A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review by Marcia Muller     CELIA FREMLIN – The Hours Before Dawn. Lippincott, hardcover, 1958. Dell D-422, paperback, 1966. Academy Chicago Publishers, softcover, 2005. Dover Publications, paperback, 2017.    Celia Fremlin has the unusual ability to take a perfectly normal, if not mundane, situation and create an atmosphere of sheer terror. The Hours ..read more

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Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:           NATIONAL TREASURE. Walt Disney Pictures, 2004. Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer. Director: Jon Turteltaub.    National Treasure was released about twenty years ago. I’d heard of it, of course. But never took the time to watch it as I always thought it ..read more

PIERS ANTHONY & ROBERT E. MARGROFF – The Ring. Ace A-19, Paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Published as part of the Ace SF Special series. Cover art by Diane Dillon and Leo Dillon. Tor, paperback, 1986.    A flawed Utopia, with a machine acting as conscience and punishment for wrong-doers; crime is rampant on Earth, although ..read more

A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review by Edward D. Hoch     R. AUSTIN FREEMAN – The Singing Bone. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1912. Dodd Mead, US, hardcover, 1923. Popular Library, US, paperback, as The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke. Reprinted many other times.    The Singing Bone consists of five novelettes, averaging a bit over fifty pages each ..read more

Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:           THE HUNTER. Paramount Pictures, 1980. Steve McQueen (Papa Thorson), Eli Wallach, Kathryn Harrold, LeVar Burton, Ben Johnson. Director: Buzz Kulik.    Steve McQueen, in his final movie role, portrays bounty hunter Ralph “Papa” Thorson, a towering real life figure whose unorthodox career choice was the source material for The Hunter. The ..read more

S. S. VAN DINE – The “Canary” Murder Case. Philo Vance #2. Charles Scribner’s Sons, hardcover, 1927. Reprinted many times, including Gold Medal T2004, paperback. 1968. Film: Paramount Pictures, 1929, with William Powell as Philo Vance.    For the most part, Philo Vance is a dispassionate and impartial observer, often with an air of studious amusement ..read more

ROSS MACDONALD – Sleeping Beauty. Lew Archer #17 (of 18). Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, March 1973. Bantam, paperback; 1st printing thus, May 1974. Reprinted many times since.    One of the later books in the series, and to my mind, not one of the better ones. Archer meets a young woman against a backdrop of a ..read more

Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:           SHOPWORN. Columbia, 1932. Barbara Stanwyck, Regis Toomey, Zasu Pitts. Director: Nick Grinde.    In this Columbia pre-Code romantic drama, Barbara Stanwyck portrays Kitty Lane, a waitress who falls in love with David Livingston, an upper crust university student (Regis Toomey). The latter’s overbearing mother disapproves, to put it mildly. To separate ..read more

A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review by Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini     R. AUSTIN FREEMAN – Mr. Pottermark’s Oversight. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1930. Dodd Mead, US, hardcover, 1930. Reprinted a number of times, including Dover, US, softcover, 1985.    R. Austin Freeman was one of crime fiction’s true innovators. He developed the “inverted” mystery story ..read more