MANNING COLES -The House at Pluck’s Gutter. Tommy Hambledon #26 (including one collection of short stories). Pyramid X-1782; paperback, first US edition, April 1968. Published earlier in the UK by Hodder and Stoughton, hardcover, 1963.

   A pair of binoculars with a concealed piece of microfilm leads Tommy Hambledon and his amateur assistants on a chase from Belgium to Rome and finally back to England. Forgan and Campbell are given brief tours of [every] prison along the way, and Hambleldon himself is arrested at least twice, endures several blows on the head, is thrown overboard in a sack, and then trapped at the top of a radio tower.

   The microfilm ends up in the hands of the diplomatically immune Knights of the Reconciliation, who plan to blackmail England for its return.

   The humor [of Hambledon’s previous escapades this time] affords only an occasional smile — too close to slapstick? — but the ending, with a film company’s version of the Marines to the rescue, was lunatic genius. In fact, the concluding chapters were much easier to take than all of the initial running around. The author’s use of punctuation was bewildering at times, with lots of exclamation points, but that’s a minor quibble.

Rating: ***½.

Update: Until the former’s death, hidden behind the Manning Coles byline was a long-running collaboration between two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning (1891 – 1959) and Cyril Henry Coles (1899 – 1965).

   The last two Hambledon books, including this one as the last, were written by Coles and Tom Hammerton. Why this one first appeared only as a paperback original in this country is a mystery.

MACK REYNOLDS – Computer War. Ace Double H-34; paperback original, December 1967. Previously serialized in Analog SF, June & July 1967. Reprinted as half of Ace Double 11650, paperback, February 1973.

   Economic reasons lead the government of Alphaland to go to war with the second planetary power Betastan. Computer predictions are that a two-month conflict will be enough for [an Alphaville] victory, but the Betastani have read Ho Chi Minh (page 62) and retaliate with sabotage, high-level infiltration and other forms of standard guerilla warfare.

   The result is predictable. The excuse for a hero is needed only to have everything explained to him; enough of nerdy cloddy flats! The subversive Karlists have good ideas — it might be more interesting to see how they succeed in victory.

Rating: *½

ANALOG SF.  June 1967. Editor: John W. Campbell. Cover art: John Schoenherr. Overall rating: **

HARRY HARRISON “The Men from P.I.G.” Novelette. Porcine Interstellar Guard, that is. Nothing more than the title suggests: rather poor Analog-type adventures on a colonial planet. (2)

CHRISTOPHER ANVIL “Compound Interest.” About 12 pages summarizing “Experts in the Field” (Analog, May 1967; reviewed here) plus [four more with] a new ending. (1)

JOHN T. PHILLIFENT “Aim for the Heel.” Novelette. Not SF. The “Man from CODE” this time, able to avenge the deaths of thousands by acting strictly within the law. (3)

E. G. VON WALD “Something Important.” The aliens’ message for help is ignored because of previously garbled transmissions. (2)

MACK REYNOLDS “Computer War.” Serial, part 2 of 2. See review to follow shortly.

LAWRENCE A. PERKINS “Bite.” An unpopular doctor is infected with rabies. (2)

ROBERT SILVERBERG – The Time Hoppers. Doubleday & Co., hardcover, 1967. Avon S372, paperback, October 1968; cover art by Don Punchatz. Belmont Tower, paperback, 1974. Ace, paperback, 1982. Expansion of the story “Hopper,” which first appeared in Infinity Science Fiction, October 1956, and was collected in Next Stop the Stars (Ace Double F-145, 1962).

   Quellen, a minor bureaucrat in the Secretariat of Crime, found his own solution to the overcrowded conditions of the world in the year 2490: a secret illegal hideaway in Africa. But others have resorted to time travel as an answer to their problems, and Quellen is assigned the job of stopping the hoppers without disturbing the stability of the present time.

   There are the usual paradoxes which are brought out, [and] the obvious course of action occurs soon enough, but there is more. Mankind is becoming dehumanized with the intolerable masses of people. Unspeakable crimes and customs are common, sore of a preliminary interlude before the world of Archexecutive Shale in “Pity about Earth” (Report 93), but here they are more forcefully realized. Time travel has this time become the background to an excellent picture of despair.

Rating: ****½

ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE – July 1967. Overall rating: ***½

CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG “The Second Commandment.” Short novel. A minister’s wife falls to her death while answering a “call of nature” along the highway. Afterward the minister discovers he can no longer love all his neighbors. Fine personal point of view, but fails as a mystery story. (4)

AGATHA CHRISTIE “At the Stroke of Twelve.” First appeared in The Sketch, 10 OctobeR 1923, as “The Kidnapping of Johnnie Waverly.” Poirot deduces a man has kidnapped his own son, but then he has all the clues. (3)

JOHN DICKSON CARR “The Lion’s Paw.” First appeared in The Strand Magazine. July 1938, as “Error at Daybreak” by Carter Dickson. Colonel March. A fake suicide attempt is mistaken for a mysterious murder on a deserted hearth. (3)

CORNELL WOOLRICH “Divorce – New York Style.” Serial, part 2 of 2. The girl in a staged hotel room bit dies in the bed, end of Part 1. Scene two in the police station is disappointing. (3)

DENNIS M. DUBIN “Elroy Quinn’s Last Case.” First story. Elroy stops a plot designed to disrupt international relations. Clever! (5) [Note: the author’s only work of short crime fiction.]

ELLERY QUEEN “The President Regrets.” Puzzle story with presidential names. (2)

SHIRLEY WALLACE “The Tiger’s Cub. First story. A man defends his son. (3) [Note: The author’s only work of short crime fiction.]

CELIA FREMLIN “The Special Gift.” An amateur authors’ club meets a man with a strange deadly dream (3)

GUY CULLINGFORD “Something to Get at Quick.” Juvenile delinquency and a stabbing in London. (4)

MIRIAM ALLEN deFORD “The Impersonation Murder Case.” An actor discovers that he is the fall guy in a murder investigation. Sorry, I don’t Believe It. (3)

JOAN RICHTER “Intruder in the Maize.” An arrogant man in Africa should not deal with poison. One bad flaw. (2)

BRIAN HAYES “Security Risk.” First appeared in The (London) Evening News, 19 April 1961. A test works beautifully. (4)

LAWRENCE TREAT “B As in Burglary.” Bankhart of the Homicide Squad is led to the stolen jewels by the murderer’s daughter, and the romance is over. (4)

ELLERY QUEEN – What’s in the Dark? Capt. Tim Corrigan #6. Popular Library, paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Dale Books, paperback, 1978. Zebra, paperback, 1985.

   Captain Tim Corrigan is assigned to a murder case on the night of New York City’s “Great Blackout.” The suspects are all trapped on the 21st floor with the body while Corrigan’s investigation goes on. And of course the blackout helps provide the means for establishing the killer’s guilt.

   The psychology of crumbling inhibitions is emphasized, but Corrigan and his detective pal Chuck Baer still have too great a tendency to climb into bed with their suspects. That and an early emphasis on Miss Graves’ mammae make this novel [considerably] different from EQ’s more conventional mysteries.

   [It’s] strictly enjoyable, though, and the reader has a fair chance to grab the essential clue on page 45. I shall look for more. [Books in the series, that is, not clues. per se.]

Rating: ***½

UPDATE: Reading this old review tonight for the first time in 55 years, it does not appear that back when wrote it I knew that the book was not written by “Ellery Queen.” It was ghost-written instead by Richard Deming, who as it turns out was the actual author of four of the overall six Tim Corrigan novels.

ERNEST HILL – Pity About Earth. Ace Double H-566; 1st printing, 1968. Published back to back with Space Chantey, by R. A. Lafferty, reviewed here. Cover art by Kelly Freas.

   In a future more than 30,000 years from now, man has lost his place in the universe, to the machines that have taken away even his humanity. The Publisher controls all forms of communication: TV, tapes, and papers that sell only advertising space.

   Archexecutive Shale represents mankind’s loss of feeling and does not know what it means to care. The hybrid half-ape Marylin he befriends is more human than he. The scientific laboratory’s experiments on living humans are something worse than black comedy. Is this any way to run a universe?

   Marylin takes the role of Publisher and initiates the slow process of restoring to man the illusion he controls [his existence]. Not very subtle, but tending to be both fascinating and dull.

Rating: ***½

Bibliographic Update: Ernest Hill was a British SF writer whose other two novels were published only in the UK: The G. C. Radiation (1971) and The Quark Invasion (1978). Of several dozen short stories, most if not all also appear to have been published only in the UK, many for New Worlds SF.

R. A. LAFFERTY РSpace Chantey. Ace Double H-56, paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Published back-to-back with Pity About Earth by Ernest Hill (to be reviewed soon). Cover art by Vaughn Bod̩.

   Captain Roadstrun and his crew decide not to return ti Earth immediately after the war ends. Thus begins a wild, woolly and sometimes wonderful parody of the Odyssey. All the important episodes are evident, though coming out strangely different through Lafferty’s eyes and brain.

   The first and last chapters are the funniest, but the entire book is written to fit my idea of the Theatre of the Absurd. Would the story have been better if Lafferty hadn’t written himself (and the crewman) into situations where no escape was possible, but somehow they did, or is this the stuff of tall tales? Note: the cover painting and the interior illustrations by Bodé are excellent.

Rating: ***½

CORNELL WOOLRICH – Rendezvous in Black. Rinehart/Murray Hill, hardcover, 1948. Reprinted several times, including Ace H-57, paperback, [1958]. TV play: Broadcast live on October 18, 1956, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90.

   Johnny Marr’s girl had died before they could get married. Had died in fact while waiting for their usual eight o’clock date, Had died because of bottle carelessly tossed from an airplane. The list of passengers was small, only five names. And a loved one of each of those five men are about to die. Methodically and insanely. Camero, the detective finally assigned to the case, is unable to stop people from being themselves and thus unable to stop the murders.

   What Woolrich lacks in technical aspects of writing is made up for by the ability to tell an engrossing story. The minute details of someone’s actions, the broad delineation of character, almost a burlesque of personality, and the use of conversation to describe action are all overdone.

   The war years are described from a personal point of view, and seem unnatural today. It would be most surprising if this has not been made into a movie; it is standard enough fare.Perhaps Walter Matthau could play Camero, as if the part were written for him

Rating: ***

GALAXY SF – June 1967. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Gray Morrow. Overall rating: ***

POUL ANDERSON – To Outlive Eternity. Serial; part 1 of 2. See review following the July 1967 issue.       [NOTE: Expanded in 1970 and published as the novel Tau Zero.]

GARY WRIGHT “Mirror of Ice.” More a sports story than SF, but an exciting account of a new form of bobsledding. (4)

R. A. LAFFERTY “Polity and Customs of the Camiroi.” Further investigation of politics, religion, and life on Camiroi. (3)       [NOTE: This follows the story “Primary Education of the Camiroi” in the December 1966 issue.]

ROGER ZELAZNY “The Man Who Loved the Faioli.” The gravekeeper of the universe meets a comforter of those who are about to die. Wish I understood. (3)        [NOTE: This story has been collected and anthologized many times.]

C. C. MACAPP “Spare That Tree.” Novelette. A detective tries to regain a stolen tree by disguising himself as a tree himself. Goes from bad to worse. (1)

JIM HARMON “Howling Day.” The advance publicity releases for an invasion of Earth are mistaken for scripts. (2)

LARRY NIVEN “The Adults.” Novella. An alien in search for a lost colony brings Earth the roots and seeds for the tree-of-life, but the discovery is no longer needed or wanted by mankind. The alien’s culture is brought out piecewise and sympathetically, and its death, while necessary, is also regrettable. However, the story is clumsily written, and even worse, poorly edited. Much too long [at 70 pages]; the ending is best. ***        [NOTE: This story was expanded in 1973 and published as the novel The Protectors.]

CHARLES V. DeVET “Alien’s Bequest.” An alien invader was sent with the best wishes of another intelligent race. (3)