A. E. van VOGT – The House That Stood Still. Greenberg, hardcover, 1950. Detective Book Magazine, Winter 1952. Beacon 298, paperback, September 1960, as The Mating Cry. Paperback Librar 52-873, paperback, November 1965 (cover art by Jack Gaughan). Carroll & Graf, paperback, January 1993.

   Van Vogt tries a clumsy hand at sex in the midst of a looseness in plot, and the result is predictably poor.

   A massive, imperturbable house, dating from the pre-Spanish days of California, gives its inhabitants eternal life. And naturally the inhabitants command economic power enough to maintain the house in their possession through the years. Crisis comes about when nuclear war of Earth threatens them, and the group splits on the question of strategy.

   There is a flavor of Spanish California in this book that is attractive, but the going of the arbitrary plot is jumpy and is not. There is no involvement withe the mixed-up characters, certainly not enough to bother seeing if the story really does fit together or to spend any time understanding a very poor ending.

   It took a long time to read this one.

Rating: *

JOHN GODEY – The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Putnam’s, hardcover, 1973. Dell, paperback, 1974. Berkley, softcover, 2009. Penguin, softcover, 2012. Films: (1) United Artists, 1974. (2) ABC, made-for-TV, 1998. (3) Columbia Pictures/MGM, 2009.

   Grand-scale-caper novels, in which millions of dollars and the lives of scores of hostages are at stake, were the vogue in the 1970s. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is among the best of these, and for two reasons became modest best seller and a reasonably good film with Robert Shaw, Walter Matthau, and Martin Balsam.

   The first reason is that the caper involves the hijacking of a New York City subway car (Pelham 123) full of passengers and the holding of it for a ransom of $ 1 million cash — an audacious sort of crime that has an appeal for people who have never even ridden the New York subways.

   The second reason is in the form of a neat logistical puzzle: On the surface (or rather, under the surface), it would seem impossible for the gang to escape with the loot, being themselves trapped underground with every tunnel exit watched by heavily armed men. So how are they planning to do it?

   The head of the gang is a ruthless lunatic named Ryder who is not above knocking off a hostage or two to make sure the city of New York complies with his demands. Or killing anybody else who might be foolish enough to get in his way. The other three gang members arc a pair of toughs named Steever and Joe Welcome and an embittered ex motorman, Wally Longman, whose technical knowledge of subway operations is at the core of the entire plan.

   The numerous additional characters (the novel is told in constantly shifting multiple viewpoints) include the various hostages, city policemen, subway workers, Transit Authority cops, members of the media and the Federal Reserve Bank, and the mayor himself.

   Godey maintains a high level of suspense throughout, and deftly interweaves plenty of detailed information on the inner workings of the subway system. (Train buffs will find it fascinating; even casually interested readers will be impressed.) His characters arc well delineated, the writing smooth and effective. And the escape plan devised for Ryder and his gang is both simple and extremely clever, utilizing a certain “foolproof” piece of equipment.

   John Godey (Mort Freedgood) began his career writing Crime Club whodunits in the late Forties and early Fifties, among them such titles as The Blue Hour (1948) and This Year’s Death (1953). In the late sixties he produced a pair of early-Westlake comedy/mystery pastiches, A Thrill a Minute with Jack Albany (1967) and Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Kill Today (1970).

   After the success of Pelham, he devoted himself to the production of other large-scale suspense novels; among these are The Talisman (1976), The Snake (1981), and Fatal Beauty (1984), the last named about a political-extremist kidnapping in Italy with far-reaching implications.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

STUART PALMER – The Penguin Pool Murder. Hildegarde Withers #1. Brentano’s, hardcover, 1931. Bantam, paperback, March 1986. Intl Polygonics Ltd, paperback, 1990, Rue Morgue Press, trade paperback, 2007. Penzler Books, trade paperback, 2023. Film: RKO Radio Pictures, 1932 (Edna May Oliver, James Gleason).

   Miss Hildegarde Withers’s first meets Inspector Piper in this case, and she helps him solve a murder that takes place in the New York Aquarium, not long after the stock market crash of 1929. They also seem to rush off to be married at the end, but do they?

   Definitely an oldie, but also definitely a goodie. One does wonder, however, how Miss Withers is so readily allowed to tag along with Piper, in so many violations of proper police procedure. In that sense, this is pure fantasy, from another era altogether.

THE TEXAN. “Law of the Gun.” CBS, 29 September 1958 (Episode 1, Season 1). Rory Calhoun, Neville Brand, John Larch, Karl Swenson, Helen Wallace. Story and co-screenwriter: Frank Gruber. Director: Jerry Thorpe. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

   The “Texan” of the title of this Western TV series, which lasted for two seasons on CBS, was a fellow by the name of Bill Longley, played by Rory Calhoun. Even though this is first episode of the first season, they didn’t really go out of their way to explain what this fast gun hero does and why he does it. There is just a general impression that over the course of a season he goes from one small town in Texas to the next, sometimes for a reason, perhaps more often not.

   In the case of “Law of the Gun,” he has a reason. A friend of his, Les Torbit, a small rancher in the area, is in jail, accused of shooting and killing a young teen-aged girl. While the incident was accidental, bad things always seem to happen during range wars, no matter who’s in the right. And he will hang for it, and sooner rather than later if the girl’s brother has anything to say about it.

   And egging the local townsfolk on is what he’s doing when The Texan shows up. The sheriff is an honest man, but he’s only one man, and he isn’t a guy that can hold back an entire mob of roiled up men.

   It’s only a thirty minute show, including time for the sponsor, so the summary above is about all that can said about this episode, but it’s a good one, and Rory Calhoun is off to a flying start from his first day — not only a fast man with a gun, but a fellow with some common sense as well.

   What I also noticed in the production, though, is that there are several stretches of time where there is not only no dialogue but no background music either. Small things, to think about, but they’re noticeable, if and when you do.

TIMOTHY ZAHN “The Dreamsender.” First appeared in Analog SF, July 1980. Collected in Cascade Point and Other Stories (Blue Jay Books, hardcover, 1986).

   One of Timothy Zahn’s earliest stories, its leading character a fellow named Jefferson Morgan who has the rare ability to contact people through their dreams. He has been using this talent in a career he has built for himself as something in the nature of  a private eye. In this tale which falls on the border of science fiction and just a tinge of fantasy, he is hired by a woman trying to find her husband, who has in essence, disappeared.

   The task, as it happens, is easy. The husband is on the moon. That she knows, but in one short phone call (or the equivalent) she has had with him, he was very evasive, and in a followup conversation she has had with his superior officer, she is told that he is on a secret expedition, and that while he is fine, she should not try to contact him again.

   This is not enough information for her, certainly, and Morgan allows himself the opportunity to go to the moon to learn more. (Most of his cases do not lend themselves to his actually leaving his home or office.) What follows from here is a bit of puzzle, one that’s equally clever. straight forward and easily solved, told in an easy to read style that sucks the reader in from page one on.

   You might think that Zahn could have used the character several times over – his ability is actually more interesting than this story itself – but he did not. This makes sense, though. Once he’s cracked the case, he’s set up for life.

MACAO. RKO Radio Pictures, 1952. Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, Thomas Gomez, Gloria Grahame. Director: Josef von Sternberg.

   The lives of three travelers from Hong King to Macao are intertwined in a tale of Oriental intrigue. One of them (which one?) is a New York City policeman whose quarry is s casino owner who refuses to travel beyond Macao’s three-mile limit.

   You would think that Jane Russell and Robert Mitchum would make quite a screen combination, but such is not the case. Mitchum holds up his half, but while Jane Russell obviously had what it takes to become a movie star, her acting is curiously flat and unappealing.

   
DORTHY GILMAN – Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1984. Fawcett, paperback, 1986.

   What happens when you cross a sweet little old lady sleuth who has a “penchant for odd hats and growing geraniums” with a Bondian-style amazon spy? You get one of the most popular female mystery characters of the last twenty years, Mrs. Emily Pollifax.

   Dorothy Gilman had already made a name for herself as a children’s author (under her married surname of Butters) when she produced her first adult novel. and Mrs. Pollifax adventure, in 1966.

   Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station is the sixth novel to feature the grandmotherly CIA agent, and it is a good example of the series. There is the exotic locale, this time the Silk Route in the People’s Republic of China. There is a dangerous mission to perform, this time the smuggling of a man from a labor reform camp and out of the country.

   There is an evil, and unknown, enemy agent set to destroy the mission — and possibly our heroine. And there is, of course, the amazing Mrs. Pollifax, that gentle soul who can prove, when necessary, that her brown belt in karate is a deadly weapon.

   Having researched her novel in China, Gilman provides some marvelous impressions of that mysterious land. This descriptive prose lends a level of realism to the comic book quality of the spy story.

   Readers know when they pick up a Mrs. Pollifax story that evil will fail, good will prevail, and Mrs. P. will happily return to her geraniums. Gilman’s gentle spy stories (with a minimum of violence) will appeal more to fans of Miss Marple than to Smiley fans.

   In The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1966), the heroine is kidnapped in Mexico and ends up in an Albanian prison. This story was filmed in 1970 as Mrs. Pollifax, Spy, starring Rosalind Russell. Other titles in this entertaining series include The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax (1970), The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax (1971), and A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax (l973).

   Besides Mrs. Pollifax, Gilman has created several other intriguing women: Sister John of A Nun in the Closet (1975), the psychic Madame Karitska of The Clairvoyant Countess (1975), and the troubled yet courageous Amelia Jones in the author’s most realistic mystery, The Tightrope Walker (1979). All of whom are well worth meeting.

         ———
   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

GAR ANTHONY HAYWOOD “And Pray Nobody Sees You.” PI Aaron Gunner. First published in Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes, edited by Paula L. Woods (Doubleday, hardcover, 1995). Reprinted in Shamus Winners, Volume II: 1996-2009, edited by Robert J. Randisi (Perfect Crime Books, softcover, 2010). Winner of PWA Shamus Award for Best Short Story, 1996.

   Private eye Aaron Gunner, whose cases may take him elsewhere, has an office of sorts in a back room of a barber shop in one of the less savory sections of Los Angeles. Most of his cases have been told in print in the form of full length novels, the first of which was Fear of the Dark, which won the 1988 SMP/PWA Best First P.I. Novel Contest. In terms of shorter work, he’s appeared appeared in three short stories, two of which have won PWA Shamus Awards.

   Gunner, for those unfamiliar which him, is also black. He’s hired in this case he find a car that’s been hijacked, a classic 1965 Ford Mustang. Gunner makes short work of the job, for a hefty fee, but when he finds the car, it starts him thinking. And this is the crux of the affair: what he finds and what he does about it.

   Haywood has a smooth enjoyable style of writing, but it’s also the kind of case that’s deceptively subtle when it comes to the ending. It’s a kind of conclusion that can make the reader suddenly sit up straighter and say to himself, What was that? What just happened?

   Not to worry, though. The story’s solidly constructed, and if you go back and follow along maybe a littler more carefully, you’ll find the ending is perfectly well set up. I’m happy with it, in any case, very much so, and I think you will be, too, should a copy ever land in your hands.

FANTASTIC UNIVERSE SF – February 1956. Editor: Leo Margulies. Cover art: Kelly Freas. Overall rating: **½.

EDMUND COOPER “The End of the Journey.” The captain is the only survivor of a voyage testing a new experimental space drive. (3)

ROBERT ABERNATHY “Grandpa’s Lie Soap.” One man is capable of telling lies is a world he made incapable of interpreting falsehoods. (3)

THEODORE PRATT “Shades of Davy Crockett.” Davy comes back to dicover the commercial success of his name and fame. (2)

ROGER DEE “The Man Who Had Spiders.” Extraterrestrial spiders have advantages, but who wants spiders around all the time? (4)

SAM MERWIN, JR. “Passage to Anywhere.” Novelette. Matter transmitter fails on Earth, but does make space travel feasible. An argument for world government. (2)

ETHEL G. LEWIS “The Vapor Horn.” An international healing device contains other worlds. (0)

ROBERT SILVERBERG “A Woman’s Right.” A psychometrist, hired by a man to help his wife and save their marriage cures the man;s psychosis instead, (3)

F. B. BRYNING “For Man Must Work.” The marital problems of an engineer of a space station: his wife wants to return to Earth. (3)

FRANK BELKNAP LONG “Young Man with a Trumpet.”How animals carried on after the departure of man. (3)

JOHN JAKES “The Cybernetic Kid.” A boy genius competes against the latest electronic marvels (3)

GEORGE BAGBY – Dirty Pool. Inspector Schmidt #34. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1966. Curtis, paperback, date?

   The transit strike New York City recently suffered through brings forth a mystery, initially so tense that it isn’t even noticed that the victim has no name!

   Trapped in in the rain in the midst of ignoring traffic, a girl is placed in a commandeered automobile by a sympathetic policeman. To say it was against the wishes of the driver is an understatement – a fourth man in the car has just been fatally stabbed, and now the killers have both a corpse and a witness to worry about.

   Her escape brings her in contact with bumbling Bagby, and nothing can convince her that he is not one of the gang. Even Inspector Schmidt loses her confidence with his friendship with Bagby, adding to her problems.

   The tale as told is a bit contradictory with respect to the girl’s cool behavior in the car and her later hysterical fears – but can it be justified as being “just like a woman”? Accept the basic premise, and you will have a lot lively reading ahead of you.

Rating: ****½