I’ve got a love/hate relationship with the summer. I can sit out on my porch with a few beers and read, with not a care in the world … but then I hate the humidity that comes along with it, and I have no A/C. So here are three magazine-curated short-story collections.

MIKE SHAYNE’S TORRID TWELVE edited by Leo Marguiles — As with most Mike Shayne books I come across, if I don’t have it, I grab it, especially with a great Robert McGinnis cover. It was a nice surprise to learn this 1961 release is a collection of stories that were in the old MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE, and I only recognized two of the authors: Shayne and Robert Bloch.

It’s worth seeking out just for the story “Death Dives Deep,” which tells of some sunken “treasure” that Mike is hired to be a middleman for, since the finder of the loot wants to sell the map off to a buyer, but doesn’t trust them. It never slows down and delivers a nice boost of action, as you’ve come to expect from the series.

There are two tales of teenage gang violence: “A Hood Is Born” and “The Rites of Death,” which would be fine, if I didn’t just read a kick-ass collection by Hal Ellson, a master of the genre. Bloch’s story, “Water’s Edge,” could have easily been in one of the Alfred Hitchcock collections. It deals with an ex-con meeting his cellmate’s widow to try and find the hidden loot his cellmate stashed away, with the idea that he’ll take it all. “The Toy-Head Man” by Franklin Gregory tells the tale of a toy company in Japan, the death of the owner’s son and the discovery of why a certain ugly toy is so popular.

This collection was a pleasant surprise, and I wish there were more Shayne collections out there like this. Also, it reminds me to kick myself in the ass a few times, since I had an opportunity a few years ago to take a box of the old magazines home with me for literally nothing.

ELLERY QUEEN’S MURDER — IN SPADES! edited by Ellery Queen — From 1969, this collection of nine stories is like a who’s who of the crime and pulp world, with characters like Lew Archer, Nero Wolfe and Ellery Queen in its pages, so already you’re ahead of the game.

Now, I’m not a fan of the first character in the book: Nero Wolfe. I’ve always found him to be a bit of a character who never lets the readers in on the clues until the end. The story here is a perfect example of that: Rex Stout’s “Immune to Murder,” where Wolfe actually leaves his home on the order of the government to meet a foreign dignitary who wants Wolfe to prepare food for him. Things don’t work out so well when someone turns up dead with their head bashed in. Again, all the clues are hidden from the readers so you won’t be able to figure it out.

The complete opposite can be said for the short puzzle Ellery Queen gives us with “Miser’s Gold,” which deals with missing money hidden, with the clues staring our hero right in the face. This anthology also has something not found in most crime collections: one with a sci-fi bent, as in Poul Anderson’s “Adventure of the Martian Crown Jewels.” It seems to be a loving tribute to not only the locked-room puzzle mysteries, but also a nod to Edgar Rice Burroughs, as one of the characters is named John Carter. But it’s more a tribute to Sherlock Holmes, as we witness an alien investigator taking the guise of that English detective, right down to the hat and pipe. It deals with a box of jewels being stolen from an in-transit spaceship and was only opened once they landed.

Another surprise is that Doc Savage creator Lester Dent wrote two detective stories with the same character: sailor Oscar Sail. I found this story to be lacking and see why he stuck with the more fantastical adventures of Doc, but it’s still a nice little tale — just nothing to rave about. There is a Robert Bloch story that tells of how far some movie people will go for publicity for an upcoming film, in “Is Betsey Blake Still Alive?”

But probably one of the best of the lot is “Anniversary Gift” by John Collier. To go into it would ruin the joke. I’ll just say never try to be smarter than you are, because it will bite you in the end.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S DEATH CAN BE BEAUTIFUL edited by Alfred Hitchcock — What short story column would be complete without an entry from the vast Hitchcock line of books? For those who’ve come late to the game in my column, I’ll again point out that Hitchcock had nothing to do with these at all. He was just a name to use to sell these top-notch anthologies, including this 1972 one.

After the introduction by a ghostwriter, we have “The Fantatical Ford” by Albert Porges, which tells the story of a man who is being hunted down by Fords and the lengths he goes to protect himself. Sounds like some author of note might have read this in his youth.

We also have “The Sound of Murder” by Donald Westlake; seeing his name was one of the reasons I grabbed this originally. It tells of a precious little girl who turns up at the police station to have her mother arrested, since she can prove her mother caused her stepfather’s heart attack by scaring him with sound. It’s typical Westlake fiction where the ending pays off.

James Holding’s “Cop Killer” is the story of a cop who gets himself a partner to work the old neighborhood. It goes to show to never, ever kill a cop of any kind, because their will be retribution. Hal Ellson’s “The Death of Autumn” is about an old woman who was robbed of her jewelry that she was going to sell off so she could keep her home. To go any further would ruin the payoff, which of course, is the problem of reviewing any short stories.

Finally, there is Fletcher Flora’s “Beside a Flowering Wall,” about an older woman who is expecting a gentleman caller from her youth, only to be disappointed by the outcome of his life, since it ruins her plan for the day — a fitting way to close the collection and this week’s column.

Next time: Papa Oom Mao Mao! —Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF BRETT HALLIDAY:
• ARMED … DANGEROUS … by Brett Halliday
• BODIES ARE WHERE YOU FIND THEM by Brett Halliday
• COUNT BACKWARDS TO ZERO by Brett Halliday
• COUNTERFEIT WIFE by Brett Halliday
• FOURTH DOWN TO DEATH by Brett Halliday
• GUILTY AS HELL by Brett Halliday
• MERMAID ON THE ROCKS by Brett Halliday
• NEVER KILL A CLIENT by Brett Halliday
• TARGET: MIKE SHAYNE by Brett Halliday
• WHAT REALLY HAPPENED by Brett Halliday

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK:
• ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS 12 STORIES FOR LATE AT NIGHT
• ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: 14 OF MY FAVORITES IN SUSPENSE
• ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S A HANGMAN’S DOZEN
• ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S HARD DAY AT THE SCAFFOLD
• ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE PRESENTS FIFTY YEARS OF CRIME AND SUSPENSE
• ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S ONCE UPON A DREADFUL TIME

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ELLERY QUEEN:
• COP OUT by Ellery Queen
• THE COPPER FRAME by Ellery Queen
• DON’T FEAR THE REAPER by Ellery Queen
• THE DRAGON’S TEETH / CALAMITY TOWN by Ellery Queen
• THE FOUR OF HEARTS by Ellery Queen
• THE ORIGIN OF EVIL by Ellery Queen
• A ROOM TO DIE IN by Ellery Queen
• THE SPANISH CAPE MYSTERY by Ellery Queen
• WHO KILLED THE GOLDEN GOOSE by Ellery Queen