The original Rogues’ Gallery was published by Little, Brown in 1945. The Table of Contents below is from that edition. In the early 1960s, DELL Books published Ellery Queen’s Rogues’ Gallery 1 (I’ve never seen Rogues’ Gallery 2). I included the page numbers from the paperback edition below.
I’ve always liked Agatha Christie’s “Accident” with its snarky ending. Ben Hecht’s “The Fifteen Murderers” stunned me with its plot twist. It will also give you a different view of doctors.
It was fun to reread John Dickson Carr’s “Mr. Markham, Antique Dealer” with the patented Carr trickery. My favorite story in this anthology was O. Henry’s “A Personal Magnet” with Henry’s cunning deceptions. I may have to go hunting for the original edition of Rogues’ Gallery. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Ruffian’s wife / Dashiell Hammett —
Accident / Agatha Christie — 9
Portrait of a murderer / Q. Patrick —
Murder by mail / Howard Spring —
Mr. Bowley’s Sunday evening / H.C. Bailey — 45
The fifteen murderers / Ben Hecht — 59
Mr. Markham, antique dealer / John Dickson Carr — 19
Murder! / Arnold Bennett —
The diamond links / Grant Allen —
A trap to catch a cracksman / E.W. Hornung — 81
Edith Swan-Neck / Maurice Leblanc —
The infallible Godahl / Frederick Irving Anderson —
The seventy-fourth diamond / Edgar Wallace —
The St. Jocasta tapestries / Roy Vickers —
A personal magnet / O. Henry — 100
The Quagg Peerless Sciatacata Co. / George Randolph Chester — 107
The Colonel gives a party / Everett Rhode Castle —
Sam and his Yankee allies / Eric Knight —
The men of the jimmy / Melville Davisson Post —
The people versus Kelleher / Thomas McMorrow — 168
The Salisbury assizes / H.B. Marriott Watson —
The brazen serpent / R. Austin Freeman — 130
The red herring / William Hope Hodgson —
The cablegram / T.S. Stribling — 149
Thubway tham, thvilian / Johnston McCulley — 192
Adventures of Andrew Land / Charles J. Finger —
The blind spot / Leslie Charteris — 207
Ellery Queen, swindler / Ellery Queen —
The showdown / “Pat Hand” —
The willow walk / Sinclair Lewis —
Town wanted / Fredric Brown –221
Good one. I’m pretty sure I read the original anthology back when I was reading Queen and the books they edited. Christie did have some clever short stories.
Jeff, I kick myself for not buying the original ROGUES’ GALLERY when it was a common book. I saw it many times and passed on it. At those times, I was more into novels than short story anthologies.
Ah. It does seem unlikely Dell would buy half the book, or that V1 in mm pb would stiff That badly. Did Lee contribute to editing any of the EQ products? Aside from devising lists, I suspect he didn’t.
Todd, there might be an ELLERY QUEEN’S ROGUES’ GALLERY 2 out there, but I’ve never seen it. A brief Internet search came up empty. But, there are plenty of copies of the original hardcover ROGUES’ GALLERY for sale online at decent prices.
The early themed EQ anthologies, as well as the early issues of EQMM, provided a crash course in the history of the genre in all its variety and this anthology is no exception. I read this one years ago: Raffles, Colonel Clay, Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, Sam Small (The Flying Yorkshireman), Colonel Flack, Thubway Tham, The Saint, Arsene Lupin…how can you go wrong? And Queen’s introductions to each story are fascinating on their own.
So, yes, George. Pick up a copy of the 1945 hardbound edition. You won’t be sorry.
Jerry, with your strong recommendation, I’ll order the original ROGUES’ GALLERY now!
Of the genres I’ve been attracted to at one time or another–SF, horror, mysteries and, to a lesser extent, fantasy– the mystery genre is the only one where I’ve never really gotten into the shorter forms. I’ll pick up an anthology here and there, mostly in the Best American Mystery Stories series, and read a few by writers I like for their novels, but these are few and far between. At some point in the Nineties I even subscribed to EQMM for a year or so, but found that they mostly went unread. I have absolutely no explanation for this.
Michael, for many years I was a novel-oriented reader. Then Jeff Meyerson told me about his habit of reading a short story each day. That sounded like fun so I started reading short stories daily, too. And, in order to read that many short stories, I needed to buy more short story collections and anthologies. Now, Patti Abbott has her WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES feature so I focus on that each week.
Nice one. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a copy.
Rick, I’ve had this copy for decades. I’m trying hard to read books I’ve had on my shelves for a LONG time. I enjoyed this paperback version, but I’m going to take Jerry’s advice and buy the complete hardcover edition which is over 500 pages!
I read all of Sinclair Lewis’ novels but never a short story, Intriguing.
Patti, “Ellery Queen” tried to add “Big Name” writers like Sinclair Lewis in these early mystery collections to give the genre more legitimacy.
That does look like a great collection with a lot of variety in the authors.
Tracy, I enjoyed the DELL paperback with half the stories from the hardcover edition. Jerry House recommended the original edition so I’m going to acquire it soon.
Ah, I did not get that on my first read through. Either would be a good read, I will keep my eyes open at book sales, you never know.
Of course I know most of the authors but the story titles mean nothing to me. It’s probably a case of out of sight out of mind – or I read just too much for my limited memory?
I also preferred novels and still fondly remember my three sources for mystery/detective stuff:
The older neighbour who let me in his library every afternoon after 4 pm while I was at school – but I was not allowed to take home a book!.
The relative in Munich who read a crime novel every day and then put them away. So when I was a student I would visit him once or twice a year and get a large pile of books to take home. Sometimes I even sold hem for a few Pfennig …
And then of course the America House
Wolf, I have to keep track of my reading in an EXCEL spreadsheet.
The only one of these old Queen anthologies I have is 101 Years’ Entertainment, which is great. I love short stories, but I don’t like the gimmick mystery stories, the ones that are just weird-unexplainable-event-followed-by-brilliant-solution-through-obscure-knowledge, with little other story value. I want the story!
Just finished Dark River, the third Tuva Moodyson novel by Will Dean. Love these. Now I’m reading short stuff, rotating through several books. I’m reading three random Best American books, two of which I had started years ago and am picking up where the bookmarks are. Best American Short Stories 2005, which is the one I had never started. I usually don’t get the Short Stories ones, just because I seldom get around to reading them; I got this because Michael Chabon edited it. Still early in it, but good so far. Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, which I’d read a bunch of earlier and have finished now and which was great. Best American Travel Writing 2015, which had a bookmark around page 40. (Just a coincidence that two of these three were from 2015.) These books are surprisingly good, not mere travelogues but meaty essays brought out by traveling.
Also the Jan/Feb 2021Fantasy & Science Fiction, and delving into the past by rereading the Ellison anthology Dangerous Visions from 1967. This has proven to be a big disappointment. I’m not quite halfway through at the moment, and I’ve only found a few stories I’ve enjoyed. Mostly it’s been just “meh” — not at all what I expected.
Jeff, I remember having the same reaction to DANGEROUS VISIONS when I read it. I wondered what all the fuss was about.
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Hi George, I finished the anthology today. I read the edition published by Faber which didn’t have the 15 murderers story. Since you rate it highly, I am wondering why it was dropped. Here’s my review of it: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpress.com/2022/12/08/short-story-wednesday-rogues-gallery-the-great-criminals-of-modern-fiction-ed-by-ellery-queen-1945/
Neeru, that’s an excellent review! Usually stories are dropped because of space requirements.