IN PRAISE OF EQMM

by Steven Steinbock

We interrupt our regularly scheduled list of lucky thirteen mystery anthologies to bring you this tribute, this commendation, this laudatory rant. It’s my love letter to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. For sixty-six years, Fred (Dannay), then Eleanor (Sullivan) and now Janet (Hutchings) gather the best short mystery and crime stories out there. The newsstands were once packed with pulp magazines like Black Mask, Dime Detective, and Detective Fiction Weekly. Many of these, like The Shadow and Detective Story Magazine, evolved into digest sized magazines in the 1940s.

I don’t know if EQMM was the first, but when it began publication in 1941, it set a new standard. Early on Dannay got hold of stories by Cornell Woolrich, M. Somerset Maugham, Theodore Dreiser, William Faulkner, James Hilton, Mark Twain, and even Abraham Lincoln! Soon, Queen was joined by digests like The Saint Mystery Magazine, Rex Stout’s Mystery Monthly, Charlie Chan Mystery Magazine, Espionage, The Mysterious Traveler, and Manhunt. Only Queen and her sister, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (founded in 1956) are still around.

Last week I told you about Anthony Boucher’s Four-&-Twenty Bloodhounds. At the time, I neglected to share with you this short selection from Boucher’s foreword:

“Before passing you on to the stories themselves, I must pay tribute to a phenomenon without which the modern American detective short story could hardly have reached its present stage of development. A glance at the copyright acknowledgements will show you how many of the stories in this volume were first published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.”

Boucher was right. Almost a third of the stories in his collection were first printed in EQMM, and a survey of Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Agatha, and every other mystery award shows that EQMM is the most enduring source of winning stories.

A few days ago, I noted in this blog that the latest issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (August 2007) contains a story by our very own Melodie Johnson Howe. “The Good Daughter” is a powerful, almost devastating story of–I guess exploitation is the best way to say it. Diana Poole, Melodie’s actress-sleuth, is attending a Hollywood sweet-sixteen party for her agent’s daughter. While there, Diana witnesses appalling behavior on the part of someone who should know better, with results that are triply tragic.

In addition to Melodie’s story, the issue is packed with good stories. The opener is Jeffery Deaver’s “Making Amends,” a sort of twisted take on the TV show “My Name is Earl.” I love Deaver’s short stories. I’ve been following his novels since the early 1990s, long before Lincoln Rhyme was born. (Hey, another Lincoln!) His hero was a high-heels and spandex investigative journalist (independent) named “Rune.” But that’s another story. Deaver’s short stories are standalone tales noted for their well-drawn characters and plotlines with cleverly twisted endings. (Two collections of his stories have been published, aptly titled Twisted (2003) and More Twisted (2006).

Also in the issue, just in time for summer, several stories have travel themes, with Americans traveling abroad. Edward Marston takes an American couple to Stratford just before the outbreak of the Second World War in “The Shakespeare Express.” Ed Hoch’s story has his international couriers, Stanton and Ives, face culture shock – and more – while delivering a package to a doctor living in a remote village several hours outside Beijing in “China Blues.” The Department of First Stories features a tale of exotic adventure as travel writer Eugenia Clarke visits Morocco and finds herself in a moral quandary. Other authors whose stories are included in the issue are Jeremiah Healy, Peter Turnbull, Judith Cutler, and more. The Passport to Crime story is a short, twisted tale of murder Norwegian style by Richard Macker (pseud. for Reidar Thomassen).

One notable change in the August issue: EQMM has been featuring a “Blog Bytes” column written by Ed Gorman. Well, Ed has passed the baton on to Bill Crider, who is a good writer and an all-around good guy. Bill’s first novel, Too Late to Die (1986) won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. He’s written a truckload of short stories, many of which have hauled in award nominations and prizes. Most recently, his story “Cranked” from the anthology Damn Near Dead (Busted Flush Press) was nominated for an Edgar. Be sure to check out Bill’s column, as well as his blog.

If you have read this far, chances are you’re already a subscriber of EQMM and her sister, AHMM. Might I suggest that you switch off your computer, fix yourself a glass of your favorite tea, sherry, or single malt and sit yourself down, open the magazine, and start anywhere.

Next week I’ll be back with a look at two more of my favorite anthologies: The Locked Room Reader edited by Hans S. Santesson (1968), and The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes edited by Hugh Greene (1970).