Excerpt from the review of Black Cat Mystery Magazine No. 1 from The Digest Enthusiast No. 7:
The Flirty Flamingo is a strip club where an ex-cop named Fin often stations himself at the end of the bar. “Usually he let Joe, the barkeep, handle the rough customers and was only there for unofficial backup.” But when new girl Jodie Vive shares her story, Fin finds himself mangled up in high-profile politics and murder. “Flight to the Flirty Flamingo” by Kaye George is smart, tart, and fleet.
“Voodoo Spider” (verse)
Contents
Scotch Rutherford: Editor’s Corner
Sharp & Deadly Fiction
Jack Bates “Lucky Fuck”
Mark Slade “Death Letter Blues”
Richard Risemberg “Prisoners”
A.F. Knott “Stanley”
Stefen Styrsky “Black Flies”
Paul D. Marks “House of the Rising Sun”
J. Rohr “Unanswered Prayers”
Quick & Dirty Flash
Fred Rock “Squaring Up With Eddie”
Glenn A. Bruce “Bobby ‘Eggs’ and Grady”
John Kojak “Going to California”
Author Bios/Acknowledgments
Switchblade: An Anthology of Noir No. 9
May 2019
Caledonia Press
Editor: Scotch Rutherford
Cover photos: Scotch Rutherford
5” x 8”, 160 pages
POD $6.99 Kindle $2.99
Excerpt from the review of Down & Out: The Magazine No. 1 in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7.
Each edition of The Magazine pays tribute to pages past where crime fiction writers earned only “A Few Cents A Word.” Rick Ollerman sets the stage for his first pulp-master, Frederick Nebel, with background on Black Mask, its editors, and Nebel’s rise when he was tapped to fill the void when his friend and contemporary, Dashiell Hammett, left the magazine.
Nebel’s voluminous career began in Black Mask, from which his featured story, “Rough Justice,” first appeared in November 1930.
Nebel’s yarn stars “Tough Dick” Donahue, of the Inter-State Detective Agency. Donahue’s assigned to recover a valuable ring for the insurance company that hired his agency; which leads him to St. Louis, (where Nebel lived at the time and often set his stories). Because he’s new in town, Donahue needs someone local who knows what’s what.
“A cop that can be smeared. A cop that knows this burgup, down and across—and”— he lowered his hard blunt voice—“a cop that’ll keep his jaw shut after he’s smeared and stay out of the way. No harness bull. A bigger guy.”
If you’re a pulp fiction fan, you can’t go wrong with Nebel’s prose, patter, or plotting. It captures the style and substance of its era beautifully—which makesfor a fascinating contrast with The Magazine’s brand of new crime fiction.
Stories from Fantasy & Science Fiction Jul/Aug 2017:
Sean Adams tells his tale, “An Obstruction to Delivery,” in 31 numbered reports. The postal service has gone underground, delivering mail via a massive network of tunnels, enabling recipients to pick up their daily distribution of letters and packages from a box in their basements. The reporterly format distances the narrator from story’s events, amplifying their absurdity. While I admire the unusual approach, the distance delayed engagement with the action until deep into the story.
Fantasy Fiction Vol. 1 No. 3 August 1953
Contents
Lester del Rey’s Editorial: De Gustibus
Bruce Elliott “So Sweet as Magic . . .” art by Alex Ebel
Philip K. Dick “Out in the Garden” art by Kelly Freas
Charles E. Fritch “Much Ado about Plenty” art by Tyler
Robert E. Howard “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” (Edited by L. Sprague de Camp)
John Wyndham “A Stray from Cathay” art by Joseph Eberle
H.B. Fyfe “Koenigshaufen’s Curve” art by H.R. Smith
Leah Bodine Drake “Foxy’s Hollow” art by H.R. Smith
Laurence Manning “Mr. Mottle Goes Pouf”
The Crystal Ball
David Alexander “The Other Ones” art by Tyler
Randall Garrett “Nom d’un Nom”
Editor: Lester del Rey
Assoc. Editor: E.K. Harrison, John Vincent, John Fell
Art Director: Milton Berwin
Cover: Hannes Bok
160 pages, 35¢
Read Vince Nowell, Sr.’s article “When Things Go Wrong—The Lester del Rey/John Raymond Fiasco” in The Digest Enthusiast book seven.
Coming in June:
Stories from Pulp Literature No. 15 Summer 2017:
The first novel in the Allaigna’s Song trilogy by J.M. Landels, Overture, was serialized in Pulp Literature No. 1–11; and then collected into a single volume in July 2017. The second novel, Aria, began in PL No. 13, and this issue presents its third installment. The story opens with a short recap of the history and relationships of the story’s main characters. Because this is a segment of a larger piece, I found myself reviewing the recap a few times during the early pages to stay oriented. Let’s call it a sword and sorcery epic to provide a picture of Allaigna’s world quickly, but it is as much about the relationships of grandmother, mother, and daughter, each with differing agendas, each vying for control, as it is an adventure saga. The writing is strong, with a vibrant vocabulary. In this segment, for every action, there is an unequal reaction exploring its emotional impact.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Vol. 11 No. 4 April 1966
Alfred Hitchcock: Dear Friends “Soon we will once again hear, from spring training camps, the crack of a baseball bat—hopefully, against a ball . . .”
Contents
Richard Hill Wilkinson “Night Clerk”
C.B. Gilford “Don’t Call It Murder”
Virginia Coffman “Spring Thaw”
Lawrence A. Hayner “The Big Diamond Glittered”
Cameron Wills “Personal”
Helen Nielsen “The Master’s Touch”
Steve Wyandotte “An Ill Wind”
Jack Ritchie “Plan 19”
Robert Specht “The Real Thing”
Ed Lacy “The Listening Cone”
Ree Montgomery “Cabin on the Old Dump Road”
Robert Edmond Alter “Haunted Hill”
Vera Henry “Between Trains”
Dan J. Marlowe “Don’t Lose Your Cool”
Richard Hardwick “The Private Eye of Irving Anvil”
Each story includes an illustration by Marguerite Blair Deacon
Editor and Publisher: Richard E. Decker
Managing Editor: G.F. Foster
Associate Editors: Pat Hitchcock, Ernest Hutter, Victoria S. Benham
Art Director: Marguerite Blair Deacon
164 pages, 50¢
