Detective stories

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Dan Simmons was born on April 4, 1948 in Peoria, Illinois, USA. Since the beginning of his career, Dan Simmons has written works of various literary genres, mixing their elements. Strong links with classical literature are present in his science fiction novel “Hyperion” (1989), the first of the Hyperion Cantos also composed of the novels “The Fall of Hyperion” (1990), “Endymion” (1996) and “The Rise of Endymion” (1997) and the novella “Orphans of the Helix” (1999).

During his career Dan Simmons had great success with a number of works of different literary genres. The mix of genres often makes it difficult and restrictive to label Dan Simmons’ works. “The Terror” (2007) is a historical drama based on real events but the author adds fantasy / horror elements. A few weeks ago a TV show that adapted the novel started.

Robert Bloch in 1976

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Robert Albert Bloch was born on April 5, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

In 1934, Bloch published the story “Lilies” on the semi-professional magazine “Marvel Tales”. After a few months, he started publishing his stories on “Weird Tales” as well. His first stories were strongly influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, so much that a part of them was set in the fictional universe of the so-called “Cthulhu Mythos”. Lovecraft’s death deeply marked Bloch, who gradually shifted his efforts toward different stories and also into science fiction.

In the ’50s, the Robert Bloch’s activity continued both in the literary field and in radio and was further expanded when he started working for television productions. The skills he had acquired in moving from one genre to another was seen in 1959, when he won the Hugo Award for the best science fiction short story with “That Hell-Bound Train” and he published the thriller / horror novel “Psycho”, which won the Edgar Allan Poe Award. The novel gave him great fame among the general public following its adaptation into the famous movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Robert Bloch died on September 23, 1994. He left a legacy of dozens of novels, screenplays and short stories of various genres. During his life he received many important awards that show the importance of this author in the field of literature, cinema and television.

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Fredric Brown was born October 29, 1906 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He’s still famous as a mystery / detective story and science fiction writer. In the field of science fiction he’s famous for his very short stories with a twist at the end. Among his most famous short stories there are “Arena”, (1944), adapted into a “Star Trek” original series episode, and in particular “Sentry” (1954). Fredric Brown died on March 11, 1972.

"The Avengers" boxset containing season 2 and the surviving episodes of season 1

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Kaleidoscope, a Birmingham-based British non-profit organization specialized in the research and conservation of old television programs, announced that it discovered and acquired a copy of the episode “Tunnel of Fear” of the first season of the TV show “The Avengers”. It’s an extraordinary event because so far of the first season only the first episode’s first act and two complete episodes were available.

Video Kill by Joanne Fluke

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The novel “Video Kill” by Joanne Fluke was published for the first time in 1989.

Erik Nielsen and Tony Rocca are trying to sell the script they wrote for a possible movie called “Video Kill”. It’s a horror / slasher movie in which a psychopath is filming the murders he commits and his victims are actresses. A producer is interested but the production studio’s owner doesn’t want to buy the rights and the deal remains in a limbo when the producer acquires an option on the script.

Months pass and it seems that the option will expire without the movie getting produced when an actress is killed in a way that reproduces the famous shower scene from “Psycho”. The killer’s style is similar to the screenplay for “Video Kill” and for the two authors that’s advertising, though of an unwanted type. Fiction and reality start crossing path in a disturbing way.