Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine March/April 2018 Vol. 151 Nos. 3 & 4 Whole Nos. 918 & 919

by Janet Hutchings (Editor ), Samantha Allen (Contributor ), G.M. Malliet (Contributor)

Mystery periodical

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2018

About the author

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine editor 1991-present.

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous issue that makes me glad I finally decided to start subscribing to EQMM again after years and years having gone by. The variety and quality of the tales are stellar and the 2.99 a month fee (if you subscribe through Kindle) is well worth it. I am now reading the January/February issue and, so far, that is equally outstanding.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

2 • Health and Safety • 24 pages by Liza Cody
Good/VG. Becky is walking home contemplating her catering business when a slight woman attempts to steal her phone and wallet. Fearing her very expensive knives she grabs one and lashes out.

26 • One Fall to a Finish • 19 pages by Chris Muessig, Steve Seder
Good/VG. Bud went to prison after beating up the wrestler and promoter responsible for his son's death. Seven years later he is out on parole and wanting more revenge. A real life movie producer has given him an advance for his story. With that money bud plans to ruin Smiley's business by hiring all his wrestlers away and creating a competing circuit.

45 • Rip Currents • 13 pages by Susan Perry Benson
Good+. Danna and Clyde are worried about the youngest son Joey who followed a girl out to Taos. They broke up soon after he moved to NM. He's been sleeping in the wilderness and to top it off Tina has gone missing and Joey is a person of interest. Danna has an idea to invest their income in a beachfront house and have Joey as the caretaker.

59 • The Ancient Mariner Syndrome • 10 pages by Peter Turnbull
Very Good/Good. Millicent runs into a stranger and confesses a twenty year old murder. The man goes straight to police who bring in Millicent and then the other people she mentioned. Interesting even though we were given the killer's name right up front.

69 • Victory Garden • 4 pages by G. M. Malliet
Good+. Set in 1942, Carol is cooking up her special chili for Silas.

73 • Sofee • 15 pages by David Dean
Very Good+. Blaise makes friends with Sophie. When Sophie misses school he suspects the mother and tattooed man of foul play. When he says so he is told she went to live with her dad. Blaise isn't convinced and sets out to prove it. In some respects Blaise is just a normal nine year old, but his questioning of authority and ability to judge people goes so much further.

88 • Cleopatran Cocktails • 3 pages by William Burton Mccormick
OK/Good. Janet keeps talking of records while in a museum where she is stealing a pearl necklace.

91 • The Avenging Angel • 10 pages by John Lantigua
Very Good. Willie is hired by an ex-gang member for protection against the avenging angel the gang will send to kill him. He has a name. Willie checks the guy out. Nice twist.

101 • The Last Man I Killed • 3 pages by Margaret Maron
Good+/humorous. Very funny in spite of the the subject matter. A teen girl describing how she killed several different people.

104 • Some Kind of Lonely • 11 pages by Samantha Allen
Good/OK. Millie is a widow. Darryl died of cancer. Cody and Lupe that run the motel accross the street are very friendly. Helping her move boxes to the shed and offering to do minor fixes around the house. Ten pages of setup for the action that takes place on the last page.

115 • Faceless Killer • 6 pages by Christine Poulson
Good+. Lorna can't distinguish faces. Going up to the cathedral tower she sees a figure leave and a few minutes later she and Richard discover a body. Very nice job integrating the mystery and exploring Lorna's character.

121 • The Submarine • 11 pages by Brendan DuBois
Very good/good. Sean lost his job in Boston in a reorganization. Now he's the new cop in the small town of Walker. He keeps thinking the chief is going to haze him, but the serious look on his face means probably not. At the end of his probationary period he is sent to investigate the report of a submarine in the nearby lake.

132 • A Young Man's Game • 3 pages by Josh Pachter
Good. Nate doesn't have any work today and goes to the park to find a game of chess with an old man in similar circumstances. They note how chess is a young man's game that they can't think as clearly any more. Over the game Arthur mentions his former job and how that's a young man's game as well.

135 • Bench Mark • 13 pages by Marilyn Todd
Good. Claudia notices a slave girl crying because her sister has gone missing. Claudia finds that five more slave girls are also missing. She gets her friend Marcus to help her investigate, knowing that no one else would care. Near where they were abducted are six new expensive marble benches. There is a connection, and the cost of the benches means the kidnapper must be rich.

148 • Rest in Peace • 6 pages by Thomas Przybilka, Gitta List
Good. Degen meets his friend for a hike in the woods. One of his recent cases is a woman in an apartment building died of natural causes. No one heard anything, and only reported it when the body started to smell. Degas finds out there was animosity between the woman and a neighbor and the woman probably did make a ruckus.

154 • The Wedding Ring • 22 pages by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Very Good. Serena takes her trip to Las Vegas without her boyfriend who dumped her. She is swept off her feet by Dylan. It was a scam. She notifies the police and does what she can about her credit cards and bank accounts. Detective Kree although not kind does really want to get this band, it must be a group it was so organized, of con artists. Serena keeps in contact with the detective and gets some clues to how they operate, and plans revenge.

176 • Tigers and Flies • 6 pages by Cath Staincliffe
Good. Dr. Chen and his assistants go to the prison to work on the organ donors from death row. The man they are working on was part of the illegal organ transplant network. Chen knows the demand far outweighs the supply.

182 • Reader, I Buried Them • 10 pages by Peter Lovesey
Good. Jeffrey is the gardener among the monks. He tells us about the monastery and the other monks. One day Father Ambrose tells them that there numbers are dwindling and it is time to move. Ambrose dies of an abrupt stomach virus. Alfred is named the new father. Six months later he announces that he has considered Ambrose's plan and has looked into moving them to a lighthouse off the Scotland shore. He also dies in a suspicious circumstance.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

CONTENTS


◾Fiction:

▪️"Health and Safety" - Liza Cody
▪️"One Fall to a Finish" - Chris Muessig & Steve Seder [Black Mask]
▪️"Rip Currents" - Susan Perry Benson
▪️"The Ancient Mariner Syndrome" - Peter Turnbull
▪️"Victory Garden" - G. M. Malliet
▪️"Sofee" - David Dean
▪️"Cleopatran Cocktails" - William Burton McCormick
▪️"The Avenging Angel" - John Lantigua
▪️"The Last Man I Killed" - Margaret Maron
▪️"Some Kind of Lonely" - Samantha Allen [Department of First Stories]
▪️"Faceless Killer" - Christine Poulson
▪️"The Submarine of Walker Lake" - Brendan DuBois
▪️"A Young Man's Game" - Josh Pachter
▪️"Bench Mark" - Marilyn Todd
▪️"Rest in Peace" - Thomas Przybilka & Gitta List [Passport to Crime]
▪️"The Wedding Ring" - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
▪️"Tigers and Flies" - Cath Staincliffe
▪️"Reader, I Buried Them" - Peter Lovesey


◾Poetry:

▪️"The Barroom Girl (1776)" - Jane Smith


◾Reviews:

▪️"The Jury Box" - Steve Steinbock
▪️"Stranger Than Fiction" - Dean Jobb


I am going to begin with a strong complaint about EQMM. I haven't checked their website, but I think that they should do a much better job at acknowledging deaths "in the family" in the magazine itself. They did this very well when Ed Hoch died, so I was surprised that there was no mention in 2016 of the deaths of long-time contributor, the excellent writer Clark Howard, or another frequent contributor who formerly had a column in EQMM, Ed Gorman. There is no "Blog Bytes" column in this issue because the author of that column, another very fine mystery author, Bill Crider, died recently. (I am writing this in March, 2018.) Crider added a lot to the magazine and I feel that his life and his large contribution to EQMM are worthy of being recognized in the magazine.

Now that I have complained about what isn't in this magazine, I will go on to what is.

I don't think that any of these stories are great but many are good. One of my favorites is this issue's "Department of First Stories" entry, "Some Kind of Lonely" by Samantha Allen. This would be a fine story in any case, but is even more noteworthy as Ms. Allen's first published story. An aging widow lives alone in a Texas farmhouse. A young couple take over a run-down hotel near her. This is a much more subtle tale than my description probably sounds.

In Liza Cody's "Health and Safety," a female caterer is walking down the street and realizes that the woman behind her is robbing her backpack. The caterer has a set of knives with her and uses one to cut the thief's arm. From that point on, the caterer's life becomes increasingly complicated. Cody makes you feel sympathy for both thieves and their victims.

Peter Lovesey has a good comic story about murders in a London monastery, "Reader, I Buried Them." This has an initial set-up rather similar to Donald Westlake's novel Brothers Keepers, but the story develops in a totally different way. The title is a variation of a well-known line from Jane Eyre, "Reader, I married him."

"Sofee" by David Dean is about a young boy who has a friend who disappears. He is certain that something terrible has happened to her and takes very drastic action to confirm his suspicions.

Willie Cuesta is a continuing character in a series by John Lantigua. Cuesta is a private detective in Miami. In "Avenging Angel," a former gang member from El Salvador hires him for protection against someone sent by the gang to kill anyone who tries to leave them.

"Rip Currents" by Susan Perry Benson tells of a family, mother, father, and recent college graduate son. The son's life lacks direction. Then the son's former girlfriend vanishes.

Peter Turnbull is represented by another story in his Hennessey and Yellich police procedural series, "The Ancient Mariner Syndrome." People with that syndrome, the story says, "tell total strangers their innermost secrets." In this story, a woman tells a stranger about a murder. I didn't like this quite as much as I usually do with this series.

Marilyn Todd also has a new series story, "Bench Mark." These stories are set in ancient Rome; the continuing characters are Claudia Seferius, a lovely and none too honest wine merchant, and Marcus Cornelius Orbilio, a patrician member of the security police. In this story, young female slaves are disappearing and it does not seem that they have run away.

The story "One Fall to a Finish" by Chris Muessig and Steve Seder is designated as a "Black Mask" story, meaning that it in the spirit of the old pulp magazine Black Mask, which usually would be a "hard-boiled" action story. "One Fall to a Finish" certainly fits. It is a story about wrestling and revenge. I found it confusing and unconvincing but I enjoyed it anyway.

Another story I found unconvincing is Brendan DuBois's "The Submarine of Walker Lake." I don't think that I have ever seen a bad story by DuBois but I do think that this isn't as good as usual. A new police officer in a small town is asked to look into reports of a submarine in a local lake.

In "Faceless Killer" by Christine Poulson, someone who has committed a murder is seen by the narrator fleeing from the crime scene. Unknown to the killer, the witness suffers from a condition in which she is unable to recognize people by their faces.

"The Wedding Ring" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is about a woman who has a shattering experience with a con man and is determined to keep him from getting away with it. I don't think that this is as good as Rusch's work customarily is.

The "Passport to Crime" story in this issue is "Rest in Peace" by Thomas Przybilka and Gitta List, translated from German by Mary Tannert.

Cath Staincliffe's story "Tigers and Flies" takes place in China, where replacement human organs are a very valuable commodity. Noted science fiction author Larry Niven wrote stories extremely similar to this back in the 1970's.

There are also four stories of three or four pages each. "Victory Garden" by G. M. Malliet is a clever wife/husband murder tale. "Cleopatran Cocktails" by William Burton McCormick is about a rather ordinary woman who decides to replace Cleopatra at the top of a certain list. "The Last Man I Killed" by Margaret Maron is about a woman who takes justice into her own hands...repeatedly. "A Young Man's Game" by Josh Pachter is about two aging men who meet, play chess, and discuss forced retirement; but what exactly did they retire from?

The poem, "The Barroom Girl (1776)" by Jane Smith celebrates prostitution in the 1770's.

In his column "The Jury Box," Steve Steinbock reviews eight books. One gets three stars; the other seven all get four stars each. Either Steve Steinbock had incredible luck picking books to review for this issue or he was in a very generous mood.

Interior illustrations are by Jason C. Eckhardt and Laurie Harden. There is one not very good cartoon; the signature looks to me like ""SCHWADRon." The excellent cover is a reprint of an old pulp magazine cover by Robert McGinnis; the magazine notes that McGinnis is still doing covers, at the age of ninety-one.

In my opinion, the best stories in this issue are those by Samantha Allen, Liza Cody, Susan Perry Benson, David Dean, John Lantigua, and Peter Lovesey.

A new feature, beginning in the next issue of EQMM, is announced in this issue. It will be written by Dean Jobb and will be titled "Stranger Than Fiction," and will mostly be about true crime. This evidently is replacing "Blog Bytes." And that takes me back to the beginning of this review.

[Jeff Bleyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was tempted to give this edition of EQMM a five star rating for David Dean's "Sofee" alone which is an early contender for best story of the year from this publication. This powerfully poignant tale is told from the point of view of a nine-year-old boy whose concern for the fate of his young friend Sophie leads him to take some desperate measures to prompt the local authorities into a more active investigation. Other highlights from this issue include:
--Chris Muessig & Steve Seder's "One Fall To A Finish" (this issue's Black Mask feature) where a recently paroled wrestler attempts to get revenge on the colleague he believes responsible for his son's death.
--Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "The Wedding Ring" where our female protagonist takes on a ring of con men who prey on the romantic dreams of emotionally vulnerable women.
--Peter Lovesey's "Reader, I Buried Them" set in a London monastery.

[Russ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall high quality as usual, but I had a hard time connecting with several of the stories in this issue. I couldn't get into some of them and DNF'd a few. An unfortunate common thread in this March/April issue was weak endings. There also seemed to be more stories than usual where the main character was more of a culprit than a sleuth.

My two favorite stories were "The Submarine of Walker Lake" (a clever, small-town police procedural) by Brendan DuBois and "Reader, I Buried Them," (a unique tale of monastic murder) by Peter Lovesey.

Looking forward to the next volume of stories, but for me this one was a miss.