The Pulp Time Machine: Column Advertising

 

The Pulp Time Machine Column Advertising   I may be alone in this, although I doubt it, but the only thing better than the column advertisements in pulp magazines (usually for sketchy products) are the stories and the illustrations. But if I think about, that’s about all there was… Check out these groovy ads in the last several pages of the October 1950 issue of Thrilling Detective. I’m thinking of sending away for the “Sensational Device Enables Anyone to Test Own Eyes” gizmo and those “Nervous Stomach” garlic tablets. And don't get me started on “Be a Detective” gig because that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. I hope the addresses still work.         The cover artist is unknown (to me at least).

Review: "Bad Moon" by Todd Ritter

 

Bad Moon by Todd Ritter Minotaur Books, 2011   Bad Moon—which is the second of three mysteries featuring Perry Hollow, Pennsylvania, police chief, Kat Campbell—is a white-knuckle ride loaded with twists and thrills and unsuspected revelations. When Nick Donnelly, a homicide investigator for the State Police before being drummed out after an injury, calls Kat hoping for her help on a cold case his Foundation was hired to solve. On July 20, 1969, the same day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, ten-year-old Charlie Olmstead went missing from his home. Charlie’s bicycle was found in the water just above Sunset Falls and the police, led by Kat’s father, Jim, ruled his death an accident. But Charlie’s body was never found and his mother, Maggie, believed her son was kidnapped and may still be alive. While on her death bed, Maggie made her only other child, the bestselling novelist Eric Olmstead, promise to find Charlie. So Eric, back in Perry Hollow to bury his mother, hired Nick and with Kat’s unofficial help—after all, the case was closed more than 40-years ago—the trio follow the scant clues into a shocking web of murder. Bad Moon is lightning paced and teeters on the edge of psychological thriller; which makes sense because Todd Ritter has since gained fame for the twisty psychological thrillers he writes as Riley Sager. Ritter litters, in a good way, the narrative with conflicting personal motivations and shades of character compromise. Kat is compromised by her deceased father’s involvement in the case and a relationship she had with Eric as a teenager. Nick’s conflict is with his injury and a grudge he holds against the State Police for his ignominious termination. And Eric is crippled with guilt for leaving his mother alone for so many decades. But it is the plot that matters most because everything else is subterfuge to keep the climactic reveals hidden until they pop onto the page. And oh boy, does it work.

Bad Moon is currently out-of-print, which is a shame because I had a really good time reading it—and if you enjoy an occasional twisted and surprising thriller, where the plot surpasses everything, you likely will too. And don’t worry about reading the series in order because I didn’t have any trouble following Bad Moon, which was my first experience with Kat Campbell and Todd Ritter.

Review: "How I Spend My Days and My Nights" by Håkan Nesser

“How I Spend My Days and My Nights” by Håkan Nesser Novellix, 2019   Swedish crime writer, Håkan Nesser’s “How I Spend My Days and My Nights”—originally published in the Swedish magazine Allas in 2006—is a splendid, if blisteringly dark, psychological chiller that haunts the reader long after the last page. On a rainy November evening, Marteen, a successful novelist, stops on his way home at Harry’s Bar for a quiet drink. His wife, Marlene, is away on business and a quick drink is excuse enough to escape the rain and postpone his arrival to their empty apartment.       Harry’s Bar is empty except for the bartender and a man drinking alone at the bar. After Marteen orders a double scotch, a pitcher of water, and a towel (to dry himself from the rain), and before he can find a table, the lone drinker introduces himself as David Perowne. And while Marteen has never heard of Perowne, the stranger tells him a nasty and unbelievable story about Marlene. But it’s a story that could change everything in Marteen’s life.       “How I Spend My Days and My Nights” is astonishingly good. With a deceptively simple narrative, Nesser seamlessly builds the mystery around the question, is Perowne’s tale about Marlene true? And just as relevant, does it matter if it is true? The Hitchcockian premise is jazzed by a hint of wobbling character reliability, tension, and potential betrayal. Then there are those last few sentences that change everything with an ironic and gut-wrenching twist.

I read “How I Spend My Days and My Nights” in a cool standalone paperback edition from Swedish publisher, Novellix. It was part of a four-book boxed-set called Swedish Crime, which includes stories by Arne Dahl, Karin Tidbeck, and Henning Mankell.       “How I Spend My Days and My Nights” was obviously translated from its original Swedish, but no translator is noted in the Novellix edition.

 

What's New Pussycat?: February 2025

What’s New Pussycat? February 2025   Since we—my lovely family and I—moved from Salt Lake City to Southern Vermont a few years ago the number of used books that follow me home has slackened somewhat; which isn’t saying I’ve become chaste with my book acquisitions but rather small-town Vermont has fewer books sitting around waiting for me than the city had. One of my favorite places for used books is the Rutland City Free Library’s Friends of the Library book sale held on the second Friday and Saturday of each month. The stock turns over nicely—there is always something new in the rotation—and in the more than two years I’ve been going, I have never been turned out empty handed. And I’ve found more than a few treasures. February’s sale was held this past weekend, the 14th and 15th, and (of course) I attended both days because that’s how I roll. My take was five books; well, four books and a box filled with four small paperbacks with each featuring a short story by a Swedish crime writer: Håkan Nesser, Arne Dahl, Karin Tidbeck, and Henning Mankell. I’ll be sure to let you know how I like these shorts since I’m planning to read at least one of them after I finish the novel I’m reading now. But until then, I thought it would be fun to share my latest house-cluttering treasures….
THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFÉ, by Carson McCullers (© 1951). The edition I picked up is from Mariner Books, 2005. This collection of seven stories fits one of my reading goals for the year: read more literature! I haven’t read McCullers since my misspent college days and I’m excited to dip my toes into her writing again. The stories included are: The Ballad of the Sad Café, Wunderkind, The Jockey, Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland, The Sojourner, A Domestic Dilemma, and A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud.
BLACK WATER, by Joyce Carol Oates (© 1992). This copy appears to be a first edition, published by Dutton, but the title page / copyright page has been torn out and—good thing I’m a reader rather than a collector—the dust jacket has been clipped. In Black Water, Oates tells a fictional story about Ted Kennedy, Mary Jo Kopechne, and the Chappaquiddick Island incident. The names have been changed from real-life to the fictional one, and the tale is told from the perspective of Kopechne, called Kelly Kelleher here. If it is like everything I’ve read from Oates, it is going to be dazzling. I’ll keep you posted since this is already near the top of my reading list.
HUNTING GAME, by Helene Tursten (© 2014). This is the 2019 edition from Soho Crime, translated from the Swedish by Paul Norlen. I’ve read only short stories by Helene Tursten—her shorts featuring the lovable elderly serial killer, Maud, are to die for—and I’m hoping this first mystery in the Detective Inspector Embla Nyström series is just as good. I’ll let you know what I think when I get to it.
THE LOST, by Jeffrey B. Burton (© 2022). This first edition was published by the mystery line, Minotaur Books, and is the third entry in the Mace Reid series. I’ve never read Burton, but this book has three things going for it: 1) it is set in Chicago; 2) it features a cadaver dog named Vira; and 3) I struggle passing up a book from Minotaur. And yeah, there is home invasion, kidnapping, and a billionaire involved.
SWEDISH CRIME: SHORT STORIES, by Håkan Nesser, Arne Dahl, Karin Tidbeck, and Henning Mankell (2019). This snappy little boxed set was produced by Novellix, which according to the copyright page is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Each story is published in its own paperback (4-1/8” x 5-3/4”) and translated into English. I don’t have much experience reading so-called Nordic Noir, but I’m hoping these tales provide a thrill. I’m also wondering if the same person donated this to the library as Tursten’s Hunting Game.   The stories are: How I Spend My Days and Nights, by Håkan Nesser, Migraine, by Arne Dahl, Anywhere Out of the World, by Karin Tidbeck, and The Man on the Beach, by Henning Mankell.

 

Review: "A Hard Ticket Home" by David Housewright

 

A Hard Ticket Home by David Housewright Minotaur Books, 2004   David Housewright’s first Rushmore McKenzie, A Hard Ticket Home, had escaped my reading eye until now. Before turning its first page, I had read eleven of the 22 books in the series so far and it was fun to see how McKenzie has changed from his first outing to the latest. One thing I noticed—many of McKenzie’s friends, including his best pal Bobby Dunston, call him, “Mac,” which isn’t the case as the series goes on. Another is, McKenzie is moodier in this first story than any of the others I’ve read. Of course he kills a few people and another is killed because of his snooping. But for the most part McKenzie is the same dented and likable hero as he has always been. A Hard Ticket Home opens with a telling of how a St. Paul beat cop, McKenzie, became a millionaire, and it was fun to have the nitty gritty of his future wealth spelled out. But the real meat of the story is about McKenzie’s search for Jamie Carlson. Seven years earlier, Jamie went missing from her parents’ Grand Rapids, Minnesota, home. Her parents—Jamie’s father built a deck for McKenzie’s lake house, which is how they’re acquainted—didn’t search for Jamie when she disappeared but now their younger daughter, Stacy, has leukemia and they are hoping Jamie is a match as a bone marrow donor. McKenzie tracks Jamie down without difficulty, which is when his (and Jamie’s) trouble begins. That trouble takes McKenzie inside a ruthless street gang, onto the guest list of an elite group of entrepreneurs, and turns him into a play thing of the FBI and ATF. A Hard Ticket Home’s Minnesota is less finely detailed than in the future books, but even so, the setting is nicely rendered. It is good fun to watch McKenzie and his series long paramour, Nina Truhler, meet in Nina’s jazz club, Rikkie’s, for the first time. The action, and as one expects from McKenzie there is a bunch, is top-notch and exciting. There are shootings, fisticuffs—including one that nearly kills McKenzie—and even an explosion. The mystery is fine-tuned with more than a couple twists, including a marvelous one near the end. Even better, McKenzie is his usual flawed, smart-alecky, and likable as hell self.

Find A Hard Ticket Home on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition and here for the paperback.

Syndicated Action Shows from the 1990s

Back in the ’90s cheesy syndicated action television series were everywhere. And man, I was a fan. One of my favorite channels of the era was Salt Lake City-based KJZZ, Channel 14. Its Saturday night lineup was Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Renegade, and the uber ridiculous but entertaining game show, American Gladiators. So when I saw this advertisement from an old issue of the Salt Lake Tribune (Nov. 7, 1993), I had to share. My favorites from the ad were Renegade, Time Trax—filmed in Australia with the cool premise of a cop from the future tracking down time fugitives in the USA of the 1990s—Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, and Cobra. I’ve always thought Baywatch was a turd and Acapulco H.E.A.T. is even worse. Maybe this Saturday night I’ll make a replay of those Saturdays evenings I gleefully watched away so long ago.

 

Review: "The Longest December" by Richard Chizmar

 

“The Longest December” by Richard Chizmar Cemetery Dance, 2023   Richard Chizmar’s crime novella, “The Longest December”—which is a revised and expanded version of Chizmar’s 2016 story, “A Long December”—is an original and inventive take on the serial killer tale. Bob Howard is a middle-aged sales rep living the suburban dream with a son in college and his marriage, to the beautiful Katy, comfortable and rewarding. But his carefully curated life is shattered when a detective knocks on his door on an early December morning asking about Bob’s best friend and next-door neighbor, James Wilkinson. Wilkinson, a part-time history lecturer at a local University, is suspected in a series of killings dating back years. Bob and Katy insist the police have made a mistake. Wilkinson has been their neighbor for eight years and he is their son’s honorary godfather. And he, Wilkinson, has never shown any behavior to suggest he may be a killer. Of course, Wilkinson has disappeared—which makes him look guilty—and the news media pick up the story with frenzied zeal. “The Longest December” is a bullet of a crime thriller with a psychological element—could Wilkinson have played Bob and Katy for so long, and would he come back and hurt them now?—wrapped in a tense and atmospheric narrative. Chizmar’s sense of pacing is alarmingly perfect but the tale’s essence is the intrinsic suspense as the reader watches Bob circle the truth of what James Wilkinson truly is, on both an emotional and intellectual level, moving from denial to fear and then to something altogether different. “The Longest December” is a thrilling tale with a little Alfred Hitchcock and the film Seven blended into Chizmar’s own secret sauce. And it really works! “The Longest December” was published as one-half of a “double” with Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan’s story, “A Face in the Crowd.”

Check out A Face in the Crowd / The Longest December at Amazon—click here for the hardcover.