JUANITA COULSON – The Singing Stones. Ace Double H-77; paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Cover art by Kelly Freas. Published back-to-back with Derai, by E. C. Tubb (a review of which will be posted here soon).

   Strange stones that entrance those who touch them with their mysterious essence of music appear on the black market, and Geoff Latimer is sent by the Federation to the protected planet of Pa-Liina to discover their source. Also part of his assignment is the task of stopping slave trade carried on through “protecting” planet of Deliyas. To be done, of course, without requiring official intervention.

   A mutated goddess has developed the stones for the benefit of her fellow Pa-liinians, and Geoff must decide which side he will back in the struggle for rule of the planet.

   Things are not made clear at once, in a decidedly casual approach to the plot, but everything does finally get explained. Latimer works like the CIA is supposed to. He doesn’t much like it, but in this case, his manipulations work out fine. A strange way of doing business, after all that time.

Rating: ***½

— September 1968.