Margery Allingham - Ellery Queen’s Anthology. 1960

And Poe said: Let there be a detective story. And it was so. And when Poe created the detective story in his own image, and saw everything that he had made, behold, it was very good. And he cast the detective story originally in the classic form. And that form, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, the true form. Amen.

Ellery Queen

Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made for permission to reprint the following:

Murder in Manhattan by Hugh Pentecost; copyright 1952 by Judson Philips; reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt.

The Mystery of the Blue far by Agatha Christie; copyright 1924 by Agatha Christie; renewed; reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

The Case of the Irate Witness by Erle Stanley Gardner; copyright 1953 by Erle Stanley Gardner; reprinted by permission of Willis Kingsley Wing.

Strictly Diplomatic by John Dickson Carr; copyright 1945 by John Dickson Carr; reprinted by permission of James Brown Associates.

The Hunting of Hemingway by MacKinlay Kantor; copyright 1945 by MacKinlay Kantor; reprinted by permission of World Publishing Company.

The Man Who Knew How by Dorothy L. Sayers; copyright 1933 by Dorothy L. Sayers; reprinted by permission of A. Watkins, Inc.

Little Boy Lost by Q. Patrick; copyright 1947 by Davis Publications, Inc. (formerly Mercury Publications, Inc.); reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

The Good Prospect by Thomas Walsh; copyright 1937 by The Crowell Publishing Company; reprinted by permission of Littauer and Wilkinson.

Don’t Look Behind You by Fredric Brown; copyright 1947 by Fredric Brown, reprinted by permission of Harry Altshuler.

The Dog in the Orchard by Mary Roberts Rinehart; copyright 1940, 1941 by Mary Roberts Rinehart; reprinted by permission of Rinehart & Co., Inc.

Rehearsal for Murder by Ben Hecht; copyright 1951 by Ben Hecht; reprinted by permission of Jacques Chambrun.

Murder Is Everybody’s Business by Helen McCloy; copyright 1951 by Helen McCloy; reprinted by permission of the author.

The Yellow Jumper by Roy Vickers; copyright 1946 by Davis Publications, Inc. (formerly Mercury Publications, Inc.); reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Death on Christmas Eve by Stanley Ellin; copyright 1950 by Stanley Ellin; reprinted by permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

The Cat’s-Eye by John van Druten; copyright 1945 by The Atlantic Monthly Company; reprinted by permission of Monica McCall, Inc.

Ride With the Wind by Rufus King; copyright 1939, 1940, 1941 by Rufus King; reprinted by permission of Rogers Terrill Literary Agency.

They Never Get Caught by Margery Allingham; copyright 1946 by Davis Publications, Inc. (formerly Mercury Publications, Inc.); reprinted by permission of Paul R. Reynolds & Son.

Invited Witness by George Harmon Coxe; copyright 1943 by Popular Publications, Inc.; reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt.

Pale Blue Nightgown by Louis Golding; copyright 1936 by Louis Golding; reprinted by permission of Jacques Chambrun.

All the Way Home from the albatross by Charlotte Armstrong; copyright 1951 by Charlotte Armstrong; published by Coward-McCann, Inc.; reprinted by permission of the publisher.

The Lonely Bride by Ellery Queen; copyright 1949 by United Newspapers Magazine Corporation; reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

The Happy Couple by W. Somerset Maugham; from creatures of circumstance copyright 1943 by W. Somerset Maugham; reprinted by permission of Mrs. William Heinemaan and Doubleday & Company, Inc.

The Cop Killer by Rex Stout; copyright 1951 by Rex Stout; reprinted by permission of the author.

Dear Reader:

At the very first planning of this anthology we settled on two clear and definitive editorial policies:

First, that every story selected must meet the twin standards of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine — high quality or high professionalism of writing, and superior craftsmanship or superior originality of plotting.

Second, that we would not include a single story from any anthology previously edited by Ellery Queen.

Thus, by our two standards of selection, we aimed at a double objective: quality and freshness — the quality of stories that have true anthology status, and the freshness usually found in newly written stories.

Here, then, is happy hunting — in the Land of Perfect Escape. Here, for your reading pleasure, is a compendium of crime, with murder in full measure — a king-size mystery package worth a Queen’s ransom — a veritable Who’s Who of whodunits.

Read hearty!

An outstanding short detective novel that you will discover to be jar more “real” than most of the highly touted “realistic” tough yarns. Hugh Pentecost is one of the most conscientious and crafty writers in the mystery genre today — and still growing in versatility and in technical virtuosity ...

Breakfast was always at 11 in the morning. Mike asked only one thing of the two girls, and that was that they come to breakfast and be on time. Since he never went to bed much before 5 in the morning, himself, it wasn’t asking much. Joan usually had been up for quite a while and had only coffee at the 11 o’clock session. Erika was often with Mike on his morning rounds, and when she wasn’t, she was usually on some kind of tear of her own. She’d complain sometimes about having to get up at 11. Mike pointed out that he always took a nap in the late afternoon and there was no reason she shouldn’t do the same.

“Breakfast is the only time we have for any kind of family get-together,” Mike always said. “We’re going to have it if it kills us.”

That morning I was putting the personal mail alongside Mike’s place at the table in the dining-room when Kathy Adams came in. About thirteen or fourteen years ago Kathy came to New York to make her fortune as a secretary or a model. She’s 32 now and she could still do all right as a model, except that she’s probably the most fabulous private secretary in existence, working for the most fabulous boss, and, I might add, drawing the most fabulous salary for the job. The only thing that happened over the years to mar her model-like good looks is a fine line between her blond eyebrows that’s become engraved there from a frowning concentration on the general fabulousness.

“Fine thing,” she said, “Erika’s not home.”

“Been and gone, or never came back?” I asked.

“Her bed hasn’t been slept in,” Kathy said. “I looked on the telephone pad, but there wasn’t a message.”

“Maybe Mike took it when he came in this morning,” I said.

The little groove between Kathy’s eyes deepened. “I don’t think so. I spoke to William. He says he didn’t hear anything from her.”

William is a former club steward whom Mike picked up somewhere during his travels. William does all the cooking and general housework in the place.

You might say that everyone who works for Mike does a little bit of everything. I was a cub reporter on a small New England newspaper when he picked me up. Now I do leg work for him, write some items for “Off-Mike,” his column, act as bodyguard, advance agent on his trips out of town, and general handy man. I love it. I love him, and I mean it quite sentimentally.