The HOCH SHOP

by Leigh Lundin

I stopped at a book store off Orlando’s International Drive, called Best Used Books II. At leat I think it was II; it could have been 11, but I doubt it, considering the ongoing doom and gloom about reading in America. You’ll recognize the store without my having to describe it: shelves nearly buckling with odd assortments of books, encyclopedias, and National Geographics so old even your dentist doesn’t have them. Not only did some books not have bar codes or expanded ISBNs, some had no ISBNs at all.

The proprietor looked up from his book, gave a friendly wave, and invited me to ask if I needed assistance. He was a young guy with long hair, a clear sign of a literary insurrectionist. We would get along.

The aisles were so narrow only a supermodel could navigate them without getting dusty, but such stores don’t expect anorexic models to pop in. Near the ceiling, a pair of 2×4s spanned the tops of bookcases, holding up plastic tubs. Being a mystery writer, I cleverly concluded the roof must leak. I also deduced that as along as the books stayed dry, nobody particularly cared.

The only other visitors in the store were three generations of British femininity, a grandmother, mother, and daughter. The daughter spent quite a bit of time looking over R.L.Stine and Lemony Snicket. The grandmother camped in the mystery section. I regretted I didn’t have my gold-embossed Criminal Brief cards to hand out.

My goal– my professed goal– was to hunt down some of the collections recommended here by Criminal Brief participants. In that purpose my visit failed, but no visitor to a book store leaves empty-handed.

One book I snagged I’d suppose we’d call a reader, simply called Short Stories, published in 1948, compiled by a pair of NYC English teachers, Christ and Shostak. With names like Doyle, Poe, Futrelle, Chesterton, Saki, Carter Dickson, H.G.Wells, O.Henry, and Jack London, who could resist? Like modern readers, it contains the one Sherlock Holmes story I don’t like, The Speckled Band. (How many errors can YOU find?) In writing this article, I’m impressed to learn Christ and Shostak have continued publishing other books on short stories right through 2004, including More Short Stories and Introducing the Short Story.

Another thin volume was Jay Pearshall’s Mystery and Crime: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. For example,

• Where does the term private eye come from?
• What was Jack Webb’s badge number and what did choosing it have to do with baseball?
• What is the weight of the fattest detective?
• Who are Manford Lepofsky and Daniel Nathan?
• What master thief contracts to steal things of no value?¹

Indeed, their lists of nom de plumes suggests some authors might have been escaping labels they’d been burdened with. (Only the first if a female author.)

• Dora Amy Elles Dillon Turnbull (Patricia Wentworth)
• Hilary Aidan St. George Saunders (Francis Beeding)²
• Marie-Joseph Sue (Eugène Sue)
• Joyce Emerson Preston Muddock (Dick Donovan)

Another book was The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives (which drew heavily from Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazines). The collection is missing two of my favorite writers, Lindsey Davis and that guy who writes the Alan Treviscoe series, but it has P.C.Doherty, Ellis Peters, Steven Saylor, and, who else but Edward D. Hoch.

It didn’t seem to matter what anthology, collection, or omnibus I picked up, Ed Hoch’s name was in it. If he wasn’t a contributor, he appeared as a commentator, and if he wasn’t either of those, his name was on the cover as compilation editor.

Although I met Ed only this last spring when I sat beside his wife and him at dinner, I think I’ve always been aware of his writing. He’s been a part of the fabric of my sense of mystery since my earliest days. In our second week on-line, Ed wrote the master class.

There’s a reason he seems to be everywhere: Edward Hoch has written more than 900 stories. That’s a nine and two zeroes– more than– published. He has so many stories in Ellery Queen’s top ten, they compete with each other. As a s-l-o-w writer, I find that amazing to the point of being unfathomable.

It’s encouraging too, particularly in the face of those who say reading for pleasure– particularly fiction– is in decline. In one man alone, we have more than 900 examples of why reading can be good.

Attention: It had taken a while, but Criminal Brief was assaulted by spammers who wanted in our briefs. This has necessitated a change in policy intended to deter spammers, not our readers who want to comment. We do enjoy hearing from you!

¹ The answer, by the way, to the question of the thief who steals non-valuables can be found in Ed Hoch’s titular character in The Thefts of Nick Velvet (1978).

² Saunders shared the pseudonym with his writing partner, John Leslie Palmer.