Behind the death ball Book

This is an American anthology of various pulp horror/thriller stories that really run the gamut of the genres. Everything's here from an execrable 'comic ghost' story, THE GHOST AND MR GREBNER, by Syd Hoff, to a Holmes pastiche as August Derleth's detective, Solar Pons, hunts down a killer in THE AMATEUR PHILOLOGIST.

A few of the stories are one-note ideas. Henry Slesar's VOODOO DOLL is a short and nasty joke; Talmage Powell's A FRIENDLY EXORCISE is the kind of story you'd expect from the silly pun in the title. THE HITCHHIKERS by Bruce Hunsberger and DOOM SIGNAL by John Lutz are straightforward crime thrillers.

Others are better. SEE WHAT'S IN THE BAG, by Hal Ellson, is a sweaty, hardboiled thriller writ large. FAT JOW AND THE WALKING WOMAN by Robert Alan Blair has a great title and a story that lives up to it. Lawrence Treat's PERFECT SHOT is a good twist-in-the-tale effort Helen Nielsen's THE SEVENTH MAN has a fine hard-bitten narrator. MANY WOMEN TOO MANY, by C. B. Gilford, may seem a little sexist to the modern reader, but it nevertheless adds humour to the collection. Ed Lacy's STORE COP is anecdotal but fun while TILL DEATH by Fletcher Flora is a great, fast-paced police procedural.

The best story is THE GLINT by Arthur Porges, a borderline horror-cum-thriller with a line in vivid characterisation.