The World's Finest Mystery... (3 page)

(Crum Creek), edited by Jim Huang, provides a good reading list, heavy on authors of the '80s and '90s, with commentary.

 

 

Again, Ed Hoch's bibliography will provide the full story.

 

 

A SENSE OF HISTORY

Rue Morgue Press publishers Tom and Enid Schantz continued to reprint worthy writers of the past, including the first American edition of Joanna Cannan's 1939 novel
They Rang Up the Police
, an outstanding piece of classical detective fiction that can stand comparison with Allingham, Marsh, Sayers, and other Golden Age icons; and Juanita Sheridan's
The Chinese Chop
, the 1949 novel that introduced Chinese American sleuth Lily Wu, whose other three cases are on Rue Morgue's future schedule.

 

 

Five Star brought us new editions, with an introduction by the author, of Donald E. Westlake's first two Mitchell Tobin novels,
Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death
(1966) and
Murder Among Children
(1967), originally published as by Tucker Coe; while Vera Caspary's 1943 classic
Laura
became the first in a series, edited by Otto Penzler for ibooks, of mysteries that became Hollywood films. The e-books/books-on-demand phenomenon allowed contemporary writers like Stuart M. Kaminsky, Dick Lochte, Annette Meyers, and Loren D. Estleman to make their backlists available to readers, a trend that can be expected to grow.

 

 

AT THE MOVIES

The quality of 2000's crime and mystery movies was far below that of 1999's bumper crop, but there were some good ones, mostly playing the art houses rather than the multiplexes. Best crime film released in the U.S.A. during the year was probably the 1998 British film noir
Croupier
, directed by Mike Hodges from Paul Mayersberg's script and boasting a great performance by Clive Owen as the title character, a bored writer who takes a casino job that leads him into a web of crime.
The Virgin Suicides
, directed by Sofia Coppola, who also wrote the screenplay from Jeffrey Eugenides's 1993 novel, is a dark coming-of-age story about the hidden horrors of suburbia and a rare example of the pure whydunit. Writer-director Rod Lurie's
The Contender
, like his 1999 film
Deterrence
, shows him as a nimble plotter in the political thriller vein.
Under Suspicion
, directed by Stephen Hopkins and scripted by Tom Provost and W. Peter Iliff from (via an earlier French version) John Wainwright's 1979 novel
Brainwash
, may be somewhat stagy in feel, but it's cunningly constructed and makes a great vehicle for the talents of Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. Gregory Hoblit's
Frequency
, written by Toby Emmerich, is a suspenseful mystery/science-fiction hybrid: time travel meets get-the-serial-killer.

 

 

Some of the crime films I admired during the year were less well-received by critics, so take these recommendations with a grain of salt. The Harrison Ford/Michelle Pfeiffer vehicle
What Lies Beneath
, directed by Robert Zemeckis from Clark Gregg's screenplay, struck me as an admirably tricky variation of the
Before the Fact
am-I-married-to-a-murderer plot. Director Nick Gomez's
Drowning Mona
, written by Peter Steinfeld, is a tongue-in-cheek small-town black comedy asking which of several reasonable suspects murdered the poisonous title character played by Bette Midler.
The Yards
, James Gray's downbeat film of civic corruption (scripted with Matt Reeves), had a terrific cast and should have done better at the box office than it did.
Where the Money Is
, the enjoyable caper movie in which ex-con Paul Newman impersonates a stroke victim, had three screenplay writers (E. Max Frye, Topper Lilien, and Carroll Cartwright, from Frye's story) and was directed by Marek Kanievska. (Is Newman embarked on a series of senior-citizen variations on crime-fiction conventions? This one follows his 1998 "geezer noir" private-eye vehicle,
Twilight
. I liked that one, too, though not everybody did.)
Up at the Villa
, directed by Philip Haas and scripted by Belinda Haas from a Somerset Maugham novella, qualifies as a crime story and a highly entertaining one for those who value the sedate and understated approach to high emotion.

 

 

 

A 2000 Yearbook of Crime and Mystery

compiled by Edward D. Hoch

Collections and Single Stories

 

 

(Anonymous).
Herlock Shomes At It Again
. New York: The Mysterious Bookshop. A single twenty-page parody first published in 1918. One of the Mysterious Sherlock Holmes series.

 

 

BISHOP, PAUL.
Pattern of Behavior
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Fourteen stories, including one new novelette, from various sources, 1982–2000.

 

 

BRACKEN, MICHAEL.
Bad Girls: One Dozen Dangerous Dames Who Lie, Cheat, Steal, and Kill.
Berkeley Heights, NJ: Wildside Press. Twelve stories, two new, from
Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine
and other sources.

 

 

———.
Tequila Sunrise: Hardboiled P. I. Nathaniel Rose: Bullets, Booze, and Broads.
Berkeley Heights, NJ: Wildside Press. Seven stories, two new, from various sources.

 

 

BREEN, JON L.
The Drowning Icecube and Other Stories
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Seventeen stories, 1977–99, mainly detection, including three parodies and one mystery-fantasy.

 

 

BRETT, SIMON.
A Crime in Rhyme and Other Mysterious Fragments.
Burpham, West Sussex, U.K.: Frith House. A rhyming playlet and seven brief pieces supposedly written by well-known authors.

 

 

BRIETMAN, GREGORY.
The Marriage of Sherlock Holmes
. New York: The Mysterious Bookshop. A 1926 parody of twenty-eight pages, translated from the Russian. One of the Mysterious Sherlock Holmes series.

 

 

CASSIDAY, BRUCE.
None but the Vengeful: Classic Pulp Crime and Suspense
. Brooklyn: Gryphon Books. Eight stories and novelettes from the pulps, 1948–52. Introduction by Gary Lovisi.

 

 

CAVE, HUGH B.
Bottled in Blonde: The Peter Kane Detective Stories
. Minneapolis: Fedogan & Bremer. Nine tales from
Dime Detective
. Introduction by Don Hutchinson.

 

 

———.
Danse Macabre
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A single short story from
Clues Detective Stories
, 4/37, in a pamphlet accompanying the limited edition of
Long Live the Dead
.

 

 

———.
The Lady Wore Black and Other Weird Cat Tails
. Ashcroft, BC, Canada: Ash-Tree Press. Nineteen fantasy tales, some from
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
. Introduction by Mike Ashley.

 

 

———.
Long Live the Dead
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. All ten of Cave's stories from
Black Mask
, 1934–41, with an introduction and interview with the author by Keith Alan Deutsch.

 

 

———.
Of
fi
cer Coffey Stories
. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press. Two stories from
Dime Detective
, 1940.

 

 

COEL, MARGARET.
Stolen Smoke
. Mission Viejo, CA: A.S.A.P. Publishing. A single limited-edition short story, fourth in a series, about an Arapaho Native American sleuth. Introduction by Marcia Muller.

 

 

COLLINS, BARBARA.
Too Many Tomcats and Other Feline Tales of Suspense
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Eleven cat stories, two new and one in collaboration with husband, Max Allan Collins, who contributes the introduction.

 

 

COLLINS, MICHAEL.
Fortune's World.
Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. Fourteen stories, one new, one first American publication, 1965–2000, about private eye Dan Fortune. Introduction by Richard Carpenter.

 

 

———.
The Dreamer
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A single Slot-Machine Kelly story from
Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine
, 9/62, in a pamphlet accompanying the limited edition of
Fortune's World
.

 

 

D'AMATO, BARBARA.
Of Course You Know Chocolate Is a Vegetable and Other Stories
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Twelve stories, 1991–99, from various sources.

 

 

DE NOUX, O'NEIL.
Hollow Point/The Mystery of Rochelle Marais
. Brooklyn: Gryphon Books. Two new police stories and a historical mystery from
EQMM
, all set in New Orleans.

 

 

DOYLE, ARTHUR CONAN.
The Surgeon of Gaster Fell
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A pamphlet containing the original magazine text of a Doyle novelette, later revised for book publication. Afterword by Daniel Stashower. A limited edition published for Malice Domestic XII.

 

 

DUNDEE, WAYNE D. & DEREK MUK.
Tuck Tip & Three Parts
. Brooklyn: Gryphon Books. Two private-eye novelettes by Dundee, one new, teamed with three stories by Muk about San Francisco cops.

 

 

ESTLEMAN, LOREN D.
The Midnight Man
. New York: ibooks. Reprint of a 1982 novel with an Amos Walker short story, "Redneck," appended.

 

 

FASSBENDER, TOM & JIM PASCOE.
Five Shots and a Funeral: The Short Fiction of Dashiell Loveless
. Los Angeles: Uglytown. Five connected stories by fictional author Dashiell Loveless.

 

 

FORTUNE, DION.
The Secrets of Dr. Taverner
. Ashcroft, BC, Canada: Ash-Tree Press. Complete collection of all twelve stories about an occult detective, six published in
Royal Magazine
(London) during 1922. The third of a continuing series, Ash-Tree Press Occult Detectives Library, edited and introduced by Jack Adrian.

 

 

GILBERT, MICHAEL.
The Mathematics of Murder: A Fearne & Bracknell Collection
. London: Robert Hale. Fourteen stories about law partners and their firm, some new, 1995–2000.

 

 

GORES, JOE.
File #9: Double-Header
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A single unpublished DKA story, later rewritten as two separate stories, in a pamphlet accompanying the limited edition of
Stakeout on Page Street
.

 

 

———.
Stakeout on Page Street and Other DKA Files
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. All twelve stories about the skip-tracers of Daniel Kearney Associates, mainly from
EQMM
, 1967–89.

 

 

HOCH, EDWARD D.
The Gold Buddha Caper
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A single Ulysses S. Bird story from
EQMM
, 12/73, in a pamphlet accompanying the limited edition of
The Velvet Touch
.

 

 

———.
The Velvet Touch
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. Fourteen stories from
EQMM
about thief-detective Nick Velvet, 1975–99, including eight about Velvet's admiring adversary Sandra Paris.

 

 

HOWARD, CLARK.
Challenge the Widow-Maker and Other Stories of People in Peril
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. Twelve stories, 1980–94, mainly from
EQMM
.

 

 

———.
Crowded Lives and Other Stories of Desperation and Danger
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Nine stories. 1967–89.

 

 

———.
The Killing Floor
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A single new short story in a pamphlet accompanying the limited edition of
Challenge the Widow-Maker
.

 

 

HUFFMAN, BOB.
Legal Fictions
. Berkeley, CA: Creative Arts. Fourteen very short stories about the American legal system.

 

 

HUNTER, EVAN.
Barking at Butterflies and Other Stories
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Eleven stories, 1953–99, three published for the first time in America.

 

 

ILES, ROBERT L.
The Burning Woman and Other Cases from the Files of Peter B. Bruck, Private Investigator.
Brighton, MI: Avid Press. Thirteen connected stories and a novella.

 

 

JAMES, DAVID.
Sherlock Holmes and the Midnight Bell
. Romford, Essex, U.K.: Ian Henry Publications. Five stories.

 

 

LANSDALE, JOE R.
High Cotton: Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale
. Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon. Twenty-one stories of crime and suspense.

 

 

LEINSTER, MURRAY.
Malay Collins, Master Thief of the East
. Bloomington, IL: Black Dog Press. Three stories from
Short Stories Magazine
, 1930.

 

 

LOCHTE, DICK.
Lucky Dog and Other Tales of Murder.
Unity, Maine: Five Star. Nine stories from various sources, 1988–99.

 

 

LOVESEY, PETER.
The Kiss of Death
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A single new Peter Diamond short story in a Christmas pamphlet from the publisher.

 

 

MARIAS, JAVIER.
When I Was Mortal.
New York: New Directions. Twelve stories by a Spanish author, mainly criminous, including two fantasies and a whodunit.

 

 

MATERA, LIA.
Counsel for the Defense and Other Stories
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Nine stories from various sources.

 

 

MCBAIN, ED.
Running from Legs and Other Stories
. Unity, Maine: Five Star. Eleven stories, 1956–2000, three previously unpublished.

 

 

MCCABE, PATRICK.
Mondo Desperado
. New York: HarperCollins. Ten short stories, some criminous, published as a "serial novel."

 

 

MORRELL, DAVID.
Black Evening
. New York: Warner Books. Fifteen crime and horror stories from various sources, several fantasy.

 

 

MULLER, MARCIA.
McCone and Friends
. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru. A novella and seven stories about Sharon McCone and her various colleagues at the detective agency, 1993–99.