Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories

Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories edited by Rogers Terrill This collection of exciting tales of action and bravery plucked from the pages of Argosy, the long-running pulp magazine, is most notable for only choosing from those printed between 1946 and 1952, when the collection was published. Thus it had, at the time,… Continue reading Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories

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: A Night to Remember

Book Review: A Night to Remember by Walter Lord Time and place: 11:40 PM, April 14, 1912, aboard the passenger liner Titanic in the North Atlantic. Lookout Frederick Fleet spots an iceberg dead ahead. The ship turns to avoid this hazard, but it’s too late. A hole is ripped in the ship’s side below the… Continue reading Book Review: A Night to Remember

Book Review: The Pocket Book of Adventure Stories

Book Review: The Pocket Book of Adventure Stories edited by Philip Van Doren Stern In his introduction, the editor talks about the thrill of adventure stories, how often they are churned out as cheap entertainment, and that he has selected twelve really good ones for the reader. This 1945 book was designed to be easily… Continue reading Book Review: The Pocket Book of Adventure Stories

Book Review: Jamaica Inn

Book Review: Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier Mary Yellan grew up on a farm near Helford in Cornwall. Her father died when she was very young, so Mary worked hard with her mother to keep the tiny place going. Hard times came and wiped out their livestock, and Mary’s mother’s heart gave out. The… Continue reading Book Review: Jamaica Inn

Comic Strip Review: Modesty Blaise: The Scarlet Maiden

Comic Strip Review: Modesty Blaise: The Scarlet Maiden Story by Peter O’Donnell, Art by Neville Colvin In 1945, an amnesiac little girl escaped from a Displaced Persons camp in Greece. After wandering around the post-war Mediterranean for a while, she was taken in by a Jewish Hungarian scholar named Lob, who gave her an education… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Modesty Blaise: The Scarlet Maiden

Magazine Review: High Adventure #171: Far East Fiction of Frederick Moore

Magazine Review: High Adventure #171: Far East Fiction of Frederick Moore edited by John P. Gunnison In this pulp reprint issue, we’re off to the exotic South Seas, in particular Malaysia. According to the introduction, although Frederick Moore’s byline listed him as “Captain”, there’s no record of him ever earning that title. “The Cloth of… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #171: Far East Fiction of Frederick Moore

Magazine Review: Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine December 1978

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

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

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter edited by Mary François Rockcastle. This is the latest volume of Hamline University’s annual literary magazine, which I picked up at the Rain Taxi Book Festival.  The subtitle comes from one of the poems in this issue, “Is This What Poets Do?” by Elizabeth Oness.… Continue reading Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 18: All We Cannot Alter