by Jerrold Mundis "Christ, it's only a dog, not a science-fiction monster." "Tell that to the public." A rural government facility, attempting to maximize the potential of the modern canine, loses one of its German Shepherd puppies due to theft, and the thief soon loses the puppy (due to theft) which is then abandoned on the... Continue Reading →
The Slime Beast (Vintage Horrors #3)
by Guy N. Smith Safety here. Death there. No warning. This review’s going to be written in the first person because it’s got to be crystal clear, all the way through, that these are my own opinions on this extreme version of camp horror and that there must be many people out there who enjoy this... Continue Reading →
The Big Sleep
by Raymond Chandler "I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings." Because nearly everyone who reads this book today will have already seen the seminal film, there are a few things we’ve got to get out of the way. First, the characters in... Continue Reading →
Kiss Me Deadly
Directed by Robert Aldrich, written by A.I. Bezzerides (screenplay), Mickey Spillane (novel) “First you find a little thread. The little thread leads you to a string. The string leads you to a rope, and from the rope you hang by the neck.” At the film’s opening, Mike Hammer is driving his sports car down a... Continue Reading →
A Hell of a Woman
by Jim Thompson I told her the world was full of nice people. I'd have hated to try to prove it to her, but I said it, anyway. Dolly, a man who’s been mistreated by life and can never catch an even break, hustles through his life as a bottom rung door-to-door salesman in a... Continue Reading →
Black Wings Has My Angel
by Elliot Chaze He smiled awfully and left, and she came in and shut the door and there we were in the room together, just like that. We weren’t—and then we were. An escaped convict has successfully blended in to a low-profile, modest income job when he cashes in, deciding to live a little, and... Continue Reading →
Dune
by Frank Herbert "They tried and failed, all of them?" "Oh, no." She shook her head. "They tried and died." OK. Wow. Monster of a novel. But it’s not just the length. We’ve all read books this long and much longer. There’s a unique quality here in terms of world realization—this one’s got it, and... Continue Reading →
Rendezvous in Black
by Cornell Woolrich “I haven’t an enemy in the world.” “No man can safely say that until after his death.” A young man meets the love of his life every day at 8 p.m. in front of the local drugstore. One days he’s running a couple of minutes late, and when he arrives she’s been... Continue Reading →
The Complete Slayers
by Paul Cain This is going to be a lot of fun, even if it doesn’t work. Fast One (novel) Kells, a tough guy, gun-for-hire and one man army, is asked to enter into a partnership with a city crime boss in order to stave off rivals due to Kells’ heavy reputation. A bloodbath is... Continue Reading →