Magazine Review: Detective Fiction Weekly April 8 1939 (Formerly Flynn’s) by various Detective Fiction Weekly started publication in 1924 as “Flynn’s”, after its first editor, William J. Flynn, who had previously been director of the Bureau of Investigation before it became the FBI. It ran regularly under various titles until 1942, when it became a… Continue reading Magazine Review: Detective Fiction Weekly April 8 1939
Tag: pulp
Magazine Review: Thrilling Mystery March 1936
Magazine Review: Thrilling Mystery March 1936 by various Thrilling Mystery was a pulp horror magazine created by Thrilling Publications; I’ve been unable to find publication history details in a quick search. It specialized in “weird menace” tales, which had supernatural trappings but were ultimately revealed as having non-supernatural (but not necessarily plausible) explanations. It did… Continue reading Magazine Review: Thrilling Mystery March 1936
Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries March 1944
Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries March 1944 edited by Mary Gnaedinger Famous Fantastic Mysteries ran from 1939 to 1953 as primarily a reprint magazine. It was originally published by the Munsey Company to feature the many speculative fiction stories they’d published over the years in their non-specialist magazines like Argosy, to cash in on the now… Continue reading Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries March 1944
Book Review: Fire-Tongue
Book Review: Fire-Tongue by Sax Rohmer If there’s one thing a detective hates, it’s when their client hems and haws about explaining basic details of why they need a detective, only to die just as they make up their minds with only a cryptic last utterance as a clue. But that’s the situation Paul Harley… Continue reading Book Review: Fire-Tongue
Book Review: The Book of Van Vogt
Book Review: The Book of Van Vogt by A.E. van Vogt In 1972, DAW Books was a brand new publishing company started by noted speculative fiction editor Donald A. Wollheim. Its mission statement was to publish quality science fiction books that had not previously appeared in paperback. (As opposed to reprinting old books with a… Continue reading Book Review: The Book of Van Vogt
Magazine Review: Astounding Science-Fiction January 1946
Magazine Review: Astounding Science-Fiction January 1946 edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. Before Analog (see previous reviews), there was Astounding, the science fiction magazine that led the field for many years. Having gotten a copy of an issue from the pulp days, let’s take a look at what wonders lie within. Despite the cover date, the ads… Continue reading Magazine Review: Astounding Science-Fiction January 1946
Book Review: Four Sided Triangle
Book Review: Four Sided Triangle by William F. Temple Suppose for a moment that you had access to a device that would create an exact duplicate of any object placed inside. What would you do with it? Solve world hunger? Commit massive art fraud? Resolve your sexual attraction to your best friend’s wife? Yeah, that last… Continue reading Book Review: Four Sided Triangle
Book Review: The Black Bat #1: Brand of the Black Bat & Murder Calls the Black Bat
Book Review: The Black Bat #1: Brand of the Black Bat & Murder Calls the Black Bat by Norman Daniels (writing as G. Wayman Jones) Tony Quinn was a handsome, wealthy and highly competent district attorney until the day of Oliver Snate’s trial. This time he had proof of the gangster’s illegal activities, actual recordings… Continue reading Book Review: The Black Bat #1: Brand of the Black Bat & Murder Calls the Black Bat
Book Review: Lobster Johnson: The Satan Factory
Book Review: Lobster Johnson: The Satan Factory by Thomas E. Sniegoski Disgraced doctor Jonas Chapel, on the run from the mob in Mexico, stumbles across a mysterious skeleton dripping a fluid that turns humans into monsters. Soon thereafter Chapel’s back in New York, teaming up with the very gang boss who’d ordered the hit on… Continue reading Book Review: Lobster Johnson: The Satan Factory
Book Review: Nick Carter Volume 2
Book Review: Nick Carter Volume 2 edited by Anthony Tollin As noted in my review of the first volume, Nick Carter, Master Detective, was a long-running character who had three distinct phases. These reprint volumes primarily cover his pulp magazine career. The stories were written under the house name “Nick Carter,” even though they weren’t… Continue reading Book Review: Nick Carter Volume 2