Let It All Bleed Out ★★★★☆

June 1, 2023May 10, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 16 Comments

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Title: Let It All Bleed Out
Series: ———-
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 172
Words: 69K

From the Inside Cover:

Alfie Doesn’t Mind Being Called Square

Alfred Hitchcock is frankly shocked by the temptations that surround us today. X-rated movies. Sweaty centerfolds. Naughty novels. Kids who used to cut grass now smoking it. All of this fills Alfie with alarm.

Let’s return to old-fashioned fun, he pleads. A nice gory stabbing. A neatly drawn strangler’s noose. A proper pistol shot in the dark. A scream of horror that makes you walk away whistling.

For, as the master shows in this nerve-twisting new collection, fads come and go, but evil is here to stay. So let’s strip the mod clothes off the victims, and—

LET IT ALL BLEED OUT

Table of Contents:

COLD NIGHT ON LAKE LENORE

Jonathan Craig

THE ATTITUDE OF MURDER

Nedra Tyre

HAND

William Brittain

SHERIFF PEAVY’S DOUBLE DEAD CASE (A NOVELETTE)

Richard Hardwick

RICH—OR DEAD

David A. Heller

YELLOW SHOES

Hal Ellson

THE MAN WHO HATED TURKEY (A NOVELETTE)

Elijah Ellis

COFFEE BREAK

Arthur Porges

A PADLOCK FOR CHARLIE DRAPER

James Holding

MAC WITHOUT A KNIFE

Talmage Powell

THE CHINLESS WONDER

Stanley Abbott

NO TEARS FOR AN INFORMER

H. A. De Rosso

A RARE BIRD

John Lutz

THE COMIC OPERA

Henry Woodfin

As much as I really like the stories Hitchcock puts together, I am realizing that having a smaller amount actually works in its favor. Being left wanting more actually enhances the stories I’ve already read. Instead of being a book glutton and gorging myself and feeling sick, having just enough is the correct amount. Looking back over the various books, it seems like 300 pages is the upper limit. After that I start to feel too full and get cranky about stuff I wouldn’t normally.

Cold Night on Lake Lenore was a great opener. A man patiently waits for the perfect opportunity to kill his wife. It arrives but he is seen by another woman, who thinks he did it to be with her. He marries her and the last thought is of him thinking he just has to wait for the perfect opportunity again, and that he’s a patient man. It got me thinking about the kind of people who murder others. I’d like to think that the kind of person who could do something like this (murder someone and yet showing perfect restraint until the “perfect” moment) doesn’t exist, as the willingness to do the one would preclude the ability to do the other, but alas, all you have to do is read the news and you read about some guy who’s killed 3 wives and they only caught him because he got cocky about disposing of the remains of Number 4. Just goes to show humans aren’t just simple blobs of matter, even if that’s a negative example, sigh.

The Chinless Wonder was kind of on the other side. A loser of a man decides that he’s sick of being himself and gets a disguise and creates a new identity and hooks up with some chick. Everything is going extremely well until he gets mixed up with the mob. In the end, the girl and her boyfriend were playing him and set him up for the murder of his alter-ego and then to really nail him, the mob boss. Oh, it was priceless watching the pieces move into place. I wasn’t sure exactly where the story was going but after he helped sink a big sack in the river, I figured it out and like I said, just watched the pieces move into position. It was a thing of wonder.

This was just long enough to satisfy me and yet still leaving me wanting more. The perfect combination really.

★★★★☆

All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

The Con Man (87th Precinct) ★★★✬☆

May 11, 2023April 15, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 15 Comments

Title: The Con Man
Series: 87^th Precinct
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 150
Words: 51K

From the Publisher

A con man is plying his trade on the streets of Isola: conning a domestic for pocket change, businessmen for thousands, and even ladies in exchange for a little bit of love. You can see the world, meet a lot of nice people, imbibe some unique drinks, and make a ton money…all by conning them for their cash.

The question is: How far is he willing to go?

When a young woman’s body washes up in the Harb River, the answer to that question becomes tragically clear. Now Detective Steve Carella races against time to find him before another con turns deadly. The only clue he has to go on is the mysterious tattoo on the young woman’s hand—but it’s enough. Carella takes to the streets, searching its darkest corners for a man who cons his victims out of their money…and their lives.

The synopsis is very misleading, in that it makes it seem like there is only ONE con man doing his thing. Well, there isn’t. I won’t tell you how many though, because that would be, GASP, a spoiler and heaven forbid you read a spoiler for a book from 1957! (and by the way, Leia is Luke’s sister) Plus, everyone knows by now that Bookstooge.blog is a completely Spoiler Free Zone and I never tell anyone anything. You bunch of saps…

This wasn’t nearly as “gritty” as the Pusher and I am very thankful for that. McBain doesn’t go into graphic detail about the murders, so that’s good too. And it’s hard to be “gritty” about con men tricking people out of 5 dollars, or 50 dollars or 500 dollars. Basically, trust nobody and you’ll be safe. That’s my philosophy and it would have helped the poor marks who were fleeced in the story.

If it’s too good to be true, then it’s too good to be true. That is true whether you’re talking about money or love. Be happy and satisfied with what you have. Otherwise you’re going to end up losing what you do have. Don’t be stupid.

Well, if you really want to be stupid, you can be. But I’m going to have to charge you for being stupid on my blog. And that’s going to cost you a cool $20 American. Just leave your name, address, mother’s maiden name, credit card number, expiration date and cvw number down in the comments. It’ll be a sacrifice, but I’ll take your data and bilk you. But remember, I warned you, so it’s your fault.

★★★✬☆

All My “87^th Precinct” Reviews

The Silent Seven (The Shadow #7) ★★★✬☆

May 2, 2023April 1, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 21 Comments

Title: The Silent Seven
Series: The Shadow #7
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 142
Words: 46K

From Thelivingshadow.fandom.com

A violent crime wave swept New York — ingenious, well-planned escapades masterminded by the Silent Seven, a vicious underworld conspiracy. Hooded criminals, meeting in secret, known to each other by an ancient ritual and matching scarab rings, they plotted to terrorize the city.

Detective Joe Cardona was baffled. First one murder, death by poison pin prick; then another, a cold-blooded execution. The sole clue to both, a pair of dice showing seven. He knew only man could penetrate the inner sanctum of the den of evil — The Shadow. Moving with an uncanny stealth, the master crime fighter carefully lays a brilliant trap. if his cunning were enough to defeat these evil angels, the last laugh, that eerie chuckle, would be his once again!

Another good Shadow read. I was thinking about giving this 4stars because I really enjoyed the idea of the Shadow taking on a whole group of hidden crime masterminds but then they ended up acting pretty stupid and so I bumped it down that critical half-star. Plus, allowing themselves to be infiltrated by some schlub didn’t measure up to the mark of Master Villain in my mind.

Harry Vincent almost getting crushed to death in a room with a descending ceiling though, that was great. That guy is the world’s foremost idiot and I like to see him suffer. I know the chances of him actually dying are zilch, but I can always hope. Without hope, life is miserable 😉

Nothing about this book, aside from the villains not living up to my expectations, was a hindrance. It was smooth sailing and a good adventure story. Keep’em coming Grant!

★★★✬☆

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Tales to Take Your Breath Away ★★★☆☆

April 18, 2023March 20, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 17 Comments

Title: Tales to Take Your Breath Away
Series: ———-
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 370
Words: 140K

Table of Contents:

THE ARROWMONT PRISON RIDDLE—Bill Pronzini

END OF THE LINE—Edward D. Hoch

THE DETTWEILER SOLUTION—Lawrence Block

THE WHITECHAPEL WANTONS—Vincent McConnor

CORA’S RAID—Isak Romun

A CUP OF HERBAL TEA—Robert S. Aldrich

ALBION, PERFIDIOUS ALBION—Everett Greenbaum

LIFE OR BREATH—Nelson DeMille

THE SILVER LINING—Mick Mahoney

A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR—William Brittain

SUPERSCAM—Francis M. Nevins, Jr.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THIS WOMAN?—John Lutz

JOE CUTTER’S GAME—Brian Garfield

A CABIN IN THE WOODS—John Coyne

CROOK OF THE MONTH—Robert Bloch

DEATH OF A PERUKE-MAKER—Clayton Matthews

THE FOREVER DUEL—James McKimmey

THE CHALLENGE—Carroll Mayers

EXTRA WORK—Robert W. Wells

THE FIRST MOON TOURIST—Duffy Carpenter

THE LONG ARM OF EL JEFE—Edward Wellen

DEATH SENTENCE—Stephen Wasylyk

KID CARDULA—Jack Ritchie

INVISIBLE CLUE—Jeffry Scott

ACCIDENTAL WIDOW—Nedra Tyre

ELEMENT OF SURPRISE—Bruce M. Fisher

LOOKING FOR MILLIKEN STREET—Joyce Harrington

JUDGMENT POSTPONED—Robert Edward Eckels

THE WINDOW—William Bankier

Unfortunately, while there were some intriguing stories in this collection, I’d already read about 1/3 of the stories in other Hitchcock anthologies. Also, one of the stories dealt with the rape of a 15 year old girl while another dealt with a woman being tricked and as a result losing her unborn baby. That is why I’ve given this the Disturbing tag.

After I realized there were multiple stories I’d already read, I just started skipping them as soon as I recognized that I’d already read them. I really don’t like doing that but I’m not going to waste my time re-reading a short story that I’m not intentionally re-reading.

The new stories, when they weren’t disturbing, were all good and what I’d expect from a book like this. I just hope I don’t run into this situation again.

As for that cover. Is Hitchcock a fatso or what?!? I always knew he was chubby but my goodness, he’s beyond portly. This is why you should never put a real person on the cover of a book. Because people like me come along and mercilessly mock them.

★★★☆☆

All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

The Pusher (87th Precinct) ★★★✬☆

March 27, 2023March 4, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 17 Comments

Title: The Pusher
Series: 87^th Precinct
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 111
Words: 50K

From Bookstooge.blog

A pusher is killed and it is made to look like a suicide. But it is all a setup to frame the son of the Lt. Of the 87^th Precinct. The son is a junkie and the Lt locks him in his room while he goes through withdrawals. Meanwhile, the detectives track down the guy who is trying to blackmail the Lt, and who has also killed several other people.

Oooph, another gritty entry. I’m beginning to think that Darren, in leaving his comment on The Mugger, might have been correct. There is nothing suave here. This is heroin overdoses and whores being beaten to death and families being torn apart by drugs and cops almost dying from being shot at point blank range.

But at the same time, I was hooked. I think I read this in one sitting. It helps that it is so short. I guess people in the 60’s actually worked and got things done, so any entertainment had to slot in wherever it could. Of course, all those hippies went and ruined everything and that is why I am cursed today to be sitting on my couch, eating pizza while enjoying doing nothing. My goodness, my life is so brutal!

While not being disturbingly graphic, McBain doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. It makes me wonder about the people for whom stories like this aren’t fictional at all, but every day life. It also makes me wonder (again) if this is a series I want to continue. I think I’m going to have to take this a book at a time and maybe space them out a bit more. I think I have a total of 5 of these on my kindle right now. Once I’m done with them, I’ll read some other series for a bit and decide if I want to come back.

But the attraction of a short, tight story is undeniable.

★★★✬☆

All My “87^th Precinct” Reviews

The Death Tower (The Shadow #6) ★★★✬☆

March 21, 2023March 21, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 37 Comments

Title: The Death Tower
Series: The Shadow #6
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 138
Words: 45K

From Bookstooge.blog

The Shadow comes to grip with Dr Palermo, a murderous psychopath who is almost as smart and intelligent as the Shadow. And Dr Palermo is one of the Silent Seven and can call upon the Something Something 50, one of which is a celebrated police detective. Can the Shadow, with the help of the ever trustworthy and reliable Harry Vincent (and others) defeat this menace? Of course he can. And he solves the problem by throwing Dr Palermo off a 40story building. Now that’s doing it with panache!

The last time I read a Shadow novel was back in October of ‘22, so it has been a while. It felt really good to dive back into this literary universe though. I like the Shadow. He’s no namby pamby pussy but will kill when it’s needed. At the same time, he’s no John Wick who just kills everyone. Reading about the Shadow go braino-e-braino with Dr Palermo was fun and made for a nice change up from mobsters and gangsters and hoodlums.

My enjoyment wasn’t so much from reading about the Shadow being stymied but from enjoying a more equal fight. In previous stories the Shadow has jumped into groups of hoodlums and beaten the snot out of them even when outnumbered a billion to one. He’s outsmarted gangsters and even mad scientists but Dr Palermo “felt” like a Shadow gone bad. I don’t know if the author, Grant, decided to create Dr Palermo along those lines and thus wrote him accordingly, but it seemed so to me and it was a choice that I really enjoyed.

A welcome return to the Shadow’s adventures for me and I am looking forward to reading more over the coming months.

Finally, that cover! I love these Bantam covers. The little version is clickable to expand to the big version. If I do a cover love section in my monthly Roundup & Ramblings for March, I already know this is going to take the cake.

★★★✬☆

All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

Stories To Stay Awake By ★★★✬☆

March 12, 2023February 18, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 18 Comments

Title: Stories To Stay Awake By
Series: ———-
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 198
Words: 78K

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Alfred Hitchcock (ghost written)

Success of a Mission by William Arden

The Splintered Monday by Charlotte Armstrong

Death by Judicial Hanging by Francis Beeding

Floral Tribute by Robert Bloch

Red Wine by Lawrence G. Blochman

Canavan’s Back Yard by Joseph Payne Brennan

A Murderous Slice by Marguerite Dickinson

The New Deal by Charles Einstein

Boomerang by Guy Fleming

Sleep is the Enemy by Anthony Gilbert

The Second Coming by Joe Gores

From the Mouse to the Hawk by Dion Henderson

Letter to the Editor by Morris Hershman

The Spy Who Came to the Brink by Edward D. Hoch

Second Talent by James Holding

The Ohio Love Sculpture by Adobe James

Homicide House by Day Keene

Every story here revolves around somebody dying or being killed or being a killer. I found them linked thematically quite well and they didn’t seem like random stories just lumped together.

I really liked the final story, Homicide House by Day Keene. As soon as the narrator revealed that he was bricking up the body of his murdered wife, I knew exactly where the story was going to end and it was ghoulishly delightful to watch as the story went down the path I had predicted.

This book was originally released in hardback with 35 stories and then later on was released in two paperbacks with each containing half the stories. The second paperback was called More Stories To Stay Awake By but I haven’t been able to track down an ebook version, not even a pdf scan, so I will probably not be able to read the other 18 stories from the original. What a shame.

★★★✬☆

All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

The Mugger (87th Precinct) ★★★✬☆

February 26, 2023January 30, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 19 Comments

Title: The Mugger
Series: 87^th Precinct
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 149
Words: 49K

Oh, this not a cozy crime novel and I’m realizing this series is not even going to be “comfortable murder solving 101” like with Nero Wolfe. Not being a “crime fiction” aficiando, I think I would call this True Crime. It’s certainly dirty, gritty and violent enough. I added the ultra violent tag because a 17 year old is killed and she was pregnant, by her brother in law. I felt dirty just writing that.

The whole Mugger thing is a separate storyline and McBain plays the reader like a violin in how he interweaves them and makes them appear as one. It was fantastic. There are times I like being manipulated as a reader and McBain did that masterly in this book.

At the same time, the whole pregnant 17 year old thing was extremely disturbing. She had fallen in love with her brother in law and he used that to his own advantage. It was the grossest violation of adult power that I have read about in a long time. Realizing that people can be, and are, like this really depresses me. As a Christian I know that humanity as a whole is fallen, ie, no longer perfect because of sin. But knowing something and seeing something are very different things. I’ve talked about this with a friend of mine, and that dichotomy of knowing that humanity is the worst while still expecting the best of them, is something most Christians seem to have to live with. So while this kind of behavior is rather normal, unfortunately, it still shocks me.

I do hope this kind of thing isn’t going to be the norm. That would be too heavy a burden for me to deal with I suspect.

★★★✬☆

All My “87^th Precinct” Reviews

Dates with Death ★★★✬☆

February 5, 2023January 13, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 25 Comments

Title: Dates with Death
Series: ———-
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 210
Words: 76K

Due to everything going on when I read this (see my “Personal” section of the January ‘23 Roundup and Ramblings post), I simply don’t remember a thing. So I’m including the table of contents and calling it good. The rating is based off of my previous Hitchcock reads and the fact that I can remember nothing bad about any of the stories.

TOC

THE DUSTY DRAWER – Harry Muheim

DRUM BEAT – Stephen Marlowe

THE USES OF INTELLIGENCE – Matthew Gant

THE QUEEN’S JEWEL – James Holding

THAT TOUCH OF GENIUS – William Sambrot

THE CROOKED ROAD – Alex Gaby

THE AMATEUR – Michael Gilbert

THE SINGING PIGEON – Ross Macdonald

JUSTICE MAGNIFIQUE – Lawrence Treat

GREEDY NIGHT – E. C. Bentley

A HUMANIST – Romain Gary

THE OBLONG ROOM – Edward D. Hoch

DEAD MAN’S STORY – Howard Rigsby

THE JANISSARIES OF EMILION – Basil Copper

CHINOISERIE – Helen McCloy

★★★✬☆

All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Cop Hater (87th Precinct) ★★★✬☆

January 19, 2023December 24, 2022 ~ Bookstooge ~ 21 Comments

Title: Cop Hater
Series: 87^th Precinct
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 112
Words: 49K

During a steamy hot summer, the 87^th Precinct is plagued by a rash of cop killings. 3 cops are killed in as many weeks, with one of them being Detective Steve Carella’s partner. After running clues to the ground and coming up empty, Steve gets a lucky break, finds the killer and it’s revealed the whole thing happened to cover up a woman having her husband killed so she wouldn’t have to divorce him.

Talk about misdirection! I was impressed. I was flabbergasted too. I know that I’m almost 70 years removed from the time this was written (it was published in 1956) and that divorce was one of those “social” sins of the time AND that I’ve read/watched this scenario before but it still blows my mind that someone will commit murder and view it as a better option than divorce. It’s like blowing up the court house because you don’t want to pay your speeding fine.

This was a nice short story with McBain focusing on what went on and not trying to give me every single characters back story or explain the city in block by block detail. You simply don’t need that bloat, you just want it. And here, McBain kicks your teeth in, tells you to sit down, shut up and read the fething story! Ahhh, if only readers of today could appreciate this sparse way of telling a story. I don’t think it was THAT great of a story but simply not having any bloat or author ego or message to wade through made this very enjoyable.

The 87^th Precinct series is really long one (I currently have access to 40 of them and I’m pretty sure there’s more) so I have decided to add 4 or 5 and then take a break between those little mini rotations. Keep it fresh.

The other thing was the main character’s name, Steve Carella. All I could think of was Steve Carell and so I saw him in his “The Office” role and that made for some really funny mental pictures, as Steve Carella is a tough, no-nonsense detective like Starsky or Hutch.

★★★✬☆