Scan barcode
littletaiko's review against another edition
4.0
A locked door murder mystery involving sci-fi writers was a hoot. Anthony Boucher while being the name behind the mystery convention of Bouchercon was also a sci-fi writer. The characters in the books are loosely based on his fellow writers and he even makes an appearance in the story.
david_agranoff's review against another edition
5.0
I took an interesting route to this book. Anthony Boucher whose real name was William Anthony Parker White wrote books and edited magazines in more than one genre. It is one thing to have had such an impact in one genre that awards and conventions are named after you, but amazing to have impacted two genres. Boucher is known for being a godfather of American mystery novels but it was his impact on Science Fiction that got my attention. I will admit a few years ago Boucher was not a name I knew. Then when my friends and I started the Dickheads Philip K Dick podcast a running joke grew over the episodes. Shout out to Tony, because his influence on the life of Philip K Dick was profound.
We constantly saw evidence of influence. Two editors had the biggest impact on PKD. Don Wollheim published most of Phil's novels and when talking about his career and the genre Phil always gave Don the credit for being not just one of but the MOST important person in Science fiction. Boucher, on the other hand, was more important to Phil on a personal as well as professional level. It is not just that he bought Phil's first short story Roog, but Tony inspired Phil to write Science Fiction in the first place. The two met and became friends in Berkley when this novel was already a re-printed classic. Philip Dick was working in a record store and Boucher was a regular, picking up vinal to play on his local opera radio show. Phil had dismissed the idea of writing sci-fi as kid stuff and it was Boucher that showed him that you could be a smart reader/ writer of the genre. It wasn't just pulpy kids stuff like Buck Rodgers. As a long time fan of A.E. Van Vogt Phil knew that but needed Boucher's encouragement to write. Boucher also hosted a bay area writers group that included Dick, Marian Zimmer Bradley, and Ray Nelson among others.
This group of friends would gather and talk about writing and critique each others work. Boucher of course had experience with a group like this and they were the basis of the novel Rocket To the Morgue. In 1940 Boucher and his wife were living in LA, and Boucher became a member of a writers group called the Minana literary society. This was a real writer's group that at the time was hosted by Robert Heinlein, and included L. Ron Hubbard, Henry Kutter and his wife C.L. Moore to name a few. Boucher used this group and real-life Science fiction figures like Forrest J Ackerman and John W. Campbell as characters in this murder mystery.
Keep in mind this novel was released under the name HH Holmes (yes the same name as the less famous at the time first American serial killer) Boucher made himself a character in the book as well. The details of the group are thinly veiled indeed Austin Carter is clearly Heinlein, D. Vance Wimpole is Hubbard, Halstad Pyn is likely the future founder of Famous Monsters Fores J Ackerman who in 1940 was an agent. Don Stuart who is mentioned but not in the action is John W. Campbell.
So you see This book is a work of genius and super important to the history of two genres. It is important because:
1. Boucher tells a fascinating locked room mystery with interesting characters.
2. Boucher comments on a meta-level about the personalities of important figures in the history of science fiction. It is a chance to get to know these figures.
3. Boucher tells a great story and still manages to comment on the Science Fiction genre at a time that it was in infancy. Confined to pulp magazines and tiny convention halls. Science fiction novels didn't get hardcover books so he was also introducing the world to the genre. Just two years before he approached a major mystery magazine to open his own SF magazine that still publishes today 50 plus years after his death.
4. A mystery novel sure but the most recent edition which features a great addition in the form of an excellent introduction by F.Paul Wilson makes sense to be shelved next to classic non-fiction books on the genre. Why because you'll learn levels of the history reading it.
So the actual story is a fun one. The heir to the literary estate of a writer who wrote popular supernatural detective novels Hilary Foulkes has several enemies. In 1941 Hollywood wants to make his father's stories into movies, and famous Science Fiction writers want to continue his work, but he has refused their efforts, after several attempts at his life the suspicions are directed at the sci-fi group. The action follows a Detective Terrance Marshall and Sister Mary Ursula, a nun of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany who has always dreamed of being a cop. This is the second Sister Ursula book but I have no idea if I am missing out on background about her.
The Mystery at the heart of the novel is fun, but it was not what interested me. The commentary and history of the Sci-fi genre were enough for me to make this a great read. The fun story was just a great bonus. As F.Paul Wilson author of The Keep and the Repairmen Jack Series said in his introduction "It made me want to run up to every science fiction fan I know and shove a copy at them, shouting "you have to read this!" I agree this book is a must-read for scholars of the genre.
Check out our Tony Boucher tribute episode:
On Youtube:
https://youtu.be/Fsz67cLwmuI
On Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/dick-adjacent-7-shout-out-to-tony-boucher
We constantly saw evidence of influence. Two editors had the biggest impact on PKD. Don Wollheim published most of Phil's novels and when talking about his career and the genre Phil always gave Don the credit for being not just one of but the MOST important person in Science fiction. Boucher, on the other hand, was more important to Phil on a personal as well as professional level. It is not just that he bought Phil's first short story Roog, but Tony inspired Phil to write Science Fiction in the first place. The two met and became friends in Berkley when this novel was already a re-printed classic. Philip Dick was working in a record store and Boucher was a regular, picking up vinal to play on his local opera radio show. Phil had dismissed the idea of writing sci-fi as kid stuff and it was Boucher that showed him that you could be a smart reader/ writer of the genre. It wasn't just pulpy kids stuff like Buck Rodgers. As a long time fan of A.E. Van Vogt Phil knew that but needed Boucher's encouragement to write. Boucher also hosted a bay area writers group that included Dick, Marian Zimmer Bradley, and Ray Nelson among others.
This group of friends would gather and talk about writing and critique each others work. Boucher of course had experience with a group like this and they were the basis of the novel Rocket To the Morgue. In 1940 Boucher and his wife were living in LA, and Boucher became a member of a writers group called the Minana literary society. This was a real writer's group that at the time was hosted by Robert Heinlein, and included L. Ron Hubbard, Henry Kutter and his wife C.L. Moore to name a few. Boucher used this group and real-life Science fiction figures like Forrest J Ackerman and John W. Campbell as characters in this murder mystery.
Keep in mind this novel was released under the name HH Holmes (yes the same name as the less famous at the time first American serial killer) Boucher made himself a character in the book as well. The details of the group are thinly veiled indeed Austin Carter is clearly Heinlein, D. Vance Wimpole is Hubbard, Halstad Pyn is likely the future founder of Famous Monsters Fores J Ackerman who in 1940 was an agent. Don Stuart who is mentioned but not in the action is John W. Campbell.
So you see This book is a work of genius and super important to the history of two genres. It is important because:
1. Boucher tells a fascinating locked room mystery with interesting characters.
2. Boucher comments on a meta-level about the personalities of important figures in the history of science fiction. It is a chance to get to know these figures.
3. Boucher tells a great story and still manages to comment on the Science Fiction genre at a time that it was in infancy. Confined to pulp magazines and tiny convention halls. Science fiction novels didn't get hardcover books so he was also introducing the world to the genre. Just two years before he approached a major mystery magazine to open his own SF magazine that still publishes today 50 plus years after his death.
4. A mystery novel sure but the most recent edition which features a great addition in the form of an excellent introduction by F.Paul Wilson makes sense to be shelved next to classic non-fiction books on the genre. Why because you'll learn levels of the history reading it.
So the actual story is a fun one. The heir to the literary estate of a writer who wrote popular supernatural detective novels Hilary Foulkes has several enemies. In 1941 Hollywood wants to make his father's stories into movies, and famous Science Fiction writers want to continue his work, but he has refused their efforts, after several attempts at his life the suspicions are directed at the sci-fi group. The action follows a Detective Terrance Marshall and Sister Mary Ursula, a nun of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany who has always dreamed of being a cop. This is the second Sister Ursula book but I have no idea if I am missing out on background about her.
The Mystery at the heart of the novel is fun, but it was not what interested me. The commentary and history of the Sci-fi genre were enough for me to make this a great read. The fun story was just a great bonus. As F.Paul Wilson author of The Keep and the Repairmen Jack Series said in his introduction "It made me want to run up to every science fiction fan I know and shove a copy at them, shouting "you have to read this!" I agree this book is a must-read for scholars of the genre.
Check out our Tony Boucher tribute episode:
On Youtube:
https://youtu.be/Fsz67cLwmuI
On Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/dick-adjacent-7-shout-out-to-tony-boucher
qdove's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ssejig's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A take on the science fiction writers of the time (1941), this book has many thinly veiled references to writers in that genre. They are all working hard to make money by writing as many words as possible and all of them have a great dislike for Hilary Foulkes. Hilary isn't even a writer, he's just the executor of his father's estate. But that estate is vast and Hilary has the power to stop many projects. So it's not, perhaps, surprising to mystery readers that he is getting threats against his life. But Inspector Marshall is not amused as the clues seem to be pointing to his friend, Matt Duncan.
I had heard about this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast. The author was more complimentary than I was but he also knows more about the authors of that time.
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
3.0
Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher (originally published in 1942 under his pseudonym H. H. Holmes). This is another vintage mystery find in that small, heavily-loaded-with-mysteries library in small town Indiana.
It revolves around the science fiction writer's world. The now-dead author Fowler Foulkes has reigned over the science fiction world in much the same way as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Holmes have presided over mysteries. His son, Hilary, fiercely protects the intellectual property of his father and does everything he can to keep that property producing the money to go along with the popularity. Hilary's attitude of inflexibility and greed has also earned him many enemies--especially among his father's science fiction colleagues. There are a couple of "accidents" that make him think that his life is in danger...and then a man named Jonathan Tarbell is murdered. Tarbell's death is connected to the Foulkes family by a rosary found in his pocket. The police are called in and Detective Inspector Terry Marshall arrives at the Foulkes home at the same time as a box of chocolates...a box of chocolates that seems to be ticking. And then there's a locked room mystery to be solved.
This was the first Boucher mystery I read. I didn't find the earlier work Nine Times Nine (to which this is a sequel) until much later. It isn't the all-time best mystery. It's a competent mystery and a fairly competent locked room mystery--but having read John Dickson Carr first spoiled me for greatness. What was so great about this book was that I read it during my transition period back to mysteries from science fiction. And the book revolves around the science fiction world. Authors of the Golden Age of SF are represented here...and those who know their SF lore will recognize them--and will catch all the in-jokes. It has been said that this book was Boucher's attempt to introduce SF to the mystery loving crowd. I would say that it might work just as well the other way around.
It revolves around the science fiction writer's world. The now-dead author Fowler Foulkes has reigned over the science fiction world in much the same way as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Holmes have presided over mysteries. His son, Hilary, fiercely protects the intellectual property of his father and does everything he can to keep that property producing the money to go along with the popularity. Hilary's attitude of inflexibility and greed has also earned him many enemies--especially among his father's science fiction colleagues. There are a couple of "accidents" that make him think that his life is in danger...and then a man named Jonathan Tarbell is murdered. Tarbell's death is connected to the Foulkes family by a rosary found in his pocket. The police are called in and Detective Inspector Terry Marshall arrives at the Foulkes home at the same time as a box of chocolates...a box of chocolates that seems to be ticking. And then there's a locked room mystery to be solved.
This was the first Boucher mystery I read. I didn't find the earlier work Nine Times Nine (to which this is a sequel) until much later. It isn't the all-time best mystery. It's a competent mystery and a fairly competent locked room mystery--but having read John Dickson Carr first spoiled me for greatness. What was so great about this book was that I read it during my transition period back to mysteries from science fiction. And the book revolves around the science fiction world. Authors of the Golden Age of SF are represented here...and those who know their SF lore will recognize them--and will catch all the in-jokes. It has been said that this book was Boucher's attempt to introduce SF to the mystery loving crowd. I would say that it might work just as well the other way around.
More...