By their very nature, most newspaper columns and editorials are ephemeral. They are often written in haste to meet a deadline, and what excites interest today may elicit only yawns tomorrow or the next day. This is especially true of community newspapers, whose focus is on matters of interest to a smaller, parochial readership. This book is a collection of pieces that step outside that mold. The author's broad education (four degrees, including a Ph.D. and a J.D.) and wide range of work experiences (college professor, probation officer, prosecuting attorney, professional magician, novelist, editor, publisher, and grocery-store sackboy, to name a few) have provided him with a unusual perspective from which to observe and comment on the problems and pleasures of being a sentient being on Planet Earth in the twenty-first century-and on how we got to this point in human history. Inspired by the example and encouragement of the newspaper editor who gave him his first job in journalism, the author has inflicted upon the readers of several newspapers his reflections on a broad and eclectic range of subjects, from religious and racial intolerance to UFO "sightings" and the beauty of a toad's eye. Throughout it all, the author has been motivated by one unvarying purpose-to make his readers think. Not just about last week's school board meeting or next month's municipal elections, but about ideas and issues with a shelf-life longer than that of ripe tomatoes in your grocer's produce department. Here, then, are half a hundred of those pieces, rescued from dusty newspaper "morgues" and offered to a broader audience than the unsuspecting subscribers to whom they were originally addressed. The author will be pleased if you read them, but he will have failed in his purpose unless reading them makes you think.

Al Sears had it all. Once a hot-shot criminal lawyer, he had a trophy wife, a fortune, and a respected position in local Memphis society. And now someone wants to kill him.

The Mystery FANcier was a fanzine published by Guy M. Townsend. This volume contains: It's About Crime, by Marvin Lachman; bill Pronzini Revisited, by George Kelley; Sweden's Commitment to Mystery Fiction, by E. F. Bleiler; The Complete Uncle Abner, by Martin Wooster; The Nero Wolfe Saga, Part IX, by Guy Townsend; and Le Carre's Spy Novels, by R. Jeff Banks and Harry D. Dawson.

The Mystery FANcier was a fanzine published by Guy M. Townsend. This volume contains: The Saint of the North: Black John Smith of Halfaday Creek, by John Harwood; Here Comes the Judge: The "Nero" Award, by Bill Crider; The Explosive Novels of Richard L. Graves, by George Kelley; Vincent Starrett vs. Arthur Machen: or, How Not to Communicate over Eight Years of Correspondence, by E. F. Bleiler; and The Nero Wolfe Saga, Part XVI, by Guy Townsend.

The Mystery Fancier, July/August 1981, Volume 5 Number 4, contains: Peterman from the Old School, by Robert Sampson; Horror, Horror, and the Intellect: Giles Mont of Ruth Rendell's A Judgement in Stone, by Jane Bakerman; Runing Hot and Cold with Ron Faust, by George Kelley; and Speaking with Myself, by Billy Barton.

The Mystery Fancier, January/February 1987, Volume 9 Number 1, contains: Abandoned Queens, and Some Notes on Unintentional Plagarism, by Ola Strom; Cronell Woolrich: The Last Years (Part III), by Francis M. Nevins, Jr.; The "I" in Private Eye, by V. Louise Saylor; Further Games from the Literature, by William F. Deeck; and The Cream of Crime, by Frank Floyd.

The Mystery Fancier, March/April 1987, Volume 9 Number 2, contains: In Memoriam: John Nieminski, by Ely Liebow; Mystery Mosts, by Jeff Banks; A Consumption Devoutly to Be Wished, by Joe R. Christopher; The Cream of Queen, by Frank Floyd; and Further Gems from the Literature, by William F. Deeck.

The Mystery Fancier, July/August 1987, Volume 9 Number 3, contains: Contemporary Clergy-Detectives, by Maryell Cleary; The Honorable Charlie Mordecai: An Oxymoron, by William F. Deeck; and The Cream of Queen, by Frank Floyd.

The Mystery FANcier was a fanzine published by Guy M. Townsend. This volume contains: The Curmudgeon in the Corner, by William R. Loeseer; The Nero Wolfe Saga, Part XII, by Guy Townsend; It's About Crime, by Marvin Lachman; and The Joe Gall Series, by George Kelley and Jeff Banks.

The Mystery FANcier was a fanzine published by Guy M. Townsend. This volume contains: The EQMM Cover Story (Concluded), by Rik Thompson; Will the Real Ken Crossen Please Stand Up, by Dickson Thorpe; Another Chapter from Death of a .300 Hitter, by Mike Avallone; The Suspense Novels of Bill Pronzini, by George Kelley; Dell "Map Back" checklist, 1-300, by Richard C. Butler.

The Mystery FANcier was a fanzine published by Guy M. Townsend. This volume contains: Another Chapter from Death of a .300 Hitter, by Mike Avallone; The EQMM Murders, by Marvin S. Lachman; Dumbfounded in Keelerland, by Art Scott; The Article I Couldn't Publish, by Guy Townsend; and Mr. and Mrs. North, and Mr. and Mrs. Lockridge, by Hank Davis.

The Mystery Fancier, September/October 1981, Volume 5 Number 5, contains: Solving Sixth, by Robert Sampson; Wolfe a Howler , by Bob Napier; On Fans and Bouchercons, by Guy M. Townsend; and Spy Series Characters in Hardback, Part IX, by Barry Van Tilburg.

The Mystery Fancier, Volume 10 Number 3, Summer 1988, contains: "Ellery Queen, Sports Fan," by Joe R. Christopher, "The Gold Medal Boys," "Further Gems from the Literature," by William F. Deeck, "An Australian Bibliomystery," by Michael J. Tolley, "Reel Murders," by Walter Albert, "Mystery Mosts," by Jeff Banks and "The Backward Reviewer," by William F. Deeck.

The Mystery Fancier, May/June 1982, Volume 6 Number 3, contains: Spy Series Characters in Hardback, Part XIi, by Barry Van Tilburg; Pirates in Candyland, by Bob Sampson; and Some Thoughts on Peacock Feet, by E. F. Bleiler.

The Mystery Fancier, July/August 1987, Volume 9 Number 4, contains: The Rise and Fall of Gillian Hazeltine, by Alvin H. Lybeck; Donald Goines: An Appreciation, by K. Arne Blom; Cornell Woolrich: The Last Years (Part IV), by Francis M. Nevins, Jr.; and Further Gems from the Literature, by William F. Deeck.

The Mystery Fancier, September/October 1982, Volume 6 Number 5, contains an index to TMF Volumes I-V, compiled by Charles K. Cook.

The Mystery Fancier, July/August 1982, Volume 6 Number 4, contains: The Tod Hunter Question, by David E. Funct; Case in Point: Gorky Park, by Fred Isaac; British Murder and British Detective Fiction, by Earl F. Bargainnier; and Amazing Grace, by Bob Sampson.

The Mystery Fancier, May/June 1981, Volume 5 Number 3, contains: A Chinese Detective in San Francisco, by E. F. Bleiler; The Skene Melvin Bibliography, by Walter Albert; Rogues for the New Century; The Fathers and Sons of John Le Carre, by Harry Dawson; and Spy Series Characters in Hardback, Part VIII, by Barry Van Tilburg.

The Mystery Fancier, November/December 1981, Volume 5 Number 6, contains: Old-Time Radio Lives, by Carl Larsen; The Great Lizzie Borden T-Short Media Event and Mystery Quiz, by Francis M. Nevins, Jr.; The Crime Writers Third International Congress, by Iwan Hedman; Doctor Wonderful, by Bob Sampson; Two from the Telly, by Bob Adey; and One in Two: Some Personality Studies by Ruth Rendell, by Jane S. Bakerman.

The Mystery Fancier, March/April 1981, Volume 5 Number 2, contains: Spy Series Characters in Hardback, Part VII, by Barry Van Tilburg; An Index of Books Reviewed in TMF Volume 4, compiled by David H. Doerrer; and Lachman's Reviews in TMF, Volumes Two through Four, compiled by David H. Doerrer.

The Mystery Fancier, March/April 1982, Volume 6 Number 2, contains: The Policeman: A Victorian Novel, by E. F. Bleiler; Gide's Vatican Cellars: The Popular Detective Novel Parodied, by Pierre L. Horn; Some Recent Hybrids, by George Kelley; and Spy Series Characters in Hardback, Part XI, by Barry Van Tilburg.

"The Mystery Fancier," Vol. 1, No. 4 (July 1977), contains: "The Mysteries of Pseudonymous Professors," by Joseph Barbato, "The Wit and Wisdom of the Mystery Story: Quotations from the Mysteries -- Part IV," by Marvin Lachman, "The Programmed Writing of Dean R. Koontz," by George Kelley, "Further Excursions into the Wacky World of Harry Stephen Keeler," by Art Scott, and "The Nero Wolfe Saga, Part II," by Guy M. Townsend.

By their very nature, most newspaper columns and editorials are ephemeral. They are often written in haste to meet a deadline, and what excites interest today may elicit only yawns tomorrow or the next day. This is especially true of community newspapers, whose focus is on matters of interest to a smaller, parochial readership. This book is a collection of pieces that step outside that mold. The author's broad education (four degrees, including a Ph.D. and a J.D.) and wide range of work experiences (college professor, probation officer, prosecuting attorney, professional magician, novelist, editor, publisher, and grocery-store sackboy, to name a few) have provided him with a unusual perspective from which to observe and comment on the problems and pleasures of being a sentient being on Planet Earth in the twenty-first century-and on how we got to this point in human history. Inspired by the example and encouragement of the newspaper editor who gave him his first job in journalism, the author has inflicted upon the readers of several newspapers his reflections on a broad and eclectic range of subjects, from religious and racial intolerance to UFO "sightings" and the beauty of a toad's eye. Throughout it all, the author has been motivated by one unvarying purpose-to make his readers think. Not just about last week's school board meeting or next month's municipal elections, but about ideas and issues with a shelf-life longer than that of ripe tomatoes in your grocer's produce department. Here, then, are half a hundred of those pieces, rescued from dusty newspaper "morgues" and offered to a broader audience than the unsuspecting subscribers to whom they were originally addressed. The author will be pleased if you read them, but he will have failed in his purpose unless reading them makes you think.

The Mystery Fancier, Volume 8 Number 5, September-October 1986, "Some Very Tough People," by Bob Sampson, Looking Glass Detection: The Norths and Bill Weigand Speak," by Frederick Isaac and "Cornell Woolrich: The Last Years (Part I)," by Francis M. Nevins, Jr.

Volume 2 Number 6 of The Mystery Fancier, November-December 1978, contains: "Behind the Scenes at Bouchercon 9: or, It Was Murder at the Bismark " by Mary Ann Grochowski, "Miss Marple She Isn't," by David H. Doerrer, "Agatha Christie Is Still Alive and Well," by Amnon Kabatchnik, "When Is This Stiff Dead? Detective Stories and Definitions of Death," by Thompson and Banks, "The Weevil in the Beancurd: Or, The Cop Abroad," by George N. Dove, and "The Nero Wolfe Saga: Part X," by Guy M. Townsend.