Many millions of words of fiction are disintegrating in the fragile, browning pages of the old pulp magazines, a primary source of entertainment that flourished in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s before dying out in the 1950s. Much, perhaps most of their contents are not worth preserving, but given the talented writers that contributed to the pulps, there must be plenty of worthwhile stories that deserve revival. If an author is commercially successful or important enough--Hammett, Chandler, Woolrich, Lovecraft, L'Amour, Heinlein, Bradbury, Max Brand, Fredric Brown, John D. MacDonald--at least some and sometimes all of the work is likely to be reprinted in more permanent form. One subject of such a reclamation project is L. Ron Hubbard, best known for science fiction but prolific and accomplished in a variety of popular genres--mystery, fantasy, western, air and sea adventure, and espionage. If Hubbard's continued life in print is due mainly to his fame as the author of Dianetics and founder of the Church of Scientology, he was a highly versatile and competent writer whose early work brims with energy and excitement.

Drawing on a seemingly endless supply of previously out of print novellas, Galaxy Press intends to reissue over 150 Hubbard stories in a series of 80 volumes, which are also made available in dramatized form as audiobooks. The reasonably priced trade paperbacks could not be more handsomely produced, with colorful pulp-style covers, interior black-and-white illustrations, and good quality paper. Most consist of one short novel, of a length that could be published in a single issue of a pulp magazine. Each book includes the same foreword by Kevin J. Anderson and concluding biographical piece, illustrated with photographs, both highly laudatory, even hagiographic, as befits a religious prophet. Still, there's not a word about Scientology in the biography, just a statement that Hubbard left pulp writing after his World War II service to devote himself to "his serious research."

Unique to each volume is a glossary, defining specialized terms and allusions and sometimes addressing the inevitable political incorrectness, such as the following on Kipling's 1899 coinage "white man's burden": "Subject to different interpretations, it was latched onto by imperialists to justify colonialism as a noble enterprise. Much of Kipling's other writings suggested that he genuinely believed in the benevolent role that the introduction of Western ideas could play in lifting non-Western peoples out of 'poverty and ignorance.'"

Orders is Orders, from the December 1937 issue of Argosy, is an excellent introduction to Hubbard's writing. As war between Japan and China rages, the United States is officially neutral. Those stranded in the American embassy at Shunkien, a city under siege, face diminishing food supplies and a threat of cholera. From a naval vessel anchored offshore, an alcoholic Marine gunnery sergeant and a lifer Private First Class are dispatched on an impossible mission: to traverse two hundred miles through warring armies in five days to deliver the contents of a keg, known to the reader (but not to the couriers) to contain money and serum. Along the way, the pair encounter a beautiful woman telling an unlikely story and the sergeant's missionary father, an uninspiring representative of organized religion--and an interesting depiction given the author's later career. Vivid action writing, exotic background, suspenseful situations, and general storytelling expertise carry the reader on a fast ride. Attitudes and language are reflective of the time: the offensive term "Chinaman" is used casually throughout, and there's a hint of Yellow Peril in the Asian characters.

Wind-Gone-Mad, from the October 1935 issue of Top-Notch, is also set in China, where heroic pilot Feng-Feng (a.k.a. Wind-Gone-Mad) battles an evil leader known as The Butcher. This air-war tale has some typically fine action writing, but a surprise twist that is easily foreseeable. It is accompanied by two shorter tales: "Tah," an untypical vignette about a Chinese child solider, serious and moving but marred by the decision to render the dialogue of the children in a kind of pidgin English; and "Yellow Loot," an effective pure action story also set in China, the title referring to a cache of amber.

If the Wind-Gone-Mad collection is for the Hubbard completist, Orders is Orders can be more generally recommended as a litmus test for the prospective reader. There's plenty more where these came from.

In this 16th installment of The Posadas County Mysteries, former Sheriff Bill Gastner has retired and is now a New Mexico Livestock Inspector. While counting cattle, Bill witnesses a tragic accident that sends a ranch worker off to surgery to be reassembled. Because of this delay, Bill misses lunch with his friend George, only to be called hours later by Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman and told of George's untimely death.

Meanwhile the herd that Bill has just counted is found wandering around the highway guided by a faithful dog with nary a cowpoke in sight. Also missing is the owner's expensive truck and rig. Bill sets off to solve the mystery little knowing where the trail will lead, but realizing that no cowboy would willingly leave his dog behind.

Red, Green, or Murder takes readers to rural, folksy and lightly populated Posadas County, New Mexico, home to a laid-back, colorful but highly competent and very persistent law enforcement staff. Author Havill places his series in a compelling landscape unknown to most readers and imbues his stories with rich and multifaceted citizens that soon become friends, especially warm-hearted but tough Bill Gastner. Red, Green, or Murder puts a new spin on western justice.

One reckless moment when shy Holly Barrett was 17 resulted in her becoming a single mother, and now at 23, she and her daughter Katy live a quiet existence near a remote beach on Cape Cod next door to her protective grandfather Henry. When handsome Englishman Jack Dane unexpectedly enters her life, Holly feels like she's the luckiest girl in the world. But Katy's real father, Billy Madison, suddenly reappears, wanting to make amends and finally become part of his daughter's life.

Tainted starts out like a beach town romance but turns dark quickly. Alert readers will suspect something's fishy about the too-good-to-be-true Jack Dane right off, but Holly is blinded by love. Fortunately Billy's eyes are wide open and he is suspicious of this fast-moving, handsome stranger with a mysterious past.

The best kind of suspense develops as Billy tries to check into Jack's past, and Jack feels threatened and becomes more controlling and unpredictable. Chapters written from various points of view help in understanding characters' motives. Empathizing with Holly is easy, but seeing the action through 5-year-old Katy's eyes is an especially interesting perspective. Roughly halfway through, Holly's life is on the verge of turning into a nightmare and the book becomes impossible to put down.

Faith Fairchild, one of the mystery genre's most industrious accidental sleuths, encounters yet another body in Katherine Hall Page's timely holiday offering, The Body in the Sleigh. This 18th entry in the addictive series featuring Faith Fairchild, minister's wife and caterer extraordinaire, attests to Page's skill at creating absorbing cozies with likable, well-rounded characters who feel like old friends.

The setting for The Body in the Sleigh is an island on Penobscot Bay where the Fairchilds are spending the winter holidays, in part so that Reverend Tom Fairchild, Faith's husband and the family patriarch, can rest and recover from heart surgery. The family isn't on the island long before Faith discovers a body in a sleigh that is part of the town's Christmas display. Her discovery sets into play a cascade of events as her investigation reveals that the seemingly innocuous island is far from idyllic. Indiscriminate sex and drug use have invaded the island, bringing with them concomitant violence and death.

Amidst this vision of a fallen world, Page juxtaposes a promise of hope in a subplot involving Mary, a kindly, charitable, albeit eccentric, goat keeper on the island. Mary (get it?) discovers a newborn infant in her barn, with an accompanying note entrusting Christopher to her. In keeping with the holiday season, love prevails. Faith, hope and charity--now there's a holiday message for all.

The fifth installment in Jason Pinter's series about newspaperman Henry Parker, The Darkness, is the direct sequel to The Fury, where Parker, through the appearance of long lost brother Stephen Gaines, became aware of a massive drug cartel operating in New York City. Here, Parker and his mentor, Jack O'Donnell, uncover more information about the cartel, and its plans to introduce a new designer drug, the highly addictive 'The Darkness,' to the market. The duo finds themselves risking life and limb after they cross paths with the bad guys, who will brook no interference with their elaborate plans.

Although you'll probably enjoy the book more if you've read the four novels that lead into The Darkness, Pinter's latest is satisfying on its own. It's a modern update on a familiar plot that reflects the current state of the economy and the newspaper business, while providing plenty of action and twists along the way. Pinter's cast is well-drawn, and their reactions to the events depicted in the novel are credible, whether they be dealing with a 'frenemy' from another paper, or with trying to stay alive during an action-packed firefight.

Pinter fans new and old should enjoy catching up with Henry Parker and friends in The Darkness--just in time for Pinter's sixth Parker novel, The Invited, due out in October 2010.

When the editors of two London newspapers are killed at just about the same time on Christmas night in 1866, Scotland Yard is initially baffled. The two editors had very little in common and the timing indicates two different murderers in two different places. It couldn't be mere coincidence, but what could the motive or motives have been?

Amateur detective Charles Lenox becomes involved when a friend of his assistant is arrested for one of the murders. Before he can fully investigate the case, however, he is required to leave London for several weeks to run for Parliament in a by-election in Stirrington, north of the city. Trying to balance the investigation and his campaign, along with a crisis in his relationship with his fiancee, Lady Jane, becomes nearly impossible. But with a friend in Scotland Yard keeping him abreast of the case and his assistant doing most of the legwork in London, he begins to get an inkling of a much larger and much more dangerous conspiracy.

There are really two stories here. One is the mystery of the two murders and the second is the race for a seat in Parliament. Oddly enough, until nearly the very end, I was more interested in the political end of things. Running for elective office is probably similar in any democracy, but it's more interesting when your number one supporter is the owner of the biggest pub in town and your opponent is the owner of a brewery.

The author's generous use of dialogue rather than long descriptive passages moves the story along effortlessly to a satisfying, although not completely surprising, conclusion.

The Murdered House is a multi-layered, suspenseful novel of psychological depth and emotional breadth that certainly makes the case in English for the international reputation of French crime writer Pierre Magnan.

September 28, 1896. A man shrouded in shadow is seen entering and then exiting an inn in the Alps of Upper Provence. Later a family is found murdered, the only survivor the youngest child, a baby. Flash forward. It's 1919 and the baby, Seraphim Monge, now grown up, is being mustered out of the army at the end of the World War I.

Monge's inheritance is modest, a few thousand francs and the family home, La Burliere, the "murdered house" of the book's title. Initially, Monge knows nothing of the horrific death he escaped, but gradually the story comes out, including the fact that three innocent railroad workers from Herzegovina were guillotined for the crime.

To the confusion of his neighbors Monge begins to systematically destroy the house, burning the furniture, pulling apart the roof and the walls. As he does so, more information about those potentially responsible for his family's murder comes to light, fueling his anger and lust for revenge.

This new reprint of The Murdered House is the first in a series that also includes Beyond the Grave. Magnan is also the award-winning author of the Commissaire Laviolette mystery series set in Provence, and the recipient of the Prix du Quai des Orfevres, Prix de la nouvelle du Rotary Club de Paris, France's Grand Prix RTL-Lire for a suspense novel, and Sweden's Martin Beck Award for the Best Crime Novel.

It's 1920 London and Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, like the whole country, is trying to recover from a devastating war. In Rutledge's case, it has left him emotionally scarred and haunted by the persona of a dead fellow soldier named Hamish whom he can't get out of his head. Shortly after a near-death experience with a young, knife-wielding robber, the Inspector and Hamish, his imaginary Watson, are called upon to locate Walter Teller, a well-known author gone missing from his London home. Walter inexplicably turns up, but Rutledge's trouble with Tellers is just beginning when he's sent to Lancashire to investigate the death of a woman, also named Teller, who may or may not be a relation to the London Tellers. Meanwhile, back in London, the same knife-wielding robber appears to have been responsible for two fatal stabbings.

Charles Todd is the pen name of the prolific mother and son writing team Charles and Caroline Todd. Although marred by his wartime experiences, Todd's Inspector Rutledge is a charismatic character whom we root for in his dealings with an overbearing superior and in his quest for justice. This 12th in the Ian Rutledge series is a complex story with lots of unexpected twists and turns, and enough red herrings to fill a fish market. It requires a bit more concentration than most mystery novels, but if readers stick with it, it's a fun ride to a surprising conclusion.