Fri 1 Dec 2017
Reminiscences of a Beginning Mystery Writer, by MIKE NEVINS.
Posted by Steve under Columns[14] Comments
by Francis M. Nevins
I discovered mystery fiction when I was twelve or thirteen and was first allowed access to the grown-up section of the public library in Roselle Park, New Jersey. Chance, fate or what have you guided my footsteps to the mystery shelves where I found and checked out a large volume of Sherlock Holmes stories and The Celebrated Cases of Charlie Chan, an omnibus consisting of five of the six Chan novels.
That was more than sixty years ago, and I still read mysteries today. It’s just as the philosopher Walter Kaufmann said: “The loves of childhood and of adolescence cannot be subtracted from us; they have become part of us….It is as if they had entered our bloodstream.â€
Exactly when I discovered Ellery Queen I can’t recall, but it must have been soon after my introduction to detective fiction. I have a vivid memory of sitting in a rocking chair in front of my grandmother’s house during the stifling hot summer of 1957, entranced as I wandered with Ellery through the labyrinths of The Greek Coffin Mystery. How could I have guessed that less than a dozen years later I’d be sitting in the living room of one of Ellery’s creators?
It was in 1968 that I stepped off a commuter train out of Grand Central station at Larchmont, about 45 minutes from midtown Manhattan, and was shaking hands for the first time with Fred Dannay and his then wife Hilda and riding in their car to the Dannay home in Byron Lane. In the fall of 1941, when I was studying to be a fetus, Fred had founded Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, which he continued to edit actively until shortly before his death.
One of Fred’s abiding concerns was bringing new blood into the genre, and each monthly issue of EQMM contained at least one short story by an author who had never published a mystery before. He must have encouraged almost everyone he met to try writing for him, but in any event, after we had come to know each other a bit better, he certainly encouraged me. I slaved over a story for two months and finally mailed it to him. Its inspiration was a line from one of my favorite Queen novels, Ten Days’ Wonder (1948), and I was sure he’d like it.
A few weeks later he invited me to Larchmont again. We had dinner at a lovely old seafood restaurant and returned to Byron Lane and sipped brandy in his living room as he ripped that story of mine apart with a surgical precision that I soon came to realize was more than justified by the sheer unadulterated silliness of what I’d written.
Then we began to build the story up again. He taught me what I should have done not in so many words, but indirectly, by emphasizing the wrong steps I’d taken and leaving it to me to make them right. I spent the next couple of months rethinking and rewriting that story from first word to last. Finally in fear and trembling I sent him the revised version, and in turn he sent me a contract. “Open Letter to Survivors†was published in EQMM for May 1972.
During the month that issue was on the nation’s newsstands, every time I entered a store and saw my name on that blue-and-white cover along with the names of all the other contributors it was all I could do to restrain myself from shouting “HEY!! THAT’S ME!!!†to everyone within earshot.
That was more than 45 years ago. Ellery Queen was still a household name back then, and many readers of the time would have spotted most of the countless Queenian motifs with which the tale was studded. Today I’m afraid even some readers of this column wouldn’t recognize the origins of the X-Y-Z theme, the dying message clue, the Iagoesque manipulations, the Alice in Wonderland-like will (Lewis Carroll was always a favorite of Fred’s), and so many more. How many 21st century readers will catch the oblique references to Queen’s masterpiece Cat of Many Tails (1949), or the attempt to replicate the intellectual excitement of a Queen climax?
Without the giveaway in the opening quotation, how many could even name my nameless detective? We may soon find out: the story is being reprinted in Josh Pachter and Dale Andrews’ anthology The Misadventures of Ellery Queen, forthcoming from Perfect Crime Books.
In case you are among the anthology’s readers, I should mention that the biology in the story also owes something to Alice in Wonderland. Today (though not necessarily in 1948) there’s a scientific consensus that both heredity and environment contribute to one’s fingerprints, from which it follows that the prints of monozygotic siblings are similar but not identical. But which of us hasn’t made a mistake? Who can forget the story (not by Queen) that opens with a St. Patrick’s Day parade on which the April sun is shining down?
I can’t believe I’ve lived to see one (or, if you include Fred’s cousin and collaborator Manfred B. Lee, two) of the most important authors of my formative years fall into obscurity. Will the Pachter & Andrews anthology help return to Ellery the prestige he deserves? Will e-books or some other high-tech medium we haven’t yet dreamed of restore the author(s) and character to the central position they enjoyed for years before I was born and for much of my lifetime? Many of us are trying to achieve that goal. I see the book as a step in the right direction.
December 1st, 2017 at 11:20 pm
From your lips to God’s ears, Ellery Queen deserves his (their) day back in the sun.
I was musing only today ironically, on the first EQ I ever read, THE FINISHING STROKE. Today I recognize it is far from the best of the books, but at the time I was entranced and wanted more. All these years later whenever I read EQ I still want more.
Yes it was a game, no it was not realism, but it was grand, intelligent, playful, wise, often kinder than you might expect of the genre, and while I don’t pretend to write Queenian puzzles I have learned much from not only the fiction, but the editorial work and the history of the genre.
Quite a bit of the cousins is available on e-book, a bit even for free reading. Whether the name will ever reclaim it’s former glory, it is at least preserved and available to be discovered and rediscovered by generations to come.
December 2nd, 2017 at 11:21 am
As you say, David, quite a sizable portion of the Queen canon is available on ebook, but as much as I’d like to think otherwise, I don’t believe that Ellery is going to come back in favor again. Too many mystery readers eoyjer want cozies on one end of the spectrum or serial killers on the other. (Just go to your local Barnes and Noble and count however books fall ii one category or the other.) Puzzle stories are never going to be more than a niche market ever again.
That said, EQ’s Greek Coffin Mystery is one of my favorite detective novels of all time. It knocked my socks off the first time I read it, when I was about the same age as Mike Nevins when he did, and it has every time since.
December 2nd, 2017 at 1:05 pm
An odd thing about puzzle plot mysteries:
TV throughout the English speaking world has been full of them in recent decades. You can see Castle, Monk, The Mentalist, Psych in the USA, Murdoch Mysteries in Canada, Death in Paradise, New Tricks, Jonathan Creek, Hamish Macbeth in Britain, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries in Australia and many others. I suspect that foreign language TV has a lot of these too.
But in bookstores puzzle mysteries are treated as something extinct, out of fashion like polyester plaid leisure suits.
Traditionally many people thought of books as high-brow and TV as lowbrow. But TV mysteries are actually more highbrow and far more creative than most current English language mystery novels.
What gives?
My sister says “Castle is just Ellery Queen, only with beautiful cops.”
I write traditional puzzle plot mystery fiction. I can see mysteries like mine – and Ellery Queen’s – every night on TV and DVD.
But feel like a member of a nearly extinct species as a prose mystery writer.
December 2nd, 2017 at 6:52 pm
Currently there is a huge revival of the English country house thriller going on by many writers. They are more or less modeled on Sayers, some featuring series characters, and some not, almost all historical mysteries set between the Wars or just after the Second World War.
Many have thriller elements along with the puzzle, and the primary influence is sort of Sayers somehow crossed with Ian Fleming and a dash of Le Carre (Sayers plus Anthony Horowitz’s Foyle seems the model), but there are several very good series being done, and there is also a revival of reprints in ebook of writers from the between the war years with writers like Punshon, Farejon, John G, Braddon, Gregg, and many more easily available for the first time in my adult lifetime.
No, we are never going to see the shelves at Barnes and Noble filled with these as mass market paperbacks, but like it or not the shelves at Barnes and Noble are increasingly not important to genre fiction beyond the bestsellers.
I love physical books myself, but we have to recognize the market simply doesn’t exist the way it once did, and never will again. Meanwhile the virtual complete works of many writers are available electronically, including many books translated to English (like French suspense master Frederic Dard) that have never been available in English translation.
Unlike bestsellers, prices for these are mostly under $10 and many under $5, some under $3, they are attractively packaged, and you can afford a complete library with nary a sagging dusty bookshelf in the place, or a wifely complaint.
I love the physical book, but it is increasingly an affair I can no longer afford nor adequately house. Meanwhile I have access to thousands of volumes at my fingertips from the classics to the pulps that I would have spent half my time and more than half my income acquiring in the past.
I mourn the passing of the traditional bookstore and of traditional publishing, but publishers did this to themselves with greed (bookstores are just a victim) and archaic business practices. Never was a major industry as stupidly and childishly run as most publishing houses (and even here there are bright spots like Hard Case and Otto Penzler).
I’m just happy to find the books and be able to read them. In addition, there are many audiobook versions of popular works free if you know where to look — I just downloaded multiple Alistair MacLean titles read by Francis Matthews (tv’s Paule Temple) from the Internet Archive, and you can download all of the BBC adaptations of Ian Fleming, Raymond Chandler, Ngaio Marsh, Christie, Sayers, and others on YouTube.
But publishing and bookstores as we grew up with them are not coming back. They have forgotten the reader and priced the average person out. I still buy hardcovers and paperbacks of some writers, but increasingly fewer. I can no longer see why I should fork over $30 for a cheaply made book whose spine cracks if I open it to read it when I can download it without having to make a special trip (the nearest bookstore is over an hour away) at half price, and often on publication get a discount on that.
Most people are not collectors, just readers, and increasingly investing $30 (despite the discounts at some sellers) for a book is not a wise decision for any consumer.
I’m a writer, I would love to have things like the were back in the sixties, but my partners books have done well for over two decades and only ever been available in physical editions as print on demand. It’s that old mid list niche that genre writers used to depend on. He certainly wanted more, but at least he had some success with what was available.
I have seven or eight titles (anthologies) in print, but all are print on demand.
But, as you cannot judge a book by its cover, you can no longer judge it by its presence in a bookstore outside of the bestseller list. Even most professionals are no longer relying on bookstore sales to keep going, and beyond the top sellers, the shelves at most bookstores are a goal increasingly beyond the hopes of most writers and the least reliable source for virtually all readers.
When an industry commits suicide by devaluing its customer and its product I may mourn it nostalgically, but I’m tired of publishers gouging, publishing less and less readable books, treating actual book buyers like recalcitrant children, and shoving crap at me as if they are my only choice. They have doomed themselves and bookstore chains have doomed themselves, and both did it by greed and ignoring customer needs. They are suffering the consequences of their own actions.
Meanwhile as a writer and a reader I have moved on to more fertile pastures.
December 2nd, 2017 at 9:43 pm
There’s nothing in your comment that I disagree with, David, nothing at all.
December 3rd, 2017 at 12:06 pm
David, from what I have read print books (especially hardcovers) out sell ebooks by a large margin. Many authors who tried the ebook format have let those books go out of print (William Marshall’s YELLOWTHREAD STREET are no longer available at Amazon last I checked) and the Craig Rice estate has stopped bringing her books to ebooks.
The problem with the business is the number of readers even if you include all formats has dropped. People – who don’t exist here, but are out there somewhere – read less and find other outlets for their leisure time.
I love ebooks. My hands are too weak to hold a print book and my eyes prefer the ebook adjustable (not too big, not too small) formats.
I have always said there is room for all the different formats and I usually prefer ebooks (graphic novels and comics are better in print).
For me the traditional mystery is adjusting to the readers (and TV viewers) that favors characters over plot. The puzzle remains but the characters are deeper and more relatable.
Ellery Queen has an odd problem, his famous past leaves an image of belonging to the past – dated for no reason but image. Sure he can come back. It will be as a modern version TV series (such as BBC’s SHERLOCK).
His problem with print is the team that created him are gone and even in the past other authors usually failed to capture Ellery as well as “Ellery Queen”.
December 3rd, 2017 at 12:25 pm
Oh, here is an article about book sales last year (2016). http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/27/media/ebooks-sales-real-books/index.html
December 3rd, 2017 at 1:00 pm
An article worth reading, I think, Michael, for anyone still following these comments.
It’s from CNN. To tempt more people to follow the link, here’s the headline:
Real books are back. E-book sales plunge nearly 20%.
December 3rd, 2017 at 12:33 pm
The idea of a modern day, modern dress TV version of Ellery Queen is a good one.
I’d love to see the team that makes THE FLASH try this.
December 3rd, 2017 at 2:59 pm
All we need is someone with the imagination to pull off a modern dress TV version.
December 3rd, 2017 at 3:00 pm
I wasn’t arguing whether ebooks outsold print. I was discussing the sub standard distribution,outrageous prices, and ridiculous cost of print.
Bookstores are closing left and right because they no longer cater to readers and because they are bad businessmen. The top sellers do well, certain sub genres do well, but the industry is not growing and with mass market paperbacks soon to be in the over $10 range while outlets like Walmart barely carry bestsellers much less anything else you aren’t going to convince me print books have much of a future.
As for “real books” being back, who cares if there is nothing out there worth reading and it is all so overpriced that fewer and fewer readers are willing to spend money?
If you charge $8 for something that used to cost a $1, and you offer fewer and fewer titles, and fewer and fewer options, you’re dying and not growing. What is selling matters too.
If only a handful of writers can survive when an industry used o support thousands something is wrong. When the only choices for readers on the shelves are cozies, women’s porn, men’s porn equivalent, and a handful of bestselling writers, you aren’t discussing a revival but a last gasp.
I don’t argue ebooks are a reliable hope for the future, there are many problems, but I neither have the money north replace for a library of real books, and find most modern mass market paperbacks both unattractive and overpriced.
Yes, I’ll pay $8 for the later Preston and Child, Connelly, or Rollins, but I won’t try a new writer at that price, I won’t buy Carter Brown or Richard Prather or many of the Hard Case Crime writers I don’t know at that price.
Sales may indeed be up, but that doesn’t mean publishing it bookstores are healthy industries. Ask Hastings, Borders, and all those closed Barnes and Noble locations.
Nor have I argued the fair play detective story is ever coming back, but I reuse to compare Ellery Queen or any other purveyor of the form to the childish version of “mystery” offered by crap like CASTLE or NCIS (crap as mystery anyway) where you can literally pick out the killer because most of the time he is the first person interviewed after the crime who cooperates fully and seems to have no motive.
At least Philo Vance was interesting even when he introduced the killer on the same line of the same page in every book.
Little bright spots won’t save publishing or bookstores anymore than ebooks will, but at lest for now ebooks offer some hope for reprints in inexpensive editions, and that is more than real books can claim.
December 3rd, 2017 at 5:33 pm
Price is a valid complaint. But books have cost too much for a long time giving a market to mass market books, used books, libraries, and now e-books. Now that Amazon controls the ebook market many of their new releases or new books from unknown authors have increased to $12.99 and above. Remember when $9.99 was the price Amazon resisted going over, while Apple books and the publishers sold at the high $12.99 and above? Sales still exist and you still can get a bargain but there are ebooks that cost more than I will pay (deja vu and waiting for paperback release).
I have been able to build a library of over 1700 books thanks to the Kindle and its sales but without any real competition I see Amazon hustling less for the money I have for books. I do see all formats surviving but will never challenge the sales of other forms of entertainment – especially TV and games.
One of the twists to the overpriced hardcover is most bookstores feature Bestseller lists on sale so the list price is rarely what the average customer pays for it.
David, I have never understood it but the number one bookseller in the U.S. is WalMart. Number two in print book sales is Amazon. Barnes and Noble bookstores are growing more healthy while its desperately wants out of the ebook business as the failure of the Nook continues to drag the company down.
I have long heard about the coming death of the bookstore. In the 60s I grew up in a small University (Pittsburg State, Kansas) and it had no bookstores. It does now.
Most local businesses have a short life but with the absence of major chains beyond Barnes and Noble some local area bookstore survive with little competition.
The major change in local businesses including bookstores is how we have changed our way of shopping. Many customers shop online now.
I do agree the publishing industry needs changes to lower cost so they can sell books at a price more people can afford to pay.
Now if only that 25% of the public that did not buy a books of any kind last year would stop growing.
December 6th, 2017 at 4:04 pm
michaels,
No disagreement here, and in all honesty quite a bit I what I read electronically is free, not purchased. I simply appreciate how much material is available cheaply at a click when I spent thousands building a collection and hours and hours combing second hand bookstores cultivating collectors.
I don’t fear that the bookstore will disappear, only that it will become increasingly hard to find in smaller markets and this that do exist offer less and less variety.
Publishing has seldom been a progressive or well run business concern. Many publishers used to pride themselves on how unprofessional they were. There is no reason real books and ebooks cannot exist side by side and compliment each other, save the fact publishers tend to e reactionary rather than progressive.
It is frustrating to watch someone struggling trying to stay in place when salvation lie in change and growth.
December 7th, 2017 at 11:15 am
David we agree more than not. The history of publishing has always been full of short-sighted self interest. It was the publishers who fought against the printing press. It was publishers who fought against Penguin’s introduction of the paperback. If it was new, different and popular with readers you could usually win a bet that the publishers fought against it.
I still laugh at the sad irony that the big publishers and Apple lost the court case over pricing yet Amazon ebooks now have that same pricing. How bad did Apple lose? I recently got another credit from Amazon for the Apple settlement.
The only positive is the book is a product that is so basic that it may change format but it – a collection of written words telling a story – is invulnerable against man.