Black Cat Weekly #128

Black Cat Weekly #128

Title: Black Cat Weekly #128
Author: Janice Law, William Burton McCormick, Steve Janko, Henry T. Parry, Hal Charles, William Le Queux, Manly Wade Wellman, Charles L. Fontenay, Hannes Bok & William W. Stuart
Release: 2024-02-11
Kind: ebook
Genre: Sci-Fi Short Stories, Books, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fantasy Short Stories, Mysteries & Thrillers, Mystery Short Stories
Size: 1748846
This issue has one of the best original stories we’ve published: Janet Law’s brilliant “Wrong Door,” a tale very much in the classic Twilight Zone tradition. Don’t skip it! Though Janice is best known for her mystery stories, this one proves she can write masterfully in any genre.

But great stories don’t stop there. Our Acquiring Editors, Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, have both found original stories this time—from William Burton McCormick and Steve Janko. Plus I’m pleased to present another new mystery story from the late Henry T. Parry. Parry was very much a hobbyist writer for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. His work started appearing there in the 1960s, and if the editor didn’t buy a story, he set it aside and moved on to another one. He didn’t send them to other markets, like any pro writer would have done. His daughter has entrusted his unpublished stories to me, and I am going through them and seeing which ones still work. (His last story appeared here in BCW #105.) I date “The Marina Case” to the early 1970s, and it’s a solid mystery that surely would have found a home had he submitted it to more than one editor.

Our mystery novel this time is William Le Queux’s The Crystal Claw, a Golden Age page-turner. And, as always, we have a solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles.

Turning back to the science fiction end of things, in addition to Janice Law’s tale, we have classics by Hannes Bok (miners on Venus!), William W. Stuart (a man wakes in a futuristic jail with no memory of how he got there!), and Charles L. Fontenay (envy leads to discovering an Earthman’s secrets!). Our SF novelet is an early space adventure from fantastist Manly Wade Wellman.

   Here’s the complete lineup—

Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure:

“Letter From a Lone Prospector to His Mother,” by William Burton McCormick [Michael Bracken Presents short story]

“The Wild West Whodunit,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery]

“Confessions of an Invisible Hit Man,” by Steve Janko [Barb Goffman Presents short story]

“Grass Is Not Always Green,” by Henry T. Parry [short story]

The Crystal Claw, by William Le Queux [novel]

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

“Wrong Door,” by Janice Law [short story]

“One Touch of Terra,” by Hannes Bok [short story]

“A Prison Make,” by William W. Stuart [short story]

“Beauty Interrupted” by Charles L. Fontenay [short story]

The Invading Asteroid, by Manly Wade Wellman [short novel]

More Books from Janice Law, William Burton McCormick, Steve Janko, Henry T. Parry, Hal Charles, William Le Queux, Manly Wade Wellman, Charles L. Fontenay, Hannes Bok & William W. Stuart

Naomi Kritzer, N. M. Cedeno, Hal Charles, Janice Law, A.R. Morlan, Malcolm Jameson, George O Smith, Hulbert Footner, Nicholas Carter & Otis Adelbert Kline
Janice Law, John M. Floyd, Hal Charles, Todhunter Ballard, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Larry Tritten, Nancy Kress, John Gregory Betancourt & Stephen Marlowe
Janice Law, Barb Goffman, Tom Larsen, H.K. Slade, Emilio DeGrazia, Elizabeth Zelvin, Gregory L. Norris, Vicki Weisfeld, Steve Liskow, Mark Troy & Michael Bracken
Janice Law, William Burton McCormick, Steve Janko, Henry T. Parry, Hal Charles, William Le Queux, Manly Wade Wellman, Charles L. Fontenay, Hannes Bok & William W. Stuart
Janice Law & Hal Charles
Arthur Conan Doyle, Janice Law, Barb Goffman, Mike McHone, Peter DiChellis, Rafe McGregor, J.P. Seewald, Rebecca K. Jones, Keith Brooke, Hal Charles & V.P. Kava
Barb Goffman, Josh Pachter, Janice Law, Steve Liskow, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Linda Niehoff, Tom Larsen, Stephen D. Rogers, Bruce Arthurs & John Bosworth
Janice Law, Aeryn Rudel, Dan Leicht, Larry Tritten, Hal Charles, Tom Easton, E.C. Tubb, Philip E. High, E. Hoffmann Price & J.J. Connington
Janice Law
Janice Law, Eve Fisher, Joseph Walker S., Hal Charles, Robert Silverberg, Ron Goulart, Alan J. Wahnefried, Evelyn E. Smith & Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
Janice Law
Janice Law, Aeryn Rudel, Hal Charles, Richard Helms, Murray Leinster, Dorothy B. Hughes, Jerome Bixby, Seabury Quinn, Malcolm Jameson & Nick Boddie Williams
Janice Law, Hal Charles, Gina Nelson, Ron Miller, Philip E. High, Harlan Ellison, Jack Williamson, Stephen Marlowe, Henry Slesar & James Hay Jr.
Marvin Kaye, Gary Lovisi, Victoria Weisfeld, Dan Andriacco, Janice Law, Arthur Conan Doyle & Michael Penncavage
Janice Law, Tom Larsen, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Gordon Linzner, Hal Charles, Sam W. Pisciotta, Lin Carter, Philip E. High, Josephine Tey & Henry S. Whitehead