The Horror-Mystery Writers of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine

The Horror-Mystery writers of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine are names that we all recognize. Some are big Mystery writers, some Horror, and all are of that wonderful mixed breed that is descended from writers like John Dickson Carr, Fredric Brown and August Derleth. These are writers who love the Gothic in all its forms. 1979-1985 are the key years here when Charles E. Fritch (1927-2012) took over editing the magazine from Sam Merwin Jr.  Fritch wrote Science Fiction for the late Pulps like Startling Stories and went on to edit the 1960s SF magazine, Gamma. He was a fan of fantastic fiction.

James Reasoner, who wrote for Mike Shayne between August 1977 and December 1984, and has written many excellent Western novels since, remembers the end era of the magazine:

I think the use of horror stories was tied directly to Charles E. Fritch taking over as editor in late 1979. And it took a while to become noticeable because he probably had an inventory of stories that Sam Merwin Jr. had bought. All the stories Joe Lansdale sold to Merwin were straight private eye stuff. I don’t recall Avallone doing any horror stories. Laymon and Nolan, yes, and I noticed Mort Castle and Dennis Etchison had stories in MSMM, too. I don’t know if Chuck Fritch actively encouraged them to submit horror stories, or if they just submitted to him because he was in one of their circle of friends. But Chuck’s fantasy/SF/horror background definitely changed the tone of the magazine slightly.

Scattered throughout the regular Mystery and detective stories were Horror-tinted tales. One issue in particular stands out: October 1981, what I call “The Halloween issue”. The majority of stories have a Horror angle including the lead Mike Shayne tale. (Not Mike Shayne’s first weird outing.)

The magazine was home to weird writers of many generations. I have roughly divided them here though I am sure they never thought of themselves by these demarcations.

The Pulpsters

MSMM published stories by some real Pulp old-timers. Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004) began writing back in the Great Depression, first appearance was “The Corpse on the Grating”, a horror piece for Harry Bates’ Astounding Stories of Super Science, February 1930. Later he appeared in Weird Tales, and wrote many Mystery tales as Justin Case. He was one of that hysterical brand of horror writers who filled the Shudder Pulps with titles like “Inn of the Shadow-Creatures” (Dime Mystery, December 1934). His best work has been about the island of Haiti. In the 1980s, Hugh had a second (or was it third or fourth) career as a Horror novelist with books like The Nebulon Horror (1980). For MSMM, he wrote “Run For Your Life” (October 1984). He had written for the magazine before, back in 1965.

One of my favorites was Talmage Powell (1920-2000), who wrote as Milton T. Lamb as well, back in the Ten Detective Aces days. In later years, he often appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and related anthologies. He appeared in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine as early as 1958 and wrote stories for every decade in between. For the special Halloween issue he wrote “Night of the Goblin” (October 1981). His juvenile novel, The Thing in B-3 (1969) is the closest he came to a true supernatural piece.

Early Magazine Writers

This next crew weren’t quite old enough to write for the Pulps. They read them as kids then wrote stories for the digest magazines that followed.

Edward D. Hoch (1930-2008) appeared in all the Mystery magazines. His character Simon Ark is a ghostbreaker of sorts who solves supernatural-appearing mysteries. Other characters like Ben Snow occasionally solve crimes that look unearthly too. In MSMM, Hoch, beginning 1969, appeared all through the 1970s. In the 1980s he produced a number of creepier sounding stories “Midsummer’s Night Scream” (April 1980), “The Ides of April” (May 1980), “The Street With No Houses” (March 1983) and “Smothered Mate” (May 1985).

William F. Nolan (1928-) is perhaps most famous as one of the author’s of Logan’s Run and other Science Fiction stories like “Small World” (1957), but he wrote plenty of horror too. Part of the California School, his friends included Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Rd Serling. Horror collections include Things Beyond Midnight (2000) and Like a Dead Man Walking (2013). In Mystery circles, Nolan wrote non-fiction about Dashiell Hammett and the Black Mask writers. In Mike Shayne he wrote “A Real Nice Guy” (April 1980) and “Death Decision” (July 1981).

Michael Avallone (1924-1999) wrote many things over the years including Boris Karloff Presents Tales of the Frightened (1963) and the novelization of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). He also wrote a series of three ghostbreaker novels about the Satan Sleuth: Fallen Angel (1974), The Werewolf Walks Tonight (1974) and Devil, Devil (1975). Michael wrote for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine from the early 1960s but later  produced “Manuscript Found in a Crypt” (July 1981) and “Children of the Night” (April 1982).

The Old Kids

The three writers who I call the Old Kids were all born in the 1930s but didn’t bloom until after the age of fifty. Brandner, Mayhar and Williamson all made the big time during the 1980s, largely in the Horror and SF paperback market.

Gary Brandner (1930-2013) struck gold with The Howling (1977), the first of a trilogy. He wrote several other horror novels as well. Brandner wrote for MSMM all through the 1970s but produced “Voices in the Wind” (March 1980) and “Dear Strangler” (September 1981) for Fritch.

Ardath Mayhar (1930-2012) is probably better known in Science Fiction, having written one of the few H. Beam Piper Fuzzy pastiches. She also produced Mean Little Old Lady at Work: The Selected Works of Ardath Mayhar (1994) and A World of Weirdities: Tales to Shiver By (2009) collecting some of her many short stories. In MSMM, she wrote only one, “Knit Lady” (August 1984).

J. N. Williamson (1932-2005) is probably remembered best as the editor of the Masques anthologies. He wrote horror novels as well including Ghost Mansion (1981), Horror Mansion (1982) and The Tulpa (1981). In MSMM, he wrote “Aspirations” (March 1985).

The Middle Kids

Dennis Etchison (1943-2019) wrote some of the very best Horror stories of the 1980s including “The Dark Country” (1982). He left fiction for movie writing but edited the collection The Cutting Edge (1986) and three volumes of Masters of Darkness. For Mike Shayne he wrote “You Can Go Now” (September 1980) which was reprinted in the UK in Fantasy Tales.

Bill Pronzini (1943-) is a master of many genres including Mystery, the Western and Horror. In the horror line, he edited four of my favorite anthologies based on monsters including Werewolf (1979), Voodoo (1980), Mummy (1980) and Creature (1981). With Barry N. Malzberg he wrote four horror novels. In MSMM, he wrote typical hard-boiled in the 1960s and 70s, but penned “Coyote and Quarter Moon” (with Jeffrey M. Wallmann) for the Halloween issue (October 1981).

Mort Castle (1946-) has written horror novels like Cursed Be the Child (1990) as well as two books on how to write horror. He also edited magazines and anthologies of horror fiction. In MSMM, he wrote “The Keeper of Hellsgate Inn” (April 1982).

Richard Layman (1947-2001) exploded in the 1990s as the premiere writer of extreme gore Horror. The Beast House Chronicles (1980-2001) and thirty-two standalone novels including The Stake (1990) established him as a master of the genre. Before that success he wrote many different things (I can recall low vocab-high interest novels for high school for one) including hard-boiled for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine: “Stiff Intruders” (March 1980), “Blarney” (September 1981), “Spooked” (October 1981), and “Eats” (July 1985)

The New Kids

The new kids are the youngest writers who spun a story for Chuck Fritch. Some wrote one story, others a bunch.

Jessica Amanda Salmonson (1950-) is famous for her Sword & Sorcery centered on female warriors like Tomoe Gozen. In short fiction, she produced a number of Horror and dark fantasy tales. The Black Crusader and Other Poems of Horror and Fantasy (1979), A Silver Thread of Madness (1988) and The Ghost Garden (1988) are some of her collections. She wrote one story for MSMM: “Biology Class” (March 1984).

Lewis Shiner (1950-) has a reputation as a Science Fiction writer of the Cyberpunk variety. He wrote several pieces for MSMM, one with Joe R. Lansdale “Black as the Night” (September 1979), On his own he wrote “Deep, Without Pity” (June 198) and “Lifelike” (August 1982).

Joe R. Lansdale (1951-) has risen from a reputation as a Horror writer (creator of Bubba Hotep) to one of the hottest Crime/Suspense writers with his Hap and Leonard series. His early Horror stories have been collected in By Bizarre Hands (1989), Bestsellers Guaranteed (1993) and By Bizarre Hands Rides Again (2010). He edited the Weird Western anthologies, Best of the West (1986) and Razored Saddles (1989 with Pat LoBrutto). He wrote many standard Mystery stories for MSMM, including the Ray Slater stories. Of the later stories, Three Dead Deadbeats” (with Robert Fester)(April 1980), “Escape Artist” (June 1980), “The Mummy Buyer” (March 1981), “The Soul Ghoul” (October 1981) (These last two could have been Fredric Brown mysteries with those titles!)

Al Sarrantonio (1952-) began his career with stories like “The Pumpkin Head” (1982) and novels like The Worms (1985) and Totentanz (1985). He edited anthologies like 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories (1993 with Martin H. Greenberg) and 999: New Tales of Horror and Suspense (1999). For MSMM, he wrote “In the Corn” (February 1982).

Now I don’t want to give the impression that any of these stories is overtly a Horror tale. The magazine sold hard-boiled detective and international intrigue so the stories were those, of course. But how they were written was in a style more like Horror. Two good examples are William F. Nolan’s “A Real Nice Guy” (April 1980). The story follows a sniper who keeps a cover along the lines of the title. The ending is chilling. The other is the lead story in the Halloween issue of October 1981. It was “The Full Moon Means Murder”, a Mike Shayne case by “Brett Halliday”. This ghost written lead is described:

It came howling out of the night, a hairy creature with claws and fangs ready to rip apart its prey. Mike Shayne had to discover the werewolf’s deadly secret — before he becomes its victim!…

Guess who the real writer was? James Reasoner. James hasn’t written any Horror novels but he did edited Weird Menace, a series of anthologies written in that style. We return to the Shudder Pulp style of story that appears supernatural but is explained at the end. (Scooby-Doo did not invent it. Maybe Ann Radcliffe did.) This is exactly what “The Full Moon Means Murder” is, a weird menace tale.

The latter day issues of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine aren’t remembered all that well. The detective genre had moved on from 1920s hard-boiled by the 1980s. But before it was canceled in mid-1985, Charles E. Fritch did manage to publish a number of authors who would go on to do better things. Those things were often in the Horror field. Thanks, Chuck.

NB. The cover artists of the magazine were not credited. Many of these issues of MSMM are available at Unz.org.