The Carnival of Death: A Case of Killer Drugs and Cold-blooded Murder on the Midway

By L. Ron Hubbard

The detective is deep undercover at Shreve's Mammoth Carnival, when he discovers first one and then another headless body. While others believe the gruesome murders are solved after four tribal headhunters working for the show suddenly disappear, Bob Clark suspects someone else is the real killer. When he finds himself seized by the very same headhunters, Clark sincerely hopes his hunch is right, since the point of a very sharp knife is aimed at his neck!

The Death Flyer: Can history be reversed to save a beautiful girl on the ghost train?

Long before the Source Code movie with Jake Gyllenhaal, Jim Bellamy boards a ghost train, screaming through the night as he tries to save the life of a young lady who died in its wreckage ten years ago. A love story of an impossible nature, Jim tries to reverse time, on a train of phantoms long forgotten, yet stuck in time.

“…consistently engaging, over-the-top performances that complement the colorful characters and equally vibrant carnival setting. Particularly entertaining are occasional screams of horror (from the women actors), a nice contrast to Meskimen’s interpretation of the solid federal agent. For pulp-fiction fans.” —Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Galaxy Press
• Release date: Feb 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781592125166

L. Ron Hubbard

With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.

Book preview

SELECTED FICTION WORKS

BY L. RON HUBBARD

FANTASY

The Case of the Friendly Corpse

Death’s Deputy

Fear

The Ghoul

The Indigestible Triton

Slaves of Sleep & The Masters of Sleep

Typewriter in the Sky

The Ultimate Adventure

SCIENCE FICTION

Battlefield Earth

The Conquest of Space

The End Is Not Yet

Final Blackout

The Kilkenny Cats

The Kingslayer

The Mission Earth Dekalogy*

Ole Doc Methuselah

To the Stars

ADVENTURE

The Hell Job series

WESTERN

Buckskin Brigades

Empty Saddles

Guns of Mark Jardine

Hot Lead Payoff

A full list of L. Ron Hubbard’s

novellas and short stories is provided at the back.

*Dekalogy—a group of ten volumes

TitlePgArt.jpg

Published by

Galaxy Press, LLC

7051 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 200

Hollywood, CA 90028

© 2007 L. Ron Hubbard Library. All Rights Reserved.

Any unauthorized copying, translation, duplication, importation or distribution, in whole or in part, by any means, including electronic copying, storage or transmission, is a violation of applicable laws.

Mission Earth is a trademark owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library and is used with permission. Battlefield Earth is a trademark owned by Author Services, Inc. and is used with permission.

Horsemen illustration from Western Story Magazine is © and ™ Condé Nast Publications and is used with their permission. Fantasy, Far-Flung Adventure and Science Fiction illustrations: Unknown and Astounding Science Fiction copyright © by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of Penny Publications, LLC. Story Preview cover art and illustration from Detective Fiction Weekly is © 1936 Argosy Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission from Argosy Communications, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-59212-516-6 ePub version

ISBN 978-1-59212-247-9 print version

ISBN 978-1-59212-268-4 audiobook version

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007928017

Contents

FOREWORD

THE CARNIVAL OF DEATH

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE DEATH FLYER

STORY PREVIEW:

MOUTHPIECE

GLOSSARY

L. RON HUBBARD

IN THE GOLDEN AGE

OF PULP FICTION

THE STORIES FROM THE

GOLDEN AGE

FOREWORD

Stories from Pulp Fiction’s Golden Age

AND it was a golden age.

The 1930s and 1940s were a vibrant, seminal time for a gigantic audience of eager readers, probably the largest per capita audience of readers in American history. The magazine racks were chock-full of publications with ragged trims, garish cover art, cheap brown pulp paper, low cover prices—and the most excitement you could hold in your hands.

Pulp magazines, named for their rough-cut, pulpwood paper, were a vehicle for more amazing tales than Scheherazade could have told in a million and one nights. Set apart from higher-class slick magazines, printed on fancy glossy paper with quality artwork and superior production values, the pulps were for the rest of us, adventure story after adventure story for people who liked to read. Pulp fiction authors were no-holds-barred entertainers—real storytellers. They were more interested in a thrilling plot twist, a horrific villain or a white-knuckle adventure than they were in lavish prose or convoluted metaphors.

The sheer volume of tales released during this wondrous golden age remains unmatched in any other period of literary history—hundreds of thousands of published stories in over nine hundred different magazines. Some titles lasted only an issue or two; many magazines succumbed to paper shortages during World War II, while others endured for decades yet. Pulp fiction remains as a treasure trove of stories you can read, stories you can love, stories you can remember. The stories were driven by plot and character, with grand heroes, terrible villains, beautiful damsels (often in distress), diabolical plots, amazing places, breathless romances. The readers wanted to be taken beyond the mundane, to live adventures far removed from their ordinary lives—and the pulps rarely failed to deliver.

In that regard, pulp fiction stands in the tradition of all memorable literature. For as history has shown, good stories are much more than fancy prose. William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas—many of the greatest literary figures wrote their fiction for the readers, not simply literary colleagues and academic admirers. And writers for pulp magazines were no exception. These publications reached an audience that dwarfed the circulations of today’s short story magazines. Issues of the pulps were scooped up and read by over thirty million avid readers each month.

Because pulp fiction writers were often paid no more than a cent a word, they had to become prolific or starve. They also had to write aggressively. As Richard Kyle, publisher and editor of Argosy, the first and most long-lived of the pulps, so pointedly explained: The pulp magazine writers, the best of them, worked for markets that did not write for critics or attempt to satisfy timid advertisers. Not having to answer to anyone other than their readers, they wrote about human beings on the edges of the unknown, in those new lands the future would explore. They wrote for what we would become, not for what we had already been.

Some of the more lasting names that graced the pulps include H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Max Brand, Louis L’Amour, Elmore Leonard, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, John D. MacDonald, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein—and, of course, L. Ron Hubbard.

In a word, he was among the most prolific and popular writers of the era. He was also the most enduring—hence this series—and certainly among the most legendary. It all began only months after he first tried his hand at fiction, with L. Ron Hubbard tales appearing in Thrilling Adventures, Argosy, Five-Novels Monthly, Detective Fiction Weekly, Top-Notch, Texas Ranger, War Birds, Western Stories, even Romantic Range. He could write on any subject, in any genre, from jungle explorers to deep-sea divers, from G-men and gangsters, cowboys and flying aces to mountain climbers, hard-boiled detectives and spies. But he really began to shine when he turned his talent to science fiction and fantasy of which he authored nearly fifty novels or novelettes to forever change the shape of those genres.

Following in the tradition of such famed authors as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway, Ron Hubbard actually lived adventures that his own characters would have admired—as an ethnologist among primitive tribes, as prospector and engineer in hostile climes, as a captain of vessels on four oceans. He even wrote a series of articles for Argosy, called Hell Job, in which he lived and told of the most dangerous professions a man could put his hand to.

Finally, and just for good measure, he was also an accomplished photographer, artist, filmmaker, musician and educator. But he was first and foremost a writer, and that’s the L. Ron Hubbard we come to know through the pages of this volume.

This library of Stories from the Golden Age presents the best of L. Ron Hubbard’s fiction from the heyday of storytelling, the Golden Age of the pulp magazines. In these eighty volumes, readers are treated to a full banquet of 153 stories, a kaleidoscope of tales representing every imaginable genre: science fiction, fantasy, western, mystery, thriller, horror, even romance—action of all kinds and in all places.

Because the pulps themselves were printed on such inexpensive paper with high acid content, issues were not meant to endure. As the years go by, the original issues of every pulp from Argosy through Zeppelin Stories continue crumbling into brittle, brown dust. This library preserves the L. Ron Hubbard tales from that era, presented with a distinctive look that brings back the nostalgic flavor of those times.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Stories from the Golden Age has something for every taste, every reader. These tales will return you to a time when fiction was good clean entertainment and the most fun a kid could have on a rainy afternoon or the best thing an adult could enjoy after a long day at work.

Pick up a volume, and remember what reading is supposed to be all about. Remember curling up with a great story.

—Kevin J. Anderson

KEVIN J. ANDERSON is the author of more than ninety critically acclaimed works of speculative fiction,

Reviews for The Carnival of Death

[edwakurt-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this audio book as a part of the Library Thing Free Book Advance and loved listening to it. I find these books by L. Ron Hubbard very easy to listen to. I love that these stories are around 2 hours in length so they are good for short drives. I thought that the story contained plenty of action and the narrator did a fantastic job building up the suspense at the times it was needed. I would highly recommend that people pick these (Stories from the Golden Age) books up, because they are well worth it.

[pmfloyd1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First, I received this audio book as a part of the Library Thing Free Book Advance, but I am so glad that I did. I was not sure I would enjoy the story (actually 2 stories.... one entitled "Carnival of Death" and theother "The Death Flyer." The voice of the narrator was good, the sound effects was good and the story line was fine for 1930s. This would be a great book to listen to on a long car ride or a trip. There are many other books and stories in this audio series and I assume they are all as good as this one - for what it is... an good example of Pulp Fiction from the Golden Age. Finally, do not worry or even take into consideration that it is L. Ron Hubbard (the founder of an odd religion or worldview)... because it never factors into these stories. It just goes to show that a person can be good at what they do (write novels, sing songs, argue cases, diagnosis illnesses) and have other sides to their lives that are not necessarily tied. Oh, by the way, the story involves an undercover secret service guy who finds 4 headhunters who are at a carnival and who are killing people by cutting off their heads! The story has lots of grunts and punches being thrown. All good stuff for action folks. Paul Floyd, Mpls, MN 55402

[book1collector · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. I got is as an audiobook and I just loved it :) I would recommend this book.

[yvain-4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It is hard to review this work. I try to judge a book based on the time period in which it is written. However, this is a re-release glorifying the past, calling it is the Golden Age, "when villains were truly evil." This brings me to my biggest complaint about "The Carnival of Death," the accepted racism. "The Carnival of Death" is an adventure story written in 1934, yet one of the key plot points is the enslavement of four Nigerian men as a sideshow attraction. They are the headhunters in the story who serve as a red herring to distract from the drug dealing and murders. L. Ron Hubbard writes a short story that reads like a plot outline for a longer work. Nothing is fleshed out or detailed. Everything happens rapid fire and not in a good way. One cannot care about any of these characters. The idea behind the plot might have worked if the author took the time to actually develop it. "The Death Flyer," the second story on the audiobook, is a ghost story. This was a better story and executed more efficiently. Overall, the full-cast audiobook is produced well. The main narrator harkens us back to the time of classic radio, but that is not enough to recommend this story.

[rayneofdarkness · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

 I listened to this on a 2 hour car drive for work. I love mysteries and thought this would be a good "who done it" mystery to listen to while driving. I do have to say out of all the stories this one wasn't as good as I hoped for. It was okay if I had to put a word for the story. It seemed to be missing something. The audio book voice actors were great and I think that is what kept me going through the story even though I lost interest. The second story I liked a lot more - a very neat idea/concept and enjoyed that one much more than the first. Not a bad story just didn't feed my mystery-loving curious self.

[jkgrage · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was so totally out of the realm of what I normally read. It was an audiobook and they presented it like an old time radio show. It was so hokey, it was fun! A cheesy mystery that you really wanted to solve with the detective. I'm most likely going to try some others in this series.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[charlottem_63 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Carnival of Death did not have the great sound effects the other stories in this series that I have received did. What makes this CD really good is the second story, “The Death Flyer”. Not only is the production better but the story is very very good.

[hotcha-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked The Carnival of Death and was surprised with how few pages as this author tends to write tomes! If you know the author, you'll know he writes stories from the 40's and 50's, I liked US narcotics agent Bob Clark with his "Bogey" style as he fought to find the killer in the carnival and the dope smuggler using the carnival for evil. I loved that there was teasing short stories to wet my appetite for more.

[donaldarmfield-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my first audiobook, which I also won from LibraryThing. I plan to try more audiobooks real soon!The walk through the carnival of death was a treat for me. Huge fan of Carnivals, Dark and eerie settings. Really enjoyed the music before chapters. The cast of characters and voice overs I think they did a great job. Oh and L Ron Hubbard is a kickass writer.Almost forgot about. The other short on this audiobook "Death Flyer" was well told. A train ride with the lurking dead, a whisper in the ear. Another eerie tale, that gives the golden era a thumbs up.

[pjmanley41 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you like radio dramas, as I do, you will enjoy this. It's a quick "listen", light-weight novelette. I'm not sure what you would classify it as: spy, war, love story? Non of the above actually. But I enjoyed it.

[ayla.stein · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Campy but fun! I really enjoyed it.