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

JON L. BREEN “The Austin Murder Case.” A parody-pastiche of Philo Vance, who uncovers a murderer at a masquerade party, Hilarious footnotes. (5)

JACOB HAY “The Name of the Game,” A Russian school for spies sends a couple to pose as Americans. Expected ending, but with a haunting sense of unreality, (4)

JOHN DICKSON CARR “The Man Who Saw the Invisible.” Colonel March. First published in The Strand Magazine, April 1938, as “The New Invisible Man” by Carter Dickson. An impossible situation revealed as a magician’s trick. (3)

ANTHONY GILBERT “The Intruders.” After terror, a twist makes everything OK for the old lady, but happily? The terror is real. (4)

CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG “More Than One Kind of Luck.” A would-be killer finds that he makes his own bad luck. (2)

G. C. EDMUNDSON “A Question of Translation.” It would help the reader to have knowledge of both Spanish and Italian. (3)

EDWARD D. HOCH “The Spy Who Didn’t Exist.” An obscure piece of knowledge helps Rand decipher a calendar code. (3)

AGATHA CHRISTIE “The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb.” Hercule Poirot. First published in The Sketch, September 26, 1923. Belief in the supernatural is a powerful force, one Poirot must face, But why does he fake being poisoned? (2)

JOHN HOLT “Number One.” First story. A “practical” joke on a paroled con backfires into murder. (5)

PHYLLIS BENTLEY  “Miss Phipps Goes to the Hairdresser.” If the wig wasn’t obvious, I don’t know what was. A waste. (1)

URSULA CURTISS “Change of Climate.” An elaborate buildup is ruined by an editor’s note which explains the whole story. Climate as a murder weapon. (3)

JOE GORES “File #1: The Mayfield Case.” Daniel Kearny Associates. Telling it as it isi n the private eye game: repossessing  cars. (2)

— February-March 1969.