Ellery Queen’s Anthology. Volume 12, 1967

Editors’ Note

Dear Reader:

This is the 12th in EQMM’s series of original paperback anthologies, now published twice a year...

The Editors’ Note intended for this anthology was ready to be set in type when we read a review in the February 13, 1966 issue of “Book Week,” the Sunday literary supplement of the New York “Herald Tribune.” After “counting to ten” (slowly) we decided to write a new introduction for this anthology.

The review that so upset us was written by Kenneth Lamott on Helen MacInnes’ novel titled The Double Image. The first paragraph of the review read: “On occasion, being bed-bound for a day or trapped in the cabin of a transcontinental airliner, I have read a suspense novel. Except under such desperate circumstances, I haven’t found much entertainment in these books, for, with the exceptions of A Coffin for Demetrios [sic] and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, I can’t remember any that didn’t seem to be all machinery and travelogue, without any of the saving graces that can make novel-reading a positive pleasure rather than an anesthetic.”

The paragraph is, to say the least, distressing. Surely no one would quarrel with Mr. Lamott’s right to his own opinion — indeed, fans and aficionados the world over would fight for Mr. Lamott’s right to express his opinion. But valid questions do arise: Why should “Book Week” assign a suspense novel to a critic like Mr. Lamott who obviously has a deep antipathy and/or repugnance and/or aversion to the mystery story, who apparently has little (very little!) knowledge and/or appreciation of the origins and development of the genre, who is so far from the mainstream of the genre that he is literally “up the crick”? And why should Mr. Lamott, fully aware of his lack of sympathy for the form and his inadequate exposure to the best examples of the form, undertake to review such a book? Why didn’t he simply disqualify himself?

Mr. Lamott finished his review with this sentence: “In the end it struck me that Edmund Wilson’s cranky question, ‘Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?’ is still very much to the point.” Yes, we agree that Edmund Wilson’s “cranky question” should be asked — again and again and again — indeed, it cannot be asked too often. But we think it’s high time for the question to be answered. Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd? Millions of intelligent people throughout the world care. But Mr. Lamott (and, unfortunately, too many other critics who think they “go slumming” when they condescend to read and review the detective-mystery story) just don’t care about millions of intelligent people. Dear Reader, be kind to Mr. Lamott and his partners-in-crime — for they know not what they say.

As in the 11 preceding anthologies, we bring you another ’tec triangle of stories. The first angle is that perennial and universal favorite — adventures and memoirs of such world-famous series-detectives as

    Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe

    Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer

    Roy Vickers’ Department of Dead Ends

    Edgar Wallace’s The Three Just Men

    Ellery Queen’s E.Q.

The second angle also consists of detective and crime stories — not about series-characters, but written by such celebrated mystery mathematicians as

    Cornell Woolrich

    Francis Iles

    Rufus King

The third angle contains tales of detection, murder, and suspense by non-mystery authors who did not feel that “they stooped to conquer” — such literary figures as

    Phyllis Bentley

    Frank Swinnerton

    Quentin Reynolds

    Michael Arlen

    Paul Gallico

And now, for the 12th time in this series, we give you Ellery Queen’s ’Tec Theorem, the EQ equation:

    EQA = 2eq

or, Ellery Queen’s Anthology is always equal to 2 editorial qualifications: (1) every story must meet the twin standards of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine so conscientiously upheld these past 26 years — high quality or high professionalism of writing, and superior craftsmanship or superior originality in plotting; (2) not a single story in this book has ever appeared in any of the 43 anthologies previously edited by

Ellery Queen