The Queen's Awards 8th Series

 The Queen's Awards 8th Series (1953) by Ellery Queen (ed)

This collection contains the winners of the Eighth Annual Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine "Detective" Short-Story Contest (quotations mine). These are supposedly the "blue ribbon mysteries of the season." And I have to say that these are the sorriest bunch of short stories I've read from any Queen collection. There are crimes involved in nearly all of these, but a large portion are not anything that I would call detective. For one thing, the word "detective" sortof implies that there will actually be a detective detecting. And there are definitely not nearly as many detectives as there are stories in the collection. The best of the bunch are "Miss Paisley's Cat," "High Court," and "Heaven Can Wait"--but that isn't saying a whole lot. ★★ for the collection--just. 

"My Brother Down There" by Steve Frazee: The story of a sheriff, his posse, and a trigger-happy civilian on a manhunt for four dangerous escaped criminals in the Rocky Mountains. [two shot]

"Miss Paisley's Cat" by Roy Vickers: When the angry bookie downstairs kills her beloved cat, the elderly Miss Paisley wants to kill him. And when he's found dead the next day she's sure she did. But the police won't believe her. [one stabbed]

"If a Body..." by A. H. Z. Carr: A disgruntled husband who believes his wife has played him false, decides to get rid of all his troubles at once... [one shot]

"The Betrayers" by Stanley Ellin: A man falls in love with his next door neighbor and when he thinks her abusive husband has killed her, he's willing to risk everything to avenger her. [one stabbed]

"The Quality of Mercy" by Eleazar Lipsky: When a distraught father nearly kills the nun he believes is keeping him from his daughter, the nun's mercy is much different than the court's.

"The Stroke of Thirteen" by Lillian de la Torre: Dr. Samuel Johnson works to clear a man who has been found guilty of treason. The soldier's only alibi? A clock that struck thirteen.... [one hanged]

"Laugh It Off" by Charlotte Armstrong: A young woman has a reputation for making up suspenseful events. When George meets her for the first time, she swears that a man is following her and out to kill her. Her other friends tell him to ignore it--that it's how she gets her laughs, but she seems so very scared. Is it for real this time? 

"All of God's Children Got Shoes" by Howard Schoenfeld: A couple of tramps making their way south in the boxcars. One of them wants a pair of shoes--really bad.

"High Court" by Thomas Kyd: One of the passengers on an overnight flight to England is killed. An overbearing, snobbish man appoints himself the investigator. To his credit, he does find an interesting way to flush out the killer.  [one hit on head]

"Born Killer" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis: A dark story that explains a young man's fondness for suicide missions.. [one natural; one shot]

"On the Brink" by James Yaffe: Miss Hannah Aaronson has always been fond of her nephew. When he has a falling out with his father that turns bad enough for murder will she be able to save him from himself? [one natural]

"The Town Without a Straight Man" by Will Stanton: A small town's penchant for telling tall tales isn't quite as benign as it may seem.

"Mrrrar!" by Edgar Pangborn: Told from Timmy the cat's perspective...Timmy is the only witness to murder. But who is he going to tell? 

"The Silver Spurs" by E. C. Witham: A desperately pathetic story of a woman who drives her husband to drink...and possibly to murder. [one shot; one stabbed]

"The Panther" by Browning Norton: Some dark thing is stealing chickens and lambs at night. When the village remembers that a panther got loose from a traveling circus some time back, they believe they know what's getting their livestock. Bill and Bob Coulter determine to bring the panther down. [one shot]

"Heaven Can Wait" by G. B. Gilford: A mystery writer is murdered--stabbed in the back--and when he gets to the Pearly Gates, he wants to know who did it. When (to his surprise) they can't tell him, he's miserable. He just has to know and won't be happy till he does--well, Heaven can't have any misery hanging about, so he's sent back to earth to solve his own murder. [one stabbed]

First line (1st story): Now there were three left.

Last line (last story): "Didn't you know that all mystery writers go to Heaven?"