Novels
- 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
- The Grey Flannel Shroud (1958)
- Thing at the Door (1974)
- Acrostic Mysteries (1985)
- Murders Most Macabre (1986)
- Murder at Heartbreak Hospital (1993)
- The Veil (1997)
Omnibus
- Secret of Marracott Deep / Pawn of the Black Fleet (2011)
- A God Named Smith / Worlds of the Imperium (2012)
Collections
- Death on Television (1985)
- Inspector Cross (1991)
Novellas
- My Father, the Cat (1957)
Novels Book Covers
Omnibus Book Covers
Collections Book Covers
Novellas Book Covers
Henry Slesar Books Overview
Murder at Heartbreak Hospital
‘Heartbreak Hospital’ is one of the most popular TV soap operas, an endless saga of life and death, love and hatred: to many of its fans, the characters seem much more real than the actors who play them. The character everyone loves to hate is Andrea Harmon, the soap’s classic Bit*ch, played by Sunday Tyler a ruthless, demanding, manipulative actress who has alienated everyone connected with the show. The only person who has seen Sunday’s softer side is Bill Troy of the New York Police Department Movie/TV Unit, who is inevitably drawn into the case when Sunday is murdered, and no one has a satisfactory alibi. Drawing on his long experience in the hothouse world of soap opera, Henry Slesar has woven a skillful, witty plot with twists and turns, red herrings and streaks of black humor. The surprising climax of this thoroughly enjoyable mystery tells us that soap opera stars might be open to threats from totally unexpected quarters.
Secret of Marracott Deep / Pawn of the Black Fleet
Armchair fiction presents the ninth entry in a new series of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel, ‘Secret of Marracott Deep’ is a tale of an undersea race rising from the depths to menace mankind. What was the secret of beautiful woman on the beach who found herself constantly threatened by monsters from below? Look out for giant lobsters! The second novel, ‘Pawn of the Black Fleet’ is a tale of pending invasion. A massive alien fleet hovered in the skies above America. For days the grim, threatening spaceships of the invading armada were seen simultaneously over every major city, washing the earth below with a stinking miasma of evil dread. Then suddenly, the pattern stopped and the world waited silently and fearfully for the next move. Both novels are terrific thrillers penned by two well-known ’60s sci-fi specialists, Henry Slesar and Mark Clifton
Death on Television
Henry Slesar wrote more than 40 stories that were chosen for the classic television show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Irony, not suspense, is the key ingredient in the nineteen stories by Slesar offered in this collection. While irony often seems a by product of cynicism, Anatole France called it ‘the last phase of disillusion.’ For Hitchcock and his writers, irony, not just suspense, was the basis of storytelling, along with its two constant companions: humor and pity. Hitchcock first spotted Slesar’s work in Ellery Queen s Mystery Magazine. The story, entitled ‘M Is for the Many,’ became an episode called ‘Heart of Gold.’ A lonely, orphaned young man just out of prison calls on the family of his cellmate. They ‘adopt’ him and he is happy for the first time in his life until he learns that their kindness is directed toward finding out where his cellmate hid the money he stole. In his introduction Henry Slesar says, ‘Hitchcock always appreciated a good joke. He also appreciated a good story. I have never needed a more gratifying commendation than the fact that he liked the ones in this book.’
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