ELLERY QUEEN'S SCENES OF THE CRIME

by Ellery--Ed. Queen ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1979

Even without the surefire joys of a Rex Stout novella (a feature of the past few EQ collections), this is one of the most solid in the Queen anthology series--lots of real stories, little of the cute filler that sometimes has been an annoyance. Except for an old, and okay, Maigret tale, all of the 25 selections are very recent, with sturdy work by John Ball (Virgil Tibbs), Celia Fremlin (two neat, dissimilar psycho-crime studies), Barbara Callahan, Ruth Rendell, Stanley Ellin, witty Jack Ritchie, and Harold Q. Masur. Two stories do seem undernourished and perfunctory--rough-stuff anecdotes by Bill Pronzini and Pete Hamill--and two stories, Thomas Walsh's ""Chance after Chance"" and Peter Godfrey's ""To Heal a Murder,"" have already been anthologized this season, in Edward D. Hoch's Best Mysteries of 1978. But any small sins are more than made up for by two absolute dazzlers: Andrew Garve's harrowing, wonderful ""A Glass of Port""--an alibi puzzle that could easily have been developed into a novel; and Joyce Harrington's ""Grass,"" further proof that this EQ regular is among today's best story writers in any genre. Above-average anthologizing (with nice blurbs, as always) from the reliable Mr. Queen, whoever he or they may be these days.

Pub Date: June 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION