Some would argue that Matt Smith was the best Doctor Who of all. There’s no doubt the Matt Smith years brought the Doctor Who series to a world audience. Ratings soared! And, Matt Smith had the Good Luck to be partnered with my favorite Companion of all time: Karen Gillian. If you’re a Doctor Who fan, this wonderful 16 Blu-ray disc box set is a must-buy. Any Doctor Who fan on your Gift List would love to find this under their tree! There’s nearly 40 hours of great viewing in this set! Highly recommended!

I requested Otto Penzler’s latest mystery anthology from the North Tonawanda Public Library instead of buying it like I did with Otto’s other recent anthology, The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries (highly recommended!). The reason is simple: I wasn’t sure a historical survey of 19th Century “mysteries” would be my cup of tea. Otto includes classics from Hawthorne and Poe that many readers will be familiar with. I could have done without Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Detective which isn’t a very good story. The best stories are Melville Davisson Post’s ”The Corpus Delicti,” L. Frank Baum’s ”The Suicide of Kiaro,”s and Robert W. Chambers’ ”The Purple Emperor.” Notice how the better selections are skewed towards the end of the 19th Century. GRADE: B-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction ix
1824 • Washington Irving The Story of the Young Robber 1
1827 • William Leggett The Rifle 8
1834 • Nathaniel Hawthorne Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe 30
1841 • Edgar Allan Poe The Murders in the Rue Morgue 42
1845 • Edgar Allan Poe The Purloined Letter 73
1846 • Abraham Lincoln Remarkable Case of Arrest for Murder 90
1850 • Daniel Webster The Fatal Secret 97
1862 • Thomas Bailey Aldrich The Danseuse 100
1865 • Louisa May Alcott A Double Tragedy: An Actor’s Story 112
1875 • Allan Pinkerton The Two Sisters; Or, The Avenger 132
1882 • Frank Stockton The Lady, or the Tiger? and The Discourager of Hesitancy 182
1883 • Mark Twain A Thumb-print and What Came of It 194
1888 • Ambrose Bierce My Favorite Murder 207
1889 • Charles W. Chesnutt The Sheriff’s Children 215
1891 • Richard Harding Davis Gallegher 230
1892 • William Norr ’Round the Opium Lamp 256
1894 • Percival Pollard Lingo Dan 261
1895 • Rodrigues Ottolengui The Nameless Man and The Montezuma Emerald 270
1895 • Anna Katharine Green The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock 292
1895 • William M. Hinkley A Very Strange Case 330
1895 • Mary E. Wilkins The Long Arm 343
1896 • Cleveland Moffett The Mysterious Card and The Mysterious Card Unveiled 371
1896 • Mark Twain Tom Sawyer, Detective 394
1896 • Melville Davisson Post The Corpus Delicti 445
1897 • L. Frank Baum The Suicide of Kiaros 470
1897 • Robert W. Chambers The Purple Emperor 482
1898 • Edward Bellamy At Pinney’s Ranch 501
1898 • Stephen Crane The Blue Hotel 514
1899 • Edith Wharton A Cup of Cold Water 541
1899 • Nicholas Carter The Detective’s Pretty Neighbor 565
1899 • Ellen Glasgow A Point in Morals 583
1899 • Jack London A Thousand Deaths 595

The Buffalo Bills let a win slip away in Sunday’s Kansas City game. The Bills had a 10-point lead yet couldn’t close out the Chiefs. A couple of late turnovers gave Kansas City the opening to score…and they did to beat the Bills 17-13. Brutal. Now, in a quick-turnaround, the Bills travel to Miami to take on the Dolphins in tonight’s Thursday Night Football game. Both teams are desperate for a win. The loser will be pretty much out of the Playoff race.

We’ve all been waiting for The Art of Robert E. McGinnis since the book was announced. When I was a teenager, I was drawn to paperbacks that featured stylish, sophisticated women. I finally figured out the cover artist was Robert McGinnis. And, yes, I started buying some paperbacks simply to have the gorgeous McGinnis covers (the Carter Brown series is one example).

Of course, unknown to me, there was someone who was even a bigger McGinnis fan than I was: Art Scott. Today, Art has a complete collection of McGinnis paperbacks (and some movie posters). No one was more qualified to write the 10,000 word introduction to The Art of Robert E. McGinnis than Art Scott (who has some glorious McGinnis originals hanging on his walls!).

If you’re a fan of Robert McGinnis artwork, this new collection is a must-buy. There are rumors that another collection may be in the works (if published, I’ll buy it!). McGinnis is one of the great paperback artists. This book belongs in every serious collector’s library. Magnificent! GRADE: A+

I’ve read all the SF nvoels in Jack McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series. Benedict is a hunter of antiques and collectibles 9000 years in the future. He has a smart pilot, Chase Kolpath, and a relentless curiosity about the Past. In Benedict’s latest adventure, Coming Home, clues to the whereabouts of artifacts from the U.S. Space Museum lead Kolpath and Benedict to Ancient Earth were they are attacked and almost become shark-bait. If you enjoy science fiction with a hint of mystery, I recommend Jack McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series. And I really like the John Harris cover! GRADE: B

The 5-3 Kansas City Chiefs take on the 5-3 Buffalo Bills in a “make-or-break” game. A loss will damage either team’s Playoff chances. The Bills have injuries to two key offensive players. Running back Fred Jackson and rookie wide receiver Sammy Watkins may not play today because of pulled “groins.” Ouch! How will your favorite NFL team do today?

Matt Smith is a tough act to follow. I think Peter Capaldi did as well as he could in the shadow of two of the most popular Doctor Whos–David Tennant and Matt Smith. But I wasn’t energized by Season Eight. Too many of the episodes were ho-hum. Jenna Coleman, an excellent Companion, was wasted and will leave the series. I was hoping Helen Mirren would become Doctor Who (and I’m still hoping). The Doctor Who Christmas Special should be entertaining.

Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook of Martin Ehrengraf is another great book just published by Subterranean Press. It collects all of Lawrence Block’s noirish, amoral Martin Ehrengraf stories. The Ehrengraf stories are very wicked. Ehrengraf works on a contingency basis: if he does not free his clients charged with murder, he doesn’t collect his huge fees. Yet in puzzling, almost inexplicable ways, Ehrengraf’s clients find themselves freed. I found a number of these stories clever and tricky. If you’re looking for something different, dark, and devious you’ll find it here in these Ehrengraf stories.
Table of Contents:
◦ The Ehrengraf Defense
◦ The Ehrengraf Presumption
◦ The Ehrengraf Experience
◦ The Ehrengraf Appointment
◦ The Ehrengraf Riposte
◦ The Ehrengraf Obligation
◦ The Ehrengraf Alternative
◦ The Ehrengraf Nostrum
◦ The Ehrengraf Affirmation
◦ The Ehrengraf Reverse
◦ The Ehrengraf Settlement
◦ The Ehrengraf Fandango
◦ Afterword-Edward D. Hoch/Lawrence Bloch

The Library of America has done it again! First they issued the quirky novels of Philip K. Dick (big sellers!) and then the LOA issued collections of noir novels, SF novels, and a popular H. P. Lovecraft book. The Library of America, best known for issuing volumes of Henry James and Herman Melville, obviously found that dabbling in Popular Culture pays Big Time.

Now, the LOA launches a series of Elmore Leonard novels. This collection includes Fifty-Two Pickup, Swag, Unknown Man No. 89, and The Switch. Of course, I have the original editions, but I can’t resist these Library of America volumes. And I really like the cover that reprints the original paperback artwork (LOA started this with the Philip K. Dick books). If you’re looking for a gift for that Elmore Leonard fan on your gift list, Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1970s is perfect!