A Choice of Murders Read online

  A Choice of Murders

  A Mystery Writers of America Classic Anthology

  Robert Arthur

  Lawrence G. Blochman

  Anthony Boucher

  Wenzell Brown

  Mignon G. Eberhardt

  Stanley Ellin

  Anthony Garve

  Anthony Gilbert

  Michael Gilbert

  Ryerson Johnson

  Helen Kasson

  James A. Kirch

  Ross Macdonald

  Margaret Manners

  Stephen Marlowe

  Margaret Millar

  Stuart Palmer

  John Basye Price

  Ellery Queen

  Marc Seymour

  Ruthven Todd

  Lawrence Treat

  Robert Turner

  Edited by

  Dorothy Salisbury Davis

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  * * *

  A CHOICE OF MURDERS

  Copyright © 1958, 2019 by Mystery Writers of America.

  A Mystery Writers of America Presents: MWA Classics Book published by arrangement with the authors

  Cover art vector images by Marie Nimrichterova

  Cover design by David Allan Kerber

  Editorial and layout by Stonehenge Editorial

  * * *

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Mystery Writers of America Presents: MWA Classics edition / May 2019

  All rights reserved.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors’ rights is appreciated.

  Mystery Writers of America gratefully acknowledges the permission granted to reproduce the copyrighted material in this book.

  Every effort has been made to locate the copyright holders or their heirs and assigns and to obtain their permission for the use of copyrighted material, and MWA would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

  For information contact: Mystery Writers of America, 1140 Broadway, Suite 1507, New York, NY 10001

  * * *

  “The Glass Bridge” by Robert Arthur. Copyright © 1957 by H. S. D. Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

  “The Girl with the Burgundy Lips” by Lawrence G. Blochman. Copyright 1952 by Lawrence G. Blochman. Reprinted by permission of the author

  “A Matter of Scholarship” by Anthony Boucher. Copyright © 1955 by Anthony Boucher. Reprinted by permission of the author and Willis Kingsley Wing

  “Mr. Nobody” by Wenzell Brown. Copyright © 1957 by Male. Reprinted by permission of the author. This story was first published in the magazine under the title “Anonymous Fame”;

  “Mr. Wickwire’s ‘Gun Moll’ ” by Mignon G. Eberhart. Copyright © 1956 by Mignon G. Eberhart. Reprinted by permission of the author

  “The Blessington Method” by Stanley Ellin. Copyright © 1956 by Davis Publications, Inc. (Formerly Mercury Publications, Inc.). Reprinted by permission of the author and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

  “The Man Who Wasn’t Scared” by Andrew Garve. Copyright © 1957 by Davis Publications, Inc. (Formerly Mercury Publications, Inc.). Reprinted by permission of the author and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

  “Blood Will Tell” by Anthony Gilbert. Copyright © 1958 by Mystery Writers of America, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author

  “Snap Shot” by Michael Gilbert. Copyright © 1957 by Davis Publications, Inc. (Formerly Mercury Publications, Inc.). Reprinted by permission of the author and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

  “The Night the Stairs Creaked” by Ryerson Johnson. Copyright © 1958 by Mystery Writers of America, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author

  “Nonie” by Helen Kasson. Copyright © 1958 by Mystery Writers of America Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author

  “The Stranger on Horseback” by James A. Kirch. Copyright © 1947 by James A. Kirch. Reprinted by permission of the author

  “Guilt-Edged Blonde” by Ross Macdonald. Copyright © 1953 by Flying Eagle Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and Flying Eagle Publications, Inc.

  “A Decidedly Innocent Man” by Margaret Manners. Copyright © 1957 by H. S. D. Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

  “The Shill” by Stephen Marlowe. Copyright © 1955 by Star Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc.

  “The Couple Next Door” by Margaret Millar. Copyright © 1954 by Davis Publications, Inc. (Formerly Mercury Publications, Inc.). Reprinted by permission of the author and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

  “Future Imperfect” by Stuart Palmer. Copyright © 1957 by Mystery Digest. Reprinted by permission of the author and Mystery Digest

  “Murder for Fine Art” by John Basye Price. Copyright © 1958 by Mystery Writers of America, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author

  “The Inner Circle” by Ellery Queen. Copyright © 1946 by Little, Brown and Company. Reprinted by permission of the author and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, First published as “The Adventure of the Inner Circle”

  “Theresa” by Marc Seymour. Copyright © 1957 by H. S. D. Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

  “Cover Her Face” by Ruthven Todd. Copyright © 1957 by King-Size Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and King-Size Publications, Inc.

  “Justice Magnifique” by Lawrence Treat. Copyright © 1958 by H. S. D. Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. This story first appeared in the magazine under the title “The French Touch"

  “11 O’Clock Bulletin” by Robert Turner. Copyright © 1955 by McCall Corporation. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc.

  Contents

  A Message from Mystery Writers of America

  Foreword

  Introduction

  The Blessington Method

  11 O’Clock Bulletin

  The Shill

  Mr. Wickwire’s “Gun Moll”

  Guilt-Edged Blonde

  Murder for Fine Art

  The Inner Circle

  Cover Her Face

  The Couple Next Door

  Mr. Nobody

  The Glass Bridge

  Blood Will Tell

  A Matter of Scholarship

  Nonie

  A Decidedly Innocent Man

  Future Imperfect

  The Girl with the Burgundy Lips

  The Man Who Wasn’t Scared

  Theresa

  Justice Magnifique

  The Stranger on Horseback

  The Night the Stair Creaked

  Snap Shot

  Afterword

  The Mystery Writers of America Presents Classic Anthology Series

  A Message from Mystery Writers of America

  The stories in this collection are products of their specific time and place, namely, the USA in 1958. Some of the writing contains dated attitudes and offensive ideas. That certain thoughtless slurs were commonplace—and among writers, whose prime task is to inhabit the skin of all their characters—can be both troubling and cause for thought.

  We decided to publish these stories as they originally appeared, rather than sanitize the objectionable bits with a modern editorial pencil. These stories should be seen as historical mysteries, reflective of their age. If their lingering prejudices make us uncomfortable, well, perhaps history’s mirror is accurate, and the attitudes are not so distant as we might have hoped.

  Foreword

  It’s funny sometimes how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

  A classic example is the Mystery Writers of America Classic volume you’re reading right now. Edited by the redoubtable Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014), the anthology, first published in 1958, is now more than 60 years old (but don’t worry, the stories hold up quite well).

  As is the custom with these anthologies, Dorothy was kind enough to write an introduction to the volume as a whole. And what was her overall theme at that time: Is the detective story dead? A theme that mystery writers have wrestled with over and over in the intervening decades.

  Well, a lot of years have come and passed since Ms. Davis’s examination of the mystery short story genre, and I’m pleased to state that the mystery story is still very much alive and well, as evidenced in the plethora of new short fiction published each year in both the digest magazi
nes and from traditional and independent publishers and authors. And if it seems that one area of publishing may seem to be not as eager to leap into the fray with new short mysteries fiction, the other parts show no sign of disappearing any time soon. Certainly, titles come and go, but the stalwarts—Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine—are still finding plenty of excellent new work to publish each month (which, by necessity, means that someone is reading those issues, for why put out a magazine if no one is reading it?) and again, there are many smaller sources of new mystery short fiction, all aided and abetted by the internet.

  But we’re here to celebrate the latest MWA Classic edition, a fine collection of crime and mystery stories by some of the best writers in the trade during the 1950s. We have greats such as Margaret Millar, Stanley Ellin, Anthony Boucher, Robert Turner, Ross Macdonald, and Ellery Queen, alongside some lesser-known but no less talented authors including Helen Kasson, John Basye Price, Wenzell Brown, and Anthony Garve.

  Each story in this volume is a wonderful mystery as well, ranging from urban suspense to classic fair-play to a cunning locked-room tale, all brought together under the discerning eye of one of the great authors of the mystery field. To say anything more would spoil the enjoyment you are about to have as you turn the page and begin reading.

  We hope you enjoy this volume of wide-ranging crime and mystery stories.

  —John Helfers

  Introduction

  One hesitates to worry the mystery these days with either praise or reappraisal. It is as often and as agonizingly re-examined as, say, our foreign policy, or as a small boy’s ears.

  Everybody is doing it.

  Its fanciers do it Its foes do it. Its own craftsmen, even its hacks do it, but the only galling meddlers really, to my mind, are those lugubrious friends of the family who come to it as to a wake, mouthing pious laments for the good old days.

  Those were the days, as I understand them, when a detective couldn’t see an ankle for counting the buttons that led up to it, when science was something he could put in his eye, or at least to his eye, and thereby have his logic confirmed, never confounded, when all policemen were gentlemen, polite however stupid, all scoundrels villainous from the nursery to the noose.

  Well, the old days, good or bad, are gone. The mourners say the detective story has gone with them. Perhaps it has. I don’t think so. I have a feeling that so long as a contemplative man walks the city streets, the country roads, musing on the ways and wonders of his fellows, seeking the predicate in that which was unpredictable but happened nonetheless, so long as there is surprise in love, joy in discovery, fear in the unknown, honor in courage and humor in the ironic, so long will the detective story discover man for man.

  No, I don’t really think the detective story has run out on us. Rather, I think we may sometimes—readers and writers—run out on it, naturally, properly, healthily, and only to return with the heart absence is presumed to make grow fonder.

  No doubt the detective story has changed. As science has opened up so much that is new in so many endeavors, how reactionary to expect the story of detection or crime to stand still! Is the thriller less thrilling for the dagger’s being in the mind instead of the body? Is the discovery of how it got there less a detective story in one instance than in the other?

  The greatest change, however, is in the company a detective story must keep these days: where once it dominated crime fiction, today it must stand muster with numerous and distinguished fellow thrillers. Just how diverse a company they are, this collection of stories by members of The Mystery Writers of America may illustrate.

  We chose as theme “Contrasts in Murder,” seeking tales almost tender—in a deadly way, of course—and we have interspersed them with the hard, smashing lore of violent crime. Some are detective stories in what the purists would call the classic tradition.

  I cannot be held solely responsible for these Murders: accessories-before-the-fact Jean Potts and Jerome Barry of MWA and accessory-after-the-fact Burroughs Mitchell of Charles Scribner’s Sons are quite as deeply implicated. Scarcely less so, for having so willingly aided and abetted us, is Catherine Barth, MWA executive secretary.

  And none of us would be in this predicament at all were it not for the generous connivance of more than a hundred MWA authors, twenty-three of whom now come forth.

  —Dorothy Salisbury Davis

  Piermont, New York

  April 14,1958

  The Blessington Method

  STANLEY ELLIN

  Mr. Treadwell was a small, likeable man who worked for a prosperous company in New York City, and whose position with the company entitled him to an office of his own. Late one afternoon on a fine day in June a visitor entered this office. The man was stout, well-dressed, and imposing. His complexion was smooth and pink, his small, near-sighted eyes shone cheerfully behind heavy, horn-rimmed eyeglasses.

  “My name,” he said, after laying aside a bulky portfolio and shaking Mr. Treadwell’s hand with a crushing grip, “is Bunce, and I am a representative of the Society for Gerontology. I am here to help you with your problem, Mr. Treadwell.”

  Mr. Treadwell sighed. “Since you are a total stranger to me, my friend,” he said, “and since I have never heard of the outfit you claim to represent, and, above all, since I have no problem which could possibly concern you, I am sorry to say that I am not in the market for whatever you are peddling. Now, if you don’t mind—”

  “Mind?” said Bunce. “Of course, I mind. The Society for Gerontology does not try to sell anything to anybody, Mr. Treadwell. Its interests are purely philanthropic. It examines case histories, draws up reports, works toward the solution of one of the most tragic situations we face in modern society.”

  “Which is?”

  “That should have been made obvious by the title of the organization, Mr. Treadwell. Gerontology is the study of old age and the problems concerning it. Do not confuse it with geriatrics, please. Geriatrics is concerned with the diseases of old age. Gerontology deals with old age as the problem itself.”

  “I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Mr. Treadwell said impatiently. “Meanwhile, I suppose, a small donation is in order? Five dollars, say?”

  “No, no, Mr. Treadwell, not a penny, not a red cent. I quite understand that this is the traditional way of dealing with various philanthropic organizations, but the Society for Gerontology works in a different way entirely. Our objective is to help you with your problem first. Only then would we feel we have the right to make any claim on you.”

  “Fine,” said Mr. Treadwell more amiably. “That leaves us all even. I have no problem, so you get no donation. Unless you’d rather reconsider?”

  “Reconsider?” said Bunce in a pained voice. “It is you, Mr. Treadwell, and not I who must reconsider. Some of the most pitiful cases the Society deals with are those of people who have long refused to recognize or admit their problem. I have worked months on your case, Mr. Treadwell. I never dreamed you would fall into that category.”

  Mr. Treadwell took a deep breath. “Would you mind telling me just what you mean by that nonsense about working on my case? I was never a case for any damned society or organization in the book!”

  It was the work of a moment for Bunce to whip open his portfolio and extract several sheets of paper from it.

  “If you will bear with me,” he said, “I should like to sum up the gist of these reports. You are forty-seven years old and in excellent health. You own a home in East Sconsett, Long Island, on which there are nine years of mortgage payments still due, and you also own a late-model car on which eighteen monthly payments are yet to be made. However, due to an excellent salary, you are in prosperous circumstances. Am I correct?”