FRANK GRUBER – Brothers of Silence. E.P.Dutton, hardcover, 1962. Detective Book Club, hardcover, 3-in-1 edition. Bantam F2903, paperback,1965. Belmont, paperback, 1973.

   After a confusing opening, Gruber settles down with a tale about Attila’s hidden treasure, buried somewhere in eastern Europe. Author Charles Tancred, an expert on Caesar and the Roman Empire, knows the approximate location, but there are others who know he knows, and do it goes.

   What makes the beginning confusing is a tendency to fill in background so very gradually, which is not only disconcerting to the reader, but makes the motives of the characters even more unclear. In spite of a strong suspicion that all this mysteriousness was needed only for any mystery at all, once the story finally gets going, it manages to keep a fairly even level.

   The love interest comes on suddenly and strong, however, and it generally manages to foul up the story’s credibility. Every foreigner is quickly characterized with difficulty and English idioms. Carry-overs from Gruber’s pulp days?

Rating: ***

WHODUNIT MYSTERY MAGAZINE – September-October 1967. Editor: Douglas Stapleton. [This was the only issue to be published.] Overall rating: **

BURT MacDOUGALL “The Hostage.” A bank robber uses a fake little old lady as a hostage. Good ending; indifferent writing. (3)

MARY LYNN ROBY “The Practical Way.” A woman is pressured by he daughter-in-law to go modern. Done better by others. (2)

PHELPS GOODHUE “Assassin!” Plot to assassinate Lincoln fails, as does this story. (1)

DOUGLAS & DOROTHY STAPLETON “Ransom for a Rogue.” Novella. Three crises occur for protagonist Douglas Stapleton, each one of which is crucial to the life of a kidnapped boy. The reader shares these crises and has the chance to make his own decisions. Alternate story passages follow, scattered throughout the magazine. I got all three correctly, but they were not difficult, and the story is rather contrived to fit them in, Clever, but otherwise not much. **½

CAROL ARCHER STURMOND “Cheat the Devil.” Willie thinks he has the devil trapped within his pentagram but makes a bad bargain anyway. Usual bit. (2)

EMMANUEL BROZ “It’s the Details That Count,” Bank robber poses as policeman sent to stop robbery. Ending from thin air. (1)

K. S. L. STEELE “The Final War!” Sneaky story about the beginning of World War I. (3)

MICHAEL BRETT “The Seeds of Destruction.” After getting beaten up three times by bully, kid gets revenge. (2)

MARY LYNN ROBY “Pest Control.” Scientist must decide between wife or pet cat. Poor guy. (1)

THOMAS BRADLEY “Love Me, Mama!” Kid falls from tree but doesn’t know he’s dead. (2)

ROSS MACDONALD – Blue City. Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, 1947, published under the author’s real name, Kenneth Millar. A shortened version was serialized in the August and September 1950 issues of Esquire. Dell #363, paperback, 1949? Reprint paperback editions are plentiful, most often published by Bantam under the pen name Ross Macdonald. Film: Paramount Pictures, 1986, with Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy. (See comment #4.)

   Another tale of a son seeking revenge for his father’s death. Johnny Weather returns to an unnamed Midwestern city after the war to discover that his father, one of the town’s crooked bosses, had been shot and killed two years earlier.

   It is the idealism of war versus the realities of city life, with its political corruption sanctioned by anti-union big business, that drives Johnny against the powers that have covered up the murder. His activities soon stir up a great deal of reaction, including a couple of particularly bloody murders, before he finds how far ambition can drive a man to guilt.

   A mayor running on a campaign of reform has found that ends often are confused with means, and convinces himself that murder, or rather assassination, can be justified.

   Weather comes on strong, though he did not really acre for his father, and it is this over-aggressiveness that is a bit too much to absorb. In the background, life is described as it went on after the war, in one of MacDonald’s earlier stories.

Rating: ****½

PIERS ANTHONY & ROBERT E. MARGROFF – The Ring. Ace A-19, paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Published as part of the Ace SF Special series. Cover art by Diane Dillon and Leo Dillon. Tor, paperback, 1986.

   A flawed Utopia, with a machine acting as conscience and punishment for wrong-doers; crime is rampant on Earth, although need is theoretically abolished – indeed crime is licensed through Vicinc, and inflation takes its usual toll from the average man. High-minded theory vs. ugly reality.

   This is the world Jeff returns to from the stars, with dreams of revenge against his father’s former business partner who was the cause if his father’s exile from Earth. But Jeff is caught before he can carry out his plans, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be ringed.

   The ring is an instrument of the Ultra Conscience, painfully enforcing firm ethical standards, But there are degrees if honesty, and the ring can be bio substitute fir human judgment: the concept of self-defense is not recognized, making the ringer the target for universal criminal attack. How can a truly ethical system be formalized as law? Is the ring the only answer? The ring can be effective with the proper programming. But who does the programming?

   Meanwhile, Jeff struggles within the restrictions of the ring to avenge his father, but he discovers he does not know the whole truth. Exciting, suspenseful writing. With imagination providing for a future society which is easily extrapolated from our own. Since the characters are easily translated to those of Tennyson, it is no wonder they interest the reader so deeply.

Rating: *****

S. S. VAN DINE – The “Canary” Murder Case. Philo Vance #2. Charles Scribner’s Sons, hardcover, 1927. Reprinted many times, including Gold Medal T2004, paperback. 1968. Film: Paramount Pictures, 1929, with William Powell as Philo Vance.

   For the most part, Philo Vance is a dispassionate and impartial observer, often with an air of studious amusement, analyzing the crime and suspects impartially, yet he has bursts of enthusiasm that keep him well involved in the problem at hand.

   His attorney S. S. Van Dine, who records his exploits for posterity, has nothing to say. Ever.

   The studious amusement reaches cynicism and class snobbery, however, and can you believe getting all the murder suspects together in the District Attorney’s apartment to play poker as a pretext for learning their basic characters? The murder of Margaret Odell, popularly known as the “Canary,” is a locked room mystery, but Vance withholds vital information not only from the police, but from the reader as well.

   The explanations are overdone by far; most of what is happening is clear, but definitely not to the police or to District Attorney Markham. The mystery and solution are otherwise quite adequate.

Rating: **½

E. C. TUBB – The Space-Born. Ace Double D-193, paperback original; 1st printing, December 1956. Cover art by Ed Valigursky. Published back to back with The Man Who Japed, by Philip K. Dick (reviewed here). Equinox/Avon (SF Rediscovery, softcover, 1976.

   One page is enough to fill in the background of a ship heading for the stars, containing 5000 people living out their lives within its confines, making a 32 light-year journey in something over 300 years. But in spite of the obvious closeness to journey’s end, Tubb manages to breathe some life into the characters, unaware of the crisis coming upon them.

   The task of the ship’s Psycho-Police is to maintain the population at a constant level, with murder as the method at hand. Forty is the maximum age allowed. But positions of power lead to violations of that rule, as the instinct for survival bred into the ship’s inhabitants leads to restlessness, then corruption.

   But the journey is ending; warnings to that effect are readily apparent to the reader. Thank goodness the builders of the ship were so prophetically wise in preparing for all contingencies.

   A book easily forgotten, but one to get caught up on for a short while.

Rating: ***½

PHILIP K. DICK – The Man Who Japed. Ace Double D-193, paperback original; 1st printing, December 1956. Cover art by Ed Emshwiller. Published back to back with The Space-Born, by E, C. Tubb. Reprinted several times.

   The society of the future that Dick pictures in The Man Who Japed is often depressing, a world where life is simple, yet complicated, and out of touch with the common man, who doesn’t really seem to realize it.

   There is a lack of individuality, and incapability for making decisions, that permeates their lives. And it may very well happen that in the days following the next war, a program such as Moral Reclamation will come to power: sole power.

   With morality in the hands of the state, neighbors pry on neighbors, and attend weekly block meetings to hear the lurid details of friends having gone astray. Purcell’s agency is one of several that prepare packets for Telemedia, which has control of all communications industries.

   As guardian of the public’s morality and ethics, the position of Director of T-M is of considerable importance, but when Purcell is offered the position, he does not what is answer should be. For Purcell himself is guilty of immoral behavior which he cannot control, of pranks violating the statue of Morec’s founder, of japing Morec itself.

   A society without a sense of humor can be toppled by a man who does. And this one is, or at least the foundation of moral righteousness, is weakened by the program aired by Purcell before he can be ousted from the position he decides to accept.

   Dick’s plots require involvement on the part of the reader; as a master stroke of genius, Dick provides for that involvement himself with the inner excitement of the stories themselves. This is one well worth reprinting, with a promise of the future resting in the hands of youth, questioning the present.

Rating: *****

ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE October 1967. [Special international issue.] Overall rating: **½.

MICHAEL GILBERT “The Terrorists.” Behrens & Calder. Novelette. First published in Argosy (UK) April 1967, as “Double, Double.” A plot to assassinate an Arabian ruler in London fails, thanks to the work of Behrens and Calder. (3)

JOHN D. MacDONALD “No Business for an Amateur.” Novelette. First published in Dime Detective, February 1947 as “Dead to the World.” Roadhouse protection racket, told in pulp style so strong you can smell the yellow pages. One great line, on page 36. (3)

HEINRICH BOLL “Like a Bad Dream.” First published in Harper’s Magazine, October 1965. Translated by Leila Vennewitz. A wife has to show her husband how to have an excavation bid accepted. Distinctly German. (5)

NOEL BOSKER “Best Laid Schemes.” A murder plan is ruined when someone beats him to it. (3)

JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI “The Thief.” First appeared in Seven Japanese Tales by Junichiro Tanizaki, Knopf, hardcover, 1963. The story of a highly moral thief’s college days. (4)

ALBERTO MORAVIA “Only the Death of a Man.” First appeared in The Atlantic Monthly December 1958, as “The Secret.” Translated by Helene Cantarella. Hit-and-run bothers a truck driver’s conscience, but not his girl friend’s. (2)

LEO TOLSTOY “The Man of God.” Reprint. Comparatively clumsy treatment of a man wrongly sentenced to Siberia. (3)

JOSEF SKVORECKY “The Classic Sererak Case.” First appeared in Smutek Porucika Boruvky, Prague, 1966. Young sergeant’s efforts to show suicide was murder are unnecessary: Lieutenant Vorovka needs to ask only two questions. The humor depends on an obvious situation, except for clue withheld until the end. (3)

HERNANDO TELLEZ “Enemy in His Hands” First appeared in Great Spanish Tales, Dell, 1962, as “Just Lather, That’s All. ” Translated by Donald A. Yates. A barber has an enemy captain in his chair. (3)

GEORGES SIMENON “Inspector Maigret Pursues.” First appeared in English in Argosy (UK) January 1962, as “The Man on the Run.” Maigret spends five days following man who does not dare go home. Ending misfires. (3)

M. PATRICIA DOBLE “The Quest Gest.” The ghost of Shakespeare returns. Pointless? (1)

JAMES POWELL “The Beddoes Scheme.” Acting Sergeant Maynard Bullock. Novelette. An advertising campaign on the behalf of peace and brotherhood. Wild, gets wilder, then stupid, finally boring. (0)

LAWRENCE TREAT “C As in Crime.” Mitch Taylor & Bill Decker. Mitch Taylor thinks he has solved a murder case, but he doesn’t have it quite right. Last line doesn’t make sense. (3)

ANDREW GARVE “Line of Communication.” A kite is used by a boy to escape from kidnappers. Nothing more. (3)

ROBERT SHECKLEY – The Status Civilization. Dell 8249; paperback; 1st printing thus, October 1968; cover art by Podwil. Published earlier as a two-part serial in Amazing SF. Aug-Sept 1960 as “Omega!.” First book publication: Signet S1840, paperback, September 1960.

   A standard plot: The static society of Earth is redeemed by the fresh enthusiasm of criminals escaping from the prison planet Omega. Will Barrent is a convicted murderer, sentenced to Omega, who survives the rigors of life there to be contacted by an inner group dedicated to return to Earth. But before the welcome return can take place, the subconscious hypnotic teaching of Earth’s classic school must be overcome.

   By itself, society on Omega is  self-destructive: laws are designed to keep population down, with murder the most prevalent method; the ideal citizen is the one who breaks laws successfully. This is what Earth, stifled by conformity, needs to continue man’s expansion to the stars.

   Memory is removed before sending a criminal to Omega, but evil still seems inherent in the criminal class as previously mentioned. It would seem that the question of evil by heredity or by environment could be investigated under such conditions, but Sheckley’s emphasis is on the law as it exists, independent of those who administer it or live under it, Yet laws of man would have to be less important than the basic laws of nature.

   The writing is mediocre, again especially in comparison to an author such as [John D.] MacDonald. The dialogue is occasionally  stiff and old-fashioned, while the action is rapid, taking place in flashing scenes, without really pausing to reflect on its consequences.

   Thus in many ways, Sheckley’s writing here is like that of an author from the thirties trying to pass for modern. The theme is up-to-date, however, which probably explains why this story hes been resurrected from oblivion.

Rating: **

JOHN D. MacDONALD – A Flash of Green. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1962. Crest, paperback, date? Reprinted many times. Film: International Spectrafilm, 1984, with Ed Harris, Blair Brown, Richard Jordan.

   What might easily only be a story about the expanding universe of Elmo Bliss very quickly becomes a study of reporter Jimmy Wing, who is offered an inside position in Elmo’s organization, geared to eventually be put him in the governor’s chair. Jimmy accepts, with his usual rationalized reservations. His job, to uncover the facts necessary for blackmail; the rationalizations being someone else would do it, somebody not quite so kind. And being on the inside has its own attractions. But once he rationalizes, the decision has been made.

   Blackmail is considered necessary to defeat the birdwatchers opposed to filling in Grassy Bay for commercial purposes. The beginning grabs, the warnings are there, you know it’s going to be a nasty fight. Elmo has his own simplified views of man’s place in nature, of the abstraction of art and beauty, of man-devised tourist attractions as opposed to nature’s own. But in today’s pragmatic world, his views are those which are applied to the Florida of the green dollar. Which is not to pick on Florida, of course.

   And the bay is filled in, with the aid of the pure in heart: the businessman with an eye to the community good, the anti-Communists who pave the way for the efficient action of free enterprise, and the zealous religionists who tie and beat those who do not confirm.

   It is nasty, but not until the beating of Jackie Halliday will Jimmy have enough. His exposure of Elmo’s plans stop future ambitions for the governorship, but this does not seem enough to pay for only the physical damage done, and it is difficult to believe that life in Palm City can go on as before. But on the surface it seems to …

   Lots of characters, fully realized, in depth, but almost too many to keep track of. Wives of businessmen tend to blur into identical sameness, as do the less important of their husbands. But MacDonald manages well, brings life to minor characters as few authors can, and has a point will worth making. Down with ugliness!

Rating: *****