Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Well it’s got a cover fit for just before Halloween. I want to give Phoebe Atwood Taylor 4 or 5 stars this time around, not 3. Like the old days. Anyway, at the very least this should be creepy.

Not as bad, so far, as I thought it was going to be. Long way to go, though.

I am expecting a great third book in the trilogy!

A great first couple of chapters, to get me reeled in. This one has a swell cover for Halloween, compared to the other two Ross Macdonald novels I had left from a foursome I found used but in very good condition weeks ago. I read Blue City first, partly because I knew the basic story from a movie version - now I’m roaming unknown hardboiled territory, packed in a creepy cover.

I’ve made a sudden decision to bump this ahead of Sandman Mystery Theatre, Compendium Two. I just need something a little different than Wesley Dodds in the 1930s, before I immerse myself in more of him and that, one more time. I may do a bit of this tonight - for sure tomorrow morning. A quick flip-through has me happy with the look of it.

Two great stories, so far. Amos Walker, PI, maybe doesn’t quiet rank with Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, or Lew Archer - but he’s not far removed, and probably higher-placed than Alo Nudger or Nameless…and they’re not far removed. Peeper, a stand-alone as far as I know, is my favorite novel by Estleman; The Midnight Man is my fave Amos Walker novel, among the few I’ve read.

Some serious crud between Horror and creepy Mystery novels…I mean, beyond the Perry Rhodan and Doctor Who re-reads that have been bridging breaks. Serious crud means bigger potential for offensive Not Aged Well content, but I’ll grind it out and give it 1 star if required. Maybe it’ll be more engagingly silly than cruddy. Yah…

Can’t ever get enough.

Why does returning to Ramsey Campbell seem like snuggling under one of Paradise's warmest blankets, when I know that all he's trying to do is creep me out three times on every page?!

Hmm. I thought the tales themselves would be about cursed lineages, warped family trees, and bizarre ancestors doing the ghostly dirty on their descendants. But no, the point of the book is to feature stories by authors of a same family tree. I confess I skipped the F. Marryat werewolf thing, because it was pulled from The Phantom Ship which I read already, but I liked 'The Haunted Nursery' by Florence Marryat.

Loving this one all over again. Bulis was the first “Wilderness Years” Dr Who writer I went to - I saw Unearthly Child for the first time around 1999, fell in love with Carole Ann Ford’s face - plus the magic of the first episode - and bought The Sorcerer’s Apprentice because Ford’s character, Susan, was on the cover. I knew Liz Shaw from before, and decided to buy Eye of the Giant. Soon, it was all Who books…

I am really enjoying this re-read, and this has been a great pick for the lead-up to Halloween. I think, even though Sgt. Benton appears here, it is important for continuity that he not actually meet the Doctor...I'm not sure, I'm not an expert on this Who era, when it comes to Benton or Yates. This story is placed just after Inferno, and I loved the idea of one more "improvised time machine" causing more trouble.

Any island loaded with monsters is guaranteed fun. And Liz Shaw is there!

A re-read...of one of the first Doctor Who novels I bought, after getting interested in the series again, around 1999. I like several of the Bulis efforts a lot more than most, it seems. This one, Imperial Moon, City at World's End. Chapter 1 has a hull-damaged ship full of movie-makers land on the island of Salutua, in 1934. This feels like the start of King Kong (2005), except I don't have to deal with Jack Black.

Should finish this later tonight. Not one of his best, but still very readable, very fast groove.

Years ago, when I would have said Wodehouse and Ed McBain/Evan Hunter were my two favourite authors, it was of course weird to find out they were both born on Oct. 15. For a while I was all "worship forever the Superior, Brilliantly Creative Libra!". Now, when Hunter is not in my Top 2 Authors, I would criticize two things: the female characters...and the "Intrusive Smart-Ass Narrator" technique. I'm older, I guess.

If my “Creepy Reading List” for the Fall Season ended up with a recurring theme, by accident, I guess it’s the horrid sexual stuff that keeps cropping up: Uhnak’s False Witness, Slaughter’s Pretty Girls, and Tessier’s Finishing Touches, even scenes in Mayhem Sam. And now this…although this “Erotic Thriller” hasn’t gone down to the depths of those other books. We’ll see. I guess the adultery here is just a prelude…

The old Virgin Doctor Who novels are more likely to fall apart while being read, compared to the old BBC ones. So before I even start worrying about what a re-read will do to the standing of a favorite, my first concern is revisiting the book’s condition. This one seems okay - cover not detaching, as yet. The giant crab, and my love for this story, bring me back here during Halloween Approaches.

Always fun to launch a fresh book of short stories, for between longer reads. I can’t say I’m particularly stoked for this one’s theme, but I tend to trust and buy any books from this series, when I see them. So, on we go! Looking for gems.