Pulp Books

This is a very enjoyable set of crime stories from several of the most famous names in the genre. Contained within are six stories: five longish short stories (or novelettes) and one short novel. I have read very little of these types of pieces before, so I was unable to compare them to other examples of this genre. But as they say, I may not know trashy pulp novels from the middle part of the Twentieth Century, but I know what I like, and this collection is well worth reading.

As I said, I don't know much about written crime stories, though I have seen my fair share of the films from this era. There's something very enticing about these stories of gangsters, cops and private eyes. Every woman is a blonde and every case has a solution. These aren't the most realistic stories in the world, but you'll have to go far to find more enjoyable ones.

"The Embezzler" by James M Cain, 1938 - This is quite an interesting story set in and around a city bank. Money is missing, and a bank employee must figure out who is embezzling the money and how. A nicely realized romance between the protagonist and the wife of the suspect helps break up the action pleasantly. The ending feels a bit contrived, as if the author was forced to tack on a happy ending, but the story itself is very entertaining.

"Ordo" by Donald E. Westlake, 1977 - An interesting character study of a woman who leaves town and becomes a world-famous movie star. It's told through the eyes of a man she was married to before she became famous. It's a great story that will keep you intrigued the whole time. Fairly simple concept, but the execution raises up the quality of the entire piece.

"Stag Party Girl" by Lawrence Block, 1965 - A whodunit that doesn't quite live up to its full potential. The premise and investigation are fairly interesting, but the ending falls a bit flat.

"College-Cut Kill" by John D. MacDonald, 1950 - This one seems to be structured very similar to the previous story, though it has the advantage of being slightly better executed. The killer's motivation is far too similar to that of the murderer in "Stag Party Girl". It was probably a mistake to include these two stories next to one another in a collection. Placing a story or two in between them would helped to shadow the similarities.

"Everybody's Watching Me" by Mickey Spillane, 1953 -- A story of established gangsters who fear news of the arrival of one of the deadliest hit-men in the country. I didn't care for this story. While the premise is sound enough, there are far too many factions to keep track of in such a small space. There are two difference police departments, several groups of gangsters, a drug supplier, a hired killer, a newspaper reporter, the narrator, the narrator's love interest and his mysterious informer. Perhaps if this was a longer piece there would be more room to develop all these characters and sub-plots, but as the story is, they are just too underdeveloped and confusing. The ending is a surprise, but, unfortunately, it falls apart once you start putting some thought into it.

"So Dead My Love" by Harry Whittington, 1953 - This is the only full novel in the collection though it was a relatively short one. This was quite an enjoyable read. The story is set in a small town in the South, featuring a man who grew up there but then left to become a private investigator in New York. When he's called back to his roots, he must locate a missing person while avoiding the old feuds and power politics that caused him to leave in the first place. This was probably the most entertaining read in the collection. I couldn't wait to see what the protagonist was going to uncover next in this small town. All the characters and their relationships were well explained, and by the end of the story I was able to completely understand how the hero felt about the place he grew up in.

All in all, this was a very appealing collection. I hadn't read much of the genre before this anthology, but now I have a few more authors that I think I will be looking up to read more of. Recommended.

This eagerly awaited follow-up to "Exile and the Heart" is a collection of short stories exploring lesbian desire, sex, and love. The first half is populated with sensual erotica, ranging from love stories to kink. In the second half, Kobayashi adds elements of fantasy to her tales, merging the mythic with the erotic. "Quixotic Erotic" is a glorious example of reader seduction. Kobayashi is a marvelous storyteller and this collection just whets whatever appetites the readers bring. I hope it won't be so long before she gives us more.

This is an excellent reference book for people dealing with paper quality in the paper industry, paper merchants, converters, and printers. It defines defect terminologies related to paper. Defects and customer complaints are the barometers for quality manufacturing. If all parties use mutually understood terminologies to describe defects, they would enhance various quality improvement programs in place. It would be great if the authors include digital photos of the defects on a CD attached in the next eddition of their book (hard cover version).

I got Scottish Ghost Stories ten years ago whilst on vacation in Scotland and it continues to prove an interesting read. It's a collection of 12 different stories with a couple of great illustrations by Tim Hunt for each.

The stories range from those about hidden rooms at Glamis Castle to glowing ladies in the night and scary dark cellars. At least half of the stories are excellent, although they're all quite readable but one or two do drag a little.

Many of the stories are those which the author has heard from others or are contributions. They all seem to have the same style though, ..., they're still great to read.

The style of writing could prove a little '1940s English' for some, but most books by older authors are like this.

The introduction of Secret Agent X gives a brief overview of his methodology, his gear, and his resources, but you do not know who he is. An absolute master of disguise, he can even impersonate police Inspectors briefly, and get away with it, even with quick changes in the field.

Here, a message from the government is asking him to stop The Torture Trust. A mystery group of high-level criminals, kidnapping people and burning off their faces with an acid torture if they do not pay a ransom.

Their ultimate goal is the kidnapping of the most influential English banking figure, coming on a tour of the USA. X must infiltrate the trust, get him out of harm's way and also rescue his plucky female assistant Betty Dale, while staying alive.

Jones's book focuses on the subgenre of pulp known as the "weird menace" tale. Due to the sensational nature of these stories they were neglected. Jones was one of the few original critics in this area. His book covers different magazines, publishers, and authors. He also focuses on different conventions within the subgenre. One shortcoming of the book is that, at times, it seems to rely too much on quotes directly from the primary texts (pulps). On an entertainment level, Jones's exuberance easily translates through his writing. This book is hard to find, but worth it for fans and scholars of the "weird menace" tale.

With a title this bad, you know the story has to be good. THE SPIDER is out-of-town fighting bad guys again, with the usual twists and turns to the plot, and two bonus short stories from the 1930's to boot.

An evil criminal organization is blackmailing New York City's mass transit organizations, and only THE SPIDER can stop them. OK, granted, this is a pretty lame premise, but the action picks up right at the start and never flags. Lots of runaway buses and crashing subways in the fight to the finish.

The verdict in New York City is "Not Guilty!" Any judge and jury that doesn't see it that way will meet quick death at the hands of "The Sign of the Scar". Naturally, THE SPIDER stops them. This one is worth it for the great illustration of THE SPIDER rising up out of a coffin to gun down the bad guys.

Sheri-D Wilson's latest book of poetry came out in 1998. This is a book of "preformance poetry" with many, many different layers. Like an onion. Teeming with urbanity of the every day mysticism of life--one moment you'll be howling at her clever play of words, the next, you'll be gasping at her sudden fatalism. It's this fatalism which has slowly been creeping into Wilson's works which show her transgression and maturation as an artist. This book is not afraid to illuminate pain in the action of the now. It is one of her more down to earth books......(compare with Swerve), and it is not one or two continual preformance pieces like I personally perfer, but it is filled with genius pieces of funky poetry--the care, thought and reserch is evident in each one. She makes action poetry look effortless. On the stage, as well as in this book. Recommended to those with a desire to connect poetry with the real world, and in turn,their own real world, with the inner world of the true poet's heart.