ELLERY QUEEN'S MURDER MENU

The Queens' smorguesbord from their mystery magazine in the annual selection of 24 pieces. Phyllis Bentley's West Riding and Stuart Cloete's old Africa provide less expected backgrounds and contributors; Anthony and Michael Gilbert, Julian Symons and Simenon among the more than predictable; Stanley Ellin's story of a bottle of wine worth 100,000 francs to a cuckold is not his best but then there's Christianna Brand's ""King of the Air""--about a dying woman and a bird of prey--and Celia Fremlin's ""The Betrayal"" in which a woman unintentionally provides a coup de grace to a former, now dying, lover. And others--with the editor's introductions like frilly springs of parsley. . . . Reliable.