This time, we have a pair of original mysteries—tales by Steve Liskow (courtesy of Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken) and M.A. Blume, plus a terrific tale by Steve Hockensmith (which typography nuts like me will enjoy, courtesy of Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman). The mystery novel is by Avery Gaul, and of course we have a solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles.On the science fiction side, we have a novel by Golden Age author Arthur Leo Zagat, an early—and quite silly—fantasy from...

A sea of yellow sand rose, wave on wave, around us. High hills, carved by the bitter salt winds into tawny breakers, reared towering heads, peak upon peak. Like combers that never burst into spray, their static curves remained suspended above us, their tops bent back upon the leeward side, menacing, but never engulfing, the deep pools of purple shadows that lay beneath them. The sand was mauve in the hollows, and black upon white were the cupped dunes hung over their own heights. They were...