TOP DETECTIVE ANNUAL, 1952. (Volume 1, Number 3.) Editor: David X. Manners, Cover art: Samuel Cherry. Overall rating: **

HAROLD HELFER “The Cell.” Listed as a short story, it is more a short [two page] documentary of a man’s strange punishment for his sex crimes. (4)

STEWART STERLING “The Glass Guillotine.” Novella. Gil Vine. Originally published in Thrilling Detective, November 1940. Former FBI agent Gil Vine intervenes in a political kidnapping on the eve of the nominating convention. Mostly unbelievable. (2)

WILLIAM CAMPBELL GAULT “Four Kings and a Jack.” Originally published in Thrilling Detective, December 1942, The story of a jazz musician in murder trouble. (2)

FREDRIC BROWN “The Spherical Ghoul.” Novelet. Originally published in Thrilling Mystery, January 1943. A graduate student, whose thesis is on superstitions, and who works nights in a morgue, discovers a half-eaten corpse. Has good mood, but how did trigonometry get in there? (3)

DWIGHT V. BABCOCK “Jumbled Justice.” Originally published in Thrilling Detective, December 1934. The name “Ruby” turns out to be a last name. (2)

G, T. FLEMING-ROBERTS “Dig Three Graves.” Novelet. Originally published in Exciting Detective, Summer 1942. A nightmare face haunts a famed scientist, and murder threat make him decide to change his will. Melodramatic. (2)

HAL.K. WELLS “Green-Haired Murder.” Originally published in The Phantom Detective, August 1946. Strange circumstances do not make a mystery. (1)

WYATT BLASSINGAME “Shark River Manhunt.” Novelet. Originally published in Thrilling Adventure, January 1943. A hunt for a man hiding out in the Everglades for a crime he didn’t commit; he is guilty of subsequent crimes of murder, however. (2)

JOE ARCHIBALD “No Place Like Homicide.” Originally published in Popular Detective, April 1940. Willie Klump, president of the Hawkeye Detective Agency, fumbles around, Hard to take all this humor. (0)

RAY CUMMINGS “Psychological Approach.” Originally published in Black Book Detective, October 1947. Actually fails; it takes a woman’s touch. (2)

MURRAY LEINSTER “Chuckles.: Originally published in Popular Detective, December 1943, Killer is haunted by his victim’s laugh, (1)

WARD HAWKINS “Murder Beach.” Novelet. Originally published in Thrilling Mystery, July 1941. Murders seem to be committed by a fierce dog, Hints of werewolvery, but not really. (1)