The Blind Spot

Austin Hall

Summary

Perhaps it were just as well to start at the beginning. A mere matter of news.
All the world at the time knew the story; but for the benefit of those who have forgotten I shall repeat it. I am merely giving it as I have taken it from the papers with no elaboration and no opinion—a mere statement of facts. It was a celebrated case at the time and stirred the world to wonder. Indeed, it still is celebrated, though to the layman it is forgotten.
It has been labelled and indexed and filed away in the archives of the profession. To those who wish to look it up it will be spoken of as one of the great unsolved mysteries of the century. A crime that leads two ways, one into murder—sordid, cold and calculating; and the other into the nebulous screen that thwarts us from the occult.
Perhaps it is the character of Dr. Holcomb that gives the latter. He was a great man and a splendid thinker. That he should have been led into a maze of cheap necromancy is, on the face, improbable. He had a wonderful mind. For years he had been battering down the scepticism that had bulwarked itself in the material.
He was a psychologist, and up to the day the greatest, perhaps, that we have known. He had a way of going out before his fellows—it is the way of genius—and he had gone far, indeed, before them. If we would trust Dr. Holcomb we have much to live for; our religion is not all hearsay and there is a great deal in science still unthought of. It is an unfortunate case; but there is much to be learned in the circumstance that led the great doctor into the Blind Spot...

Available since: 06/28/2016.

Other books that might interest you

Sunfire! - Collected pulp...

Gertrude Barrows Bennett,...

Illustrated with images by Virgil Finlay, the artist who illustrated many of Bennett/Stevens' original tales in the strange tales magazines in which they were published. 
Getrude Bennet has been called the "most important woman writer of fantasy between Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1759-1797) and C.L. Moore (1911-1987)". This is a complete collection of short stories by the woman who first explored the dark fantasy worlds of the modern era. this book contains tales that were originally published in Weird Tales, Argosy, and All-Story Weekly between 1918-1923. 
Also included is the first known sci fi story published by a woman writer in America, "The Curious Experience of Thomas Dunbar", which was the very first story sold by Bennett, under the pen-name of GM Barrows. This story predates her otherwise 6-year long writing career by 14 years, when she was just 21.

Show book

The Face in the Frost

John Bellairs

A fantasy classic by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls—basis for the Jack Black movie—and "a writer who knows what wizardry is all about" (Ursula K. Le Guin). 
A richly imaginative story of wizards stymied by a power beyond their control, A Face in the Frost combines the thrills of a horror novel with the inventiveness of fairy tale–inspired fantasy. 
Prospero, a tall, skinny misfit of a wizard, lives in the South Kingdom—a patchwork of feuding duchies and small manors, all loosely loyal to one figurehead king. Along with his necromancer friend Roger Bacon, who has been on a quest to find a mysterious book, Prospero must flee his home to escape ominous pursuers. Thus begins an adventure that will lead him to a grove where his old rival, Melichus, is falsely rumored to be buried and to a less-than-hospitable inn in the town of Five Dials—and ultimately into a dangerous battle with origins in a magical glass paperweight. 
With a unique blend of humor and darkness, it remains one of the most beloved tales by the Edgar Award–nominated author also known for the long-running Lewis Barnavelt series.

Show book

Masque of the Red Death - A...

Cory Doctorow

The fourth and final novella from Radicalized 
"Masque of the Red Death", harkens back to Doctorow's "Walkaway", taking on issues of survivalism versus community.

Show book

Prince of Darkness

Barbara Michaels

A stranger has come to Middleburg, Maryland, a visitor from abroad with a mysterious purpose. But this quaint, affluent community has dark secrets of its own. And when the interloper, Peter Stewart, becomes involved with the bewitching, seductive ward of noted local author Kate More, the townfolk fear the chilling past they are hiding will no longer be safe. For Middleburg has a colonial history of malevolent sorceries and obscene sacrifice. And when the terrible pot is stirred, murder may be the least of the evils to emerge from the unholy brew.

Show book

Dead of Veridon

Tim Akers

The conclusion to the Burn Cycle is “an engaging, page-turning read . . . [for] those who enjoy their steampunk tech with a high dose of technofantasy” (Tor.com).

The city of Veridon used Jacob Burn horribly. The Council, the Church, even his family betrayed his trust, and still Burn risked everything to save their lives. For his sacrifice, he lost his tenuous ties to lawful society, his place in the criminal underworld, and the only woman he ever loved. Now, to survive, Burn runs small-time jobs, like his latest gig, delivering a seemingly innocuous package to the Fehn.

The Fehn are a symbiotic race that dwell peacefully under the murky Reine River, colonizing any body that slips beneath its dark waters. But moments after Burn makes his delivery, swarms of dead Fehn clog the Reine. More terrifying are the horde of pearl-white cogdead Fehn who still walk, crawling out of the river to violently ransack the city.

Once again, Burn is responsible for Veridon’s survival, and the Fehn are just one of many threats the city suddenly faces. Burn thought he had nothing to lose, but protecting Veridon could cost him the one thing he has left . . . his life.

“Very fast-moving, full of action, color, and invention . . . It is fun, and it is interesting, and it sets a template for what could be an ongoing series in the noir detective/action fashion.” —SF Site

“Just when you think you know what’s going on, suddenly you’re not so sure. Akers writes a mean action sequence as well which stirs things up beautifully.” —Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review

Show book

Grindylow Ambush

Martha Carr, Michael Anderle

Halsey and Brigham Ambrosius' task in the English countryside isn't quite over. The barghest may have been slain, but they have one task remaining. Figure out what happened to the people in the abandoned village of Coningsby.Frankly, the mission isn't over until they clean up the barghest's mess because we all know, Halsey always completes her missions. It's a good thing the copper orb can help heal the locals from what was a deadly monster poison. But how to do it covertly without letting civilians know who or what Haley is? What else can the orb do?Halsey has accepted an invitation from the handsome Seamus Havalon, and said goodbye for now to her cousin.What she doesn't tell Brigham is she's meeting with a monk from the Order of Skrár. Will she get the answers she needs?Halsey needs confirmation that the Mother of Monsters is back and an explanation of the new magic she has barely begun to understand.Will Halil Aydem provide the answers? Too bad Halsey may be walking into a monstrous trap and a heaving swarm of grindylows.Without her cousin watching her back, Halsey will have to pull some seriously dangerous stunts if she wants to survive to fight a monster another day.

Show book