The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 60’s

Published in 1991

Changes of Climates - Ursula Curtiss (1967)
Due to a large number of allergies, a woman needs to move southward with her husband and young daughter. She flourishes in their new town, but soon becomes impossible to live with. This pushes the husband to force the family back to their original town, despite the fact that this will have a devastating effect on his wife’s health.
9/10

Life in our Time - Robert Bloch (1966)
Professor Harry Cramer knows that his wife is having an affair. He has his revenge on her with an elaborate lie: he pretends to be in charge of a time capsule project, and promptly fills it with meaningful items from the 20th century.
8/10

The Special Gift - Celia Fremlin (1967)
Eillen runs a writers’ club. One winter evening, when she only has 5 guests, Alan Fritzroy turns up. He is a strange little man, who manages to mesmerize Eileen with a recurrent dream that’s affecting his life: he walks with heavy boots towards a cradle, knowing that if he lies in it, he will go mad.
9/10

A Neat and Tidy Job - George Harmon Coxe (1960)
Mary Heath works for a bank, where she is in charge of a lift service. Her obsession for cleanliness proves to be handy when the bank is robbed.
5/10

Run, If you Can - Charlotte Armstrong (1963)
Walter lives with his Bible obsessed sister. One day, when he was driving too fast, he kills a woman and drives away from the scene. Because of the accident, he is eager to sell his car and he replies to an advert that asks for a quick swap: a car for a piece of land.
[spoiler: the land owner is in fact the would-be husband of the woman Walter killed.]
10/10

Line of Communication - Andrew Garve (1967)
A 16 years old has been kidnapped by two men who used to work for his wealthy father. They demand a ransom. The teenager manages to make a kite with his shirt. He write a message on it and let it fly out of his ‘cell’, attached to a string. Thanks to this, the police is able to locate him.
5/10

Danger at Deerfawn - Dorothy B. Hughes (1964)
A group of young holiday makers visit Deerfawn manor. There, they get involved in a murder case, tied with an international gang that steal paintings.
4/10

The Man Who Understood Women - A.H. Z Carr (1960)
Four men are having lunch together. In order to get a free meal, one of them convinces his friends that he can tell everything about a woman just by observing her. He demonstrates it by giving minute details about a woman, dining a few tables away from them…
9/10

Revolver - Avram Davidson (1962)
The sordid story of a revolver, first purchased by a stingy landlord. How it first gets stolen by a low life who also takes the rent money he had been collecting. It is then sold to a man who sells it to another. It ends up in the hands of a gang of youngsters, who have reasons to hate the landlord.
10/10

The Eternal Chase - Anthony Gilbert (1965)
Story told from the point of view of Victoria, a 9 year old girl. She lives with her grand-mother . Through deductions she discovers that Harriet, (the girl who leaves nearby), has poisoned her father, so that she could have her mother all to herself. Now, Victoria’s uncle has fallen in love with Harriet’s mother and plan to marry her…
10/10

The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 50’s

Published in 1991

As Simple as ABC (1951) - Ellery Queen
Three very old veterans from the civil war die one after the other in odd circumstances. They leave behind them a “war treasure” that turns out to be made of old and worthless confederate money.
7/10

Money to Burn (1957) - Margery Allingham
When a woman returns to the street where she grew up she discovers that Louise, one of her friends, is forced to pay back a huge debt contracted to her father. Adlebert, the man you takes this money, regularly burns some of it in front of her. When the police investigates this case of ‘defacing the coins of the realm’ they find out that Adebert is counterfeiting money and only burns his bad print.
7/10

The Gentlest Brother (1955) - David Alexander
In order to avenge the death of his sister, a Jesuit brother pushes a local crook to kill him. This is order to make sure that the low-life goes to the electrical chair for murder.
3/10


One Way Street (1946) - Anthony Armstrong
A police inspector and his retired father investigate the murder of man in a taxi. The driver had been stopped in Trafalgar Square by a man intent at crossing the road despite the heavy traffic.
5/10

Murder at the Dog Show (1957) - Mignon G. Eberhart
Dr Richard Marly, whose girlfriend trains dogs for a dog show, investigates the murder of a Mrs Florie Carrister. It turns out that her project to open a kernel wasn’t taken too kindly by the competition.
5/10

Always Trust a Cop (1952) - Octavus Roy Cohen
Tex Graham, an ex marines and a murderer, calls his old friend Johnny Norton, not knowing that he has become a cop and is obliged to reveal his presence to the FBI. Their meeting doesn’t go too well and Tex tries to escape the situation by wearing Johnny’s police uniform.
4/10

The Withered Heart (1956) - Jean Potts
A man who hates his wife kills her on the day she is supposed to go to her sister. He arranges everything as a car crash. Unfortunately he forgets one essential element: her dog, which she never leaves alone.
6/10

The Girl Who Married a Monster (1953) - Anthony Boucher
A starlet marries a man who in the past had killed several women for their insurance money. She plans to frame him for the murder of her cousin, who looks very much like her.
6/10

Between Eight and Eight (1950) - C.S. Forrester
Manners is a murderer who is spending his last 8 hours before being executed. He manages to escape from his cell. After a mad run he takes refuge at Ethel’s place, one of the many women he had seduced when he was a free man. Unfortunately for him, a bout of pneumonia and feverish thoughts about his coming execution give him a heart attack.
6/10

Knowing what I know Now (1952) - Barry Perowne
On a train trip to London, a murderer changes the label of his trunk and places it on a similar trunk. This will have fatal consequences for its owner, a Canadian art student hunted by a particularly unpleasant souvenir from her childhood.
[Very atmospheric story.]

7/10

The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction - Vol 2 (2008)

Edited by George Mann

iCity - Paul Di Filippo
Frederick Law Moses, an urban planner, cannot accept that he lost a contest to design a district in iCity (a city that is constantly being rebuilt with intelligent materials). So he decides to cheat by proclaiming himself the winner. However the intelligent material get mixed up and merges his design with that of the original winner, creating a whole new trend among urban planners.
6/10

The Space Crawl Blues - Kay Kenyon
When Quantum Transport hits the market, regular space travel suffers a fatal blow. However, as pilot Blake Niva discovers, this instant ‘teleportation’ isn’t without its own flaws.
[Interesting for the fact that Blake treats his ship, The Samantha Gray, like a real woman.]
8/10

The Line Of Dichotomy - Chris Roberson
In space there is a war between the Mexica Empire and that of the Middle Kingdom. Both faction blame the horror of the conflict on each other. Yao is a soldier who gets a chance to listen to what the enemy has to say. Unfortunately he chooses to perpetrate the killing.
[This army stuff is not exactly my cup of tea. In addition, at the very end, we don’t get to see who is behind the door. Fair enough whoever is there would not have improved the situation, but I’d have preferred to know all the same J .]
3/10

Fifty Dinosaurs - Robert Reed
This is the type of story that makes me feel stupid, ’cos I can’t understand it. Anyway, the plot is about a man who is confronted to a talking dinosaur named Sandra. Apparently, they, along with fifty other species, have been gathered to celebrate the birthday of a superior being. When the hero dreams, he is 21 and celebrates his birthday with booze and karaoke songs…
0/10

Mason’s Rats - Neal Asher
Borderline fantasy. Mason is a farmer with intelligent rats living on his property. There is also an agoraphobic harvester that needs repair. One day, a black rat helps Mason to get rid of an obnoxious salesman.
4/10

Blood Bonds - Brenda Cooper
A young woman whose body has been severely damaged during a terrorist attack downloads herself into a community of Artificial Intelligences. She then goes to see her sister on Mars, to have a chance to defend the rights of these A.Is.
6/10

The Eyes of God - Peter Watts
In a big brother society, airports are fitted with scanners that not only search for concealed weapons, but also mental flaws. When they find one, it gets corrected immediately.
2/10

Sunworld - Eric Brown
Yarrek lives on Sunworld, a rural community severely controlled by the church. When he graduates from college, he is sent to the remote land of Icefast to become an inquisitor. Once there, he discovers that his world is not what it seems and has been visited by aliens. His role will be to prepare his people for this revelation.
7/10

Evil Robot Monkey - Mary Robinette Kowal
Very short story about sly, an intelligent monkey who likes to make pottery, and how the local children treat him.
[Amusing to read, but not as deep as “Rachel In Love” by Pat Murphy.]
3/10

Shining Armour - Dominic Green
A village boy witnesses how Khan, his grandfather, manages to access the “Guardian” a gigantic robot using during an old war. Armed in that manner, he expel the soldiers sent by greedy mining company.
[Story reminiscent of “Dragon King” by Michael Swanwick.]
8/10

Book, Theatre and Wheel - Karl Schroeder
Two men from the church investigate the property of a woman who is suspected of educating her people. She manages to befriend one of them and show him what power books and story telling have.
[Good story, but hardly a SF one.]
6/10

Mathralon - David Louis Edelman
The sole purpose of the small moon named Howards 27 is to mine a rare mineral called mathralon. The workers who live there are totally cut from the rest of the galaxy. They haven’t seen a human face in two decades and wonder if the company that employ them still exits.
9/10

Mason Rats: Autotractor - Neal Asher
The farmer and his intelligent rats are back. This time they are visited by an employee from the health department who wants to eradicate the rat population on the farm.
[Reads like a “Shawn the Sheep adventure.]

Modern Times (A Jerry Cornelius adventure) - Michael Moorcock
Another story that’s too clever for me, and it doesn’t help that this anthology didn’t print a few lines as to who this Cornelius is supposed to be. Thankfully there is always the Wikipedia for such questions.

The story evolves around Jerry and his tribe. They seem to travel through time, stop in pubs, play cricket and talk about the towns and periods they happen to be in. They like to comment on how stupid and worthless humans are. There is no action per se, just a series of instalments, preceded by real (?) news taken from various media sources.
0/10

Point of Contact - Dan Abnett
An alien spaceship has discovered planet Earth. However, its occupants are not in the least thrilled by this finding, nor are we in awe of their technology or culture. The two species try to communicate for 3 years then go their own ways.
[Interesting story, too bad it’s done in an endless list of negative statements.]
5/10

Overall mark for this anthology : 4/10