Fri 7 Oct 2016
ELLERY QUEEN – What’s in the Dark? Popular Library, paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Dale Books, paperback, 1978. Zebra, paperback, 1985. Published in the UK as When Fell the Night (Gollancz, hardcover, 1970).
Here’s a detective novel based on the Northeast blackout of 1965, one that lasted for 13 hours and affected over 30 million people. I’d tell you about it personally, but Judy and I didn’t move to Connecticut until 1969. But it made headlines at the time, and not only does one-eyed NYPD homicide captain Tim Corrigan solve a murder mystery in the midst of the city’s shutdown, the solution depends entirely on the circumstances.
Except for one mistake, the killer could have gotten away with the death of an accountant, 21 floors up, being called a suicide. Give that he or she did, however, Corrigan has a whole floor of suspects to deal with, included a bright-eyed colleen named Sybil Graves, to whom he takes an immediate fancy.
The author behind the Ellery Queen pen name this time is Richard Deming, who wrote four of the six Tim Corrigan novels, and while What’s in the Dark? is not up to the usual Ellery Queenian standard, he proves to be an adequate creator of a detective puzzle mystery. The cousins Ellery Queen probably never used the word mammae in one of their own novels, however, nor never wrote a scene in which one character is walked in on while fumbling with the brassiere of another.
October 7th, 2016 at 3:43 am
Richard Deming wrote a couple of pretty decent hard-boiled murder books, but most of his work could be charitably called “undistinguished.”
October 7th, 2016 at 5:33 am
I was on the subway coming home from school on November 9, 1965 when the blackout hit. Fortunately, I was on an outside line and we were at a station, so once it became clear the power was not coming back on any time soon I was able to walk home.
Luckily for us, when the blackouts of July 1977 and August 2003 hit, we were in England both times.
October 7th, 2016 at 9:55 am
Ah, but the cousins Queen did have one book in which Ellery unhooked a damsel’s bra in front of her fiance. Not to worry though because Ellery reassured him (and us) that he was virtually sexless.
October 7th, 2016 at 11:15 am
Thanks for the correction, Jerry, I think. If I ever read that EQ book you mention, I’ve blanked that scene from memory. If you ever recall the title, let us know!
October 8th, 2016 at 11:26 am
The title escapes me, Steve, but it was one of their “Hollywood” mysteries (either THE DEVIL TO PAY, THE FOUR OF HEARTS, or THE DRAGON’S TEETH).
October 8th, 2016 at 11:31 am
Thanks, Jerry. That sounds about the right era. I haven’t read any of the three since I was 16 or so, and I’ve been meaning to do something about that.
October 9th, 2016 at 10:37 am
Gollancz also published this book as When Fell the NIght in 1970.
October 9th, 2016 at 11:45 am
Thanks, Bill. I’d add the info to the credits.