Short Story Wednesday Review: Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider

 

From the massive archive…

 

The eight short stories in the Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes appeared before in various anthologies over the years from 1987 as recently as 2009. Collected in one book and published by Gordian Knott, an imprint of Crossroad Press, these tales quickly pull the reader in to the world originally created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Mr. Bill Crider’s work so closely resembles the original author it is very easy to forget who wrote these eight tales. Many folks try to imitate the original and miss. M. Crider does so with ease in tales that easily could be part of the Sherlock canon.

 

“The Adventure of the Young British Solider” opens the book with a tale where Watson, many years later, writes about a previously untold story that happened during 1884. A highly personal that begins on a very cold night in early December. Watson is thinking of what happened to him in Afghanistan after those memories are triggered by a certain poem. A certain fellow soldier, an orderly, saved Watson’s life that day. His name was Edward Murray and Watson totally lost touch with him after the incident. Only days later his wife will appear on their doorstep seeking their help.

 

It is the spring of 1887 and upon their return to London Holmes has become bored and depressed. Such a mood is very dangerous for an addict and Watson is very worried as “The Case of the Vanished Vampire” begins. Sherlock Holmes thinks the whole idea of vampires is utter and complete nonsense, but his visitors, Bram Stoker and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, seek to convince him otherwise. They claim to have killed one here in London. They are not sure they killed it correctly in the pressure of the moment. According to them, it escaped and is probably out there in London converting others to its gory cause. They want to find the creature this night, before it feeds again, and they want the help of Watson and Holmes.

 

The supernatural is also a major part of the next story titled “The Adventure of the St. Marylebone Ghoul.” According to the newspaper, a creature of some sort is at the St. Marylebone cemetery causing unspeakable horrors. They are discussing the situation when the night caretaker at the cemetery, Benjamin Swaraj, arrives seeking their help.

 

Holmes is not a fan of Christmas and the carolers in the streets outside 22B Baker Street are not going to change his mind. He’s bored and Watson is well aware what that can mean. Fortunately, a client appears this night two nights before Christmas in the form of a Mr. Oscar Wilde. Mr. Wilde needs Holmes help as he believes someone is trying to kill him and he thinks he knows the suspects.

 

Years later, as Watson nears the end of his life, he thinks about the many events involving Sherlock that he recorded over the years for posterity. He also considers the events that before now he did not have the strength to detail. One such case is “The Adventure of the Venomous Lizard.” On a cold and sometimes treacherous winter night, Holmes has spotted a man he perceives to be desperate headed their way. Upon his arrival, they hear his name and his reason for his desperation.

 

While Holmes did not like to clean, he especially liked to cook breakfast, which was his favorite meal. Over a morning repast, he slowly pulls out of Watson what is bothering him in “The Case of the Vampire’s Mark.” Once Watson confesses all and they have dealt with that, they are ready for their visitor Abraham Stoker when he arrives. He brings news of a child that bears the neck bite marks of vampire and requests their help.

 

Sharing the name of Holmes with the man going by the moniker H. H. Holmes, known for hideous crimes, was bad enough, but having been in close proximity to him with no knowledge of what he was doing bothers Sherlock a lot more. Buffalo Bills’ Wild West Show was in Chicago at the time they were there and they were able to spend time with Colonel Cody himself. That was a good thing as he needed their help. What happened is detailed in the tale, “The Adventure in the White City.”

 

It is Dec. 22nd as “The Adventure of the Christmas Ghosts” begins. Franklin Scrooge, great nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge, is in quite a state when he arrives at 221B Baker Street. A ghost, a family legacy, and more are at stake and Franklin Scrooge needs their help.

 

A bonus story, “Death Did Not Become Him” by Patricia Lee Macomber and David Niall Wilson brings the book to a close. In this one, Watson goes to 221B Baker Street late one night desperately seeking his help. Watson has had his own visitors earlier this night and was greatly disturbed by them in this Lovecraft style tale. While Sherlockian in style, this short story is jarring when compared to the tales of Mr Crider featured in the book. It strikes a totally different style and tone and does not compare at all well to the previous stories.

 

Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider is a very good read. Mysteries, often more than one, are present in each short story where a rational explanation of events is always the outcome. Each tale quickly pulls the reader into the world of Conan Arthur Doyle as Mr. Crider spins a web indiscernible from the original creator. Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider is a very good read and highly recommended.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/47ABuiw

  

 

I picked this up to read and review back in June using monies in my Amazon Associate account.

  

Kevin R. Tipple © 2017, 2021, 2025

George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #194: THE WILL O’ THE WISP MYSTERY By Edward D. Hoch

 George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #194: THE WILL O’ THE WISP MYSTERY By Edward D. Hoch

Patricia Abbott: FFB: LANDMARKS: A HAIBUN COLLECTION by Ray Rasmussen

 Patricia Abbott: FFB: LANDMARKS: A HAIBUN COLLECTION by Ray Rasmussen

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday – Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday – Miss Marple: The Complete ...: When I first got this book, I was surprised to learn that Agatha Christie had written only 20 short stories featuring Miss Marple. The first...

Short Story Wednesday Double Take Review: The Blacklin County Files by Bill Crider

 

It seemed like a good time to remind you of the great reads written by legendary author, Bill Crider. Also seemed like a good time to run this double take review by Barry Ergang and myself. Below is Barry's take on the book from July 2013 followed by my own from February 2012.

 

As far as I can remember, my first experience with Bill Crider’s work came when I read his marvelous, not-to-be-missed “Cranked” in 2007, when it subsequently won the Derringer Award for the best mid-length short story of 2006. Since then I’ve read a couple of other short stories under his byline and a western novella, Dead Man’s Revenge, that he wrote using the pseudonym Colby Jackson. A prolific writer, he’s the author of several different mystery series as well as horror, western, and young adult novels. His longest-running mystery series stars Texas Sheriff Dan Rhodes, who is featured in the six stories in the e-book under consideration here. (NOTE: the cover says it contains five stories, the title page six. The title page wins—and so does the reader with the additional story.)

It opens with “Buster,” which is the name of one of the elderly, idiosyncratic Miss Onie Calder’s forty or fifty cats. Miss Onie summons Sheriff Rhodes to her home in a once fashionable but now rundown section of the town of Clearview because Buster is dead. She’s certain that her neighbor, Ralph Ramsdell, whose cat has been set upon by one of hers, is the poisoner. When he investigates, Rhodes discovers that something much more sinister is going on.

The Stag BBQ is an annual event in Blacklin County. "It was a chance for the movers and shakers to get together and drink a lot of beer, eat some BBQ and homemade ice cream, tell a few dirty jokes, and do a little gambling....Women weren't allowed. Blacklin County was becoming more conscious of women's rights by the day, but Blacklin County was, after all, in Texas, where a great many men still believed that some activities just weren't appropriate for women." It's probably just as well, in this case, because even some of the men get sick when they discover the body of Gabe Tolliver, who has apparently been "Gored." Sheriff Rhodes doubts the killer was one of George Newberry's Brahma bulls and must figure out which of the many attendees wanted Tolliver dead.

A recipe for homemade peach ice cream, Rhodes's favorite, is appended to the story.

Reverend Alf Anderson helps to restore a community when he turns the stone building atop Obert's Hill into a nondenominational church and attracts a congregation of more than three hundred people. One church member, Ron Eller, does nothing to endear himself to his fellow congregants when he leases his land to Calame's Crusher, Inc., a gravel company that is mining the limestone on it. Between the noise and dust from the rock crusher, and especially the explosions, Obert residents are sorely unhappy campers: "They claimed that they [the explosions] were destroying property values, which were already low, and driving the livestock crazy. They were driving the citizens crazy, too...." Dan Rhodes has to determine who among them crucified Eller in "The Man on the Cross."

Arrested for armed robbery, Charles Lathrop is a serious rival of Adrian Monk's when it comes to obsessive cleanliness. He even cleans his jail cell, doing a better job of it than Lawton, the jailer, does. The ditched gun Deputy Ruth Grady finds is probably the weapon Lathrop used to hold up convenience stores and a Texaco station, though he denies ever having had one, and it's been thoroughly cleaned. But, as Sheriff Rhodes senses, it's his obsession that will prove his undoing in "Under the Gun," a story lighter in tone than those that precede it, and whose solution reminds me of one of the greatest inverted detective stories I've ever read: Cornell Woolrich's "One Drop of Blood." (I daren't explain why lest I spoil both of them.)

Co-authored by Bill's wife Judy Crider, "Chocolate Moose" concerns the strange death of Mack McAnally at the Round-Up Restaurant. It appears to be a bizarre accident, but when Sheriff Rhodes gives the scene a careful examination, he realizes he has a murder to deal with—the murder of a man who might well have been the most hated person in Blacklin County. "McAnally was, or had been until only a short while earlier, a bully...He spent his time working in his yard and harassing any animal that happened to stray onto his property. He had a pellet gun that he used to shoot at dogs and cats and, rumor had it, even the occasional human. When he was driving, he would sometimes swerve out of his lane in an attempt to run over a squirrel or family pet." The list of his hectoring transgressions is a good deal longer, and many a county resident undoubtedly has a reason for wanting him dead. It's up to Rhodes to figure out who that person is. 

A recipe for the "World's Best Chicken-Fried Steak" is appended to the story.

The last and longest story in the collection, "Who Killed Cock Rogers?" begins with manure and ends with murder. Janelle Tabor complains to  Sheriff Rhodes when she's splattered with cow manure from one of Ralph Claymore's cattle trucks. The trucks make their way through Clearview's main street every week on their way to the auction sale, and have caused problems for other residents as well as for some of the merchants. There is nothing Rhodes can really do because the law is on Claymore's side. Thus Mrs. Tabor decides to talk to Red Rogers about the matter. "Rogers, whose real name was Larry Redden, was the closest thing Clearview had to a local radio personality. He did just about everything at KVUE...." One of those things was to host a daily talk show that "dealt with both national and local issues." He thrives on controversy. When he invites Mrs. Tabor and two other locals to present their sides of the argument to Ralph Claymore and one of his truck drivers on the air, chaos erupts and Rhodes has to hurry to the station to break up a physical altercation. Two weeks later, Rogers is found shot to death at one of Ralph Claymore's feed lots, and Rhodes has a mystery to solve that doesn't lack suspects.

As evidenced by the passages quoted above, Bill Crider's style is lean and straightforward. It's also leavened with some wonderfully dry humor. Because of the brevity of every story but the last in this collection, characterization is very sketchy. But these are not the kinds of tales in which characterization takes precedence. They're good old-fashioned short detective stories in which half the fun is trying to figure out from the clues given who the culprit is—with the exception of "Under the Gun," in which readers can try to figure out where the known culprit slips up and so give Rhodes the evidence he needs to turn the thief over for prosecution.

The Blacklin County Files, which I can and do enthusiastically recommend, has me looking forward to reading the Dan Rhodes novel-length mysteries in which, based on my reading of the aforementioned "Cranked," I'm sure there's greater character development.

 

Barry Ergang ©2013, 2017, 2023

Derringer Award winner Barry Ergang’s own fiction can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.

 

As promised, here is my review…

 

Long familiar to readers via the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series novels Texas author Bill Crider has assembled a short collection of previously published stories featuring the good sheriff Dan Rhodes. The Blacklin County Files: 5 Sheriff Dan Rhodes Stories read just like the good novels in that the stories feature humor, mystery, and the extensive cast of folks that populate the town of Clearview and the surrounding East Texas County of Blacklin.

The small collection opens with the story titled “Buster.” Miss Onie Calder is quite elderly and someone has killed one of her many cats. She blames an angry neighbor and wants him arrested for murder. Things aren’t that simple but the truth will come out.

Sheriff Rhodes knows things happen in the county that might be technically against the law.  But, Rhodes is not a hard-nosed law and order guy and is willing to look the other way on certain things as long as nothing happens.  In “Gored” Sheriff Rhodes has to break his long standing policy of ignoring the Blacklin County Stagg BBQ. The quiet annual event deep in the woods as a remote cabin usually has no problems and nothing much happens but this year the addition of a dead man means Rhodes has to investigate.  By the end of the story, if you were not already hungry for barbecue and all the fixings, Bill Crider helpfully includes a recipe for homemade Peach Ice Cream.

Ron Eller never did look like Jesus did in all the pictures Sheriff Rhodes saw as a kid in Sunday school classrooms. The fact that he did not look like Jesus at all didn’t stop somebody from killing him and wiring him to a cross. In “The Man on the Cross” Sheriff Rhodes has to figure who killed Ron Eller and why in a story that starts the Monday morning after Easter. The suspects are many in this complex tale of faith, profit, and deceit.

If you live in Blacklin County and you want real good food--meat and potatoes kind of food that will stick to your ribs-- you go to the “Round Up Restaurant.”  The sign outside the door makes it clear that they don’t serve chicken¸ fish or anything vegetarian. In “Chocolate Moose” authored by Bill and Judy Crider, Sheriff Dan Rhodes has to go to the restaurant to investigate a death. Pretty much everyone in the county hated Mack McAnally and for various good reasons.  Now he is dead in a very strange way in one of the dining rooms. It could be an accident or something more. A good story that finishes up with the killer caught and a recipe for the “World’s Best Chicken Fried Steak” and includes the recipe for gravy.  Life doesn’t get much better than that.

Environmental issues are often a theme in the series---especially in recent books. An environmental problem and controversy are present in the “Who Killed Cock Rogers?”  Shipping live cattle can often be a messy operation with unintended consequences and controversy. But, nobody expected a murder because of it.

So, get yourself some glass bottled Dr. Pepper (plastic bottles and cans just aren't the same), some peanut butter and cheese crackers, and kick back for a spell with The Blacklin County Files. Five good short stories featuring Sheriff Dan Rhodes, his wife Ivy, Deputy Rudy Grady, Jail Dispatcher Hack Jensen and numerous other good and not so good local residents. Plenty of humor¸ twists and turns in the cases, and detail regarding the residents makes The Blacklin County Files: 5 Sheriff Dan Rhodes Stories yet another fun comfortable cozy style read from award winning author Bill Crider. Solidly good, just like his novels, author Bill Crider provides yet more good reading. 

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2012, 2013, 2017, 2023

Short Story Wednesday Review: Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider

From the massive archive…

 

The eight short stories in the Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes appeared before in various anthologies over the years from 1987 as recently as 2009. Collected in one book and published by Gordian Knott, an imprint of Crossroad Press, these tales quickly pull the reader in to the world originally created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Mr. Bill Crider’s work so closely resembles the original author it is very easy to forget who wrote these eight tales. Many folks try to imitate the original and miss. M. Crider does so with ease in tales that easily could be part of the Sherlock canon.

 

“The Adventure of the Young British Solider” opens the book with a tale where Watson, many years later, writes about a previously untold story that happened during 1884. A highly personal that begins on a very cold night in early December. Watson is thinking of what happened to him in Afghanistan after those memories are triggered by a certain poem. A certain fellow soldier, an orderly, saved Watson’s life that day. His name was Edward Murray and Watson totally lost touch with him after the incident. Only days later his wife will appear on their doorstep seeking their help.

 

It is the spring of 1887 and upon their return to London Holmes has become bored and depressed. Such a mood is very dangerous for an addict and Watson is very worried as “The Case of the Vanished Vampire” begins. Sherlock Holmes thinks the whole idea of vampires is utter and complete nonsense, but his visitors, Bram Stoker and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, seek to convince him otherwise. They claim to have killed one here in London. They are not sure they killed it correctly in the pressure of the moment. According to them, it escaped and is probably out there in London converting others to its gory cause. They want to find the creature this night, before it feeds again, and they want the help of Watson and Holmes.

 

The supernatural is also a major part of the next story titled “The Adventure of the St. Marylebone Ghoul.” According to the newspaper, a creature of some sort is at the St. Marylebone cemetery causing unspeakable horrors. They are discussing the situation when the night caretaker at the cemetery, Benjamin Swaraj, arrives seeking their help.

 

Holmes is not a fan of Christmas and the carolers in the streets outside 22B Baker Street are not going to change his mind. He’s bored and Watson is well aware what that can mean. Fortunately, a client appears this night two nights before Christmas in the form of a Mr. Oscar Wilde. Mr. Wilde needs Holmes help as he believes someone is trying to kill him and he thinks he knows the suspects.

 

Years later, as Watson nears the end of his life, he thinks about the many events involving Sherlock that he recorded over the years for posterity. He also considers the events that before now he did not have the strength to detail. One such case is “The Adventure of the Venomous Lizard.” On a cold and sometimes treacherous winter night, Holmes has spotted a man he perceives to be desperate headed their way. Upon his arrival, they hear his name and his reason for his desperation.

 

While Holmes did not like to clean, he especially liked to cook breakfast, which was his favorite meal. Over a morning repast, he slowly pulls out of Watson what is bothering him in “The Case of the Vampire’s Mark.” Once Watson confesses all and they have dealt with that, they are ready for their visitor Abraham Stoker when he arrives. He brings news of a child that bears the neck bite marks of vampire and requests their help.

 

Sharing the name of Holmes with the man going by the moniker H. H. Holmes, known for hideous crimes, was bad enough, but having been in close proximity to him with no knowledge of what he was doing bothers Sherlock a lot more. Buffalo Bills’ Wild West Show was in Chicago at the time they were there and they were able to spend time with Colonel Cody himself. That was a good thing as he needed their help. What happened is detailed in the tale, “The Adventure in the White City.”

 

It is Dec. 22nd as “The Adventure of the Christmas Ghosts” begins. Franklin Scrooge, great nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge, is in quite a state when he arrives at 221B Baker Street. A ghost, a family legacy, and more are at stake and Franklin Scrooge needs their help.

 

A bonus story, “Death Did Not Become Him” by Patricia Lee Macomber and David Niall Wilson brings the book to a close. In this one, Watson goes to 221B Baker Street late one night desperately seeking his help. Watson has had his own visitors earlier this night and was greatly disturbed by them in this Lovecraft style tale. While Sherlockian in style, this short story is jarring when compared to the tales of Mr Crider featured in the book. It strikes a totally different style and tone and does not compare at all well to the previous stories.  

 

Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider is a very good read. Mysteries, often more than one, are present in each short story where a rational explanation of events is always the outcome. Each tale quickly pulls the reader into the world of Conan Arthur Doyle as Mr. Crider spins a web indiscernible from the original creator. Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider is a very good read and highly recommended.

 

I picked this up to read and review back in June using monies in my Amazon Associate account. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2017, 2021, 2023

Short Story Wednesday Review: Desert Heat, Desert Cold And Other Tales Of The West by Charlie Steel

 

From the magnificent archive…

 

Filled with previously published tales as well as new ones, Desert Heat, Desert Cold And Other Tales Of The West by Charlie Steel takes you back to the old days of the west. Before society theoretically “evolved” and decided to do better by orphan children and the down trodden. Back when it behooved the young folks to listen to the hard won wisdom of their elders who had been lucky and good enough to survive to an old age. Back when a man lived by his gun, his skills on a horse, and how well he could survive after being beaten and left for dead.

That is exactly what happens in the signature story, “Desert Heat, Desert Cold” that leads off the collection from Condor Publishing. Beaten, robbed, and left to die in the Mexican desert, the narrator must put years of wisdom passed down from Old Bill to survive. 

Mike Pardee has had enough and walks out of his marriage in “Mountain Man Comes Home.” He leaves the small city of Trinidad and goes home to the mountain cabin he had before he married the town spinster. He is looking for peace.

 

The wagon train took the wrong path on its way to California. Now, everybody is dead except for one survivor in “Boy On The Desert.” Little Willie is by himself. Then the coyotes came to feed.

 

Sam Cook is a lone rancher with few plans on this Sunday in “Death Comes In The Afternoon.” A little fishing, some reading from the Bible, and a late lunch before he heads to the nearest general store for supplies. Home after the war, he is glad for every day above ground and does his best to get along with others while not surrendering his principals. No matter how pretty the Front Range is, life is never peaceful for very long.

 

The War Between the States just ended and it is a cold day in November in St. Louis. Young Otis Sutter is homeless, an orphan, and coming down with some sort of respiratory infection. That was before his few possessions were destroyed in “Kid On The Run.”

 

“The Lad From Norway” is a remarkable specimen of male vitality. How he wound up out west and very far from Norway is the point of this tale.

 

Winter had been brutal, but the spring meant the thaw and getting out of the cabin. It also meant a trip to town, a couple of purchases, and far too much drinking. At least when he woke up he still had his dog, Nuisance. He copes as best as he can with the aftermath in “Nuisance And The Girl.”

 

The old man came to town knowing his days were numbered. He has been places and done a quite a few things over the years. He has a lot of knowledge to pass on. He found a receptive audience for his memories in “Old Man In A Rocking Chair.”

 

Eight year old Sammy Tucker knows the town like the back of his hand. He had explored it all. He also knows everyone in town. So, he knows trouble has come calling in “Little Sammy Tucker And The Strangers.”

 

The old man has stories to share with his grandson. Life lessons he means to impart no matter what his son has to say about him. A boy needs to know the truth about life and more in “The Dust Still Rising.”

 

Frances Stevens did not make eighty-two years of age by being soft. “Grandma Gives No Quarter” and she isn’t about to now when the fate of those she cares about is at stake.

 

“Hot Desert, Hot Rock, Hot Snake” is pretty much self-explanatory. It all leads to a really bad day on the trail.

 

The plight of orphan children is a frequent theme in many of the stories of this collection. Such is the case in “Hard Times For Billy O’Reilly.” Being fourteen and poor is bad enough. Being beaten is worse. Then he gets thrown in the local jail before being thrown on the orphan train and shipped out of New York to be a problem for somebody else to deal with at the end of the line.

 

Being the youngest in the bunkhouse means the nastiest jobs fall to Leonard. He doesn’t know ranch life and yet “The Rain Pours On.” He has a plan.

 

Zeke and Art are old men playing checkers at their small homestead near the town of Walsenburg, Colorado. They are both cranky old guys, but they get along okay. That is until events start to happen in “Something In The Wood Pile.”

 

The horse is fine, but the rider hanging on the edge of the cliff is in a world of trouble. Six hundred feet below is certain death in “On The Edge.”

 

Bobby Carter was traveling alone when the warriors attacked. They have him pinned down in the rocks against Badito Cone. It is a matter of time before he is dead. In “Dead Man’s Song” he makes one final stand the only way he knows how.

 

The seventeen tales that make up Desert Heat, Desert Cold And Other Tales Of The West are all good ones. Each tale is accompanied at least once and often twice with a black and white illustration of the story. The illustrations by Gail Heath are a nice touch in the book. As is the detailed “Acknowledgements” page that gives background on the various sites and publications that have published many of these tales.

 

Whether new for this book or previously published in print or online, all the tales in this collection share a common theme of survival and acceptance. Survival as long as one can and acceptance of when the work is done and it is time to go. Desert Heat, Desert Cold And Other Tales Of The West by Charlie Steel is a good read and worth your time.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/43kWXcW

 

Material supplied by the author with no expectation of a review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2018, 2023

Barry Ergang's Short Story Wednesday Review: Kindly Dig Your Own Grave and Other Wicked Stories (1977) by Stanley Ellin

  

From the massive archive… 

The late, great Stanley Ellin was a painstaking craftsman, as Ellery Queen (Frederick Dannay) details in his introduction to Kindly Dig Your Grave and Other Wicked Stories. The results justified the pains he took, as demonstrated by the fact that his first published story, “The Specialty of the House,” is acknowledged as a classic of its kind. (Those who haven’t read it may have seen the televised versions on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” the former version having a shorter running time but being truer to the original story. As of this writing, both versions are available on YouTube.) Ellin won two Edgar awards for other short stories and one for a novel. The (mostly) character-driven stories in the collection under consideration here bolster his well-deserved reputation.

 

In "Kindly Dig Your Grave," the reader meets Madame Lagrue, a Parisian art dealer who specializes in bad paintings that sell especially well to the American market hungry for work "by great French artists at reasonable prices." She has found an effective method of dealing with hungry artists to whom she can pay a pittance for their canvases, which she then sells for a 500- to 1000-percent profit. One of her hapless suppliers is a painter named O'Toole. When a tough-minded young Algerian woman who goes by the alias Fatima becomes enamored of him, she quickly realizes how Madame Lagrue is taking advantage and sets out to rectify the situation in this comical biter-bit tale.

 

Dispirited in spite of being exonerated of graft charges and told he can return to duty though not even his father is sure he's innocent, Noah Freeman takes a trip to Rome, Italy to try to decide whether or not to go back to work as a New York City police detective. He finds himself drawn to an attractive but distant, cynical young woman, Rosanna, who works at the pensione he's staying in. When he learns that her father was killed by partisans twenty years earlier during WWII because they were sure he had betrayed them to the Germans, resulting in the deaths of three members of the Resistance, and that the stigma attaches to her and her brother to this day, Noah sets out to get to the bottom of "The Crime of Ezechiele Coen." I correctly guessed the outcome of this story quite early into it. Nevertheless, it lost none of its power or poignancy.

 

In "Death of an Old-Fashioned Girl," Elizabeth Ann Moore is anything but. She's quite the drama queen, portraying herself as naïve and ingenuous: "During her brief lifetime she must have ingested enough romantic literature and technicolored movies to addle a much larger brain than hers, and in the end she came to believe that human beings actually behaved the way the heroine of a melodrama would." She's actually quite manipulative, which is how she managed to entice artist Paul Zachary to divorce his wife Nicole and marry her. When she ends up knifed to death, the police aren't lacking for suspects. They include the narrator, another artist, and his wife; Sidney and Elinor Goldsmith, art gallery owners and the folks who discovered Zachary and helped him achieve success; and Zachary himself. How the narrator and Zachary became friends, and how theirs and the others' lives converged and Elizabeth Ann died make for an absorbing story with a neat and fitting irony at its end.

 

When Max de Marechal, editor of a magazine for wine connoisseurs, tells the wine merchant Drummond he's writing an article about the greatest vintages various experts have sampled and asks for an interview, they get into a small debate over specific vintages and whether there could ever be any consensus among a group of experts. De Marechal maintains there is one he's never tasted but which has acquired a legendary status among authorities: Nuits Saint-Oen 1929. Because it was produced in such a small quantity, he's certain that a single bottle no longer exists. Drummond tells him he has "The Last Bottle in the World" in his company's cellars. He has not been tempted to open it because it's so old the wine might be bad. De Marechal asks if he'll sell it, and Drummond says no. Ultimately, de Marechal introduces him to millionaire Kyros Kassoulas and his wife, and he becomes involved in a tense domestic drama in which the wine plays a pivotal role.

 

In another story set in Paris, "Coin of the Realm," Millie gets on her husband Walt's case for dressing like a tourist. Walt rather proudly proclaims that that is what he is, and accompanies his tastefully-attired wife to a flea market. While Millie haggles with a furniture seller, Walt, ostensibly looking for coins for his business partner's collection at the partner's request, goes to see another seller, Piron, for a much more sinister reason.

While Broderick and Yates, both slightly inebriated, wait on Broderick's boat, Chappie and Del set out in a dinghy toward the Miami Beach shoreline. Del stays on the dinghy while Chappie swims to the Royal Oceanic Hotel to fulfill a grisly task. When they return to the boat they demand "The Payoff," the nature of which readers will never guess.

 

There are any number of things Albert doesn't like—about himself and about others. His first name, for instance. He resents his mother naming him for a figure on a pipe tobacco can. He doesn't like women, but in his therapy session with Dr. Schwimmer, he discusses his recurrent dreams about a "Girl, Doctor. Maiden, if you will. Not a woman" with whom, for the first time in his fifty years, he has fallen in love. In "The Other Side of the Wall," told almost entirely in dialogue, Dr. Schwimmer employs a radical approach to help Albert achieve catharsis and surprises the reader in the process.

 

A change of pace in tone and approach from the stories that precede it, "The Corruption of Officer Avakadian" displays Ellin's skills at writing humorously. First-person narrator Avakadian, a  young, uncompromisingly by-the-book police officer, has been partnered with the soon-to-retire Schultz, a jaded cop who is not above a bribe or a free meal. When they are dispatched to the home of Dr. Cyrus Cahoon and his wife in a wealthy neighborhood, they learn from Mrs. Cahoon that her husband has been kidnapped. The victim happens to be present and confirms the story, which becomes more and more bizarre as its details are revealed.

 

Script doctor Mel Gordon can’t resist the lure of a poorly-written script, and Alexander  File, tight-fisted producer of low-budget schlock movies, knows it. Because he’s been successful working in television, Gordon no longer needs to work for File, as he had done for a number of years earlier in his career. But when File sends him the script for Emperor of Lust, Gordon agrees to fly to Rome to improve it and help with the production. Apart from making movies as cheaply as possible, File’s primary interest is in “dewy and nubile maidens, unripe lovelies all the more enticing to him because they were unripe. He loved them, did File, with a mouth-watering, hard-breathing, popeyed love.” Once filming begins, it’s not long before tension sets in and conflicts develop between File and Gordon, and between File and his director, his cameraman, and a young man hired to create props in the novella “The Twelfth Statue.” And then one evening File “walked out the door of his office and vanished from the face of the earth as utterly and completely as if the devil had snatched him down to hell by the heels.” Readers who think they see the ending coming will only see part of it, so they can look forward to at least one additional surprise. 

 

The author’s elegant, flexible writing style and sense of place, combined with storylines that are far from run-of-the-mill and populated with colorful characters, make this collection a wonderful read. I can highly recommend it to those who appreciate the kind of literary craftsmanship whose ultimate result is pure artistry. 

 

 

Barry Ergang © 2012, 2016, 2023 

 

Among his other works, Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s locked-room novelette, The Play of Light and Shadow, can be found in eBook formats at Smashwords.com and Amazon.com

George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #104: AMONG STRANGERS By Robert Silverberg

 George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #104: AMONG STRANGERS By Robert Silverberg

Short Story Wednesday Review: Sex, Violence & Half A Million Dollars: Erotic Mysteries by Michael Bracken

From the magnificently massive archive….

 

This collection of slightly more than 61K words (approximately 173 pages) contains twenty-four erotic crime stories that previously appeared in various men’s magazines. These are adult stories and that means they are very graphic and detailed with regards to sexuality. The tales appeared in a wide assortment of men’s magazines with most of the publications cited here no longer in print. The stories were first published anywhere from ten to nearly thirty years ago and are now combined together in this good very adult e-book. Nearly all the tales have a final twist at the end that will surprise most readers.

 

The story book opens with “Adam’s Rib.”  The narrator was sick of Florida so he agreed to swap vacation houses with friends over his wife’s objections. Now it is snowing like crazy and Katrina isn’t happy. Her being upset and the mounting snow day after day begins to take a toll in unexpected ways.

 

Teddy made the mistake of sliding a twenty dollar bill into the dancer’s G-string and simultaneously pulling out two five dollar bills. Dancers don’t ever make change. The dancer is upset, the bouncer is mad, and things quickly go downhill in “America’s Most Wanted.” Complications rapidly escalate for all in this story that quickly goes a far different way than expected.

 

In “Wheels Within” Nick sits at the bar next to a woman who clearly has been crying. Her name is Amanda and she has a story to tell that Nick definitely wants to hear. Maybe the sight of his badge will get her to talk. Not only talk, but, just maybe quite a lot more.

 

It all began in “The Naked City” where a murder case at a cheesy dance club brings in two seasoned detectives and a dancer willing to do more than talk. The homicide case isn’t the only connection between the dancer and the homicide detective, but it’s a start.

 

Every man knows “Fast Cars, Pretty Women” are trouble.  For this narrator he knows what gets him into trouble and still can’t stop himself.  Kimberly Patterson is large breasted, beautiful, blonde, and drives a Corvette. What more could he want? Even better she needs a little help from our narrator.

 

Keeping an eye on what goes on in the neighborhood has possibilities in “Watching The Watcher.” If he hadn’t been so busy watching everyone else he might have gotten his contracted work done. Instead, he watches the neighbors and in turn is watched by at least one other.

 

Nearly every guy has a system and Eddie Garrison does too in “How to Pick up Beautiful Women.”  Eddie’s new drinking buddies in the bar don’t believe he can pick up a beautiful woman---especially the way he looks. They call him on it and have the cash to place the bet. They also plan to set all the terms of the bet as well as pick the female target. What could go wrong?

 

For the detective in the bar the beautiful blonde has to be somebody’s jilted girlfriend in “Dick For A Dame.”  She is a jilted girlfriend but not in a way one would normally expect. Not only does the client, Christina, have the money to pay she is lonely and does not want to be alone.  Her case can wait till the morning light and may ultimately prove to be his easiest case ever.

 

“What Comes Around” features the beautiful and alluring Victoria, the narrator, and Kim. The three are girlfriends and sexual partners. They also are not the only grifters working in this particular small town.

 

In “The Two-Fisted Thinker” Lenny uses both hands to hit what he doesn’t understand. Married to Stella that makes Lenny his brother-in-law and his problem. Stella wants Lenny to get out more and has her talented ways of persuasion. Lenny’s ways are different but everything works for the narrator---up to a point.

 

Amy leaves her husband in “Trophy Wife” and shows up on the narrator’s doorstep with little else besides a black lace teddy, bottle of wine, and some condoms. Though they had talked about it, Amy never was supposed to leave her husband.  Now that she has gone and left him things will be very different. A poet does need his space.

 

For the narrator, Becky really came through in “Assholes & Alibis.”  The boss may have deserved to die but the narrator didn’t do it.

The titled story of the collection “Sex, Violence & Half a Million Dollars” easily contains all that. It also features a kidnapping, a missing business partner, and quite a lot more in this fast moving short story.

 

There is sabotage at work in “Going Undercover.”  George Miller wants Lisa to investigate because clearly somebody is after his job. Lisa needs the gig and accepts with far more on her mind than the actual job assignment.

 

It’s been six months and Fred Williams still does not have a job in “The Interview.”  He does have a wife and she is very unhappy. It’s been a long marriage and Fred didn’t realize how unhappy it was until he was unemployed and home every single day. At least he does have a few leads and an upcoming interview.

 

Sometimes you just have to follow the woman’s lead in “Tail Tailing.” The client wants the job done and you have to do what you have to do. Sex, videotapes, and blackmail are just a few of the things in play in this one.

 

Being with two women at the same time has a serious price in “Paying the Price.” He gets exactly what he said he wanted.

 

The blindfolded married man is supposed to be able to tell his wife’s breasts by lips and tongue. According to the bet he agreed to he will have to go through “Twenty Breasts” to do it. If he guesses correctly he will win 20K that his wife Charlene and he desperately need. If he guesses wrong they will lose everything.

 

“Love With A Perfect Stranger” describes the ultimate scenario of anonymous sex. The mystery man talked her to coming to dinner. Now he has to close the deal.

 

A threesome is part of the equation in several stories in this collection and certainly is a key part of “Romeo and Juliet and Juliet.” Amazing what a fight in a bar can lead to bedroom wise. It might just help solve a murder too.

 

It is the only motel in the middle of nowhere and “There’s Cable In Every Room.”  Newly wed Amanda didn’t want to stop for the night, but Steve was exhausted and insisted. Not that they need cable but other folks do in this small town.

 

The commission check probably isn’t worth the paper it is printed on in “Act Of Commission.”  Being a vacuum cleaner salesman is not working out at all, but at least he does have a couple of promising house call appointments.

 

You can take the bully out of school but you can’t take the bully out of the boy. Even twenty years later Eddie Gunderson is still a punk bully in “Hot Monkey Love.”  Eddie may have gotten the girl back in High School but the present is way better.

 

The stretches of boredom in the newspaper business are just one of the elements at work in “Those “Were The Days.” A couple of drinks have loosened the tongue of City Editor Johnny Silverman and he tells quite the tale of a deal back in the 30’s and a powerful crime family.

 

The complex stories that make up this collection feature crime, deceit, murder, double dealing and many other things. They also feature plenty of beautiful large breasted women often working their own agendas. The stories also feature frank descriptions of sexual positions and sexual acts. Very graphic and detailed sex is prevalent in every story and in most cases there is a final twist changing the reader perception of all that has gone on before.

 

While sexuality is clearly part of each story, the stories are primarily good crime stories and feature the traits that readers of crime fiction writer Michael Bracken know and love. This very adult collection isn’t for everyone, but if you are okay with adult themes and situations, this collection is a very good one.

 

Material supplied quite some time ago by the author in exchange for my objective review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012, 2022

Short Story Wednesday Review: Never Kill A Cat And Other Stories by Miles Archer

Today I remind you of Never Kill A Cat And Other Stories by Miles Archer.

 

This short story collection by Miles Archer opens with the signature story “Never Kill A Cat.” Dolores Sorrento is elderly, very lonely, and spends much of her time reading mystery books. When she isn’t reading, she is talking to her many feline companions. That is when she is not dealing with Tommy Cooper and his parents who live across the street. Tommy Cooper is the terror of the neighborhood. Now, he has gone too far and has to pay for this crime.

 

Renn is supposed to be focused on the live fire exercise at the training grounds. That is a bit difficult since he and Becky had a major fight in the hours preceding. In “Murder In Uniform” Renn does what he needs to do to get through the day.

 

 

It is October of 1973 in San Francisco in “Nobody Gets Outa Here Alive.” Freddy Jones has a job he despises, but at least he has one. A routine trip for smokes on his way home turns into the most intense experience of his life. It changes the whole way he considers the world. Fortunately, his job has the tools needs to take the first steps along his new path.

 

Brian Donovan has lost yet another job as “Eternal Love” begins. He is a good worker, but annoys his coworkers with his attitude. His day is going to get way worse when he gets home.

 

The next several stories feature Doug Mc Cool over the years. As time passes, Doug McCool gets more and more into the private investigator line of work.  That process starts with “For What It’s Worth” where it is 1972 and McCool has returned from Vietnam. He is in San Francisco spending a lot of time in the VA rehab. While there he spends a lot of time with a guy Johnny White. The same Johnny White who, after discharge from rehab, became heavily involved with the Black Panthers and changed his name to Karim Africanus.

 

After about a year or so, McCool got a call from an attorney representing Johnny/Karim. There had been an FBI raid and Jonny/Karim was under arrest for the murder of an informer named Perkins. The attorney thinks that maybe McCool could help as some of those involved in the case might be more willing to talk to a white guy instead of the African American lawyer.

 

Move forward in time a few years and McCool’s latest client is Mrs. Washington in “Hell Hath No Fury.” Her daughter, Noorleen, has been arrested for murder. A criminal defense attorney McCool knows by the name of Peter Tallent told Mrs. Washington to hire McCool to do some leg work, create a report, and he might take the case pro bono. Mr. Tallent is one of the good guys and the case in interesting enough that McCool agrees to do a little digging. It quickly is clear that Norleen is in a bind because of circumstantial evidence. Once they had their suspect in the local jail they quit working the case.

 

His next client is also in a bind, but not with the cops.  In fact, it is because of the San Francisco cops, specifically one by the name of inspector Harry Stanton, that Mr. Mori is in McCool’s office looking for help. Mr. Mori owns a waste hauling company known as “South Metro Waste.” It operates in the south side of San Francisco in the area formerly known as “Butchertown.”  The meat packers the area is known for are no longer around, but South Metro Waste that was started in 1901 is going strong.

 

So strong that the mob is trying to take over his business unless he sells out to an outfit known as “United Haulers” based out of Cleveland, bad things will start happening to his family. McCool likes the guy and agrees to poke a little and see if he can figure out a way to get Mori and his family clear of the problem in “The Art of War.”

 

The beautiful Monica Grant appears in his office doorway in “Il Beso Di Morta.” Married to an investment banker of some type, her husband is apparently in some sort of business deal with a guy known as Dominic Abbruzio. Good old Dominic is deep in the mob and is known by his nickname “Razor.” Mrs. Grant wants McCool to get her husband out of the mess he has gotten himself in to and to do it with our husband having a clue about it.  Good thing she can pay as that hat will be easier said than done.

 

Author Miles Archer shifts narrator gender with his next story titled “The Miller’s Wife’s Tale.”  Told from the perspective of Barbara Brown, McCool’s everything; she has been left behind to hold the fort while McCool cavorts in Mexico with a certain lady.  She is not happy as her hair needs a touch up, she has a headache and feels bloated, and is about to have her time of the month as well as deal with clients.

 

One of those clients is Tammy Wingate who wants them to investigate the string of prostitute murders in the city thanks to a serial killer. She is the executive director of COYOTE, a prostitute support organization. She also has connections to the important people in the city of San Francisco. The cops aren’t getting anywhere in their case so Inspector  Dave Toshi sent her their way.

 

The good Inspector had no idea McCool was in Mexico, but considering Barbara is the real brains of the outfit it should not be a problem. It is one of two cases that she will handle in this story.

 

The final McCool tale is one of pain titled “The Black Hole.” McCool now lives in a trailer contemplating suicide by bottle or gun. It has been months since he had a client and is not in the shape for one. But, a woman by the name of Susan Sharpe is nothing if not persistent.

 

She is divorced and very glad to be rid of her ex-husband. While packing up some stuff across she came across a computer disk. Her ex works for a petroleum company and apparently didn’t take it with him. Somebody is making threats over the disk, Susan is scared, and needs McCool’s help. The first thing to do, after he learns what is on it, is return the damn disk. How to do that is a problem not easily solved.

 

The nine tales that make up Never Kill A Cat And Other Stories are all highly atmospheric and very complicated tales featuring fully developed characters. The McCool tales make up two thirds of the book while providing some very good reading. Those stories frequently play with the classic private detective stereotypes while going off in unconventional tangents. The result is a read recently published by Untreed Reads that is highly entertaining and well worth your time. 

  

Never Kill A Cat And Other Stories

Miles Archer

Untreed Reads

http://www.untreedreads.com/

November 2015

ASIN: B017QGLDGU

E-book

181 Pages

$2.99

 

Material supplied by the publisher in exchange for my objective review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015, 2021