Friday, October 14, 2016
Crime Review Update
We feature new 20 reviews in each issue of Crime Review (www.crimereview.co.uk)
together with a top industry interview. This time it’s author James Swallow
in the Countdown hot seat: http://crimereview.co.uk/page.php/interview/3969 We’re on Twitter at: Crime Review: @CrimeReviewUK Linda Wilson: @CrimeReviewer Sharon Wheeler: @lartonmedia This week’s reviews are: FADE TO BLACK by Steve Mullins, reviewed by John Cleal The apparent return from the dead of a cult film icon forces media man Root Wilson – who wrote his obituary – to search for the truth. A series of twists ensure Root becomes a suspect for murder himself – as well as a possible next victim. DIRTY WAR by Dominique Sylvain, reviewed by Arnold Taylor An up and coming Parisian lawyer is found murdered - burned alive next to a swimming pool in Paris. Lola Jost, whose assistant was murdered in a similar fashion, feels she has to see if there is any link between the two deaths. WE WERE KINGS by Thomas O’Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy, reviewed by Chris Roberts The discovery of a body in Boston harbour, tarred, feathered and shot, is just the beginning of a savage struggle during a hot and humid summer. DARK CORNERS by Ruth Rendell, reviewed by Sharon Wheeler Carl, a young writer, sells a friend some slimming pills which inadvertently cause her death – then blackmail and murder follow. FOLLOW ME BACK by Nicci Cloke, reviewed by Linda Wilson Lizzie Summersall has disappeared and it’s the talk of the school. GHOSTS OF KARNAK by George Mann, reviewed by Linda Wilson The vigilante known as the Ghost must take on some seemingly unstoppable man-machine hybrids and battle a mysterious cult determined to bring a pair of ancient Egyptian gods back to power. THE REDEEMERS by Ace Atkins, reviewed by Chris Roberts Sheriff Quinn Colson resigns, but still becomes involved when a burglary becomes complicated by the shooting of a deputy, and a battle to retrieve some very revealing financial records. EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE LONDON MONSTER by Karen Lee Street, reviewed by John Cleal Edgar Allan Poe summons his detective friend C Auguste Dupin to London to solve a mystery. THE BLOGGER by James Raven, reviewed by Linda Wilson When a popular blogger falls to his death, DCI Jeff Temple and his team have to weather the inevitable media storm.
FEAR THE DARKNESS by Becky Masterman, reviewed by John Cleal Retired FBI undercover agent Brigid Quinn is settling into marriage and a slower life as a private investigator. When she reluctantly takes on a case of what looks like accidental drowning, her world turn upside down. BLACK WATER LILIES by Michael Bussi, reviewed by Jim Beaman Set in the home village of the artist Claude Monet, it’s the story of 13 days that begin with a murder and end with another. What is the connection with rumours about a painting of black water lilies? A CLIMATE OF FEAR by Fred Vargas, reviewed by John Barnbrook A woman is thought to have committed suicide in her bath but Commissaire Adamsberg refuses to be convinced. Further apparent suicides, linked by the drawing of a strange symbol convince the investigating team that they are pursuing a serial killer. MAIGRET’S DEAD MAN by Georges Simenon, reviewed by Arnold Taylor Maigret has to choose whether to believe a woman who thinks everybody is trying to poison her and a man who rings him out of the blue, asking for his immediate help. THE HIDDED LEGACY by GJ Minett, reviewed by Linda Wilson The death of one girl and the mutilation of another leaves a lasting and painful legacy that can’t remain buried for ever. CORRIDORS OF THE NIGHT by Anne Perry, reviewed by Sylvia Maughan Hester Monk is working in a local hospital one night when a small girl accosts her and begs Hester to follow her down an unfamiliar corridor. What Hester finds is quite shocking. RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER by Sally Andrew, reviewed by Anthea Hawdon Tannie Maria runs a cooking and agony aunt column in her local newspaper, the Klein Karoo Gazette. When a correspondent is found killed Tannie must put all her common sense and cooking skills to find the murderer. THE BLOOD STRAND by Chris Ould, reviewed by Ewa Sherman Jan Reyna, a British police detective, returns to the Faroe Islands where he was born when his estranged father is found unconscious in a car, with a shotgun by his side. Traces of someone else’s blood are found at the scene. THE GIRL IN GREEN by Derek B Miller, reviewed by John Cleal Journalist Thomas Benton is persuaded by ex-US soldier Arwood Hobbes to return to the Middle East to atone for their failure to save a girl in the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm 20 years before. PROMISES OF BLOOD by David Thorne, reviewed by Chris Roberts Lawyer Daniel O’Connell is distracted from a client’s unusual bequest when his friend Gabe is accused of a knifing, a crime he strongly denies. MISSING PIECES by Helen Gudenkauf, reviewed by John Cleal Journalist Sarah Quinlan investigates a decades old mystery that has forced her husband to live a lie. Best wishes Sharon www.crimereview.co.uk
Gravetapping: Mystery Scene Reviews: Issue No. 146
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FFB Review: FIELDS FOR PRESIDENT (1939) by W.C. Fields ( Reviewed by Barry Ergang)
Barry is back on the blog today with a selection
that resonates with the current political situation as he reviews Fields for
President by W. C. Fields. For the full list of reading suggestions, head over
to Patti Abbott’s blog.
FIELDS FOR PRESIDENT
(1939) by W.C. Fields
Reviewed by Barry
Ergang
I was most likely in my mid
to late teens when I first saw a W.C. Fields movie and instantly became a fan.
A former vaudevillian, Fields’s comedic style was both physical and verbal like
the Marx Brothers’, whom I’m also crazy about, but nonetheless dissimilar and
unique. When I recently discovered that Fields had written a spoof about
seeking the presidency of the United States, and that it’s available in e-book
form, I bought and downloaded a copy.
This fast slender read,
which includes illustrations by O. Soglow, opens with a
laudatory introduction by Dick Cavett, who is also a die-hard Fields fan. Then
we get into Fields’s own text, some of which is very relevant to what’s
actually going on in the (as of this writing) lead-up to the 2016 presidential
election, and in which anyone familiar with his films and the kinds of
characters he portrayed will be able to hear his distinctive proclamatory
intonations. As he tells us, “The purpose of this modest little volume is to
make clear to my future constituents what my moral and political background has
been, and exactly how I stand on the issues of the day. So just pull up a fireside
and lend an ear to your old Uncle Will, the white hope of the Bull Moose Party
in 1940.”
Why is he running for
President? It dates back to when “I was exactly nine years old, and I can
remember clearly how Boss Tweed’s brother, Harris Tweed, took me on his knee
and said: …‘Never give a sucker an even break.’”
Discerning readers won’t
fail to notice significant similarities between Fields’s manner of delivering self-aggrandizing
assertions and those of real-world candidates, in particular an orange-hued,
oddly-maned chap from New York. This is not to say that Fields was trying to be
prophetic, but that because everyone running for office bloviates about his or
her qualifications and an opponent’s lack of same, in this case one need only
examine the chapters’ substance to recognize Fields’s inadvertent satirical
clairvoyance.
To wit:
CHAPTER I: LET’S LOOK AT
THE RECORD
“Business Success: If he knows nothing else, a President should at
least understand the secret of success in the business world. For, after all,
what is the Presidency but a glorified business—or, at least, a fine racket?”
CHAPTER II: MY VIEWS ON
MARRIAGE
“Right at the outset,
friends…I wish to state unbiasedly and without reservations that most marriage
problems of today stem from the fact that we pamper our gentle sex too much…Never try to impress a woman! Because if
you do she’ll expect you to keep up to the standard for the rest of your life.”
Next we are treated to the anecdote of Fields’s effort at impressing a woman
named Abigail Twirlbaffing with his skill as a bugler.
CHAPTER III: HOW TO BEAT
THE FEDERAL INCOME TAX—AND WHAT TO SEE AND DO AT ALCATRAZ.
The pungency of the
chapter’s title cannot be lost on anyone even vaguely aware of one of the
controversies in the current campaign. Fields points out that many people are
daunted “by the intricacies of wrestling with an income-tax blank. Forsooth,
there are some citizens who feel so cowed by this imposing document that they
ignore it altogether. I number at least one such person among my acquaintances
(I say ‘number’ because that is what he is now—at Alcatraz)….”
CHAPTER IV: FIELDS, A MAN
OF FIRM RESOLVE
“Campaign resolutions are
nothing more than overgrown New Year’s resolutions: they are thrown together
hastily at the last minute, with never a thought as to how they may be
gracefully broken.” Thus the candidate goes on to aver how he’ll make and break
his sworn campaign promises.
CHAPTER V: MY RULES OF
ETIQUETTE
Here I’ll leave readers to
consider the episodes concerning Claude or Claudette, a trained seal; and the
lone customer standing outside a theater on a wintry night in Upper Waukegan.
CHAPTER VI: HOW I HAVE
BUILT MYSELF INTO A PHYSICAL MARVEL
“Although the demands on
the Presidential physique have gradually been reduced to buttonpushing
(sic)…still it is imperative to have a man in the White House who is as sound
in body as he is in mind.
“…I was not always the
remarkable specimen I am today. In my youth I was distinctly frail. I well
remember that many a time I could not even crush the can for Daddy in a proper
manner. The two-quart container of beer was often more than a match for my
slender young arm, and I would be forced to drink half the contents to make the
burden lighter.”
CHAPTER VII: THE CARE OF
BABIES
Does this boast remind you
of a certain current candidate? “I do not hesitate to state that I, W.C.
Fields, possess a deeper understanding of babies and their problems than any
other statesman in America…
“…To give you an example of my comprehension
of infant psychology, on my last swing around the corn-belt states, I always
carried a number of sterilized blindfolds, which I would casually place over
each baby’s eyes before I kissed it. This prevented its growth from being
stunted through terror.
“It was more than any other
candidate was willing to do for American babyhood and, believe me, the parents
of the nation appreciated my thoughtfulness.”
CHAPTER VIII: HOW TO
SUCCEED IN BUSINESS
“Ask any expert and he will
tell you that business suffers from two distinct ailments:
1. Overtaxation
2. Labor unrest, strikes, picketing, etc.
“Well, the solution ought
to be plain to anyone. There are 50,000,000 workers and 10,000,000 unemployed.
Merely remove all taxation from business and stipulate that employers must
spend this great saving in hiring pickets—one picket for every five workers
they employ. Presto, no more taxes, no more unemployed, no more labor
unrest—everybody happy!
“…Remember, folks, cast a
vote for Fields and watch for the silver lining. Cast several votes for Fields
and watch for the police.”
This has been a lengthy
overview of a very short book, one you can whip through in two or three hours
as I did, grinning my way through it and, on several occasions, laughing out
loud till my eyes watered. It’s too bad W.C. Fields isn’t alive today to
observe what’s going on—and perhaps to declare his candidacy for real, if only
to mischievously stir the pot. If he’s aware of what’s going on, he’s probably
juggling in his grave.
We’re presently dealing
with the campaigns of the two most disliked presidential candidates in the
history of our country. If you need a humorous break from the agonies of
watching and reading about them, I can’t recommend Fields for President strongly enough.
© (October 14) 2016 Barry Ergang
Reviewer’s Note: to those
reading this who have never seen W.C. Fields, and to those who are familiar
with him and are feeling nostalgic, YouTube
has a fair number of clips as well as some
films you can see—and should—in their entirety.
“Don’t be a luddy-duddy!
Don’t be a moon-calf! Don’t be a jabber-now! You’re not one of those, are you?”
Find and read some of Barry Ergang’s work at Smashwords and Amazon.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Review: Pale Mars by Garnett Elliott
Having survived Red
Venus a few months ago, Captain Nadezhda Gura of the spaceship Krasnyy Sokol and crew are dispatched to Mars on a rescue mission. Thanks to
the Russians recovering the prototype V-5 fission powered engine in the last
days of World War II, they gained a significant advantage in the space race. The
people living in the American colony, Chrystetown, are in serious trouble. The Krasnyy Sokol is the closest rescue ship
at a mere eight million kilometers distance.
As the only colony on
Mars, there is no one else on the planet to assist. An American spaceship, Fist
of Freedom, is on the way from Callisto, but it will take more than
three weeks to get to Mars. As Admiral Onegin points out, any gesture of
goodwill by Russia to help Americans could help ease tensions a little bit with
their superpower adversary. That is the public position. Something else is at
work behind the scenes and only the good Captain knows what was said to her privately
by the Admiral.
What the plan is and
what is happening at the colony are just two of several major points of this
highly entertaining story. Part adventure, part science fiction tale, and with
pieces of a mystery and a western added in to the mix, Pale Mars is another
highly atmospheric tale by talented author Garnett Elliott. More than
anything, as he did so well with Red Venus, once again there is that
certain pulp fiction space adventure style technique that makes this one another
very good and very fun read.
It is still really
cool.
Pale Mars
Garnett Elliott
Beat To A Pulp Press
August 2016
ASIN:
B01K2CBW1G
eBook (print format available)
136 Pages
$1.99
Material was supplied by the publisher
to read and review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2016
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
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HISTORY’S RICH WITH MYSTERIES: "H. H. HOLMES – A Man and His Murder Castle" by Earl Staggs
Texas
author Earl Staggs is back this month with his latest “History’s Rich With
Mysteries” guest blog. This time he considers the case of H. H. HOLMES – A Man and His Murder Castle.
HISTORY’S RICH WITH MYSTERIES
When I look at the past, I find
stories about people which fascinate me, particularly those in which there is a
curious mixture of fact, legend, and mysterious uncertainty. In this series of
articles, I want to explore some of those stories. I think of them as mysteries
swaddled in legend. While truth is always desired in most things, truth easily
becomes staid and boring. Legend, on the other hand, forever holds a hint of
romanticism and an aura of excitement borne of adventure, imagination and, of
course, mystery.
H. H. HOLMES – A Man and His Murder Castle
by Earl Staggs
H. H.
Holmes confessed to killing twenty-seven people, and some feel he may have
killed two hundred or more in the US and Canada. He began his life of crime as
a bigamist and a successful scam artist, but he would progress to become one of
America’s first serial killers and possibly the most prolific.
He
was born Herman Webster Mudgett on May 16, 1861, in Gilmonton, New Hampshire.
Considered a highly intelligent boy, he expressed an interest in medicine.
There were early signs of what he would become. He reportedly practiced surgery
on animals. It is also possible he was responsible for the death of a friend.
After graduating high school at the age of sixteen, he took teaching jobs in
nearby towns and soon married Clara Lovering, the first of his three wives.
At
the age of eighteen, he enrolled in the University of Vermont, but left after
only one year and entered the University of Michigan's medical school. He
graduated in June 1884. While attending school, he took out life insurance
policies on people he knew, presented cadavers he had stolen as their remains,
and collected on the policies. He may have also used the bodies for
experiments.
His
marriage quickly fell apart, and he abandoned his wife and their son. He spent
the next couple of years working various jobs in several cities and continued
with his scams. When he feared he might get caught, he moved to Chicago in 1886
and changed his name. While he used a number of aliases, he was most commonly
known as Henry Howard (or “H. H.”) Holmes.
In
Chicago, he found a job in a drugstore owned by Everett Holton. Not long after
Holmes went to work for him, Holton died, allegedly from natural causes. Within
weeks, Holton's wife sold the store to Holmes, and then she mysteriously
disappeared. The store provided Holmes with cash to continue scamming. One of
his enterprises was selling an “elixir” out of the store which was nothing but
tap water.
THE
MURDER CASTLE
In
1888, he began building a massive, elaborate, block-long hotel which local
residents called “The Castle.” Later, when it became known that Holmes murdered
a large number of people inside it, the imposing structure became known as “The
Murder Castle.”
Holmes
hired carpenters, electricians, and other workers to complete the building, but
fired them after they completed one room. That way, no one knew all the
features he designed into the place.
While
the third floor seemed normal for a hotel, other floors featured narrow,
maze-like hallways with doors and stairways leading to nowhere. There were
blind passageways, hinged walls, false partitions, rooms with no doors and
rooms with many doors. There were other doors leading to various kinds of
torture chambers. One secret room could only be entered through a trapdoor in
the ceiling. Victims were locked in and left to die of hunger. Another door
opened onto a chute which went to the basement. This provided for easy and
convenient body disposal. He installed an alarm system on all the bedroom doors
which alerted him whenever someone left their room. Holmes also had gas lines
inside the walls running to the bedrooms. He would turn on the gas at night
when his victims were asleep. The bedrooms walls were lined with asbestos to
silence their screams.
The
basement was described as a medieval torture dungeon with chains and other
means of restraints, a stretching rack, acids vats, and lime pits. There was
also a crematorium disguised as a glass furnace, and many of his victims are
believed to have been burned to ashes. He stripped the bodies of some victims
down to skeletons and sold them to medical schools and universities.
There
was no shortage of victims. In 1893, The World’s Columbian Exposition, also
known as the Chicago World’s Fair, opened and from then on, millions of
tourists per year came to see the amazing exhibits and buildings which were
left in place. Holmes' hotel offered attractive lodging for unsuspecting
tourists, especially elderly men and women. Some left the castle unharmed while
many were tortured and killed. He reportedly seduced a number of women, became
engaged to them, and after he took all their money, his fiancees would suddenly
and strangely disappear.
Others
were lured in by the offer of employment. He chose victims from his female
staff. They were required to take out life insurance policies with Holmes as
the beneficiary. He paid the premiums and collected on the policies after he
killed them.
Though
slight of stature, he was well-educated and mannered, and had no problem
attracting female admirers. In fact, he was quite the lady’s man. At one point,
he was married to three women at once and somehow kept each unaware of the
others. Strangely enough, no harm came to his wives, but several mistresses
disappeared without a trace.
One of
his mistresses, Julia Smythe, became pregnant and pressured Holmes to marry
her. He said he would, but first she had to agree to let him perform an
abortion. Instead of an abortion, he gave her an overdose of chloroform,
killing her.
Shortly
after that, Holmes sold a skeleton to the university for $200.
Another mistress, Emmaline
Cegrand, also worked as his personal secretary. After he grew tired of her, he
asked her to retrieve a document from an airtight, sealed room, and locked her
inside it so she would suffocate.
Once again, Holmes had a
skeleton to sell.
Holmes
kept busy with his various scams during the day and slaughtering people at
night. His adventures eventually led him to spend time in Fort Worth, St.
Louis, Indianapolis, and other cities as well as in Canada, usually with a
mistress or an accomplice along for assistance. His big mistake came when he
failed to pay one of his accomplices. The accomplice told all he knew to the
police. Holmes was pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to Boston where he
was arrested on November 17, 1894, and charged with murder and fraud.
When
the police entered the Murder Castle, they found piles of bones, blood-stained
torture implements, and other evidence of the horrors that took place there.
They had a long list of names of people who had gone missing from the World's
Fair and traced fifty of them to the Murder Castle. They suspected even more
had lost their lives there, but identifying them was impossible because of the
manner of death and disposal of the victims.
During
his sensational trial, Holmes was dubbed the Monster of 63rd Street, The Torture Doctor, The Modern
Bluebeard, The Mighty Murderer, and The Beast of Chicago. At the time, he was
more famous than Jack the Ripper.
During
his trial, Holmes confessed to twenty-seven murders. The correct number may
well have been two hundred or more. No one knows for sure.
On
May 7, 1896, H. H. Holmes was hanged, nine days before his thirty-fifth
birthday.
It's
interesting that when the gallows trap sprung, his neck didn't snap as it was
supposed to. He twitched for more than fifteen agonizing minutes as he slowly
strangled to death. Some people felt it was a just end for a monster.
There have been a number of books and movies on
the life of H. H. Holmes. One book, The Devil in the White City by Erik
Larson, will be the basis of a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Holmes.
Martin Scorcese will direct.
The author/editor/critic Anthony Boucher (after
whom Bouchercon, the annual mystery conference sponsored by Mystery Writers of
America was named) used the pseudonym H.H. Holmes for some of his works. When asked
why he used that name, he explained, “. . .most of my friends assumed that
‘H.H. Holmes’ was derived from the great Sherlock. Not so. Holmes was an alias
for one of the outstanding criminals of the century, Herman W. Mudgett. Later,
I used Mudgett’s real name for some of my printed verse.”
An attempt to burn the Murder Castle to the
ground took place in 1895. Some felt it was an attempt by Holmes' supporters to
destroy evidence of his crimes. Others felt a few enraged citizens wanted to
destroy the building so it could not be turned into a tourist attraction. The
castle survived the fire, however, and remained in place until 1938 when it was
torn down. A branch of the US Postal Service now occupies the space.
If it's true H. H. Holmes killed two hundred or
more people, he surpassed the total killed by Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy,
Gary Ridgway, and Ted Bundy combined. How can one human being take the lives of
so many others? Perhaps the answer to that question is hidden somewhere in our
DNA. Or maybe there's a code imbedded in our brain waves. Whatever it is, we might someday know the
answer and be able to determine very early in their life if someone is
predestined to becoming a serial killer. Hopefully, we would also have the
ablity to cure that person and prevent it from happening.
Earl Staggs ©2016
Texas author Earl Staggs earned
all Five Star reviews for his novels MEMORY OF A MURDER
and JUSTIFIED ACTION and has
twice received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He served as
Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine, as President of the Short Mystery
Fiction Society, and is a frequent speaker at
conferences and seminars.
He invites any comments
via email at earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net
He also invites you
to visit his blog site at http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com to learn more about his novels and stories.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Mystery Fanfare: CWA Dagger Awards
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