Keaton is a mild-looking fellow with a bumbling exterior personality.  You’d never guess that he’s a brilliant archaeologist, ex-SAS soldier and freelance insurance investigator.  He often takes leave of his day job as a poorly paid… Continue reading Manga Review: Master Keaton, Volume 1

Book Review: Pearlhanger

Book Review: Pearlhanger by Jonathan Gash Lovejoy is a “divvy” (presumably from “diviner”), a person who can just feel if an antique is genuine by standing near it.  This is a great help in his career as an antiques dealer.  But just because he’s got a gift of his own doesn’t mean he believes in anything… Continue reading Book Review: Pearlhanger

Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1

Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1 story by Doug Moench, art by various. Doctor Bruce Banner was one of the nation’s top physicists, and an expert in gamma radiation, when he was drafted into creating a new kind of nuclear weapon called a “gamma bomb.”  Just before the device was about to go… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1

Book Review: The Silence of the Loons

Book Review: The Silence of the Loons edited by The Minnesota Crime Wave The long-time reader may by now have realized that I have something of a weakness for anthologies.  Collections of short fiction are an excellent use of limited lunch reading time.  And I am also a faithful son of Minnesota.  So this book… Continue reading Book Review: The Silence of the Loons

Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind

Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind by Douglas Warner (also published as The Final Death of Robert Colston) When newspaper editor Michael Curtis witnesses a man being gunned down in front of the Evening Telegram office, he’s startled to realize that it’s Robert Colston, a man who’s already been declared dead twice.  Robert Colston, who has… Continue reading Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind

Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939

Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939 This is a facsimile reprint by Adventure House of a pulp magazine.  Pulp magazines tended to stick to one genre, so you knew what you were getting from the beginning; in this case action-mystery.  Great literature was rare, but they really got the blood pumping.  And a dozen stories… Continue reading Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939

Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries

Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler The title of this volume is slightly misleading; “locked room” stands in for the general idea of impossible crimes in mystery stories.  A man  is found stabbed in the back in a windowless room with the door locked from the inside.… Continue reading Book Review: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries