Ellery Queen ☆ 4 Read
The Best of Suspense
Finally I have finished this book! It's over 600 pages, not sure why Goodreads doesn't have this edition.
Some of the stories were downright laughable, however, one made me think: This Is Death by Donald E. Westlake. If you think you have an idea of what happens after we shed the mortal coil, this story suggests we have no clue. Mystery Thrillers Sometimes it's just got to be a mystery. Nothing else will do.
I blame my brother, he was the mystery buff in the family. I was into sci-fi and horror, and while I did read mysteries, my taste generally ran to those you'd find in the pages of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Now, Mike was a devotee of Ellery Queen. Still, as time went by it was inevitable that I check out what he was reading, and lo, I enjoyed it.
Then years later I read a blurb from Stephen King to the effect of, Ellery Queen's is the best mystery magazine in the world, bar none. And it still is; I subscribed to it a while on my Kindle and really enjoyed it. I think the only reason I stopped getting it was that I was just getting too darned many magazines and I had to pare some down. And then a trip to the bookstore resulted in this volume coming home…
First thing, it's BIG. 640+ pages despite what the info in Goodreads says. So this is not one you're going to reading in one sitting, unless you're Evelyn Wood (and if you get that reference, good on ya.) But you shouldn't read it that fast anyway. Second, like any collection of this size, the quality is a little uneven. But even the not-quite-as-good stories are still good, and the really good ones are really, really good. And the price was right; while this volume was built and sold many years ago, it's still pretty available, and usually for a few bucks. Wow! What's not to like?
Highlights/lowlights: Sad to say that the last story by the usually hugely entertaining Bill Pronzini was an equally huge letdown…not a good note on which to end this book. Still, Brian Garfield's Hunting Accident more than compensates. Then there some of John Ball's Virgil Tibbs stories (excellent procedurals!) and a classic from Erle Stanley Gardner NOT featuring Perry Mason, thank you. Raffles makes a couple of appearances—always a welcome guest—and several short shorts that really chill the blood. And Donald Westlake's sorta-ghost story is simply awesome...how it didn't end up in Hitchcock's, I have no idea. Dortmunder is not involved, but the story is awesome nonetheless.
But. Best of all is an obscure piece by an equally obscure name: Robert Twohy. It's called Installment Past Due (story of my life, surely) and it is a major hoot. This one story is all by itself worth the price of admission. A total masterpiece.
Recommended! Mystery Thrillers
