Page:Weird Tales volume 30 number 06.djvu/110

 The Homicidal Diary I considered to be the best of the others. Hie orange-haired creature on the cover stood out brightly against the dark background—an arresting bit of work. But how about another Finlay cover? It's been four months since his last. And now for G. M. Wilson, who says that Weird Tales is not an interesting book because everyone knows that everything will come out hunky-dory! I checked back over the stories — exactly 90 of them, including reprints — that have appeared in the ten issues dated 1937, and found out a surprizing fact. The-" was an exact split—45-45—between the happy and unhappy endings! Of course, it was difPcult to definitely place many yarns in either classification, but in the end the advantage lay on neither side. It is improbable that in any other magazine can you find such an amazing balance in endings."

The October Issue

Julius Hopkins, of Washington, D. C, writes: "The October WT is a real treat for any lover of weird fiction. Two excellent stories vie closely for first place, namely: The Shunned House by H. P. Lovecraft and The Homicidal Diary by Earl Peirce, Jr. I am giving the slim edge to Mr. Peirce because in his story the horror is still at large and, furthermore, is of great current interest because actually the famous Cleveland beheader has not been captured yet, and not even any clues as to his identity have been found. The Homicidal Diary is written in plain convincing language and certainly does make your heart beat fast, especially in that scene where Jason Carse is rapidly becoming over-excited and the sharp butcher knife is close at hand. That's a real spine-chilling scene for you. The Shunned House is another typical Lovecraft tale written as only H. P. L. could ever have done it. The slow summation of facts builds a solid foundation for the surprize ending. The big horrible surprize, though so terrible it seems unbelievable, becomes a reality under the masterful handling of this marvelous writer who has sadly passed on into the great beyond. I award second place to The Shunned House, but this time second place is really a second first place. For third place I pick The Long Arm by Franz Habl. I enjoyed this yarn because it is something a bit different and it leaves in your mind the question of whether