Category: Statistics

The Dr. Gideon Fell Chronology, Compleat and Revised

Fell, Gideon, retired; formerly schoolmaster, journalist, and historian;
b. Stavely Manor, Garth, Lincolnshire, 1884; sec. s. Sir Digby and Lady F.;
grad., Eton and Balliol, Harvard (U.S.A.), BA, MA (Oxon.), PhD (Harvard), LLD (Edinburgh).
Fellow of Royal Historical Society, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (France).
Publications: Romances of the Seventeenth Century (Smith, 1922); The Drinking Customs of England from the Earliest Times (Crippen & Wainwright, 1946).
Clubs: Garrick, Savage, Detection.
Hobbies: Reading and detection of crime.
Present address: 13 Round-Pond Place, Hampstead, London NW3.
– Detective Who’s Who

I decided to move my Dr. Gideon Fell chronology here to make it more accessible, and also extend and correct it in the meanwhile. Now it includes the short works as well, enjoy!

According to the venerable The Man Who Explained Miracles (p. 436), there ‘was the attempt of Punch cartoonist Francis Wilford-Smith to treat Sir Henry Merrivale as the Baker Street Irregulars treat Sherlock Holmes—that is, to sort through inconsistencies and to work out a chronology of his adventures. Wilford-Smith sent the chronology to Carr in 1967. He replied that he accepted the chronology as official and would “defend it against challenges”’. To my knowledge, there is no access to such a chronology at the moment, and, anyway, it would be a challenging problem to try and work one out ourselves. So, let us try! But we shall start with Dr. Gideon Fell instead.

However, some problems we encounter are systematic and thus must be addressed beforehand:

We must decide whether we allow stories to be set after the moment they were written/published. There is no obvious way why Carr would write about future; however, sometimes, when a different solution seems unavoidable, we would perhaps be forced to stretch this a bit.

Some stories supplement their dating by some pairing of a week-day to a particular date; others have only such a pairing to be of use. However, they are rarely relatable: as we shall see, Carr’s week-days, while they can and frequently are correct when writing about the publishing year or the year before (obviously, he could consult with actual calendars), they become ravingly wrong as soon as his pattern changes to resetting his novels into the ‘nostalgic past’. So, can they be trusted if they are the only evidence? I assert ‘yes’, but only if they produce years close enough to the publishing one to assume actual consultation with a physical calendar.

Let’s get going!

Novels

Hag’s Nook (1933): July 1931(?)

This novel’s dating rather depends on the following, but on its own it can only be based on a shaky assumption (Chapter 5), being a stream of consciousness from Tad Rampole:

‘The calendar in the lower part of the clock-case showed a staring figure where he had been last July 12^th, and couldn’t remember.’

This, basically, just means that the room where he was staying at Dr. Fell’s possessed a calendar open on ‘July’. We will have to confirm or disprove it by the data from the following novel.

The Mad Hatter Mystery (1933): March 1932

Thankfully, we can confirm it (Chapter 1)! Not only Dr. Fell claims knowing Tad from ‘last July,’ but the article, “Hat-Fiend Strikes Again!, by Philip C. Driscoll” is dated 12 March during the conversation, which is March 1932, as this is the date when, according to Hadley, ‘the defendant did… abstract the helmet of Police Constable Thomas Sparkle’. This settles the previous story.

The Eight of Swords (1934): August 1932?

Beside (Chapter 1) ‘the diabolical August heat’ besetting Hadley, August being confirmed multiply, there is no year, month, or date in the whole of the novel to refer it to any particular year, or even attach it to the previous ones! Unless there are tie-ins in the further novels (hint: none), we are unable to determine the year. Assuming, just assuming, that it is set both after the previous two and before the book’s release, we can trim it down, but to two options: 1932 and 1933. The latter keeps the distance between setting and printing more constant; yet, after a lot of studying of the weather reports I suspect that the August described in the aforementioned novel is rather the 36-degree-Celcius one of 1932 and not a fairly ordinary 26-degree one of 1933.

The Blind Barber (1934): May 1933(?)

It is easier to start with Morgan’s visit to Dr. Fell, which is (Chapter 1) on the morning of the next day after the Queen Victoria ‘was to dock at Southampton on the afternoon of May 18th’. However, what is the year? During the trip, an article by Leslie Perrigord is read (Chapter 9), ‘reprinted by permission of the author from the Sunday “Times” of Oct. 25, 1932’. This declares autumn of 1932 a firm past for our story and, if we accept no future settings, makes the May of 1933 almost the only option (and more logical for article to be fairly recent).

Death-Watch (1935): September 1932

The story starts (Chapter 1) at ‘the night of September 4th’ which is even more obviously expanded (Chapter 5) into ‘September 4^th, 1932’. (I wish all of these that simple.) The first hint that the stories do not happen consequentially!

The Hollow Man (1935): February 1935(?)

The novel is consistent with (Chapter 1) referring to a span of dates starting with ‘Wednesday, February 6th’; however, there is no year. A leap year like that should start on Tuesday (1924 in all pre-Fifties XX Century), and an ordinary one should begin similarly (as the 6^th of February precedes leap-day): these are 1929 and 1935 from the period we are concerned with. The appearance of 1935 is catchy.

The Arabian Nights Murder (1936): June 1935(?)

An equally long chain of days fixes (Chapter 1) the setting on ‘Friday, June 14th’. Seemingly content with these dates, Carr chooses not to elaborate. Once again, chase the correspondences: the Tuesday-starting common years still fit (1929, 1935), but now they correspond to leap years with Mondays (1912). As previously, 1935 is the obvious candidate.

To Wake the Dead (1938): February 193?

Though the main events take place in February, the coupled reference is one (Chapter 3) to ‘Tuesday, January 12th’ and many more to that effect. This is, however, problematic due to printing date: both common (1926, 1937) and leap years (1932) fit when starting on Friday. Here we have an obvious second contender in 1932; however, the attractiveness of the pre-publishing year is undiminished.

The Crooked Hinge (1938): July 1936(?)

From the outset (Chapter 1) it offers us a series starting with ‘Wednesday, July 29th’. Let’s see where… Common > Thursday (1925, 1931); Leap > Wednesday (1936). Well, not exactly previous, but still…

The Black Spectacles (1939): September 1938

A catastrophe. Because it is so nontrivial to untangle the date that I have to re-read the novel to determine the dating – and thus I read JDC instead of dating him. These are the dates mentioned in here:

Pompeii scene (Chapter 1) is set on ‘Monday, September 19th’.

Hadley’s arrival (Chapter 2) is both ‘the third of October’ and after The Crooked Hinge.

‘Last June 17th’ is the poisoning day (Chapter 2), a ‘Thursday’.

The first is most explicit: it refers to common year on Saturday (1921, 1927, 1938) or leap year on Friday (1932). 17 June is Friday on both, but last year has those on Thursday.

The Problem of the Wire Cage (1939): August 1935(?)

The series in this novel starts (Chapter 3) with ‘Saturday, August 10th’. This corresponds either to an (already seen) common year on Tuesday (1929, 1935) or leap year on Monday (1940). As we see, these both are problematic: either this is set into the future (but in this case not a single mention of the Germans, as opposed to Merrivale’s And So To Murder is glaring), or much towards the past, which is a sub-par solution but more in the line with the intensifying back-setting which will now proceed.

The Man Who Could Not Shudder (1940): March 1937

The book boringly (Chapter 1) suggests itself starting on ‘Saturday, March 13^th, 1937’, thus inaugurating one of two trends: the one of setting stories into the past (which would be clearer for Merrivale’s) However, it does not yet start the one of choosing arbitrary week-days for these (1937 is a common year on Friday, and thus any March 13^th is exactly a Saturday – can we assume at this date Carr stored old calendars, or was he lucky?).

The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941): September 1940

The novel (Chapter 1) goes explicit: ‘the first of September,’ when ‘the heavy raiding of London has not yet begun’. There is no more clear way to refer to 1940.

Death Turns the Tables (1941): April 1936 (sic!)

One of the complicated ones. The series starts (Chapter 4) with ‘Friday evening, the twenty-seventh of April’. This is either a common year on Monday (1923, 1934, or even 1945) or a leap one on Sunday (1928). With this, it becomes unclear what to do with (Chapter 2) the ‘transparent picture hats which were fashionable in that year 1936’ (emphasis mine). An equally clear claim! The 1936 calendar, one of a leap year on Wednesday, gives us 27^th of April as a Monday. Apparently, the time has come to override the date by year: as “April” and week-days are more important, one could read ‘twenty-seventh’ as “twenty-fourth” etc.

Till Death Do Us Part (1944): June 1937(?)

And, at once, a new complication. Carr, apparently, decides that a week-day is enough of a definition and does nothing but (Chapter 3) identifying a ‘Thursday, June tenth’. This is either a common on Friday (1926, 1937, 1943) or a leap on Thursday (1920). A sudden appearance of, though a wartime one, but the year preceding publishing is tempting, but so is 1937, which offers no intersection with the previous cases. The definition (Chapter 1) of the rural England as being ‘in opulence, a year or so before the beginning of Hitler’s war’ seems a way to exclude the 1940’s setting, and 1937 is not contradictory, with ‘beginning of Hitler’s war’ possibly referring to the Anschluss of Austria on March 1938, thought the start of WWII is also a near exact fit.

He Who Whispers (1946): June 1945

Now all the datings become simple and explicit (and too-frequently ignoring week-days!). This is possibly the last time we need a coupling of a week-day. The book (Chapter 1) start with a ‘Friday, June 1st’; it would be a Monday common (1934, 1945) or a Sunday leap (1928); out of these, the presence of the pre-publishing year of 1945 is striking. The fact that (Chapter 1) indeed ‘the war is over’ is confirmed immediately, supporting it: Dr. Fell series, much less than other one, hides away from the time and is willing to proceed into the future.

The Sleeping Sphinx (1947): July 1946

The book (Chapter 1) refers to ‘Wednesday, July tenth’ and the following correspondences. A common for it is Tuesday (1929, 1935, 1946); a leap is Monday (1940). Out of these, the desire to fix 1946 is confirmed, however, by a super-explicit (Chapter 1) detail: ‘April just before the war ended’ is the same as ‘a year and three months and something’ before now!

Below Suspicion (1949): March 1947 (sic!)

We won’t be dating Butler’s solo yet; however, this book is simple. The date (Chapter 2) is given as ‘Tuesday, March 20th’. Common year would be a Monday (1934, 1945), and a leap would be Sunday (1928). However, there is an explicit one: the final chapter features a letter from Dr. Fell, dated ‘22^nd June, 1947’! While it is possible to assume that Carr chose to complete the novel with some correspondence of two years later, both the fact that the war is explicitly over (Chapter 1) and an air of immediate response in the letter itself rather point to the fact that it is the week-day one should ignore, the setting is 1947, and ‘March 20^th’ should be read as “18^th March”.

The Dead Man’s Knock (1958): July 1948

This is the longest venture into the past in the whole Fell canon – and not even to the pre-war one! Despite being published in 1958, the structure of dates, starting (Chapter 1) with ‘Friday evening, the ninth of July,’ which, if common, is Friday (1937, 1943, 1954), and, if leap, is Thursday (1948), hints to a 1948 solution, or, at worst, a 1954 one. Furthermore, the book twice confirms the first date, by mentioning (Chapter 2), say, a ‘new Chevrolet, in that year 1948’.

In Spite of Thunder (1960): August 1956

The novel is set some time into the past: the series (Chapter 3) starts with ‘Friday, tenth August’ which is a common on Monday (1934, 1945, 1951) or a leap on Sunday (1956). The final date is confirmed (Chapter 2) by the ‘present of 1956’.

The House at Satan’s Elbow (1965): June 1964

The series (Chapter 1) starts on ‘Wednesday, June 10’, which could be a Thursday common (1942, 1953, 1959) or a Wednesday leap (1964). The appearance of 1964 is remarkable; and the text (Chapter 1) confirms it ‘during the early spring of 1964’.

Panic in Box C (1966): April 1965

This is very detailed and explicit: the novel (Chapter 1) sets itself in ‘January, ‘65’ and moves itself (Chapter 1) right to ‘Monday, April 19th’, which fits.

Dark of the Moon (1967): May 1965

Nothing is easier. The story (Chapter 1) claims that ‘Sunday, May 2nd’ is ‘today, 1965’ – and is correct. The distance with the previous one is uncomfortable, but feasible.

Radio plays

Who Killed Matthew Corbin? (1939-1940): December 1939 – January 1940

Presented in three parts, on December 7, 1939, January 7, 1940, and January 14, 1940. Besides clearly giving the date ‘1939-1940 (the solution)’ in the script, it aims to recreate a live presentation of an interview with Dr. Gideon Fell, so these exact dates are clearly assumed.

The Black Minute (1940): January? February? 1940

The setting is described as ‘London, 1940’ in the script. The story aired on February 14, and, assuming Carr not setting it into the future, it fits the shrill and windy weather.

The Devil in the Summer-House (1940): October? 1940

The play aired in October. The setting is described as ‘London, 1940’. There are no clues but the setting seems to purport a live translation again.

The Hangman Won’t Wait (1943): February 1943?

Aired on February 9th. Other then that, there are no indications, but the story seems to be set up as a live performance.

The Dead Sleep Lightly (1943): March 1933

The setting is described as ‘London, 1933’, ‘ gusty March evening ten years ago in London’.

Short stories

‘The Wrong Problem’ (1936): summer 1936?

The story gives almost no hints. The events under investigation took place in August, around thirty years ago, which was after Joseph’s mother died in around 1904. The season allows the possibility of seeing swans and seems vaguely summer. The story was published on August 14th. So, the setting could be any summer between 1934 and 1936; without any additional information, I would fix it on the publication year.

‘The Proverbial Murder’ (1943?): September 1939

Douglas G. Greene tries to date the story and come to no better conclusion than ‘shortly before the declaration of war in 1939 or during the so-called Phony War between October 1939 and Spring 1940’. Yet the text explicitly says about a ‘mellow September weather’, so there is only one option.

‘The Locked Room’ (1940): June 1940

A ‘fine June morning’ finds Dr. Fell in his study. The story is published in July. Seton is clearly escaping the war to the US, so the year is also clear.

‘The Incautious Burglar’ (1940): summer 1940?

Published in October. There are no indications except references to the unbearable heat. Like the previous stories, setting in the publication year seems to make sense.

‘Invisible Hands’ (1957): summer 1957?

No indications except a hot night. Published in August 1957, which seems a good spot to place.

Bonus: ‘She Wouldn’t Kill Patience’ by Ooyama Seiichirō (2002): November ?

Frank met Raspail in ‘late October’, which was ‘a month ago’. But it is still ‘a late autumn evening’, so late November and not December. The ‘murder in the clockmaker’s house’, that is, Death-Watch, took place ‘several years ago’. The setting is pre-war, but could likely be any year.

And now for the complete chart: here bold stands for “there is explicit year information in the book, and any possible additional information backs it up”; bold underlined for “there is explicit year information, but something, normally week-days, contradicts it and should be over-ridden”; italic for “the dating can be only deduced by evidence, normally week-days, but this allows us to reconstruct it”; and no marking for those dates which are conjectural even with the evidence.

1931, July: Hag’s Nook
1932, March: The Mad Hatter Mystery
1932, August: The Eight of Swords
1932, September: Death-Watch
1933, March: The Dead Sleep Lightly
1933, May: The Blind Barber
1935, February: The Hollow Man
1935, June: The Arabian Nights Murder
1935, August: The Problem of the Wire Cage
1936, April: Death Turns the Tables
1936, July: The Crooked Hinge
1936, summer (August?): ‘The Wrong Problem’
1937, February: To Wake the Dead
1937, March: The Man Who Could Not Shudder
1937, June: Till Death Do Us Part
1938, September: The Black Spectacles
1939, September: ‘The Proverbial Murder’
1939, December – 1940, January: Who Killed Matthew Corbin?
1940, February: The Black Minute
1940, June: ‘The Locked Room’
1940, summer: ‘The Incautious Burglar’
1940, September: The Case of the Constant Suicides
1940, October: The Devil in the Summer-House
1943, February: The Hangman Won’t Wait
1945, June: He Who Whispers
1946, July: The Sleeping Sphinx
1947, March: Below Suspicion
1948, July: The Dead Man’s Knock
1956, August: In Spite of Thunder
1957, summer: ‘Invisible Hands’
1964, June: The House at Satan’s Elbow
1965, April: Panic in Box C
1965, May: Dark of the Moon

Merrivale for later…

Looking for Elevator Murder Cases! (Found)

24.09.2022: one new entry.

Among all the types of locked room murders and other impossible crimes, a good old elevator murder has a special place for me. However, it doesn’t seem to be that popular. These are the deductive stories about elevators I currently know:

Alan Thomas’ The Death of Laurence Vining (1928) – decribed by Adey as “Death by stabbing in a locked lift”. Via TomCat and Velleic.
George Goodchild’s “McLean of Scotland Yard, Chapter XII” (1929) – described by Adey as “Death by shooting in a closed lift”.
Roger Scarlett’s Murder Among the Angells (1932) – an old man is stabbed while moving in a cloed elevator, despite the size of his wheelchair not even leaving place for another person. Via TomCat and Velleic.
Stanislas-André Steeman’s Six Dead Men (1932) – described by Adey as “Death by stabbing in a closed elevator”.
The Carr & Rhode co-authored novel, Fatal Descent (1939) – described by Adey as “Death by shooting in a closed elevator”.
Clayton Rawson’s “Claws of Satan” (Red Star Mystery – June 1940; as by “Stuart Towne”) – Don Diavolo vanishes from a locked elevator after being arrested. Via TomCat.
Cornell Woolrich’s “Finger of Doom” (Detective Fiction Weekly – 22 June 1940) – described by Skupin as “Disappearance of an innocent girl seen to enter a guarded apartment building after entering the elevator, with all tenants denying having seen her”.
James Yaffe’s “Department of Impossible Crimes” (EQMM – July 1943) – described by Adey as “Death by stabbing in a closed lift between floors and unoccupied but for the victim”.
Bill Krohn’s “The Impossible Murder of Dr. Satanus” (EQMM – April 1965) – described by Adey as “Death by stabbing in a locked lift”.
Josef Škvorecký’s ““A Tried and Proven Method”/”Dobrá stará daktyloskopie” (1966) – described by Adey as “Death by falling from a cable car that arrives at itsdestination empty”.
Edward D. Hoch’s “The Vanishing of Velma” (AHMM – August 1969) – described by Adey as “Disappearance of a girl from a Ferris wheel under observation”.
“The Two Million Clams of Cap’n Jack”, Banacek s01e08 (1973) – described by Skupin as “Disappearance of valuable stock certificate plates, and the guard who carried them, from an elevator”.
“The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express”, Ellery Queen s01e05 (1975) – newspaper publisher shot in a private elevator while being mid-floors.
“The Real Gone Gondola”, The Clue Club s01e03 (1976) – impossible disappearance from a closed moving ski lift under observation. Via TomCat.
William Marshall’s Skullduggery (1979) – described by Skupin as “The mugging of victims in an elevator when it stopped at a floor on which the outside door had been nailed shut”.
Peter Godfrey’s “The Flung-Back Lid” (John Creasey’s Crime Collection, 1979) – Death by stabbing in a closed cable car. Via TomCat.
Phillips Lore’s Murder Behind Closed Doors (1980) – Adey describes impossibility number 4 as “Attempted murder by poison inside a locked elevator”.
Reginald Hill’s “There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union” (volume of the same name, 1987) – described by Adey as “A man is pushed into a lift and promptly disappears through the floor”.
Edward D. Hoch’s “The Way Up to Hades” (AHMM – January 1988) – Described by Skupin as “Disappearance of a man seen to enter and to be travelling in a glass elevator that made no stops between floors”. I desperately forgot about it despite it being awesome and was reminded by TomCat and Velleic.
“Columbo Goes to the Guillotine”, Columbo s08e01 (1989) – problem 1 described by Skupin as “Death by guillotine in a warehouse apartment with door and horizontal bifold elevator door locked on the inside”.
Kate Wilhelm’s Smart House (1989) – disappointing solution, via TomCat.
“Morning: What Goes Up” (comic story), in The Maze Agency Special (1990) – death by shooting in a closed elevator, which victim rode with another innocent person. Via Dr. Nemo.
Christopher Golden’s “The Ultimate Locked Room” (The Ten-Minute Detective, 1997) – described by Skupin as “Death by a blow to the head in an elevator with no-one inside but the victim”.
Three Detective Conan episodes: The Desperate Revival (1999, ch. 251-60, eps. 188-93), Hattori Heiji vs. Kudō Shinichi: Deduction Battle on the Ski Slope! (2005, ch.518-22, ep. 490), Deduction Showdown at the Haunted Hotel (2011, ch. 768-70, eps. 646-7), Everyone Saw (2013, ch. 831-3, eps. 710-711).
Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg’s “Death Rides the Elevator” in Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes, 2000 – described by Skupin as “Decapitation of a man riding in an elevator on his own”.
Detective Conan original episode, The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Colossus (ep. 208, 2000) by Hashiba Chiaki – impossible murder onboard a cable car with the body disappearing and reappearing elsewhere within seconds.
“Turnabout Goodbyes”/”逆転、そしてサヨナラ“, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney entry 4 (2001) – murder by shooting committed in an elevator,the suspect actually remembers inflicting the shot, but is innocent.
“Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival”, Monk s01e05 (2002) – described by Skupin as “Death by stabbing of a man on a Ferris wheel which he rode with another innocent person”.
“Mr Monk Goes To Vegas”, Monk s03e14 (2005) – seemingly an accident in an elevator, the only suspect has ironclad alibi. Via Dr. Nemo.
Paul Halter’s “The Tunnel of Death” (translation in EQMM – March/April 2005) – described by Skupin as “Death by shooting in an enclosed moving escalator when the victim was guarded on all sides”. Via TomCat.
Siobhan Dowd’s The London Eye Mystery (2007) – described by Skupin as “Disappearance of a boy seen to get into one of the pods of the London Eye”.
Maria Hudgins’ “Murder on the London Eye” (EQMM – December 2007) – described by Skupin as “Death by strangling in a capsule on the London Eye when witnesses say the victim was alone”.
Mike Cooper’s “Whiz Bang” (EQMM – September/October 2011) – described by Skupin as “Death by shooting of a man on his own in a glass elevator between floors”. Via TomCat.
Gavin MacDonald’s “Death Lift” (self-published in The Forsyth Saga, 2011) – described by Skupin as “Death by stabbing of a man in a lift, when of the four other people in the building, all alibied each other for the time of the murder”.
“Last Woman Standing”, CSI s13e16 (2013) – described by Skupin as “Death by throat slitting in an elevator of a victim alone, with no murder weapon”.
“Enough Nemesis to Go Around”, Elementary s03e01 (2014) – described by Skupin as “Death by shooting in a locked elevator in a hotel”.
Alexander Prokopovich’s “Death in the Elevator”/”Смерть в лифте” (Убийство в закрытой комнате. Лучшие рассказы, 2014) – a man is found shot after after a non-stop ride in an elevator, but it is not a suicide. A Russian-language non-translated story with an apparently original solution, via Roger Sheringham.
Imamura Masahiro’s Death Among the Undead (2017; has a quasi-impossible murder in an elevator) – via TomCat.
Robert Innes’ Flatline (2018) – after spending twenty-five minute in a elevator stuck between stories, the victim turns out to be dead by drowning. Via TomCat.
“Who Killed the Guy on the Ski Lift?”, The Good Cop s01e07 (2018) – victim stabbed while being on the ski lift only accompanied by a person assumed innocent.
Tom Mead’s Death and the Conjuror (2022) – via Scott. I seriously need to go up-to-date.

Are there any else anywhere at all? Please add elevator murder (and non-murder) stories that you know to this list!

Edward D. Hoch’s Japanese Collections

I adore Edward D. Hoch. And so do the Japanese. That’s why they have released multi-volume complete collections of all Dr. Sam Hawthorne, Nick Velvet, and Simon Ark stories. But also they have been releasing some anthologies that have no correspondence in the Western world. Here are they for your perusal and enjoyment.

Hoch’s Locked Room

密室への招待 (An Invitation to a Locked Room, with an English subtitle Hoch’s Locked Room), released by Hayakawa in 1981, collects twelve stories all featuring impossible crimes.

*The best cover image I could find on the web*

The Impossible “Impossible Crime” (EQMM, April 1968, non-series)
The Leopold Locked Room (EQMM, October 1971, Captain Leopold)
Captain Leopold and the Vanishing Men (EQMM, July 1979, Captain Leopold)
The Spy Who Walked Through Walls (EQMM, November 1966, Rand)
The Man from Nowhere (Famous Detective Stories, June 1956, Simon Ark)
Day of the Wizard (The Saint Mystery Magazine UK, August 1963, Simon Ark)
The Case of the Modern Medusa (EQMM, November 1973, Interpol)
The Magic Bullet (Argosy, January 1969, Harry Ponder)
The Problem of the Old Gristmill (EQMM, March 1975, Dr. Sam Hawthorne)
The Problem of the Locked Caboose (EQMM, May 1976, Dr. Sam Hawthorne)
The Problem of the Voting Booth (EQMM, December 1977, Dr. Sam Hawthorne)
The Problem of the Old Oak Tree (EQMM, July 1978, Dr. Sam Hawthorne)

Hoch’s Dozen

ホックと13人の仲間たち (Hoch and His Thirteen Friends, with an English subtitle Hoch’s Dozen), released by Hayakawa in 1978, collects thirteen stories representative of thirteen different series by Hoch.

The Theft of the Silver Lake Serpent (Argosy British, January 1970, Nick Velvet)
The Ripper of Storyville (The Saint Mystery Magazine UK, September 1962, Ben Snow)
The Lollipop Cop (EQMM, June 1974, Paul Tower)
Game of Skill (The Saint Mystery Magazine UK, December 1963, Father David Noone)
The Problem of the Covered Bridge (EQMM, Decemnber 1974, Dr. Sam Hawthorne)
Village of the Dead (Famous Detective Stories, December 1955, Simon Ark)
The Case of the Third Apostle (EQMM, February 1973, Interpol)
Computer Cops (Crime Prevention in the 30th Century, ed. Hans Stefan Santesson, Walker 1969, Computer Cops)
The Spy Who Came to the Brink (EQMM, December 1965, Rand)
Where There’s Smoke (Manhunt, March 1964, Al Darlan)
The Million-Dollar Jewel Caper (EQMM, Jan 1973, Ulysses S. Byrd)
Siege Perilous (MSMM, April 1971, Harry Ponder)
The People of the Peacock (The Saint Mystery Magazine UK, March 1965, Captain Leopold)

The Problem of the Leather Man and Other Stories

革服の男 (The Leather Man, with an English subtitle The Problem of the Leather Man and Other Stories), released by Kōbunsha in 1999, is an assorted selection of twelve stories. It was the fifth out of eight collections in the series “Anglo-American Short Mystery Masters Selection”; the remaining authors were Ruth Rendell, Clark Howard, Henry Slesar, Lawrence Block, Doug Allyn, Robert L. Fish, and Reginald Hill.

The Killdeer Chronicles (EQMM, Mid-December 1995, non-series)
An Abundance of Airbags (EQMM, July 1995, Susan Holt)
The Case of the Five Coffins (EQMM, April 1978, Interpol)
The Man Who Shot the Werewolf (EQMM, February 1979, Simon Ark)
The Spy Who Came Back from the Dead (EQMM, 2 June 1980, Rand)
Lady of the Impossible (EQMM, 20 May 1981, Sir Gideon Parrot)
Murder at the BoucherCon (EQMM, November 1983, Barney Hamet)
Odds on a Gypsy (EQMM, July 1985, Michael Vlado)
The Problem of the Haunted Tepee (EQMM, December 1990, Ben Snow and Dr. Sam Hawthorne)
The Theft of Leopold’s Badge (EQMM, March 1991, Nick Velvet and Captain Leopold)
The Detective’s Wife (Crosscurrents, October 1900, non-series)
The Problem of the Leather Man (EQMM, December 1992, Dr. Sam Hawthorne)

Honkaku Mystery Best 10: The Best of the Best

(Revised from Blogspot)

This is the ranking of the best book-length honkaku detective writers of Japan, as determined by the results of “Honkaku Mystery Best 10” since the entry of 1997 (that is, based on the publications between January 1996 and October 2021, taking the most recent announcement into consideration).

The methodology was as follows.

I took the data of “Honkaku Mystery Best 10”, as, out of the four main Japanese top-10 ratings, this one is the most honkaku-leaning, frequently providing the results drastically differing from the remaining thre in the terms of more classical and deductive content.
I considered only the writers who appeared in the top-10s more than once (non-flukes); surely there might be some who had only one great novel that took the top place and could thus surpass those more stable but less successful who managed to get to the bottom of Top 10 year after year, but I would be hesitant in adding them until their success is repeated. The total number turned out to be 49 Japanese and 39 translated people¹.
Among those, I added 10 points for each novel or short story collection that grabbed the first place some year, 9 points for a second-place entry, and thus until getting a 10th place, which provided one point. The sum is the final score.

Without further ado, here is the diagram of the results:

Some random observations are in order:
The absolute winner overall is **Maya Yutaka**, who got 81 points over 10 books, four of which got number one! In sheer number, **Shimada Sōji** (26 points) was equal to him, and both **Arisugawa Alice** (73 over 12 books) and **Ashibe Taku** (62 over 13 books) even surpassed, but neither of them was able to stay so consistently beside the top. Meanwhile, he was apparently never translated into a Western language… Arisugawa and **Yonezawa Honobu** (63) complete the top 3. Of the top ten, additionally, **Mitsuda Shinzō** (54) on the 5th, **Atsukawa Tatsumi** (40) on joint 7th-8th and **Utano Shōgo** (37) on the 10th were, to my knowledge, never translated. This is forty percent!
**Atsukawa Tatsumi** (40) on the joint 7th-8th place is the highest-rated newcomer, among those who only started scoring in the 2010s or later. His five books scored every single time between 2018 and 2022. The closest competitors are **Aosaki Yūgo** (27) on the 17th place (four books scored in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017) and **Shirai Tomoyuki** (26) on the 18th place (five books scored in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021).

An alternate rating could be imagined, with the previous score divided by the number of books that got to the rating, to achieve an 1-10 ranged “average score” for a single book by an author in the list. Here it is:

In this case, the top three changes as follows: Imamura Masahiro (9.50), who got just three books, but with a gold, a silver, and a bronze for them; Noridzuki Rintarō (8.67), out of six books by whom four were first or second winners; and, Shizaki Yū (8.50), who is stable over but two books.

What of the translated works? Enjoy!