Short Story Wednesday: "A Touch of Petulance" by Ray Bradbury

 

The story I am featuring comes from the collection Killer Come Back to Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury. It was published by Hard Case Crime in 2020; the stories were selected by Jonathan R. Eller.

Bradbury wrote three crime novels in 1985, 1990, and 2002, but most of his short stories were in other genres. About half of the stories in Killer Come Back To Me are from the 1940s, and the others are from later decades. This book has a very nice cover and includes illustrations preceding some of the stories.

There is an introduction by Jonathan R. Eller. At the end, there is an essay by Ray Bradbury that was intended to be an introduction to A Memory of Murder, a collection of crime stories published in 1984. This seems appropriate since a number of stories that were in A Memory of Murder are also in Killer Come Back To Me.

"A Touch of Petulance"

First sentence:

"On an otherwise ordinary evening in May, a week before his 29th birthday, Jonathan Hughes met his fate, commuting from another time, another year, another life."

I was surprised and delighted that this story has elements of time travel. 

Jonathan Hughes meets an older man on the train on the way home. He notices that this older man is holding a newspaper dated 20 years in the future, and that paper features an article about the death of his wife. The older version of Jonathan has come back in time to try to prevent her death.

The story was first published in 1980 in Dark Forces, a horror anthology edited by Kirby McCauley. It was adapted as an episode of the Ray Bradbury Theater TV series; Eddie Albert plays the older man in that episode.

Signing up for 20 Books of Summer 2026

This is my eleventh year of participating in the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. The event was originally hosted by Cathy at 746Books. This year, Annabel from AnnaBookbel is hosting the event.

The challenge is very flexible. You don't have to aim for the full 20 books; instead, you can opt for 15 or 10. 

Here are some of the rules...

• The #20BooksofSummer2026 challenge runs from Monday June 1st to Monday August 31st
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.
• You can pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from your TBR.

For more information and the place to sign up, check out this post at AnnaBookBel. There is also a book bingo card if that appeals to you.

I love to make lists of books to read, so I would start with a list whether I plan to stick with it or not. However, I do plan to stick with my list, and here it is, in no particular order.

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine. Won the National Book Award for Fiction (2025).

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz. Mystery. 2018. 2nd book in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.

Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards. Mystery. 2019. 2nd book in the Rachel Savernake series. 

The Customer is Always Wrong by Mimi Pond. Graphic Novel. 2017.

Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li. Short Stories. 2023.

Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography 2025.

Count Them One by One: Black Mississippians Fighting for the Right to Vote by Gordon A. Martin, Jr. Nonfiction. 2010.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan. Fiction. 2022.

Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis. Cozy Science Fiction novel, 2024. Read and recommended by my son.

Middlemarch by George Eliot. Classic novel. 1872.

Find a Victim by Ross Macdonald. Mystery. 1954. Book 5 in the Lew Archer series.

The Birds and the Beasts Were There by Margaret Millar. Nonfiction, Nature, Memoir. 1971.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Classic Novel. 1847.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Classic Novel. 1818.

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road by Stuart Kaminsky. Mystery. 1971. Book 2 in the Toby Peters series

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Katherine Rooney. Historical Fiction. 2017. 

The Sisters by Robert Littell. Spy Fiction. 1985.

A Graveyard for Lunatics by Ray Bradbury. Mystery. 1990. Book 2 in the Crumley Mysteries series.

Glass Houses by Louise Penny. Mystery. 2017. Book 13 in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. Set in Canada.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper. Mystery. 2015. Set in Canada.

Bleeders by Bill Pronzini. Mystery. 2001. Book 27 in the Nameless series.

Trophies and Dead Things by Marcia Muller. Mystery. 1990. Book 10 in the Sharon McCone series.

The Cyclist by Tim Sullivan. Mystery. 2020. Book 2 in the DS George Cross series.

Books Read in April 2026

Basically in April I read four mystery novels and one graphic novel. So, not a lot of variety. But I enjoyed all the books, and that is what matters. Two of the mysteries were in the spy fiction genre, plus Death in a Darkening Mist, a historical novel set in Canada immediately after World War II ended, bordered on spy fiction. 

Here are the five books I read in April.

Graphic novel

Over Easy (2014) by Mimi Pond (Writer and Artist)

This graphic novel is about a young woman working in a diner in Oakland, CA, after having to leave art school due to losing her financial aid. It is based on events in the author's life. I liked the art and the story. It is 272 pages long.

Crime Fiction

Soviet Sources (1990) by Robert Cullen

I may have mentioned that one of my favorite genres is spy fiction. I only recently discovered this first book by Robert Cullen, published in 1990 and later reprinted by Felony and Mayhem in 2006. The main characters are an American journalist for the Washington Tribune, stationed in Moscow, and a Russian journalist who is being manipulated by the KGB. It took awhile to get started, a lot of setting up the individual characters, but it got very interesting at about 100 pages (out of 424). This is part of a three book series and I have all the books.

Death in a Darkening Mist (2017) by Iona Whishaw

This is historical fiction, set in Canada in 1946, immediately after World War II.  Lane Winslow moved to Canada to get away from the UK after her traumatic experiences as a British intelligence agent during the war. She gets involved with an investigation into the death of a Russian man at a local hot spring near King's Cove; is it suicide or was it murder? This is the 2nd book in the series; the first book was very good; this one was even better.

The Romeo Flag (1989) by Carolyn Hougan

I also discovered this book as a reprint published by Felony and Mayhem. I had read another book by this author, Shooting in the Dark, and was very impressed by that book. The Romeo Flag was even better than that book. I would rank it as one of the top espionage novels I have ever read. The plot was amazing; very complex and very convincing. Another very interesting thing in this book (for me) was the connection to Shanghai. I have read two books recently about Shanghai in 1938 and I find that time and place especially intriguing. A significant sub-plot concerns a group of people living in Shanghai in 1941. For anyone who is interested in spy fiction, this book is worth seeking out.

Tatiana (2013) by Martin Cruz Smith

This is the eighth book in the Arkady Renko series; the first book was Gorky Park, published in 1981. This is sort of a police procedural set in Russia; I say this because Arkady is a police investigator, still working for the Procurator in Moscow, but really going his own way in an unsupervised investigation. So there is not much procedure involved. I enjoyed this book tremendously; the story still sticks with me. See my review.

For the past 2-3 months we have been working on cleaning up and redoing the two garden beds we have at the front of our condominium. We still are working on potting new plants in that area; today we potted 6 geraniums. Usually when we go to the nearby plant nursery, my husband takes photos while we are there. The photos at the top and bottom of this post are from recent visits. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Spin #44 for the Classics Club, May 2026

 

The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. To join in, I choose twenty unread books from my classics list and list it in a post before Sunday, May 17th, 2026.  On Sunday, the Classics Club will generate a random number between 1 through 20 and post it at the Classics Club website. Then I will read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by July 5th, 2026.

This list is very close to my last list; I only changed two of the books. Even so, I get excited every time I put out a spin list and wait to see which number will be picked.

So, here is my list of 20 books for the spin...

1. Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr.Ripley (1955)
2. Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana (1958)   
3. Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
4. Ray Bradbury – The Martian Chronicles (1950)
5. Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
6. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre (1847)
7. Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five  (1955)
8. John Steinbeck – Cannery Row (1945)
9. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein (1818)
10. Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
11. J. D. Salinger – Catcher in the Rye (1951)
12. Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958) 
13. Dashiell Hammett – Red Harvest (1929)   
14. Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
15. Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
16. James Thurber – The 13 Clocks (1950)
17. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
18. Ford Madox Ford – The Good Soldier (1915)
19. Edna Ferber – Giant (1952)
20. Edna Ferber – Show Boat (1926)

The three books I would most like to read for this spin are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Talented Mr.Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, or Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. But, really, any of the books on my list would be fine.  

Short Story Wednesday: More Stories from Three for the Chair

 

A brief overview of the Nero Wolfes series by Rex Stout:

Nero Wolfe is a genius who supports himself (and his household) as a private detective. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, is both his assistant and a private investigator, and he does most of the legwork. Nero Wolfe's main interests are good food, raising orchids, and reading books. Usually, he will avoid working on a case unless he needs the money to pay the bills. 

Recently I completed reading the three novellas in Three for the Chair by Rex Stout. Back in 2025, I reviewed the second story in that book, "Immune to Murder."  Now that I have read the two other stories, I think they are also excellent stories. 

The first story in the book was "A Window for Death."

Bert Fyfe's father died when he had pneumonia and Bert was accused of his murder. Members of his family testified at the trial. He was acquitted but he was very bitter and left town. His family had not  seen him for 20 years when he returned, wealthy after striking it rich in uranium mining.  Now Bert has died in similar circumstances as his father, and some members of his family want to know if it was murder. Wolfe proceeds to interview the people involved with the incident.

Rex Stout occasionally included romance in his Nero Wolfe novels and stories, and this one includes a romance, as much of one as you can have in 50 pages. It is a minor part of the story, but it makes for a nice ending.

The last story in the book is "Too Many Detectives."

Archie Goodwin is the narrator of all of the Nero Wolfe novels and short stories. He begins this story with these sentences:

"I am against female detectives on principle. It's not always and everywhere a tough game, but most of the time it is, with no room for the friendly feelings and the nice little impulses...

However, there are times when a principle should take a nap, and that was one of them. Of the seven private detectives present in the room, including Nero Wolfe and me, two were women, seated in a corner, side by side."

He then continues to describe Theodolinda (Dol) Connor, who runs her own detective agency, and Sally Colt, her employee. 

In this story, the seven private detectives have been summoned to Albany for an inquiry into their use of wiretapping by the state of New York. Nero Wolfe is disgruntled because he and Archie have been forced to go to Albany rather than be interviewed in New York City, where they live. He is further incensed when a man that he once did a wiretapping job for is found dead in a nearby office, and he and Archie are arrested. Within a few hours they get out on bail ($20,000 apiece), and in their hotel room they proceed to work with the other five detectives to figure out who killed the dead man.

Along the way, Archie and Wolfe both change their prejudices against women detectives.

Tatiana: Martin Cruz Smith

In late April, I read Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith, the eighth book in the Arkady Renko series. This is sort of a police procedural set in Russia; I say this because Arkady is a police investigator, still working for the Procurator in Moscow, but really going his own way in an unsupervised investigation. So there is not much procedure involved. 

Journalist Tatiana Petrovna has fallen from a six story building in Moscow and the death has been ruled suicide. Arkady is concerned because her body has disappeared, and then later the body reappears and is immediately cremated. The authorities are trying to conceal the truth of her death.

Tatiana was investigating a plot involving the Mafia and Russian officials. One of her sources was the interpreter who wrote up the notes of a meeting of mafia bosses in a code that is supposedly unbreakable. The interpreter gave the coded notebook to Tatiana. After her death, the notebook gets into the hands of Zhenya, a gifted teenager who is Arkady's ward. Zhenya and his new girlfriend are trying to solve the code with their expertise in chess and puzzles.

And that is just a small part of the plot. It is very complex and at times it is hard to tell who can be trusted and who is a foe. As often happens in mysteries, there are just too many characters to keep track of. However, that was a minor problem in this story. 

My thoughts:

I like the setting in Russia. This book was published in 2013 and I think it represents what Russia was like at the time. There is corruption and violence everywhere. 

I also enjoyed learning about Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russia bordered by Lithuania and Poland. It was formerly Konigsberg, part of Germany and was annexed to Russia by the Potsdam Agreement in 1945. A good portion of the book, maybe half, was set in that area. It is a coastal city, the only ice-free Russian port on the Baltic Sea.

It took me about half the way into the book to get invested in the story, which, as I remember it, was true of earlier books in the series. But it was so good; it got better and better as I was reading it.

It took a while to get to know the characters. There are a lot of them. Even with as many books as I had read in the series, I still find Arkady Renko a mystery, not sure what he is seeking in life. I don't think he knows either. I like Sergeant Victor Orlov, the detective he works with, who is in a difficult position, trying to support and help Arkady, yet not get in trouble with his superiors. However, once the story got moving and I understood more about the diverse characters, the book had me hooked. 

I read the previous 7 books in the series, but I read them between 2005 and 2021, so I have forgotten a lot. Therefore, I am pretty sure that you can read most of the books as standalones. Maybe the first three books (Gorky Park, Polar Star, and Red Square) should be read in order, because they lead up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Another similar series that I have read is Stuart Kaminsky's Porfiry Rostnikov series, also about a policeman in Moscow.