Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Jan 1996

 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine January 1996

I put this volume of the EQMM down on my To Be Found list about 20 years ago or so. The primary reason? Because I had heard that a story titled "Lord Peter's Last Case" would be found here. I scanned through piles of EQMM in used books stores and at our annual community book sale. I periodically went on the hunt on Ebay. Finally, this year, I found a copy for sale online and spent some of my Christmas money to bring it home. Was it worth the wait? Well, sortof. It's a fun little story with cameos by various vintage detectives, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I started my hunt for LPW's last case. I do think Murray gets the characters right and the flavor of the Golden Age definitely comes through. But I could have used a real, honest-to-goodness mystery. Nearly all of the stories are good solid tales of mystery...except for the fancy mice (see below). ★★★ for the entire issue.

"The Silent Night Before Christmas" by Gene DeWeese: Watson is initially called upon by an old army comrade to help him bring a recalcitrant young woman back home to her grandmother. But they are unable to convince the girl to go home. When next Jeremiah Scanshun comes to 221B Baker Street it is to tell Watson and Holmes that she is dead--apparently beaten to death by the man she was living with. Holmes doesn't think it's so simple. [two beaten to death]

"A House Is Not a Home" by Martin Edwards: A shady property developer tries to oust an elderly woman from her home of 55 years--first by offering too much money and then by trying to scare her off. But she doesn't scare easily and, though Harry Devlin is hard at work to get the hired toughs to leave her alone, she has her own way of dealing with the matter. [two shot]

"Hoops" by S. J. Rozan: When a young black basketball player and his pregnant girlfriend are found shot and the gun in the young man's hand, the cops are sure they've got a murder-suicide on their hands. But Charles Lomax's friend is sure he didn't kill himself or his girlfriend and he wants private detective Smith to prove it...and get justice for Lomax. But justice doesn't always come in the expected package. [two shot]

"The Carer" by Ruth Rendell: Angela works as a carer--housesitting for her neighbors when they're away, feeding their animals, watering their plants, and sometimes baby sitting. She also snoops. She feels like she's never had a life of her own, so she lives vicariously through the letters and other documents she finds while alone in the houses. But snoops sometimes find more than they bargained for....[one stabbed]

"The Problem of the Enormous Owl" by Edward D. Hoch: How does a man wind up with owl feathers on his shirt and a crushed chest in the middle of an empty field? Doc Sam Hawthorne and his friend Sheriff Lens will have to figure it out--otherwise people might believe Gordon Cole was attacked by a giant owl.[one chest crushed]

"The Mighty Hunter" by Peter Lovesy: The case of the fancy mice. I really have nothing more to say about this one. It's not really a mystery at all. [one natural]

"The Prosecutor of DuPrey" by David Vaughn": When one man disrupts the cause of justice in the case of a murdered woman, another appoints himself prosecutor, judge, and executioner. [one natural; one strangled; one stabbed]

"Death Takes the Funicular" by Gunnar Staalsen: A short, but nicely done impossible crime about a man who is stabbed while alone on a cable-car type train traveling up a mountainside.  [one died on the operating table; one stabbed]

"Lord Peter's Last Case" by Stephen Murray: Lord Peter's case is not what I was expecting. The great detectives of the Golden and Silver Age are dying to die. Their creators have thoughtlessly died without providing for their creations' peaceful passage from life--which means they are destined to hang about forever. Lord Peter and Bulldog Drummond come up with the ideal solution. Okay--so, I don't understand one thing--why do the characters continue to age after their authors stop writing stories about them and/or die? If Dorothy L. Sayers didn't make Lord Peter age beyond, oh--let's just say 50 (I'm not going to sit down and do the math). Then it seems to me he ought to perpetually be 50. I can't see why he's a doddering old man and Harriet has a wig, hearing aid, and, apparently, no teeth. [7 deaths =one bee sting; two drowned; two beaten; one spontaneous combustion; one heart attack]

"Intent to Kill" by Monica Quill: A man comes up with the perfect plan to get rid of his wife...but then finds himself involved in someone else's plot. It's hard to look innocent when you've had the intent to kill for such a long time. [one strangled]

"Where the Snow Lay Dinted" by Reginald Hill: Superintendent Dalziel and the mystery of the statue that walked and the disappearing Boxing Day breakfast.