Mon 7 Sep 2026
Diary Review: ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE – January 1968.
Posted by Steve under Uncategorized[4] Comments
ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE – January 1968. Overall rating: ***½.
JOE GORES “File #2: Stakeout on Page Street.” (Dan Kearney Associates) Involving a delinquent car,, narcotics, and racial prejudice in Hashbury. (4)
EDGAR WALLACE “The Father Christmas Job.” (Felix Jenks) First published in The Grand Magazine, January 1923, as “The Buoy That Did Not Light.” Ship’s steward sees behind on-board activities. (1)
STUART CLOATE “The Second Nail.” First published in 1966. An African witch doctor’s magic soothes a broken love affair. Quiet sophisticated evil. (5)
STEPHEN DENTINGER “First Offense.” A bank robbery fails to come off. Young bored kids with big ideas. [Dentiger is a pen name for Edward D. Hoch.] (3)
MICHAEL HARRISON “The Murder in the Rue Royale.” [C. Auguste Dupin] “Unpublished” Dupin pastiche, perhaps the first locked room murder. A complicated business.. (3)
EVE CHRISTMAS “The Burning of a Witch.” First story, Poorly told story of the mistress of a Nazi prison camp commander. (1)
MEL D. AMES”The Promise of His Coming.” First story. Infidelity revenged, Somehow too clever, (1)
ELLERY QUEEN “With the Compliments of Comus.” (Ellery Queen.) Novelette. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , December 1948, as “The Dauphin’s Doll. A doll mysteriously disappears from a department store display at Christmas time. Of course the story’s ending must destroy the illusion. (4)
HUGH PENTECOST “No Witnesses on the Waterfront.” First published in Argosy, March 1960, as “The Ghost of Champagne Charlie.” Longshoremen on the waterfront stick together, this time on the side of the law. (5)
ALICE SCANLAN REACH “Father Crumlish Celebrates Christmas.” Father Crunlish saves a falsely accused man at Christmas time, Entertaining, but short on detection. (2)
JULIAN SYMONS “A Pearl Among Women.” (Francis Quarles.) First published in The Evening Standard, January 26, 1953. Quarles solves an uninteresting puzzle of stolen necklace without moving from his chair. (2)
LAEL J. LITTKE “A Feline Felony,” A mystery-fantasy of Jerome, who looked like a cat. (4)
JAMES YAFFEE “Mom Remembers,” Short novel. Mom Makes a parallel between the unhappy life of a Puerto Rican family in the streets of New York City today and the story of a Jewish family, and Mon’s own mother, in the lower East Side 45 years ago. Length gives added depth to both stories, depth which overcomes a slight weakness in the detection. Mom is a lovely person. (4)
September 8th, 2026 at 8:03 am
No matter how good or bad the stories, I will always gladly read Gores, Hoch, Harrison, Queen, Pentecost, and Symons.
Three-time Edgar winner Joe Gores wrote over a dozen short stories and five novels about Dan Kearney’s DKA detective agency. Gores was a former private detective and got the details right. He was also the author of such books as HAMMETT, SPADE AND ARCHER, A TIME OF PREDATORS, and COME MORNING. Gores is always worth reading.
Edgar Wallace began a long and profitable career as a writer with THE FOUR JUST MEN (1905), and eventually published over 170 novels and 957 short stories, as well as 18 stage plays. More than 160 films were made from his works. I find much of his oevre tedious, although I have a fondness for his Sanders of the River stories and his J. G. Reeder detective stories. He famously wrote the original draft for KING KONG.
Stuart Cloete was a South African novelist who often included that country’s history in his books. I’ve read only one of his books, plus his apocalyptic post-nuclear war novella “the Blast.”
Hoch, the author of over 950 mostly ingenious short stories, needs no introduction. He penned 29 stories as “Dentinger,” including the first tales about Captain Leopold.
Michael Harrison (real name Maurice Desmond Rohan)was a noted Sherlock Holmes scholar and penned eleven well-regarded pastiches about Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin. As “Michael Egremont” he wrote a loose adaptation of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1936).
To my knowledge, Eve Christmas never published another story, unlike Mel D. Ames, who went on to publish another twenty stories, twelve of them about Lieutenant Cathy Carruthers.
Queen’s “The Dauphin’s Doll” has been reprinted six times in periodicals and anthologized eight times, as well as appearing in Queen’s collection A CALENDAR OF CRIME.
“Hugh Pentecost” was the main pen name of mystery Grand Master Judson Philips, who published over 100 mystery and detective novels and . As Pentecost, he wrote the Luke Bradley, Dr. John Smith, Lt. Pascal, Uncle George, Pierre Chambrun, John Jericho, and Julian Quist series; as Philips he wrote 18 books in the Peter Styles series, as well as 36 stories in the Park Avenue Hunt Club series. I’ve read and enjoyed all of his novels and many of his short stories.
Alice Scanlan Reach was best known for her 13 Father Crumlish short stories that appeared in EQMM in the 60s.
Julian Symons was one the great British detective writers of the last century, author of THE COLOR OF MURDER, THE THREE-PIPE PROBLEM, and other classics. He wrote 90 stories about private detective Francis Quarles. His was also known for his critical works about detective fiction, including the classic BLOODY MURDER: FROM THE DETECTIVE STORY TO THE CRIME NOVEL (US title, MORTAL CONSEQUENCES).
Lael J. Littke is (evidently she is still alive at 96 or 97) an author noted for her young adult novels, some of which were published in the Point Horror series. She has also published books on the history of the Mormans.
James Yaffe sold his first story to EQMM when he was 15. Much of his work chronicles middle-class Jewish life. His popular Mom stories feature and amateur detective who solves crimes for her police department son over dinner. Many of these stories are clever but never really did nothing much for me. His novel NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT is based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case.
All in all, an extremely readable issue — well worth the three and a half stars you gave it.
September 8th, 2026 at 10:46 am
Thanks, Jerry. Your comments are always longer — and more informative, I think — than the posts they’re commenting on, with this one no exception. Yes, a very readable issue. It helps when the longest story rates a “4”. The Yaffee story resonated more with me than you — no two people ever agree on everything — and it makes me wish I’d read more of his work over the years than I’ve managed to.
September 8th, 2026 at 10:50 am
Amd by the way, I’m hoping not to have any more long lapses in blogging this month. I’ll do my best. It’s good to be back.
September 8th, 2026 at 2:15 pm
And it’s good to have you back.