Detailed view for the Book: Singing Diamonds, The (Collection)

Title:

Singing Diamonds, The (Collection)
 

Authors:

Genres:

Short Stories
Horror
Science Fiction
Mystery

Editions:

# Date Publisher Binding Cover
1 1965-00-00 Dodd, Mead  

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Blurb: 
The Singing Diamonds is an interesting mix of science fiction and mystery stories.

"Number Ten Q Street" is a dystopian, Huxleyesque view of a future where people are rewarded for obeying advertising (OK, relevant) and where "real" food is a rare commodity (quaint in light of the current slow-food movement).

"Silence Burning" is a sort of Twilight-Zone-lite story of a spaceship and a timeslip.

"Surprise, Surprise!" is a ham-handed satire of sexism.

"Windless" is one of those doom-is-approaching stories of the atomic age.

"Chinoiserie" is amazing. It's the tale of the disappearance of a Russian aristocrat in Peking, set in the diplomatic world of the last days of Imperial China.

"The Other Side of the Curtain" is a wonderfully twisted psychological tale of marriage and murder, with the innocent victim unsure if what she's experiencing is a dream or a horrible reality.

The other two mysteries star her series character, Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist attached to the New York District Attorney's office. Both have bizarre content that border on sci-fi.

In "Through a Glass, Darkly," we're presented with the problem of art teacher Faustina Crayle, who appears to be capable of bilocating; she's seen in a room in the boarding school where she teaches, and simultaneously walking in the garden in one scene. Faustina is disturbed by all this, naturally. But it all turns out to be a particularly fiendish plot. It's a great, eerie story, and McCloy later expanded it into a novel with the same title.

The next is really bizarre. "The Singing Diamonds" are a rash of UFO sightings around the country, and later it turns out that all those who spot the strange objects die mysteriously. Are the deaths caused by aliens? Are they supernatural? Are they simply coincidence? It comes to a head when a pleasant woman sees the objects and fears she is next.

Contents:

Number Ten Q Street
Silence Burning
Surprise, Surprise!
Windless
Chinoiserie
The Other Side of the Curtain
Through a Glass, Darkly
The Singing Diamonds