Tagged: Deal Me In Short Story Challenge
Just when the idea occurred to her that she was being murdered she could not tell. Card: 9♦ Anthology: The October Country Story: “The Small Assassin,” 1946 “The Small Assassin” is one of Ray Bradbury’s darkest and most disturbing stories, at least to my mind. When Alice Leiber almost dies giving birth to her baby boy, she is convinced that the baby is trying to kill her. Her husband and doctor don’t believe her–at least at first. I’m not sure exactly why this story disturbed me so much, but it...
I don’t think he’s a very nice man. I hate people who ask you to decline nouns for them. Card Drawn: 9♣ Anthology: Lord Peter Views the Body Story: “The Learned Adventure of the Dragon’s Head,” 1928 It’s taken seven weeks, but I finally drew a club, the suit I’ve assigned to Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy Sayers. I don’t know if I’ve ever read anything by Dorothy Sayers that I haven’t liked, and I’ve been looking forward to this anthology since the year began. Her stories featuring Lord...
Card Drawn: 3♦ Anthology: The October Country by Ray Bradbury Story: “The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse,” 1954 When we first meet George Garvey he is nothing at all. Later he’ll wear a white poker chip monocle, with a blue eye painted on it by Matisse himself. Later, a golden bird cage might trill within George Garvey’s false leg, and his good left hand might possibly be fashioned of shimmering copper and jade. But at the beginning–gaze upon a terrifyingly ordinary man. So begins “The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse”...
Card Drawn: 8♥ Anthology: The Hardboiled Dicks edited by Ron Goulart Story: “Winter Kill” by Frederick Nebel, 1935 If you pour water over a guy and take him outside when it’s zero, ten to one the guy will freeze in a hurry. Kennedy of the Free Press and Captain Steve MacBride of the Richmond City Police Department were featured in almost forty stories by Frederick Nebel from 1928 to 1936. In “Winter Kill” the newspaperman and the cop try to figure out who killed Russel Parcell by drenching him in...
Card Drawn: Q♠ Anthology: The Montanans, edited by Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg Story: “Buffalo Horns,” by Arthur Winfield Knight, 1991 For the first western short story of the Deal Me In Challenge, “Buffalo Horns” was a bit unusual. The story takes place in 1929 in Hardin, Montana. Not exactly the heart of the West. But that’s the point of this story, I guess. It’s a wistful look back at a time gone by, more of a vignette than a story. It’s beautiful in its own way, but...
Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, The Continental Op, these are the hardboiled detectives. Tough and no-nonsense, they fought crime in the pages of pulp magazines like Black Mask, Dime Detective and Detective Fiction Weekly. Some of their stories are collected in The Hardboiled Dicks, edited by Ron Goulart, where this week’s Deal Me In story comes from. Card Drawn: Q♥ Anthology: The Hardboiled Dicks edited by Ron Goulart Story: “Angelfish” by Lester Dent, 1936 When I was choosing and organizing my short stories for this year’s Deal Me In Challenge, I was excited...
I’m excited to start a new year of reading short stories for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge. Last year’s challenge was very successful except for one thing: I only reviewed a few of the short stories I read. This year I’m going to try and write about all of them, even if only briefly. That way I’ll remember them better when it comes time to review the anthologies they’re in. I always read my stories on Sundays, but I’m anxious to get started so I began...
12 Stories for Late at Night is the second of three anthologies edited by Alfred Hitchcock that I read for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge this year. It contained some of the creepiest stories of the year, including “The Cocoon” by John B. L. Goodwin, “Vintage Season” by C. L. Moore, and “Our Feather Friends” by Philip McDonald. I always enjoy these Hitchcock anthologies, but this is one of the better collections, especially since it contains several top tier authors including Ray Bradbury, M. R. James...
Jay at Bibliophilopolis is once again hosting the “Deal Me In” Short Story Reading Challenge, and I am definitely back for another year of reading one short story per week. I have so many short story anthologies sitting on my To-Be-Read shelves that I think I could probably do this challenge for the next fifteen years. The unique and fun part of this challenge is that it involves using a deck of cards. Here’s how Jay describes it: Before you get started reading, come up with a roster...
Hard Day at the Scaffold is a solid collection of short stories edited by Alfred Hitchcock that I read over the course of a year for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge. Hitchcock’s anthologies always feature darkly humorous stories with a generous dose of creepiness, and this one was no different. Though this collection had fewer memorable stories than others I’ve read, it was still enjoyable. My favorite was “One on a Desert Island” by Donald Westlake, the tragicomic story of what can happen to a man’s...
All this time a growing feeling of discomfort had been creeping over him—nervous reaction, perhaps, after the delight of his discovery. Whatever it was, it resulted in a conviction that there was someone behind him, and that he was far more comfortable with his back to the wall. I read Ghost Stories of an Antiquary over the course of this past year as part of the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge. Each week I would draw a card from a deck of playing cards, and if it...
One of my favorite reading challenges this year has been the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge. Every Sunday I look forward to drawing a random card from the deck to see what story I’ll be reading this week. At this point in the year I only have nine cards left, which means I’ve read 43 stories. I’ve enjoyed this challenge so much that I’m already looking at anthologies to use for next year’s challenge. If you’ve been following along, you might remember that my theme is year...
