Book Description

Ten otherworldly “diabolical delights” from the author of Rocket to the Morgue and “The Quest for Saint Aquin” (Kirkus Reviews). Anthony Boucher was a literary renaissance man: an Edgar Award–winning mystery reviewer, an esteemed editor of the Hugo Award–winning Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a prolific scriptwriter of radio mystery programs, and an accomplished writer of mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. With a particular fondness for the locked room mystery, Boucher created such iconic sleuths as Los Angeles PI Fergus O’Breen, amateur sleuth Sister Ursula, and alcoholic ex-cop Nick Noble. “A fine volume of inventive entertainment” (The Times, London), this collection features ten of Boucher’s greatest stories of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror. A down on his luck college professor chats with a magician over cocktails, and a hairy situation ensues in “The Compleat Werewolf.” Private detective Fergus O’Breen visits Mexico to investigate a peculiar case of a man with a skeleton in “The Pink Caterpillar.” Meet androids and aliens in “Q.U.R.” and “Robinc.” A terrifying—but tiny—demon is summoned in “Snulbug.” And a man discovers true terror lingering in the corner of his eye in the California desert in “They Bite.”