Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

The August issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine is out with some terrific stories from the talented likes of Clark Howard, David A. Knadler, and Elizabeth Zelvin, to name a few. Agatha-nominated Ms. Zelvin is the author of the acclaimed Bruce Kohler series, and, I'm very proud to say, a story of hers called "Dress to Die" will appear at BEAT to a PULP in August. But until then, grab this EQMM issue. Well worth it.

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EQMM Kindle edition

Ellery Queen bio

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Feb. 2009

Elaine Ash brought to my attention this fantastic opening paragraph in the February issue of EQMM:

Chief Inspector Bozo of the Clowntown Homicide Squad stepped from his second-floor office wearing a fedora between his side-tufts of bright orange hair, hair which had, late in life, turned purple at the temples, giving him a distinguished look. But inside the large painted smile his mouth was grim. Someone had murdered Jumbo the Elephant.

Doesn't this make you want to read the rest of "Clowntown Pajamas" by James Powell? The February issue also contains stories from Loren D. Estleman, R.W. Kerrigan, and one of my favorites, Edward D. Hoch.

Antiquing for Mysteries

I’ve mentioned on occasion that Little d and I like to go antiquing on weekends, mainly on the lookout for books, coins, and paintings. We hadn’t planned on going today but Gary's post of the new EQMM and AHMM covers on The Tainted Archive got my wheels turning. The new AHMM reminded me of an old issue. Over breakfast, I pondered my collection stashed away in NY when it hit me, I don’t have that issue... I had seen it in the antique store several weeks ago. Faster than you can say "Holy cow Batman", I was dragging d a good hour away to the Washington Old School House Antique Mall. While I was there, I picked up thirty(!) EQMM and AHMMs. Oh, and here's that April 1984 Ellery Queen cover that reminded me of the current Alfred Hitchcock (along with the 29 others!).

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (November 2008)

I haven't seen too many people blog about it, so I want to touch on the November issue of Ellery Queen. Foremost, it’s noteworthy for containing the last story that Edward Hoch was working on at the time of his death. Handel and Gretel, seamlessly completed by Jon L. Breen, follows the winning team of Stanton and Ives. The couriers find themselves entangled in a murder mystery when hired to transport a George Handel manuscript. Every time I have picked up a new issue of EQMM or an old secondhand copy, I'd flip through to start with the Hoch story (I find the Nick Velvet and Simon Ark yarns are the most enjoyable). Buying another issue of EQMM won’t be the same without the prolific Edward D. Hoch.

John Harvey’s Trouble In Mind opens the issue, pairing up two of his regular characters, Charlie Resnick and Jack Kiley. PI Kiley is searching for an AWOL soldier and enlists the help of Resnick. The story alternates between the soldier who’s kidnapped his family and Resnick and Kiley on the trail. Harvey successfully tackles the topical issue of post traumatic stress disorder without being preachy.

Too Wise, written by O' Neil De Noux (sidebar: what a great name for a writer!), is set in 1940s New Orleans with protagonist Lucien Caye, PI. Caye becomes a suspect when an attractive strawberry blonde is murdered a few hours after he was seen dropping her off at her house. Mr. Noux, a former cop himself and native of the area, brings a great deal of realism to this piece. I will have to check out New Orleans Confidential which has the Caye character.

The magazine’s special sections also offer several great pieces. "Passport To Crime" spotlights Brazil’s talented Rubem Fonseca with a tale that I could imagine from the pen of Lawrence Block. "Black Mask" features Gary Phillips who delivers a compelling entry intriguingly entitled, The Kim Novak Effect. In "Reviews", The Jury Box reminded me I have to pick up Paris Noir and Crimini. All this and Bill Crider does a nice write-up in Blog Bytes on Patti Abbott's Friday’s Forgotten Books.

Other contributors include Janet Dawson, Barbara Nadel, Judith Cutler, Len Moffat, and the gifted Robert Barnard. A great issue -- check it out.

So much to read, so little time

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (August); Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (September):

I admired Mickey Spillane's chutzpa. He once famously said, "I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorki and Jules Verne. And they're all dead..." When he was lambasted for his writing, he'd sling back, "Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar... If the public likes you, you're good."

Spillane, who passed away in 2006, left behind a total of six Hammer novels in progress that Max Allan Collins, a Spillane aficionado, is preparing for posthumous publication. EQMM’s Black Mask section features Mickey Spillane's There's A Killer Loose!, a short story adapted by Collins from an unproduced radio script from the early 1950’s. I found Killer a bit predictable and dated, but I give Mr. Collins credit for seamlessly finishing Spillane's work. I'm looking forward to their next collaboration with the return of Mike Hammer in The Goliath Bone.

By contrast, I enjoyed AHMM's mystery classic The Leopard Man's Story by Jack London. I'm not alone in my opinion that London's short stories are superior to his novels. Western writer Dale L. Walker writes: "London's true métier was the short story... London's true genius lay in the short form, 7,500 words and under, where the flood of images in his teeming brain and the innate power of his narrative gift were at once constrained and freed. His stories that run longer than the magic 7,500 generally—but certainly not always—could have benefited from self-editing." [Wikipedia]

EQMM's Department of First Stories features Shooting the Moon by lawyer-turned-writer Thomas Humphrey. A business lawyer comes to question whether his defense attorney and best friend is interested in helping him or framing him for murder. A good read that had me guessing who's the murderer up to the last paragraph. According to the blurb this notable story is not only Humphrey’s first published story but his very first effort.

John C. Boland's Sargasso Sea (AHMM) is a clever breezy tale. A bored school teacher gets what's coming to him after he contemplates murdering his wife on a cruise ship -- in Twilight Zone style.

A Nice Old Guy by Nancy Pickard (EQMM) is an easy going mystery that pulled the rug out from under me a couple times. The nice man of the title meets a wealthy, sweet old woman in a Florida coffee shop, but there is more going on then discussing grandchildren and Van Gogh art.