Sat 11 Mar 2023
Diary Review: ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE – May 1967.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Magazines[6] Comments
ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE – May 1967. Overall rating: ***½ stars.
CHRISTIANA BRAND “Twist for Twist.†Novelette. Inspector Cockrill solves the murder of a man no one wanted to see married, especially the bride. Good detection. (4)
MORRIS COOPER “As It Was in the Beginning,†Quite possibly the first detective story, occurring some 20,000 years ago. (5)
ELAINE SLATER “The Way It Is Now.†In contrast to the previous story, a search for lost romance in a modern-day marriage ends in murder. (4)
ARTHUR PORGES “The Scientist and the Invisible Safe.†A diamond thief hides them in light bulbs. (2)
MICHAEL GILBERT “The Road to Damascus.†Novelette. Previously published in Argosy (UK), June 1966. A Calder and Behrens spy story of a World War II impersonation discovered only when an old resistance post is uncovered, fascinating in its accounts of past and present espionage. (5)
ALICE SCANLAN REACH “Father Crumlish and His People.†The hypocrisy of a murdered social worker is discovered. Good social comment. (3)
HENRY STONE “The Impersonator.†Psychiatrical fare. (1)
NEDRA TYRE “A Case of Instant Detection.†A cop in a sociology class is forced to make deductions on the spot. Interesting background. (3)
ROBERT L. TILLEY “The Other Man.†An escaped convict finds refuge in a country cottage, an ideal sanctuary. Personal involvement clashes with the ending. (2)
VERA HENRY “What They Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Them.†The hired help take advantage of two suspicious deaths. (2)
JON L. BREEN “The Crowded Hours.†First story. Pastiche. A murder investigation by the 97th Precinct Squad. McBain’s style deserves this. (4)
ED McBAIN “The Empty Hours.†Short novel. Previously published in Ed McBain’s Mystery Book #1, 1960. A murder investigation by the 87th Precinct Squad. A girl posing as her cousin is killed by a burglar, but the police must learn everything through determined work. The plot is obvious from the beginning, and it is the emotional involvement that makes the story at all attractive, McBain has a flair for detail, but his style can be overdone and irritating. ***
March 12th, 2023 at 6:41 am
A pretty good issue. My take on McBain in general is more positive than yours, and –despite your low ranking (probably deserved) — I have enjoyed everything I have ever read from Porges.
March 12th, 2023 at 12:56 pm
Confession time: While I’ve always admired McBain and his 87th Precinct stories, it’s always been from afar. I’ve never been a fan of police procerurals in general, not even the best.
March 12th, 2023 at 1:43 pm
While I agree with your general take on “McBain” stories, which share with Hunter’s other work a tentdency toward at least one blatantly stupid aspect within, along with the faults you cite (and I do like proceduruals).
Porges was at least concise with his one-trick stories when in that mode in cf and sf, as opposed to too many of his peers. At least a few of stories, such as “$1.98” in a 1954 F&SF, managed to rise above their mere notional status…perhaps it helps a little that this one is a witty fantasy.
March 12th, 2023 at 2:30 pm
Arthur Porges, who died in 2006, was a prolific author of short fiction, dived perhaps equally between SF and mysteries. His only books were collections of these stories, no novels by him as far as I am aware. The “scientist” in the title of the story in this issue was a fellow named Cyriack Skinner Grey, who appeared in maybe a dozen other stories over the years. Another character he wrote about more than once was a chap named Stately Homes.
Your assessment of Porges’ output as largely one-trick stories is, I agree, right on.
March 12th, 2023 at 6:48 pm
One of the best Calder and Behrens stories, McBain, and Brand with Cokerill make this a top issue for me.
April 11th, 2023 at 7:20 pm
Belated (and semi-irrelevant):
I just thought I’d mention that EQMM covers from the ’60s – when they were basically billboards for the authors – they were a major factor in making me an EQMM reader in those days.
At that same time, my brother was a devotee of Hard Science Fiction (he considered sci-fi an insulting term); the digests of that era had elaborate illustrations on their covers, which Sean always used as a club against the “dullsville” EQ lists of names.
Oh well, to each his own, and like that there …
I do recall that whenever someone like Henry Slesar (one example to serve for many) turned up on the EQ cover, Sean would be thrown into semi-shock: “But he’s a Science Fiction Person!“
As in never-the-twain …
(You can imagine how Sean reacted when Isaac Asimov started turning up in EQMM.)
Those were the days (?) …