(In New detective, Nov. 1946) © 2Oct46; B43713.

(In Mammoth detective, July 1947) © 25Apr47; B74912.

(In Dime detective, Sept. 1947) © 1Aug47; B90271.

(In Dime detective, Oct. 1947) © 3Sep47; B95938.

(In Dime detective, Nov. 1947) © 3Oct47; B102683.

(In New detective, Jan. 1948)

(In Dime detective, Feb. 1948) © 2Jan48; B117722.

(In New detective.

(In Dime detective.

(In New detective.

(In Detective tales, June 1948)

(In Dime detective, June 1948) © 5May48; B139358.

(In Dime detective, Aug. 1948) © 2Jul48; B146500. John D. MacDonald (A); 18Aug75; R611721. R611722.

(In New detective, Sept. 1948) © 21Jul48; B148763.

(In New detective, Sept. 1948) © 21Jul48; B148763.

By John D. MacDonald (In New detective, Sept. 1948)

By John D. MacDonald (In Detective tales, Sept. 1948)

By John D. MacDonald (In Detective tales, Sept. 1948)

(In Thrilling detective, Oct. 1948)

Even the vulgarest melodrama or detective story can be good if it expresses something of the delight in sinister possibilitiesthe healthy lust for darkness and terror which may come on us any night in walking down a dark lane.

It is natural and proper enough that the masses of explosive ammunition stored up in detective stories and the replete and solid sweet-stuff shops which are called sentimental novelettes should be popular with the ordinary customer.

In the case of cheap detective stories and cheap novelettes, we can most of us feel, whatever our degree of education, that it might be possible to read them if we gave full indulgence to a lower and more facile part of our natures; at the worst we feel that we might enjoy them as we might enjoy bull-baiting or getting drunk.

'This stuff is fit for a detective story,' is often said, as who should say, 'This stuff is fit for an epic.'

The common detective story of mystery and murder seems to the intelligent reader to be little except a strange glimpse of a planet peopled by congenital idiots, who cannot find the end of their own noses or the character of their own wives.

It belongs to the same genus as the Danvers Jewels, though, in this latter, the idea of the character of the narrator is more humorously conceived than is Mr. SIMS's Baronet who acts as an amateur detective.