Reviews for Collected papers

The average rating for Collected papers based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-07 00:00:00 Trever Turner a very slight collection with not a lot to recommend it. there is another solar pons story here "the amateur philologist" which taxed my ability to suspend disbelief: even the most inept police experts could not possibly be as stupid as this story would have one believe, and the central conceit is too ludicrous. arthur porges, henry slesar and talmage powell offer the strongest contributions aside from the table-turning story "the hitchhikers" by bruce hunsberger. it also features one of the most boring stories around bigamy i've ever read, called "till death" by fletcher flora, and a terribly dated, and stupid misogynistic story called "many women too many" by C.B. Guilford.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-01 00:00:00 Leslie Welch 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.