Peter Haining – Murder On The Menu

Peter Haining (ed.) – Murder On The Menu: A Gourmet Guide To Death (Chancellor 1993: originally Souvenir, 1991)

Cover design: Slatter-Anderson

Peter Haining – Introduction

I. Specialities de la Maison: Stories By Some Famous Authors

Stanley Ellin – The Speciality Of The House
Ruth Rendell – Bribery And Corruption
Paul Gallico – Chef d’Oeuvre
Oliver La Farge – La Specialite de M Duclos
L. P. Hartley – Three, or Four, for Dinner
Gaston Leroux – A Terrible Tale
Damon Runyon – So You Won’t Talk!
Patricia Highsmith – Sauce for the Goose
P. D. James – A Very Commonplace Murder

II. Entrees Historigues: Tales From The Culinary Past.

August Derleth – A Dinner at Imola
Robert Bloch – The Feast in the Abbey
Alphonse Daudet – The Three Low Masses
Alexander Pushkin – The Coffin-Maker
Washington Irving – Guests from Gibbet Island
Richard Dehan – The Compleat Housewife
Walter Besant & James Rice – The Case of Mr Lucraft
G. B. Stern – The Man who Couldn’t Taste Pepper
Roger Zelazny – Final Dining

III. Just Desserts. A Section Of Detective Cases

Agatha Christie – Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds
H. C. Bailey – The Long Dinner
Nicholas Blake – The Assassins’ Club
Roy Vickers – Dinner for Two
Michael Gilbert – A Case for Gourmets
Lawrence G. Blochman – Rum for Dinner
Georges Simenon – Under the Hammer
Rex Stout – Poison a la Carte
Roald Dahl – Lamb to the Slaughter

Blurb:
Murder On The Menu is a mouth-watering collection of short stories from the masters of mystery, where food and death meet with devastating effect.

Paperback Fanatic # 21

Justin Marriott (ed.) Paperback Fanatic # 21 (January 2012)

Contents:

Fanatical Thoughts

Fanatical Mail: letters from Bam!!!, Colin Clyne, Andreas Decker, Holger Hasse, Mark Savage, Mike Chivers, Steve Lines, Stephen Sennitt, Stuart Williams, Gary Dobbs, Andy Boot, Kev Demant, Nigel Taylor

Justiin Marriott – Bounding From the Thirties! The Corinth regency reprints of The Phantom Detective and Dr Death, plus Corinth Checklist.

Rob Matthews – Gold Medal’s Golden Age. Part 1 of a definitive A-Z

Andreas Decker – 50 years of Rhodan- a celebration of pulp astronaut Perry Rhodan’s 50th birthday

Andrew Myers – TNT “the overlooked and demented men’s adventure series”

James Doig – Frank Bernier: A Forgotten Australian Paperback Artist.

Abraham Merritt cover gallery- examples from around the world

Paperback Dungeon: Johnny Mains on John Burke (1922-1911)
Review of Hip Pocket Sleaze
Graham Andrews – Fit To Be Tied (new column devoted to film novelisations)
John Kenney – Glorious Trash (regular column)

For further details, orders, etc, visit Fanatic HQ – and do it soon!

John Gawsworth – Strange Assembly

John Gawsworth (ed.) – Strange Assembly (Unicorn, 1932)

John Gawsworth – Foreword

M. P. Shiel – The Flying Cat
Sir Ronald Ross – The Vivisector Vivisected
Frederick Carter – The Black Lad
Herbert E. Palmer – The Franc-Tireur’s Escape
Arthur Machen – The Gift Of Tongues
Hubert Crackanthorpe – A Fellside Tragedy
Francis Marsden – The Mask
Stephen Graham – Ilya Vilka
Rhys Davies – The Journey
Stephen Hudson – A Fragment
Wilfred Ewart – Londoners
Frederick Carter – The Harrying Of The Dead
M. P. Shiel – A Night in Venice
Arthur Machen – The Rose Garden

David Stuart Davies – The Casebook Of Sexton Blake

David Stuart Davies (ed.) – The Casebook Of Sexton Blake (Wordsworth Editions, 2009)

Eric Parker, from the cover of the Sexton Blake Annual, 1940 edition

Mark Hodder – Introduction

Cecil Hayter – The Slave Market (1907) In the dangerous depths of Africa, Blake races to the rescue of an old school friend!
W. J. Lomax – A Football Mystery (1907) Blake and Tinker join the England team to beat the cheating opposition!
Ernest Sempill – The Man From Scotland Yard (1908) Blake has his first encounter with the greatest super-villain he would ever meet!
William Murray Gordon – The Law of the Sea (1912) Blake goes down with the ship in his own version of the sinking of the Titanic!
G. H. Teed – The Brotherhood of the Yellow Beetle (1913) – Blake grapples with oriental cunning in the form of Prince Wu Ling!
Robert Murray Graydon – A Case of Arson (1917) – A master crook is at work but Blake is on his trail!
G. H. Teed – The Black Eagle (1913) A wronged man is out for, vengeance, Can Blake stop him before it’s too late?

From the blurb
Welcome to the breathtaking adventures of Sexton Blake!

For the greater part of the 20th century, the countless escapades of super sleuth Sexton Blake kept millions of readers on the edge of their seats. Together with his faithful sidekick, the youthful Tinker, and his intelligent bloodhound, Pedro, he stood firm against an onslaught of crime and villainy, defeating his enemies with his extraordinary powers of deduction, iron fists and unyielding determination. This thrilling collection presents seven exploits from his ‘golden age’:

Another superb offering from Wordsworth editions. See the Casebook of Sexton Blake thread on Vault of Evil

Paul Gravett – Mammoth Best Crime Comics

Paul Gravett (ed.) The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics (Robinsons, 2008)

Cover design by Peter Stanbury: Illustration by Jordi Bernet

Here is the first ever popular collection of crime comics – the 24 best graphic short stories in the crime genre, spanning all the colours of noir, from classic American newspaper strip serials and notorious uncensored comic books to today’s global graphic novel masterpieces.

This must-have collection is fully loaded with some of the greatest writers and artists in comics publishing, including Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Will Eisner, Max Allan Collins, Johnny Craig, Alex Toth, Joe Kubert, Bernie Krigstein – plus adaptations of/collaborations by famous crime writers, such as Dashiel Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Lesley Charteris and Raymond Chandler.

Meet a gallery of hard-boiled, iconic heroes and killers inside including:Dashiell Hammett’s smooth operator Secret Agent X-9, Will Eisner’s masked mystery man The Spirit, Mickey Spillane’s heavyweight tough-guy Mike Hammer, Muñoz and Sampayo’s brooding ex-cop Alack Sinner, Abuli and Bernet’s venal hitman-for-hire Torpedo 1936, Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty’s femme fatale investigator Ms. Tree, and Charles Burns’ Mexican wrestler and defective detective El Borbah.

About the Author:

Paul Gravett is the leading light in the UK comics industry. Freelance journalist, curator, and broadcaster, he has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years. He writes for publications as diverse as the Guardian, Bookseller and Comics International; and is author of Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics and Graphic Novels; Stories to Change Your Life.

Published by Robinson 18 July 2008, paperback, £12.99

I don’t do “bedside books” because I’m always far too busy having sex, but let’s pretend for a moment that I was like you poor fellows who lead a life of solitary vice and, most likely, wear pyjamas and comfy tartan slippers; then I’d have no hesitation in snuggling up in bed with a steaming hot cup of cocoa and a copy of The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics because it’s epic!

Only intended to flick through it for the time being but I wasn’t reckoning with the irresistible pull of Jack Cole’s drug soaked Murder, Morphine And Me (True Crimes, 1948), masked wrestler El Bordah (reluctantly dragging himself away from his copy of Bongo Butt magazine to investigate a bad show at the Sperm Bank in Charles Burns’ Love In Vein, 1987) and the squelchy horrors of Johnny Craig’s suitably malodorous The Sewer (William M. Gaines’ Crime Suspense Stories, 1951).

Ruthless Mr. Big’s, ultra-violent hoods, double-dealing dames, unscrupulous PI’s, cops of all stripe, stacked broads, the occasional juvenile delinquent – they’re all present and up to no good. I’ve not spotted any blackmailer’s or fat guys called ‘Mo’ yet, but chances are they’re in here. When I get time, I’ll try and give you the full table of contents for this and the companion volume of sorts – Mammoth Horror Comics – but hopefully this taster will at least give you some idea of the sickly treats in store.

Thanks, Sam!