Sun 22 Mar 2020
Stories I’m Reading: JON L. BREEN “The Babe Ruth Murder Case.â€
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[3] Comments
JON L. BREEN “The Babe Ruth Murder Case.†Ed Gorgon #4. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, June 1972. Collected in Kill the Umpire: The Calls of Ed Gorgon (Crippen & Landru, hardcover/paperback, 2003).
Ed Gorgan is a baseball umpire who somehow seems to keep stumbling across unusual cases of murders. My my count there have been fourteen of such instances (see below), but there may have one or two that I’ve missed, hopefully not more. In “The Babe Ruth Murder Case,†what requires his attention is the shooting of the owner of a sports bar where he and police lieutenant Steve Appleman just happen to be hanging out.
The fact the victim was well known for his criminal activity, including blackmail, means that there any number of suspects, and many of them who had the opportunity are strong possibilities are connected to his death by the clue on the dead man’s desk: the name “Babe Ruth†in his appointment book for that evening.
This case is a textbook example, only six pages long, of taking each of the suspects in turn and eliminating them one by one by the application of sheer reason, reminiscent in many ways of many an Ellery Queen story, both long and short. More praise than that I cannot give.
The Ed Gorgon series —
Diamond Dick (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Oct 1971
Horsehide Sleuth (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Nov 1971
The Body in the Bullpen (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine May 1972 *
The Babe Ruth Murder Case (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jun 1972 *
Fall of a Hero (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Nov 1972 *
Old-Timers’ Game (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Apr 1973
Malice at the Mike (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Oct 1973
Designated Murderer (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jul 1974 *
The Number 12 Jinx (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine May 1978 *
Instant Replay (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine May 1984
Streak to Death (ss) The Second Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction, 1987 *
Throw Out the First Ax (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Apr 1992 *
Kill the Umpire (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Nov 2002
Insider Trading (ss) ??, 2003 *
* = Included in the Crippen & Landru collection.
March 22nd, 2020 at 8:08 pm
Sports mysteries, with the exception of horse racing, really have to capture my interests to keep me coming back, Breen managed the trick with this series.
March 22nd, 2020 at 8:24 pm
As for me, mysteries with horse racing in them have always been a challenge. Jon has written four or five novels with series character Jerry Brogan, all taking place in and around racetracks. I probably should have read them. but wisely or not, so far I haven’t. Probably not. Wisely, that is.
March 22nd, 2020 at 9:10 pm
I really enjoyed this story, and the whole collection too. Breen is a terrific short story writer.
The tales are rich in detail, both mystery plot and background.