Adam and Eve on a Raft: Mystery Stories

by Ron Goulart

WRY AND WICKEDLY MURDEROUS Ron Goulart's first collection of mystery short stories features two of his most famous characters. Five of the stories are about Scrib Merlin, a would-be comedian and disgruntled advertising copywriter, who seems always to be present whenever someone expires with a cryptic dying message on his lips. When a murder victims gasps "ninety-nine clop clop" or "six tablespoons molasses" or "Adam and Eve on a raft," Scrib becomes a sleuth hoping not only to solve the murder but also (often in vain) to feather his own nest. The Scrib Merlin tales are genuine challenge-to-the-reader mysteries. The unnamed California Adman, who narrates seven wry (and, some might say, wicked) stories, has an impressively large number of homicidal acquaintances, most of whom find that the table can easily be turned on them. The Adman listens, tries to dissuade them, and then records their often inanely murderous plans for our entertainment.

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner.
Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award.

In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).