Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 5, No. 19, November 1944

Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 5, No. 19, November 1944

William Wilson’s Racket by John Dickson Carr

After spending half a lifetime collecting the detective short story, your Editor has come to the conclusion that there are fifty key books in the field. By key books I mean those books which are outstanding for any of three reasons: sheer quality of contents, historical significance and/or rarity of first edition.

Your Editor has gone further in his bibliographic analysis and divided the fifty books into seven “periods” Chronologically these major periods could be named: Pre-Poe; Poe and Pre-Doyle; Doyle Era; 20th Century, First Decade; 20th Century, Second Decade; 20th Century, Moderns; and 20th Century, Contemporaries. The last group takes in the fourth decade to date — from 1930 to the present.

The books in this Contemporary Period have not, of course, had the opportunity to withstand the acid test of time. But there can be no doubt that one of them — Carter Dickson’s [John Dickson Carps] THE DEPARTMENT OF QUEER COMPLAINTS, published in 1940 — will pass every test and remain one of the important books of modern detective short stories. The volume contains eleven tales of which the first seven concern Colonel March, head of the Scotland Yard Department whose curious name serves as the tide of the book.

All of which is a terse and somewhat academic preamble to a startling announcement — a discovery of epic importance to the American fan. Yes, you may indeed hold your breath — for did you know that there are two Colonel March short stories which were not included in Mr. Carr’s book? These two stories, believe it or not, have never been published in the United States!

We bring one of them to you now — “William Wilson’s Racket” — and we have scheduled the second for an early issue.

In “William Wilson’s Racket,” two great series of detective-mystery stories seem to blend and intermingle. For a fleeting moment Mr. Carr’s THE DEPARTMENT OF QUEER COMPLAINTS and Mr. Chesterton’s the CLUB OF QUEER TRADES seem to meet on the Strand of Detection Town, shake hands, clap each other on the shoulder, chuckle loud enough to be heard all the way to America, and then, arm in arm, strut off together. Could a happier twosome be imagined in all the annals of detective literature?

* * *

Colonel March, of the Department of Queer Complaints, has entertained many an odd sort of visitor in his office at New Scotland Yard. But it is seldom that he entertains a Visitor so socially distinguished as Lady Patricia Mortlake, only daughter of the Earl of Cray.