Ellery Queen’s Anthology. Volume 12, 1967
Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made for permission to reprint the following:
Murder Is a Public Matter by Ross Macdonald; copyright 1948 by Kenneth Millar; reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Inc.
Hurry, Hurry, Hurry! by Paul Gallico; copyright 1956 by Paul Gallico; reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Inc.
The Man Who Sang in Church by Edgar Wallace; copyright 1927 by Edgar Wallace; copyright renewed 1955 by Patricia Marion Caldecott Frere; reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt.
The Earring by Cornell Woolrich; copyright 1943 by Cornell Woolrich; reprinted by permission of the author.
Dark Journey by Francis Iles; copyright 1934 by Anthony Berkeley Cox, renewed; reprinted by permission of the author.
The Patron Saint of the Impossible by Rufus King; © 1958 by Davis Publications, Inc.; reprinted by permission of Paul R. Reynolds, Inc.
Miss Phipps Goes to School by Phyllis Bentley; © 1957 by Mercury Publications, Inc.; reprinted by permission of A. D. Peters Sc Co.
The Greatest Monster of Them All by Bryce Walton; © 1959 by Bryce Walton; reprinted by permission of Theron Raines.
Mithridates the King by Morley Roberts; reprinted by permission of Helena Ward and A. P. Watt & Son.
The Bluebeard Murderer by Quentin Reynolds; © 1936 by Crowell-Collier Publishing Co., renewed; reprinted by permission of Littauer Sc Wilkinson.
Eva? Caroline? by Allan Vaughan Elston; © 1949 by Crowell-Collier Publishing Co.; reprinted by permission of Paul R. Reynolds, Inc.
Midnight Adventure by Michael Arlen; copyright 1938 by Michael Arlen, renewed; reprinted by permission of A. Watkins, Inc.
Dinner for Two by Roy Vickers; copyright 1948 by The American Mercury, Inc.; reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Adventure of the Martian Crown Jewels by Poul Anderson; © 1958 by Mercury Publications, Inc.; reprinted by permission of the author and his agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc.
Open File by Richard Deming; copyright 1953 by Mercury Publications, Inc.; reprinted by permission of the author and his agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc.
Soho Night’s Entertainment by Frank Swinnerton; © 1957 by Frank Swinnerton; reprinted by permission of Hope Leresche & Steele.
Miser’s Gold by Ellery Queen; copyright 1950, 1954 by Ellery Queen; reprinted by permission of the author.
Immune to Murder by Rex Stout; copyright 1955 by Rex Stout; reprinted by permission of the author.
Editors’ Note
Dear Reader:
This is the 12th in EQMM’s series of original paperback anthologies, now published twice a year...
The Editors’ Note intended for this anthology was ready to be set in type when we read a review in the February 13, 1966 issue of “Book Week,” the Sunday literary supplement of the New York “Herald Tribune.” After “counting to ten” (slowly) we decided to write a new introduction for this anthology.
The review that so upset us was written by Kenneth Lamott on Helen MacInnes’ novel titled The Double Image. The first paragraph of the review read: “On occasion, being bed-bound for a day or trapped in the cabin of a transcontinental airliner, I have read a suspense novel. Except under such desperate circumstances, I haven’t found much entertainment in these books, for, with the exceptions of A Coffin for Demetrios [sic] and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, I can’t remember any that didn’t seem to be all machinery and travelogue, without any of the saving graces that can make novel-reading a positive pleasure rather than an anesthetic.”
The paragraph is, to say the least, distressing. Surely no one would quarrel with Mr. Lamott’s right to his own opinion — indeed, fans and aficionados the world over would fight for Mr. Lamott’s right to express his opinion. But valid questions do arise: Why should “Book Week” assign a suspense novel to a critic like Mr. Lamott who obviously has a deep antipathy and/or repugnance and/or aversion to the mystery story, who apparently has little (very little!) knowledge and/or appreciation of the origins and development of the genre, who is so far from the mainstream of the genre that he is literally “up the crick”? And why should Mr. Lamott, fully aware of his lack of sympathy for the form and his inadequate exposure to the best examples of the form, undertake to review such a book? Why didn’t he simply disqualify himself?
Mr. Lamott finished his review with this sentence: “In the end it struck me that Edmund Wilson’s cranky question, ‘Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?’ is still very much to the point.” Yes, we agree that Edmund Wilson’s “cranky question” should be asked — again and again and again — indeed, it cannot be asked too often. But we think it’s high time for the question to be answered. Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd? Millions of intelligent people throughout the world care. But Mr. Lamott (and, unfortunately, too many other critics who think they “go slumming” when they condescend to read and review the detective-mystery story) just don’t care about millions of intelligent people. Dear Reader, be kind to Mr. Lamott and his partners-in-crime — for they know not what they say.
As in the 11 preceding anthologies, we bring you another ’tec triangle of stories. The first angle is that perennial and universal favorite — adventures and memoirs of such world-famous series-detectives as
Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe
Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer
Roy Vickers’ Department of Dead Ends
Edgar Wallace’s The Three Just Men
Ellery Queen’s E.Q.
The second angle also consists of detective and crime stories — not about series-characters, but written by such celebrated mystery mathematicians as
Cornell Woolrich
Francis Iles
Rufus King
The third angle contains tales of detection, murder, and suspense by non-mystery authors who did not feel that “they stooped to conquer” — such literary figures as
Phyllis Bentley
Frank Swinnerton
Quentin Reynolds
Michael Arlen
Paul Gallico
And now, for the 12th time in this series, we give you Ellery Queen’s ’Tec Theorem, the EQ equation:
EQA = 2eq
or, Ellery Queen’s Anthology is always equal to 2 editorial qualifications: (1) every story must meet the twin standards of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine so conscientiously upheld these past 26 years — high quality or high professionalism of writing, and superior craftsmanship or superior originality in plotting; (2) not a single story in this book has ever appeared in any of the 43 anthologies previously edited by
Ellery Queen
Ross Macdonald
Murder Is a Public Matter
Lew Archer, private eye, merely dropped in to see his old war buddy, Hugh Western, a talented artist and a demon with the ladies. But first Lew met a bearded nude (resist that opening if you can!).
A hard, tough (in the best senses of both words) short novel by the man who — as virtually all critics agree — has inherited the mantles of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and whose work represents the best in its field being written today...