The Mind Thing by Fredric Brown

I've actually finished more fiction books in the past 1 1/2 weeks than in the past 8 months, thanks to riding the bus thanks to a blown out transmission.

Most recent -- THE MIND THING by Fredric Brown. Hey, I didn't promise that I'm reading contemporary books.

Fredric Brown is more or less forgotten now in both fields, but he used to be a pretty big name in both the mystery and science fiction genres. Say, during the 30s thru 50s. I'm not sure when he died. He was one of those guys who trained in the pulps and paperbacks and could always be relied upon for a good yarn -- and sometimes he reached for heights.

Once he wrote a thriller that started out something like, "John (main character) wanted to spend the night with Jane (beautiful woman)." By the end of the book, he'd gotten his wish, but of course it was nothing like he expected or wanted. (Jane was a homicidal maniac and he wound up having to spend a night keeping an armed watch on her. If his attention wavered, she'd have killed him.)

In science fiction he's known mostly for his short stories -- he put out many collections of them. THE MIND THING is one of his few sf novels. Maybe the only one.

It's a fairly good story of an alien stranded on Earth who can take over the bodies of other living creatures, but can't get out without killing them.

This alien's eventually done in by not understanding that a series of both human and animal suicides would attract attention.

Also, there's the happy coincidence that a satellite electronics engineer happens to be spending the summer in that tiny rural area, and needs typing done by the local spinster schoolmarm who does typing and bookkeeping during summer months and just happens to be a science fiction fan who guess there's an alien involved -- that is not very likely now and was even less likely during the 1950s. Plus, I wonder why an electronics expert who does work on satellite could take off for an entire summer. Small wonder the Soviets go ahead of us.

Anyway, nothing outstanding but Fredric Brown was always a good pro.