Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine 32nd Anniversary Issue

 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine 32nd Anniversary Issue (March 1973) by Ellery Queen, ed 

Still making my way through the batches of the mystery magazine. You would think that a grand anniversary issue might pull out all the stops with quality, but we've got another mid-range issue with a mix of good and not-so-good. I love the Marsh story (even though I wish she hadn't killed off Timothy Bates). And other good mysteries include "How to Trap a Crook," "The Gold Medal Caper," and "Captain Leopold Gets Angry." The Ron Goulart story is fun--but not really much of a mystery and the rest are pretty meh. ★★★

"Chapter & Verse" by Ngaio Marsh: Timothy Bates, a New Zealand bookman who had become friends with Alleyn when the inspector was in that country, arrives in England with an old Bible with odd inscriptions. Alleyn is not at home & Bates tells Troy that he's got something a bit in Alleyn's line...but he dies in a fall from the church tower before Alleyn gets home.  [four fell to their death] (Can I just say that I'm a little disgruntled at how Marsh bumps off charming friends of Alleyn's--first Bunchy in Death in a White Tie and now Bates, who is a lovely little bookseller.)

"Bread Upon the Waters" by Robert Edward Eckels: A con man helps a younger man realize a greater return on his inheritance.

"The Biological Clock" by Isaac Asimov: Mario Gonzalo, one of the Black Widowers, relates a story about the murder of his sister. Her death was ascribed to junkies breaking into the house and he doesn't dispute that. He just wanted to talk about the odd feeling he had that day, but Henry, the waiter with a flair for detection, sees a different solution. [one stabbed] 

"Stand & Deliver" by John Dickson Carr: Carr's short essay on real-life highway men in 17th & 18th centuries.  [three hanged; one shot]

"The Cornish Mystery" by Agatha Christie: Mrs. Pengelley suspects that she might be a victim of steady poisoning. But she's not sure. She thinks it might be her husband who is doing the poisoning. But, again, she's not sure. She asks Poirot to investigate...and then she dies. Did her husband really poison her? [one poisoned]

"The Baby Spoon" by Patricia Highsmith: The story of an English professor, his wife, a starving poet (from a real garrett, no less), and a missing baby spoon.  [one hit on head]

"Lobster Shift" by R. R. Irvine: A newsman on the "lobster shift" (late night babysitting of the news tickertape machine--where journalists in the doghouse get sent) finds himself in the middle of a RFK-style assassination plot. [one shot]

"Thomas Wolfe & the Tombstone Mystery" by Theodore Mathieson: A historical mystery about Thomas Wolfe and the revenge that followed him--one tombstone at a time. [one  suicide; one complications from pneumonia]

"How to Trap a Crook" by Julian Symons: Francis Quarles provides a very simple example of how to trap a crook who dabbles in the arts.

"The Gold Medal Caper by Ron Goulart:  A really fun parody of tough guy, noir mysteries. Best first line I've read in a long time: It had probably been a mistake killing the engineer because now there was nobody to make the train go. [one shot; lots more deaths, but Goulart couldn't be bothered to give any of them names]

"Fifty Years After" by Anthony Gilbert: Vicky Gaye got herself in "trouble" in the Victorian era and then was found dead. It was labeled a suicide, but the housemaid and Vicky's former governess meet 50 years later and realize that Vicky didn't do it herself. [one poisoned; two natural]

"Captain Leopold Gets Angry" by Edward D. Hoch: Captain Leopold gets really angry when crooks kidnap children. But he gets even angrier when they kill old men who try to protect children. [one hit on head; one burned alive]

First line (1st story): When the telephone rang, Troy came in, sun-dazzled, from the garden to answer it, hoping it would be a call from London.

Last lines (last story): "No," Leopold agreed. "I guess it didn't."