I finished four books during this week, as well as two pulp magazine issues.

Books

1. Wednesday’s Wrath, by Don Pendleton. Mack Bolan reaches the third day in his final week-long sweep against the resurgence of the Mafia, but this time he is diverted from his planned target to tackle something much bigger in scope, with potential implications for the nation and the world. This volume was rather more entertaining than the previous entry in the series, though still a bit rushed (necessarily, given the time constraint) and thus perhaps more far-fetched, as Pendleton moves further toward setting up the scope of Bolan’s war beyond the Mafia. Recommended, but not the place to start.
2. The Seven Sirens, by Carter Brown. Lawyer Randy Roberts comes to the isolated island preserve a wealthy client concerning the rich old man’s will, but he soon finds that his job is more difficult than drafting documents: he must determine who among seven candidates is in fact the millionaire’s daughter. The situation becomes even more complicated when murder happens again and again. The solution to the crimes was unexpected. Recommended for fans.
3. The Ninth Enemy, by Francis Vivian. In the fourth of Vivian’s Inspector Knollis mysteries, first published in 1948, the policeman’s holiday is interrupted by the murder of a prominent man. Once again, with the assistance of his sergeant, Ellis, as well as the local police, Knollis painstakingly eliminates a number of suspects, for many people had either opportunity or possible motive, to arrive at the true explanation of the crime and identify the killer. A weakness of this one for me is that the characters the reader meets generally aren’t particularly likeable. Recommended.
4. Janissaries, by Jerry Pournelle. A mercenary captain and his troops, facing imminent destruction at the hands of an enemy, are whisked away by aliens and sent to another planet, one with an early medieval technology level, for their rescuers’ own ends. The story moves along fairly briskly, as the captain makes his way in a world that his 20th-century knowledge can help to improve. There are a couple twists that keep things interesting, though the ending was a little unsatisfying. Mildly recommended.

Continuing Reads

• A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away, by humorist Irvin S. Cobb — a collection of 366 amusing anecdotes published in 1923, which I’ll be reading at the rate of one per day.
• More Heart Throbs — the sequel to the similar Heart Throbs, an anthology of prose and verse selections, often sentimental in nature, submitted by the general public and famous people, published in 1911; I’ll be reading one or more pages (as needed for the selections) per day throughout the year.
• The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, translated by Sir Richard F. Burton in the late 19th century — I hope to read all ten volumes as well as the six supplemental volumes this year.
• Orlando Innamorato, by Matteo Boiardo, translated by Charles Stanley Ross — I hope to finish this Renaissance Italian epic this year.

Magazines

1. Wild West Weekly, May 14, 1932
   Some of the stories in this issue of the Street & Smith western pulp were entertaining enough, such as Nelse Anderson’s “A New Deal for Dodge” and the novelettes “Señor Red Mask in Ghost Canyon,” by Guy L. Maynard, and “Outlaw Lead,” by Lee Bond. However, the overabundance of “western” slang in spots where it wasn’t really called for (e.g., references to “waddies” and “rannies” in otherwise plain narration) meant that the stories were best enjoyed with some time between them.
2. Top-Notch Magazine, March 15, 1923
   The stories in this issue of Top-Notch Magazine largely lived up to the magazine’s name, with standouts the “complete novel,” a northern by James French Dorrance, and one of Vincent Starrett’s tales about detective Jimmie Lavender. For comments on each of the stories in the issue, see last week’s Wednesday Pulp post.