What do you think?
Rate this book
Killer, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury
Celebrating Ray Bradbury's centenary, this collection commemorates his finest crime stories – tales as strange and wonderful as his signature fantasy.
Time travellers…dark carnivals…living automata…and detectives? Honouring the 100th birthday of Ray Bradbury, renowned author of Fahrenheit 451, this new, definitive collection of the master's less well-known crime fiction features classic stories and rare gems, a number of which became episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Ray Bradbury Theater, including the tale Bradbury called ‘one of the best stories in any field that I have ever written’.
Is it murder to destroy a robot if it looks and speaks and thinks and feels like a human being? Can a ventriloquist be incriminated by the testimony of his own dummy? Can a time traveller prevent his younger self from killing the woman they both loved? And can the survivor of a pair of Siamese twins investigate his own brother's murder? No other writer has ever rivalled the imagination and narrative gifts of Ray Bradbury, and the 20 unforgettable stories in this collection demonstrate this singular writer's extraordinary range, influence and emotional power.
Time travellers…dark carnivals…living automata…and detectives? Honouring the 100th birthday of Ray Bradbury, renowned author of Fahrenheit 451, this new, definitive collection of the master's less well-known crime fiction features classic stories and rare gems, a number of which became episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Ray Bradbury Theater, including the tale Bradbury called ‘one of the best stories in any field that I have ever written’.
Is it murder to destroy a robot if it looks and speaks and thinks and feels like a human being? Can a ventriloquist be incriminated by the testimony of his own dummy? Can a time traveller prevent his younger self from killing the woman they both loved? And can the survivor of a pair of Siamese twins investigate his own brother's murder? No other writer has ever rivalled the imagination and narrative gifts of Ray Bradbury, and the 20 unforgettable stories in this collection demonstrate this singular writer's extraordinary range, influence and emotional power.
330 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2020
463 people are currently reading
1833 people want to read
About the author
Ray Bradbury
2,561 books25.2k followersRay Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews
September 10, 2020
Ray Bradbury is a master storyteller. That is, he is one of those people who is such a great storyteller that he could write in any genre or on any topic and every sentence would be a juicy morsel. Best known as a science fiction writer and, indeed, best known as a giant in the science fiction world, Bradbury also penned numerous crime fiction tales, particularly in his early formative writing years. Collected here for your reading enjoyment, Hard Case Crime has packaged in one reasonably-sized volume a whole plethora of Bradbury's crime fiction.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that these are like the collections of long-lost, never published writings by other writers (most of which were properly rejected by publishers before those authors became famous). These were published in magazines. And they are all good, if not great. Not a clunker in the bunch.
To say that this is a collection of Bradbury's crime fiction seemingly separates it from his hard science fiction. But, you can't do that. These stories are precipitously balanced on the edge between science fiction and crime fiction and most, if not all in some manner, contain serious elements of science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural. Indeed, the collection begins with a top-notch ode to time travel and it kind of breaks some rules about never meeting yourself in time and creating a paradox. Other stories concern women screaming from under vacant lots, marionettes, bodies packed in trunks in the attic, hitmen, and mannequins.
The other thing to note, particularly if you are familiar with Bradbury's writing craft, is that you can hear his poetic prose in many of these stories. They are chockfull of his wondrous phrases. And they are told from differing points of view. Some by young men. Some by children struggling to be heard in a world where adults so easily dismiss things as children's storytelling.
Not only is this a volume that can be devoured very quickly, but it is one worth returning to more than once. Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this terrific work.
KILLER, COME BACK TO ME
1. A Touch Of Petulance
2. The Screaming Woman
3. The Trunk Lady
4. “I’m Not So Dumb”
5. Killer, Come Back to Me!
6. Dead Men Rise Up Never
7. Where Everything
8. And So Died Riabouchinska
9. Yesterday I Lived!
10. The Town Where No One Got Off
11. The Whole Town’s Sleeping
12. At Midnight, In the Month of June
13. The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
14. The Small Assassin
15. Marionettes, Inc.
16. Punishment Without Crime
17. Some Live Like Lazarus
18. The Utterly Perfect Murder
Don't make the mistake of thinking that these are like the collections of long-lost, never published writings by other writers (most of which were properly rejected by publishers before those authors became famous). These were published in magazines. And they are all good, if not great. Not a clunker in the bunch.
To say that this is a collection of Bradbury's crime fiction seemingly separates it from his hard science fiction. But, you can't do that. These stories are precipitously balanced on the edge between science fiction and crime fiction and most, if not all in some manner, contain serious elements of science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural. Indeed, the collection begins with a top-notch ode to time travel and it kind of breaks some rules about never meeting yourself in time and creating a paradox. Other stories concern women screaming from under vacant lots, marionettes, bodies packed in trunks in the attic, hitmen, and mannequins.
The other thing to note, particularly if you are familiar with Bradbury's writing craft, is that you can hear his poetic prose in many of these stories. They are chockfull of his wondrous phrases. And they are told from differing points of view. Some by young men. Some by children struggling to be heard in a world where adults so easily dismiss things as children's storytelling.
Not only is this a volume that can be devoured very quickly, but it is one worth returning to more than once. Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this terrific work.
KILLER, COME BACK TO ME
1. A Touch Of Petulance
2. The Screaming Woman
3. The Trunk Lady
4. “I’m Not So Dumb”
5. Killer, Come Back to Me!
6. Dead Men Rise Up Never
7. Where Everything
8. And So Died Riabouchinska
9. Yesterday I Lived!
10. The Town Where No One Got Off
11. The Whole Town’s Sleeping
12. At Midnight, In the Month of June
13. The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
14. The Small Assassin
15. Marionettes, Inc.
16. Punishment Without Crime
17. Some Live Like Lazarus
18. The Utterly Perfect Murder
November 5, 2022
Twenty short stories, most with a crime element, written by Ray Bradbury. I was most aware of Bradbury’s contribution to science fiction, but had never read any of his crime fiction before this. The stories are short, usually with some twist or dramatic end, and are quite readable. I can’t help thinking I would have loved these when I was young, not because they are written for young people, but because they are the kind of story that was popular at that time. I don’t think they have the same currency they once had. A pleasant enough read!
February 5, 2024
04/2023
What I loved about this was the length of the pieces. I've said it before, but I believe the best length is novella, and I love the novellas from pulp magazines.
I like when, in a collection like this, they tell you the year a story printed and where, like what magazine it was in and when. It would have been nice if they did that here.
The crime in these Crime tales is often mixed with sci-fi or, I thought, Gothic tropes. Especially in "The Trunk Lady" and "Dead Men Rise Up Never."
What I loved about this was the length of the pieces. I've said it before, but I believe the best length is novella, and I love the novellas from pulp magazines.
I like when, in a collection like this, they tell you the year a story printed and where, like what magazine it was in and when. It would have been nice if they did that here.
The crime in these Crime tales is often mixed with sci-fi or, I thought, Gothic tropes. Especially in "The Trunk Lady" and "Dead Men Rise Up Never."
August 19, 2020
“A heart is an erratic thing. Like mercury. It scurries all over a person’s insides.”
Did I just read a collection of 20 short stories and... love them all? This is unreal. I’ve barely touched a Bradbury novel before and I’m totally kicking myself. This is the most perfect mixture of crime, science fiction & horror! We begin with a time traveling paradox and then weave through stories of women buried in vacant lots, carnivals of mysterious murder, a woman stored away inside of a trunk in an attic, offbeat maniacal stories of life’s losses & regrets, marionettes, new born babies named Lucifer, and classic twisted noir romances!
Killer, Come Back To Me is the finest collection of murder, poetic mayhem & spooks with a great sadness to it.
Did I just read a collection of 20 short stories and... love them all? This is unreal. I’ve barely touched a Bradbury novel before and I’m totally kicking myself. This is the most perfect mixture of crime, science fiction & horror! We begin with a time traveling paradox and then weave through stories of women buried in vacant lots, carnivals of mysterious murder, a woman stored away inside of a trunk in an attic, offbeat maniacal stories of life’s losses & regrets, marionettes, new born babies named Lucifer, and classic twisted noir romances!
Killer, Come Back To Me is the finest collection of murder, poetic mayhem & spooks with a great sadness to it.
October 3, 2020
Celebrating what would have been Ray Bradbury's 100th birthday with this publication of a collection of twenty of his crime short stories. I was introduced to Ray Bradbury's scifi short stories many years ago when I read The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles--and I've never forgotten my enjoyment of them.
Here is my first taste of his crime stories: some are more successful than others, some are dated, but all are entertaining. There is an introduction Bradbury wrote many years ago that is included at the end of this collection in which he talks about his desire to improve as a writer. He had set himself a goal to write one story a week for the rest of his life, thinking that through quantity would come quality.
1) A Touch of Petulance: A bit of time travel in this one as a man from the future tries to warn his younger self about a crime he will commit in years to come.
2) The Screaming Woman: a 10-year-old girl hears a woman screaming deep underground in an empty field but frustratingly no one will believe her. Very Poe-like!
3) The Trunk Lady: A young boy finds the body of a beautiful young woman in a trunk in the attic during his parents' high-society soiree but he's made to believe he's been fooled by a mannequin. But has he?
4) "I'm Not So Dumb!": A man, the townspeople think of as a feeble-minded giant, tries to outthink the sheriff and solve a murder case on his own.
5) Killer, Come Back to Me!: A would-be bank robber meets a mentor.
6) Dead Men Rise Up Never: A kidnapping goes awry.
7) Where Everything Ends: A detective investigates the murder of his partner who was looking into a blackmailing scheme.
8) Corpse Carnival: When a conjoined twin is murdered, the surviving brother is determined to bring the killer to justice.
9) And So Died Riabouchinska: A beautifully-handcarved marionette seems to have a life of its own. A very well-executed story!
10) Yesterday I Lived!: Three years after the death of a beautiful young Hollywood actress, her murder remains unsolved.
11) The Town Where No One Got Off: A salesmen on a cross-country train trip decides on a whim to get off at a station in the middle of nowhere. Is he there to meet his fate?
12) The Whole Town's Sleeping: In an Illinois town, a man they call 'The Lonely One' has strangled four women. Is it safe for three women friends to go out late at night for a movie?
13) At Midnight, In the Month of June: The same creepy story as above but told from a different perspective.
14) The Smiling People: A man wants peace and quiet in his own house...
15) The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl: After a man commits a murder, he fears his fingerprints are everywhere! Another story in the style of Poe.
16) The Small Assassin: Almost too close to postpartum depression for comfort when a new mother hates her baby and claims he wants to kill her but Bradbury saves this story with a big twist.
17) Marionettes, Inc.: A hen-pecked husband learns about a company that makes 'stringless marionettes,' perfect replicas of real humans. Hmmm...
18) Punishment Without Crime: Another story of 'unstringed automatons'--what could go wrong this time?
19) Some Live Like Lazarus: A woman waits 70 years for a man to be free to marry her.
20) The Utterly Perfect Murder: A man plots a murder in revenge for slights that happened 36 years ago when he was twelve!
Here is my first taste of his crime stories: some are more successful than others, some are dated, but all are entertaining. There is an introduction Bradbury wrote many years ago that is included at the end of this collection in which he talks about his desire to improve as a writer. He had set himself a goal to write one story a week for the rest of his life, thinking that through quantity would come quality.
1) A Touch of Petulance: A bit of time travel in this one as a man from the future tries to warn his younger self about a crime he will commit in years to come.
2) The Screaming Woman: a 10-year-old girl hears a woman screaming deep underground in an empty field but frustratingly no one will believe her. Very Poe-like!
3) The Trunk Lady: A young boy finds the body of a beautiful young woman in a trunk in the attic during his parents' high-society soiree but he's made to believe he's been fooled by a mannequin. But has he?
4) "I'm Not So Dumb!": A man, the townspeople think of as a feeble-minded giant, tries to outthink the sheriff and solve a murder case on his own.
5) Killer, Come Back to Me!: A would-be bank robber meets a mentor.
6) Dead Men Rise Up Never: A kidnapping goes awry.
7) Where Everything Ends: A detective investigates the murder of his partner who was looking into a blackmailing scheme.
8) Corpse Carnival: When a conjoined twin is murdered, the surviving brother is determined to bring the killer to justice.
9) And So Died Riabouchinska: A beautifully-handcarved marionette seems to have a life of its own. A very well-executed story!
10) Yesterday I Lived!: Three years after the death of a beautiful young Hollywood actress, her murder remains unsolved.
11) The Town Where No One Got Off: A salesmen on a cross-country train trip decides on a whim to get off at a station in the middle of nowhere. Is he there to meet his fate?
12) The Whole Town's Sleeping: In an Illinois town, a man they call 'The Lonely One' has strangled four women. Is it safe for three women friends to go out late at night for a movie?
13) At Midnight, In the Month of June: The same creepy story as above but told from a different perspective.
14) The Smiling People: A man wants peace and quiet in his own house...
15) The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl: After a man commits a murder, he fears his fingerprints are everywhere! Another story in the style of Poe.
16) The Small Assassin: Almost too close to postpartum depression for comfort when a new mother hates her baby and claims he wants to kill her but Bradbury saves this story with a big twist.
17) Marionettes, Inc.: A hen-pecked husband learns about a company that makes 'stringless marionettes,' perfect replicas of real humans. Hmmm...
18) Punishment Without Crime: Another story of 'unstringed automatons'--what could go wrong this time?
19) Some Live Like Lazarus: A woman waits 70 years for a man to be free to marry her.
20) The Utterly Perfect Murder: A man plots a murder in revenge for slights that happened 36 years ago when he was twelve!
January 30, 2021
Зверски добра селекция! А аз стигнах до извода, че Рей Бредбъри сам по себе си е жанр, просто защото отказва да се впише в каквато и да било жанрова категория. И стилът му е толкова разпознаваем, че просто няма как да се сбърка, независимо дали четем по-ранните или вече зрелите му творби. Плюс това, като се замислите, това е авторът, който с едно-две изключения, не е написал нито един роман, а същевременно всичките му романи са чуууудни - решени в оня прелестен fix up похват - съшити в по-голям обем отделни истории, обединени от героите и тематика. В този сборник, например, разказът Цялото градче е заспало, квалифициран като може би най-известната съспенс история на Бредбъри на практика си е глава от Вино от глухарчета, а Там, където всичко свършва е анонсиран в предговора като дълго останалият непубликуван основен текст за прочутия детективски роман от 1985 Смъртта е занимание самотно. Едно е сигурно - такива криминални разкази не сте чели. Някои от тях (Плодовете на дъното на купата, Усмихващите се хора, Ето как умря Рябушинска) родееха с класиките на Едгар Алън По, в които най-големият враг на престъпника се явяват собствените му угризения, в други (Щипка сприхавост, Марионетки АД, Наказание без престъпление) имаше вплетени симпатични фантастични мотиви, трети (Убиецо, върни се!, Мъртвите никога не възкръсват) бяха решени в стилистиката на noire-а гангстерски истории... Изродията Карнавал на трупове вече я бях чел в едноименния сборник (Карнавал на трупове), където на практика само тя е на Бредбъри, о пиратски 90's (вижте кои са авторите тук: http://www.sfbg.us/book/DLKR-S-96RBKT). Самият Бредбъри пък в следговора определя Малкият убиец (включен в селекцията Двойната сянка) като най-добрият ми разказ във всеки жанр, в който съм писал.
August 22, 2024
„Убиецо, върни се!“ е много симпатичен сборник... Той е издаден по повод 100-годишнината от рождението на Рей Бредбъри и съдържа подбрани криминални разкази от неговото богато и разнообразно творчество. Според мен, силата на големия писател не е в криминалетата и просто обожавам други негови творби... но тази книга също ми достави насладата от неговия изключително сладкодумен и лиричен изказ, та много се радвам, че се потопих в нея!
May 10, 2022
This is a collection of Bradbury's lesser-known crime and detective stories that was published in celebration of the centenary of his birth. Many of the stories are from World War Two era pulp detective magazines such as Dime Mystery and Detective Tales, or from 1950's digests like The Saint and Ellery Queen's. I noted that three of the earliest came complete with exclamation points in the titles; Yesterday I Lived!, I'm Not So Dumb!, and the titular Killer, Come Back to Me!, which loses the punctuation on the cover. Three of the stories appeared in science fiction and fantasy genre magazines, one each from Startling Stories, Weird Tales, and Other Worlds, though they certainly qualify as crime fiction, as well. It's interesting to compare the style of the very early stories with those that appeared in later, high-paying markets like Playboy and McCall's. Bradbury was always a consummate storyteller, and though some of the execution lacks some polish in the early efforts, they're quite engaging and entertaining. This isn't as elegant a book as is The Martian Chronicles or The Illustrated Man or the letter books, but Bradbury was one of the best American writers and is always worthwhile. Many of the stories here are also familiar as television episodes from various shows. I think my favorites in this book were Marionettes, Inc., Corpse Carnival, and especially The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl. An afterword by Bradbury is included, in which he notes his appreciation to his mentor, the wonderful Leigh Brackett. I also especially liked the Paul Mann cover painting, which highlights some of Bradbury's iconic imagery including the carnival, trains, and Gothic heroine, all of which appear in some of the included stories.
October 3, 2020
Short stories are like quick sordid alcohol-fueled trysts with strangers, usually taking place in public parks or alleyways in the wee hours when most god-fearing people are safely tucked away in bed. Ultimately, they leave you unsatisfied, hungry for more and filled with a level of self-disgust normally experienced only by cigarette manufacturers, the guy who flips the electric chair on-switch, and members of popular soft rock band Bread. I much prefer the long-term commitment of a hefty novel. Over those hundreds of pages, you can spend a little time, get to know each other on an intimate level, share experiences, ultimately having your heart probed like a Floridian abducted by curious alien scientists from the Gamma Quadrant.
But Killer Come Back to Me: The crime Stories of Ray Bradbury has me reevaluating this entire tawdry degenerate business of short stories altogether. These babies are great! And so creepy they would make celebrated horror novelist Stephen King wet his pants and suck away on his little blue binky until his heartrate slows down. These crime stories, many of them published in detective magazines from the 1940’s hold up remarkably well. 20 stories in all, they cover such topics as gangsters, murder, ventriloquist’s dummies that can’t keep secrets, killer babies, and hidden bodies. Bradbury, who would have turned 100 this year shows off his writing chops. His skill is not so much in the creepiness or the crime aspect of his stories, but in the humanity and realism of the players inhabiting his work. If this is not enough of a seller for you to pick up this book, then know this, Killer Come Back to Me: The crime Stories of Ray Bradbury is constructed with one of those cool ribbon page markers inside. Not only will reading this book give you many hours of reading pleasure it is also financially astute; saving you the hundreds of dollars budgeted for fancy bookmarks while still being able to mark your place without dog-earing your book like a psycho.
But Killer Come Back to Me: The crime Stories of Ray Bradbury has me reevaluating this entire tawdry degenerate business of short stories altogether. These babies are great! And so creepy they would make celebrated horror novelist Stephen King wet his pants and suck away on his little blue binky until his heartrate slows down. These crime stories, many of them published in detective magazines from the 1940’s hold up remarkably well. 20 stories in all, they cover such topics as gangsters, murder, ventriloquist’s dummies that can’t keep secrets, killer babies, and hidden bodies. Bradbury, who would have turned 100 this year shows off his writing chops. His skill is not so much in the creepiness or the crime aspect of his stories, but in the humanity and realism of the players inhabiting his work. If this is not enough of a seller for you to pick up this book, then know this, Killer Come Back to Me: The crime Stories of Ray Bradbury is constructed with one of those cool ribbon page markers inside. Not only will reading this book give you many hours of reading pleasure it is also financially astute; saving you the hundreds of dollars budgeted for fancy bookmarks while still being able to mark your place without dog-earing your book like a psycho.
March 6, 2023
Twenty entertaining stories from the master, Ray Bradbury, himself. Four stories have SFF elements like time travel and robots, with the remainder pulpy crime tales of beer barons, maniacs, and gun-molls. Most of these stories are from earlier in his career, the collection also includes Bradbury's introduction to "A Memory of Murder" (1984). A must read for Bradbury fans.
February 1, 2021
Никой не може да ви омагьоса, развълнува, удиви и... да смрази кръвта ви, както Рей Бредбъри. Пропити с носталгичен мрак и заредени с майсторски съспенс, безпогрешно подбраните разкази от сборника „Убиецо, върни се!” на изд. „Бард” няма да ви позволят да пуснете книгата преди и ще ви оставят жадни за още. Ако сте алчни за шепа диаманти на кратката форма и криминалния жанр, запазете малките часове на нощта за „Убиецо, върни се!”. Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле": https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/202...
March 8, 2021
Бредбъри е един от любимите ми писатели, в този сборник от негови криминални истории писани през годините за пореден път се насладих на неговия неповторим стил, почти не препрочитам произведения , малкото неща към които съм се завръщал са били на Бредбъри тази книга не ще направи изключение .
March 3, 2021
Killer, Come Back to Me is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury written in the 1940s. They are mostly noir mysteries, some with a touch of the supernatural. There's conjoined twins, murder at the circus, and an assassin that might make you reconsider ever having kids. Most importantly, they are entertaining with a nice touch of creepy and I recommend it highly to any Ray Bradbury fans or just people who enjoy well-written mystery short stories that are just a little outside the norm.
Thanks to Edelweiss+ & Hard case Crime for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Thanks to Edelweiss+ & Hard case Crime for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
December 3, 2022
Conosco Ray Bradbury come immenso scrittore di fantascienza, non a caso metto tra le mie letture preferite i suoi Fahrenheit 451 e Cronache marziane. Quindi mi ha sorpreso scoprire che lui ha iniziato diciamo ad esercitarsi alla scrittura scrivendo racconti di genere giallo - thriller, quelli appunto presenti in questa raccolta. E questo fa capire quando si è al cospetto di un ottimo e sopraffino narratore: quando egli può spaziare in generi diversi, rimanendo sempre bravissimo. Ma vediamo quali racconti mi sono piaciuti di più.
Il primo, Un tocco di petulanza, ci presenta un uomo che incontra se stesso anziano per avvertirlo di non assassinare nel futuro la sua ex moglie perché poi se ne pentirà (ecco già presente un racconto di fantascienza che cita il viaggio nel tempo). Ma il fatto stesso che incontra se stesso creerà un paradosso dal risultato fatale. Un altro racconto interessante e forse il più inquietante di tutti è certamente quello con protagonista il neonato luciferino, Il piccolo assassino, che riesce a freddare entrambi i suoi genitori. Ho notato che spesso i protagonisti dei racconti di Bradbury sono bambini o ragazzini che non vengono ascoltati perché ritenuti ancora immaturi (come nel racconto in cui un bambino sente le grida di una donna sotterrata dal vicino di casa e nessuno gli crede pensando che stia giocando).
Inquietante ad esempio il racconto I sorridenti dove il protagonista uccide tutta la famiglia e li lascia seduti a tavola continuando a fingere che siano vivi e parla tranquillamente con loro. O anche il bambino protagonista de La donna nel baule che trova il corpo di una ragazza e tenta di capire chi l'abbia uccisa, ma non viene creduto dai suoi. Invece il racconto che da il titolo alla raccolta, Assassino, torna da me! è stato tra quelli che mi è piaciuto meno, dove il protagonista si trasforma sempre più in un gangster ucciso prima di lui. Abbastanza inquietante anche i racconti con protagoniste delle marionette, che in realtà sono dei veri e propri robot umanoidi o androidi, che sostituiscono gli esseri umani riproducendoli in modo quasi perfetto (tranne per il fatto che fanno tik tok).
Il primo, Un tocco di petulanza, ci presenta un uomo che incontra se stesso anziano per avvertirlo di non assassinare nel futuro la sua ex moglie perché poi se ne pentirà (ecco già presente un racconto di fantascienza che cita il viaggio nel tempo). Ma il fatto stesso che incontra se stesso creerà un paradosso dal risultato fatale. Un altro racconto interessante e forse il più inquietante di tutti è certamente quello con protagonista il neonato luciferino, Il piccolo assassino, che riesce a freddare entrambi i suoi genitori. Ho notato che spesso i protagonisti dei racconti di Bradbury sono bambini o ragazzini che non vengono ascoltati perché ritenuti ancora immaturi (come nel racconto in cui un bambino sente le grida di una donna sotterrata dal vicino di casa e nessuno gli crede pensando che stia giocando).
Inquietante ad esempio il racconto I sorridenti dove il protagonista uccide tutta la famiglia e li lascia seduti a tavola continuando a fingere che siano vivi e parla tranquillamente con loro. O anche il bambino protagonista de La donna nel baule che trova il corpo di una ragazza e tenta di capire chi l'abbia uccisa, ma non viene creduto dai suoi. Invece il racconto che da il titolo alla raccolta, Assassino, torna da me! è stato tra quelli che mi è piaciuto meno, dove il protagonista si trasforma sempre più in un gangster ucciso prima di lui. Abbastanza inquietante anche i racconti con protagoniste delle marionette, che in realtà sono dei veri e propri robot umanoidi o androidi, che sostituiscono gli esseri umani riproducendoli in modo quasi perfetto (tranne per il fatto che fanno tik tok).
November 25, 2025
When I discovered Ray Bradbury's short stories as a teenager, fifty or so years ago, they lit up my imagination and changed how I thought about short stories.
The stories in 'The Illustrated Man' and 'The Golden Apples Of The Sun' fascinated me because, although most of them had a sting in the tail that gave the immediate satisfaction of a new twist or a bizarre idea, they had an atmosphere about them, regardless of their content, that said 'The world is not what it appears to be. It's darker than it seems; stranger than you admit. Its real face can be seen out of the corner of your eye, but only if you dare to look."
The stories were hard to label. Were they horror stories or crime stories, or science fiction stories, or something different camouflaged as something more familiar? Whatever they were, they were all born of Ray Bradbury's questing, boundary-breaking imagination.
I wasn't sure I could go back to those stories. I'm not a teenager any more. I worried that I might not be able to see now what I saw then. Then I came across this anthology of crime stories, assembled for Bradbury's centenary and decided to give them a try. I'm glad I did. I'm not sure that they really are crime stories, although a lot of them are about murder or the desire to murder, but they all have that feeling of being invited to go somewhere strange, to see the world from a different angle.
All but the last two of these twenty stories were published before the first episode of 'The Twilight Zone' was aired, but they give me that same feeling of entering a world parallel to my day-to-day reality, in which something strange lies in wait.
I found that, at sixty-eight, these stories still gripped my imagination as firmly as they did when I was sixteen.
Below, I've shared the notes I made on each story as I read it. I hope they'll encourage you to read a little Bradbury some time soon.
A TOUCH OF PETULANCE ★★★
How to start a short story collectoin with a bang. A story fit for 'The Twilight Zone'. A warning from your future self of the thing you are going to do but must not do. What do you do with a warning like that? It's like being told not to think of an elephant on a bicycle; it becomes inevitable. And would our hero?/villain?/victim? have notice that touch of petulance without the warning? Did he really hear it or is it an echo of the warning bouncing around his head?
THE SCREAMING WOMAN ★★★★
A very disturbing tale about a girl who is not believed when she says she hears a buried woman screaming. It's a powerful piece, partly camouflaged by being told from a child's point of view. It speaks to lots of contemporary issues, despite being more than forty years old. The message still is, "Believe Her".
THE LADY IN THE TRUNK ★★★
This reprises some of the themes from 'The Screaming Woman' but a little less successfully. There's a sort Poe meets The Twilight Zone feel to the story but the exposition at the end was a little clumsy.
I'M NOT SO DUMB ★★★★
This made me smile. What if Lennie from 'Of Mice And Men' was neither as dumb not as nice as he looked? Then he might do what Peter in this story did, especially if it stopped the folks in the town from picking on him all the time. Writing this as first-person account delivered through the fourth wall, built Peter's character, added local colour and a little humour and pulled the reader along by their curiosity, like a mark at a carnival stall, until the big reveal.
KILLER, COME BACK TO ME ★★★★
This was Noir with a capital N. An inexperienced bank robber - big man with a gun but no experience and no plan - is co-opted by a hard-as-nails woman to become the reincarnation of the gangster she'd spent five years with. The writing is rugged, fast and brutal. The plot is packed with action, studded with bullets and splattered with blood but it's powered by one woman's twisted desire to resurrect what she's lost and a man's determination to be himself and to solve his problems with a gun. This was Noir with a capital N. In my head, I was watching Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwick strutting their stuff.
DEAD MEN RISE UP NEVER ★★
This was strong on atmosphere but the content was a little too neat to be real. I liked the stoic second in command's calm-to-the-point-of -being resigned tone as he told the story of how his gangster boss was broken by his obsession with a woman he couldn't have. The betrayals felt too transparent and the action scenes felt too easy. It was more like watching opera than a thriller.
WHERE EVERYTHING ENDS ★★★★★
This was perfect pulp. A hard-boiled man of action drawn against a vivid background that summoned 'Dark Knight' graphics in my imagination: darkness and moonlight on slick canal water and the surreal motion of simple oil well towers grunting and almost invisible.
CORPSE CARNIVAL ★★★★
If you're looking for a classic Creepy Carnival story, this should be at the top of your list. It's a murder mystery with a difference The question is, who murder one of a pair of conjoined twins and why? It's a solid mystery made stronger by a rich carnival atmosphere.
AND SO DIED RIABOUCHINSKA ★★★★
A ventriloquist's dummy is not alive. The voice we hear comes from the man, not the doll in his hands. We know that. Believing it, that's much more difficult, especially when the dummy is telling you things the ventriloquist doesn't want you to hear. This is beautifully crafted tale that lets your imagination come to its own conclusions about going with knowledge or belief.
YESTERDAY I LIVED! ★★★★
Although there's a murder mystery at the heart of this - a murder captured on film no less - what makes it stand out is the rage of the man who is investigating the murder. He's not the homicide detective. He's just the film studio rentacop, but his grief is raw and his anger is lethal. It feels as if he's being haunted by the dead woman.
I loved the language in this story. It elevated the gothic atmosphere of the piece. Here's my favourite line:
"The only sound to Cleve was the rain beating at the windows, an occasional flare of thunder, and his watch ticking like a termite boring a hole in the structure of silence."
That's exactly how a ticking clock makes me feel.
THE TOWN WHERE NO ONE GOT OFF ★★★★
This was powerful storytelling. A salesman makes a spontaneous decision to get off a cross country train at small town in the middle of America where no one ever gets off. From the moment he steps onto the platform, it's as if he's entered an alternative reality where normal rules don't apply. The sense of penance, real but unnamed, grows as the town descends into darkness. The confrontation that follows is bizarre, disturbing, and memorable. I mentally labelled it 'Strangers Off A Train'
THE WHOLE TOWN'S SLEEPING ★★★
Masterful use of suspense.. Our heroine is confident and sensible but determined not to be intimidated by the killer preying on women in her town. Except, peeking around the edges of that determination is an illicit thrill at the danger. As she walks back alone, after midnight, her confidence slowly erodes, the delight of anticipated fright is replaced by all-consuming terror. She runs for safety. Will she make it? Did she make it? That's what the suspense was all about.
AT MIDNIGHT, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE ★★★
A delightful surprise - this continues from the previous story, now told from the killer's point of view. This is not suspense; it is strangeness on display, asking to be understood but not forgiven. For me, that understanding came with the creepiest line of dialogue in the story, when the killer, hidden by the dark, says:
‘If I told you who I am, you might not be afraid,’ he whispered. ‘I want you to be afraid. Are you afraid?’
Pairing them makes both stories stronger and much more disturbing.
THE SMILING PEOPLE ★★
Possibly a sign of my jaded palate, but this didn't have the shock factor I think it was trying for. I admired how the slow slide from slightly obsessive about silence to total insanity was managed. The atmosphere was creepy moving towards twisted. The tableau at the centre of the story was gruesome but not original enough to b shocking.
THE FRUIT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL ★★★★★
I read this story in Bradbury's 'The Golden Apples Of The Sun' collection, sometime in the 1970s, and it's never left me. I'd forgotten the title, but as soon as the story started, I remembered it.
It's a perfect portrayal of panic, born out of trauma, turning to an irrepressible mania. Reading this, I can feel the grip of an obsession so powerful that it overwhelms reason and compels action.
What a wonderfully dark imagination Bradbury had.
THE SMALL ASSASSIN ★★★★
An exploration of postpartum depression as an acuity of observation leading to conclusions no one is going to believe. Wonderfully chilling. The ending made me want to cheer.
MARIONETTES, INC ★★★★
The concept of marionettes (exact replicas of a specific person) must have been a fairly novel one in 1949, when this was written, so I love that the story didn't stop with the concept. It posed the 'What if…?' , gave an answer and then added two separate twists to the tale, both gleefully and skilfully revealed.
PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME ★★★
A further twist for the marionettes idea. This time the corrupting temptation is a different one. But it's probably the punishment rather than the crime that's the most shocking aspect of the story.
SOME LIVE LIKE LAZARUS ★★★★★
A quietly powerful story about a life wasted, held in hiatus by indecision in the face of tyranny. It's a story that made pause and consider how many of us spend at least some of our years living like Lazarus.
Two lines stood out for me:
"There are some questions that should never be asked"
and , a little later
"Life is questions, not answers".
THE UTTERLY PERFECT MURDER ★★★★
Another murder story that went somewhere unexpected and strange. Perhaps the strangest thing is that it was and was not a murder story. It was about the desire, the need to murder. It gave motive and means and opportunity. But mostly it was about metaphorical time travel. About the mechanics of murdering our past so that we can have a future. I loved it.
The stories in 'The Illustrated Man' and 'The Golden Apples Of The Sun' fascinated me because, although most of them had a sting in the tail that gave the immediate satisfaction of a new twist or a bizarre idea, they had an atmosphere about them, regardless of their content, that said 'The world is not what it appears to be. It's darker than it seems; stranger than you admit. Its real face can be seen out of the corner of your eye, but only if you dare to look."
The stories were hard to label. Were they horror stories or crime stories, or science fiction stories, or something different camouflaged as something more familiar? Whatever they were, they were all born of Ray Bradbury's questing, boundary-breaking imagination.
I wasn't sure I could go back to those stories. I'm not a teenager any more. I worried that I might not be able to see now what I saw then. Then I came across this anthology of crime stories, assembled for Bradbury's centenary and decided to give them a try. I'm glad I did. I'm not sure that they really are crime stories, although a lot of them are about murder or the desire to murder, but they all have that feeling of being invited to go somewhere strange, to see the world from a different angle.
All but the last two of these twenty stories were published before the first episode of 'The Twilight Zone' was aired, but they give me that same feeling of entering a world parallel to my day-to-day reality, in which something strange lies in wait.
I found that, at sixty-eight, these stories still gripped my imagination as firmly as they did when I was sixteen.
Below, I've shared the notes I made on each story as I read it. I hope they'll encourage you to read a little Bradbury some time soon.
A TOUCH OF PETULANCE ★★★
How to start a short story collectoin with a bang. A story fit for 'The Twilight Zone'. A warning from your future self of the thing you are going to do but must not do. What do you do with a warning like that? It's like being told not to think of an elephant on a bicycle; it becomes inevitable. And would our hero?/villain?/victim? have notice that touch of petulance without the warning? Did he really hear it or is it an echo of the warning bouncing around his head?
THE SCREAMING WOMAN ★★★★
A very disturbing tale about a girl who is not believed when she says she hears a buried woman screaming. It's a powerful piece, partly camouflaged by being told from a child's point of view. It speaks to lots of contemporary issues, despite being more than forty years old. The message still is, "Believe Her".
THE LADY IN THE TRUNK ★★★
This reprises some of the themes from 'The Screaming Woman' but a little less successfully. There's a sort Poe meets The Twilight Zone feel to the story but the exposition at the end was a little clumsy.
I'M NOT SO DUMB ★★★★
This made me smile. What if Lennie from 'Of Mice And Men' was neither as dumb not as nice as he looked? Then he might do what Peter in this story did, especially if it stopped the folks in the town from picking on him all the time. Writing this as first-person account delivered through the fourth wall, built Peter's character, added local colour and a little humour and pulled the reader along by their curiosity, like a mark at a carnival stall, until the big reveal.
KILLER, COME BACK TO ME ★★★★
This was Noir with a capital N. An inexperienced bank robber - big man with a gun but no experience and no plan - is co-opted by a hard-as-nails woman to become the reincarnation of the gangster she'd spent five years with. The writing is rugged, fast and brutal. The plot is packed with action, studded with bullets and splattered with blood but it's powered by one woman's twisted desire to resurrect what she's lost and a man's determination to be himself and to solve his problems with a gun. This was Noir with a capital N. In my head, I was watching Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwick strutting their stuff.
DEAD MEN RISE UP NEVER ★★
This was strong on atmosphere but the content was a little too neat to be real. I liked the stoic second in command's calm-to-the-point-of -being resigned tone as he told the story of how his gangster boss was broken by his obsession with a woman he couldn't have. The betrayals felt too transparent and the action scenes felt too easy. It was more like watching opera than a thriller.
WHERE EVERYTHING ENDS ★★★★★
This was perfect pulp. A hard-boiled man of action drawn against a vivid background that summoned 'Dark Knight' graphics in my imagination: darkness and moonlight on slick canal water and the surreal motion of simple oil well towers grunting and almost invisible.
CORPSE CARNIVAL ★★★★
If you're looking for a classic Creepy Carnival story, this should be at the top of your list. It's a murder mystery with a difference The question is, who murder one of a pair of conjoined twins and why? It's a solid mystery made stronger by a rich carnival atmosphere.
AND SO DIED RIABOUCHINSKA ★★★★
A ventriloquist's dummy is not alive. The voice we hear comes from the man, not the doll in his hands. We know that. Believing it, that's much more difficult, especially when the dummy is telling you things the ventriloquist doesn't want you to hear. This is beautifully crafted tale that lets your imagination come to its own conclusions about going with knowledge or belief.
YESTERDAY I LIVED! ★★★★
Although there's a murder mystery at the heart of this - a murder captured on film no less - what makes it stand out is the rage of the man who is investigating the murder. He's not the homicide detective. He's just the film studio rentacop, but his grief is raw and his anger is lethal. It feels as if he's being haunted by the dead woman.
I loved the language in this story. It elevated the gothic atmosphere of the piece. Here's my favourite line:
"The only sound to Cleve was the rain beating at the windows, an occasional flare of thunder, and his watch ticking like a termite boring a hole in the structure of silence."
That's exactly how a ticking clock makes me feel.
THE TOWN WHERE NO ONE GOT OFF ★★★★
This was powerful storytelling. A salesman makes a spontaneous decision to get off a cross country train at small town in the middle of America where no one ever gets off. From the moment he steps onto the platform, it's as if he's entered an alternative reality where normal rules don't apply. The sense of penance, real but unnamed, grows as the town descends into darkness. The confrontation that follows is bizarre, disturbing, and memorable. I mentally labelled it 'Strangers Off A Train'
THE WHOLE TOWN'S SLEEPING ★★★
Masterful use of suspense.. Our heroine is confident and sensible but determined not to be intimidated by the killer preying on women in her town. Except, peeking around the edges of that determination is an illicit thrill at the danger. As she walks back alone, after midnight, her confidence slowly erodes, the delight of anticipated fright is replaced by all-consuming terror. She runs for safety. Will she make it? Did she make it? That's what the suspense was all about.
AT MIDNIGHT, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE ★★★
A delightful surprise - this continues from the previous story, now told from the killer's point of view. This is not suspense; it is strangeness on display, asking to be understood but not forgiven. For me, that understanding came with the creepiest line of dialogue in the story, when the killer, hidden by the dark, says:
‘If I told you who I am, you might not be afraid,’ he whispered. ‘I want you to be afraid. Are you afraid?’
Pairing them makes both stories stronger and much more disturbing.
THE SMILING PEOPLE ★★
Possibly a sign of my jaded palate, but this didn't have the shock factor I think it was trying for. I admired how the slow slide from slightly obsessive about silence to total insanity was managed. The atmosphere was creepy moving towards twisted. The tableau at the centre of the story was gruesome but not original enough to b shocking.
THE FRUIT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL ★★★★★
I read this story in Bradbury's 'The Golden Apples Of The Sun' collection, sometime in the 1970s, and it's never left me. I'd forgotten the title, but as soon as the story started, I remembered it.
It's a perfect portrayal of panic, born out of trauma, turning to an irrepressible mania. Reading this, I can feel the grip of an obsession so powerful that it overwhelms reason and compels action.
What a wonderfully dark imagination Bradbury had.
THE SMALL ASSASSIN ★★★★
An exploration of postpartum depression as an acuity of observation leading to conclusions no one is going to believe. Wonderfully chilling. The ending made me want to cheer.
MARIONETTES, INC ★★★★
The concept of marionettes (exact replicas of a specific person) must have been a fairly novel one in 1949, when this was written, so I love that the story didn't stop with the concept. It posed the 'What if…?' , gave an answer and then added two separate twists to the tale, both gleefully and skilfully revealed.
PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME ★★★
A further twist for the marionettes idea. This time the corrupting temptation is a different one. But it's probably the punishment rather than the crime that's the most shocking aspect of the story.
SOME LIVE LIKE LAZARUS ★★★★★
A quietly powerful story about a life wasted, held in hiatus by indecision in the face of tyranny. It's a story that made pause and consider how many of us spend at least some of our years living like Lazarus.
Two lines stood out for me:
"There are some questions that should never be asked"
and , a little later
"Life is questions, not answers".
THE UTTERLY PERFECT MURDER ★★★★
Another murder story that went somewhere unexpected and strange. Perhaps the strangest thing is that it was and was not a murder story. It was about the desire, the need to murder. It gave motive and means and opportunity. But mostly it was about metaphorical time travel. About the mechanics of murdering our past so that we can have a future. I loved it.
August 4, 2024
I chose this book from a selection of ARC books that were given as prizes in my library's Summer Reading Club. The first thing that grabbed me was the author's name: Ray Bradbury. I'm a life-long fan of Bradbury. Something Wicked This Way Comes is one of my favorite novels. But I have learned, over the years, that Ray Bradbury was a master at the short story.
Then I noticed that it said "The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury," and I was, like, "what??" Now, I'll admit that I was expecting straight-up detective stories. These were, according to the introduction, all written early in his career, back in the 1940s. But no. These are anything but straight-up detective stories. Because they are, after all, still Ray Bradbury stories.
There are some that are just straight crime tales. But there are still some science fiction, some fantasy, and some that might even fit in the horror genre. It is a fabulous mix that almost defies genre categorization!
We have twenty short stories in this volume. I won't list them all, but I will mention the ones that really stuck out to me.
What is interesting to me is that the first story, "A Touch of Petulance," and the last one, "The Utterly Perfect Murder," almost bring the book around full circle. In "A Touch of Petulance," an old man visits his younger self (time travel) to try to prevent himself from murdering his wife. It's a bit of a mind-bender, for sure, especially for the younger version of himself. And "The Utterly Perfect Murder" is tale involving a man who travels back to his home town to kill his nemesis. Not exactly time travel, but seems like a similar plot, to me.
"The Screaming Woman" is one of my favorites, involving a ten-year old girl who is walking across a field one afternoon, and hears a screaming woman. But the screaming is coming from under the ground. She rushes home and tries to get her parents to believe that she heard it, but no one wants to take her seriously. There is also a mention of an "October day" in that story, and Bradbury always seems to have loved October, or at least referenced it a lot.
Similar to "The Screaming Woman" is "The Trunk Lady," in which a young boy finds a lady in a trunk up in the attic and tries in vain to get people at his house to take him seriously.
"Killer, Come Back to Me," the titular story, is more along the lines of a pure crime fiction tale. In this one a woman tries to replace her dead gangster boyfriend with another guy, and wants him to assume the identity of the dead gangster.
There is a pair of tales that are related. "The Whole Town's Sleeping" involves three women who discover the body of one of the missing female victims in a current crime spree in their town. They were setting out to go to a movie. Even though they were encouraged to go straight home (it wasn't safe for them to be out and about after dark, you know), they went to the movie anyway. One of them winds up walking home alone. "At Midnight, In the Month of June" is pretty much the same story, but from the perspective of the killer! Brilliant!
"The Smiling People" is a straight-up horror tale of madness. Mr. Geppin, our main character, made his relatives "smile." Chilling tale.
Another brilliant story is "The Small Assassin," in which a mother is convinced that her relatively newborn baby is trying to kill her.
All of the stories are definitely worth reading, of course. I mean, it's Ray Bradbury, for goodness sake! I recommend this book, published by Hard Case Crime in 2020, to anyone who likes crime fiction, horror, science fiction, fantasy, or Ray Bradbury.
Then I noticed that it said "The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury," and I was, like, "what??" Now, I'll admit that I was expecting straight-up detective stories. These were, according to the introduction, all written early in his career, back in the 1940s. But no. These are anything but straight-up detective stories. Because they are, after all, still Ray Bradbury stories.
There are some that are just straight crime tales. But there are still some science fiction, some fantasy, and some that might even fit in the horror genre. It is a fabulous mix that almost defies genre categorization!
We have twenty short stories in this volume. I won't list them all, but I will mention the ones that really stuck out to me.
What is interesting to me is that the first story, "A Touch of Petulance," and the last one, "The Utterly Perfect Murder," almost bring the book around full circle. In "A Touch of Petulance," an old man visits his younger self (time travel) to try to prevent himself from murdering his wife. It's a bit of a mind-bender, for sure, especially for the younger version of himself. And "The Utterly Perfect Murder" is tale involving a man who travels back to his home town to kill his nemesis. Not exactly time travel, but seems like a similar plot, to me.
"The Screaming Woman" is one of my favorites, involving a ten-year old girl who is walking across a field one afternoon, and hears a screaming woman. But the screaming is coming from under the ground. She rushes home and tries to get her parents to believe that she heard it, but no one wants to take her seriously. There is also a mention of an "October day" in that story, and Bradbury always seems to have loved October, or at least referenced it a lot.
Similar to "The Screaming Woman" is "The Trunk Lady," in which a young boy finds a lady in a trunk up in the attic and tries in vain to get people at his house to take him seriously.
"Killer, Come Back to Me," the titular story, is more along the lines of a pure crime fiction tale. In this one a woman tries to replace her dead gangster boyfriend with another guy, and wants him to assume the identity of the dead gangster.
There is a pair of tales that are related. "The Whole Town's Sleeping" involves three women who discover the body of one of the missing female victims in a current crime spree in their town. They were setting out to go to a movie. Even though they were encouraged to go straight home (it wasn't safe for them to be out and about after dark, you know), they went to the movie anyway. One of them winds up walking home alone. "At Midnight, In the Month of June" is pretty much the same story, but from the perspective of the killer! Brilliant!
"The Smiling People" is a straight-up horror tale of madness. Mr. Geppin, our main character, made his relatives "smile." Chilling tale.
Another brilliant story is "The Small Assassin," in which a mother is convinced that her relatively newborn baby is trying to kill her.
All of the stories are definitely worth reading, of course. I mean, it's Ray Bradbury, for goodness sake! I recommend this book, published by Hard Case Crime in 2020, to anyone who likes crime fiction, horror, science fiction, fantasy, or Ray Bradbury.
January 27, 2024
I used to read a lot of Ray Bradbury. Mainly left field sci Fi and quirky tales, usually with a sting in the tail
This collection of RB's detective short stories contains some old favourites but most were new to me.
I enjoyed refreshing my acquaintance with a master short story teller
This collection of RB's detective short stories contains some old favourites but most were new to me.
I enjoyed refreshing my acquaintance with a master short story teller
March 4, 2022
A lavish collection written by the most hypnotic of writers, Ray Bradbury. I would rate all 20 stories a 5/5. They each are wonderfully crafted and Bradburyesque. Reading The Whole Town is Sleepingafter Midnight was deliciously eerie; I was panting with Lavinia. I didn't except the follow-up story At Midnight, In the Month of June. A fine collection.
October 29, 2020
'Killer, Come Back to Me' is a recently released collection of crime short stories by prolific author Ray Bradbury to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday.
An author finding themselves within the crime genre may feel shackled by the limitations it stereotypically has to offer. Bradbury embraces these expectations of straightforwardness and uses it to his advantage; adding a whimsical flare and darkly fantastical twists to the majority of these stories. The blend of such elements enhance each other's role within the collection because no matter the direction Bradbury travels, whether it is the supernatural or science-fiction or even gothic writings that mirror the style of Poe, the stories are connected by a single thread of humanity. With a deep examination of human behavior, Bradbury writes with a nostalgic romanticism of a forgotten time while incorporating an unnerving touch of the macabre.
With the majority of these stories being sold to pulp fiction magazines in the 1940s, where authors would often get paid a penny for every word, the stories within 'Killer, Come Back to Me' contain the passionate desperation of a hungry young author. Bradbury hits a creative peak around the second half of the collection, seeming determined for the next story to be superior than the previous.
Always aware of time period, Bradbury writes the past, then present, with the same prophetic vision as he does with his futuristic tales of scifi. Every story appears to take the aging process into consideration as 'Killer, Come Back to Me' rarely feels dated. Even in 2020, Ray Bradbury is still producing fiction of better quality than most.
An author finding themselves within the crime genre may feel shackled by the limitations it stereotypically has to offer. Bradbury embraces these expectations of straightforwardness and uses it to his advantage; adding a whimsical flare and darkly fantastical twists to the majority of these stories. The blend of such elements enhance each other's role within the collection because no matter the direction Bradbury travels, whether it is the supernatural or science-fiction or even gothic writings that mirror the style of Poe, the stories are connected by a single thread of humanity. With a deep examination of human behavior, Bradbury writes with a nostalgic romanticism of a forgotten time while incorporating an unnerving touch of the macabre.
With the majority of these stories being sold to pulp fiction magazines in the 1940s, where authors would often get paid a penny for every word, the stories within 'Killer, Come Back to Me' contain the passionate desperation of a hungry young author. Bradbury hits a creative peak around the second half of the collection, seeming determined for the next story to be superior than the previous.
Always aware of time period, Bradbury writes the past, then present, with the same prophetic vision as he does with his futuristic tales of scifi. Every story appears to take the aging process into consideration as 'Killer, Come Back to Me' rarely feels dated. Even in 2020, Ray Bradbury is still producing fiction of better quality than most.
October 30, 2020
Lauded as one of the all-time American visionaries of genre fiction, (and rightly so), what can be said about the work of Ray Bradbury that hasn’t been stated a thousandfold? My answer: the man could write a whodunnit just as tightly and densely as any rocket ship trip to Mars.
In this illustrated centenary collection, 20 of Bradbury’s short stories from a range of publications explore every facet of what we could generously consider “crime fiction”, but with that biting, fantastical and supremely economical style of storytelling he was famous for. Reading these, I couldn’t believe how much he was able to weave into so brief of a product. At 10-20 pages each, the stories are taut, clean, and brisk as all hell, yet embued with a sort of imagery that bites: as if the teeth unhinge from the page and clamp the hell down. It’s incredible.
To fill crime fiction in the back of some rag magazine with this kind of magic, particularly in the 40s, goes to show what the man was capable of. There’s no tricks here, no gimmicks; just good storytelling, beautiful language and that just-out-of-reach nostalgia that bleeds from everything he wrote. It’s that sense of déjà vu, that voyeuristic familiarly, that makes him so damn accessible.
Bradbury states in the afterward, “I floundered, I thrashed, sometimes I lost, sometimes I won. But I was trying.” Humble, no doubt, but fascinating that one oft my favourite books of 2020 was considered by the author to be, at one point or another, an experiment at survival.
In this illustrated centenary collection, 20 of Bradbury’s short stories from a range of publications explore every facet of what we could generously consider “crime fiction”, but with that biting, fantastical and supremely economical style of storytelling he was famous for. Reading these, I couldn’t believe how much he was able to weave into so brief of a product. At 10-20 pages each, the stories are taut, clean, and brisk as all hell, yet embued with a sort of imagery that bites: as if the teeth unhinge from the page and clamp the hell down. It’s incredible.
To fill crime fiction in the back of some rag magazine with this kind of magic, particularly in the 40s, goes to show what the man was capable of. There’s no tricks here, no gimmicks; just good storytelling, beautiful language and that just-out-of-reach nostalgia that bleeds from everything he wrote. It’s that sense of déjà vu, that voyeuristic familiarly, that makes him so damn accessible.
Bradbury states in the afterward, “I floundered, I thrashed, sometimes I lost, sometimes I won. But I was trying.” Humble, no doubt, but fascinating that one oft my favourite books of 2020 was considered by the author to be, at one point or another, an experiment at survival.
August 5, 2022
Fun to read but the prose is a bit too basic and most of the plots in the collection are quite predictable
November 5, 2021
Ray Bradbury is known for classic novels that blur the lines between fantasy, science fiction, and mainstream literature (Dandelion Wine, Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles). It is less remembered that he also wrote crime fiction and mysteries throughout his career. This collection is the most comprehensive survey of his criminally-minded short fiction written over four decades.
The best stories in this volume are those that mix and match genre elements to create unique reading experiences. Here are my individual story reviews, in order from my most to least favorite:
"A Touch of Petulance" (1980) -- A young man newly married meets his older self on a train--a version of himself twenty years in the future who has just killed their wife. Can they change events to put themselves on a path toward a better destiny, or will their meeting prove to be the impetus for the crime still to come?
"The Screaming Woman" (1951) -- A little girl hears a woman screaming in the lot behind her house, but none of the adults will believe her. The author mixes humor, suspense, and horror in equal portions as time begins to run out for the victim.
"The Utterly Perfect Murder" (1971) -- Forty-eight year old Doug Spaulding wakes up in the middle of the night, resolved to track down his old friend Ralph and kill him for the things that happened when they were both twelve. A dark, engaging sequel story to Dandelion Wine.
"And So Died Riabouchinska" (1953) -- A man lies dead in a basement… The suspected killers are a ventriloquist, his jilted wife, her lover… or perhaps it was the wooden dummy? This is a tale of psychological suspense so finely wrought that it tiptoes the line between crime and horror.
"The Whole Town's Sleeping" (1950) -- Three women walk home from the movies, their anxiety mounting because a killer known as The Lonely One is on the loose. This is one of the author's most well-known suspense stories. The tension is palpable through its final unforgettable sentence. Included as a chapter in the 1957 novel Dandelion Wine.
"Some Live Like Lazarus" (1960) -- A budding romance between Roger and Anne Marie stalls for seventy years because of Roger's domineering mother, who may or may not be a witch. This is a gut-punch of a story about forging your own path in life while there is still time to do so.
"Where Everything Ends" (unknown) -- After his partner is killed, a police investigator combs the canals of Venice, California looking for a killer. This story creates a memorable milieu. Expanded into the autobiographical 1985 mystery novel Death is a Lonely Business.
"The Town Where No One Got Off" (1958) -- A salesman gets off his train in a small Midwestern town, ostensibly just to see what new experiences it has to offer. After he meets a bitter old man on the platform, he realizes the true intentions that lay buried dark and dormant in his heart. An existential tale of murder and philosophy.
"Yesterday I Lived!" (1944) -- A Hollywood starlet is murdered, and everyone on set is a potential suspect: "She was the most beautiful person who ever died… She died like she had done everything in her life. You had to admire the way she did it, with the grace, fire, and control of a fine cat-animal. In the middle of the scene she forgot her lines. Her fingers crawled slowly to her throat and she turned. Her face changed. She looked straight out at you from the screen as if she knew this was her biggest and, to a cynic, her best scene."
"Marionettes, Inc." (1949) -- A man invents a robotic replica of himself in order to get away from his hateful, smothering wife.
"Corpse Carnival" (1945) -- Roger and Raoul are conjoined twins working in a circus sideshow. Roger is murdered, leaving Raoul to undergo a grueling operation and then track down the killer within the circus society. Macabre and dark, although the ending is too easy to figure out.
"Killer, Come Back to Me" (1944) -- Ricky Wolfe is standing on the curb, preparing to rob his first bank, when he attracts the attention of a beautiful deadly redhead. This is a fun retro-noir potboiler that turns a few pulp clichés on their heads: "You're only as good as your woman is good. If she's a heller, a whiner, a baby, you'll be on a dead-slab in no time."
"The Small Assassin" (1946) -- Alice is afraid of her baby, convinced it is trying to kill her. Is it post-partum depression, or do all newborns hate their mothers?
"The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" (1948) -- After committing a murder, a man becomes obsessed with cleaning off any fingerprints he might have left at the scene of the crime. As the narrator descends into paranoia, then madness, this story is reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, although by the end Bradbury pushes it firmly into satire.
"The Smiling People" (1946) -- Mr. Greppin is a lonely young man who is harried and bullied by unwanted family houseguests… until the day he learns how to make them smile.
"I'm Not So Dumb" (1945) -- A slow-witted young man solves a murder, much to the surprise of his neighbors. There are shades of Lenny from Of Mice and Men in this sharp-tongued tale.
"Midnight, In the Month of June" (1954) -- A sequel to "The Whole Town's Sleeping" told from the point of view of the killer. (Note: This story does not maintain continuity with Dandelion Wine.)
"Punishment Without Crime" (1950) -- A man is put on trial for killing a robot replica of his cheating wife in this uninspired sequel to "Marionettes, Inc."
"The Trunk Lady" (1944) -- A child finds a corpse hidden in an old trunk in his attic. He knows someone in his family is a murderer--but who? Can he uncover the truth before the mysterious assailant targets him next? This is an atmospheric whodunit, but it suffers from vague descriptions that make it hard to follow what is happening in many scenes.
"Dead Men Rise Up Never" (1945) -- A mob boss kidnaps a pretty young lady in order to save her from another gang. Unfortunately, she is killed during the attempt, which initiates a new turf war. There is a nice bit about a sunken cathedral, but this is overall a tired, maudlin story that never manages to gin up much suspense, excitement, or sympathy.
The best stories in this volume are those that mix and match genre elements to create unique reading experiences. Here are my individual story reviews, in order from my most to least favorite:
"A Touch of Petulance" (1980) -- A young man newly married meets his older self on a train--a version of himself twenty years in the future who has just killed their wife. Can they change events to put themselves on a path toward a better destiny, or will their meeting prove to be the impetus for the crime still to come?
"The Screaming Woman" (1951) -- A little girl hears a woman screaming in the lot behind her house, but none of the adults will believe her. The author mixes humor, suspense, and horror in equal portions as time begins to run out for the victim.
"The Utterly Perfect Murder" (1971) -- Forty-eight year old Doug Spaulding wakes up in the middle of the night, resolved to track down his old friend Ralph and kill him for the things that happened when they were both twelve. A dark, engaging sequel story to Dandelion Wine.
"And So Died Riabouchinska" (1953) -- A man lies dead in a basement… The suspected killers are a ventriloquist, his jilted wife, her lover… or perhaps it was the wooden dummy? This is a tale of psychological suspense so finely wrought that it tiptoes the line between crime and horror.
"The Whole Town's Sleeping" (1950) -- Three women walk home from the movies, their anxiety mounting because a killer known as The Lonely One is on the loose. This is one of the author's most well-known suspense stories. The tension is palpable through its final unforgettable sentence. Included as a chapter in the 1957 novel Dandelion Wine.
"Some Live Like Lazarus" (1960) -- A budding romance between Roger and Anne Marie stalls for seventy years because of Roger's domineering mother, who may or may not be a witch. This is a gut-punch of a story about forging your own path in life while there is still time to do so.
"Where Everything Ends" (unknown) -- After his partner is killed, a police investigator combs the canals of Venice, California looking for a killer. This story creates a memorable milieu. Expanded into the autobiographical 1985 mystery novel Death is a Lonely Business.
"The Town Where No One Got Off" (1958) -- A salesman gets off his train in a small Midwestern town, ostensibly just to see what new experiences it has to offer. After he meets a bitter old man on the platform, he realizes the true intentions that lay buried dark and dormant in his heart. An existential tale of murder and philosophy.
"Yesterday I Lived!" (1944) -- A Hollywood starlet is murdered, and everyone on set is a potential suspect: "She was the most beautiful person who ever died… She died like she had done everything in her life. You had to admire the way she did it, with the grace, fire, and control of a fine cat-animal. In the middle of the scene she forgot her lines. Her fingers crawled slowly to her throat and she turned. Her face changed. She looked straight out at you from the screen as if she knew this was her biggest and, to a cynic, her best scene."
"Marionettes, Inc." (1949) -- A man invents a robotic replica of himself in order to get away from his hateful, smothering wife.
"Corpse Carnival" (1945) -- Roger and Raoul are conjoined twins working in a circus sideshow. Roger is murdered, leaving Raoul to undergo a grueling operation and then track down the killer within the circus society. Macabre and dark, although the ending is too easy to figure out.
"Killer, Come Back to Me" (1944) -- Ricky Wolfe is standing on the curb, preparing to rob his first bank, when he attracts the attention of a beautiful deadly redhead. This is a fun retro-noir potboiler that turns a few pulp clichés on their heads: "You're only as good as your woman is good. If she's a heller, a whiner, a baby, you'll be on a dead-slab in no time."
"The Small Assassin" (1946) -- Alice is afraid of her baby, convinced it is trying to kill her. Is it post-partum depression, or do all newborns hate their mothers?
"The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" (1948) -- After committing a murder, a man becomes obsessed with cleaning off any fingerprints he might have left at the scene of the crime. As the narrator descends into paranoia, then madness, this story is reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, although by the end Bradbury pushes it firmly into satire.
"The Smiling People" (1946) -- Mr. Greppin is a lonely young man who is harried and bullied by unwanted family houseguests… until the day he learns how to make them smile.
"I'm Not So Dumb" (1945) -- A slow-witted young man solves a murder, much to the surprise of his neighbors. There are shades of Lenny from Of Mice and Men in this sharp-tongued tale.
"Midnight, In the Month of June" (1954) -- A sequel to "The Whole Town's Sleeping" told from the point of view of the killer. (Note: This story does not maintain continuity with Dandelion Wine.)
"Punishment Without Crime" (1950) -- A man is put on trial for killing a robot replica of his cheating wife in this uninspired sequel to "Marionettes, Inc."
"The Trunk Lady" (1944) -- A child finds a corpse hidden in an old trunk in his attic. He knows someone in his family is a murderer--but who? Can he uncover the truth before the mysterious assailant targets him next? This is an atmospheric whodunit, but it suffers from vague descriptions that make it hard to follow what is happening in many scenes.
"Dead Men Rise Up Never" (1945) -- A mob boss kidnaps a pretty young lady in order to save her from another gang. Unfortunately, she is killed during the attempt, which initiates a new turf war. There is a nice bit about a sunken cathedral, but this is overall a tired, maudlin story that never manages to gin up much suspense, excitement, or sympathy.
September 8, 2021
VERDICT: Brilliant collection to expand your horizon on a classic author. There's so much more than science-fiction with Ray Bradbury!
Last year, to honor Ray Bradbury’s 100th birthday, Hard Case Crime decided to publish a new collection of his short stories. Killer, Come Back to Me is unique, as it features his crime stories, something you may not expect from Bradbury if you are only familiar with his most famous books.
Killer, Come Back to Me is really a fabulous collection.
The book opens with an excellent introduction by Jonathan R. Eller, who sheds light on
My full review is here:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2021/09/07/...
Last year, to honor Ray Bradbury’s 100th birthday, Hard Case Crime decided to publish a new collection of his short stories. Killer, Come Back to Me is unique, as it features his crime stories, something you may not expect from Bradbury if you are only familiar with his most famous books.
Killer, Come Back to Me is really a fabulous collection.
The book opens with an excellent introduction by Jonathan R. Eller, who sheds light on
My full review is here:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2021/09/07/...
November 20, 2023
Por el corte policial algunos relatos suelen caer. El libro tiene sus altibajos, sin embargo "Algunos viven como Lázaro" y "El crimen totalmente perfecto" sentencian la gran calidad de este libro y está faceta de Bradbury.
April 3, 2021
Колекция от кратки, криминални разкази на Великият Рей Бредбъри. Нужно ли е да пиша ревю, за да ви казвам колко са добри ? Четете смело :)
August 28, 2021
Sborník povídek Raye Bradburyho na téma zločinu, vražd a jiných společenských zábav. Jasně, Bradbury není u nás neznámý autor a přiznám se, že jsem si knihu koupil hlavně proto, že patří do série Hard Case Crime, kterou mám doma skoro komplet.
Pokud byste od toho čekali, že vám kniha ukáže zcela neznámou tvář slavného spisovatele (jako to tahle série udělala u Zelaznyho či Silverberga), tak to moc ne. Pořád jsou tu hlavně povídky s fantastickou nebo hororovou zápletkou – včetně slavného Malého vraha. Většina z nich už vyšla v nějakém z těch tisíce sborníků i u nás.
Bradbury má poetický, a přesto hodně intenzivní styl. Hodně se pracuje s šílenstvím, se zoufalstvím postav a pachutí hořkosti. Příběhy nejsou obvykle ani tak postavené na pointě, jako spíš na emoci, případně na obraze, který se vynořil z hlubin Bradburyho vědomí, a kterému povídkou vytvořil vhodné terárium. Takže tam máme příběh, ve kterém je svědkem vraždy břichomluvecká loutka, zavraždění jedné části siamských dvojčat, využívání robotů jako obětí vraždy, cestování časem…
Asi nejslabší mi přišly povídky, které jsou čisté kriminálky… byť třeba dva příběhy, ve které jsou hrdinové děti, které viděly zločin a všichni je ignorují, působí hodně nervním a zneklidňujícím dojmem, hlavně Screaming Woman, kde se střetává motiv odtikávajícího času s nemožností malé hrdinky hnout se z místa.
Téma šílenství je tady vůbec hodně silné a asi jen jednou jedinkrát je používané spíše v rovině gagu (The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl), většinou je to regulérní motiv. Vůbec u Bradburyho lidé dost často podléhají svým intenzivním náladám, které je nutí vystoupit z vlaku na místě, kde nikdo nevystupuje, případně jet přes celou Ameriku, aby zabili svého kamaráda z dětství.
Rozhodně je Ray Bradbury jeden z autorů, kteří dokáží vystačit s málem. Častokrát ani vlastně k žádnému zločinu nedojde, ale i tak z povídek dýchá stísňující pocit blížící se katastrofy. Dřív jsem byl samozřejmě do Bradburyho blázen – teď už je na mně trochu moc poetický a malebný. Ale rozhodně mu nemůžu upřít, že přináší příběhy, které člověk tak snadno nedostane z hlavy, které se zaseknou a zůstanou v něm, aby tam mutovaly a měnily se v děsivá monstra.
Pokud byste od toho čekali, že vám kniha ukáže zcela neznámou tvář slavného spisovatele (jako to tahle série udělala u Zelaznyho či Silverberga), tak to moc ne. Pořád jsou tu hlavně povídky s fantastickou nebo hororovou zápletkou – včetně slavného Malého vraha. Většina z nich už vyšla v nějakém z těch tisíce sborníků i u nás.
Bradbury má poetický, a přesto hodně intenzivní styl. Hodně se pracuje s šílenstvím, se zoufalstvím postav a pachutí hořkosti. Příběhy nejsou obvykle ani tak postavené na pointě, jako spíš na emoci, případně na obraze, který se vynořil z hlubin Bradburyho vědomí, a kterému povídkou vytvořil vhodné terárium. Takže tam máme příběh, ve kterém je svědkem vraždy břichomluvecká loutka, zavraždění jedné části siamských dvojčat, využívání robotů jako obětí vraždy, cestování časem…
Asi nejslabší mi přišly povídky, které jsou čisté kriminálky… byť třeba dva příběhy, ve které jsou hrdinové děti, které viděly zločin a všichni je ignorují, působí hodně nervním a zneklidňujícím dojmem, hlavně Screaming Woman, kde se střetává motiv odtikávajícího času s nemožností malé hrdinky hnout se z místa.
Téma šílenství je tady vůbec hodně silné a asi jen jednou jedinkrát je používané spíše v rovině gagu (The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl), většinou je to regulérní motiv. Vůbec u Bradburyho lidé dost často podléhají svým intenzivním náladám, které je nutí vystoupit z vlaku na místě, kde nikdo nevystupuje, případně jet přes celou Ameriku, aby zabili svého kamaráda z dětství.
Rozhodně je Ray Bradbury jeden z autorů, kteří dokáží vystačit s málem. Častokrát ani vlastně k žádnému zločinu nedojde, ale i tak z povídek dýchá stísňující pocit blížící se katastrofy. Dřív jsem byl samozřejmě do Bradburyho blázen – teď už je na mně trochu moc poetický a malebný. Ale rozhodně mu nemůžu upřít, že přináší příběhy, které člověk tak snadno nedostane z hlavy, které se zaseknou a zůstanou v něm, aby tam mutovaly a měnily se v děsivá monstra.
January 10, 2021
Bradbury embraces hard-boiled crime in this great short story collection. If you assumed that the writer was just too optimistic and lovable for murder in cold blood then you thought wrong.
Killer, Come Back To Me contains some of the sharpest and most cunning stories I've ever seen from the man. He may attest in the afterword that he is no Hammett, Chandler or Cain but there are some short gems in here that would fit quite comfortably in their company.
Of course Bradbury does maintain his favoured themes such as innocents not being believed, carnival life and science fiction but all these blend with suspense to create some gloriously warped stories. On a couple of occasions the sweet-natured writing style reveals some bitter twists.
There were a couple of stories in Killer, Come Back To Me that didn't work for me on account of uneven pacing and unengaging elements: for one I just couldn't get into the oil murder mystery. Also the tale from a serial killer's perspective is clever but doesn't quite hold together. If I have one common complaint about this collection, it's that Bradbury's poetic enthusiasm isn't always appropriate for describing pulpy action.
Nevertheless this collection proved something marvellous to me: that well-known authors crossing into unfamiliar genres can work surprisingly well. I recommend Killer, Come Back To Me to Bradbury fans looking for a change of pace or crime readers wanting to try something a little different.
Notable Stories
• ‘I’m Not So Dumb!’ – a fun homespun detective yarn, that is completely offset by its final three sentences.
• Dead Men Rise Up Never – an offbeat gangster story with heart-rending stakes and subtle betrayals.
• Corpse Carnival – one half of a conjoined twin must solve his brother's murder with a freaky suspect list.
Killer, Come Back To Me contains some of the sharpest and most cunning stories I've ever seen from the man. He may attest in the afterword that he is no Hammett, Chandler or Cain but there are some short gems in here that would fit quite comfortably in their company.
Of course Bradbury does maintain his favoured themes such as innocents not being believed, carnival life and science fiction but all these blend with suspense to create some gloriously warped stories. On a couple of occasions the sweet-natured writing style reveals some bitter twists.
There were a couple of stories in Killer, Come Back To Me that didn't work for me on account of uneven pacing and unengaging elements: for one I just couldn't get into the oil murder mystery. Also the tale from a serial killer's perspective is clever but doesn't quite hold together. If I have one common complaint about this collection, it's that Bradbury's poetic enthusiasm isn't always appropriate for describing pulpy action.
Nevertheless this collection proved something marvellous to me: that well-known authors crossing into unfamiliar genres can work surprisingly well. I recommend Killer, Come Back To Me to Bradbury fans looking for a change of pace or crime readers wanting to try something a little different.
Notable Stories
• ‘I’m Not So Dumb!’ – a fun homespun detective yarn, that is completely offset by its final three sentences.
• Dead Men Rise Up Never – an offbeat gangster story with heart-rending stakes and subtle betrayals.
• Corpse Carnival – one half of a conjoined twin must solve his brother's murder with a freaky suspect list.
December 2, 2020
Thanks to Hard Case Crime for the free early copy in exchange for my honest review
We all know Ray Bradbury for his works of science fiction, but I had never known that he also wrote quite a few crime fiction stories. There is such a wide variety of topics, perspectives, and characters within this book and I think each one brings something different to the table. Considering the size of the book, there is a surprising amount of short stories here, but I can’t say there were any that I disliked.
Sideshow performers, creepy ventriloquist dummies, time travel, incredibly life-like robots, bodies in the attic, and so much more is waiting for you in the pages of this collection. Those that love his science fiction writing, know that there are definitely elements of this and some supernatural in each story – some more present than others, but always just enough. What stuck with me the most, as it does with the other books by Bradbury I’ve read, is how incredible the writing is. There’s something about the way he tells a story, and I think those that aren’t the biggest fans of short stories will find themselves getting lost in these.
The illustrations were also incredible and really added to the stories they accompanied. All of the stories are all ones that were previously published by Bradbury in magazines and similar media, and I’m happy to see that they will be given new life again with this collection coming out so that more readers will enjoy them. Another hit for the Hard Case Crime series and a stunning cover to go with it!
We all know Ray Bradbury for his works of science fiction, but I had never known that he also wrote quite a few crime fiction stories. There is such a wide variety of topics, perspectives, and characters within this book and I think each one brings something different to the table. Considering the size of the book, there is a surprising amount of short stories here, but I can’t say there were any that I disliked.
Sideshow performers, creepy ventriloquist dummies, time travel, incredibly life-like robots, bodies in the attic, and so much more is waiting for you in the pages of this collection. Those that love his science fiction writing, know that there are definitely elements of this and some supernatural in each story – some more present than others, but always just enough. What stuck with me the most, as it does with the other books by Bradbury I’ve read, is how incredible the writing is. There’s something about the way he tells a story, and I think those that aren’t the biggest fans of short stories will find themselves getting lost in these.
The illustrations were also incredible and really added to the stories they accompanied. All of the stories are all ones that were previously published by Bradbury in magazines and similar media, and I’m happy to see that they will be given new life again with this collection coming out so that more readers will enjoy them. Another hit for the Hard Case Crime series and a stunning cover to go with it!
August 31, 2021
Even under normal circumstances it takes me a long time to read through a short story collection, but the last year just decimated my attention span, so here I am finishing the newest short story collection from my favorite writer, celebrating his centennial last year.
Bradbury’s crime stories are not the kind of stories by him I most gravitate toward, so there were a few here that I found little more than obvious and tedious, but the ones that contained more of his strength like fantasy, horror, and nostalgia, I was enraptured by. Unfortunately since I started this last August, I don’t quite remember a few stories from the first half, but this collection contains some absolute classics and bangers like A Touch of Petulance, The Whole Town’s Sleeping, The Small Assassin, Marionettes, Inc., Some Live Like Lazarus, and The Utterly Perfect Murder.
The bookends are particularly good. Petulance is one that’s lived in my head for years and I love to revisit every now and then, but I had never read Perfect Murder before and was floored as I became aware that it was a sequel of sorts to Dandelion Wine.
By nature, every collection is going to contain a few stories you don’t feel like revisiting, but after a lull, I consider this a pretty fantastic book. And that art is to die for!
Bradbury’s crime stories are not the kind of stories by him I most gravitate toward, so there were a few here that I found little more than obvious and tedious, but the ones that contained more of his strength like fantasy, horror, and nostalgia, I was enraptured by. Unfortunately since I started this last August, I don’t quite remember a few stories from the first half, but this collection contains some absolute classics and bangers like A Touch of Petulance, The Whole Town’s Sleeping, The Small Assassin, Marionettes, Inc., Some Live Like Lazarus, and The Utterly Perfect Murder.
The bookends are particularly good. Petulance is one that’s lived in my head for years and I love to revisit every now and then, but I had never read Perfect Murder before and was floored as I became aware that it was a sequel of sorts to Dandelion Wine.
By nature, every collection is going to contain a few stories you don’t feel like revisiting, but after a lull, I consider this a pretty fantastic book. And that art is to die for!
July 16, 2021
In the introduction to this collection written by Bradbury himself, he talks about how he wrote these stories in his twenties when he was still figuring out how to write, so essentially they may not all be winners. He also mentions that he would literally write one new story every single week of his LIFE, without fail, so that somewhere within all that quantity there would be some quality. Basically every one of these pieces is immaculately written, immersive, and clever, so Bradbury was just being modest. Though the overall theme is "crime stories," each one is a separate adventure and many of them invoke a delicious Noir feel.
Characteristically, Bradbury’s use of language makes his writing seem effortless. Sometimes when you're watching a film you might think that certain frames could be hung on the wall of a museum; the majority of the paragraphs in this book are like that. It's also exciting to see a darkness from Bradbury that I hadn't really seen before; a few of these tales are essentially pure horror. Three in particular stood out and were amazing: one involved a psychopath, one a baby, and one a startlingly accurate portrayal of a terrified woman walking home alone at night. This is a stunning collection from one of the most talented authors of all time!
Characteristically, Bradbury’s use of language makes his writing seem effortless. Sometimes when you're watching a film you might think that certain frames could be hung on the wall of a museum; the majority of the paragraphs in this book are like that. It's also exciting to see a darkness from Bradbury that I hadn't really seen before; a few of these tales are essentially pure horror. Three in particular stood out and were amazing: one involved a psychopath, one a baby, and one a startlingly accurate portrayal of a terrified woman walking home alone at night. This is a stunning collection from one of the most talented authors of all time!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews