The Year Of The Short Story

It’s that time of the year when one reflects back on what has been achieved over the past one year and also to contemplate and plan for the coming year. Incidentally, it also happens to be the blog’s Anniversary! Last year, I decided that the year of 2012 for me was gone be the year of the Short Story. And so it has been. I sifted through some 300 collections of short stories putting a halt to the reading of novels though I’d to take a midyear break to tend to the latter when some very obscure titles were available for pick up.

In the last one year, the blog has featured 140 stories by 94 different authors from 80 different short story collections; 30 of those stories were from the Queen’s Quorum titles, 25 from Crippen & Landru titles and 51 stories from the post 70’s era.

In short, this is how the results look for the goals I’d set:

1. 20 Queen Quorum Titles – target achieved(22 completed)

2. 20 Crippen & Landru Collections – just made it (20 completed)

3. 60 stories from the new brand of authors – missed it by a long margin (51 short

    stories from a total of just 38 authors)

4. To read through some of the 150 odd short story collections that I’d with me - a total flop as I not only didn’t get through even 10 % of it but I managed to double the count of short story collections that I had.

Queen's Quorum Titles Read:

1. After Dinner Story by William Irish

Contains 6 high quality stories - 3 superlative ones: Rear Window, After Dinner Story & Murder Story.

2. The Department of Dead Ends by Roy Vickers

Inverted Crime Stories where some infinitesimally object in the Scotland Yard museum connects the murderer to the crime at hand in a very surprising way! 

3. Tutt & Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train

Involves some funny stories and some with legal legerdemain. Worthy enough to arouse interest to pursue other titles in the series. 

4. Out Of His Head by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Not a short story collection per say but a series of interconnected chapters. 

5. Stories from the Diary of a Doctor by L.T. Meade & Clifford Halifax

Supposed to be medical mysteries but this was the toughest book to get through. 

6. In The Fog by Richard Harding Davis

Three interconnected stories with a final twist to upset the applecart! 

7. Condensed Novels by Bret Harte

Contains nine burlesques but this title qualifies for the Queen’s Quorum list based solely on just one story – “The Stolen Cigar Case”, considered to be one of the best Holmes parodies and one of the anthologists’ favorite. 

8. The Achievements of Luther Trant by William Macharg & Edwin Balmer

One of the better collections and most certainly the first volume of short stories to make scientific use of psychology as a method of crime detection.

9. Average Jones by Samuel Hopkins Adams

Refreshingly original and a worthy successor to the great Sherlock Holmes. 

10. Call Mr. Fortune by H.C. Bailey

Probably this first collection of stories featuring Reggie Fortune has been picked to be a Quorum title more from the history point of view rather than the ingenuity of the stories. The later collections definitely have much more superior stories! 

11. A Jury Of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell

Highly praised by the critics and included in The Best Short Stories of 1917, this is not a collection but a standalone story which can be found in many anthologies. Somehow, it didn’t impress me and seemed to be overrated.

12. Guys & Dolls by Damon Runyon

No detection involved but the author has fashioned a new way of telling the crime story from the point of view of the Times Square gangsters. 

13. Knight's Gambit by William Faulkner

An highly under appreciated collection of 6 detective stories.

14. Diagnosis: Homicide by Lawrence G Blochman

Eight stories where the murderer is apprehended based solely on the identification of the murder method which is solved by pure scientific/forensic methods.

15. The Short Cases of Inspector Maigret by Georges Simenon

Consists of 5 novelettes: 2 of them translated by Anthony Boucher and the remaining 3 by Lawrence G. Blochman.

16. The Lady, Or The Tiger by Frank R. Stockton

A stand alone story with an uncertain ending where the author poses a literary riddle and asks the reader to solve the puzzle.

17. The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow by Patrick Quentin

It is said that the author has handled the taboo theme of child murderers extremely well but I didn’t enjoy this book. The culprit (and sometimes the story itself) becomes too obvious.

18. The Nine Mile Walk by Harry Kemelman

Contains some of the best armchair detective stories ever written after the Golden Age of Detective fiction.

19. Game Without Rules by Michael Gilbert

Considered by critics as the second best volume of spy stories ever written (next only to Somerset Maugham's Ashenden), this collection contains 11 stories featuring the secret agents Samuel Behrens and Daniel Joseph Calder.

20. Dr. Sam Johnson, Detector by Lillian de la Torre

One of the earliest series of historical detective stories, the stories are more or less based on the actual crimes of the 18th century (solved or unsolved), with a new solution proposed by the author as befits the crime and the period in which it occurred.

21. Limehouse Nights by Thomas Burke

None of the 14 tales of Oriental passion and subtle murder are anywhere near to his masterpiece “The Hands of Mr. Ottermole”.

22. The Unique Hamlet – Vincent Starrett

A Holmes Pastiche, considered to be the best of its kind by many critics, can be found in many Sherlockian anthologies. 

Crippen and Landru Titles Read: 

1. Hildegarde Withers: Uncollected Riddles by Stuart Palmer

2. The Sedgemoor Strangler & Other Stories of Crime by Peter Lovesey

3. The Couple Next Door: Collected Short Mysteries by Margaret Millar

4. Nine Sons by Wendy Hornsby

5. Suitable For Hanging by Margaret Maron
6. Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose by Peter Lovesey
7. The Sleuth of Baghdad: The Inspector Chafik Stories by Charles B Child
8. The Pleasant Assassin and Other Cases of Dr. Basil Willing by Helen Mccloy
9. Mom, The Detective - The Complete Mom Stories by James Yaffe
10. The Duel Of Shadows: The Extraordinary Cases of Barnabas Hildreth by Vincent Cornier

11. The Minerva Club, The Department of Patterns, and Others by Victor Canning

12. The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries from Roger Sheringham's Casebook byAnthony Berkeley

13. The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from Inspector Cockrill's Casebook by Christianna Brand
14. Strangers in Town: Three Newly Discovered Mysteries by Ross Macdonald
15. Appleby Talks About Crime by Michael Innes
16. The Ripper of Storyville and Other Ben Snow Stories by Edward D Hoch
17. The Detections of Francis Quarles by Julian Symons
18. Who Killed Father christmas and Other Unreasonable Demises by Patricia Moyes
19. The Battles of Jericho by Hugh Pentecost
20. Murder Ancient & Modern by Edward Marston

And The Honors Go To:

Best Queen’s Quorum title from the modern era: The Nine Mile Walk

Best Queen’s Quorum title from the earlier times: The Achievements of Luther Trant

Queen’s Quorum Honorable Mention: Guys and Dolls

Best Crippen & Landru title read: The Detections of Francis Quarles

Find of the Year: Short Stories of Fredric Brown & Cornell Woolrich/William Irish

Authors with the maximum number of stories featured: Fredric Brown & Edward D. Hoch (5 stories each)

Best Anthology: Four and Twenty Bloodhounds (the 3rd MWA anthology edited by Anthony Boucher)

Best Single Author Collection: Homicide Sanitarium by Fredric Brown

Most Hard to Find Queen’s Quorum titles (still searching for them):

· Anthony Wynne’s Sinners Go Secretly

· G.D.H & Margaret Cole’s Superintendent Wilson’s Holiday

· Henry Wade’s Policeman’s Lot

· Stuart Palmer’s The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers

Plan for the Year 2013:

Pretty much the same as last year’s – 20 Queen Quorum titles, 20 Crippen & Landru titles and 60 stories from the modern or contemporary authors.

Wish You All A Very Happy New Year!

The Detections of Francis Quarles - Julian Symons

This is the third collection of stories featuring the private detective Francis Quarles after ‘Murder! Murder!’ (21 stories) & ‘Francis Quarles Investigates’ (15 stories) and features 42 short-short stories which were all originally written for London’s Evening Standard newspaper. Nothing much is known or written about the detective himself and whatever is known is given by the author as a preface in the first collection. Quarles’s investigations usually involve murder in its various forms. To Quote him, “In every unsolved crime there is always a human error, a clue which, if we could understand its meaning, would point straight to the murderer.” And every single story in this volume adheres to this great maxim and the reader always has the clues right in front of him to solve it by himself. In fact, the whole book can be considered as a collection of ‘five-minute solve it yourself’ mysteries. And it is certainly one of the best short story collections that I’ve read this year!

1.   Red Rum Means Murder

The title of the story itself serves as the clue. Quarles investigates the murder of a blackmailer who also happens to be a bookseller. Means of collecting the money: send a few first editions and collect exorbitant prices on them! The book titles in some way points to the name of the victim. In this case, Quarles has a list of 5 first editions and he needs to figure out who among the 4 eligible buyers it was intended for to arrive at the murderer.

2.   Murder – But How Was It Done?

A locked room mystery in only 4 pages! Magerson has just returned from South America with new varieties of snakes & scorpions and is staying in a hotel. He is to address an international conference on his findings but with just 2 hours to go for the conference, he is found dead inside a locked bathroom. Cause of death: puncture mark on the chest from a poison dart which is found under the body. No windows, no other means of opening and the dart wasn’t fired through the keyhole. How was the dart fired inside the locked bathroom?

3.   Airborne With A Borgia

Murder during a flight to Rome. Mr. Cogan, who is the director of that airline, is always given his favorite seat whenever he flies. And he has made a last minute decision to take this flight and on board the flight are several of his enemies who would love to see him dead. Quarles’s has been keeping a close eye on him in the mirror but he is soon found dead after having his dinner(death due to poison) without anybody having approached him except for the staff and the staff know that the food wasn’t poisoned. Quarles unmasks a new device which could be used to kill a person effectively.

4.   The Pepoli Case

Death on board a ship and the disappearance of both the victim and the murderer. Robert Peopli is married to Clarissa and they have invited Aunt Agatha and Quarles for their party. The aunt doesn’t like Robert but there is even worse a character amidst them in the form of Edward Pepoli (Robert’s cousin), who has already served two prison sentences. Three weeks later, Robert & Clarissa are off on a three weeks cruise and Clarissa has invited the aunt to join her! The aunt suspects that Edward is also on the ship and suspects foul play. Sure enough, she is a witness to a fight in the night – the two men who look exactly like Robert & Edward. She sees Edward getting the better of Robert and pushing him overboard but when she brings in help, Edward is nowhere to be seen on the ship and there’s no sign of the dead body of Robert!

5.   The Impossible Theft

An impossible crime in front of numerous witnesses. Gregory is a private detective who has been hired to guard the very valuable rope of pearls which Raven is presenting to his daughter on the occasion of her engagement. On the eve of the function, Gregory receives a threat saying that the pearls will disappear at 10.15. He invites Quarles to lend him extra support. During the function, Gregory is standing guard in front of the jewel case, he opens the case and hands it over to the Jewel evaluator who confirms that it’s real, it’s passed from hand to hand (a dozen individuals) who are standing in a circle around the host and is given back to Gregory who again locks it in the case. Then there is a distraction and a few minutes later when the case is opened again, the pearl set is found to be made of paste. All the ones who handled the pearl set including the host and the detective is searched but they find no sign of the original!

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!