I finished three books during this week, as well as one pulp magazine issue.
Books
- Blaze the Trail, Snoopy, by Charles M. Schulz. This paperback contains strips selected from the Peanuts collection And a Woodstock in a Birch Tree. Though there are plenty that feature both Snoopy and his bird pal, there are also quite a few with the rest of the gang, especially Charlie Brown’s younger sister, Sally, and a new kid named Eudora. Recommended.
- Swords Against Death, by Fritz Leiber. The second of Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series in chronological story order. The stories in this collection are generally better than those of the first, as the duo’s adventures take them to the realm of Death and then around the world before a return to Lankhmar. Their sorcerous patrons, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, play important, if small, roles in some of the tales. Perhaps the highlight of the collection is the last story, “Bazaar of the Bizarre,” with its mysterious shop that suddenly appears, along with a storekeeper in search of customers after the strange wonders within. Mildly recommended.
- Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler. In the second Philip Marlowe novel, the detective gets mixed up with a big ex-con looking for his lost love, a jewel robbery, a drug dealer, and assorted killings. He picks up some assistance from a young woman who is the daughter of a policeman: but is she hiding a larger role in the web of crime? And what about the woman who seems rather unconcerned about her stolen jewels, and even about her murdered friend? Marlowe remains an engaging character, though the novel doesn’t quite hang together. I think I prefer Murder, My Sweet (RKO, 1944), the film version that starred Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, and Anne Shirley, with a memorable performance by Mike Mazurki. Recommended nonetheless.
Magazine
- Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 11, 1925
This issue of Argosy All-Story Weekly benefited from an entertaining tale of a rancher coming to the assistance of his half-sister, who has gotten involved with bootleggers; the return of Hopalong Cassidy to action, and just in time, in “The Convalescent,” the latest part of the series Hopalong Cassidy’s Pal; and a satisfying conclusion to the railroad serial “The Call of Shining Steel.” Most of the other stories were good, but Karl W. Detzer’s “Peterson Pride” was rather grimmer and more downbeat than I prefer. Luckily, the issue ended with a humorous story, “The Wild Bull of Montana,” by Samuel G. Camp.