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John Holbrook Vance
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The Pleasant Grove Murders: A Joe Bain Mystery Paperback – April 12, 2017

by Jack Vance (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 42 ratings
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Local boy Joe Bain has been elected County Sheriff, after his success with the murders in Fox Valley.

He’s just settling into the job when someone kills the Pleasant Grove mail carrier with a hammer. One of the wealthy families along Madrone Way must be involved, but the circumstances are peculiar – and a break in the case is slow to come.

The hammer strikes again, and again…

The Pleasant Grove Murders is Volume 22 of the Spatterlight Press Signature Series.Released in the centenary of the author's birth, this handsome new collectionis based upon the prestigious Vance Integral Edition. Select volumes enjoyup-to-date maps, and many are graced with freshly-written forewords contributedby a distinguished group of authors. Each book bears a facsimile of theauthor's signature and a previously-unpublished photograph, chosen from family archives for the period the book was written. These uniquefeatures will be appreciated by all, from seasoned Vance collector to new reader sampling the spectrum of this author's influential work forthe first time. – John Vance II

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  1. Print length
    184 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    April 12, 2017
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 0.46 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1619471396
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1619471399
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Spatterlight Press (April 12, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1619471396
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1619471399
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.46 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

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John Holbrook Vance

John Holbrook Vance

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

David Studhalter
5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Vance mystery
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2012
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Jack Vance is of course best known for his fantastic fiction, both of the Romance/Fantasy (Dying Earth, Lyonesse) and Tales of the Far Future (Demon Princes, Emphyrio, Cadwal Chronicles) types. But he was a fairly prolific writer of conventional mystery and police procedural novels in the 50s and 60s. Most fans probably do not consider this his best work, but some of them are actually quite fine, and have harmonics with his other fiction (for example, a precursor of Howard Alan Treesong in The Book of Dreams is the disabled and disaffected child in The View from Chickweed's Window). (Note: Vance is 96 and no longer writing, but is still living).

This, and its companion "Sherriff Bain" mystery The Fox Valley Murders, both from the 1960s, are vintage Vance, with his careful turns of phrase and eye for detail. The stories are just eccentric enough to stand out from the run of the mill of their genre, and anyone who is in thrall to Vance's inimitable style in fantastic fiction MUST NOT MISS these, especially now that they're finally available at a mass market price.
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K-Bob
4.0 out of 5 stars Love Joe Bain!
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2014
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After "Fox Valley Murders," Vance really hit his stride with the Joe Bain series. Endearing, well fleshed-out characters, fully realized setting, and entertaining writing propel this one along -- I can only wish he'd finished "The Genessee Slough Murders" as well. (Judging from the publishing timeline, it looks like he abandoned it in favor of the Tschai tetralogy, a sci-fi masterpiece, so I suppose we have to forgive him that.)
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C. G. Herbertson
5.0 out of 5 stars Vance is simply a genius
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2012
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Excellent murder mystery with the usual faultless descriptive passages by Vance. A book that you can read a few times purely for the effortless style
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Evil Overlord
3.0 out of 5 stars More human, less technical than Fox Valley
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2013
This is the second of Jack Vance's mysteries about Sheriff Joe Bain cases in rural California south of San Fancisco. The previous book,  The Fox Valley Murders , was technically interesting and well written, but not outstanding. Vance plotted and outlined a third book, but never wrote it.

This book differs from Fox Valley in that the mystery itself is less complex, but the characters are more interesting. Overall, they are more fully fleshed out than in the first book. But we also see the emergence of some typical Vance types - a girl (they're almost always girls and not women) who is cool and distant and beautiful; a young man who is pompous and self-centered.

Overall, I'd say this is the better book. The characters are more human and engaging, and if the actual mystery is thinner, that's okay. Both Joe Bain books are better than Vance's more intriguing but less fully realized  The House on Lily Street . Other books that at least vaguely qualify as real world mysteries (and are well worth reading):  The view from Chickweed's window , Bird Isle , Bad Ronald , The Dark Ocean , Take My Face .
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Amazon Kunde
4.0 out of 5 stars Jack Vance als Krimiautor
Reviewed in Germany on January 24, 2017
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Flott,interessant und flüssig geschrieben,man liest das Buch gerne,aber.................................Jack Vance ist ein Kultautor auf dem Gebiet der Science Fiction oder besser gesagt,der Science Fantasy,einer der besten seines Faches.Seine Krimibücher sind durchweg gut und lesenswert,können aber einiger seiner überragenden Bücher auf dem Gebiete der SF nicht das Wasser reichen.
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Heinz Kiosk
5.0 out of 5 stars I was disappointed that I didn't completely work it out
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2015
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Conventional murder mystery by Vance, the master for SF and Fantasy. I was disappointed that I didn't completely work it out, because in retrospect Vance gives us lots of clues about the solution. Plenty of comic/fey characters redolent of Vance's more familiar work and excellent laugh-out-loud moments.
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