Richard Dalby’s anthology offers something for everyone. Some well-known classic stories like “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” will remind you of Doyle’s subtlety. Agatha Christie captures the Christmas mood with “A Christmas Tragedy.” Literature lovers will appreciate Thomas Hardy’s “The Grave By the Handpost.” I enjoyed Wilkie Collins’s “Mr. Wray’s Cash Box.” If you’re looking for a well-rounded anthology of Christmas stories, Crime for Christmas will fit the bill.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
FOREWORD By Peter Cushing OBE vii
The trinity cat / Ellis Peters . 1
A happy solution / Raymond Allen 14
The adventure of the blue carbuncle / Arthur Conan Doyle 27
An upright woman — H.R.F. Keating 45
A book for christmas — Christopher Hallum 67
A pair of muddy shoes — Lennox Robinson 73
The unknown murderer — H.C. Bailey 80
The buoy that did not light — Edgar Wallace 101
A christmas tragedy / Agatha Christie 112
The Ghost’s touch / Fergus Hume 127
The Grotto / Pamela Sewell 140
The show must not go on / David G. Rowlands 144
Red lily / Dick Donovan 154
The black bag left on a doorstep / C.L. Pirkis 177
The grave by the handpost / Thomas Hardy 198
Mr. Wray’s cash box / Wilkie Collins 209
SOLUTION OF THE ENDGAME IN ‘A HAPPY SOLUTION’ 279
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 280

Arabella and the Battle for Venus is the second book in the Arabella series. David Levine creates a steampunk world where steamships can sail in space. In this volume, Napoleon and his forces dominate Venus. Arabella’s boyfriend has been captured and she’s bound and determined to rescue him. Tales like this take a large dose of “suspension of belief” to enjoy. I did enjoy the first Arabella adventure (you can read my review here). If you’re in the mood for High Adventure and SF hijinks, Arabella and the Battle for Venus will give you a “sense of wonder.” GRADE: B+

We have dozens of Christmas music CDs but each year we tend to add one or two to our mix. This year, it’s This Is Christmas by Katherine Jenkins. I’m a big fan of Katherine Jenkins. She’s been compared to Sarah Brightman because she sings classical as well as pop songs. The songs on this CD range from traditional to modern. If you’re tired of the same old same old Christmas songs, you might want to give Katherine Jenkins’s This Is Christmas a listen. You can find my review of Katherine Jenkins: The Ultimate Collection here. Check out the sample below. GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
1. “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” Traditional 3:37
2. “In Dulci Jubilo” Traditional 2:31
3. “Away in A Manger” Traditional 3:36
4. “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” Bob Wells, Melvin H. Torme 3:27
5. “Santa Baby” Joan Jarvis, Phillip Springer, Tony Springer 3:24
6. “Deck the Halls” Traditional 2:19
7. “Sleep Quietly My Jesus” Ruth Heller 2:51
8. “I Wish You Christmas” John Milford Rutter 4:25
9. “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” Traditional 3:20
10. “Come What May” (with Plácido Domingo) Kevin Gilbert 4:35

Just in time for that Rolling Stones fan on your holiday shopping list, here’s a 2-CD set that will thrill them. Many of these songs have never been released. And many of these songs show the influence of American blues artists on the early Rolling Stones sound. Also, remember, these songs were recorded with 1960s technology so the sound is primitive on some tracks. But, for a true Rolling Stones fan, On Air is like a Time Machine taking you back to the origins of one of the great rock & roll bands. Do you remember any of these songs? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
Standard edition
No. Title Writer(s) Radio show Date Length
1. “Come On” Chuck Berry Saturday Club 26 October 1963 2:03
2. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Saturday Club 18 September 1965 3:46
3. “Roll Over Beethoven” Chuck Berry Saturday Club 26 October 1963 2:19
4. “The Spider and the Fly” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Yeah Yeah 30 August 1965 3:14
5. “Cops and Robbers” Kent Harris Blues in Rhythm 9 May 1964 3:44
6. “It’s All Over Now” Bobby Womack, Shirley Womack The Joe Loss Pop Show 17 July 1964 3:18
7. “Route 66” Bobby Troup Blues in Rhythm 9 May 1964 2:32
8. “Memphis, Tennessee” Chuck Berry Saturday Club 26 October 1963 2:22
9. “Down the Road a Piece” Don Raye Top Gear 6 March 1965 2:01
10. “The Last Time” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Top Gear 6 March 1965 3:10
11. “Cry to Me” Bert Berns Saturday Club 18 September 1965 3:07
12. “Mercy, Mercy” Don Covay, Ronald Miller Yeah Yeah 30 August 1965 2:54
13. “Oh! Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’)” Barbara Lynn Saturday Club 18 September 1965 1:49
14. “Around and Around” Chuck Berry Top Gear 23 July 1964 2:45
15. “Hi-Heel Sneakers” Tommy Tucker Saturday Club 18 April 1964 1:56
16. “Fannie Mae” Buster Brown, Clarence L. Lewis, Bobby Robinson Saturday Club 18 September 1965 2:11
17. “You Better Move On” Arthur Alexander Blues in Rhythm 9 May 1964 2:46
18. “Mona” Bo Diddley Blues in Rhythm 9 May 1964 2:58
Deluxe bonus tracks
No. Title Writer(s) Radio show Date Length
1. “I Wanna Be Your Man” John Lennon, Paul McCartney Saturday Club 8 February 1964 1:52
2. “Carol” Chuck Berry Saturday Club 18 April 1964 2:31
3. “I’m Moving On” Hank Snow The Joe Loss Pop Show 10 April 1964 2:06
4. “If You Need Me” Wilson Pickett, Sonny Sanders, Robert Bateman The Joe Loss Pop Show 17 July 1964 2:01
5. “Walking the Dog” Rufus Thomas Saturday Club 8 February 1964 2:59
6. “Confessin’ the Blues” Jay McShann, Walter Brown The Joe Loss Pop Show 17 July 1964 2:26
7. “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” Solomon Burke, Bert Berns, Jerry Wexler Top Gear 6 March 1965 3:34
8. “Little by Little” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Phil Spector The Joe Loss Pop Show 10 April 1964 2:30
9. “Ain’t That Lovin’ You, Baby” Jimmy Reed Rhythm and Blues 31 October 1964 1:56
10. “Beautiful Delilah” Chuck Berry Saturday Club 18 April 1964 2:10
11. “Crackin’ Up” Bo Diddley Top Gear 23 July 1964 2:16
12. “I Can’t Be Satisfied” Muddy Waters Top Gear 23 July 1964 2:30
13. “I Just Want to Make Love to You” Willie Dixon Saturday Club 18 April 1964 2:16
14. “2120 South Michigan Avenue” Nanker Phelge Rhythm and Blues 31 October 1964 3:47

Scott Adams is the incredible cartoonist behind DILBERT. In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Adams predicted a Donald Trump win–a year before the vote. WIN BIGLY tells the story of how Scott Adams came to realize Trump was going to win the Election. And, in the process, Adams explains how Trump’s strategies of persuasion work. For example:

“I’m having a fun time watching President Trump flood the news cycle with so many stories and outrages that one one can keep up. Here’s how the math of persuasion works in this situation:

1 outrage out of 3 headlines in a week: bad persuasion.

25 outrages out of 25 headlines in a week: excellent persuasion

At this moment, there are so many outrages, executive orders, protests, and controversies that none of them can get enough oxygen in our brains. I can’t obsess about problem X because the rest of the alphabet is coming at time at the same time.” (p. 145)

This is just one of Trump’s strategies to mess with our minds. Once Scott Adams explains it, it seems obvious how Trump gets away with everything no matter how egregious. Terrific book! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preamble: The day my reality split into two xi
Introduction (where I prime you for the rest) 1
Part 1. Why facts are overrated 13
The most important perceptual shift in history 15
About facts 19
Persuasion vocabulary 27
Part 2. How to see reality in a more useful way 31
The myth of the rational mind 33
How strong is persuasion? 36
The persuasion filter 38
Cognitive dissonance 48
Confirmation bias 60
Mass delusions 62
When reality bifurcated 67
The making of a hypnotist 71
Part 3. How President Trump does what others can’t 83
The time of kings 85
President Trump’s talent stack 90
Trump’s Rosie O’Donnell moment 94
The persuasion stack 99
Setting the table 116
Go bigly or go home 120
Is President Trump a “natural” persuader? 123
Part 4. How to use persuasion in business and politics 127
How to design a linguistic kill shot 129
How to use visual persuasion 137
How to make people imagine you as President 143
How I got the VP prediction wrong 148
How to persuade by association 151
How to create effective campaign slogans and logos 154
Godzilla gets in the game (or does he?) 162
How to get away with bad behavior 169
How a trained persuader evaluates scandals 174
How to win by a hair(cut) 187
How to create two ways to win, no way to lose 189
How to use the high-ground maneuver 194
A grab bag of Trump’s quickest and easiest persuasion tools 198
Part 5. Why joining a tribe makes you powerful and blind 205
How I used the persuasion filter to predict 207
Why I endorsed Clinton (for my safety) until I didn’t 217
The third act 235
Was I predicting or causing? 243
Election night 253
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 257
Appendix A: The persuasion reading list 261
Appendix B: How to be a better writer 265
Appendix C: Hos to find out is you are a simulation 267
Appendix D: Trump’s many mistakes 271
NOTES 275
INDEX 281

The Buffalo Bills slid to an icy win over the plucky Indianapolis Colts last Sunday amid blizzard conditions. But, this Sunday, the weather will just be cold–35 degrees–and sunny. The Miami Dolphins come to town after defeating the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. Right now, the Bills have a 25% chance of reaching the Playoffs. Although Vegas is making the Bills a 3-point favorite, this game could go either way. How is your favorite NFL team going to do today?

The audience started clapping as soon as STAR WARS appeared on the opening screen of The Last Jedi. For fans of STAR WARS, this movie will be review-proof. R2D2 makes an appearance. 3CPO shows up, too. An aging Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), usually in a grumpy mood, resists training Rey (Daisy Ridley). Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), leader of the Resistance, finds her small band of heroes decimated by the First Order. Bad Guys Snoke (Andy Serkis) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) move to crush the Resistance. Plenty of battles result. The movie keeps flipping from the island with Luke and Rey to the beleaguered Resistance fleet. If you’re not a STAR TREK fan, none of this will make a lot of sense. Needless to say, The Last Jedi will make tons of money for Disney who owns the franchise. STAR WARS: The Last Jedi is likely to be the most profitable movie of 2017. GRADE: A-

Back in 1989, the late lamented Zebra Books published Goodnight Moom, a “Jack MacLane” classic. Bill Crider wrote a lot of books in various genres–mysteries, fantasies, westerns–but Bill’s horror novels like Keepers of the Beast (Zebra, 1988), Blood Dreams (Zebra, 1989), Rest in Peace (Zebra, 1990), and Just before Dark (Zebra, 1990) show off another side of his personality. In Goodnight Moom, a boy named Harry talks to Moom and gets some deadly instructions. I was hoping Goodnight Moom might be included in Paperbacks From Hell, but maybe some of the excellent covers in Bill’s “Jack MacLane” series will show up in a future edition.

As you know, Bill Crider has entered hospice care. FFB won’t be the same without him. I hope Bill enjoys all of today’s tributes to his talent, wit, and graciousness. What’s your favorite memory of Bill Crider?

I’ve been reading the Pushcart Prize anthologies for 41 years. At the beginning, I used to buy each volume. But, as the years passed, two trends emerged: the books became thicker (this volume is 640 pages) and the quality went down. Sure, there were still wonderful short stories and essays in each volume, but there was a lot of dreck, too. Especially the poetry. Terrible! In this latest volume, I can recommend Charles Baxter’s story, “Avarice” (it’s about being avarice). I liked Rebecca Makkai’s “The George Spelvin Players” which features a local little theater group with a theft problem. Jane Lancellotti has a lot to say in “If you can’t say anything nice write a one-star review.” “Taxidermy” by Vladislava Kolosova a college-student-prostitute and the Russian Rich. “Winter Wheat” is the sad story of a dysfunctional family. T. C. Boyle explores the cost of fame in “The Five-Pound Burrito.” My favorite story in this anthology is “Voltaire Night” by Deb Olin Unferth. An instructor of an Adult Education creative writing class has his class meet in a bar after the last class and play a game. He asks them to tell the worst thing that has ever happened to them. The results are shocking. “Bloodlines” by Lauren Slater tells the story of a troubled marriage that gets into more trouble when the husband and the wife get their genome sequenced.

As I said, there are some very good stories and essays in this volume. But, you have to search for them amid the filler. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The story of a true artist / Dominica Phetteplace
I sing you for an apple / Eric Wilson
Elk / Robert Wrigley
The G.R.I.E.F. / Micah Stack
Anna May Wong blows out sixteen candles / Sally Wen Mao
The hornet among us / Paul Crenshaw
The spring forecast / Shelley Wong
Avarice / Charles Baxter
Scream (or never minding) / Lia Purpura
Still when I picture it the face of God is a white man’s face / Shane McCrae
The George Spelvin Players / Rebecca Makkai
The revolt of the turtles / Stephen Dunn
If you can’t say anything nice write a one-star review / Jane Lancellotti
Basement delivery / Emily Skillings
Naming happiness / Monte Reel
The antique blacks / Adrian Matejka
Taxidermy / Vladislava Kolosova
The beating heart of the wristwatch / Martin Espada
Winter wheat / Doug Crandell
Consider Oedipus’ father / David Tomas Martinez
The mushroom queen / Liz Ziemska
Cocaine / Alex Dimitrov
Beets / Cate Hennessey
The tallgrass shuffles / Sea Sharp
The Devil’s Triangle / Emma Duffy-Comparone
The brain is not the United States / Elizabeeth Scanlon
New technologies of reading / Angela Woodward
From please bury me in this / Allison Benis White
The five-pound burrito / T.C. Boyle
Daddy dozens / Jamila Woods
Dr. J / Kalpana Narayanan
Pluto’s Gate : Mississippi / James Kimbrell
Forty-two / Lisa Taddeo
We would never sleep / David Hernandez
Priest / Erin McGraw
Walk / Jane Springer
Voltaire night / Deb Olin Unferth
More than this / David Kirby
Narrator / Elizabeth Tallent
100 bells / Tarfia Faizullah
Trash food / Chris Offutt
From thank you terror / Mathias Svalina
The line agent Pascal / Daniel Mason
The Luoyang poem / Ye Chun
The physics of turtles / Jenny Hendrix
Etta James at the Audubon Ballroom / Patricia Spears Jones
A local’s guide to dating in Slocomb County / Chris Drangle
Spiritual evaluation / Taije Silverman
Finders keepers / Jenn Shapland
Hurricane song / Cecily Parks
Things I know to be true / Kendra Fortmeyer
Forgotten sound / Melissa Broder
After reading / Peter Bichsel
Idyll / Richie Hofmann
Fail again / David J. Unger
I dream of horses eating cops / Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
Midterm / Leslie Johnson
The raptor / Charles Holdefer
Resting place / Kate Levin
The invitation / Barry Lopez
Hospice / Jean Valentine
Mistress Mickle all at sea / Elizabeth McCracken
Laika / Sara Batkie
The Carnation Milk Palace / Melissa Pritchard
Cross your fingers God bless / Ron Currie Jr.
The tradition / Jericho Brown
Blue of the world / Douglas W. Milliken
Dritter Klasse ohne Fensterscheiben / Steve Almond
Cleaning the ghost room / Tatiana Forero Puerta
Safe home / Daniel Peña
Bloodlines / Lauren Slater

Fiddlers Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy (her husband) arrived at SUNY AT BUFFALO’s Center for the Arts and delivered a rollicking Christmas concert. In addition to MacMaster and Leahy–two world-class fiddlers–there were bag-pipers and drummers and step-dancing! Something for everyone. Diane and I have seen Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy numerous times over the years. Their music always lifts us up and energizes the audience. We drove to the concert with snow falling so this concert had a real holiday feel to it. MacMaster and Leahy have six children (a seventh is on the way!) and five of them played songs with their parents on fiddles, accordions, and piano. If “A Celtic Family Christmas Concert” comes to your neighborhood, it’s worth a listen! GRADE: A
SET LIST:
Angels We Have Heard On High
White Christmas
The Christmas Medley
Up On The House Top
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Twelve Days Of Christmas
Little Drummer Boy
What Child Is This
Ding Dong Merrily On High
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Silent Night