Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, August 1957 (British Edition)

Three issues of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE have been published at the moment of writing this fourth editorial. It is thus much too early to have a full picture of how the redhead’s own magazine is going, but first reports indicate that you like Mike almost as well as I do And Shayne has been my alter-ego for lo, these many years

Especially heartening are the letters of commendation and the requests for subscriptions that are arriving with every mail. One of you, who wants her MSMM every month, expressed a hope that hers was not the letter that would “break the mailman’s back” We have, of course, no wish to cause any slipped discs among faithful letter-carriers. The most we hope for. in this line, is to cause, perhaps, a few temporary spinal curvatures, and it begins to look, with your co-operation, as if we are on the road whose ending will find MSMM at the top of its class

Once more, in his fourth issue, Shayne finds himself amid company calculated to keep any self-respecting private operative on his toes. His companion-novelette. To Anita — with Murder, by Vic Rodell, is a brilliant, unusual long story. Leading the shorts, we find famed science-fiction author Theodore Sturgeon trying his deft hand at murder with a most unexpected twist in The Deadly Innocent, as well as crime-master Jonathan Craig, topping a star-studded list Shayne joins me in a heartfelt salute to you and the mailman for making his success possible

Brett Halliday