The Paperback Show Murders (10 page)

“CHEAP THRILLS AND CHILLS”

In October of 1964, at the age of sixteen, I went to work in my Dad's service station in Spokane, Washington, and for the first time in my life, I had some real pocket money. I'd long been dissatisfied with the selection of fiction at the local public library, so I immediately began haunting two downtown bookstores: Clark's Old Book Store (run by Jerome “Jerry” Peltier), and Dean Gilbert's Inland Book Store. Both included a healthy selection of used science fiction paperbacks for cheap prices, and so I started visiting them on a weekly basis, quickly building a collection (I never threw anything away). I would sometimes spend every penny that I had on books, and then be forced to hike the seven miles home, instead of taking the bus. I still regret the few titles that “got away.”

I also purchased some pbs from the local newstands, but these were much more expensive, costing 40-50 cents each, which I thought exorbitant at the time.

From the very start, I loved mass market paperbacks: the cheap paper, the garish cover art, the sometimes wild writing—all of these things thrilled me then, and continue to thrill me now. I've always had the collecting instinct, and I began filling in my backlists of SF, fantasy, and horror paperbacks, whenever I could. I attended my first SF convention in 1968, which led almost immediately to my first book,
Stella Nova
. My life since then has reflected an abiding interest in literature in all its forms. And although I've been quasi-literate since the age of four, my
real
love of books began with the creation of my own library of paperbound fiction—and I've never stopped since.

So, this little mystery,
The Paperback Show Murders
, is my homage to a field that helped make me what I am today—as writer and editor and man. This is my eleventh novel, so you'd think I'd know better by now—but I couldn't resist adding a few funnies to the text. The old pb publishers did indeed issue some true classics of popular literature that deserve to be resurrected and reread. But these were interspersed with some truly dreadful (and now unreadable) novels by hack writers, a fact that often seems to be overlooked by historians of the field. For every title worth reprinting, there are twenty or more that ought to be buried in as deep as hole as one can find—and sealed solidly with lead!

So, I hope you enjoy this excursion into the collecting world. I certainly had a great deal of fun writing it!

—Robert Reginald

San Bernardino, California

20 February 2011

Robert Reginald
was born in Japan, and lived in Turkey as a youth. He starting writing as a child, and penned his first book during his senior year in college. He settled in Southern California in 1969, where he served as an academic librarian for forty years. He currently edits the Borgo Press Imprint of Wildside Press, and has also penned more than 120 books and 13,000 short pieces. His recent works of fiction include: four Nova Europa historical fantasies,
The Dark-Haired Man; or, The Hieromonk's Tale
(2004),
The Exiled Prince; or, The Archquisitor's Tale
(2004),
Quæstiones; or, The Protopresbyter's Tale
(2005), and
The Fourth Elephant's Egg; or, The Hypatomancer's Tale
(forthcoming); four science fiction novels,
Invasion!: Earth vs. the Aliens
(2007; a trilogy comprising
Invasion!
,
Operation: Crimson Storm
, and
The Martians Strike Back!
),
Knack' Attack: A Tale of the Human-Knacker War
(2010),
“A Glorious Death”: A Tale of the Human-Knacker War
(forthcoming), and
Academentia: A Future Dystopia
(forthcoming); two Phantom Detective period mysteries,
The Phantom's Phantom
(2007) and
The Nasty Gnomes
(2008); a comic mystery,
The Paperback Show Murders
(2011); and three story collections,
Katydid & Other Critters: Tales of Fantasy and Mystery
(2001),
The Elder of Days: Tales of the Elders
(2010), and
The Judgment of the Gods and Other Verdicts of History
(2011). You can find him at:

www.millefleurs.tv

Academentia: A Future Dystopia

Ancestral Voices: An Anthology of Early Science Fiction

Ancient Hauntings
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

The Attempted Assassination of John F. Kennedy

BP 300: A Bibliography of the Borgo Press, 1976-1998

Choice Words: Writers Writing About Writing
(editor)

Classics of Fantastic Literature
(with Douglas Menville)

Codex Derynianus III
(with Katherine Kurtz)

The Dark-Haired Man; or, The Hieromonk's Tale
(NE #1)

Dreamers of Dreams
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

The Exiled Prince; or, The Archquisitor's Tale
(NE #2)

Forgotten Fantasy: Issues #1-5
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

The Fourth Elephant's Egg; or, The Hypatomancer's Tale
(#4)

“A Glorious Death”: The Human-Knacker War, Book Three

The House of the Burgesses
(with Mary A. Burgess)

If J.F.K. Had Lived
(with Jeffrey M. Elliot)

Invasion! Earth vs. the Aliens
(War of Two Worlds #1)

The Judgment of the Gods and Other Verdicts of History

King Solomon's Children
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

Knack' Attack: A Tale of the Human-Knacker War
(Book Two)

The Martians Strike Back!
(War of Two Worlds #3)

The Nasty Gnomes: A Novel of the Phantom Detective
(#2)

Operation Crimson Storm
(War of Two Worlds #2)

The Paperback Show Murders

Phantasmagoria
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

The Phantom's Phantom: A Novel of the Phantom Detective—#
1

Quæstiones; or, The Protopresbyter's Tale
(Nova Europa #3)

R.I.P.
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

The Spectre Bridegroom and Other Horrors
(ed. with Menville)

They
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

Trilobite Dreams; or, The Autodidact's Tale: An Autobiography

Worlds of Never
(ed. with Douglas Menville)

Xenograffiti: Essays on Fantastic Literature