2018-04-09

What's missing? - Wishes and hopes

With the last post on Edward D. Hoch's stories, we've come to the end of this mammoth task of identifying the most worthy impossible mystery short stories available. There are certainly stories that I'd like to have added if I only had access to them. And that brings me to the subject of this post.

There are several collections I'd like to see published, preferrably in the near future, either because I could actually see a demand for it, or simply because I'm a completist and want everything available in an easily accessible way.

Here's an incomplete list of things that should really be available. I've listed them in an approximate order of how likely they are to appear.

The fifth collection of Dr. Sam Hawthorne stories. There are fifteen stories left, and Crippen & Landru's Wikipedia page states that this is forthcoming in 2018. So, that's very promising. C&L are also said to be publishing a collection by William Brittain featuring both his Mr. Strang stories and his series of "The Man Who Read..." This should definitely also be of interest.

A second collection of Paul Halter short stories. Since LRI's publication of the first one, "The Night of the Wolf", another 8 stories have been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, so that's almost enough for a new collection. I've read three of these tales (all discussed elsewhere on the blog), and they are certainly equal to many of the already collected stories. Without having any insight, I'd guess this is probably already in the pipe at Locked Room International.

Arthur Porges collections, each featuring one of his regular series detectives, Ulysses Middlebie and Julian Morse Trowbridge respectively. There's 11 of the former, 4 of the latter, so maybe they could be combined in one volume? Seeing that Richard Simms has been publishing collections by Porges over the last decade or so, I'd say these stories are likely to appear, but it might take a while before we get there, since they are not listed on the "Forthcoming" part of Simms's website.

Perhaps there's enough material for a Soji Shimada collection as well? He certainly has enough short stories to fill a collection, I suppose the only problem is getting enough of them translated. As far as I know, at least three have been published in English in EQMM or elsewhere, so there may be a lack of material at this moment. Otherwise I guess LRI would already be planning such a collection.

A second and final collection of senator Banner stories by Joseph Commings. There are 19 or 20 stories that weren't selected for the first collection, "Banner Deadlines", published by Crippen & Landru. 19 are listed in the checklist in that volume, and if I understand Robert Adey's preface correctly, there's an unpublished story lying around as well. I've read two of these stories, "Serenade for a Killer" and "The Glass Gravestone" - they've both been discussed here on the blog - and again, they are both of high quality. I have no idea how well the first collection sold, but surely there'd be a market for another Commings collection?

A couple of Bill Pronzini collections wouldn't go amiss either. There should almost be enough uncollected stories for a second Quincannon & Carpenter volume by now, and I guess there's quite a lot of other uncollected material as well. Something for C&L to look at maybe?

A James Yaffe "Department of Impossible Crimes" collection. I'm not sure how many stories exist, but the two I've read have whet my appetite for more. Here's hoping LRI or C&L (or someone else) can find the time for this.

4 comments:

  1. Years ago, after reading "The Problem of the Emperor's Mushrooms," I asked Douglas Greene of Crippen & Landru about a Department of Impossible Crimes collection, but he said that the series, as a whole, is not good enough to be bookformed.

    Richard Simms commented on my blog last year and said he was considering doing a Ullyses Price Middlebie collection. So that's one collection we might see appear in print in the hopefully not so distant future.

    A second Commings and Halter collection would be nice as would be a sequel to the collection of Ellery Queen radio scripts, because I recall The Adventure of the Murdered Moths being quite a popular title during the second half of the 2000s. By the way, there's an impossible crime story in that collection, "The Adventure of the Haunted Cave," you seem to have overlooked in your EQ reading.

    Additionally, I would very much like to a see a whole anthology of the Chinese locked room mysteries mentioned in the introduction/after word of Death in the House of Rain.

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    1. I haven't actually read "The Murdered Moths" collection (though it is on my TBR pile), but it's outside the scope of this mammoth task since it only consists of radio plays.

      If I did radio plays as well, I'd have had to dedicate at least two more posts to Carr stories... :)

      Good to hear about Richard Simms' comment on a Middlebie collection. I'm looking forward to that then.

      Yeah, I'd like to see a collection by Szu-Yen Lin. I've only read one of his tales (in "Realm of the Impossible") but that was so awesome that I really want to see more from him.

      And I don't care what Doug Greene says, I want to read the "Department of Impossible Crimes" stories for myself. Just like I want to read late career JDC stories or whatever is generally poo-pooed as not good enough. Ah well, I guess C&L won't be publishing that in that case.

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    2. "And I don't care what Doug Greene says, I want to read the "Department of Impossible Crimes" stories for myself. Just like I want to read late career JDC stories or whatever is generally poo-pooed as not good enough."

      That's exactly what I said! But, as you can see, it didn't really help.

      I think you misunderstood on the short stories mentioned in Death in the House of Rain, which were not exclusively written by Szu-Yen Lin, but an anthology of the best Chinese and Taiwanese locked room mysteries written in the past 10-15 years. The impossible crime story has become really popular over there in recent years, but I'll settle for a Szu-Yen Lin collection or a sequel to The Realm of the Impossible.

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    3. No, I think I understood your meaning, I was just unclear in how I expressed myself. I'd simply rather see a collection of Lin's stories, as I have some indication of what he can do, than an anthology of various Chinese/Taiwanese authors.

      A sequel to "The Realm of the Impossible" would definitely not go amiss either, of course.

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