Monthly Archives: January 2018

Now Wait For Last Year, by Philip K. Dick

Posted on January 28, 2018 by pete

Fascism should more appropriately called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. – Mussolini Now Wait For Last Year was first published in 1966, and the original manuscript was written about 1962, putting it in the … Continue reading →

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Mystery Mile, by Margery Allingham

Posted on January 26, 2018 by pete

Mystery Mile (1930) is the second title in the series of Margery Allingham mysteries featuring Albert Campion, but it’s the first where Campion is the main problem-solver. The sleuth of The Crime at Black Dudley was a stuffy doctor, but parts of … Continue reading →

Posted in books, crime fiction | Tagged | 3 Comments

Sinner Man, by Lawrence Block

Posted on January 21, 2018 by pete

The last book I reviewed reached a sort of philosophical climax when the two major protagonists, father and son, confronted each other about their willingness, as Emperors of their people, to commit evil acts in service of the greater good. The … Continue reading →

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Children of Dune, by Frank Herbert

Posted on January 18, 2018 by pete

Years ago I had a habit of starting well-known philosophy books but not getting anywhere close to finishing them. These included Nietzsche’s famous work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, his mock scripture describing the pronouncements of a fictional prophet.* This was Nietzsche’s … Continue reading →

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Zero Cool, by Michael Crichton (as John Lange)

Posted on January 12, 2018 by pete

January isn’t typically the time for beach reading, but struggling with a post-travel cold virus led me to take a break from a Frank Herbert book and find something less demanding. Hard Case Crime to the rescue! Now, which author … Continue reading →

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“Inside Earth” by Poul Anderson

Posted on January 11, 2018 by pete

A lot of good, even classic, science fiction stories are currently available for free as HTML, PDF or some e-reader format. I decided to feature some of these “freebee” pieces on a semi-regular basis this year.  Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was … Continue reading →

Posted in science fiction, short fiction | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Dark is the Sun, by Philip José Farmer

Posted on January 7, 2018 by pete

Last year I gave high marks to a collection of early Jack Vance “gadget” stories (starting here), a more positive rating than what I later saw from others in Vance fan sites and, purportedly, from Vance himself. Much of Vance’s following … Continue reading →

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Stop This Man, by Peter Rabe

Posted on January 5, 2018 by pete

The publisher Hard Case Crime has been responsible for the return of many long out-of-print noir novels by once-popular crime authors. One of these, a novel by Charles Williams, was an unequivocal classic, and I found others (like the two by … Continue reading →

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God Save the Mark, by Donald Westlake

Posted on January 2, 2018 by pete

Novels Films about confidence jobs have, almost by law, a series of short cons and a long con between them. As such, they fall into a familiar pattern of misdirection, a cast of half-drawn characters drifting in and out of the … Continue reading →

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The Busy Body, by Donald Westlake

Posted on January 1, 2018 by pete

The Busy Body (1966) is an early crime novel by Donald Westlake, who under the Richard Stark pseudonym wrote the famous Parker series. Although the Parker books are imbued with their own dark humor, their spare prose style and frequent … Continue reading →

Posted in books, crime fiction | Tagged | 3 Comments