Manga Review: Tezucomi Vol. 1 & 2

Manga Review: Tezucomi Vol. 1 & 2 by Various Creators 2023 would have been Osamu Tezuka’s 95th birthday year, and in commemoration of the great manga and anime creator, this series was commissioned to show other artists’ take on his famous (and not so famous) works. For reasons, most of these were French and Spanish… Continue reading Manga Review: Tezucomi Vol. 1 & 2

Book Review: Cooked to Death

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

Manga Review: Case Closed Volumes 83-86

Manga Review: Case Closed Volumes 83-86 by Gosho Aoyama Quick recap: Teen detective Shinichi Kudou (Jimmy Kudo in the dub) is shrunk into a pre-teen by an experimental poison. Until he can find a way to reverse the effects, he assumes the identity of Conan Edogawa. He still solves crimes, but it’s harder to get… Continue reading Manga Review: Case Closed Volumes 83-86

Manga Review: Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 1

Manga Review: Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 1 by Eiichi Shimizu & Tomohiro Shimoguchi It’s been about three years since Bruce Wayne began his career as Batman, the mysterious masked vigilante operating in Gotham City. His war on crime has borne some fruit; the old, normal gangs have largely broken up as their members go to… Continue reading Manga Review: Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 1

Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler While stories that could be considered “mysteries” in some sense have existed as long as writing, and perhaps a bit before, the short story mystery came into its own during the lifetime of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). This volume collects forty-nine notable stories from… Continue reading Book Review: The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

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 Black Lace Hangover

Book Review: The Black Lace Hangover by Carter Brown Private eye Danny Boyd throws wild parties. But the hangovers are murder. He doesn’t remember too much about what happened last night, though a jealous professional wrestler tossing him into a wall stands out. The apartment is a wreck, and there’s what looks like a severed… Continue reading Book Review: The Black Lace Hangover

Book Review: The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro

Book Review: The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro by Edogawa Rampo Edogawa Rampo was the pen name of Hirai Tarou (1894-1965), who I last talked about as the author of The Fiend with Twenty Faces. That children’s book featured Akechi Kogoro as the Detective Boys’ adult mentor, but he was already an established series character… Continue reading Book Review: The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro

Book Review: The Fiend with Twenty Faces

Book Review: The Fiend with Twenty Faces by Edogawa Rampo The year is 1936. Japan occupies Korea and Manchukuo, and has set its sights on the rest of China. But for most Japanese civilians, war is far away. What is exciting right now is the capers of the man known as The Fiend with Twenty… Continue reading Book Review: The Fiend with Twenty Faces

Book Review: Halo in Brass

Book Review: Halo in Brass by Howard Browne (writing as John Evans) Paul PIne, private detective, is hired on a missing persons case. It seems that Laura Fremont, originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, has gone incommunicado in the big city of Chicago. Her plain rural parents are worried sick. The first obstacle pops up in that… Continue reading Book Review: Halo in Brass