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Post by dem bones on Apr 26, 2024 16:29:10 GMT
Out now!Justin Marriott [ed] — Paperback Fanatic #48 (Paperback Fanatic, April 2024) COLUMNS Paperback News — News of media related to vintage paperbacks and made by people we like. Paperback Views — We have letters! Well two emails, which I guess counts? Artists Assemble — Tom Tesarek on Wally Wood's work for the SF digests and paperbacks. The Auctioneer — Jules Burt takes in recent prices realised at eBay. The Sleazy Reader — Tom Tesarek takes the controls for a look at a prescient paperback. Hortwitz Paperbacks — Jeff Popple's column on the cult Australian publisher takes on spies. Haunted Love — Justin Marriott continues his pointless obsession with gothic romance paperbacks. Naval Gazing — Justin Marriott commences a pointless obsession with naval adventure paperbacks Robot Roy Speaks — Roy Nugen on cult film director Fred Olen Ray and his paperback influences Book of the Movie — John Peel on James Bond. Insert shaken not stirred pun of your own choice The Vault of Pulp Horror — Tom Tesarek tackles an issue of Ace Mystery Magazine. The Horror! the Horror! — Steve Carroll on the vampire police procedural. Hot Lead — Steve Myall on the Wilderness series by David Robbins. The Manly Man's Manly Book Cave — Steve Carroll reviews a recent issue of Men's Adventure Quarterly.
ARTICLES Shark!— James Doig on the wave of shark—exploitation in Australian paperbacks during the "Summer of Jaws. The Panther Crimeband — Jules Burt on the distinctive "Crimebands" from UK publisher Panther. When Eight Bells Toll I Sit Up and Pay Attention — Jim O'Brien shares life lessons on the difference MacLean and Hemingway. I Wanna Be A—DAW—ed — Justin Marriott showcases his picks from the first 100 DAW Books Strangers in a Strange Land — Justin Marriott on authors who worked in genres you wouldn't associate them with The Filth and the Fury — Justin Marriott on horror giant John Farris, who mixed sleaze and hi—brow in his unique horror books. Bloody Kids! — Justin Marriott's A—Z of Children's Horror in the UKAvailable via *m*zon. ukA*m*z*n.com Was only planning usual initial flick through but then I hit Shark!, the children's horror six pager, the interviews with Chris Mikul and Steve Holland, the pulp fair report, assorted Aus pulps .... thoughts on these and much else herein to follow over coming days ... Thanks and very well done to Justin & contributors!
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Post by ripper on Apr 26, 2024 10:25:12 GMT
Living right on the edge of the Chase, and having walked it for over 50 years, I am sad to report I haven't run into any werewolves, been kidnapped by aliens, nor answered the door to even a single black-eyed child, but my goodness these little books are entertaining. The tale of Elizabeth Gaskin is well known around here, in fact I live mere yards from where she did, and there is a wood opposite Hednesford Park known as Gaskin's Wood, where my mates and I would play. I read of the 1964 UFO crash in Nick Redfern's Cosmic Crashes, yet there is also another alleged crash in 1974 that doesn't get so much coverage mentioned in the same book. It hasn't been so long since there were reports of a panther seen on the Chase and what was described as a 'crocodile' in a stream. Many reports were in free local papers that we received each week, but sadly that doesn't happen nowadays.
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Post by ripper on Apr 26, 2024 10:07:12 GMT
Cover of hardback and Ebook. Thanks for the scans, Andy. Well, I finished Testament last night. It picked up pace towards the end with some of Hutson's usual descriptions of bullet damage to bodies, plus a Night of the Living Dead style siege of a church. Overall, it was okay, I thought. It lacked the rawness of his early work, as though he had taken sandpaper and rounded off the sharpness that used to be there. A number of characters I thought would play major parts were just dropped with no further mention of them, and a betrayal was telegraphed way before Doyle and his partner became aware of it. In Renegades there were two story threads running in parallel: Doyle and Georgie hunting down the rogue IRA cell, and the Callahans acquisition of the stained glass window, and the two only really interacted at the finale. Testament is far more mixed, indeed, it is much more akin to Heathen than Renegades. To be honest, I prefer Doyle in straightforward thrillers than mixing the supernatural into the action. In Renegades the two threads were so well separated it was possible to ignore the supernatural elements for most of the book, and last time I read it I did just that, skipping those chapters where the stained glass window is mentioned. If you are a Doyle fan like me then Testament is worth a read. I hope Hutson brings him back, though he is getting on in years now, but I would prefer a straight thriller.
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Post by humgoo on Apr 26, 2024 8:11:25 GMT
Aaron Worth - The Translation of Aqbar: (Richard Chizmar [ed] Cemetery Dance, #76, 2017). Would probably have given this antho a miss had it not been for your notes, so thank you! This one is a little cracker. Perhaps written with "The Great God Pan" in mind?
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Post by David A. Riley on Apr 25, 2024 16:39:37 GMT
For anyone lucky enough to be able to attend this year's Fringe in Edinburgh, Parallel Universe Publications author and actress, Kate Farrell has adapted her own short story Waiting into a play, in which she will also appear. Waiting was first published by Parallel Universe Publications in Kitchen Sink Gothic before being included in Kate's own collection And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After. I have written a longer piece about this on the PUP website.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 25, 2024 6:53:37 GMT
Long overdue a thread on Vault; Lee Brickley - UFO's Werewolves & The Pig-Man: Exposing England's Strangest Location - Cannock Chase (Yam Yam Books, 2013) Introduction
The Bloody History Of Cannock Chase Alien Encounters Wild Beasts Legend Of The Pig Man Ghostly Goings On Top Secret Military Activity
Conclusions Blurb: The mysterious woodlands of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, England are known throughout the world as an entry point for bizarre and unearthly, paranormal phenomena. From werewolf sightings and spectral encounters, to documented UFO crashes and spooky urban legends, this supernatural portal area experiences more inexplicable activity than you even dare imagine.
In this book, Lee Brickley chronicles his investigation into the very location many researchers call "England's Strangest". With brand new sighting reports, spine tingling tales of gruesome monsters, and fresh information on the alleged top secret military connection that could be responsible for it all. Are you brave enough to find out what's really going down in the woods today? Introduction: Author on growing up in a haunted house and how he first came to study unexplained phenomena in the area, "which many researchers and best-selling investigative journalists'— Nick Pope, Nick Redfern and Neil Arnold for three — 'list as one of England's most active paranormal hotspots." On the evidence of this slim volume, it certainly gives Mysterious Milton Keynes a close run for the title (Haunted Harrow Weald, your day will come). The Bloody History of Cannock Chase: Featuring the Black Death, William 'The Rugely Poisoner' Palmer (his ghost haunts the corridors of HMP Stafford), Satanic cultists, the Wyrley Gang - animal mutilators from either within the local community or outer space; the jury is still out - a haunted war German POW cemetery, the bloody spectre of Elizabeth Gaskin, the A34 child-killer, and the People of the Horn. Alien Encounters: Did the MOD remove three dead extra-terrestrials from a crashed UFO on Cocksparrow Lane during the Spring of 1964, and if so, why won't they tell us? An alien abduction near the Cannock Leisure Centre during the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. Terrifying experience of Mark, snatched from the wood by black clad, hostile, fanged saucermen while returning from a friend's birthday party. Triangular UFO's over Stafford Hospital. Not for the first time we ask ourselves; what can it all mean? Wild Beasts: Mauling and attempted abduction of ten-year-old Emily Hilton by a slavering werewolf — or dog-man — in a stretch of Hazelslade Wood overlooking the Beau Desert Golf Club, as witnessed by her parents. "Standing directly over my trembling daughter, just as my wife described, was a now howling, hairy creature stood on its hind legs. I only saw it for a moment because when it detected me it darted." Also, Navy Bill and the 14 feet yellow-bellied monster serpent; alien big cat sightings; the black panther of Cannock Chase, etc. Legend Of The Pig Man: As name suggests, a tragic human-pig hybrid, reputedly born to a victim of secret "disgusting genetic experiments" conducted by Allied scientists during WWII. Banished from home by parents who accused her of going with a man out of wedlock, his mother took to the woods to raise her monster child. Author documents three reported encounters with the snouted horror from October 1993 to 2011. It even has its own jingle. "When night falls, enter the woods at your peril, For inside lurks something worse than the devil, Avoid at all costs the gathering place, Where at midnight, the Pig-Man roams on Cannock Chase." Ghostly Goings On: Mr. Bird and the vanishing hitch-hiker from out of the graveyard on Stile Cop Road; one minute a young woman in her mid-twenties, the next an ugly, evil-eyed hag! And then — she isn't there at all; Caroline Parks and the phantom jaywalker of the Hednesford-Rugeley road (as also mentioned by Antony Milne - who underplays it - in his Haunted Cars and Highways); "It looked like a man with some sort of rimmed hat on, but he was also translucent and I couldn't see where his legs met the ground. It looked like he was floating above the road. He had bright yellow eyes — I thought maybe it was a vampire." Also, a column of spectral Roman foot-soldiers on the march in Birches Valley, and the rather more sobering proposition of demon children - evil entities raised by local Satanists - loose in the wood. Top Secret Military Activity : Are the military using a network of secret tunnels to transport nuclear weapons or worse across the Midlands? Is there a government-military super-bunker beneath Cannock Chase? The author's pessimistic theory on why the residents of Cannock Chase have experienced more than their fair share of weird goings-on since the First World War.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 25, 2024 6:48:57 GMT
I might have get hold of that volume with Garton's memoir, having developed something of a morbid fascination with the Warrens. I have a friend who goes to see all those tacky Conjuring movies. Apparently the Warrens were an odd mix of shyster poseurs exploiting the fears and frailties of their clients, and devout Catholics; it's no doubt a salient feature of my own bias that I don't find that all that unlikely a mix. I'm sorry to hear of Mr. Garton's passing. That was a lovely photo of him and his colleagues back in the day. cheers, Hel. Of all Stephen Jones' anthologies Dancing With The Dark may well be the one I've had the most enjoyment from — the horror author's very own I've seen a Ghost.
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Post by helrunar on Apr 24, 2024 20:39:13 GMT
I might have get hold of that volume with Garton's memoir, having developed something of a morbid fascination with the Warrens. I have a friend who goes to see all those tacky Conjuring movies.
Apparently the Warrens were an odd mix of shyster poseurs exploiting the fears and frailties of their clients, and devout Catholics; it's no doubt a salient feature of my own bias that I don't find that all that unlikely a mix.
I'm sorry to hear of Mr. Garton's passing. That was a lovely photo of him and his colleagues back in the day.
cheers, Hel.
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Post by andydecker on Apr 24, 2024 15:20:31 GMT
Cover of hardback and Ebook.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 24, 2024 11:12:24 GMT
Think my favourite piece by Ray Garton was his reminiscence on ghost-writing for Ed and Lorraine Warren in Stephen Jones' Dancing With The Dark.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 24, 2024 10:54:43 GMT
Vernon Lee - A Wedding Chest: ( Pope Jacynthe and Other Stories, 1904). Peguria, 15th century. On the eve of her wedding, Monna Maddelena is abducted by masked men in the pay of Troilo Baglioni, her long time stalker, against whose family no man dare lift a sword (they are too rich and powerful). A year later, Master Desiderio, Monna's distraught fiancée, receives a very belated "wedding gift" from Messer Troilo ... Found the style hard-going, but story worth persevering with for those of us who like our horrors properly callous. Frederick Cowles - The Witch-finder: ( The Night Wind Howls, 1938: Michel Parry [ed.], 2nd Mayflower Book Of Black Magic Stories, 1974). East Anglia during the Civil War. Caught in a storm while riding home to Cambridge, Hugh Murray, Justice of Peace and merciless self-appointed witch-finder, seeks shelter for the night at a lonesome cottage on Madingley Hill, until recently home to two of his victims. Six pages of dogged Georgian torture porn. Aaron Worth - The Translation of Aqbar: (Richard Chizmar [ed] Cemetery Dance, #76, 2017). Victorian London. The Pike family hire master illusionist Ugolini to perform a special private adult performance in the parlour of their Islington home. Concealed in the shadows, 14-year-old Harry and younger brother, Willy, witness the show from under a table. The highlight of a killer routine is when the maestro puts his cowering Indian assistant through a series of hideous transformations ... Had a good feeling about this collection when it was first announced. Six stories in, it's not let me down yet.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 24, 2024 10:50:34 GMT
Gee, now the series has come to a point where the editor includes his own stories! I like the fact that the series keeps evolving. The Amazon.uk blurb for Out of the Past needs amending; "With contributions by ... Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Shelley ..."
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Post by dem bones on Apr 24, 2024 10:43:50 GMT
Yes, of course I have a copy! It's equally good and another hefty tome of over 500pgs. Thought you would. That's another added to stupid "wants list." Another of the author's sources is Mike Goss's The Evidence for Phantom Hitch-hikers which, fortunately, I've read and much appreciate. Goss is brilliant on the history of Spring-heeled Jack sighting's, too, if a little critical of Peter Haining's "research." Back with Haunted Cars & Highways, one for friend Ripper. "The Cannock Chase is twenty-six square miles of woodland and heath south-east of Stafford. A Caroline Parks, at midnight in February 2010, almost crashed her car on a stretch of road between Hednesford and Rugeley when she had to swerve to avoid hitting a figure that materialised virtually in front of her. Through her rear window she could see a translucent figure with bright yellow eyes in a long coat and brimmed hat. It looked, as in so many cases, as if its feet were not actually touching the ground. It disappeared into the surrounding woodland. Her uncle had apparently had a similar experience in the past when out on his bike. The same sort of figure just floated up into the air when approached. In the year 2012 five other sightings of this black, hovering apparition were reported."
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Post by ripper on Apr 24, 2024 9:36:54 GMT
Shaun Hutson--Testament (Caffeine Nights, 2019)
Blurb: TESTAMENT - For some...death is just the beginning... You have a chance to save the world or the only person you ever loved...What would you do...? Sean Doyle faced danger, death and other things he'd rather forget during his time in the Counter Terrorist Unit. But times change, even if Doyle doesn't. He's older but no wiser and the world he knew has changed. Now he finds himself working as a Private Security Consultant in Baghdad, still a city in turmoil. His job is to protect the men working on a new rail line from terrorist attacks. For Doyle, it seems like old times but this time it's a different kind of enemy. However, someone from his past arrives to offer him the kind of work he was made for. Doyle is given the chance to re-join the Counter Terrorist Unit. The reason is that a case he worked on thirty years earlier has been re-opened. A man he thought was dead has been spotted in the company of the Russian Mafia. But how can this be? Doyle knows that he himself killed this man one fateful night in Ireland back in the eighties. The lure of his old life is too much but when he returns he discovers there are some catches. After physical and psychological tests, he will have to work with a partner. A man half his age who seems to embody everything Doyle despises. Between them, these two will have to hunt down the man who Doyle thought was dead. A man with limitless wealth, twisted desires and the mind of a monster. The man responsible for the death of the only woman Doyle ever loved. It's meant to be a mission but, for Doyle, it's what he does best. It's revenge. However, when the time comes, he will find answers that threaten not only his life but his sanity. His old, blood spattered world will come hurtling back to engulf him and a decision must be made that defies reason. Sean Doyle is back but might wish he wasn't....
This is a sequel to Hutson's first Sean Doyle novel, Renegades. While other Doyle novels have been straightforward thrillers, Testament follows Renegades in that it blends the supernatural into the mix.
The story begins in Iraq, with Doyle providing security for a railway project. It isn't too long until Doyle's former CTU boss asks him to come back to London and track down David Callahan, whom Doyle killed three decades earlier, yet has been seen and identified in the company of Ukrainian gangsters. Doyle finds that the methods of the CTU have changed and he is looked upon as a dinosaur. Added to Doyle's problems is that he is made to work with a partner, one of the CTU's modern agents.
As Doyle and his partner track down Callahan, a series of robberies occur which suggest that Doyle's quarray is collecting some very strange items.
I'm about 80% through the novel. I was expecting more action in Iraq, but there isn't that much. There are also several characters introduced that I expected would feature prominently, yet just disappear. It's clear that Doyle has mellowed somewhat, yet retains his inherent toughness. Having said that, he is having dreams about being visited by Georgie, his former CTU partner and only love, who was killed in Doyle's first brush with Callahan, but little does he know that those visitations are going to take a more substantial twist.
There are several unpleasant scenes of women being abused by Callahan, and the murder of a child, so be warned. Up to now, the action has not been as frequent nor as bloody as earlier Doyle adventures, but that may change as the climax approaches. Hopefully, I will finish this one in the next day or two and shall post my final thoughts.
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Post by goathunter on Apr 24, 2024 4:43:38 GMT
Sinema in David J. Schow's Silver Scream wouldn't be the worst place to start. Most (all?) of the above 'splat pack' have stories in that beauty. I'll second that! Silver Scream is still my favorite anthology. Every story is a winner. Hunter
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