I picked this one up the other day, and I was looking forward
to reading it. However, it's been a big disappointment so
far. The first story, which features Erle Stanley Gardner's
Patent Leather Kid is OK (you can't go wrong with a masked
Zorro type), and Steve Fisher's "Goodbye, Hannah" is also
pretty good (but I'd read it not long ago in another
anthology). Raoul Whitfield's story comes from "Breezy
Stories," which was a pulp, but there's no action here. And
it's not a very good story. Ed McBain's story isn't even from
a pulp. It's from Playboy, and there's no action at all. It's
a two-character story, quite long, and it's all conversation.
I'm beginning to feel as if I was hornswoggled. The next
story is Bruno Fischer's "Smile, Corpse, Smile," which has a
dandy title. Too bad the story doesn't quite live up to it.
Maybe things will pick up as I get farther into the
book.
And a happy hardboiled Thanksgiving to one and all.
Bill Crider
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 26 Nov 2003 EST