A Lonely Profession - Patricia Moyes

Story: A Lonely Profession

Author: Patricia Moyes

Source: Who Killed Father Christmas and Other Unreasonable Demises

This Crippen & Landru collection features 20 short stories and 1 mini novel – the earlier stories written for the Evening News and the later ones written for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Only 2 stories has any detection involved in them – most of the others fall into the category where the characters are plotting the murder of their near and dear ones; sometimes successfully and at other times with unimaginable consequences – but all stories culminate with a twist; sometimes guessable and at other times genuinely surprising! The best story in the collection with one of those unusual and surprising twists happens to be ‘A Lonely Profession’.

Having won numerous prizes for marksmanship in the army, the protagonist who narrates the story in the first person is in the profession of being available as a paid assassin. The assassin has set up an office under the alias of H. De Quincy and the clients are accepted only if they have a reference from one of the previous customers. The story goes on to show the various measures and the methods that the assassin uses to be on top of the profession without getting involved with the law enforcement agencies. Being a lonely profession, a young lady by the name of Lottie, who is not that intelligent to figure out Quincy’s real name or profession is brought into the household. Such a set up welcomes some of the high paying clients and one such client wants Quincy to take up a political assassination of the President of the Arab country Bashara.

The plan is set in motion by the Arab general(the client) and all Quincy has to do is to pull the trigger. The plan also includes another man taking a shot at the President standing next to Quincy – that man who is an awful shot would draw the attention of the security and police authorities and take responsibility for the murder allowing Quincy to escape. This would also give an impression to the general public that the assassination was not a politically inclined one. The general also requests Quincy to bring Lottie along, though he doesn’t say why she is required. Everything goes according to the plan except two things: the other man is not captured but is shot down and all the exits from the main square are blocked by the police.

Even then, Quincy and Lottie have no problem in escaping to their homeland and the reader is left wondering about two things: Lottie didn’t previously know Quincy’s profession and yet there is no objection from her and if all the exits were blocked, how did they escape without being questioned? Therein lies the twist of the tale!

 Other notable stories in this collection include:

1.  Who Killed Father Christmas?

One of the two stories which involves genuine detection. The toy department at the store of Barnum & Thrums has received a consignment of Teddy Bears from Hong Kong. The employees of the store, including the temporaries are allowed to buy gifts at discounted prices. All the 4 employees and 2 temps have their eyes set on the Teddy bears. The store also has the tradition of having Santa distributing gifts to children. And Santa also goes in for the teddy with a blue ribbon (the only one of that kind) as soon as he comes in to gather the gifts for distributing to the children.

They soon realize that the man in Santa’s costume is not the usual man that they hire, somebody has requested by phone to present a teddy to a child when she approaches Santa and pretty soon Father Christmas is found stabbed to death. It turns out that the person who came in as Santa was a policeman - the police having received a tip that one of the teddies contained drugs, who now have a murder on their hands with the staff of the store serving as the suspects.

2.  Hit and Run

Dr. Roger Ashburn’s wife has run away leaving a message that she can’t tolerate him, his place and his poor earnings. Police investigation fails to shed any clue on her whereabouts. The doctor must have done her in runs the rumor mill. Not able to withstand the pressure, Dr. Ashburn moves to a different location as a Pathologist. A few months down the line, a woman’s body from a hit & run accident turns up in his morgue. And the doctor is shocked to see that the body on the slab is none other than her wife – with their wedding ring intact! So was it just a case of the women not wanting to accept her failure and return back to her husband? Or was there a much sinister plot?

3.  The Faithful Cat

Herbert has only two options open to him: kill his wife or confess and ask her to pay off his debts. A third option opens up when his wife is operated and her uterus is removed. Being childless, her love is channeled to the faithful cat, Pakdee. Being emotionally week, Herbert decides to drive her insane by threatening to kill the cat and the story unfolds with some bitter complications and an ending which Herbert certainly wouldn’t have bargained for!

4.  Family Christmas

    Mr. Runfold and his wife have invited their 2 daughters and their husbands to stay with them for Christmas. Mr. Runfold strongly suspects that one of the menfolk would try to poison him (he already has a weak heart) during Christmas dinner and instructs his wife to not let anyone into the kitchen. He has even changed his will so that the money doesn’t pass on to his wife who would easily give in and part with the money. The money would go to their daughters on the death of both the parents or when the youngest daughter reaches 40(the youngest is only 20). Both the daughters have their own sob story and request for money from their Father which is duly rejected with contempt. After the Christmas meal, Mr. Runfold is found dead. The doctor brings in a verdict of natural death but Mrs. Runfold strongly believes that one of the four killed her husband.

The Riddle of The Golden Monkeys - Loren D. Estleman

Story: The Riddle of The Golden Monkeys

Author: Loren D. Estleman

Source: The Perils of Sherlock Holmes

Loren D. Estleman is the author of nearly seventy novels, including the long-running Amos Walker, private detective series, Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula & Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Holmes. The Perils of Sherlock Holmes (Authorized and licensed by Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) consists of 7 Holmes pastiches, 3 essays and “The Serpent’s Egg”, intended as the first chapter of a collaborative ‘round robin’ novel that never came off. The author points out in the first essay that this collection of short stories is the first single-author collection of Holmes short stories published since Doyle’s own The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (although The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes may be the exception; presented as a collaboration between Adrian Conan Doyle & John Dickson Carr, it may in fact have been written entirely by Carr).

This is a breezy read and one can see Holmes solving cases in both England & America, meeting his contemporaries like Sax Rohmer, Wyatt Earp, late of Tombstone & Dr. Holliday. There is even a story where the great Holmes fails to find a suitable solution to an interesting problem. All in all, it’s a thrill ride for the readers to dive into these thrilling investigations of literature’s most famous sleuth!

In the Riddle of The Golden Monkeys, it’s the great Sax Rohmer himself, the creator of Dr. Fu-Manchu, who consults Holmes to solve a perplexing riddle. Sax Rohmer reveals that the character of Dr. Fu-Manchu was based upon a Chinese master criminal known only as Mr.King, who was the principal supplier of opium to the whole of London. To the author’s dismay (Rohmer’s), he meets Mr. King on the streets of London, which invariably leads to him being kidnapped by him. Mr. King and several of his clients have read Rohmer’s first collection The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu and they all have no problem in recognizing the character of Dr. Fu as none other than Mr. King. And this is creating business problems for Mr. King. Hence the ransom for Rohmer’s release - The Character of Fu-Manchu should never be featured in another book! Rohmer declines saying that the second book featuring his exploits has already been submitted to the publisher and is due to hit the market pretty soon. Mr. King releases Rohmer from captivity on one condition – that he should solve the riddle of the Golden Monkeys – the message being depicted by the 13 monkeys in various shapes and forms carved on the golden bowl which has been given as a gift to Rohmer (by Mr. King) in a span of 3 days. And Rohmer has no other option but to consult the greatest living detective to solve this conundrum and save his life!

In addition to the wonderful solution by Holmes, the story has one other highlight – the interaction between Rohmer and Watson - on the characters they have written about in their respective journals!

The Vanished Steamboat - Edward D. Hoch

Story: The Vanished Steamboat

Author: Edward D. Hoch

Source: The Ripper Of Storyville and Other Ben Snow Tales

Ben Snow is whiling away the time in New Orleans when his friend Eddie, a riverboat gambler coaxes him to come down to Vicksburg. When there is a death of a gambler and there is a vacant spot on the steamboat, Eddie decides to take the trip on the ‘River Ridge’ and try his luck with the cards. Ben Snow declines his friend’s invitation to join him on this journey from Vicksburg to St. Louis. He bids his friend goodbye from the dock and watches the steamboat till it vanishes down the Mississippi river.

The next day, the owner of the Steamboat ‘River Ridge’ hires Ben Snow to find the boat as the boat seems to be missing. The owner strongly suspects that it’s her brother who has hijacked the boat. In 24 hours, the boat should have crossed Greenville but the message from Greenville is that they didn’t see any boat. Another boat ‘Carrollton Belle’ which left St. Louis the day before and which should have crossed ‘River Ridge’ midway didn’t meet the boat at all. The Belle is now berthed in Vicksburg and the captain of the ‘Belle’ is pretty certain that the ‘River Ridge’ is not on the river. Where did the boat with 55 crew members disappear? If it’s lost on the water, somebody would have seen it by now, if it had sunk down, the coastguard officials who were dredging would have found it. They even try to use  Conan Doyle’s solution of the ‘Lost Special’ where he makes a train disappear between two stations but the application of the same on the river between two ports doesn’t fetch them the same prize!

The solution is pretty simple and I did work out the problem as to where to find the boat but you have to give it to the author for planting the vital clue to the solution right there in the open – highlighted in italics - and yet I missed it altogether!!!

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!

The Man Who Murdered in Public - Roy Vickers

Theme: Queen’s Quorum Titles

Story: The Man Who Murdered in Public

Author: Roy Vickers

Source: The Department Of Dead Ends

A unique story in this collection in the sense that everybody knows that the protagonist is a murderer but they just can’t prove it! George Carshaw’s first victim is Elsie, the maid against whom he harbors a revenge for the treatment she meted out to him in his younger days. Mode of murder – death due to drowning when the boat was overturned – the nearby tourists on the other boats see the accident but they don’t notice George holding the girl under the water. The verdict: death due to accident.

Second victim happens to be his first wife with the same modus operandi. The wife dies because she doesn’t know swimming. He pleads in front of the coroner that he couldn’t have saved her because he himself doesn’t know swimming. Every time he escapes the death row, he changes his name and moves on to a different location. Third victim happens to be his second wife in exactly the same manner as the previous one. This time, the police smell a rat. They realize that he collected huge insurance money on both the occasions. They also stumble upon the first death but they fail to see any motive in the first one. The public prosecutor declines to proceed with the case.

George is not so lucky when his third wife is killed in exactly the same manner – in front of all the witnesses. In the coroner’s court, a lawyer starts questioning whether he had taken insurance against his wife. When the answer is affirmative, they present to the coroner’s jury the two previous instances where George got away with murder and the insurance money. They come out with a verdict of willful murder and George is committed for trial on the coroner’s warrant. In the actual trial, it is proved that George is an expert swimmer but it doesn’t stop the clever defense lawyer from saving his client on a technicality.

So what more could the police do to apprehend this multiple murderer? Well, the help comes in the way of a ruby bracelet - a bracelet which is on the list of things stolen in a case that the police are investigating – a bracelet which the police find in a pawnshop – a bracelet which was given as a gift to the maid Elsie.

The Rubber Trumpet - Roy Vickers

Theme: Queen’s Quorum Titles

Story: The Rubber Trumpet

Author: Roy Vickers

Source: The Department Of Dead Ends, The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories

This Queen’s Quorum title collects the best ten of Roy Vicker’s celebrated Department of Dead Ends (DDE) detective stories. These are detective stories with a difference. As Ellery Queen says in his introduction, they are of the ‘inverted’ type of detective story. Knowing from the start who the murderer is, the reader is presented with the motive, the workings of the criminal mind, the crime itself, and all the clues. The ‘surprise’ in these stories is, of course, supplied by the way in which these murderers are detected; and this is where the DDE comes in – that repository of files which were never completed, of investigations without a clue and clues which led nowhere. From time to time, quite illogically, Inspector Rason finds a connection between happenings in the outside world and the objects in his Scotland Yard museum, events move inexorably to their appointed end!

George Muncey, under a fictitious name ends up marrying a maid, the marriage being witnessed only by the maid’s parents. The rubber trumpet of the story is a gift article bought by the maid on their honeymoon, the trumpet is thrown out of a moving train by George because he hates the noise which the trumpet creates, the police find a dead child on the same train and as part of this investigation, the trumpet which is retrieved on the railway line is sent to the DDE.

Since nobody knows who Muncey is, he thinks he is gone be safe if he murders the maid and he turns out to be right. He just moves to a different city, starts working in a chemist’s shop and ends up leading a married life with another woman. A few years down the line, the shop owner decides to sell some toys to his customers and one such toy on the counter turns out to be a rubber trumpet. This brings back some unnecessary memories for George. He destroys it in a furnace and puts the required amount in to the cash register. A few days later, the shop owner thinking that this would sell, brings out the entire stock of 77 trumpets! George Muncey again decides to pay for all 77 of them and destroy them. Unluckily for him, the case in which he is carrying them is stolen by a thief who ultimately is caught by the police. And what follows is a series of connections – leading the police to the murderer of the cold case of the murdered maid!

The Hiatus

After my 4th movement in as many years, I'd the privilege to lay my hands on novels by GAD authors whom I'd never read before - namely J. J. Connington, E.R. Punshon, R.A.J Walling & Todd Downing. In addition to that was the availability of a few locked room novels which had been reviewed by the fellow bloggers. I had to give in to the temptation and abandon my quest for short stories for a while. Some of the novels that I've read over this period include:

J. J. Connington - The Brandon Case
J. J. Connington - Jack-in-The-Box
J. J. Connington - No Past Is Dead
J. J. Connington - The Four Defenses
J. J. Connington - Grim vengeance
Todd Downing - Vultures in the Sky
E.R. Punshon - Information Received
E.R. Punshon - The Dusky Hour
R. A. J. Walling - That Dinner At Bardolph's
R. A. J. Walling - Corpse Without A Clue
Jefferson Farjeon - The Judge Sums Up
Jefferson Farjeon - Shadows By The Sea
Darwin Teilhet - The Ticking Terror Murders
Darwin Teilhet - The Feather Cloak Murders
William Wiegand - At Last, Mr. Tolliver
Wallace Irwin - The Julius Caesar Murder Case 
David Duncan - Shade of Time
Luis Fernando Verissimo - Borges and The Eternal Orangutans
Fredric Brown - Death Has Many Doors
Q Patrick - Return To The Scene
Jonathan Stagge - Death My Darling Daughters

Not that I've not been reading any short stories over these past few months - I've definitely consumed plenty of them but nothing much to write home about. In the next couple of months, I'll be trying to get back on track - to pursue my original plan of completing 20 'Queen's Quorum' & 20 'Crippen & Landru' titles by the year end.

The Monster - Vincent Cornier

Theme: Crippen & Landru Lost Classic Series

Story: The Monster

Author: Vincent Cornier

Source: The Dual of Shadows – The Extraordinary Cases of Barnabas Hildreth 

Story Number: 119

The only story in this collection which is an anomaly – in the sense that the solution is not dependent on any obscure scientific principle. This story was short listed for the Ellery Queen’s story contest and was included in The Queen’s Awards: Sixth Series in 1951.

It contains one of the cleverest ideas to be considered for a perfect crime. More like a perfect murderer. ‘The Great Travers Case’ starts with the finding of tortured animals on the Travers estate, followed by the cruel death of farm animals. Though many have a suspicion as to who is behind them, the police find no possible proof. When it finally looks like the killer has turned to humans, Barnabas is called in to investigate. And it doesn’t take him long to find the serial killer but he and the law is faced with a most curious situation – all the proof is available for his prosecution, the Judge will surely sentence him to death but immediately thereafter, the same Judge will have to release him and let him go scot free because of a loophole in the law! A loophole which no legislator had envisaged and a loophole which allows the perpetrator to walk out of the felon’s dock and continue to kill the fellowmen and women – to murder at will and whim!

The Duel of Shadows - Vincent Cornier

Theme: Crippen & Landru Lost Classic Series

Story: The Duel of Shadows

Author: Vincent Cornier

Source: The Duel of Shadows – The Extraordinary Cases of Barnabas Hildreth 

Story Number: 118

The Duel of Shadows is the 31^st in the Crippen & Landru “Lost Classics” series – it contains 11 stories featuring Cornier’s series detective Barnabas Hildreth, an agent of the British Secret Service. In most of these truly extraordinary cases, the reader is presented with a fascinating problem in what looks like an impossible situation with some supernatural elements to give it a wonderful atmosphere and the detective with his superior knowledge of some obscure concept of science is able to provide a scientific explanation to the strange phenomena observed earlier in the case. The reader really doesn’t have much of a chance to arrive at the solution before the detective does but that in no way hampers the reader from thoroughly enjoying the way in which the plot strands are peeled away like the peels of an onion to reveal a hidden scientific concept around which the whole solution to the impossible situation is based upon.

Consider the story under consideration – Henry Westmacott is sitting by his own hearthside in the drawing-room listening to a concert broadcast on the radio. His wife and a maid are the only two other occupants of the house. They both hear the concert abruptly ending midway and a big commotion from the room. When they enter the room, they find that Henry has been injured with a thick bullet - which has deflected from his shoulder and hit the radio. There is no weapon present in the room from which the bullet could have been fired and no individual was seen walking out of the room as the door was under constant observation. It is found that the bullet was very old and was so big that it could have been fired from only one pistol – that pistol turns out to be one of the two duel pistols which was fired only once in its lifetime some 222 years ago!

The other strange phenomenon is noticed by the photographer – when he develops the first set of exposures of the damaged radio set still having the bullet embedded in it, he notices a strange object like the planet Saturn in all the photos though there wan’ t anything of that sort in the room. When he takes a second set of exposures on a different day with exactly the same set of circumstances, the photos come out clear without any strange objects in them.

The solution which explains all the above problems depends on a series of scientific phenomena colluding together. This includes lead mining, marsh gas, growth of annular rings in an elm tree, properties of pitch-blende among many others! Though the critics have pointed out the non feasibility of a few aspects of the solution, it doesn’t really take away anything from this very well constructed story.

Perfect Alibi - Anthony Berkeley

Theme: Crippen & Landru Series

Story: Perfect Alibi

Author: Anthony Berkeley

Source: The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries

Story Number: 117

Roger Sheringham is meeting his friend Sir Wilfrid, the Chief Constable and is surprised to hear that the Chief Constable never had the chance to investigate a murder. When Sheringham eggs him on, Sir Wilfrid recollects a case which had murder written all over it but was closed as an accident only because none of the suspects had the opportunity to commit the crime.

It’s the story of the death of Eric Southwood, a lucky accident for so many people; for if ever a fellow deserved to be murdered it was Eric. He was a womanizer and he was hard pressed for cash! And he was making up to Elsa and her fortune; and Mr. & Ms. Allfrey(uncle & aunt to Elsa) took a dim view of him. But that didn’t stop them from having Eric as a guest for their house party. The other guests include a chap called Merridew and the Vesinet couple, invited only because of the well known affair between Eric & Mrs. Vesinet, an affair unknown to only Mr. Vesinet.

Amidst the party, Eric is found dead; shot from the front – the idea being the gun had caught in something and got fired accidentally when he tried releasing it from a thorny bush. Every one present at the party had a cast iron alibi for that particular duration – Elsa was picking berries and was under constant observation; Merridew was half a mile away; the Vesinets were sunbathing – they alibi each other; Mrs. Allfrey was inside the house all the time – vouched for by the servants; Mr. Allfrey was crossing the field and the alibi is provided by the constable on a beat; the constable is also able to provide an alibi for the Vesinets!

Roger Sheringham still believes that Eric was murdered and reveals his theory to Sir Wilfrid as to how one of the ‘Perfect Alibis’ was too perfect to be believed!

“Mr. Bearstowe Says…” - Anthony Berkeley

Theme: Crippen & Landru Series

Story: “Mr. Bearstowe Says…”

Author: Anthony Berkeley

Source: The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries

Story Number: 116

Roger Sheringham notices and approaches a woman who is as bored as himself in a beer-and-sausage party that he has ended up in. The woman just can’t stop talking about a Mr. Bearstowe. Roger believes that Bearstowe must either be her husband or a lover. He notices a few lone men and decides to guess who among them could be Bearstowe. When he asks her whether her husband is tall or short, he gets a strange answer from her saying that she doesn’t know.

A few months later, when Sheringham is waiting for his friend in the police station, the Superintendent asks Sheringham to tag along to interview a woman who has come to report her husband missing – whose body, the police already have in their possession. Sheringham doesn’t want to have anything to do with it and decides to skip away without being noticed but his interest is piqued when he identifies the woman as the same one whom he had met in a party and who couldn’t stop talking about a certain Bearstowe.

The woman who introduces herself as Mrs. Hutton tells a story about how she was supposed to have met her husband for lunch on the beach, how all his clothes were still on the beach but yet there was no sign of her husband. When the policeman asks her to give a description of her husband, pat comes a detailed description which even includes his chest measurements! When Sheringham mentions Bearstowe, she faints. When she is taken to the mortuary, she identifies the dead body as her husband Eddie without even opening her eyes!

The police investigation reveals that Mrs. Hutton was noticed with a clean shaven man near the beach, who ultimately is identified as Bearstowe. The police also have proof that Mrs. Hutton couldn’t have murdered her husband and all the evidence points to the absconding Bearstowe as being the murderer. Sheringham’s investigation on the other hand piles up the evidence that it was indeed a premeditated murder though he also clears Mrs. Hutton of any complicity. Just as in so many of his novels, the story ends with a final twist – a twist which is sprung as late as the final word of the story!

The Mystery of The Horne’s Copse - Anthony Berkeley

Theme: Crippen & Landru Series

Story: The Mystery of The Horne’s Copse

Author: Anthony Berkeley

Source: The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries

Story Number: 115

Anthony Berkeley, The Master of the Final Twist is most famous for his novel The Poisoned Chocolates Case. This collection starts off with the story “The Avenging Chance” – which is a shorter version of his most popular novel. The next best story which shows all the trademarks of his ingenuity is the strange phenomenon of the Horne’s Copse.

The story is told from the point of view of Hugh Chappell, the rich heir to the Ravendean family. After a party in his neighbor’s house, he decides to walk back to his house via the patch known as Horne’s Copse instead of getting the flat tire fixed. In the dark, he stumbles across a body with a bullet hole in the head – he strikes a series of matches to identify the body – which turns out to be that of his cousin Frank, who is supposed to be vacationing in Europe. He continues to his home and calls the police but the police fail to find neither a dead body nor any other sign like the burnt matches. A month down the line, he again comes across the dead body of his cousin Frank in exactly the same position but this time he has been stabbed with a knife. He makes sure that it is indeed his cousin by identifying a mole near the neck. Further to make sure that he is very much dead, he lights the matches and holds it near the open staring eyes and notices that there’s no flicker, the hands are ice cold, there’s no pulse and no heartbeat. He runs down to his house, calls the police and runs back to the spot where he saw the dead body to await the police. But to his dismay, the body seems to have vanished again!

He sends a mail to his cousin who is still in Europe and gets a reply back from him. When everybody starts thinking that there’s something wrong with his mind, he stumbles on the dead body for a third time! This time, he just leaves the countryside and goes into hiding in London.  A few days later when he ventures out to visit a shop, he reads about the news of his cousin’s murder. And he realizes that the police are on the hunt for him as he is their chief suspect! Luckily for him, he bumps into none other than Roger Sheringham, who decides to hide Hugh in his house till he solves the puzzling events of the Horne’s Copse and provides a most satisfying explanation to all the strange things witnessed by the narrator.

Mom Remembers - James Yaffe

Theme: Crippen & Landru Series

Story: Mom Remembers

Author: James Yaffe

Source: My Mother, The Detective

Story Number: 114

The last Mom story is a double bonanza in that there are two murder mysteries solved – one by Mom and the other by Mom’s Mom!

The case that Dave is investigating deals with what the police think as an open and shut case. Eighteen year old Ortiz is seen running away from the scene of the crime where a taxi driver has been stabbed after a holdup went terribly wrong. The witness is none other than Dave himself. But Ortiz says he was nowhere near the scene of the crime but decides not to reveal where he was at that crucial hour.

Mom compares this case to the first ever case that she was involved in, 45 years ago, on the eve of her marriage to Mendel. Mendel ends up drunk during the party dedicated to him on the eve of his marriage – which is considered as a sin by his Father (who is a Rabbi). A quarrel ensues and Mendel walks out of the house in a wild mood promising his Father that he would commit more sin. Next day, he is arrested for the murder of a girl and though he agrees that he committed a sin, he declines that he killed her. At the same time, he is very rigid in not giving away his whereabouts during the crucial hour of the crime. It’s Mom’s Mother who comes to the rescue – she poses a different question to 4 different individuals and based on the answers she is able to free Mendel and catch the guilty party.

Mom applies the same logic and the same motive from the old case to the present case; poses her customary 3 or 4 questions and shows how the police have blundered again in thinking that they have an open and shut case!

Mom Makes A Bet - James Yaffe

Theme: Crippen & Landru Series

Story: Mom Makes A Bet

Author: James Yaffe

Source: My Mother, The Detective

Story Number: 113

Grady, a theatrical producer is one of the regular customers at the popular Krumholz restaurant. Grady was known and disliked by every employee of the Krumholz. On this particular day, Grady has come to dinner with his Father-in-law, a Dr. Bartlet. Grady orders noodle soup for both of them, screaming at the old waiter Irving to make sure that the cook doesn’t put salt into his soup as the doctor has asked him to stop taking salt in his diet. Irving places the order with the cook, collects the two bowls and carries it along with several other orders. Just when he comes out of the kitchen, the hotel owners intervenes and decides to taste the soup to make sure that the soup doesn’t have any salt in it as he doesn’t want to lose his regular customer. When the owner expresses his satisfaction, Irving serves them the soup and as soon as the bowl is put in front of him, Grady takes a sip and in no time is dead due to cyanide poising.

The police arrest Irving but they are somewhat distressed by the fact that Irving doesn’t have a motive. At the same time, no one had the opportunity to poison the soup after the owner tasted it and before Grady drank it! Mom poses a bet to her son that she can prove Irving innocent if he is ready to turn up on Sunday to do her wallpapers.

Mom poses her usual important questions – who had motive to kill Grady? Did the cook dislike Grady(turns out that off all the employees, the cook was the only one who was on good terms with Grady)? Did Bartlet get any money due to Grady’s death (Bartlet was 100 times richer than Grady)? What had Grady ordered after his soup? The answers to her questions and a few other clues which have been presented to the reader lead to a very simple but yet clever solution to this impossible poisoning mystery!