I couldn’t resist reviewing Frank Kane’s Slay Ride (a far cry from Leroy Anderson’s  “Sleigh Ride”) for an FFB this close to Christmas. Frank Kane wrote a series of private eye novels featuring a tough investigator named Johnny Liddel. I enjoyed Kane’s clever titles for his novels (check them out below).

Slay Ride involves Johnny Liddel in an insurance transaction: trade money for jewels stolen from a client. Of course the hand-off goes wrong and one of Liddel’s colleagues gets killed. Liddel resisted the whole “swap of money for stolen jewels” scheme so this debacle only fires up his motivation to take down the jewel heist ring who shakes-down insurance companies for Big Bucks.

If you’re a fan of the Mike Shayne series, you’ll find Johnny Liddel a similar type of private eye. Do you have a favorite Private Eye? GRADE: B

Frank Kane’s Johnny Liddel Series:

About Face (1947) 
Green Light for Death (1949) 
Slay Ride (1950) 
Bullet Proof (1951) 
Dead Weight (1951) 
Bare Trap (1952) 
The Icepick Artists (1953) 
Poisons Unknown (1953) 
Red Hot Ice (1955) 
A Real Gone Guy (1956) 
The Living End (1957) 
Trigger Mortis (1958) 
Grave Danger (1960) 
A Short Bier (1960) 
Time to Prey (1960) 
Due Or Die (1961) 
The Mourning After (1961) 
Stacked Deck (1961) 
Crime of Their Life (1962) 
Dead Rite (1962) 
Hearse Class Male (1963) 
Johnny Come Lately (1963) 
Ring-a-ding-ding (1963) 
Barely Seen (1964) 
Fatal Undertaking (1964) 
Final Curtain (1964) 
The Guilt Edged Frame (1964) 
Esprit De Corpse (1965) 
Two To Tangle (1965) 
Maid In Paris (1966) 
Margin For Terror (1967) 
Johnny Liddell’s Morgue (2012) 
Stairway To Hell (2016) 
Johnny Liddell Mystery Crime Box Set (2016) 
Frame (2022) 

I’ve been a fan of Alicia Keyes for years so buying her new Christmas CD should come as no surprise. Santa Baby is a mix of Christmas standards and some new songs. I heard an interview with Alicia Keyes on National Public Radio (you can listen to it here) and marveled at the discussion about how difficult it is to sing “Ave Maria.” GRADE: A

I also enjoy Dave Koz and his mellow smooth jazz music. If you’re looking for a soothing Christmas CD for those cold winter nights, Christmas Ballads would be the perfect choice! Are you all ready for the Holidays? GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

1. The Christmas Waltz
2. Away In The Manger / Silent Night
3. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) / Imagine (feat. Rebecca Jade)
4. Greensleeves
5. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / My Favorite Things
6. Ave Maria
7. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear / Happy Holiday
8. Merry Christmas Darling
9. Petit Papa Noël
10. Wrapped Up In Your Smile 

Just in time for that Robert Silverberg fan on your Holiday gift list, Subterranean Press has published a 750-page collection of three novels and a novella.

“In Those Who Watch (1967) three New Mexico humans, an eleven-year-old Hopi boy, a widowed single mother, and a divorced Air Force Colonel, unwittingly become entangled with aliens who have long monitored human civilization. Further complicating affairs, an agent from a rival alien species lands on Earth determined to chase down the three renegade observers.”

“The Man in the Maze (1968) is Dick Muller, an engineered telepath, once a hero but now exiled by an ungrateful humanity to the labyrinth on Lemnos. When administrator Boardman tries to enlist Muller once more for a dangerous mission and Muller refuses, the eponymous maze takes on a mental meaning warped enough to rival any physical construct.”

“An overlooked gem, the near-future, post-apocalyptic Tom O’Bedlam (1985)—presented here for the first time in the author’s definitive version—explores the gossamer boundary between rapture and rupture. The denizens of a frayed world begin experiencing collectively shared dreams just as a space probe light years away sends back images eerily similar to their dreamscapes. Is the titular Tom O’Bedlam humanity’s destined prophet to the stars, or a deranged cult leader fated to push a fragile civilization over the brink?”

“The Way to Spook City” (1992), a fabulous novella, takes us through an unforgettable rite of passage, a life-changing voyage into the alien Occupied Zone.  This story will haunt you long after you finish it.

I support small presses like Subterranean and I urge you to do so, too! GRADE: A

Leopoldstadt is set among the Jewish community of Vienna in the first half of the 20th century and follows the lives of “a prosperous Jewish family who had fled the pogroms in the East”.

According to Tom Stoppard, the play “took a year to write, but the gestation was much longer. Quite a lot of it is personal to me, but I made it about a Viennese family so that it wouldn’t seem to be about me.” All four of Stoppard’s Jewish grandparents died in Nazi concentration camps.

The play begins in 1899 and we hear about the “acceptance” of Jews in Vienna. The large Jewish family seems happy but are unaware of the changes coming. In 1900, beautiful Gretl begins an affair with Fitz (who is anti-Semitic) that leads to dire implications for the family.

The action shifts to 1924 and the post World War I social and political order. Already some of the family members have lost their lives. The optimism the Jewish community shared erodes.

The true horror begins in 1935 as the Nazis burst into the ancestral home and terrorize the now poverty-stricken family. Concentration camps loom.

The play concludes in 1955 with the three remaining survivors of the Holocaust. We saw the family dwindle as Vienna became a toxic place for Jews in the first half of the 20th Century. Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have hailed Leopoldstadt as one of the best plays of the year. I agree. It’s a powerful, cautionary tale. GRADE: A

SPOILER ALERT! “[The cyberinsurance industry has] met this demand at considerable long-term financial risk to themselves since very little is known about how these threats will evolve over time or how courts will interpret the coverage and exclusions in the policies in light of future incidents.” (p. 226). END OF SPOILER ALERT!

Josephine Wolff, Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, presents a history of risk and insurance in Cyberinsurance Policy that helps explain why current cyberinsurance is a dicey proposition. You would think that protecting your computer and cell phone would be like buying insurance for your car or house…but think about the range of online hacking threats and phishing attacks we face today. And, these threats continue to morph like Covid-19 variants to increase the danger.

The flaw in this industry is the inability to accurately assess risk. Until that happens, what cyberinsurance companies are selling is smoke and mirrors. Has your computer, cell phone, or credit card been hacked lately? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Series Editor’s Introduction ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1 Introduction: A Market-Driven Approach to Cybersecurity 1

1 History of Cyberinsurance

2 Breach on the Beach: Origins of Cyberinsurance 27

II Cybersecurity Claims Under Non-Cyber Coverage

3 “The Hackers Did This”: Data Breach Lawsuits and Commercial General Liability Insurance 65

4 “The Point of No Return”: Computer Fraud Insurance and Defining Cybercrime 87

5 “Insurrection, Rebellion, Revolution, Riot”: NotPetya, Property Insurance, and War Exclusions 111

III Cyber Coverage and Regulation

6 “The Big Kahuna”: Stand-Alone Cyber Coverage 153

7 “What Is the Point of Collecting Data?”: Global Growth of Cyberinsurance and the Role of Policymakers 181

8 Conclusion: Is Cyber Risk Different? 215

Notes 227

References 249

Index 265

The Buffalo Bills eked out a 32-29 victory over the pesky Miami Dolphins in a frigid game with late snow. You’ll see some wild highlights of the Bills making snow angels! How will your favorite NFL team preform today?

For those of you who love NFL games played in the snow, you’re in for a treat when the Miami Dolphins dodge snowballs at Highmark Stadium tonight. The temperature will be in the 20s, the windchill temperatures will be in the teens! Both quarterbacks will have to deal with 30 mph winds. And, according to the weather-guessers, the snow should be falling for just about the entire game. The Buffalo Bills are 7-point favorites, but if the Dolphins aren’t prepared for the cold and the slippery field, things could change fast!

Among the great Science Fiction artists, John Harris looms as one of my long time favorites. Just in time for the holidays, The Art of John Harris, Volume 2 just showed up. Like Harris’s first volume of gorgeous SF artwork, The Art of John Harris, Beyond the Horizon (you can read my review here), this latest collection of eye-popping artwork will dazzle anyone on your gift list who loves unique visions of Space and the Future.

I confess, I bought many SF books simply because they had great John Harris artwork on the cover. I love these great books of concept paintings that capture the Universe on a massive scale, featuring everything from epic landscapes and towering cities to out-of-this-world science fiction vistas! SF artwork doesn’t get better than this!! GRADE: A 

Last week in a comment, Byron asked: “Where are the Christmas CD reviews?” Well, here are a couple from the 100+ Christmas CDs in our collection. I’m a fan of the Slow Jams series and listen to Slow Jams Christmas, Volume 2 this time of year. I’m fond of Al Jarreau’s version of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)” and the underrated Rotary Connection’s “Christmas Love.”

Ultimate Holiday Collection was a Kohl’s charity CD with funds going to a children’s cause. I like Death Cab for Cutie’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and Natalie Cole’s soulful “The Holly and The Ivy.”

Do you remember these Christmas songs? Any favorites here? Do you have a favorite Christmas song? GRADE: B+ (for both)

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell put together a Christmas anthology that includes not just one but TWO Charles Dickens Christmas stories. And then there’s Arthur Machen’s cunning twist on the Scrooge saga.

But my favorite story is “The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall” by an author completely unknown to me: John Kendrick Bangs. A little research unearthed this information about Mr. Bangs: John Kendrick Bangs (May 27, 1862 – January 21, 1922) was an American author, humorist, editor and satirist. His story introduces the reader to a ghost who has shown up to haunt a family each Christmas for 203 years! The ghost was cursed by a sea nymph so when she shows up, she floods the house! Bangs presents an innovative solution to the ghost problem…one I didn’t see coming!

This anthology delivers a mix of stories. The only one I thought was jarring was “Calling Card” by Ramsey Campbell with its gruesome ending. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — xiii

Their dear little ghost / Elia Wilkinson Peattie — 1

The curse of the catafalques / F. Anstey — 7

The story of the goblins who stole a sexton / Charles Dickens — 39

Christmas night / Elizabeth Walter — 51

A new Christmas carol / Arthur Machen — 71

A Christmas game / A.N.L. Munby — 75

The great staircase at Landover Hall / Frank R. Stockton — 85

The water ghost of Harrowby Hall / John Kendrick Bangs — 99

Christmas meeting / Rosemary Timperly — 109

The ghost / William D. O’Connor — 112

Christmas reunion / Sir Andrew Caldecott — 157

The ghosts at Grantley / Leonard Kip — 168

The Christmas banquet / Nathaniel Hawthorne — 202

The Crown Derby plate / Marjorie Bowen — 221

A strange Christmas game / Mrs. J.H. Riddell — 234

Calling card / Ramsey Campbell — 245

A Christmas tree / Charles Dickens — 251