Mystery*File

ANTHONY BOUCHER “The Numbers Man.” Short story. Reprinted in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. First published in Black Mask, July 1945 as “The Catalyst.” Both of two titles given this story are appropriate. Gregor Stolz is a catalyst, all right. The kind of guy who just happens to be around as a murder or strange death is about to happen, or even as a witness to the event itself. He is also a man fascinated by numbers, and it will do no harm if I were to tell you that the particular chapter in…

REVIEWED BY MIKE TOONEY: Just a short note to Mystery*File fans who might not have heard of a couple of high-quality websites. While they reproduce literature of many genres, both of them also have substantial collections of mystery and science fiction books, and, as noted, the quality is very high indeed. Roy Glashan’s Library doesn’t just copy the originals but also improves on them, adding copious numbers of illustrations from various sources whenever feasible. The link: https://freeread.de/…

ROBERT RAY – Bloody Murdock. Matt Murdock #1. St.Martin’s Press, hardcover, 1986. Penguin, paperback, 1987. Reference to a “salvage fee” on page 16 suggests that Southern California PI Matt Murdock intends to follow in the footsteps of JDM’s character Travis McGee, In his own words, Murdock is idealistic and a romantic. Here, the death of a young girl arouses his noblest instincts. A vivid writing style is vitiated by muddy motivations. Hired [also] as a bodyguard by a nervous man who saw the…

Just in case anyone is interested, yes, I’m OK. Doing fine, all things considered. The lack of regular posting by me here is a lot simpler than that. The last month or so, I’ve just been very very busy. Busier now than when I was working for living. The second half of the month should […]

A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review by Bill Pronzini     JOE GORES – Hammett. Putnam’s, hardcover, 1975. Ballantine, paperback, 1976.    Gores is a lifelong aficionado and student of the works of Dashiell Hammett, and Hammett’s influence is clearly evident in Gores’s own fiction. Hammett is his personal monument to the man he believes was the greatest of […]

NORMAN SPINRAD – Bug Jack Barron. Avon M206; paperback, June 1969. Cover art by Alex Gnidziejko, Hardcover edition published simultaneously by Walker. An abbreviated version appeared earlier in New Worlds SF, December 1967 through October 1968.    From the back cover: POWER PLAY. The lines of power are tangled in a future America threatened by a […]

Back to the Wells, Part 5: The First Men in the Moon by Matthew R. Bradley        Both Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are sometimes known as “the father of science fiction,” and authored early depictions of lunar travel. Verne got off the ground first, so to speak, with De la Terre à la Lune […]

(Give Me That) OLD-TIME DETECTION. Spring 2026. Issue #71. Editor: Arthur Vidro. Old-Time Detection Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. 34 pages (including covers).    Interest in classic detective fiction seems to be as high as ever, and we can’t think of a better gateway into it for the neophyte reader than Arthur Vidro’s Old-Time […]

MAXWELL GRANT – The Living Shadow. The Shadow #1. Written by Walter Gibson. Bantam, paperback; 1st printing, June 1969. First published in The Shadow, a Detective Magazine. April-June 1931.    If this book were to be rated on its literary qualities, there would not be a great deal to talk about — except for the desire […]

BILL PRONZINI “A Cold Foggy Day.” First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine April 1978. Collected in Small Felonies (St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1988).    The story begins as two men arrive in San Francisco from Boston, with the younger noticeably having trouble with the cold. He is a native of Boston; his companion is from San […]

P. M. CARLSON – Murder Unrenovated, Maggie Ryan #4. Bantam, paperback original; 1st printing, January 1988.    This novel takes Maggie Ryan back to 1972, and her fourth mystery adventure. She and her actor-husband Nick O’Connor are searching for a brownstone to buy and renovate in Brooklyn, but the one they find has both a rent-control […]

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION – December 1967. EditorL Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Gray Morrow. Overall rating: **½. POUL ANDERSON “Out[pst of Empire.” Dominic Flandry. Novella. John Ridenour is sent as a troubleshooter to find out why the natives of Freehold seem to be rising up against the planet’s colonists, The situation is complicated by the was […]

TUCKER HALLERAN – A Cool Clear Death. Cam MacCardle #1. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1984; paperback, May 1986.    Cam MacCardle, once a famous professional football star, turns private investigator in this, his first case, in which the wife of a quiet, unassuming stockbroker, is murdered. With no evidence against him except that he has no alibi, […]

ROBERT SILVERBERG – When the Myths Went Home. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1969. Reprinted in World’s Best Science Fiction: 1970, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr (Ace, paperback, 1970). Collected in Moonferns and Starsongs (Ballantine, paperback, 1971).    This particular tale, and a nifty one it is, takes place in […]

A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review by Bill Pronzini     JOE GORES – Dead Skip. DKA Files #1. Random House, hardcover, 1972. Ballantine. paperback, August 1974. Mysterious Press, paperback, 1992.    While holding down a variety of jobs, one of them a stint as a San Francisco private investigator, Joe Gores published numerous (and generally hard-boiled) short stories […]

TERROR BY NIGHT. Universal Pictures, 1946. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Alan Mowbray, Dennis Hoey, Renee Godfrey. Screenplay: Frank Gruber, based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Director: Roy William Neill.    Sherlock Holmes is hired to guard the fabulous “Star of Rhodesia” diamond, being taken back to Scotland by train, but murder is committed under […]

JOHN BRUNNER – Double, Double. Ballantine, paperback original; 1st printing; January 1969.    Although possibly based on a monster movie script that Brunner couldn’t peddle elsewhere (or hasn’t yet), this does have the benefit of that author’s deft characterization of stock situations and players.    A rock group for the modern class spots the monster (see above) […]