Thomas Godfrey (Ed)
Read Thomas Godfrey (Ed) Online
Authors: Murder for Christmas
Edited by Thomas Godfrey
Illustrated by Gahan
Wilson
Castle books
This
edition published in 2007 by CASTLE BOOKS a division of Book Sales, Inc., 114
Northfield Avenue, Edison, New Jersey 08837
This
edition published by arrangement with and permission of Otto Penzler LLC, 58
Warren Street, New York, New York 10007
Copyright
© 1982 by The Mysterious Press All cartoons copyright © by Gahan Wilson
Originally
published in 1982 by the Mysterious Press.
All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Grateful
acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following:
“Back
for Christmas” by John Collier. Copyright © by John Collier. Reprinted by
permission of A. D. Peters & Co. Ltd.
“Mr.
Big” by Woody Allen. Copyright © by Woody Allen. Reprinted by permission of
Random House, Inc.
“The
Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” (The Theft of the Royal Ruby). Copyright ©
1960 by Agatha Christie, Ltd., Copyright © 1961 by Christie Copyrights Trust.
Reprinted by permission of Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. from
Double
Sin and Other Stories
by Agatha Christie.
“Cambric
Tea” by Marjorie Bowen. Copyright © by Gabrielle Margaret Vere Campbell Long.
Reprinted by permission of Stella Jonckheere.
“Death
on Christmas Eve” by Stanley Ellin. Copyright © 1950 by Stanley Ellin.
Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.
“A
Christmas Tragedy” by Baroness Orczy. Copyright © by Emmusra Orczy. Reprinted
by permission of A. P. Watt & Son and the Estate of Baroness Orczy.
“Silent
Night” by Baynard Kendrick. Copyright © by Baynard Kendrick. Reprinted by
permission of Collier Associates and Mrs. Baynard Kendrick.
“The
Stolen Christmas Box” by Lillian de la Torre. Copyright © 1945, 1973 by Lillian
de la Torre. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.
“Death
on the Air” by Ngaio Marsh. Copyright © 1947 by the American Mercury, Inc.
Renewed 1975 by Ngaio Marsh. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates,
Inc.
“Inspector
Ghote and the Miracle Baby” by H. R. F. Keating. Copyright © by H. R. F.
Keating. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Maigret’s
Christmas” by Georges Simenon. Translated by Lawrence Blochman, from
A
Treasury of Great Mysteries,
ed. Haycraft and Beecroft, Simon
& Schuster 1957. Copyright © 1951 by Georges Simenon and reprinted with his
permission and Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc. acting on behalf of the
author.
“The
Adventure of the Dauphin’s Doll” by Ellery Queen. Copyright © by Ellery Queen.
Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, Scott Meredith
Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022.
“The
Necklace of Pearls” from
Lord Peter
by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Copyright © 1933 by Dorothy Leigh Sayers Fleming. Renewed by Lloyd’s Bank Ltd.,
Executors. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.
“Blind
Man’s Hood” from
The Department of Queer Complaints
by Carter Dickson. Copyright ©
1940 by William Morrow and Company, Inc. Renewed 1968 by John Dickson Carr.
Reprinted by permission of William Morrow and Company.
“Christmas
is for Cops” by Edward D. Hoch. Copyright © by Edward D. Hoch. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
“The
Case is Altered” by Margery Alllngham. Copyright © 1949 by Margery Allingham.
Reprinted by permission of Paul R. Reynolds, Inc., 12 East 41st Street, New
York, NY 10017.
“Christmas
Party” by Rex Stout. From
And Four to Go
by Rex Stout. Copyright ©
1956, 1957 by Rex Stout. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin, Inc.
“The
Flying Stars” by G. K. Chesterton. Copyright © 1911 by Dodd, Mead &
Company. Copyright renewed 1938 by Frances B. Chesterton. Reprinted by
permission of Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. from
The Innocence of Father Brown
by G. K. Chesterton.
“Ring
Out, Wild Bells” by D. B. Wyndham Lewis. Copyright © by D. B. Wyndham Lewis.
Reprinted by permission of A. D. Peters Ltd.
LIBRARY
OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Murder
for Christmas/edited by Thomas Godfrey; illustrated by Gahan Wilson, p. cm
1. Detective and mystery stories,
English. 2. Detective and mystery stories, American. 3. Christmas stories,
English. 4. Christmas stories, American. I. Godfrey, Thomas 1945-PR1309. D4M87
1989 823’. 087208—dc20 89-15190
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-0-7858-2307-0
ISBN-10: 0-7858-2307-7
Printed in the United States of
America
To
Kathy
The Best Thing that ever
Happened to me
Back
for Christmas - John Collier
The
Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The
Adventure of the Christmas Pudding - Agatha Christie
Dancing
Dan’s Christmas - Damon Runyon
Death
on Christmas Eve - Stanley Ellin
A
Christmas Tragedy - Baroness Orczy
Silent
Night - Baynard Kendrick
The
Stolen Christmas Box - Lillian de la Torre
A
Chaparral Christmas Gift - O. Henry
Inspector
Ghote and the Miracle Baby - H. R. F. Keating
Maigret’s
Christmas - Georges Simenon
To
be Taken with a Grain of Salt - Charles Dickens
The
Adventure of The Dauphin’s Doll - Ellery Queen
Markheim
- Robert Louis Stevenson
The
Necklace of Pearls - Dorothy L. Sayers
Blind
Man’s Hood - Carter Dickson
Christmas
is for Cops - Edward D. Hoch
The
Thieves who Couldn’t Help Sneezing - Thomas Hardy
The
Case is Altered - Margery Allingham
The
Flying Stars - G. K. Chesterton
Ring
Out, Wild Bells - D. B. Wyndham Lewis
Come chill the cockles of your heart
while such masters of evil as Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen and Robert Louis
Stevenson spread the true Spirit of Christmas. Come warm your hands in the
blazing Yuletide fire while John Dickson Carr, Dorothy L. Sayers and Thomas
Hardy suggest ways to handle that hard-to-shop-for person on your list.
Actually it was Charles Dickens who
first realized the natural attraction of crime for Christmas when he was
writing for
Household Words
and its successor
All Year Round
in the
mid-nineteenth century.
A Christmas Carol
is his most famous
seasonal tale, but there were others with more glorious wrongdoing, such as “To
be Taken with a Grain of Salt,” the neglected gem in our volume. He has even
provided us with a ghost. Obviously, the popularizer of “Christmas, bah humbug”
knew he had latched on to a good thing.
In some ways, Dickens was the
founder of the English Country House School of Crime Writing. Later
distinguished graduates included Baroness Emmuska Orczy (a foreign exchange
student, ) Marjorie Bowen, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers
and Dame Agatha Christie, who graduated Summa cum Laudanum. The school made
frequent Christmas assignments, and the ladies mentioned above are all
represented by one of their distinguished efforts.
