Midnight Pleasures

This latest collection from Bloch, who has been writing professionally for 52 years, is a middling mix of crime, fantasy and horror stories. Two of the 14 selections are early works: a negligible, almost plotless humor piece, ""But First These Words,'' and an unconvincing horror story, ``The Totem Pole,'' interesting mostly for its vintageit's from a 1939 Weird Tales. The other 12 date from the past decade and include ``The Spoiled Bride,'' a comic, if rather grim, tale of a future in which men can choose their mates from among the cryogenically frozen; a character study of a psychotic Nazi type who murders a little Jewish girl, ``The Rubber Room''; and ``Everybody Needs a Little Love,'' the all-too-predictable tale of a man who takes a store mannequin for a companion. Best in the book are a well-wrought tale of adultery and revenge, ``The Night Before Christmas,'' and a deal-with-the-devil story, ``Picture.'' (April 24)