The earlier posts this week on "Lost Authors" including H.
Edward Hunsburger sent me back to my files of Mystery Monthly
magazine and at least some interest was expressed in the
publication. For the first time I noticed that I had every
issue published. It began with a June 1976 issue and ended
with issue number 9--February 1977. My memory jogged, I
recalled buying the last issue new off the stands. I also
remember being disappointed when I heard (months later) that
it had folded. A writer trying to sell short stories looks at
every publication as a pearl beyond price and I had just
resumed my attempt to sell fiction. It was certainly open to
new writers as witness its publication of Hunsburger's story
and two stories by Robert J. Randisi. I'm not sure but "Cop
Without a Shield" in the August 1976 issue may have been
Randisi's debut.
In an earlier post I mentioned a story it published by Jon A.
Jackson, a very good writer not known for appearing in
mystery digests. In fact "The Old Game" in the November 1976
issue of Mystery Monthly was the only story Jackson published
in the mystery digests through 1980 (according to Cook's
MONTHLY MURDERS).
Looking back over the nine issues I also note a Dave
Brandstetter story by Joseph Hansen in the December 1976
issue. This was also Hansen's first appearance in a mystery
digest. Remember the leading digest Ellery Queen Mystery
Magazine would not at that time publish stories concerning
the gay investigator Dave Brandstetter.
This is all by way of background of saying I decided it was
worth the while to examine the issues of Mystery Monthly and
report the results to the list.
The first issue is dated June 1976. It features stories by
Harlan Ellison, Ed McBain, Jack Ritchie, Gil Brewer, Edward
D. Hoch, August Derleth and Michael Croft. The cover story is
"Killing Bernstein" by Harlan Ellison and the issue also
contains an interview with Ellison. I've been a fan of
Ellison's writing for nearly fifty years and this story still
packs a punch despite the passage of three decades. The
protagonist is an upwardly mobile executive in a toy company
who is having an affair with the executive in charge of
research. I had not read the story before and was delighted
with the pure Ellison power it contains. The story was
reprinted in Ellison's Harper collection STRANGE WINE and was
adapted for television in the 1980s in the revival of "The
Twilight Zone."
The Ed McBain story is entitled "Consolation" and it is even
better than the Ellison story. It deals with the aftermath of
a robbery gone wrong with one cop dead and another wounded
and one of the three robbers seriously wounded. The
protagonist is one of the robbers who takes his wounded
accomplice back to his wife. As if the tension of a failed
robbery isn't enough, sexual attraction flares up between the
protagonist and his wounded companion's wife. This is very,
very well handled. It may be thirty years old but it blows
away any story I can remember reading in recent weeks.
Pronzini. You can also find the story reprinted in a Bill
Pronzini anthology entitled UNCOLLECTED MYSTERIES (Walker
1987).
Those two stories alone were more than worth the $1.00 cover
price of the June 1976 issue. But readers also had the other
stories including one by a favorite of mine Gil Brewer, who
wrote so many wonderful "screw her and be damned" novels for
Gold Medal and others in the 1950s. There was 13 FRENCH
STREET ("His best friend's wife lusted for him in a house
where evil lived"), LITTLE TRAMP ("She was jail bail with an
angel's face--but he couldn't leave her alone"), WILD ("She
was man-hungry, money mad, and too not not to handle"), SUGAR
("She had a child's face, a woman's body--and the key to a
quarter of a million bucks"), THE GIRL FROM HATEVILLE ("They
were all out to get him--even the doll with the hungry
eyes"), THE BRAT
("She wanted out and she had the price--a lovely body and the
will to use it"), THE HUNGRY ONE ("Goofballs and sex,
goofballs and sex. After all, what else was there in life
that was any good?")
Man oh Man. Brewer was absolutely one of the best at the
hothouse,forbidden sex, a good man led astray novel. A
generation of boys learned about sex and women by reading
these novels in the 1950s. Thankfully, we were enlightened by
the 1960s.
Mystery Monthly published three stories by Gil Brewer in its
nine issues. We know from Pronzini's profile that Brewer was
on hard times by the mid-1970s. He was beyond the point of
his ghosting for Marv Albert's Al Conroy series. So these
stories, along with others sold to Mike Shayne Mystery
Magazine and others, were important grocery money for
Brewer.
I would like to say "The Getaway" in the June issue is a fine
story but it isn't. I hope the other two he placed with the
magazine are good ones. The story does have some high points
including a strong opening: "Vincenti lit a fat joint, took a
big toke, then glanced sideways at the wheelman of the silver
Continental Mark IV. Vincenti was loose. He was always loose.
He had a job to do and would be paid well. He was a heavy and
he only worked to contract."
Alas, Brewer's professional hitman smokes four, count them,
four fat joints before carrying out his hit and then smokes
another one during the getaway. All I can say is the hitman
either had some bad, very bad pot or a tolerance for the
stuff that is worthy of the record books. More likely, Brewer
had no understanding of pot and thought a joint equalled a
drink of whiskey. At least that is my theory.
Beyond this problem, I found the ending unconvincing and
unsatisfactory.
The Ed Hoch story ("The Bank Job") is a reasonably good one.
The August Derleth story is one of his Solar Pons stories--a
Sherlock Holmes type story set a generation later in London.
I admire many aspects of Derleth's remarkable career but I
have never ranked the Solar Pons stories that high even while
I have enjoyed them as light reading. Plus Derleth had been
dead for five years by the time this magazine
appeared--another indicator that this was not a top flight
story.
Jack Ritchie was a talented writer who stayed at the short
story length. Others like Ed Hoch at least try a novel or two
but I don't know of a Ritchie novel. He wrote some very good
stories indeed and I enjoyed his "To Kill a Man". The issue
is rounded out by "Death Took the Call" by Michael Croft
which I found rather slight.
The issue also have movie and television reviews. The review
of the series Ellery Queen (starring Jim Hutton) was balanced
although I liked the series more than the reviewer. The movie
reviewer hated George Segal's "The Black Bird" where he
played Sam Spade, Jr. Most reviewers hated this movie. For
some reason I have had a soft spot for it--mostly because of
the first half. Segal, playing Spade (as Bogart) son, goes to
his father's office but it is now located in a black section
of town. The African Americans on the street where the office
is are vastly amused at this "Spade" in their block. The same
actress who played Bogart's secretary plays a hectoring screw
who gives Segal holy hell and Elisha Cook Jr. is very much a
part of the new movie. I know...it sucks but I love some
parts of it. All of the features are well done and brief as
it was, I liked the interview with Ellison.
So that's the first issue of Mystery Monthly--June 1976. It's
worth picking up if you spot a copy. As time permits I will
go through the other eight issues.
Richard Moore
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
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