Ellery Queen's Magicians of Mystery (1976) by Ellery Queen

Author:Ellery Queen [Queen, Ellery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I think I have invented a new kind of procedural detective story—what might be termed a “procedural fantasy.” While it uses the dream “story-within-a-story” which antedates even William Langland’s The Vision of Pierce Plowman (1550), it is also a Files Series procedural.

There are numerous clues in the story that suggest it is a dream, beginning with Kearny and Jimmy Wright walking past Kearny’s car as if it doesn’t exist in the time continuum the two men now inhabit. Some clues—for example, candles on Christmas trees—should be apparent to all readers; others—such as the nonexistent Bay Bridge—would obviously have more significance to those who are familiar with San Francisco.

Because the story grew out of my personal conviction that San-Francisco-in-the-fog still belongs to Dashiell Hammett, I have inserted quite a few clues pointing to the identity of Jimmy Wright.

First, the plot was frankly adapted from Hammett’s masterly Continental Op story, The Scorched Face; even DKA’s client (Golden Gate Trust) was borrowed from it, as were the first names of other characters.

Next, the detective on stakeout was obviously that old Continental hand, Dick Foley. Besides retaining his first name, I described him essentially as Hammett did in Red Harvest. (It was in Red Harvest, you’ll remember, that Foley suspected the Continental Op of murder and was sent away with the remark, “I’ve got enough to do without having to watch you.”)

As for Jimmy Wright himself, his physical description, reiterated throughout Beyond the Shadow, is that of the Continental Op. His slang is the Op’s slang, not that of Kearny’s age: “private tin” for private investigator; “bird” for a man (instead of a girl); and “let’s dust” instead of today’s hipper “let’s split.”

To those who may claim I have cheated in giving him any name at all (we know the Continental Op was nameless in Hammett’s tales), I would like to point out that the name itself is the clinching proof of his identity. As evidence I submit the editorial remarks of Ellery Queen which preceded Who Killed Bob Teal? in the July 1947 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (also included in the Dashiell Hammett original paperback titled Dead Yellow Women, 1947):

“One night Dashiell Hammett and your Editor were sitting in Lüchow’s Restaurant on 14th Street. We had sampled various liquids. . .Ah, those amber fluids—they set the tongue to padding. Anyway, about this character known as the Continental Op: who was he, really? And Dash gave us the lowdown. The Continental Op is based on a real-life person—James (Jimmy) Wright, Assistant Superintendent, in the good old days, of Pinkerton’s Baltimore Agency, under whom Dashiell Hammett actually worked. . .”

Q.E.D.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.