pickThe better of the final few stories:
"The Recurrent Suitor" by Ron Goulart almost successfully combines the time travel and occult detective tropes. Perhaps not including humour as well would have been best, but it's still an interesting story, set in 19th century San Francisco.
"Third Offense" by Frederik Pohl features an alien penal system in which entities are punished by inhabiting human bodies in distress. It's a chilling evocation of ⬇️⅓
pick#NoPlaceLikeHolmes
Holmesian detective Solar Pons & his chronicler, Dr. Lyndon Parker, are consulted by a multiversal agent to help confound the depredations of trans-dimensional art thief, Professor Moriarty & the Club Cerise. So far, so good, but at 8 pages, the narrative never leaves the parlour of the 7B Praed Street rooms, & Pons retains his title of *consulting* detective. It's an interesting germ of an idea that could've made a great novel.
"There are those among us who are immune to tragedy. They are pitiless where its comprehension would require pity of them, idiot-blind to the inwardness even of its bull-ring drama. They are aware of others' pain only as a narcotic more and more diluted, less and less adequate to slake their thirst for pain.
Mrs. Emily Molbert was one of these."
- The Past and Its Dead People, by R. Bretnor
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
"When Dr. Flitter came into a room, it seemed as though the past and its dead people came in with him, clinging to him like stale surgery smells, like the cold sweat of ancient autopsies."
- The Past and its Dead People, by Raymond Bretnor
pickThe first two stories were ok, well told though the assumptions that mind control is a valid form of social engineering, or that allowing "undesirables" to die even if you can save them is disturbing and, now I'm writing it, actually too close to some politicians' policies for comfort.
The third story is better: it's Asimov! "The Talking Stone" features a silicon based life form, Asteroid Belt smugglers & a puzzle-mystery to be solved. Neat! ??
Next, a genre mashup of sci-fi and crime mysteries, originally published 1964, my edition 1968, with stories ranging from the late '40s to early '60s.
I've heard of most of the authors, and the big names include Asimov, Leiber, Poul Anderson and Frederick Pohl, but some new-to-me writers, and I think I've only read one before (the Asimov), so looking forward to some new treats ☺️🚀🗡️👽
Also, retro cover love 😍📕😍
Space, Time & Crime | 
"Try and Change the Past" is a story in Fritz Leiber's Change Wars series, in which people moments from death are given the option to join one of the sides in a time war. A new recruit to the Snake faction breaks ranks to try to influence his own fate. I need to read more of these.
"Rope's End" by Miriam Allen deFord is another alien penal system, this one with a human sentenced to a psychologically excruciating ⬇️ 1d
Honourable mention to Avram Davidson's “Or the Grasses Grow“, which isn't true sci fi, but is an affecting story of the bad faith shown by white colonial culture to Native Americans. Overall rating for the anthology: 4⭐ (edited) 1d