Black Cat Weekly #10

Book excerpt: Welcome to Black Cat Weekly #10. Carlton Clarke, the famed Chicago telepathic detective, returns to our pages with “The Broken Marconigram.” First published in 1915, this tale takes Clarke and Sexton, his “Watson,” to New Orleans in search of a friend who’s been kidnapped by a Satanic cult. These chronicles of the first “telepathic detective” originally appeared in newspaper syndication across the United States in 1908, and I continue to be impressed by them. There is much here for Sherlock Holmes fans to appreciate. Our roving mystery editor, Barb Goffman, has tracked down by gem by David Dean, “The Duelist.” Plus Hal Charles—the byline of writing team Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet—contributes another solve-it-yourself mystery. Prolific pulp author Dale Clark—whose copyrights I purchased some years ago—makes his Weekly debut with a terrific World War II-era tale about an undercover F.B.I agent. I don’t think it’s ever been reprinted. And science fiction writer Murray Leinster (real name Will Jenkins) contributes one of his rare mysteries, “One Corpse, Guaranteed!” They don’t make titles like that any more! This issue’s mystery novel is a Bull-Dog Drummond tale by “Sapper.” See my introduction to for more info on this series and author. And that’s just the mysteries! For science fiction fans, we have “The Dangerous Scarecrow,” by Carl Jacobi—he was a member of the Lovecraft Circle, whose talents extended far beyond weird fantasy into science fiction. Plus I’ve snuck in another of my own tales, “Tap Dancing,” a gentle ghost story. I never truly understood it when other writers said some stories were “gifts” that just came to them—until this story came to me. George Scithers placed it in the 300th issue of Weird Tales. It was the best thing I had written at that point in my career, and I wrote it almost word for word in its final form in one sitting. Truly it was a gift. We have not one, but two science fiction novels—Eando Binder’s 1971 classic, The Secret of the Red Spot, and Stephen Marlowe’s Revolt of the Outworlders. Good stuff. Here’s the complete lineup: Mysteries “One Corpse, Guaranteed!” by Murray Leinster [short story] “Thieves’ Blueprint,” by Dale Clark [short story] “Only Time Will Tell,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself short-short] “The Duelist,” by David Dean [Barb Goffman Presents short story] Bull-Dog Drummond’s Third Round, by Sapper [novel, Bulldog Drummond series] “The Broken Marconigram,” by Frank Lovell Nelson [short story, Carlton Clarke #9]] Science Fiction & Fantasy “Tap Dancing,” by John Gregory Betancourt[short story] “The Dangerous Scarecrow,” by Carl Jacobi [short story] Revolt of the Outworlds, by Stephen Marlowe [novel] The Secret of the Red Spot, by Eando Binder [novel]