I’ve been a fan of Ed Hoch’s clever mystery stories for decades. Hoch had a story in every issues of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine from 1973 until his death in 2008. Along the way, Hoch showed how gifted he was by creating a number of mystery series. There’s Nick Velvet who only steals items that have no monetary value. There is Jeffery Rand’s code and cipher puzzles. I love Ben Snow and his historical Western mysteries. Captain Leopold’s police procedural mysteries bring me delight. And, of course, there is Dr. Sam Hawthorne who specializes in solving locked room cases.
But I’ve always loved the off-beat Simon Ark mysteries. Ark implies he’s a couple of thousand years old. When a man claims the Devil is trying to kill him, only Simon Ark can figure out what is really going on. When astronauts start to die under bizarre circumstances, it’s Simon Ark who solves the riddles. Crippen & Landru’s Funeral in the Fog collects sixteen Simon Ark stories. If you’re looking for some unusual and ingenious mysteries, this is the book for you! Are you an Ed Hoch fan? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Gigi Pandian — 9
Day of the Wizard — 11
Funeral in the Fog — 37
The Avenger from Outer Space — 52
The Weaon Out of the Past — 70
The Sorceress of the Sea — 87
The House of a Hundred Birds — 105
Prisoner of Zerfall — 124
The S. S. S. — 141
The Way Up to Hades — 156
The Virgins of Valentine — 174
The Stalker of Souls –190
The Society of the Scar — 208
No Blood for a Vampire — 224
The Graveyard Ghoul — 240
Master of Miracles — 255
The Gravesend Trumpet — 275
Sources — 291
Yes, a big Hoch fan. I’ve read all the collections Crippen & Landru has published (including this one), any others I could find, plus many in EQMM and AHMM. I think the Dr. Sam Hawthorne series is my favorite, but all of his are well worth reading. Gypsy King Michael Vlado is another series character (collected by Crippen & Landru in IRON ANGEL & Other Tales of the Gypsy Sleuth). I’ve also read stories about Revolutionary War spy Alexander Swift, department store executive and troubleshooter Susan Holt, and international couriers Stanton and Ives (starting with “Courier and Ives”).
Jeff, I’m trying to read one or two of Hoch’s collections each year. It will be a sad day when I’ve read them all. Hoch was one of my favorite mystery writers. I remember being sad when I read the last 87th Precinct novel by Ed McBain.
The man was a genius and a hell of a writer. Simon Ark is my favorite character by Hoch, followed by Ben Snow and Dr. Sam, with his many other characters not far behind. I do prefer the earlier stories in the series but they are all very good. Hoch published 49 of them. This is the fourth collection of Simon Ark stories, so there is room for more.
The collections: CITY OF BRASS AND OTHER SIMON ARK STORIES (Leisure Books, 1971), THE JUDGES OF HADES (Leisure Books, 1971), THE QUESTS OF SIMON ARK (Mysterious Press, 1984) , FUNERAL IN THE FOG (Crippen & Landrau, 2020)
Jerry, Simon Ark is my favorite Hoch series, too! I love the bizarre mysteries and off-beat situations. I didn’t know there were 49 Simon Ark stories. Thanks for that info!
Jerry, for whatever reason, the two Leisure Books collections used to be easily available in secondhand bookshops in Britain. I would always pick them up whenever I saw a copy.
Jeff, those Leisure Books collections seldom showed up around here. Like you, I used to pick them up when traveling to give to other Hoch fans.
An author long on my TBR list. Has he written any novels too?
Neeru, Hoch published five novels. THE SHATTERED RAVEN (1970) was about a murder at the Mystery Writers of America. THE BLUE MOVIE MURDERS (1973, as by “Ellery Queen”) was one of a number of non-eq novels ghosted by various writers. THE TRANSVECTION MACHINE (1970), THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HAND (1973), and THE FRANKENSTEIN FACTORY (1975) were all science fiction mysteries about a mid-21st century “Computer Cops.” All were paperback originals and I doubt if ny were reprinted in hardcover. To my mind, these five are all lesser Hoch — the short story was the medium where he really shone.
neeru, Jerry gives a more complete answer to your question than I did. I forgot about Hoch’s SF novels which–as Jerry notes–are not his best work. Jerry did neglect to mention that reading Hoch short stories can be addictive!
Jerry, thank you for a more complete answer to neeru’s question. I completely forgot about Hoch’s SF novels.
Thank you so much, Jerry for this detailed answer. I have read 2 non-eq novels ghost-written by others and didn’t enjoy them. Going by the titles, The Shattered Raven and The Fellowship of the Hand seem pretty interesting but I think I’ll start with the stories.
neeru, Hoch was mostly a short story writer, but he did publish a couple of novels:
The Shattered Raven, 1970. ISBN 0709112300
Barney Hamet investigates a murder at the Mystery Writers of America.
The Blue Movie Murders, 1973. ISBN 0575015950
(as Ellery Queen). “Trouble shooter” Mike McCall investigates the murder of a film producer.
Thank you George. Going by what Jerry has written above, I think it’d be better to start with his short stories. The Simon Ark and the Sam Hawthorne mentioned by you seem to be the most appealing stories.
neeru, you can’t go wrong with reading stories about Simon Ark and Dr. Sam Hawthorne!
I have read quite a few of the C&L collections. Fun stuff.
Rick, Hoch’s quality control and consistency always amazes me! He wrote hundreds of stories and constantly delivered clever plots and entertaining characters.
George, I have not read many of Hoch’s stories, and I wish I had bought more of the Crippen and Landru collections of his short stories as they came out. Some are now very expensive. This one sounds very intriguing.
Tracy, your local public Library may have some of the Hoch collections. Some used bookstores may have them, too. But, as you say, they can be pricy.
I like his work and I liked the man! He was a very nice person!
Bob, I spoke with Ed Hoch when he attended a couple BOUCHERCONS that I was at. As you say, Hoch was a very nice person and approachable.
Some of you here will recall that years ago I told a story about an impossible crime situation I suggested to Ed at the 1980 Bouchercon, and that he later used it in a Simon Ark story published in EQMM, “The Witch of Park Avenue”. The Hoch stories were always my first stop in a new EQMM. He was a genial man and generous with his time at Bouchercons and otherwise in the mystery world.
Art, I’m glad you reminded me about your influence in “The Witch of Park Avenue.” It’s collected in THE QUESTS OF SIMON ARK.
Further confirmation of the geniality of Hoch (“hoke” or “hoak”–“long” O sound) to those who approached him at a Bouchercon. He was also very happy that I knew that Robert A. W. Lowndes had been his editorial “discoverer”, publishing a lot of his earliest work in the Columbia crime-fiction magazines (Hoch and Carol Emshwiller being Lowndes’s biggest-deal “discoveries” in the 1950s, Stephen King and F. Paul Wilson being among the first Lowndes published professionally in the ’60s). The earlier Simon Ark stories were a mainstay of the Columbia magazines…
(I never would’ve guessed it was “Hoke” until not long before I met him…I assumed “hotch” or “hock”–the latter in the manner of Robert Bloch.)
I’ve been reading his work avidly since encountering his “The Oblong Room” (one of the most off-trail and most widely-loved Leopold stories) in one of the Robert Arthur ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: volumes in my youth…
Todd, I love “The Oblong Room,” too!
From your reply on Jerry’s blog, here’s some lowdown on the US fiction magazine THE BLACK CAT:
http://www.philsp.com/data/data061.html#BLACKCAT1895
The length of its run and its contents are pretty impressive. Not a pulp, but a contemporary of them.
Todd, thanks for the link!