Lawrence Block – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

News August 1, 2019

The Best of Manhunt

The Best of Manhunt
A collection of the best of Manhunt magazine edited by Jeff Vorzimmer.
Foreword by Lawrence Block
Afterword by Barry N. Malzberg

First appearing on newsstands in late 1952, Manhunt was the acknowledged successor to Black Mask, which had ceased publication the year before, as the venue for high-quality crime fiction. By April of 1956 it was being billed as the “World’s Best-Selling Crime-Fiction Magazine.” On its pages, over its 14-year run, appeared a veritable Who’s Who of the world’s greatest mystery writers including: Ed McBain, Mickey Spillane, Richard Deming, Jonathan Craig, Hal Ellson, Robert Turner, Jack Ritchie, Frank Kane, Craig Rice, Fletcher Flora, Talmage Powell, Richard S. Prather, David Alexander, Harold Q. Masur, Gil Brewer, Helen Nielsen, Erskine Caldwell, Henry Slesar, David Goodis, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald, Clark Howard, Fredric Brown, Donald E. Westlake, Harlan Ellison, Harry Whittington and Steve Frazee.

Stark House Press
5.5” x 8.5” 392 pages
$21.95

Vault July 25, 2019

Alfred Hitchcock Dec. 1966

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Vol. 11 No. 12 Dec. 1966
Alfred Hitchcock: Dear Reader
Contents
Max Van Derveer “The Holiday Spirit”
J.A. Mas “The Deadly Handyman”
Lawrence Block “Some Things a Man Must Do”
James N. Semple “Lull in Homicide”
Dan J. Marlowe “The Annuity”
Bob Bristow “The Message”
Mike Brett “Crooks, Satchels, and Selma”
Parley J. Cooper “The Servant Problem”
Carl Henry Rathjen “Jump Job”
Jack Webb “Day of the Tiger”
Robert Edmond Alter “No Place Like Home”
Wenzell Brown “The Blue Man”
Richard O. Lewis “Shakedown”
James McKimmey “The Magic Tree”

Editor: G.F. Foster
160 pages, 50¢

Contents from Galactic Central.

Vault April 21, 2019

Alfred Hitchcock Aug. 1963

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Vol. 8 No. 8 Aug. 1963
Alfred Hitchcock: Dear Readers (Hitch writes about freeing The Birds.)
Contents
Lawrence Block “Good for the Soul”
Carroll Mayers “A Piece of the Action”
Robert E. Alter “Killer in the Dark”
Murray Goodwin “A Good Man”
Clark Howard “The Little Things”
Richard Hardwick “One Man’s Family”
Lawrence Treat “Homicide, Maybe”
Nedra Tyre “Murder Between Friends”
Hilda Cushing “She is not My Mother”
A.R. Cooper “Brain Teaser”
Bryce Walton “Shakeup”
Fletcher Flora “Dinner Will Be Cold”
Each story includes an illustration by Marguerite Blair Deacon

Editor and Publisher: Richard E. Decker
Managing Editor: G.F. Foster
Associate Editors: Victoria S. Benham, Pat Hitchcock, Ned Benham, Donald C. Dilworth
Art Director: Marguerite Blair Deacon
128 pages, 35¢

Reviews May 4, 2018

Lawrence Block’s Death of Mallory Queen

From the Potpourri section of The Misadventures of Ellery Queen anthology edited by Josh Pachter and Dale C. Andrews:

Grand Master Lawrence Block provides “The Death of Mallory Queen,” which first appeared in Futures Mystery Jan/Feb 2006. Publisher Mavis Mallory urges Leo Haig, a detective second only to Nero Wolfe, and his assistant Chip Harrison, to save her from what she firmly believes is her impending murder. When and where? At the upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of Mallory’s Mystery Magazine. Who and how? She provides an impressive list of frienemies; all with good reason to want her dead. And it’s no surprise when she dies, but the fun here is in both the telling and the solution to the crime. Block’s tale is witty, light, and highly entertaining.

Cover image from Galactic Central.

This review continues on May 8 . . .