Thu 2 Jun 2011
A Review by Dan Stumpf: THEODORE STURGEON – Some of Your Blood.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
THEODORE STURGEON – Some of Your Blood. Ballantine 458K, paperback original, 1961. Reprinted several times.
Speaking of tough, fast and scary, following my review of Jim Thompson’s Savage Night, I revisited Theodore Sturgeon’s Some of Your Blood, which has all that and is also by way of being one of the most compassionate books I’ve ever read.
The tale of a bloodsucking freak is told as a psychological detective story, with an overworked Army shrink trying to delve into the psyche of a likable but mysterious GI, “George” whose personal correspondence is the catalyst of the case. Along the way we uncover serial killings and some other things not suitable for a family show, but Sturgeon never loses sympathy for “George” and the result is a uniquely chilling and memorable story.
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Didn’t he author the Ellery Queen novel “The Player on the Other Side”? Was that his only true detective novel?
“Blood” is another weird-sounding one!
You tempted me to read “Savage Night,” by the way; but I compromised with “A Hell of a Woman” (review coming)!
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:24 pm
You’re right about PLAYER ON THE OTHER SIDE. (And who knows, if he ghosted that one, there may be others we don’t know about — not meaning other EQ novels.)
Besides PLAYER and SOME OF YOUR BLOOD, the only other entry in Hubin for Sturgeon is STURGEON’S WEST, written with Don Ward (Doubleday, 1973) a collection of western stories with two of them considered criminous.
PS. I’ll post your Jim Thompson review soon. Thanks!
June 2nd, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Steve: just sent you an edited version (you know me)!