Most Popular Books by Fredric Brown

Maybe a woman''s place was in the home in 1949 -- but then again, maybe it wasn''t for a woman sheriff! A classic mystery by Fredric Brown, ripped from the pages of the Summer, 1949 issue of Mystery Book Magazine.

In the small town of Carmel City, it''s just another Thursday night for longstanding editor and Lewis Carroll aficionado Doc Stoeger as he puts his weekly newspaper to bed. Of course there isn''t any real news in the Carmel City Clarion, but then there never is, and Doc wishes that for once something would happen on a Thursday evening to give him a hot story to break. Before the night is through, Doc''s wishes come true and he gets tangled up in a bizarre series of events that would make for sensational reading the next morning. But will he survive to put it into print?

A small-town reporter must investigate a murder in a motel—before he becomes the story—in this mystery from an Edgar Award winner and “real pro” (The New York Times Book Review). Bob Spitzer is a young newspaperman in Arizona, and the owner of the local motel has just called. A woman named Amy Waggoner has been found naked and stabbed to death on the premises. As the reporter and the police chief survey the lurid scene, Spitzer reflects on the fact that he once showed a romantic interest in the victim—a fact that could put the spotlight of suspicion directly on himself. His only hope for taking the heat off is to put his investigative skills to work—not something he needs to do very often working for a weekly rag in a sleepy town—and locate the elusive murderer . . .

Welcome to Black Cat Weekly. I can’t believe it’s been 100 issues! Time flies when you’re having fun. To help make this issue special, I asked Barb Goffman and Michael Bracken to contribute some special stories of their own. I think you’ll agree, they are among the highlights of this issue. On the mystery side , we also have stories by Nancy Pickard, Bradley Harper, and a novel from the legendary Fredric Brown—his classic Knock Three-One-Two. And what issue is complete without a solve-it-yourself mystery by Hal Charles? On the more fantastic side of things, we have another of Darrell Schweitzer’s historical interviews with a legend of science fiction, this time Robert Sheckley. Conducted in 1981, it talks about his becoming fiction editor of Omni magazine, the science fiction community in New York City, and more. As for fiction, we have that, too, of course. Fantasy from Joseph Payne Brennan and Aeryn Rudel. Science fiction from Larry Tritten, Frank Belknap Long, and a rare novel, The Green Girl, from Grandmaster Jack Williamson. A big thanks to everyone who made the first 100 issues possible, including Acquiring Editors Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, Paul Di Filippo, Darrell Schweitzer, and Cynthia Ward, staffers Sam Hogan, and Karl Wurf, and of course all our readers! -- John Betancourt, Editor Here’s the complete lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Wolfhound” 2023 by Bradley Harper [short story] “Things That Go Bump” 2022 by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “If Only You Would Leave Me” by Nancy Pickard [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “The Lord Is My Shamus” 2012 by Barb Goffman [short story] “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’” 2021 by Michael Bracken [short story] Knock Three-One-Two, by Fredric Brown [novel] Nonfiction: “Speaking with Robert Sheckley” by Darrell Schweitzer [interview] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “The Smile Price” by Aeryn Rudel [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “Exit Laughing” by Larry Tritten [short story] “The Miniature Menace,” by Frank Belknap Long [short story] “The Seventh Incantation,” by Joseph Payne Brennan [short story] The Green Girl, by Jack Williamson [novel]

Hours of great reading await, with tales from some of the 20th century''s most renowned science fiction authors, Here are 25 science fiction stories (plus a bonus short-short): UNKNOWN THINGS, by Reginald Bretnor CAPTIVES OF THE FLAME, by Samuel R. Delany EXPEDITER, by Mack Reynolds ONE-SHOT, by James Blish SHIPWRECK IN THE SKY, by Eando Binder ZEN, by Jerome Bixby LANCELOT BIGGS COOKS A PIRATE, by Nelson Bond SENTIMENT, INC., by Poul Anderson THE ISSAHAR ARTIFACTS, by J. F. Bone THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP, by Ben Bova YEAR OF THE BIG THAW, by Marion Zimmer Bradley EARTHMEN BEARING GIFTS, by Fredric Brown HAPPY ENDING, by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds LIGHTER THAN YOU THINK, by Nelson Bond RIYA’S FOUNDLING, by Algis Budrys ACCIDENTAL DEATH, by Peter Baily AND ALL THE EARTH A GRAVE, by C. C. MacApp DEAD RINGER, by Lester del Rey THE CRYSTAL CRYPT, by Philip K. Dick THE JUPITER WEAPON, by Charles L. Fontenay THE MAN WHO HATED MARS, by Randall Garrett NAVY DAY, by Harry Harrison THE JUDAS VALLEY, by Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett NATIVE SON, by T. D. Hamm JUBILEE, by Richard A. Lupoff FINAL CALL, by John Gregory Betancourt And don''t forget to check out all the other volumes in the "Megapack" series! Search on "Megapack" in the ebook store to see the complete list...covering more science fiction volumes, plus adventure stories, military, fantasy, ghost stories, westerns, and much more!

“Happy Ending” by Mack Reynolds and Fredric Brown is an intriguing and thought-provoking science fiction tale that plays with the concept of fate, choices, and the unpredictable nature of human desires. Set in a futuristic world, this short novel explores the consequences of seemingly trivial decisions and their lasting impact on individuals and society as a whole. The story follows a series of characters who, by accident or design, find themselves caught in a web of predicaments and life-altering situations. The plot centers around the challenge of reconciling personal dreams with harsh realities, illustrating how different paths can intersect in unexpected ways. As the characters navigate their evolving situations, readers are introduced to themes of destiny, agency, and what it means to truly achieve a “happy ending.” What makes “Happy Ending” stand out is its exploration of deep philosophical questions wrapped in a fast-paced, engaging narrative. The collaboration between Mack Reynolds and Fredric Brown results in a seamless blend of speculative fiction and psychological exploration, making this book a fascinating read for anyone interested in the complexities of human nature and the consequences of our actions. With its satirical humor and biting commentary, “Happy Ending” challenges the notion that a happy conclusion is always guaranteed. The authors cleverly juxtapose the ideal of happiness with the more ambiguous and often contradictory aspects of life, making the book both entertaining and intellectually stimulating. Readers who enjoy thought-provoking tales that blend science fiction with existential reflection will find “Happy Ending” a captivating read. This book is perfect for fans of Reynolds and Brown’s works as well as anyone interested in exploring how human choices shape the trajectory of our lives, often leading to endings that are far from what we expect or desire. If you’re ready for a journey through the unexpected twists and turns of fate, “Happy Ending” offers a unique perspective on what it means to find contentment in a world that doesn’t always offer clear answers. The book’s clever narrative and thematic depth make it an essential addition to the collection of any science fiction enthusiast.

Hank was spinning quite a space lie—something about earrings wearing their owners. The crew got a boot out of the yarn—until they got to thinking.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the potential terror of weapons of mass destruction--from nuclear, biological, and chemical to dirty bombs--preoccupies national security experts. In Chemical Warfare, Frederic J. Brown, presents a cogent, innovative framework for understanding the historical forces that have restrained the use of WMD and how they continue to have relevance today. Analyzing both world wars, he argues that the restraints on use were complex and often unpredictable and ranged from the political to the technological. The author offers a detailed examination of American chemical warfare policy as it was shaped by industry and public sentiment, as well as national and military leaders. The organization of the book into three parts reflects the importance of battlefield experiences during the First World War and of international political restraints as they evolved during the interwar years and culminated in ""no first use"" policies by major powers in World War II. Part I examines the use of chemical weapons in World War I as it influenced subsequent national policy decisions. Part II focuses on the evolution of political, military, economic, and psychological restraints from 1919 to 1939. Part III discusses World War II during two critical periods: 1939 to early 1942, when the environment of the war was being established largely without American influence; and during 1945, when the United States faced no credible threat of retaliation to deter its strategic and battlefield use of chemical weapons. Written at the height of controversy about the U.S. use of chemicals in Vietnam, Chemical Warfare offers a valuable historical perspective, as relevant now in its analysis of chemical and also nuclear policy as it was when first published.

In the 1960s the masters of crime fiction expanded the genre’s literary and psychological possibilities with audacious new themes, forms, and subject matter—here are five of their finest works This is the first of two volumes gathering the best American crime fiction of the 1960s, nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade. In The Murderers (1961) by Fredric Brown, an out-of-work actor, hanging out with Beat drifters on the fringes of Hollywood, concocts a murder scheme that devolves into nightmare. This late work by a master in many genres is one of his darkest and most ingenious. Dan J. Marlowe’s The Name of the Game Is Death (1962) channels the inner life of a violent criminal who freely acknowledges the truth of a prison psychiatrist’s diagnosis: “Your values are not civilized values.” Written with unnerving emotional authenticity, the story hurtles toward an annihilating climax. Charles Williams drew on his experience in the merchant marine for his thriller Dead Calm (1963). A newlywed couple alone on a small yacht find themselves at the mercy of the mysterious survivor they have rescued from a sinking ship, in a suspenseful story that chillingly evokes the perils of the open ocean. In the beautifully told and sharply observant The Expendable Man (1963), Dorothy B. Hughes’s final masterpiece of suspense, a young man in the American Southwest runs afoul of racial assumptions after he picks up a hitchhiker who soon turns up dead. In twenty-four brilliantly constructed novels, Richard Stark (a pen name of Donald Westlake) charted the career of Parker, a hard-nosed professional thief, with rigorous clarity. The Score (1964), a stand-out in the series, finds Parker and his criminal associates hatching a plot to rob simultaneously all the jewelry stores, payroll offices, and banks in a remote Western mining town, only to come up against the human limits of even the most intricate planning. Volume features include an introduction by editor Geoffrey O''Brien (Hardboiled America), newly researched biographies of the writers and helpful notes, and an essay on textual selection.

Logical add-on to the old phrase about a busybody never resting. Fred Brown''s Lenient Beast is a five-part narrative telling of the perfect crime. The killer is driven not out of lust, greed or any of the usual sobs, rather ''cause he cares so much for all of us. First published 1956.

Fantascienza - racconto lungo (34 pagine) - Un uomo contro un alieno: dal loro scontro dipende il destino di due civiltà. Un grande classico dal quale è stato tratto uno dei più famosi episodi di Star Trek Un uomo e un alieno, soli, su un pianeta inospitale. Sono chiamati a confrontarsi come campioni della propria specie, ma non hanno a disposizione armi, se non quelle che saranno in grado di costruisi da sé, con le poche risorse offerte dal pianeta. Fredric Brown firma un grande classico della fantascienza, dal quale nel 1967 Gene L. Coon trarrà (molto liberamente) l''omonimo episodio di Star Trek. Fredric Brown è nato a Cincinnati nel 1906 ed è morto a Tucson nel 1972. Apprezzatissimo scrittore di gialli vincitore del Premio Edgar, Brown è noto nella fantascienza soprattutto per i suoi straordinari racconti brevi e brevissimi, come il famoso Sentinella o La risposta, col quale nel 1954 anticipava in poche righe il moderno concetto di singolarità tecnologica, o ancora Arena, incluso tra i migliori 25 racconti di fantascienza di tutti i tempi e dal quale è stato tratto un celebre episodio di Star Trek. Brown ha in curriculum anche due dei più divertenti e brillanti romanzi di fantascienza dell’età d’Oro: Marziani, andate a casa! (1955, Delos Books), incluso da varie fonti nei cento migliori romanzi di fantascienza di tutti i tempi, e Assurdo universo (1949), che sotto l’ironia irresistibile di Brown anticipa temi che saranno al centro dell’opera di Philip K. Dick.

A serial killer holds a city hostage by fear, while the lives of ordinary citizens are drawn into an inescapable spiral of greed and chance.

A collection of columns by world-famous mystery and science fiction author, Fredric Brown, looking at all aspects of proof-reading from obscure rules of grammar and punctuation to tips on the best way to lay out a book. A must for any budding author who wishes to publish their own book and needs some tips on how to avoid the most common mistakes. Also includes several other rare and uncollected items by Fredric Brown including a mystery short story (Fatal Facsimile) that hasn''t been reprinted since it was first published 49 years ago; 24 humorous advice columns by the intrepid Colonel Cluck; a selection of Brown''s early attempts at poetry; and much, much more

Vice and murder prowl Chicago--and one man hunts a killer through the glittering Gold Coast and seamy back alleys. (1948 winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.)

After his visit with advanced beings in space, a mouse returns to earth with a master plan to better the lives of all mice.

Ed and Am have gotten away from the Carney life. These days, they''re working for the Starlock Detective Agency. Ed''s first case is a wealthy client trying to sound out whether an investment''s worth it. But then he finds a body with its throat cut, and hears some external howling that might just be from a werewolf.

Defying time, Jack Breton crosses into a parallel world to regain Kate - the wife who, nine years earlier, was found raped and strangled in a lonely park. But, in the alternate time-stream Kate is married to his double, John. And for one husband to remain either Jack or John must die.

For an instant you think it is temporary blindness, this sudden dark that comes in the middle of a bright afternoon. It "must" be blindness, you think; could the sun that was tanning you have gone out instantaneously, leaving you in utter blackness? Then the nerves of your body tell you that you are "standing," whereas only a second ago you were sitting comfortably, almost reclining, in a canvas chair. In the patio of a friend''s house in Beverly Hills. Talking to Barbara, your fiancee. Looking at Barbara -- Barbara in a swim suit -- her skin golden tan in the brilliant sunshine, beautiful. . . . If you had to give your life so that you could live it over again -- would you? Could you? "Should" you?

Uno dei testi cult della fantascienza Keith Winton, direttore del pulp magazine americano Storie sorprendenti (il celebre Amazing Stories), sta pensando a come sarebbe l’universo desiderato da Joe Doppelberg, accanito lettore della sua rivista... Proprio in quell’istante viene investito dalla scarica elettrica di un misterioso razzo lunare sperimentale, ritrovandosi trasportato in quel mondo. Qui viene scambiato per una spia arturiana e inizia un’epopea in cui la sua vita sarà costantemente in pericolo. In questo universo parallelo, per molti aspetti così simile al suo, la razza umana è in guerra con terribili alieni insettoidi, e a guidarla è l’alter ego di Doppelberg, divenuto l’uomo più bello, intelligente e romantico della Terra. Le ragazze vestono plasticosi completini sexy come nelle migliori copertine della rivista, e sul pianeta si aggirano bizzarri extraterrestri… Come farà il nostro eroe a “tornare a casa”?

The reason George Weaver is able to rent the house near Taos so cheaply is that a girl was murdered there eight years before. Nobody knows where she came from, or what became of her killer, but gradually Weaver begins to find out. And as the clues to the riddle of Jenny Ames emerges, he discovers that nothing is more treacherously seductive than an unsolved murder.

Ce roman de science-fiction est une excellente et attrayante parodie de l''oeuvre de Wells: ##La guerre des mondes##. Inénarrable et vraiment farfelu, mais chef-d''oeuvre en son genre. [SDM].

"I’m called Howie, or The Professor. I’m on Skid Row in Los Angeles because I want to know what it’s like to be a bum, from the inside. But I didn’t know I’d fall for a part-time hustler named Billie the Kid. I didn’t know I’d get mixed up in two killings, and that the cops would pin them on me..." -- http://www.centipedepress.com/crime/wenchisdead.html (as viewed on February 16, 2017).

A radio soap-opera scriptwriter finds himself in the thick of murder when an unknown killer begins acting out scripts that were written but never shown to everyone

Crime à Chicago est la première enquête mettant en scène les personnages les plus célèbres de Fredric Brown, Am Hunter et son neveu Ed. C''est un roman à l''intrigue brillante et une histoire d''amour pudique et émouvante entre un adulte et un adolescent. Un des chefs-d''œuvre incontestés du roman policier américain.

" Il est de ces écrivains que l''on ne cerne jamais tout à fait ; chaque roman est un nouvel univers, avec ses lois et ses règles du jeu. Fredric Brown (1906-1972) ficelle ses polars avec toute la tendresse et le professionnalisme d''un boucher travaillant dans l''amour de l''art. Pas de scènes sanguinolentes, mais la triste réalité du quotidien qui, pour des raisons obscures, bascule un jour dans l''irrationnel de l''homicide. " Georgie Blucow

10 juin 1954. La première tentative de lancement d''une fusée vers la Lune se solde par un échec disons... cuisant. Du moins pour Keith Winston, journaliste dans une revue de science-fiction, littéralement désintégré dans le jardin de son patron par l''explosion du projectile et... réintégré dans un univers parallèle où monstres hideux aux yeux pédonculés et femmes de l''espace en sous-vêtements sexy côtoient le commun des mortels avec le plus grand naturel, sur fond de guerre intergalactique entre Arcturus et la Terre. Pris pour un espion arcturien, Winston ne devra son salut qu''à sa connaissance de la littérature de science-fiction. Mais trouver votre double installé dans votre appartement et votre petite amie fiancée à un autre, découvrir que les machines à coudre peuvent ouvrir la voie de l''hyperespace, voilà de quoi ébranler l''esprit le plus ouvert de cet univers en folie !