Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (Jan/Feb) 2021

by Steve Hockensmith

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

Unknown Binding

About the author

Steve Hockensmith is the author of the New York Times bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls and several other novels, including the Edgar Award finalist Holmes on the Range. He lives in Alameda, California.

Reviews

[John Loyd]

2 • The Gloria Scott • 9 pages by Terence Faherty
Good+. A friend asks Sherlock Holmes to find his sister who has run off. He finds her, but takes his time deciding whether to inform on her.

11 • The Dark Oblivion • 6 pages by Cornell Woolrich
OK/Fair. Girl checks into a hotel. Flashback to the doctor's office where she was given a bad prognosis.

17 • No Legacy So Rich • 14 pages by Anna Scotti
Very Good. Cam (in witness protection) has a job at a highly regarded middle school. Staying late in the library she leaves when three students unexpectedly arrive. Having forgot her phone she returns to find one a dead body.

31 • A Dangerous Encounter • 6 pages by Tom Tolnay
OK. Kenneth leaves a NewYear's Eve party early. He's followed by Jill who is giving off mixed messages. The part about the watercolor painting was a nice touch.

39 • The Touffard Affair • 10 pages by Marcel Ayme
OK. Farcical. O'Dubois sees three items under a tree, intuition tells him of a top hat stuck in the tree. From the newspaper he learns that a billionaire and his entire family except one have been murdered. More intuition tells him the missing family member is dead inside a kiosk.

49 • Pink Squirrel • 8 pages by Nick Mamatas
OK. A grandma and two children come into Williams 1900 bar & grill. She orders a pink squirrel at the bar. In the course of conversation she brings up Lithuania and it's situation when they were invaded by the Nazis. It may be an analogy to the current situation.

57 • The Five Orange Pipes • 6 pages by Josh Pachter
OK. Ellery Queen poses a problem for the rest of the club. Not a whodunit but a how was it done.

63 • The Changing Room • 9 pages by Sheila Kohler
Good. Jeanne gets a new job as a nanny. First impression of Sandra is that she's a little snooty, but I think they'll become close.

72 • Stray • 10 pages by Ken Linn
Good/OK. Ike is terrified that his celebratory firing of a gun may have shot the stray that killed a young girl a mile away.

82 • The Interpreter and the Killer • 9 pages by Jeff Soloway
Good+. Maria is hired to interpret the testimony of a killer giving evidence against an organized crime boss. Several witnesses have already been silenced.

91 • That Poor Woman • 2 pages by Barb Goffman
OK+. A boy shot his want-to-be girlfriend, Gina's daughter and Gina. Gina was the only survivor, the juvenile got off lightly. Gina who is in favor of rehabilitation sees none.

93 • Pick up Sticks • 12 pages by Bill Pronzini
Good/VG. Quincannon and Sabina investigate a locked room mystery. twenty-thousand dollar insurance seemed a pittance, until I realized this was a period story with the mention of hansom cab. This is a series character so I could have remembered he's in the olden west.

105 • The Two Gentleman Guests • 7 pages by Susan Dunlap
OK/Good. A has been resort town has only two guests now. The taxi driver is disappointed because the men had a car. Still Armando is trying to drum up business with stories of how he knows the best routes and has familiarity with the roads.

112 • Analogue • 7 pages by Rob Osler
Good/OK. A new CEO is brought in to turn the company around which he is doing, but gets disgruntled emails from Analogue.

119 • Boo Radley College Prep • 14 pages by Karen Harrington
VG/Excellent. Tony and his mom were forced to move from Houston because of floods. Tony's main goal now is to stay away from his uncle. He meets a guy in a spooky old house. Radley gives him some chores. We come in when Tony gets picked up by the police because he's hanging out with the wrong friends.

133 • The Lemonade Stand • 20 pages by Scott Loring Sanders
VG/Good. Dani gets kidnapped from a lemonade stand. Uncle Box gets the details from Shell five minutes later and is able to catch the pedophile. Walt wants revenge on the guy who threatened this daughter.

153 • The Shadow of the New • 15 pages by Mike Adamson
Good+. A doctor has seen a rash of deaths from newfangled machinery obscuring the identity of the victims. He comes to Sherlock Holmes because going through the chain of command has gotten him nowhere.

168 • Curious Incidents • 23 pages by Steve Hockensmith
Good/vg. Old west detective and writer brothers are lured a hundred miles north to solve the case of a phantom puma and Jesse who went missing. When they get there they find that Ann's letter had taken some liberty with the truth. They stick around to solve the case anyway.

[Steve]

CONTENTS


◾Fiction:

▪️"The Gloria Scott" - Terence Faherty
▪️"The Dark Oblivion" - Cornell Woolrich
▪️"No Legacy So Rich" - Anna Scotti
▪️"A Dangerous Encounter" - Tom Tolnay
▪️"The Touffard Affair" - Marcel Aymé [Passport to Crime]
▪️"Pink Squirrel" - Nick Mamatas
▪️"The Five Orange Pipes" - Josh Pachter
▪️"The Changing Room" - Sheila Kohler
▪️"Stray" - Ken Linn [Department of First Stories]
▪️"The Interpreter and the Killer" - Jeff Soloway [Black Mask]
▪️"That Poor Woman" - Barb Goffman
▪️"Pick Up Sticks" - Bill Pronzini
▪️"The Two Gentlemen Guests" - Susan Dunlap
▪️"Analogue" - Rob Osler [Department of First Stories]
▪️"Boo Radley College Prep" - Karen Harrington
▪️"The Lemonade Stand" - Scott Loring Sanders
▪️"The Shadow of the New" - Mike Adamson
▪️"Curious Incidents" - Steve Hockensmith


◾Poetry:

▪️"Watson's Plane" - Ruth Berman


◾Non-fiction:

▪️"The Jury Box" - Steve Steinbock
▪️"Blog Bytes" - Kristopher Zgorski
▪️"Stranger Than Fiction: 'He Takes My Mind from Better Things': " Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Reluctant Author"'" - Dean Jobb



The annual EQMM January/February issue usually includes some stories with one of two themes, either relating to the December and January holidays or to Sherlock Holmes, the fictional master detective whose birthday is regarded as being in January. There are several entries in this issue relating to Holmes.

Josh Pachter's "The Five Orange Pipes" derives its punning title from the Holmes story "The Five Orange Pips." This is one of a series by Pachter of pastiches of Ellery Queen puzzles, which make no serious attempt to be actual stories. I dislike the series in general and am appalled that this entry is an obvious case of plagiarism, so obvious that I can not help thinking that the editor must have been aware and considered this acceptable. Readers who do not recognize the source can Google "brain-teaser broken glass.".

There are two stories and a poem featuring Holmes himself. Terence Faherty has been publishing an annual Holmes story in EQMM. I believe that most years, including this one, the stories begin as parodies with jokes about Watson's writing up of Holmes' adventures and then segue into becoming a pastiche. This year's tale is "The Gloria Scott," telling of Holmes' youthful success as an actor on stage.

In Mike Adamson's "The Shadow of the New," a sinister opponent of Holmes first comes to Holmes' attention. People are being killed in what appear to be accidents but might be something else. A child has disappeared. Holmes and Watson must take action.

The poem is "Watson's Plane" by Ruth Berman. Not a mystery, just a recounting of a development in the lives of Holmes and Watson.

Two other stories owe clear debts to the Holmes tales. Marcel Aymé's story "The Touffard Affair," originally written in French in 1934, features "O'Dubois, the prince of detectives," whom the translator, Anne Bru, refers to as "the French Sherlock Holmes." I believe that M. Aymé's tongue was rather deep in his cheek when this was written.

Steve Hockensmith has a series of Holmes-inspired comic Western detective mysteries featuring the Amlingmeyer Brothers, Otto and Gustav, known respectively as "Big Red" and "Old Red." The entry in this issue has the well-chosen title "Curious Incidents." The brothers receive a letter telling of mysterious happenings, including a disappearance, on an isolated ranch. They go to the ranch, where things are not exactly as they have been represented.

There are no Christmas stories in this issue, but there is a good, chilling New Year's tale, "A Dangerous Encounter" by Tom Tolnay. A man and woman, strangers to each other, leave a New Year's Eve party at the same time. They begin to talk, and soon they both go to the woman's apartment. The woman begins to act strangely; the man, who narrates the story, becomes uneasy. I do like this story but I am not sure that I understand the ending.

There is another story in this issue also set on a holiday, but not a winter one. "Stray" by Ken Linn begins with an incident on July 4th. A man, alone on the holiday, celebrates by shooting his newly acquired gun into the air. The next day he is told that a nine year old child not far from where he was living was hit by what seemed to be a stray bullet at about that time. She subsequently dies. Tormented by anxiety about being caught, he moves away and begins to make a new life. He is still tormented, though, by other feelings. This is one of the two "first stories" in this issue, a first professional sale. I think this is excellent, particularly as a first story.

The other "first story" is Rob Osler's "Analogue," in which the head of a "global tech company" begins receiving frequent emails from an unknown person who accuses him of misdeeds. I thought this was rather obvious.

There is one more story here put in a specially designated category. Jeff Soloway's "The Interpreter and the Killer" is labeled as a "Black Mask" story, meaning that it is the kind of hard-boiled tale that used to appear in the old Black Mask pulp magazine. A female court interpreter is assigned to translate the testimony of a Spanish-speaking thug accused of murder, whose testimony might implicate a major gang boss.

An author whose work would often have been perfect for Black Mask appears here with a very different kind of story. Cornell Woolrich, who died in 1968, has a recently discovered previously unpublished story, "The Dark Oblivion," set in 1900. A newly engaged woman is making arrangements to have a very special dinner with her fiancé. She has discovered something that changes the nature of the dinner and of the relationship. A very dark tale of a surprising nature.

Barb Goffman has a story only two pages long, "That Poor Woman." A woman's life was destroyed by a young killer who only received a ten year sentence. Now he is free, and shows no signs of repentance.

Susan Dunlap's story "The Two Gentlemen Guests" also tells of an incident in the past which continues to shape the course of lives. Wealthy men from the United States are staying at a resort in a Spanish-speaking country, where few tourists now visit.

"No Legacy So Rich" is an entry in Anna Scotti's series about a former librarian now in a witness protection program who is constantly forced to change jobs - and identities. Here she is an aide in a private prep school. A boy is murdered, and the main character becomes involved.

There is one other series story, "Pick Up Sticks" by Bill Pronzini, part of a series featuring early Twentieth Century San Francisco detective partners John Quincannon and Sabina Carpenter. A man has been found shot and near death in a locked room. His dying words are, "Pick up sticks." Suicide, of course...or perhaps not. There are three possible suspects, if one can explain how the dead man was shot in a locked room. But what does his dying message mean?

In "Pink Squirrel" by Nick Mamatas, an aging woman accompanied by two children sits down at a restaurant bar one afternoon. The woman orders a pink squirrel, an alcoholic drink that includes ice cream. In the course of their conversation, the bartender learns that his customers have just come from the woman's husband's funeral, that his death had been "untimely," that the children are her grandchildren, that she originally lived in Lithuania, and that the family business is "restaurant insurance" - of a special kind. This is an engagingly odd story, in which conversations take unexpected slants.

Another aging European woman is the central character in "The Changing Room" by Sheila Kohler. Jeanne is a woman from France beginning a new position as a nanny for a spoiled female child of a well-to-do American family. Secrets quickly become one of the most important parts of the job: secrets that the little girl wants hidden from her parents, and secrets the parents want to remain hidden from the world. Jeanne is dedicated and intelligent and very discreet; she will be a fine nanny for this family.

"Boo Radley College Prep" is an unusual title for this issue's tale by Karen Harrington, but it does eventually seem appropriate. Boo Radley is the name of the shy, almost never seen neighbor in the book To Kill a Mockingbird; this is also what neighborhood people in this story call a reclusive man who lives there. The fifteen year old boy who narrates this story gets to know the man, and this changes both their lives in very different ways.

My favorite story in this issue is "The Lemonade Stand" by Scott Loring Sanders. This is also the most violent story in the magazine, on the border of becoming a (non-supernatural) horror story. This is narrated in alternate sections by a female college student, about twenty years old, and her uncle, a law officer. When the girl was ten and her sister was six, they started a lemonade stand. They were soon robbed and the younger sister was abducted. The girls' father made some disastrous decisions afterwards. This is tough and upsetting; it is also very good.

Dean Jobb's "Stranger Than Fiction" fact article, usually devoted to true crime material, is about Arthur Conan Doyle's development of the Sherlock Holmes tales. The article is titled "'He Takes My Mind from Better Things': 'Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Reluctant Author.'" The article appears to me to conclude with a peculiar error in the final sentence. Jobb states that in 1891, Conan Doyle wanted to end the Holmes series and planned to finish with Holmes' death. Conan Doyle's mother, Mary Doyle, convinced her son to end the series with Holmes still alive. After a short time, Conan Doyle once again decided to end the series and this time ignored his mother's advice and did have Holmes die. Eventually Conan Doyle resurrected the Holmes character and continued the series, not ending until 1927.

Jobb ends the article by stating that the continuing popularity of the Holmes stories is "all thanks to the wise counsel of Mary Doyle." But the article makes clear that Conan Doyle rejected his mother's "wise counsel," so it seems to me that Jobb concludes with an odd misstatement.

Kristopher Zgorski's "Blog Bytes" column is widening its scope. Four sources of material about mysteries are included in the discussion in this issue. One is a blog, one a podcast, one a YouTube show, and one a virtual reality show available on both Facebook and YouTube. The times, they are a-changin'!

"The Jury Box" book review column in the EQMM January/February issues usually includes a number of books relating to Sherlock Holmes. In this issue, there are two Holmes-related books and, surprisingly, a Holmes-related Netflix film. Of the books discussed in this column, reviewer Steve Steinbock gives three stars (out of a possible five) to two books, four stars to five books, and five stars to just one. The four star books are Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Fowler, Brittle Karma by Richard Helms, Three by D. A. Mishani (originally written in Hebrew!), Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas, and Riviera Gold by Laurie R. King; the last two are Holmes-related. The five star book is The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart.

There are interior illustrations by Jason C. Eckhardt and Mark Evan Walker. The somewhat better cover, showing Holmes, Watson, and a young woman, is by
Olga Popover/Shutterstock.com.

I think that a couple of the stories in this issue are quite poor. Also, I was able to deduce part or all of the solutions in five stories, which I think is too many. There are some stories that I do like, though, including the ones by Tom Tolnay (with reservations about the ending), Nick Mamatas, Sheila Kohler, Steve Hockensmith, and, especially, Karen Harrington, Ken Linn, and Scott Loring Sanders.

[Jeff Bleyle]

EQMM's annual Sherlock Holmes themed issue featuring pastiches and stories inspired by the great detective, but the non-Sherlock story Boo Radley College Prep by Karen Harrington is the story that made the biggest positive impression on this reader--an early candidate for 2021's best EQMM story.

[Hailong Hao]

第一篇是一个福尔摩斯同人小说，用对话体讲了个福尔摩斯遇到华生之前的事，解释了福尔摩斯后来为何会成为侦探，以及为何会有高超的化妆术。古典气息重，但剧情不复杂，算是粉丝向作品。

其中印象比较深刻的一句话是福尔摩斯和华生说： You may have found in your own line, Doctor, that the people most in need of you professionally are the least inclined to acknowledge you socially. 很多咨询服务类职业都是这样吧？包括福尔摩斯后来做的咨询侦探。

第二篇 The Dark Oblivion 是新近整理出来的一篇 Cornell Woolrich 的作品。大师行文流畅，有古典时期的英文风格（因为他就是那个时代的人），但故事本身没太多惊喜。

第三篇 No Legacy So Rich by Anna Scotti 讲了一个校园推理故事，但推理元素不多，破案线索过于简单，基本属于惊险小说。唯一可能的特点是，里面融入了很多典故，而我自己刚好对其中的人名字不是很熟，导致得不断查阅相关资料，读起来很累。

第四篇 The Jury Box by Steve Steinbock 是一篇书评，讲到了很多部小说和一个真实犯罪故事。其中，Sherry Thomas 的「福尔摩斯小姐系列」看着很有意思，打算有机会拜读。其实很早就听到过对 Sherry Thomas 小说的赞誉，但之前一直把她的Charlotte Holmes 和 Nacy Springer 的 Enola Holmes 相混淆，以至于一直兴趣缺缺。

第五篇 A Dangerous Encounter by Tom Tolnay 基本上是一个冷硬小说片段，想象空间很大，但更像是作者偷懒没有把故事说完。

第六篇 Blog Bytes by Kristopher Zgorski 推荐了几个YouTube 频道、播客及博客，按顺序如下：

1. Central Booking: https://youtube.com/channel/UC6XGUHQJ...
2. The Mystery Hour with Con Sweeney: https://youtube.com/channel/UCVdZi8NH...
3. Debbie Mack's Crime Cafe Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast...
4. Nordic Noire: https://nordicnoirblog.wordpress.com

第七篇 Stranger than Fiction by Dean Jobb 讲了一段福尔摩斯的作者柯南·道尔对自己笔下这个角色的复杂感情，以及由此衍生出来的轶事。 对于侦探小说爱好者来说，对于这段故事应该都不陌生，不过还是看到了一些之前没有的细节。

第八篇The Touffard Affair by Marcel Aymé (trans. Anne Bru) 创作于1934年，原文为法文，新近翻译成了英文。基本上是一个思考机器类的安乐椅侦探故事。一个大家族在庆祝百万富翁族长的生日宴会上（共 13 人），有 12 人当场遇害，看似唯一离开的那位最有嫌疑（熟读推理小说的人应该知道不可能），然后经过推理推测出一个非常令人震惊的凶手——这就是本文最大的亮点：看到凶手之前，小说平淡无奇；看到凶手之后，虽然觉得侦探有点想多了，但还是觉得非常精彩。

第九篇 Pink Squirrel by Nick Mamatas 是个典型的黑帮故事，不知道为什么，感觉短篇黑帮故事读起来永远都是一个感觉，一种模式。

第十篇 The Five Orange Pipes by Josh Pachter 是一个充满古典风情，包含了经典的「挑战读者」环节的 Ellery Queen 同人故事。Jeremy Brett 从百老汇演出后，回家发现，Robert 和 Ellery 死在了客厅地板上，窗户大开，自己的室友 Henry 不见了踪影。Henry 杀了 Robert 和 Ellery 并逃逸，但这不是重点，重点是——Robert 和 Ellery 是怎么死的？本来对于任何一个熟读当代推理小说的人来说，都不难猜到答案，但由于实在没想到在奎因故事里会有这种诡计，反而没猜出来，这应该也是本书亮点所在。

故事的标题应该是致敬福尔摩斯的《五个橘核》（The Five Orange Pips）。

第十一篇 The Changing Room by Sheila Kohler 是读到目前为止，本期文学性最强，语言最好的一篇。 与前面的所有小说不同，这一篇主体时态没有采用过去时，而是选用了历史现在时，可能是因为母语影响，总觉得用历史现在时讲故事更简洁流畅。

第十二篇 Stray by Ken Linn 故事不复杂，故事的发展也很容易猜到，但写得也算精彩，作为 Department of First Stories 的作品，算水平很高了。

第十三篇 The Interpreter and the Killer by Jeff Soloway 讲一个法庭翻译和黑帮污点证人的故事，成功地利用了常人的知识盲点设计了一个意外，一篇杰作。

第十四篇 The Poor Woman by Barb Goffman 一个关于复仇的断章。

第十五篇 Pick up Sticks by Bill Pronzini 又是一个古典故事，让人不禁感慨摄像头和 DNA 检测出现之前的年代，侦探小说家的发挥余地真大。

第十六篇 The Two Gentleman Guests by Susan Dunlap 又是一个老套路的复仇故事，很容易猜到进展和结局。

第十七篇 Analogue by Rob Osler 作为新人作品算不错了，虽然结局并不意外。

第十八篇 Boo Radley College Prep by Karen Harrington 本质算是一个刑满释放人员的赎罪故事，但如故事做说，真正的赎罪与原谅也许只存在于故事中。里面涉及不少典故，包括了不起的盖茨比，正好呼应到了今天读到的 Moby Dick 中的一段，这应该不是什么神奇现象，纯粹是因为经典谈论的人多，总是有巧合吧？

还有一个巧合是，昨天晚上刚好看了讲美国大学录取舞弊的纪录片 Operation Varsity Blues，不禁让我为故事主人公未来的大学之路捏了一把汗。

第十九篇 The Lemonade Stand by Scott Loring Sanders 开始以为会是一个美国版的坏小孩，之后发现可能的「坏小孩」只是作者的一个引子。故事说圆了，语言有些不太适应。

第二十篇 The Shadow of the New by Mike Adamson （未读完）是一篇福尔摩斯同人小说，有点读不下去。其实福尔摩斯的形象尚可，总觉得华生不像华生，像某人假装的华生。It's not Watson, it's more like someone pretending to be Watson.

第二十一篇 Curious Incidents by Steve Hockensmith 故事本身也就那么回事，比较有意思的是时间设定在柯南·道尔发表福尔摩斯《最后一案》和《巴斯克维尔的猎犬》之间，谈到了很多有可能出席福尔摩斯葬礼的人。

最后是一首诗 Watson's Plane by Ruth Berman 这首诗的写法感觉还是上个世纪的风格，不过本身也是讲福尔摩斯的诗歌，就不苛求什么了吧。

除了第二十篇之外，这期 #EQMM 基本算从头至尾读完了。不知道是不是纪念福尔摩斯生日的缘故，很多作品都是古典背景，感觉节奏有些慢。

[Paul]

A (excellent):

The Gloria Scott by Terence Faherty
The Dark Oblivion by Cornell Woolrich
No Legacy So Rich by Anna Scotti
Pink Squirrel by Nick Mamatas
The Five Orange Pipes by Josh Pachter
Pick Up Sticks by Bill Pronzini
The Shadow of the New by Mike Adamson
The Touffard Affair by Marcel Ayme

B (very good):

A Dangerous Encounter by Tom Tolnay
The Changing Room by Sheila Kohler
That Poor Woman by Barb Goffman
The Lemonade Stand by Scott Loring Sanders
Curious Incidents by Steve Hockensmith
Stray by Ken Linn
Analogue by Rob Osler
The Interpreter & the Killer by Jeff Soloway

C (average):

The Two Gentlemen Guests by Susan Dunlap
Boo Radley College Prep by Karen Harrington

[Dawn Teresa]

Annual Sherlock Holmes edition

Standouts:
"A Dangerous Encounter" by Tom Tolnay - nice psychological aspects.
"The Dark Oblivion" by Cornell Woolrich (a newly discovered story)
"Pick Up Sticks" by Bill Pronzini - part of a series; I like the characters and wish I had read the other pieces.
"Stray" by Ken Linn - A great first professional story with skilled characterization.
"Boo Radley College Prep" by Karen Harrington - I love the characters in this one!
"The Lemonade Stand" by Scott Loring Sanders - This was brutally chilling.
"The Shadow of the New" 15 pages by Mike Adamson - I liked how Holmes and Watson were brought into this one.
"Curious Incidents" by Steve Hockensmith - Hockensmith's humor is terrific, and his characters jump right off the page. For years, I've been intending to read his Holmes on the Range series. It's definitely time. I've checked it out from the library.