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
