Review of “The Crooked Circle” (1932)

This week, we had enough leftover pizza in the freezer we didn’t have to venture into the world to buy any more for Saturday pizza and bad movie night.

crooked circle
Image from IMDB

Plot:

The Crooked Circle is a gang of criminals, engaging in thievery, counterfeiting, and other wayward and unproductive acts against society. Hot on their trail is the Phoenix Club, a group of amateur criminologists. The opening scene is of the Crooked Circle meeting, complete with black hoods and club slogan (“To do for each other, to avenge any brother, a fight to the knife and a knife to the hilt.”) The order of business is to assign one of their number the task of dealing with Col. Walters (Berton Churchill), a Phoenix Club member who has sent a Crooked Circle to jail. They draw lots. The sole female member gets the job.

Col. Walters has just bought an old house (“Melody Manor”) in an isolated place because, well, of course, he has. Once he receives notice from the Crooked Circle he’s on their list, the other Phoenix Club members join him at his new, creepy, old place in the middle of nowhere to guard him against attack. One Phoenix is in the middle of leaving the club at the insistence of his fiancée. A new member, a Hindu mystic by the unlikely name of Yoganda (C. Henry Gordon), joins the party at Melody Manor.

Before the Phoenixes arrive at Melody Manor, there is a silly scene in which some creepy neighbor with apparently nothing better to do convinces the excitable maid, Nora Rafferty (Zasu Pitts), the house is haunted. It leads to one of the taglines of the movie, that is, “Something always happens to somebody.”

Melody Manor is chockful of mysterious violin music, clocks that strike thirteen, secret passages, hidden panels, a skeleton in the attic, and all the amenities. Suspicion is cast on nearly everyone. A bumbling cop (Tom Kennedy) later shows up. We know a female assassin is about. Just why was that fiancée so adamant that her dearly beloved leave the Phoenix Club? Who is the mysterious Yoganda, who goes around muttering, “Evil is on the way!” (When the maid Nora first sees him in his turban, she says, “I’m sorry you have a headache. Can I get you a Bromo-seltzer?”)

Thoughts:

According to IMDB, this was the first movie shown on commercial television, specifically, on March 10, 1933. Only a few people owned television sets. An experimental station, W6XAO-TV, broadcast it while it was still playing in theaters.

Zasu Pitts received top billing for a part that more or less unnecessary to the plot but apparently for adding… atmosphere? She wrings her hands and spends a lot of time worrying about ghosts, saying, “Oh,” while repeating the tagline. Apparently, she was an inspiration for Olive Oyl of the Popeye cartoons.

The opening scene of the meeting of the Crooked Circle in their black hoods contains some admirable camera work. At one point, the viewer looks down from above and sees the five clasp hands over a skull set on a circular table. The effect is not only creepy but over-the-top in seriousness. These are bad’uns who mean business.

There is a lot of just plain silliness in this movie, both in action and in dialogue. The slapstick is minimal, but it exists. This is not one to take seriously. Nora’s hand-wringing can become tiresome.

There are a couple of twists near the end, which are enjoyable. Overall, I liked this flick. Best with wine and pizza.

Title: The Crooked Circle
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Writing Credits
Ralph Spence … (screenplay)
Tim Whelan … (additional dialogue)

Cast (in credits order)
Zasu Pitts … Nora Rafferty
James Gleason … Arthur Crimmer
Ben Lyon … Brand Osborne
Irene Purcell … Thelma Parker
C. Henry Gordon … Yoganda

Released: September 25, 1932
Length: approx.: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Review of “The Food Critic” by Carol Scheina

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Image courtesy of Pixabay

 

Plot:

The restaurant critic, Anabelle Mitchell, seated at table four, has ordered the specialty zombi de boeuf, which takes the beef of zombie cattle. It is coated with garlic and butter, then grilled to perfection. Working with zombie beef is tricky and comes with certain risks. The chef must wear goggles, mask, and gloves to handle the meat. She cuts away the really rancid parts but leaves just enough to give the customer that “slightly dead” feeling for a couple minutes without turning them.

Anabelle signed all the standard waivers. Her magazine has retained the right to write a review, regardless of her condition. On this one meal rests the fate of the restaurant’s three-star rating.

Thoughts:

Of course, nothing goes to plan.

The obvious analogy that comes to mind is blowfish (fugu), eaten in Japan and other places, which contains a toxin. It requires expertise to prepare the fish and remove the parts where the toxins are concentrated. It won’t make the consumer a zombie, however.

The ending is not a surprise, but there are cute elements to the story that make it fun to read. I enjoyed it.

Bio:

According to her blurb, author Carol Scheina is a deaf writer living in a traffic-jammed world [though I bet that’s let up in that past couple of weeks], dreaming of new places to explore. She has been published in Enchanted Conversation Magazine and On The Premises. Her works can be found at page.

The story can be read here.

Title: ”The Food Critic”
Author: Carol Scheina
First published: Theme of Absence, April 18, 2020

Review of “Gaia Hypothesis” by Eden Fenn

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Image courtesy of Pixabay

Plot:

The colonists on Mars keep dying regardless of what intervention the experts take: increased exercise to combat the difference in gravity, a stronger ion shield to protect against radiation and to ward off cancer, sunlamps, vitamins, antidepressants, and sleeping pills. After its founding ten years earlier, no one from the first two expeditions survives.

One of the colonists, “an irrelevant old biochemist who hadn’t published since [her] arrival on Mars, an old woman … whose time was running out,” starts looking for answers beyond chemistry and physics. She’s laughed out of the room. She explores religion and philosophy and eventually hits upon the Gaia hypothesis, that is, the earth is the source of life on the planet. Once removed from the environment, earth life dies.

Thoughts:

The story is more a statement on religion than it is on interplanetary colonization. Is the irrelevant old biochemist insane? Or has she come across the answer to the colony’s problem? It’s not really made clear, but the ending is logical and familiar to literature either way.

This is not a little pick-me-up or a tale of humankind’s triumph over adversity. It is a portrait of people in extremis and what measures they find necessary. While I admired the way the author packed a lot of story in a small space, I can’t say I enjoyed it.

Bio:

According to her blurb, author Eden Fenn is a software developer and vat meat enthusiast—whatever that is. Her work has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (COOL!) and the Baltimore City Paper. She’s currently finishing a young adult novel about gender and power on a strange planet. She lives in Baltimore with her wife and a very bad dog. Aww, no bad dogs.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Gaia Hypothesis”
Author: Eden Fenn
First published: Daily Science Fiction, April 13, 2020

Review of “This Island Earth” (1955)

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Our traditional Saturday pizza and bad movie night makes for a bright spot in this stay at home business.

Plot:

Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) is an Air Force jet pilot and an electronics engineer working on a way to make atomic power more user friendly to Mr. and Mrs. Jones. On his way out to the lab in Los Angeles, he does a little hot-dogging, buzzing the control tower. It’s all fun and games until he realizes he no longer has control of his plane. He’s too low to bail out. Just when it looks like it’s curtains for Cal, a green light envelops the plane, takes the stick, and lands the craft safely.

Back at the lab, where Cal and his assistant, Joe Wilson (Robert Nichols), have been trying to transmute lead into uranium (heh-heh), the equipment keeps blowing out. Cal receives a parts catalog whose pages are made of some sort of metal. He orders an interociter, whatever that is. The crates fill the lab. He and Joe assemble the interociter, which looks like a vanity with a raised triangular view screen in the center.

Once the machine is completed and plugged in, the view screen resolves into the picture of a man with a high forehead, who introduces himself as Exeter (Jeff Morrow). He congratulates Cal on passing the test of being able to complete the interociter. He invites him to join an assembly of imminent scientists working for peace doing research like Cal’s. He tells him he’ll be sending a plane around for him and names the time and place.

Cal demurs. He’s got a good gig right where he is. Why should he leave it? Apparently, Exeter thinks this requires a show of force. Rays, later identified as “neutrino rays,” issue from the three corners of the triangular screen and incinerate the order catalog with its metal pages. Cal unplugs the interociter, which for some reason, causes it to self-destruct.

Nevertheless, he meets the plane, which lands in impossible fog. It lacks windows—and pilots.

Thoughts:

We watched this with Svengooli as host. In general, his remarks are informative and interesting, but his jokes are… oh, boy. Nice to see him on the air again.

The plane takes Cal to Georgia, where he meets up with Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue). The two of them remember a past encounter at some science retreat in Vermont differently. He called her a sissy for not wanting to go swimming in a lake. Ah, what a romantic. She tells him he must be thinking of someone else. They also meet Dr. Steve Carlson (Russell Johnson, who would later go on a three-hour tour that would last a lifetime).

They meet in secret—a no-no—and come to realize the nuclear research for peace thingy is not all it’s cracked up to be. There are things they’re not being told.

The viewer knows that Exeter’s boss, the Monitor (Douglas Spencer), has decided to abandon the project on earth, a move that calls for more drastic action than pink slips. Before the good stuff hits the fan, our heroes have decided to part company (in a Woody! How cool!) with the nukes-for-peace crew. They should have taken poor Neutron, the cat who didn’t ask for any of this.

The mutant alien, the quintessential bug-eyes monster, with an overgrown skull and eyes to match, seemed to live longer on posters than in the movie. He menaced our heroes, but never got a chance to make his case. He was already severely wounded when he showed up. And his day goes from bad to worse. Granted, he was ugly. Granted, he had a bone to pick with Exeter. But, did his punishment deserve his crime?

While the special effects may not appear impressive on a small screen to an audience in 2020, in its day, with so many things going BOOM and the rays shooting all over the place, they were awe-inspiring. I also liked the idea of comets being weaponized against an enemy planet. Quite impossible and hardly worth the effort, but someone was thinking.

A lot of things happen in this movie. It was based on a 1952 novel of the same name by Raymond F. Jones, which was, in turn, a fix-up of three novelettes serialized between 1949 and 1950 in Thrilling Wonder Stories. The plot of the movie and the book diverge after the building of the interociter.

While there was a lot to enjoy in this movie, it simply took itself rather too seriously for my taste. And poor Neutron.

Title: This Island Earth
Directed by Joseph M. Newman
Writing Credits
Raymond F. Jones (1915-1994) (story “The Alien Machine”)
Franklin Coen (screenplay) and George Callahan (screenplay)
Released: June 15, 1955

Cast:

Jeff Morrow … Exeter
Faith Domergue … Dr. Ruth Adams
Rex Reason … Dr. Cal Meacham
Lance Fuller … Brack
Russell Johnson … Dr. Steve Carlson

Review of “Of Ships, Crews And Chance Encounters” by Martin Lochman

Plot:

The ship has just lost its crew to a devastating virus. Nothing in the sickbay helped. She contemplates her course of action. She no longer has anyone to care for. Without humans, she cannot engage the FTL engine, long-range communications, or the weapons system. These all require human input. Her choices seem down to floating in space, alone forever, or destroying herself.

But then she remembers there is still life aboard the ship. There are rats in the laboratory and pets—dogs and cats—left by the late crew members. She runs into communications problems until she finds a way around those.

Thoughts:

If anyone is thinking this is a cute story about animals running a spaceship, let me disabuse you of the notion before you read further. This is a dark tale about AI that is not quite human. Her first thought when her crew dies horrible, painful deaths is to wonder who she will take care of now. She has longings, like we all do, to be meaningful. She understands protocol and can ponder ethical problems. She knows, for example, aside from the time it will take to return to earth without FTL travel, that she cannot risk spreading the virus that killed her crew.

But she is not human.

Her fatal flaw is brutally portrayed. If you are feeling down and being socially distanced into oblivion, this is not the story for you. However, looking at it from the angle of understanding how precious human relationships are, and how unique and wonderful it is to connect with animals, it can inspire gratitude for those bonds.

Bio:

According to the bio on his page, author Martin Lochman is a Czech author of science fiction and speculative fiction stories. He currently resides in Malta, where he works as an academic librarian at the University of Malta. His work has appeared in Ikarie, a former Czech SF magazine, Asymmetry, Theme of Absence, Aphelion, Aurora Wolf, Antipodean SF, 101 Words, The Weird and Whatnot, Four Star Stories, 365 tomorrows, and in many Czech anthologies. When he isn’t writing, he likes to read, watch an occasional movie or a TV show, work out, and improve his chess game.

The current story marks Lochman’s fifth appearance in Theme of Absence.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Of Ships, Crews And Chance Encounters”
Author: Martin Lochman (b. 1989)
First published: Theme of Absence, April 10, 2020

Review of “Terror from the Year 5000” (1958)


This is the result of our latest Saturday night pizza and bad movie foray. The pizza was good. The movie—well—

Plot:

In isolation on an island off Florida, Professor Howard Erling (Frederic Downs), along with his financial backer Victor (John Stratton) work to break the time barrier. As the narrator has already informer the viewer, the sound barrier was broken in 1947, and the “space barrier” broken in 1958. Huh? (Sputnik was launched in 1957.)

In the chamber of their time machine, which resembles perhaps an overgrown and reinforced water heater with a viewing portal, a metal statuette appears. For a moment, a negative of a woman’s face flashes over it. Victor tries to call the Professor’s attention to what he sees, but by the time he does, the image is gone. All that’s left is—huh—another statue, a headless nude female, twisting as if in agony.

This is 1958. No bare lady parts are visible. The viewer knows the statue depicts a female from its abstract shapely tushie.

The statuette is delivered to museum curator Dr. Robert Hedges (Ward Costello), along with a letter requesting verification of age. He explains the purpose of carbon-dating to his assistant, Miss Blake (Beatrice Furdeaux), who is for some reason quite fuzzy on the concept.

The learned Dr. Hedge dates the object (cue the Theremin) to 5200 AD—not BC.—three thousand years in the future.

Yeah, ‘cause carbon-12 dating works like an expiration date or something on inorganic objects.

Upon further investigation, Hedges comes to understand that the statue is radioactive. He hurries down to Florida to find out more.

Thoughts:

We watched this via Mystery Science Theater. Their comments were hit and miss, as usual, but many of them provoked outright snickers. Some alluded to old TV shows and function as age tests.

When a Geiger counter goes nuts as a lab technician runs is over the statue, the MST3K crew compares it to Jolly Time popcorn.

“Always dive first into an unfamiliar lake.”

Prof. Erling and Victor become convinced the objects they put in their time machine are being exchanged with objects from the future. Dr. (“I know all there is to know about carbon-14 dating”) Hedges is understandably skeptical and sends his fraternity pin through the time machine. It is exchanged with a wafer inscribed with a message in Greek:

(MST3K: “Good for a bumper ride at Chuck E. Cheese’s.”)

Dr. Hedges: ““Help us.”

Prof. Erling’s daughter Clare (Joyce Holder) is seeing Victor, but she instantly falls for Dr. Hedges. Victor is making some unauthorized use of the time machine. Seems his dating life is about to get all the more interesting. So now not only is Dr. Hedges snooping around his time machine, he’s making moves on his girl.

The movie is such a jumbled mess, but underneath it is a reminder of the horror of nuclear war and atomic radiation. Throw in a little bit of (very tame…) sex you’re primed for a hot mess.

A streak of misogyny also runs through the film. The viewer is treated with needless scenes of Clare undressing before she joins Hedges swimming and before she goes to bed. The “terror” summoned by Victor is also female, a damaged female in this case, who is looking for some good breeding stock. She’s willing to dispatch some rivals to make this happen.

I found this more creepy—but for all the wrong reasons—than terrifying or even fun.

The film can be watched here.

Title: Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)
Director: Robert J. Gurney Jr.
Writer: Robert J. Gurney Jr. and Henry Slesar
Released: January 1958
Length:  approx. 1 hour, 32 minutes.

Review of “Bullies” by Damien Krsteski

Plot:

For months, Jon has been tracking down the game identities of the boys who have been bullying him in school. He promises them cheatware, which is supposed to enhance the prizes they win. In exchange, they lock him out so their paths with never cross, either in Brutal Assault or any other portals in the virtual reality “Welt.” Of course, the cheatware is actually Jon’s revenge, with which he hopes to incapacitate the real-life bullies.

Thoughts:

Author Damien Krsteski has created an intriguing alternate world within an alternate world. Jon uses “smart specs,” which include an AI therapist. The smart specs tell him when he’s late for his history class and where the class is located. When he leaves school because he says he isn’t feeling well, the smart specs tell the school and his parents. They also purchase a tram ticket for him.

Nothing goes according to plan, of course, or the story would be boring. I did not find the ending satisfying. Nevertheless, this was an engaging little read. I liked it.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Damien Krsteski is originally from the Balkans but now lives and works in Germany. (Hence calls the alternative world “Welt.”) He writes fiction and develops software. His work has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Metaphorosis, Future Fire, and other places.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Bullies”
Author: Damien Krsteski
First published: Theme of Absence, April 3, 2020

Review of “The Bat Whispers” (1930)

Plot:

Master criminal the Bat has the police flummoxed. He steals jewelry and pummels (sometimes kills) owners regardless of the precautions they and law enforcement take, often leaving taunting notes. He even issues warnings ahead of time. What a gentleman. After one especially brutal robbery, the Bat announces his retirement to the country. He’s giving the cops a breather.

Of course, he’s not retiring. Someone has robbed the bank in rural Oakdale while its president, Mr. Fleming, is in Europe. The prime suspect is bank clerk Brook (William Bakewell), who disappeared right after the robbery.

The Fleming country house, full of the requisite secret passages and movable portraits, is leased to the indomitable Miss Cornelia van Gorder (Grayce Hampton). With her is her terrified maid, Lizzie Allen (Maude Eburne). The caretaker (Spencer Charters) tells them about the strange noises in the house and the flickering lights, all courtesy of the ghosts.

Miss van Gorder isn’t having any of it. Her niece, Dale van Gorder (Una Merkel) comes for a visit and brings a young man she recommends as a gardener who is, in fact, her boyfriend, Brook, the missing bank clerk. Cornelia interviews him to test his gardening knowledge. He has none, and apparently has a limited vocabulary as well, making for one of the cuter exchanges in the film. Cornelia hires him anyway, just to see what he’s about.

Dr. Venrees (Gustav von Seyffertitz) arrives, saying that he’s heard from Mr. Fleming in Europe, telling him Cornelia has to vacate the house as he’ll be returning to deal with the bank robbery… or is he? And other than Dr. Venrees’ word, how does the viewer know Mr. Fleming is coming back?

The audience knows that Brook and Dale (see what the writers did there?) are looking for the missing bank money. They want to clear his name. They believe the real thief has hidden the loot in a secret room in the house. Unfortunately, they’ve got competition from just about half the county, including… the Bat!

Thoughts:

This is a cute little haunted house mystery, but the character of the Bat is not a sympathetic one. He kills people for jewelry because he finds killing amusing. Not many people in this movie are sympathetic. There is the imperious and sinister Dr. Venrees, who leaves a door unlocked after a rock with a threatening note tied to it is hurled through the window, even though Cornelia asks him to lock it. He later goes back and deliberately unlocks it again. Whom is he letting into the house?

There is the mysterious and morose caretaker. Has anyone but he seen these ghosts? When Dale calls the bank president’s nephew Richard (Hugh Huntley) to the house, hoping for help, why does he act so strangely?

The body count isn’t as high as some Sunday night murder mysteries, but it’s greater than zero.

This film was restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive. The print quality for a film ninety years old is excellent. The audio is a little goofy, however, making the dialogue hard to catch at points. Turning the volume up leaves one at the mercy of an earth-shattering—if rainless—thunderstorm. (Because of course there’s a storm). This is a shame because the dialogue is delightful and entertaining.

Early on, when Cornelia and Lizzie are discussing the house and the “ghosts,” Cornelia asks for a Ouija board. Lizzie tells her there’s Bible on top of it, “keeping it quiet.” She also tells Cornelia, after the latter has insulted her: “I stuck by you when you was a Theosophist and a suffragettist, and I’ve seen you through socialism, Fletcherism, and rheumatism, but when it comes to spookism, I’m through!”

The Bat Whispers was originally a stage play based on a 1908 book, The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It also uses fairly sophisticated camera technique for the day. For example, the viewer see action from the perspective of the back seat of a speeding patrol car. This is routine today but, I imagine reasonably difficult with the movie cameras of 1930. There is a lot of action in silhouette, so the viewer knows what happened—maybe—but whom did it involve? At the very end, once the Bat is unmasked, he swings down from the top of the stage and promises the audience that as long as they keep his identity secret, he won’t haunt their houses, kill them, and rob them. Lovely.

The movie was later remade into the 1959’s The Bat with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. In his autobiography, Batman and Me, comic book writer Bob Kane noted that The Bat Whispers was one of the inspirations for, yes, the character of Batman.

This movie is not everybody’s cup of tea. Sometimes this stuff takes a little work to get through. And, given that there is not much redeemable about the Bat, some would not enjoy it even without the technical obstacles. Having said that, I confess I liked this film. It’s funny, poking fun at melodrama in many respects. Of course, there’s a happy ending for the lovers. Cornelia remains unflappable. And the timid little maid who appears foolish and jumps out of her skin at the drop of a hat achieves what all the men with their guns fail to.

If social distancing is making you a little stir crazy, this is worth a look-see. Beer/vodka and pizza optional.

The movie can be watched in its entirety here.

Title: The Bat Whispers
Director: Roland West
Writers: Mary Roberts Rinehart (based upon a stage play by) and Avery Hopwood (based upon a stage play by)
Released: November 13, 1930
length: 1 hour, 24 minutes

Review of “Reflections” by Lamont Turner

Plot:

Two men, one dressed in black and the other dressed in white, sit on silver chairs at a silver table. The whole room is silver, in fact. Other than the table and chairs, however, there are no furnishings in the room.

The man wearing black types on a tablet, looking up occasionally at the man in white, who glowers at him.

The man in black asks, “What is your name?”

His companion responds by pounding his fist on the table. “You know my name. How many times are we going to perform this charade?”

“Please answer the question.”

The man in white gives not only his name, but details about his family and his education—the kind of stuff phishing emails ask for.

Thoughts:

This at first appears to be the sort of interrogation tactics associated with totalitarian regimes designed not to elicit information but to break the spirit of the person being interrogated. The man in black—the interviewer—remains cool, unemotional, and demanding throughout. He gives the man in white no information as to why they are there, what his own purpose is, or what he’s recording on his tablet.

Why are they there? Is the man in white a political prisoner? Is he a criminal? Is he a mental patient? The first seems to be likely at first. Doctor Benedict Stevenson—or, Subject 59—had been working on organic 3-D modeling. The reader begins to wonder if he’s gone a little loopy when he talks about not just modeling organs but modeling… minds. He posits if you map out every neuron, you are creating memories.

While the ending is not a complete surprise, this was an entertaining and engaging little story. I enjoyed it. The image of the silver room in the beginning was striking. The narrative dealt with such topics as the question of what it means to be human and simple compassion.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Lamont Turner’s work has appeared in Death And Butterflies and Scary Snippets anthologies, and Abandoned Towers, Jitter, Serial, and The Realm Beyond magazines.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Reflections”
Author: Lamont Turner
First published: Themes of Absence, March 28, 2020

Review of “Bookstore” by Jeremiah Minihan

Plot:

The unnamed narrator of this story likes to browse the small independent used bookstore near his work. He’s been there many times before, chatted with the short, gray guy at the front desk. He’s sure Bill—that’s the name of the guy at the counter—has been here for years. He’s always wearing the same faded brown sweated, winter or summer.

Today, things are different, though. Maybe he took a wrong turn. Or maybe he’s had a minor stroke. He’s stuck, lost, but he’s too ashamed to call out to Bill. He turned by the military section with its tall shelves, though he thought he’d passed it already. He turned left, toward brighter lights. He knew he was getting closer to the counter and Bill.

When he gets to the counter, the man he meets is not Bill and has never heard of Bill.

Thoughts:

I confess a certain liking for the idea of getting lost in an old bookstore. I also am partial to old buildings with a bit of history in them. This story combines those two elements. There is also an element of the Twilight Zone here: where does the narrator go while he’s wandering along the aisles of the bookstore? What happens? It’s odd that he is concerned but never panics regardless of how weird things get. He gives off a brand of genteel trepidation, but doesn’t bother losing his cool.

While I didn’t find the ending entirely satisfactory, I did enjoy reading this little tale and vicariously getting lost in an old bookstore.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Jeremiah Minihan lives in Rochester, New Hampshire with his wife Peggy and their Boston terrier, Belle.

He has worked as a software developer and project manager in the insurance and banking industries. He taught high school English in Virginia.

He writes short stories and essays, and has previously published short stories in Pif Magazine, Dark Dossier, Yellow Mama, Blood Moon Rising, Literally Stories, and CommuterLit.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Bookstore”
Author: Jeremiah Minihan
First published: Theme of Absence, March 21, 2020