What a beautiful period to have a book and pulp convention! Temperature in the 70’s which is very unusual for November. Though the show is officially only one day. My friends and I celebrate the occasion from Wednesday through Saturday and some years even Sunday.

Ed Hulse.

   As usual Matt Moring arrives first on Wednesday and uses the extra time to research and scan pulp covers and contents. This work eventually ends up as the books published by Steeger Books (steegerbooks.com). 600 books, mostly pulp reprints and counting! An amazing achievement.

Walker Martin.

   Thursday and Friday, the other pulp collectors arrive and we proceed to have several meals at such restaurants near me as Metro Grill, Bell’s Tavern, Town and Country. Sadly Mastoris Diner, after almost a hundred years, was a victim of the Covid virus restrictions but we noticed that Town and Country looked very similar as to seating and menu.

Cowboy Tony.

   I try to keep the Friday brunch down to 10 collectors because that’s all I can handle and control. Yes, control, because these guys are all insane bibliomaniacs (is there such a word?) and to give you an idea here is a listing of the attendees with the years I’ve known them. They all have enormous book and pulp collections:

         Digges La Touche–50 years

         Scott Hartshorn–46 years

         Nick Certo–46 years

         Paul Herman–40 years

         Andy Jaysnovich–40 years

         Ed Hulse–25 years

         Richard Meli–25 years

         Matt Moring–10 or 12 years

   In addition we had a new guest, Peter Wolson, the son of Morton Wolson, who wrote under the name of Peter Paige for Dime Detective, Black Mask, and Detective Tales. Under his own name he also wrote for Manhunt and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Peter collects only the pulps that his father appeared in so he is the only one of our group who has his collecting activities under control.

   Though there were many Peter Paige stories in the pulps, he had written only one novel, so when The Complete Cases of Cash Wale appeared from Steeger Books in 2021, his son Peter was surprised and happy to see that his father was still remembered by readers and collectors.

   This collection is the first volume reprinting the over 20 Cash Wale and Sailor Duffy stories. Cash was a hard boiled private eye and Sailor was his assistant and strongman. The first couple stories appeared in Detective Tales and Black Mask but the rest of them found a home in Dime Detective during the 40’s and early 50’s. The stories were long novelets and close to 20,000 words each. The author received high word rates since they were so popular. I’ve seen cancelled checks made out to Morton Wolson for $400 to $500 dollars. All the stories were hard boiled, wise cracking private eye yarns told with a sense of style and humor. I highly recommend them and they are available at steegerbooks.com or amazon.

John Gunnison.

   Attendance at the convention was between 80 and 100 with many dealers and 42 tables. There were two fairly large rooms and one small one. One big benefit was the free breakfast available at the hotel. I needed the egg sandwich, hash browns and coffee to get me through the day because I’m too excited to waste time taking a lunch break. Yes, “waste time,” because it’s all about the books and pulps!

   Unfortunately, I’ve been at the collecting game so long that I no longer need much and I didn’t find many of my wants. But Matt Moring and I shared a table and I sold some Shadow digests, Adventure, Black Mask, and Dime Detective pulps. I saw Matt running back and forth with many pulps that he needed and it made me wish I could relive the old days when I needed a lot and had a big want list.

   Speaking of Matt, keep an eye out for the Steeger Books Thanksgiving sale. He showed me over 20 new volumes that will be soon up for sale, including books in the Argosy and Dime Detective series.

Bruce Tinkle with Lucille & Gary Lovisi.

   The rooms were busy all day long, especially the tables manned by John Gunnison (five!), Cowboy Tony, Paul Herman, and Michael Brenner.

   I’d like to thank the organizers of this excellent show: Rich Harvey and Audrey Parente. Also thanks to Rich’s father who has been in charge of taking attendance since the first show over 20 years ago. The photos were taken by Paul Herman. Thanks Paul! And thanks to all my collector friends for making this another memorable occasion.

   Hope to see you at Windy City and Pulpfest!

A. H. Z. CARR – Finding Maubee. Putnam, hardcover, 1971. Bantam, paperback, 1973. Edgar Winnerin 1972 for Best First Mystery. Film: MGM, 1989, as The Mighty Quinn (reviewed here ).

   So aside from the fact that I’m into American mid-century hardboiled writing, when looking for my next read, one of my rules of thumb is to target books that somebody somewhere that I respect has endorsed. Life’s too short for me to read everything. And it’s especially too short to waste what little time I have reading crap. Reading nourishes me and helps me to keep going. These (generally) dead writers are my friends. We understand each other. And if someone cool has read a mid-century hardboiled book and enjoyed it, then I figure I should be also capable of experiencing similar enjoyment. If I fail to experience similar joy the failure is all mine. It’s not like anyone is paying me to read books — it’s me that paying for the privilege with my money and my time. I read for the experiences a book provides me with and the time I get to spend in the author’s company. And if the experiences are not valuable, it’s my loss and mine alone.

   There’s a number of lists out there from which I draw (James Sandoe and Geoffrey O’Brien, for example). Another nice list of books comes courtesy of J. Kingston Pierce’s much beloved blog The Rap Sheet:

         http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2007/05/ones-that-got-away.html.

   Robert Randisi’s choice of the most criminally neglected novel was Finding Maubee:

   â€œI choose Finding Maubee, by A. H. Z. Carr. When it came out in 1972 it won the Edgar for Best First novel. [It’s] a procedural set in Jamaica, which was made into an enjoyable 1989 movie with Denzel Washington, called The Mighty Quinn. Unfortunately, before [Carr] could write any more, or–I believe–even before the book was published, the author died. … I would have loved to see what this author would have done next.”

         http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2007/05/youre-still-one-part-iv.html

   It’s quite pricey, but I was able to read it via the indispensable Internet Archive:

         https://archive.org/details/calypsomurders0000carr.

   The book centers around the relationship between the police chief, Xavier Brooke, and his childhood friend David Maubee. Maubee is a famous local Don Juan, who has fathered so many children out of wedlock that he has taken to petty theft to pay all of his paternity obligations. He’s so legendary that the islanders of the fictional American Island St. Caro sang a calypso that goes:

         â€œLet us tell you the story of David Maubee,

         Who sought for a life of tranquilitee.

         He had to pay money to eight different women,

         So now he robs tourists while they are swimmin’.

         He have found the way of life which is safest and surest—

         Like all of us here he live on the tourist.”

   The police left Maubee alone in his gigolo induced petty thievery because local sentiment was on his side. Another popular calypso goes:

         â€œPolice don’ wan’ get Dave Maubee sore

         Cause provocation is against the law.”

   The uneasy truce between the police and David Maubee comes to an end, however, when a rich American industrialist is found slain by a machete bearing Maubee’s fingerprints, Maubee’s little black book laying by the slain man’s side.

   The American governor of the island, Governor Chalk, has ordered the police to arrest Maubee at once. Dead or alive. No autopsy necessary. We can’t have this island tourist destination soiled by the scandal of unsolved murder of rich American tourists.

   Ignoring orders, and at the risk of hearth and home, Police Chief Xavier Brooke has an autopsy performed. It turns out that the victim was poisoned to death before the staged slaying.

   Governor Chalk won’t believe the autopsy, however. And he gives Xavier 24 hours to catch Maubee and/or prove someone else is the murderer. If he doesn’t solve it in time, Xavier’s chief deputy has Chalk’s ear, with knives out to take Xavier’s job (and wife) from him.

   It’s a very enjoyable Caribbean detective story. A bit reminiscent of the Jo Gar stories for the island atmosphere and the gentility and cultured manners of the local police chief who navigates local customs and superstition with the finesse necessary for native cooperation.

   It gets a bit too talky at the end, where we have the tired mechanism of having all the suspects show up in one room to finagle a confession. But I can forgive this cliched ending for what, prior to the denouement, was an original, touching story of an unlikely friendship between law and outlaw outlasting hypocritical colonialist efforts to subvert a difficult justice in the interests of tourism.

MARKER. “The Pilot.” UPN, 17 January 1995 (Season 1, Episode 1). Richard Grieco, Gates McFadden, Keone Young, Andy Burnaabel. Guest star: Nia Peeples. Created and written by Stephen J. Cannell. Director: Dennis Duggan. Currently streaming (with ads) on Freevee.

   It may be stretching things a bit to call Marker a Private Eye show, but on the basis of this first episode only, I don’t see any reason why not. When Richard DeMorra (Richard Grieco), a carpenter living in New Jersey who travels to Hawaii to attend the funeral of his estranged father, he clashes immediately with his stepmother over the estate, but he also learns that his father had a habit of passing out markers for people to use whenever they needed a helping hand.

   And such a person is a championship surfer girl (Nia Peeples) whose sister has disappeared, and she is hoping that Richard will honor his father’s promise to help find her. It is strongly suggested that further episodes will center on other such “clients” holding similar markers.

   It doesn’t take a lot of effort to solve this first case. Most of its running time is taken up by establishing the basic setup and the rules of the game. Richard ruminates a lot about his father, but it is left to later episodes (perhaps) to explain the why of the estrangement, a serious omission, I thought, one which let me hanging.

   Richard Grieco (who attended Central Connecticut State University, where I taught for some 30 years) was at the time known as a “hunk” but is also moderately successful here as an actor. The story line does show some promise, but other than the promise, this first case is awfully dull. The series lasted for only half a season, or 13 episodes.

GEORGE GOODCHILD – The Monster of Grammont. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1927. Mystery League, US, hardcover, 1930.

   I try to read at least one spooky book this time of year, and this year it was George Goodchild’s elusive novel, The Monster of Grammont.

   I say “elusive” because I have seen this book at used book stores three times. The first two times I set it aside and someone else got it while I wasn’t looking. The third time I bought it with no difficulty, only to have it disappear for two weeks when I was halfway through it — turned out some idiot set a pile of junk overtop it while I was working in my basement. Terrible the help one gets these days. But I digress….

   Monster starts off quite well, with two doughty Englishmen motoring through post-WWI France on Holiday, stopping at a chateau where one of them convalesced thanks to the hospitality of the owner, Count Fallieres, and finding the Count and his beautiful daughter (“She was just a child when I was here last…”) beset by a nasty old ghost.

   And when I say “nasty old ghost” I mean every inch of that phrase. No pallid whining blob of ectoplasm, this supernatural visitor is big, ugly, ill-tempered and quite capable of nailing doughty Englishmen to the floor when they venture too near, which our heroes do early on and often thereafter.

   This sustains the first several chapters quite nicely, as everyone darts about the chateau in pursuit of the ghostly vandal until Fallieres get murdered for his trouble and Police Detective Fouchard is sent to investigate.

   Only Fouchard doesn’t show up right away; an impostor takes his place and promptly vanishes when the real Fouchard shows up. Which sets up a whole different plot involving kidnappings, more impersonations, car chases, bombs, and still more plotting, till the Monster of Grammont gets rather displaced by all that mucking about.

   Which is a shame, because the Monster was an entertaining brute, and the plot that replaces his antics seems tame and tepid by comparison. Worse yet, the story wraps up with a burst of niceness sure to disappoint readers who followed the earlier, nastier passages as avidly as I did.

   There is a certain amount of charm in the attitudes and impressions of our post-Victorian heroes, but readers looking for an authentic chill had best put this down and seek elsewhere.

DAVID McDANIEL – The Vampire Affair. The Man from UNCLE #6. Ace, paperback original, 1966.

   When an agent for UNCLE is found dead, his body drained of blood in the Transylvanian hills, Napoloeon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are sent to investigate. No one want to even suggest the obvious, but after a while even the obvious cannot be denied.

   That quick summary is about all there is to the story. David McDaniel is a good writer, but you can also hint at things supernatural only so long before the hints become hokey. You probably know what is really happening, if not why, as well and as soon as I did all the way through.

   One point of interest, quite unexpected, though, is a chapter-length cameo by Forrest J Ackerman, editor and primary writer for the then current magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland and a self-proclaimed expert on both vampires ad werewolves. His presence doesn’t add anything to the plot, and in fact it may take you (jarringly) out of the story for a moment or two.

   I think McDaniel captures the camaraderie between the two stars rather well, without overdoing it. But if it’s UNCLE you want, you would be better picking up a set of DVDs for the show — an option, however, I know fully well was not available back in 1966.

JAMES ANDERSON – The Affair of the Blood-Stained Egg Cosy. Chief Inspector Wilkins #1. Constable, UK, hardcover, 1975. David McKay, US, hardcover, 1977. Avon, US, paperback, 1978. Poisoned Pen Press, US, softcover, 1998.

   In this book Mr. Anderson has attempted and pretty well succeeded, in recapturing the spirit of the pre-war era. The setting is a weekend house party in a stately home, the flavouring that of international intrigue, and the characters the full range of golden age products — the titled hosts, American millionaires, a penniless deb, a mysterious stranger, some diplomats, a foreign countess, etc. etc.

   But whereas the genuine thirties article also often contained unreal dialogue, ridiculous characters, a meandering plot with a hopelessly weak denouement, this does not. The build-up is beautifully done and leads to a storm-ridden night when all hell lets loose — jewelry is stolen (could it be the work of a master criminal, the Wraith?), guns are missing, there are constant comings and goings — and murder is done.

   The police in the form of  unconventional Inspector Wilkins carry out a detailed investigation and in a marvelous revelation scene the pieces of the jigsaw are put together and the truth emerges.

   An affectionate study, and quite a tour de force.

S. A. DUNPHY – Lost Graves. Boyle & Keneally #2. Bookouture, paperback, January 2022. Setting: Contemporary Ireland.

First Sentence: A small boy stood in the clearing amid the oak and hazel trees and stared at the macabre object his dog had just excavated from the soil of the forest floor, gripping the animal’s collar to restrain it from tearing the severed human hand apart.

   Joe Keenan and his young son Finbar are Travellers who’ve made camp for the night at the edge of the Derrada Woods when Finbar comes across a corpse. Although Joe is arrested, the members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations; Jesse Boyle, criminal behaviorist, DS Seamus Keneally and historian and computer genius Terri Kehoe, who are called in to investigate under the command of Irish Police Commissioner Dawn Wilson, doesn’t believe Joe is guilty.

   More bodies are found, some dating back 20 years. Locals blame the deaths on a vampire, the Abhartach. Joe Keenan is hesitant about helping the investigation as he is on the run from a group of Travellers threatening to kill him.

   What an excellent opening. One is drawn immediately into the story and the characters. Even the chapter headings are evocative.

   Jessie Boyle, Seamus Keneally and Terri Kehoe make a great team. Jessie’s observations and analysis are interesting to follow, Seamus’ ability to eat constantly without ever getting a drop on himself, and Terri’s computer expertise bring the characters to life. One has become accustomed to investigative teams being able to find whatever information they want via computer. It is a nice change to have someone acknowledge the GIGO — Garbage In, Garbage Out — unreliability of data.

   In this second book of the series, once again the author  falls victim once again to over plotting.   (My review of the first, Bring Her Home, can be found here .) While the folklore is interesting, it somewhat overwhelms the story, as does the serial-killer trope. There is an attempt to introduce a sense of the paranormal with the idea of the Abhartach, a vampire-like creature, one never quite buys into it, and links to the seemingly omniscient character of Uruz from the earlier book.

   Dunphy excels at suspense. He creates a true spine-chilling creepiness that makes one catch their breath. However, he is guilty of overkill, he maintains a degree of logic to the plot. What was effective was the inclusion of case notes of a former detective. This added veracity to the story, as did information on the psychology of the Travelling people. They are a group on which there is rarely a focus. The epilogue is nicely done, while a major weakness is the use of completely unnecessary portents.

   Lost Graves is a good, fast, completely engrossing diversionary read. The thing that really holds it together is the principal characters. Dunphy falls into the category of a guilty pleasure read, and that’s not a bad thing. While this second book is a step forward, a much stronger editor is to be desired. Even so, the books are ripping reads, and the next is already in the queue.

Rating: Good plus.

JILL PATON WALSH – The Wyndham Case. Imogen Quy #1. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1993; trade paperback, 2003. St. Martin’s, US, hardcover, 1993.

   Jill Paton Walsh, who died in 2020, was first best known as the author of a long list of children’s book. She rose to fame in “our” field for being chosen to complete one of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels, left unfinished at the time of her death (Thrones, Dominations, 1998), followed by three more Wimsey novels written on her own.

   Alongside these she wrote the four books in her Imogen Quy series, of which this is the first. Imogen is a young nurse at St. Agatha’s College, Cambridge University —  an interesting way to write detective mysteries involving college professors and deans in action, up close and personal, but yet from the outside, without having a major stake in the game.

   The “Wyndham Case” is actually (as a play on words) the spectacular shelving unit in a special, separately endowed scholarly library at St. Agatha’s, complete with arcane requirements for its care and financial upkeep . Found dead there one morning is a student who, because of his meager means, is suspected by many of being there for nefarious reasons. Thievery,

   A close male friend of Imogen is a police officer, which is always a good way to get a layperson involved in a murder case. Imogen is, in fact, invited by him to do just that when the students in the dead boy’s life stonewall the police.

   Walsh has to have been a good choice to continue to Peter Wimsey series. Her prose is clear, precise, witty, and just fusty enough to qualify. (I haven’t read any of them.) Imogen Quy (rhymes with “why”) is quiet but both perky and intelligent enough to be able spend a lot of enjoyable time with – perhaps too much so, as the fully absorbed reader (me) can easily find him- or herself so caught up in her personal life as to let the clues in the case slip  on by Me again).

   Do not lose yourself in the game, therefore,  and miss sight of the goal. Read and remember all the details as the case goes on. They will all be there (mostly).

   I enjoyed this one.
   

       The Imogen Quy series —

The Wyndham Case (1993)
A Piece of Justice (1995)
Debts of Dishonour (2006)
The Bad Quarto (2007)

ANDRE NORTON – Year of the Unicorn. Witch World series. Ace F-357, paperback original, 1965. Cover and interior art by Jack Gaughan. Reprinted many times. Collected in The Gates to Witch World (Tor, hardcover, 2001).

   Gillan’s story begins in an abbey, where she has spent the last eight years. She is of unknown origin, having been captured from the Hounds of Alizon by a lord of High Halleck as he fought to free his homeland. Her past is of importance, however, for she has the ability of true-sight, to see the thing behind the thing.

   As she tells her story, of her marriage to a Were-Rider as part of the Great Bargain, of the evil magic which produces two Gillans, and of her desperate struggle to reach the false one before she fades to the world of her dreams, this ability grows more controllable and both aids her and brings about the troubles she faces.

   Evidently she has blood of the witches of Estcarp, stories of whom have been previously told but not read; still, this book stands well enough on its own. This is an interesting world, where magic can be performed by some and swordsmanship is a necessary art. But, as fantasy, there is too much a feeling that the author has too much power at her command, especially at the end as Gillan and Herrel fight for their lives.

   The book begins slowly, difficult reading, but as the story becomes clearer so does interest rise. Then long chapters drag on without dialogue as she struggles her way alone to the land of the Were-Riders. On the other hand, many scenes are quite effective, and the quality of the archaic, picturesque language Norton uses adds a great deal to the tale.

Rating: ****

FREDERICK C. DAVIS – The Deadly Miss Ashley. Schyler Cole & Luke Speare #1. Doubleday/Crime Club, hardcover, 1950. Pocket #804, paperback, 1951.

   I read and collect Davis’s books mostly because he was an extremely prolific writer for the detective pulp magazines, but if you were to pin me down I couldn’t tell you anything significant that he wrote for them. Maybe the Operator #5 pulp-hero stories?

   Here the detective Agency is Scyler Cole’s, but the switch os that he plays Watson to his own legman, Luke Speare, who appears to have all the brains and energy. The problem is to discover which of the many women inn the case is the accomplice awaiting an embezzler’s return from prison, the loot still hidden.

   The deductions get tedious and self-contradictory, the plot contrived and essentially unreal, but the clues are fair and the killer is deadly. The case hinges to large extent on an undecipherable method of shorthand, invented and taught by a lady in Baltimore – a touch of insanity indeed.

Rating: C

      The Schyler Cole & Luke Speare series —

The Deadly Miss Ashley. Doubleday 1950.
Lilies in Her Garden Grew. Doubleday 1951.
Tread Lightly, Angel. Doubleday 1952.
Drag the Dark. Doubleday 1953.
Another Morgue Heard From. Doubleday 1954.
Night Drop. Doubleday 1955