"She Hated Him with All the Slow, Quiet Force of a Slow, Quiet Nature."

TO JUDGE from all available bibliographical data, today's author could never be classified as a detective fiction author. Nevertheless, she did manage to produce in her six decades of writing at least one clever item—a prime example, by the way, of British understatement—that caught the attention of Ellery Queen (the editor) some forty years after its first publication . . .

"The Liqueur Glass."

By Phyllis Bottome (1884-1963; Wikipedia HERE; Fadedpage HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and Tablet HERE).

First appearance: The Smart Set, March 1915 (today's text).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Reprinted many times (FictionMags data):

  The Golden Book Magazine #88, April 1932

  The Evening Standard, July 21, 1934

  Argosy (U.K.), June 1942

  Suspense Stories, 1945

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine #22, May 1945

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine “Overseas Edition for the Armed Forces” #22, May 1945

  Alfred Hitchcock’s Fireside Book of Suspense, 1947

  Handbook for Poisoners, 1951

  Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 14 Suspense Stories to Play Russian Roulette By, 1964

  13 Ways to Kill a Man, 1965

  Ms. Mysteries, 1976

  Masterpieces of Mystery: Stories Not to Be Missed, 1978

  Murder by the Glass, 1994

  Saved by the Belle, 2013

  Before Black Mask, 2013

  Homefront Horrors, 2016

  Brave Women, 2022.

Short short story (7 pages as a PDF).

Online at Fadedpage (HERE) and The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 75).

   "She was not in the least touched by the sight of her wedding ring. Her marriage had been an accident, one of those accidents that happened frequently twenty years ago, and which happen, though more seldom, now. An unhappy blunder of ignorance, inexperience and family pressure."

WHENEVER a wife gets fed up with her husband, her options for dealing with the situation would seem to be virtually without limit. What to do? That's self-evident. How to do it? Well, there is a solution that women have been employing for centuries to deal with refractory men, and today's character decides it's finally time to use it . . .

Principal characters:

~ Mrs. Henry Watkins, Henry Watkins, Hetty and Paul, and the Vicar. 

References:

- "she did not really see St. Peter or notice his sleight-of-hand preoccupation with the fish" (Wikipedia HERE and HERE).

- “Oh, God, Our Help in Ages Past” (Wikipedia HERE).

- "Jael’s reception of Sisera" (Wikipedia HERE and HERE).

- "sloe gin" (Wikipedia HERE).

- "death by misadventure" (Wikipedia HERE).

Resources:

- Phyllis Bottome's contributions were capsulized by The Spectator:

  "In her 60-year career she published 33 novels, several of them bestsellers, short stories, essays, biographies and memoirs. She lectured widely in Britain and America. She was translated into nine languages. Her 1937 novel The Mortal Storm predicted the horrific consequences of Fascism. MGM made a film of it, starring James Stewart — the studio’s first openly anti-Nazi film. It premiered in America in 1940, just as Hitler’s troops entered Paris, and was arguably influential in persuading the US to abandon its isolationist stance." — The Spectator (from Fadedpage)

  There's more about The Mortal Storm (HERE Wikipedia).

- We've lost count of how many detecfic stories involve poisonings; here are just a random few:

  Jean-Toussaint Samat's "Murder à la Carte" (HERE)

  Max Afford's "Poison Can Be Puzzling" (HERE)

  Bernard Capes's "The Poison Bottle" (HERE)

  Arthur B. Reeves's "The Curio Shop" (HERE)

  Ralph Durand's "The Carlton Theater Mystery" (HERE)

  H. G. Wells's "The Thumbmark" (HERE)

  . . . and Steve Fisher's "If Christmas Comes" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~