The Carnival and Other Stories

Even readers going into this excellent collection unaware that Beaumont (1929–1967) wrote for The Twilight Zone will likely make the connection before the end. The grim, unsettling sensibilities of Beaumont’s screenplay plots, which, as David J. Schow observes in his insightful introduction, “often lead to death, madness, or worse things waiting,” are on ample display across these 26 stories. Beaumont’s first published story, “The Devil, You Say?” from 1951, starts as a somewhat goofy account of a small-town newspaper that has never been able to publish any actual news, until its founder’s death leads his son to learn of a Faustian bargain, rerouting the jovial romp to a very dark place indeed. A standout, “The Trigger,” features brilliant private detective Phillip Ives, who’s called in after a rash of suicides of successful men; Ives’s reputation for never being stumped is on the line, leading to an ethical dilemma that he resolves in a surprising way. This sweeping collection is an appropriate tribute to a talent with few peers at integrating the fantastic and the supernatural with noir plots. Agent: Susan Ramer, Don Congdon Assoc. (Oct.)