ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. September 1967. Overall rating: ***

ELLERY QUEEN “Wedding Anniversary,” Ellery Queen’s final return to Wrightsville is marred by murder  and revenge striking after death. (3)

FRANK GRUBER “Eagle in His Mouth.” Process server Harry Ives finds a dead with a rare penny in his mouth, a la Black Mask. (3)

PATRICK QUENTIN “Mrs. B’s Black Sheep.” Short novel. Previously published in The American Magazine, March 1950, as “Passport for Murder.” Mrs. Black’s European Tour, conducted for wealthy debutantes, is threatened by murder. The clues point to someone closely connected with her group, and she fears the worst. Easy to read. (4)

STEVE APRIL “The Greatest Snatch in History.” A plan to kill the President fails. Ha. (2)

      [Note: Steve April was another pen name for Len Zinberg, aka Ed Lacy.]

ROBERT L. FISH “The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarters. Schlock Homes somehow helps invent the miniskirt, Good puns, but I really don’t understand. (3)

ARTHUR PORGES “Murder of a Friend.” Selby of the OSS is given a dirty job. Elementary topology. (2)

LARRY MADDOCK “The Death Wish.” Psychological bunk leads to a job as a hired killer. (1)

JAMES LEASOR “The Seventy-Sixth Face.” First published in Vogue, November 1 1965, as “Doctor Love Strikes Again.” Jason Love helps catch an international jewel thief. Full of trivia. (1)

REV. NORMAN E. DOUGLAS “The Washing Machine.” First story. An impoverished minister turns to crime. (5)

JOHN PICK “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done.” First story. And safecracker Tony Lepula couldn’t. Good atmosphere. (4)

YOUNGMAN CARTER “Alias Mr. Manchester.” A criminal is busted by a policeman’s anonymous letters. {3)

SUSAN SEARS “A Tale from the Chaucer.” The Chaucer is a village coffeehouse. Its owner has to take on a free-lance detective job to solve a folk singer’s murder, (3)

FRANK SISK “The Shadow of His Absence.” Richard thinks his twin brother Robert has disappeared, but he has no twin brother. (1)

WILLIAM BANKIER “Traffic Violation.” Policeman turns down $20,000 to help his prisoner escape, but $20 to a delivery boy does the job. (5)

NEDRA TYRE “In the Fiction Alcove.” Murder in the library is solved by a page. (3)

(Give Me That) OLD-TIME DETECTION. Autumn 2024. Issue #67. Editor: Arthur Vidro. Old-Time Detection Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. 36 pages (including covers). Cover image: J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White.

   ARTHUR VIDRO unfailingly produces a high-quality print mag for people like us who just can’t get enough of detective fiction. In Old-Time Detection,  he preserves fugitive information that would have been lost to us except for his diligence. This issue features:

(1) A 1981 EQMM interview with Jack Ritchie: “I suspect that the basic trouble with writers of humor is that nobody takes them seriously.”

(2) Francis M. Nevins continues his 2010 series about Erle Stanley Gardner: “The last ten or twelve years’ worth of Mason novels are as chaotic as most of the episodes of the TV shows.”

(3) Martin Edwards’s introduction to the 2014 British Library reprint of J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White: A CHRISTMAS CRIME STORY, with a 2024 postscript: “The cozy yet spooky setting of a country house, cut off from the outside world by deep snow, is a superbly atmospheric backdrop for a murder story, and Farjeon uses it to good effect.”

(4) “The Non-Fiction World of Ed Hoch” this time features “A Mirror to Our Crimes,” from 1979, with Hoch offering up a nice survey of true crime books, which often were inspired by or served as the inspiration for detecfic: “The business of mirroring actual crimes through the fiction writer’s art is as old as Edgar Allan Poe. In fact, it’s older than Poe.”

(5) Dr. John Curran, Agatha Christie Expert Extraordinaire, gives us the latest in Christiedom, including an audience vote on the best Agatha film versions: “Is it at all significant that three ‘old’ adaptations fared best? Think about it . . .”

(6) Charles Shibuk’s “The Paperback Revolution” from 1974 keeps rolling along, as he notes that among the new books is a veritable explosion of classic reprints, one of which you might recognize: “This novel should be familiar to many from its 1945 film version with Joan Crawford that is frequently revived today.”

(7) “Nobody Tells Me Anything” by Jack Ritchie from EQMM, October 1976, is the fiction selection: “How can anybody expect me to solve anything if I’m kept in the dark?”

(8) A lot of detective fiction fans can relate to an article on collecting classic detecfic items: “In issue #65 (Spring 2024), we test-ran a column on Collecting. It somehow struck a chord with many of our readers, and so the subject will continue to appear in our pages.”

(9) ‘Tis the season, and therefore we have Michael Dirda’s 2023 column, “Restore Ye Olde Holiday Spirit with These Olde Mystery Novels”: “Old tales are best for winter, especially when they appear in shiny and inviting new editions.”

(10) “The Readers Write”: “Thank goodness you have a print edition, which is preferred by us dinosaurs.”

(11) “This Issue’s Puzzle”: “What future mystery writer was interviewed for a 1979 episode of ‘In Search Of’?”

   As always, OTD is worth a look.

      Subscription information:

– Published three times a year: Spring, summer, and autumn. – Sample copy: $6.00 in U.S.; $10.00 anywhere else. – One-year U.S.: $18.00. – One-year overseas: $40.00 (or 30 pounds sterling or 40 euros). – Payment: Checks payable to Arthur Vidro, or cash from any nation, or U.S. postage stamps or PayPal. Mailing address:

Arthur Vidro, editor
Old-Time Detection
2 Ellery Street
Claremont, New Hampshire 03743

Web address: vidro@myfairpoint.net

ANALOG SF – September 1967. Editor: John W. Campbell. Cover artist: Kelly Freas. Overall rating: **½

CHRISTOPHER ANVIL “The King’s Legion.” Novelette. Federation of Humanity #19. Continuation and perhaps final episode of Anvil’s Paradise series. (*) Roberts, Hammell, and Morrissey take on pirates, the Planetary Authority, and the Space Force before realizing that have been recruited into the famed Interstellar Patrol. The series is getting tiresome. (2)

(*) Footnote Added: I do not know whether what I then called Anvil’s “Paradise” series coincides with what was his larger “Federation of Humanity” series, which did continue on for another couple of dozen more stories.

JACK WODHAMS “The Pearly Gates of Hell.” A deadly comic story of suicide in a world where suicide is definitely forbidden. (5)

MACK REYNOLDS “Fiesta Brava.” Short novel. A United Planets story. Section G sends out four unlikely looking agents to help in the overthrow of a reactionary planetary government similar to that of Spain’s. The big feature is their choice of leader through bullfight competition. Part of Reynolds’ thesis is that people get the government they deserve. Only moderately entertaining. **

E. G. VonWALD “Important Difference.” Contact Scouts discover that the monster aliens have human form. (2)

VERGE FORAY “Lost Calling.”After 20 years of schooling by alien teachers, Mirni does not know what he has been trained for, but he is successful at it. (3)

GALAXY SF – August 1967. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Dember. Overall rating: ***

ROBERT SILVERBERG “Hawksbill Station.” Novelette. Reviewed separately and appearing here. (4)

ROGER ZELAZNY “Angel, Dark Angel.” Dark Angels bring death to individuals who threaten the stability of galactic society, Of what significance is Sensibility? (2)

K. M. O’DONNELL “We’re Coming through the Windows.” A letter to Mr. Pohl about a time-machine. Funny but hopeless. (1)

R. A. LAFFERTY “Ginny Wrapped in the Sun.” Reversible evolution, told Lafferry-style. Is this based on an Asimov article? (3)

RICHARD WILSON “9-9-99.” Letters between the last two men on Earth, about a bet that can’t be paid off. (2)

H. H. HOLLIS “Travelers Guide to MegaHouston.” Non-fact article. The domed city of the future has its roots today in the Astrodome and the US pavilion at Expo76. Not very interesting. (1)

TED THOMAS “The Being in the Tank.” A strange man appears in the works of a hydrazine plant. Why didn’t this appear in Analog? (2)

LINDA MARLOWE “Hide and Seek.” Population controlled by a children’s game. (3)

MIRIAM ALLEN deFORD “The Great Stupids.” Discrimination because of age, and how to combat it — with soda pop. (2)

POUL ANDERSON “To Outlive Eternity.” Serial; part 2 of 2. Review to be posted here soon.

IF SCIENCE FICTION. August 1967. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Gray Morrow. Overall rating: ***

JAMES BLISH “Faust Aleph-Null.” Serial: part 1 of 3. See report following that of the October 1967 (yet to come).

ROGER DEELEY “The Trouble with Vegans.” First story. They are very clever smugglers. An old joke retold. (3)

KEITH LAUMER “Clear As Mud.” Novelette. Retief and Magnan are Terran representatives on a planet where mud volcanoes are a bad problem. And the complications arise. Fun. (3)

FRED SABERHAGEN “The Winged Helmet.” Novelette. Sequel to “Stone Man” in the May issue of Worlds of Tomorrow. The berserkers’ attacks through time are concentrated on individuals who control a great deal of the planet’s destiny. King Ay of pre-civilized times is killed, and a replacement has to be sent to maintain history. The ending is not satisfying; there may be more to come. (3)

BURT K. FILER “Paint ’em Green.” The search of “effects machines” by Terran governments brings about interference by outside interests, for a second time. (3)

PHILIP JOSE FARMER “The Felled Star.” Serial; part 2 of 2. Report on complete story to appear here soon.

WEIRD TALES January 1949. Editor: Dorothy McIlwraith. Cover artist: Lee Brown Coye. Overall rating: *½.

ALLISON V. HARDING “Four from Jehlam.” Novelette. An ancient Indian woman’s curse follows four Englishmen back home and to their not unexpected deaths. Not very well written. (1)

EVERETT EVANS “Food for Demons.” A demon inside one professor’s head feeds on the minds of others. (2)

FRANK GRUBER “The Thirteenth Floor.” Standard tale of non-existent floor in a large department store. (2)

SNOWDEN T. HERRICK “Open Season on the –bottoms.” People whose last names end in “bottom” start disappearing. (0)

JOHN D. MacDONALD “The Great Stone Death.” The great stone lizard attacks two outdoorsmen; one escapes. (1)

HAROLD LAWLER “Lover in Scarlet.” A skeleton in a scarlet cloak. (0)

ROBERT BLOCH “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” A magician’s assistant tries to saw a girl in half, and succeeds! (2)

ERIC FRANK RUSSELL “The Big Shot.” At his time of reckoning, Rafferty finds that his final judge is himself. (4)

STEPHEN GRENDON “Balu.” A boy’s strange Egyptian cat knows the secret of transformation to human form. (1)

MARY ELIZABETH COUNSELMAN “The Bonan of Baladewa.” An old Javanese musician calls of the spirit world to avenge his daughter’s death. (1)

ROBERT HEINLEIN “Our Fair City.” Novelette. A reporter uses the talents of a friendly whirlwind to expose the corruption of City Hall. Farce. (2)

ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE – August 1967. Overall rating: ***½.

HUGH PENTECOST “The False Face Murder,” A rejected suitor wearing a mask is killed, and everyone is ready to assume the guilt. Would seem to have Meaning, but it all ends as typical detective story. (4)

THE GORDONS “The Terror Racket.” Short novel. First published in The American Magazine, June 1953, as “Case File — F.B.I.: The Faceless Killer.” An anonymous caller threatens a widow’s daughter with violence unless he is paid $10,000. The FBI is called in for protection, and they work quickly to decide which of the mother’s acquaintances is the extortionist. Marred by sloppy writing: the roles of the characters are introduced without introduction, and with no real purpose; and by bad writing: the rookie agent who has to be explained everything, (3)

EDWARD D, HOCH “The Spy Who Worked for Peace.” Rand of Double-C discovers that a defector’s secretary is actually the spy, One of the better ones in the series. (4)

JOHN LUTZ “Quid Pro Quo.” A computer service arranges murders for a price. (3)

AMY. M. GRAINGERHALL (NORMA SCHIER) “Mr, Copable, Criminologist.” Anagram pastiche of Mr. Campion. Otherwise not bad. (1)

MARGERY ALINGHAM “The Chocolate Dog.” First appeared in The Daily Mail, 07 June 1939, as “The Dog Day,” Not a mystery story, but one of British charm. Mr. Campion. (2)

STEVEN PETERS “George Washington, Detective.” First story. Washington traps a spy just before crossing the Delaware, Interesting, (3)’

STEVEN PETERS “The Backyard Dig.” An amateur archaeologist’s discovery. Obvious with a clever twist, (4)

PATRICIA ANN HOLLISTER “The Woman Who Couldn’t Wear Red.” First story. At least her husband didn’t think so. (1)

JULIAN SYMONS “The Main Chance,” First US printing. A con-man gets caught up in a truly fantastic scheme for murder, (5)

BOB BRISTOW “No Margin for Error.” A woman has a secret way of knowing when her husband is out with other women. (4)

H. R. F. KEATING “The Justice Boy.” Novelette. A pet robin is killed at a British boys’ prep school, and an investigation is begun. The appeal is that of reading details of the background. (3)

(Give Me That) OLD-TIME DETECTION. Spring 2024. Issue #65. Editor: Arthur Vidro. Old-Time Detection Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. 36 pages (including covers). Cover image: Stuart Palmer’s The Puzzle of the Pepper Tree.

   It goes without saying that Old-Time Detection is an indispensable repository of information for the devotee of classic detective fiction, mixing the old with the new in this particular literary genre; and who better than Arthur Vidro to curate it.

   First up is a short 1976 EQMM interview with Stanley Ellin: “The problem here was to get an ending which was right.”

   Next, Charles Shibuk continues his Paperback Revolution from 1974: “As I write this, 1973 is slowly dissolving into a hopeful new year, and 1973 has certainly not been a good one — especially in the reprint field.” Shibuk notes reissues from Margery Allingham (“an extremely erratic performer, but she seems to be her best in the short form”); James M. Cain (“hardboiled prose by a master of the genre”); Agatha Christie (“presents Poirot as a Nero Wolfe imitator”); Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr (“exploits in farce and detection”); Dick Francis (“a superb work”); R. Austin Freeman (“the creator of Dr. Thorndyke was one of the giants in this field”); Jacques Futrelle (“they [his stories] still retain their freshness and devilish ingenuity today”); Frank Gruber (“a fast and funny romp”); John D. MacDonald (“the patented brand of MacDonald philosophy, which this reader could live without”); Ngaio Marsh (“not among Marsh’s best work”); Rex Stout (“one of Stout’s better early novels”); and Trevanian (“overpraised”).

   Dr. John Curran, the foremost Christie expert extant, sadly traces the damage committed by meddlesome Hollywood and its even more heavily politicized ugly twin, the BBC, when adapting Agatha’s Murder Is Easy (a.k.a. Easy To Kill) and looks forward apprehensively to an upcoming “adaptation” of Towards Zero. Curran hits the truth button on why Agatha Christie’s “entire back catalogue is still in print”: “It is because she stuck to writing what she knew she could write: clever, entertaining whodunits. . . she rarely, if ever, weighed down her stories with discussion of religion or politics.”

   The second part of Francis M. Nevins’s article about Erle Stanley Gardner has a wealth of information concerning ESG’s middle period (including the two largely unknown prototypes of Perry Mason and Della Street) and his first Mason novels, featuring a far different character than most readers and TV viewers are accustomed to (“The Mason of these novels is a tiger in the social Darwinian jungle . . .”). And there’s more to come.

   In 1958 Julian Symons compiled a heavily annotated list of what he regarded as the “100 Best Crime Stories,” starting with William Godwin’s Caleb Williams (1794), and running up to 1957. Those familiar with Symons’stastes in detective fiction won’t be surprised at some of his choices, but it’s heartening to see that he didn’t overlook Freeman, Futrelle, Van Dine, and EQ, among deserving others.

   Pietro De Palma offers up this issue’s fiction piece, “A Double Locked Room” (6 pages): “In the seafront office of the Bari Police Station, two men were discussing this fresh case, which seemed less a police matter than a matter for an escapologist.”

   From the mid-80s we have Jon L. Breen’s in-depth reviews of three contemporary novels: Max Allan Collins’s Kill Your Darlings (1984: “excellent dialogue, characterization, and mystery plot”); Robert J. Randisi’s Full Contact (1984: “a well-crafted and quick-paced story”); and Reginald Hill’s A Clubbable Woman (1970, first U. S. publication 1984: “one of the outstanding firsts in detective fiction history”).

   Editor Arthur Vidro shares his thoughts about the (usually) benign madness associated with book collecting, which sometimes becomes uncontrollable at auctions, and his own personal “game plan.”

   From a 1979 issue of The Armchair Detective we delve once more into “The Non-Fiction World of Edward D. Hoch,” as he reminisces about “Growing Up with Ellery Queen” (“I think I wanted to be a writer even then”).

   When he reviewed Doug Greene’s recently published John Dickson Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles (1995), Michael Dirda rightly entitled it “The Houdini of the Mystery” (“Carr excels in his plotting and narrative pacing, in the rush of unfathomable, seemingly unconnected clues . . . reading a writer like Carr is being reminded that good fiction doesn’t require richly beautiful sentences or complex psychological probing . . .”).

   Arthur Vidro returns with two concise reviews: Agatha Christie’s By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968: “her enthusiasm comes through in the prose”) and Stuart Palmer’s The Puzzle of the Pepper Tree (1933: “The fourth outing for Hildegarde Withers takes her to California”).

   Letters from OTD-ers and a fiendish puzzle wrap up what we’ve come to expect, a quality issue of Old-Time Detection full of good stuff.

      ____

   Subscription information:

   Published three times a year: spring, summer, and autumn. – Sample copy: $6.00 in U.S.; $10.00 anywhere else. – One-year U.S.: $18.00. – One-year overseas: $40.00 (or 25 pounds sterling or 30 euros). – Payment: Checks payable to Arthur Vidro, or cash from any nation, or U.S. postage stamps or PayPal. – Mailing address: Arthur Vidro, editor, Old-Time Detection, 2 Ellery Street, Claremont, New Hampshire 03743.

Web address: vidro@myfairpoint.net

IF SCIENCE FICTION, July 1967. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover art by Jack Gaughan. Full text and illustrations available at archive.org. Overall rating: ***½

PHILIP JOSE FARMER – The Felled Star. Serial, part 1 of 2. See review later after both parts are available. [The entire two-part serial is a section of Farmer’s novel The Fabulous Riverboat.]

E. A. WALTON “Pelandra’s Husbands. First story. Love proves stronger than possible immortality. (1)

ANDREW J. OFFUTT “Population Implosion.” Novelette. The plague hits only old people, in direct correspondence to the birth rate. Excellent idea suffers [is marred] only by jumps in the story. (5)

C. C. MacAPP “A Ticket to Zenner.” Novelette. A thief leaves behind a ticket, in a SF intrigue story, reminiscent of Eric Ambler, but without the convincing background. (3)

ALAN DIRKSON “Adam’s Eve.” Novelette. A world without humans has only waiting robots, but two find how to obtain services for themselves. (3) [His only published SF story.]

KEITH LAUMER – Spaceman! Serial, part 3 of 3. See review coming up soon. [Book publication as Galactic Odyssey.]

OTHER WORLDS SCIENCE STORIES. June-July 1951. Editor: Raymond A. Palmer. Cover art: H. W. McCauley. Overall rating: *

RUSSELL BRANCH “Time Flaw.” Novelette. The love betwen Captain Hunter of the S. S. Stella and one of his passengers is interrupted by disaster and application of Einstein’s theories. Poor writing keeps plot from any depths it might have been capable of. (1)

POUL ANDERSON “The Missionaries.” Alien worship of machines is carried to its logical conclusion, cannibalism. (2)

R. BRETNOR “The Fledermaus Report.” Martin Fledermaus, chosen as first human to fly to the moon, discovers that the beauty of one’s wife is relative. Tripe. (0)

ROBERT BLOCH “The Tin You Love to Touch.” Low-grade comedy about the female robot maid that comes between Roscoe Droop and his domineering wife, This is really low. (0)

RAY PALMER “Mr. Yellow Jacket.” Galactic census-takers discover that some humans have the power yo make thoughts real, Included (page 81) is one of the silliest theories of meteors ever. (0)

S. J. BYRNE “Beyond the Darkness.” Novella. Intrigue aboard one of a fleet of FTL ships seeking new worlds for humanity. The passengers are subjected to a memory-erasing device so that the rebellious navigators can return to contest for already inhabited worlds. Nad, our hero, finds the ex-captain still alive; the plan fails, escape, discovery, loss of heroine, villain returns from oblivion, cowardly brother redeems himself. People don’t really talk and act this way, do they? *½