MYSTERIES UNLOCKED Essays in Honor of Douglas G. Greene

Edited by CURTIS EVANS

©» McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina Table of Contents

Prologue: Meeting Doug Greene (Steven Steinbock) 1 Introduction: Douglas G. Greene: The Man Who Explained Detective Fiction (Curtis Evans) 5

SECTION ONE: DETECTION BY GASLIGHT

The Incandescent Claptrap of Hamilton Cleek (William Ruehlmann) 21 The Strange Case of Max Rittenberg (Mike Ashley) 33 J. S. Fletcher: Man of Many Mysteries (Roger Ellis) 43 From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: The Fleming Stone Detective Novels of Carolyn Wells (Curtis Evans) 60

SECTION Two: CLASSIC ENGLISH CRIME

The Reader Is Warned: Discovering John Dickson Carr and the Works of Douglas G. Greene (Michael Dirda) 81 and the Impossible Crime (John Curran) 89 Anthony Berkeley's Golden Age Gothic Follies (Martin Edwards) 101 The Left Hand of Margery Allingham (B. A. Pike) 109 "Intuition's Reckless Compass": Margery Allingham's The China Governess and a Problem of Literary Biography (Julia Jones) 122 And Carr Begat Crispin: A Meeting of Criminal Minds (David Whittle) 133

v vi • TABLE OF CONTENTS •

SECTION THREE: CLASSIC AMERICAN CRIME AND INTELLECTUALS

Patrick Quentin/Q. Patrick/Jonathan Stagge: A Phantasmagoria of Crime Writers (Mauro Boncompagni) 145 Now You See It: Hake Talbot, Magic and Miracles (Steven Steinbock) 158 Murder in The Criterion-. T. S. Eliot on Detective Fiction (Curtis Evans) 171 An Intellectual and the Detective Story: The Problems of Fernando Pessoa (Henrique Valle) 183

SECTION FOUR: TOUGH STUFF

"The Amateur Detective Just Won't Do": Raymond Chandler and British Detective Fiction (Curtis Evans) 201 Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard: Craig Rice, Mistress of Madcap Mystery (Jeffrey Marks) 215 A Deluge of Drunken Detectives: A (Strictly Sober) Look at Four Fredric Brown Novels (Jack Seabrook) 224 "Stella Maris": Poetry in Ross Macdonald's The Galton Case (Tom Nolan) 231

SECTION FIVE: MURDER IN MINIATURE, DEATH ON THE AIR, MURDER IN PASTICHE

Douglas G. Greene: Savior of the Short Form Mystery (Marvin Lachman) 241 Experimenters, Pioneers, Prodigies and Passers-By: Ten Detective Story Writers in Search of an Anthology (Jon L. Breen) 248 Knife Chords: The Radio Mysteries ofjohn Dickson Carr (Sergio Angelini) 259 Adventures in Radioland: Ellery Queen On (and Off) the Air (Joseph Goodrich) 268 Parody, Pastiche and Presentism in Mystery Fiction: Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey and the Immortal Jane (Helen Szamuely) 276 "Parlez-Vous Fra^ais?" The Riddles of Rene Reouven (Patrick Ohl) 286 • Table of Contents vii

A FINAL TOAST: CLUBLAND

The Secret Life of Eric the Skull: Dorothy L. Sayers and the Detection Club () 297

Afterword: Prayers to Kuan Yin (Boonchai Panjarattanakorn) 312 Appendix One: Works on Mystery Fiction by Douglas G. Greene 315 Appendix Two: Short Crime Fiction Collections Published by Crippen & Landru 320 About the Contributors 324 Index 328