FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #522: CHALLENGE THE IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL PROBLEMS OF DR. SAM HAWTHORNE By Edward D. Hoch


Crippen & Landru published this final collection of Edward D. Hoch’s Dr. Sam Hawthorne mystery stories in 2018, but I finally got around to reading it. Ed Hoch wrote a story per issue for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine for decades. In all, Hoch published over 900 puzzle stories over his long career. He featured several characters: Simon Ark, a man who claims to be a 2,000 year old Coptic priest; Jeffery Rand, a British spy; Nick Velvet, a professional thief who only steals objects of no value; Captain Leopold, a policeman in a city that resembles Hoch’s native Rochester, New York; Michael Vlado, king of a small tribe of Romanian Gypsies; Ben Snow, a Mystery-Western detective; Alexander Swift, a trouble-shooting detective for George Washington; Susan Holt, who works in promotions for a department store and travels around the world making business deals while solving mysteries; and, of course, Dr. Sam Hawthorne, a country doctor with a skill set for solving impossible crimes.

Josh Pashter’s excellent introduction gives a detailed history of the Dr. Sam Hawthorne stories and their evolution over the years. If you’re a fan of impossible crimes and wonderful writing, you need a copy of Challenge the Impossible. You can read my review of other Dr. Sam Hawthorne collection, Diagnosis: Impossible, here. And you can read my review of The Velvet Touch, a collection of Nick Velvet stories, here. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION By Josh Pachter 7
Problem of Annabel’s ark — 11
Problem of the potting shed — 27
Problem of the yellow wallpaper — 45
Problem of the haunted hospital — 61
Problem of the traveler’s tale — 77
Problem of Bailey’s buzzard — 93
Problem of the interrupted seance — 110
Problem of the candidate’s cabin — 128
Problem of the black cloiser — 147
Problem of the secret passage — 161
Problem of the devil’s orchard — 176
Problem of the shepherd’s ring — 191
Problem of the suicide cottage — 205
Problem of the summer snowman — 220
Problem of the secret patient — 233
Dr. Sam Hawthorne checklist — 249

12 thoughts on “FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #522: CHALLENGE THE IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL PROBLEMS OF DR. SAM HAWTHORNE By Edward D. Hoch

  1. Jeff Meyerson

    I would certainly give this and all the other Hawthorne collections of Hoch’s an A score. Also worth mentioning: Hoch set the first stories in this series in the 1920s, and each one advances by a few months until we are in World War II.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, I admire Crippen & Landru, one of the best small mystery presses. I own many of their books. CHALLENGE THE IMPOSSIBLE is another wonderful addition to their numerous Ed Hoch collections.

      Reply
  2. Patti Abbott

    How in the world could he come up with so many puzzles. Simply a different sort of brain than most anyone.

    Reply
  3. Jeff Meyerson

    As a subscriber (as Rick mentioned), I get all of their books. And unlike everything else, I have read all of them too! They aren’t all up to Hoch’s standard, perhaps, but all are worth reading at least once.

    Reply
  4. Jeff Meyerson

    I have their collections of stories featuring Michael Vlado, Nick Velvet, Jeffery Rand, and Ben Snow. Plus, of course, the five Sam Hawthorne collections.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I have some, but not all, of the Crippen & Landru Hoch collections. I’m hoping they reprint some of the older titles so I can buy them.

      Reply
  5. Todd Mason

    He was perhaps the most devoted of writers to keeping certain aspects of “golden age” detection thriving. And a very nice guy on my opportunity to speak with him, and very much interested in giving credit to Robert A. W. Lowndes for “discovering” him, as a crime-fiction editor.

    As Lowndes did Carol Emshwiller, Stephen King and, at least in terms of publishing him first in a pro context, F. Paul Wilson. And publishing work that others were genuinely afraid to publish (“William Tenn”‘s “The Liberation of Earth”) or thought too “difficult” to publish (some of James Blish’s and, I believe, C. M. Kornbluth’s stories). On budgets that would insult beggars. (Wilson had a story already sold but not yet published by ANALOG…much as John W. Campbell had previously bought Kate Wilhelm’s first sale, “The Mile-Long Spaceship”, but didn’t get it into print till after the industrious Cele Goldsmith had pulled Wilhelm’s “The Pint-Sized Genie” out of the slushpile at FANTASTIC and gotten it by her nonchalant…or, actually negligent…boss “editor” Paul Fairman and into print.)

    And Doug is indeed doing excellent work at Crippen & Landru.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Todd, I’ve read an interview where Doug talked about some of the plans Crippen & Landru are considering. Crippen & Landru is an excellent small press and I intend on buying a lot of their future books. I hope they continue to publish more of Ed Hoch’s work. There are plenty of uncollected stories still to be preserved between covers!

      Reply

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