The Ripper Of Storyville - Edward D. Hoch

Story: The Ripper Of Storyville

Author: Edward D. Hoch

Source: The Ripper Of Storyville and Other Ben Snow Tales

The Ripper of Storyville is the first book collection of one of Hoch’s most imaginative creations, Ben Snow, the nineteenth century gunman who wanders through the West with two of his companions – his horse and his derringer pistol. Hoch combines ingenious plotting with a strong sense of time & place – thereby making it both Western and Historical mysteries. Snow is a fast draw and a crack shot and is often mistaken for Billy the Kid, and is hired for his shooting services. The first seven Ben Snow stories were written 30 years ago for The Saint Mystery Magazine. The series was resumed in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine after a break of 19 years; this collection features all the 7 written for SMM and 7 from the ones published in EQMM.

In the title story, Ben Snow travels from Texas to New Orleans to find Kinsman’s daughter Bess in the red light district of Storyville. Kinsman is on his deathbed and wants his daughter to come back and take over the millions that she is due for. The reason for hiring a gunman? Jack the Ripper is suspected to be operating in the area and already 2 prostitutes have met a gory end. And by the time Ben finds Bess, the body count has gone up to 3 and Bess is not in a mood to go back to her Father.  Ben not only has to persuade Bess to come back with him but he needs to keep her alive till the killer is caught. The 4^th victim happens to be Bess’s own roommate. Snow has no other option but to investigate and find the link amongst the 4 women. … Which when he does with some clever deductions eventually leads to the fact that the Ripper’s final victim is none other than Bess!

Death Among Friends - Cyril Hare

Story: Death Among Friends

Author: Cyril Hare

Source: Death Among Friends & Other Detective Stories

To quote Michael Gilbert from the introduction to this title: The other way, in which the crime story differs from its more lawful kin, is that it is often presented as a conjuring trick. The narrative is but a piece of entertaining patter, designed to fix your attention upon the conjurer’s right hand, whilst his left hand is palming the black-jack with which he plans to hit you in the final line. To my mind Cyril Hare had very few equals at this.

One of the very succinct stories which best exemplifies the above praise is the title story. Sir Charles Gilray, the Chairman of the Wimblingham Motor-works was cordially detested by most of his subordinates. But in case of Powell, the chief engineer at the works, he had aroused a feeling of loathing which could be assuaged by nothing short of murder! Powell had only one true friend in his colleague McDougall! McDougall’s wife and Sir Charles are lovers. Rapidly and methodically, Powell makes his plan to avenge both(himself & his friend) at one blow.

The circumstances present itself when Sir Charles introduces the shift system. He took advantage of this system to visit Sylvia on evenings when McDougall was taking a turn of night duty. Powel ascertains that during these visits, Sir Charles is careful in letting the car rest in a lonely lane. Powell’s plan is rig up the brakes on one such night which would lead to the accidental death of his arch nemesis – but in spite of his brilliant design, things go horribly awry and the story concludes with a typical O’ Henry style of ending.

The Death Of Amy Rosbart - Cyril Hare

Story: The Death Of Amy Rosbart

Author: Cyril Hare

Source: Death Among Friends & Other Detective Stories

The thirty stories which make up this book come in all shapes and sizes but they can broadly be classified into three categories – there are stories with a legal background, stories dealing with murder and stories dealing with other criminal excursions. The stories dealing with murder can further be classified into pure puzzles, inverted detective stories and straightforward pieces of narrative. The Death of Amy Rosbart, the longest story in the collection, depicts the traditional detective story at its best.

Gus, Chairman & Managing Director of Cyclops Films Ltd is celebrating the opening of his first film and in attendance are his close associates. The drama starts after the party is over among the 4 who stay back in Gus’s house. The cast includes a champion swimmer who swims twice a day without fail to keep himself in shape, his wife who knows about all the females her husband has been running around behind her back, the wife’s lover who wants her to divorce her husband, Camilla the actress loves the champion swimmer – who equally reciprocates her feelings and the host.  The actress is found dead outside in the garden with her head smashed - looking as if she committed suicide by throwing herself out of her first floor room window. But there are two facts which Inspector Mallet points out which points to murder: the actress was found dead not under her room window but by the adjacent room’s window & the towel wrapped around her head as though she had gone swimming! In the final act, the inspector asks everyone to re-enact the events of the previous night to catch the killer - fairly clued & wonderfully plotted.

Blood Pressure - Damon Runyon

Theme: Queen’s Quorum Titles

Story: Blood Pressure

Author: Damon Runyon

Source: Guys & Dolls

The nameless narrator of this story has been warned by the doctor that his blood pressure is way beyond normal and hence should avoid all excitement. Just when he is thinking that it wouldn’t be too difficult not to get excited, he bumps into Rusty Charley, the hardest man in the world and the last guy that anyone would want to meet. Rusty is a big man who thinks nothing of knocking people down, a man who would shoot down people if he doesn’t like the way they wear their hats. On top of that Rusty is broke! Rusty requests our Guy to accompany him to Nathan Detroit’s crap game, a seedy place where our guy can hardly suppress his excitement! But he cannot say no to Rusty.

And hence starts a very funny and a nerve racking adventure for our narrator: accompanying Rusty to a crap game where everybody knows that Rusty is cheating but no one dares to question him, followed by a game of stuss in another seedy place called Ikey The Pig’s, knocking the taxi driver out and driving away with his taxi, followed by a visit to a joint called Bohemian club - the last place that anyone would go when there is positively no other place in town open, provoking the coppers in the Bohemian club leading to a big fisticuff with Rusty emerging victorious and so on. Will our narrator live to see another day? Will his blood pressure hold up amidst all the excitement that he can’t handle? He very shortly ends up with his doctor again ….

A Very Honorable Guy - Damon Runyon

Theme: Queen’s Quorum Titles

Story: A Very Honorable Guy

Author: Damon Runyon

Source: Guys & Dolls

Damon Runyon wrote five different fictional series: ‘ A detective’s Confession’, which satirized the Hammett-Chandler private-eye school of whodunit writing; ‘In Our Town’ sketches; ‘My Old Man’ tales; ‘Joe & Ethel Turp’ bagatelles and the ‘Broadway Guys & dolls’ Stories.

Guys & Dolls is one of the best examples of depicting the subtle permutations in the technical and thematic variations of the detective-crime short story! As Heywodd Broun wrote in the introduction, “Damon Runyon caught with a high degree of insight the actual tone and phrase of the gangsters and racketeers of the town.” In a series of 13 stories, the reader meets a choice collection of cheap chiselers, chippie chasers and cheesecake chewers – or to put it differently, the Runyon guys and dolls are Broadway bandits, metropolitan mobsters & Times Squares thugs – tales of passion and violence with a unique type of humor.

Feet Samuels, the honorable guy of the story makes his living by hustling around race tracks and crap games and prize fights or by acting as a runner for bookmakers or scalping bets or steering suckers. He is never really in the money and is always owing and always paying off – but he is very honorable about his debts and maintains his credit! Because Feet’s word is considered good at all times, he can raise a little dough even off The Brain, the toughest moneylender of Broadway. If one maintains a good credit with The Brain, he can maintain a good credit in the whole of the town.

Feet Samuels is in a tough spot – he has an approaching deadline to clear off a debt (to The Brain) and he has no money as he has been on a losing streak,  his doll is no more interested in him as he has competition in the form of another guy who can pamper her with diamond bracelets.  Samuels decides to commit suicide. Finally, he hits upon an alternative - he sells himself to a doctor –by providing Brain’s reference - promising the doctor that he would get his (Feet’s) body in exactly 30 days. From the money he gets, he pays of The Brain, he showers his doll with gifts and with the rest of the money, decides to enjoy his remaining few days at the crap table. At the end of the 30 days, Feet has multiplied his money by 10 times, he has got back his girl and everything seems to be going great for him. Being a honorable guy, and with all negotiations failing as the doctor  is not ready to settle for anything less than Feet’s body, he starts thinking about the ways in which he can get himself killed so that the doctor can get his body in good shape. The Brain (the Credit Agency) who comes to know about this feels that Feet should keep up his promise and shouldn’t default. Does Feet survive? Does he live up to his reputation of an honorable guy?

The Hepplewhite Tramp - Arthur Train

Theme: Queen’s Quorum Titles

Story: The Hepplewhite Tramp

Author: Arthur Train

Source: Tutt and Mr. Tutt

It all starts innocently enough – a tramp is found asleep in the rich man Hepplewhite’s bed. The watchman calls for the police, the police arrest him for burglary and the tramp is waiting to be tried in court and then Mr. Tutt gets to hear about it and all hell breaks loose. Mr. Tutt comes forward to defend him and expose the overzealousness which the officers of the law exhibit in protecting the privileges and property of the rich. The district attorney’s office, which had no plans whatsoever to try the tramp find themselves cornered and find no alternative but to try him in court as Mr. Tutt has made it very political. Mr. Tutt also sues Mr.Hepplewhite for false arrest and the rich man who had no intention of appearing in court to testify, finds himself in a tricky situation of either prosecuting the tramp or pay the damages!

And so the case comes to court with everyone deciding to play out the drama to its expected fateful end of Mr. Tutt defending his client successfully! But Mr. Tutt is not the one to settle for a simple victory! He makes the police force look like a bunch of fools; he distresses Mr. Hepplewhite so much on the witness stand that he accepts to pay the tramp for all he was sued if the case is put to an immediate end, the judge wants to end this trivial case as early as possible; the prosecuting attorney has become a fan of Mr. Tutt’s antics and seems to be enjoying the drama; the jury knows very well as to what this case is all about and who is winning but Mr. Tutt is no mood to close the case! Absolutely funny and an absolute gem of an ending! J

Mock Hen and Mock Turtle - Arthur Train

Theme: Queen’s Quorum Titles

Story: Mock Hen and Mock Turtle

Author: Arthur Train

Source: Tutt and Mr. Tutt

An interesting title to be included in the Queen’s Quorum – it has 7 stories featuring the gentlemanly legal sharpshooter Mr. Ephraim Tutt and his assistant Tutt (no relation to his employer) – none featuring any detection. I would suspect that it justifies its inclusion on three factors: stories featuring legal legerdemain with nimble-witted humor, the popularity of Tutt stories with the American public and it’s academic relevancy as pointed out by Ellery Queen: ‘It is interesting to note that in a list of books prepared by a committee of the faculty of Harvard Law School for prospective law students – “books which will help them decide about the desirability of entering the legal profession or which will be of value in preparation for the study of law” – the tales of Tutt are included as “an entertaining collection of short stories showing the great variety of questions which may confront a practicing lawyer and the chances for ingenuity” – an academic acceptance seldom bestowed on fictional ferrets!’

Mock Hen and Mock Turtle is one of the most humorous stories that I’ve ever read – farce at its supreme best! Mock Hen has been selected as the man who will kill a rival Chinese gang member for taking out one of their own gang members. Mock Hen is caught red handed at the scene of the murder and the gang lord entrusts the defense of his fellowman to Mr. Tutt. What follows is one of the most comical and most probably the longest trial in the history of fiction!

Mr. Tutt declares in his opening statement to the Judge that it would take six weeks for the trail to complete because of the complexities involved in trying a Chinaman. First problem to crop up is in picking the jury – no one believes that it is a good idea to try a Chinaman in a court of law for murder; they all think that it should be settled in their own historic and traditional way and no one accepts to convict him even if the evidence clearly shows that he is guilty. They somehow get a 12 member jury at the end of 19 days! Next comes the problem of an interpreter. The prosecution appoints one, the defense appoints one and finally the Judge appoints one to arbitrate the other two. Next is the problem of swearing in the witness – on what basis can the man’s oath be considered sacred? The Chinaman finally reveals that the oath would be sacred only if it is over the head of a white rooster! And so the story goes on……, the trail lasting for 69 days…. to a fitting climax!