"You've Been Reading Too Many of Those Nero Wolfe Stories"

AS WE'VE TOLD you several times already, the success of a parody or a pastiche depends largely on the reader's familiarity with the author and/or the works being parodied or pastiched. If, therefore, you're not familiar with the author who invented Nero Wolfe or his oeuvre, you might not get as much as you could from . . .

"The Woman Who Read Rex Stout."

By William Brittain (1930-2011; Wikipedia HERE and HERE; Mike Grost's megasite HERE).

First appearance: EQMM, July 1966.

(Note: Immediately followed by Stout's "The Dazzle Dan Murder Case" on page 99.)

Reprinted in The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe (2020; for sale HERE; GoodReads reviews HERE).

Short short story (6 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 93.)

(Note: Text faded but legible. May need magnification.)

   "What kind of a screwball would murder a girl like Lili and leave a message like that?"

THE SNAKE CHARMER in a traveling carnival is strangled, and there isn't a suspicious-looking boa constrictor in sight. One of the carnies decides to adopt the sleuthing methods of a well-upholstered Montenegrin and ferret out the murderer. While it seems like a long shot, remember what Yogi said: It isn't over until the You-Know-Who sings—or, in this case, nails the perp . . .

Principal characters:

~ Robert Kirby, the narrator ("I only tip the scales at 75 pounds"), Gert ("I'm going on the assumption that the murderer is one of us"), Mel ("flipped the metal plate over in his hand"), Lili ("our snake charmer"), Ferdie ("our strongman"), Zeno ("The sword swallower"), Cal ("our Flatbush-born Swami"), and Sammy (the fire-eater).

References and resources:

- "Over My Dead Body":

  "In Over My Dead Body Rex Stout begins to explore Wolfe's Montenegrin background. By 1939, of course, the Wolfe/Goodwin books had become an established series, but Wolfe's youth had yet to be clarified. Stout starts to do so in this book by bringing in a number of European visitors, including some from Montenegro; the backdrop is the maneuvers of the Axis and Allied powers to dominate Yugoslavia." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a carnival side show":

  "In 1893, the Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition (also called the Chicago World's Fair) was the catalyst for the development of the modern traveling carnival. The Chicago World's Fair had an area that included rides, games of chance, freak shows, and burlesque. After the Chicago World's Fair, traveling carnival companies began touring the United States. Due to the type of acts featured along with sometimes using dishonest business practices, the traveling carnivals were often looked down upon." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Fer-de-Lance":

  "In his seminal 1941 work, Murder for Pleasure, crime fiction historian Howard Haycraft included Fer-de-Lance in his definitive list of the most influential works of mystery fiction." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Ten-in-One had to stay behind":

  "The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten sequential acts under one tent for a single admission price. The ten-in-one might be partly a freak show exhibiting 'human oddities' (including 'born freaks' such as midgets, giants or persons with other deformities, or 'made freaks' like tattooed people, fat people or 'human skeletons'- extremely thin men often 'married' to the fat lady, like Isaac W. Sprague). However, for variety's sake, the acts in a ten-in-one would also include 'working acts' who would perform magic tricks or daredevil stunts. In addition, the freak show performers might also perform acts or stunts and would often sell souvenirs like 'giant's rings' or 'pitch cards' with their photos and life stories. The ten-in-one would often end in a 'blowoff' or 'ding,' an extra act not advertised on the outside, which could be viewed for an additional fee. The blowoff act would be described provocatively, often as something deemed too strong for women and children, such as pickled punks." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the ring-toss concession":

  "Ring toss is a game where rings are tossed around a peg. It is common at amusement parks." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- We have bumped into Mr. Stout and his work a few times on ONTOS:

  (1) A Family Affair (HERE)

  (2) "Grim Fairy Tales" (HERE)

  (3) "The Christmas-Party Murder" (HERE)

  (4) "An Interview with Rex Stout" (Item 4 HERE).

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

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"I Don't Know Whether They Are Supposed To Keep Things Out, or Us In, or Both"

"The Sharpies."

By John Murphy (?-?).

First appearance: Astounding Science Fiction, November 1953.

Illustration by Frank Kelly Freas (as by Freas) (1922-2005; ISFDb HERE).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short story (9 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "The advantage of trading with a crook is that he is in no position to ask questions. And sometimes he'd be much happier if he didn't!"

MAKING a living is beset with a multitude of difficulties, as Hugh and George, "businessmen" on the shady side of commerce, well know. In their precarious situation, it's best not to inquire too much about their "customers"; just take the money and run. So when two mysterious individuals show up and make an offer they can't refuse, concerns about making rent payments are looking to be a thing of the past. Hugh and George are predisposed to ignore that proverb about something seeming to be too good to be true. And it's almost certain they're not considering what the Bard told the world: "He that dies pays all debts" . . .

Main characters:

~ Senor Perez ("the late lamented"), Hugh Corr ("felt a wonder even through the terror that gripped him"), George Hanley ("What happened?"), John and Jesse Smith ("Gold. We have here about four hundred pounds"), and five men ("completely bald").

Resource:

- We couldn't find anything about this "John Murphy"; "The Sharpies" is his only credit on FictionMags and the ISFDb.

The bottom line:

  "Some of these pre-utopian worlds, not malignant but incapable of further advance, were left in peace, and preserved, as we preserve wild animals in national parks, for scientific interest."

   — Star Maker

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

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Miscellaneous Monday—Number Thirty-eight

THE VALUE of academic analysis of any genre lies in its DESCRIPTIVE power, telling us, like an engine repair manual, HOW the thing works—with the limitations of any dissection, that the subject under study will almost certainly not survive being pulled apart. Any attempts to be PROSCRIPTIVE about a genre, trying to tell us WHAT it should be saying, fall well within the area of opinion and should be regarded with caution. You might or might not agree with an academician's opinions, which is everybody's unalienable right to do so, but you're in the wrong lane when the two of you decide WHAT any particular genre should look like. In any event, grab a dictionary (preferably unabridged) and follow today's author as he DESCRIPTIVELY surveys the rather large field of analysis involving the . . .

"Grammar of the Detective Genre."

By Dejan Milutinović, University of Niš, Faculty of Philosophy, Serbian Department, Niš, Serbia.

2020 Review Paper (15 pages).

Online at Academia.edu (HERE).

THE WORLD OF THE ACADEMY does another deep dive into detective fiction, surveying a multitude of theories and theoreticians.

Excerpts follow:

ABSTRACT

The paper describes the grammar of the detective genre. This is done on the 

basis of formalist-structuralist poetics, by extracting the actants of detective syntax. It involves: the plot, enigma, secret, solution, crime, and the detective. The plot is determined both on the basis of the main stages of the detective narrative (crime, investigation, explanation) and depending on the reader's reading experience. An enigma is the absence of information about someone/something, but it is also part of the plot - it hides events which led to a specific crime. The secret is connected with the enigma and concerns both the crime and the detective. The solution is considered by many to be the most important feature of the detective genre, which has a distinctly ideological character. A crime is a motive, not a goal - it happens outside the text, and is transmitted through the text. The detective is a distinctive figure of this genre, determined by intellectual and scientific abilities, but also by eccentricity and fragmentation.

1. INTRODUCTION

Analyzing Conan Doyles stories, Shklovsky outlines aspects characteristic of the 

genre as a whole. These include expectations, referring to previous work, analysis; client appearance, the business part of the conversation; the introduction of clues, which are material for logical reasoning so that essential facts are not noticed by the reader; a bureaucratic (police) detective giving a false dismissal, and if there is none, the newspapers do so; unexpected untangling; detective data analysis.

2. THE PLOT IN DETECTIVE FICTION

One of more significant studies is by Julian Symons (1975), who identifies eight 

constituent elements of the detective genre. The Events (realized through a locked room or missing verbal segment and related to forensic medicine or ballistics), a detective (amateur or professional, the central figure of the story, who notices details which went unnoticed), the method (most often in the form of ingenious or confusing procedures), the clues (the essential elements by means of which the detective and the readers come to a solution), the characters (whereby only the detective's characterization is shown in detail, while other characters are simplified to the level of functionality in the plot and to complete expectation and recognition), a chronotope (mostly related to the time and place of the crime, that is, to the period before the crime) and the riddle (the most valuable segment of the text, because detective creations are remembered by the detective and the puzzle).

3. THE ENIGMA IN DETECTIVE FICTION

Volsky emphasizes that the detective's puzzle is special because it is not just the 

absence of information about something/someone – it is also the subtlety, i.e. it hides a series of events which lead to a concrete one – for example if a corpse is found on the street and one does not know who performed the killing and with what motive, it is not enigmatic, but if a corpse was found with a knife in its back in a locked room, then it is. The puzzle should also have a solution because, in the end, the detective has to solve everything. The riddle must be based on thought and logic, i.e. its solution must be present, but in hidden and encrypted form. If there is no solution, there is no puzzle – that is the rule of classic detective fiction.

4. THE SECRET IN DETECTIVE FICTION

Glenn W. Most (1983, 341–365) associates the mystery of the genre not with crime but with the detective. She believes that the real mystery in a mystery novel is not related to the crime committed at the beginning and resolved at the end, but rather that the problem depends on the personality of the detective. Crime is always mysterious, either for its bizarreness or simplicity, and the plot of the novel ranges from a lack of answers to the puzzle, through a series of wrong answers, to the final true answer. The essence of the genre is that this response causes the reader to wonder how he could not have come to the same conclusions. Although murder, the most common crime in the detective genre, is mysterious, the biggest mystery is the detective himself, especially the things he does between two incidents. In any case, he is a marginal figure: his profession is to examine the affairs of others, he is able to move through all walks of life, though in no sense does he feel it like his own; he is mostly single, unmarried or divorced, his parents are never mentioned and he is irreparably childish.

5. THE SOLUTION IN DETECTIVE FICTION

A considerable number of works imply that the solution is the most important for the detective genre and that all other characteristics are built on it. Julian Symons (1975) states that for most critics, the detective genre is singled out as central and the one based on which other crime stories and thrillers make variations. Therefore, they sought to set strict rules about what is and what is not a detective story. In this sense, two characteristics are imposed as necessary. The first is that there is a problem, and the second is that it has to be solved by an amateur or professional detective through the deduction process.

The postmodern antidetective fiction emphasizes the significance and effect of the 

detective's hermeneutic act through a provocative lack (or suspension, or parody) of the solution. Postmodern detectives apply hard-boiled epistemological and moral skepticism to the literary medium itself. To show this, Stefania Ciocia uses Bart's picture from “The Literature of Exhaustion”, in which Dariasada realizes that the key to the treasure is the treasure itself. In this sense, the solution in the postmodern detective genre is not achieved by connecting pieces of the puzzle, but through imagination. Calvino calls it a mental model through which events are lived, that is, a mental model through which events are ascribed meaning (Calvino 2001, 141). The act of detection becomes an act of invention, both in the epistemological sense of retrieval as well as in the sense of ex novo: the task of the detective/writer is not to reconstruct the existing order. On the contrary, he has to let reality pass through his own narrative filters which make life understandable and therefore possible to live.

6. THE CRIME IN DETECTIVE FICTION

Interestingly, although the detective genre has something to do with crime, it is never viewed separately, but always in the context of a mystery and/or solution. Also, almost everyone agrees that homicide is primary among other crimes. For example, Lyubov Romanchuk believes that the detective genre depicts the process of exposing a crime. Ernest Bloch (1970, 421–426) singled out the development of the judiciary as essential to the emergence of the detective genre: before the introduction of indications, it was tried “by feel” or by duress. It was only with the inclusion of the judiciary which insisted on proper procedure that the arrest warrant and the court proceedings were created. Therefore, even an account of the detective's work on indications cannot be older than the indicative procedure.

7. THE DETECTIVE IN DETECTIVE FICTION

From the beginning of detective fiction, the detective has been singled out as a 

distinctive figure of the genre. As part of his basic background, the first authors-critics (Chesterton, Van Dine, etc.) cited intellectual (and scientific) abilities. Although he did not stand out in anything (Sayers spoke of the tendency of producing detectives striking only in their ordinary ways), Holmes' eccentricity was taken as the dominant characteristic.

8. CONCLUSION

Formalist-structuralist grammars take into account actants, i.e. central elements of the detective genre syntax: the plot, enigma, mystery, solution, crime, detective. These elements are viewed as interdependent – due to the relationships they establish in the text. The role of the reader and the context has only been mentioned and everything stems from and comes down to the detective. Turning to the discourse – contextual and cognitive aspects of the detective genre will bring post-structuralism and post-classical narratology, which will complete the aforementioned research and open the way to new domains: phylogenetic (gender, racial, colonial) and ontogenetic (mental and emotional).

REFERENCES.

Typos: "Hemmett"; "Holms"; "does not excludes".

References:

- "Boileau-Narcejac":

  They were responsible for two novels that, when turned into films, made considerable money:

  "Boileau-Narcejac is the pen name used by the French crime-writing duo of Pierre Boileau (1906–1989) and Pierre Ayraud, also known as Thomas Narcejac (1908–1998). Their successful collaboration produced 43 novels, 100 short stories and 4 plays. They are credited with having helped to form an authentically French subgenre of crime fiction with the emphasis on local settings and mounting psychological suspense. They are noted for the ingenuity of their plots and the skillful evocation of the mood of disorientation and fear. Their works were adapted into numerous films, most notably, Les Diaboliques (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Lacanian discourse":

  A psychoanalyst's interpretation of speech:

  "Four discourses is a concept developed by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. He argued that there were four fundamental types of discourse. He defined four discourses, which he called Master, University, Hysteric and Analyst, and suggested that these relate dynamically to one another." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- There seems to be a definite distinction when it comes to sleuths; see "Detective Fiction — Private Detective vs. Private Eye" (HERE).

- We must never forget the guy who kickstarted this whole thing (HERE).

- A nice list of non-fiction books about detecfic is (HERE).

- Sometimes it's necessary to shrink meanings; see what we mean (HERE)—and, my, how times have changed since 1960.

- The classic mystery story flourished in a period known as GAD; see Jon Jermey's essay (HERE).

  "The detective story is easier to recognise than describe. . . . Detective stories are not about mysteries; they are about solutions."

- R. Austin Freeman knew whereof he spoke when he commented on detective stories (HERE). Just to prove the point, the first seven Dr. Thorndyke adventures are on exhibit (HERE).

- Raymond Chandler, also being an authentic practitioner of the trade, had his own ideas of what constitutes detective fiction (HERE) and (HERE).

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

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All-time Hits (2)

(11) J. Lane Linklater's "The Perfect Victim" (HERE).

(12) Anonymous's "Forerunners of Sherlock Holmes" (HERE).

(13) Frederick Irving Anderson's THE PURPLE FLAME AND OTHER DETECTIVE STORIES (HERE).

(14) Milton Kaletsky's "X-Ray Murder" (HERE).

(15) Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (HERE).

(16) Emillion's "Circumstantial Evidence: A Tale Founded on Fact" (HERE).

. . . and the posting with the most hits:

(17) Two book chapters about Melville Davisson Post and Mary Roberts Rinehart (HERE).

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

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All-time Hits

LOOKING BACK OVER the list of all-time popular postings on ONTOS, we came across these:

(1) J. Harvey Haggard's "Round About Rigel" (HERE).

(2) Steve Hail's "The Corpse in the 'Tween-Decks" (HERE).

(3) Fred M. White's "A Christmas Capture" (HERE).

(4) Howard Haycraft's "Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story" (HERE).

(5) Lawrence G. Blochman's "Riviera Renegade" (HERE).

(6) "Through the KEYHOLE" (HERE).

(7) "Try to Look Harmless" (Update) (HERE).

(8) Jack Wodhams's "There Is a Crooked Man" (HERE).

(9) Isaac Asimov's "The Billiard Ball" (HERE).

(10) Leonard Raphael's "The Man Who Saw Through Time" (HERE).

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

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"That's Why We're Here. It's Impossible!"

"Right Before Your Eyes."

(a.k.a. "The Hiding Place").

By Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr, 1906-77; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the IMDb HERE; and Wikipedia HERE).

First appearance: The Strand Magazine, February 1939, as "The Hiding Place" (as by Carter Dickson).

Reprinted in EQMM, April 1966 (today's text).

Other reprints:

  Detection Medley (1939) (reviews HERE and HERE)

  The Strand Magazine “Colonial Edition,” March 1939

  Line-Up (1940) (revision of Detection Medley).

Short story (11 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 99).

(Note: £23,000 equaled $57,914 in 1940, a sizeable haul.)

   "You told me, with an accuracy beyond your wildest knowledge, that the money was hot."

CHIEF INSPECTOR AMES must reluctantly admit that £23,000 in hard cash stolen from a St. James bank has simply vanished, even though they did a thorough search of their prime suspect's lodgings. "There wasn't a hiding place for so much as a pound note," he tells Colonel March, "let alone a sackful of the stuff." Young Marjorie Dawson herself saw it happen—or didn't see it, if you get what we mean. Their prime suspect disavows any knowledge of it, and the police, not surprisingly, are baffled. But never fear, Colonel March is on the case. After all, as he admits with justifiable pride, "I am the Department of Queer Complaints" . . .

Principal characters:

~ Skipper Morgan, Pudge Henderson, Slugger Dean, and Bill Stein (the perps), Chief Inspector Ames ("Getting rid of 'hot' money used to be difficult; but it's simple now"), the Assistant Commissioner ("be careful, Ames; he's got a lot of influence"), John Parrish ("Don't you believe a word of it"), Marjorie Dawson ("She told the Chief Inspector things which made him swear"), Mr. Ireton Bowlder ("Scotland Yard regarded him with disfavor because he never failed to put their backs up"), and Colonel March ("Disappearing money. That is better; that is distinctly better").

Typo: "Mr. Bowler laughed".

References and resources:

- "the St. James office":

  "St James's is a predominantly commercial area with some of the highest rents in London and, consequently, the world. The auction house Christie's is based in King Street, and the surrounding streets contain many upmarket art and antique dealers . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a .45 caliber revolver":

  This being England, it might have been a Webley:

  "The Webley Revolver (also known as the Webley Top-Break Revolver or Webley Self-Extracting Revolver) was, in various designations, a standard issue service revolver for the armed forces of the United Kingdom, and countries of the British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, from 1887 to 1963." (Wikipedia (HERE.)

- "the Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin":

  "Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional character created by Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin made his first appearance in Poe's 1841 short story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', widely considered the first detective fiction story. He reappears in 'The Mystery of Marie Rogêt' (1842) and 'The Purloined Letter' (1844)." (Wikipedia HERE.) Also see (HERE).

- "in Victorian Gothic":

  "Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century, mostly in England. Increasingly serious and learned admirers sought to revive medieval Gothic architecture, intending to complement or even supersede the neoclassical styles prevalent at the time." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- For reactions to other Colonel March adventures, see locked room expert TomCat's review at Beneath the Stains of Time (HERE). For his take on the '50s TV series, see (HERE).

- A couple of other Colonel March stories ("New Murders for Old" and "The Silver Curtain") received some attention on Steve Lewis's Mystery*File (HERE). Dickson has been getting noticed off and on at Mystery'File since 2007; see "Search Results" (HERE).

- It hasn't been too long since we observed another JDC/Carter Dickson production featuring the redoubtable Colonel March, "The Lion's Paw" (HERE).

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

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Waterfowl and Water Foul

(1) "Open Season for Murder."

By John Savage (?-?).

Illustrations by William A. Smith (1918-89; HERE).

First appearance: This Week Magazine, October 28, 1956.

Short short story (6 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 26).

   "That was the stupidest stunt you ever pulled . . ."

A RELAXING hunting trip turns deadly when a father and son stumble across organized crime—as if the wrong ammo load wasn't bad enough . . .

Main characters:

 ~ Jimmie Davison ("What's a market hunter?"), his father ("Nastiest criminal on earth"), Moore ("We'll freeze to death"), the second man ("a big fat guy in overalls"), and a third man ("His mouth fell open and he pulled his head out of sight again").

References (all from Wikipedia):

- "shotgun" (HERE)

- "gauge" (HERE)

- waterfowl hunting (HERE)

- "rice fields" (HERE)

- "mallard" (HERE)

- "tule" (HERE)

- "widgeon" (HERE)

- "canvasbacks" (HERE)

- "sprig" (HERE)

- "snow goose" (HERE)

- the origin of "gypped" (HERE).

(2) "The Iron Box."

By John Savage (?-?).

First appearance: Collier's, February 7, 1953.

Reprinted in EQMM, December 1956 (today's text).

(Note: This issue also contains Avram Davidson's "The Ikon of Elijah"; IMDb HERE).

Other reprints:

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (U.K.) #47, December 1956.

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (Australia) #116, February 1957.

Short story (15 pages).

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

(Note: Text very faded and may require magnification and demagnification.)

   "I think I should be the one to tell it, because Katona and his iron box changed my whole life."

IF, as they say, it takes a thief to catch a thief, wouldn't it follow that it takes a magician to neutralize one of his profession? Add to that the well-substantiated rumor that during the Cold War people disappeared who wouldn't have otherwise disappeared had there not been a Cold War. In consequence, according to our story, it looks as if there could have been at least one magician selected to disappear—at the bottom of a river . . .

Main characters:

~ Unnamed narrator ("I have always been a sucker for any kind of magician or escape artist"), Janos Katona ("a disciple of Houdini"), the gendarme ("I shall return in three hours to arrest you, if you are still here"), and Tisza ("would know how to assassinate a man without making a martyr of him").

References and resources:

- "the Seine":

  "The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long (483 mile) river in northern France. . . . There are 37 bridges in Paris across the Seine (the most famous of which are the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont Neuf) and dozens more outside the city." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a disciple of Houdini":

  "You sigh and the song begins, you speak and I hear violins, it's . . ."

  "Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "An escape act is a curious thing":

  "Escape or Die, the form of escape performance originated by Houdini, is the standard for top-of-the-line escapologists. There are at least three possible ways for an escapologist's life to be at risk from the possible failure of this escape. These are death by drowning, as in the water escapes Houdini pioneered; death by suffocation, as in escapes from airtight enclosures containing no water, such as coffins; and death by falling, as also originated by Houdini, in a straitjacket escape hanging high above the earth as when Houdini hung from cranes and buildings upside down in a strait jacket where falling would mean certain death." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a pulley in the flies":

  "A fly system, or theatrical rigging system, is a system of ropes, pulleys, counterweights and related devices within a theater that enables a stage crew to fly (hoist) quickly, quietly and safely components such as curtains, lights, scenery, stage effects and, sometimes, people. Systems are typically designed to fly components between clear view of the audience and out of view, into the large space, the fly loft, above the stage." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "from Communist Budapest to the American zone of Vienna":

  "[In 1949] The Communists gained power while the Soviet Army propped up the Hungarian state. Under their auspices, the former Arrow Cross torture chambers in the prisons filled up with their opponents. Arrests, beatings or summary executions were used as a standard tool by the Secret Police, who employed an extensive net of informants. Random arrests without charge were commonly initiated by regime informants, some of these abductees were never heard from again. By this time the administration was composed predominantly of hardline communists or careerists, who made up the Soviet-accepted controllers of wealth and power. . . . The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed, the Soviets, rather than appointing a Hungarian hardliner or a Soviet general, gave a chance to János Kádár, a former kidnapped minister of the revolution. Due to the co-operative efforts of Kádár and huge loans taken from the West to offset the failing economy, Hungary became the favorite Communist state of the West by the late 1970s." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "Espionage in Austria is legal if the country itself is not the target. The city [Vienna] has about 17,000 diplomats, many assigned to international organizations. Because of their presence and Austria's neutrality, Vienna became an important center for espionage, as depicted in The Third Man; during the Cold War the city allegedly had more spies than Austrian soldiers." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Hungarian underground":

  "The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October–4 November 1956), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 12 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 4 November 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country." (Wikipedia HERE.) 

- "the other side of the Curtain":

  Fifties and sixties readers would have no difficulty determining what "the Curtain" referred to:

  "During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain was a political metaphor used to describe the political and later physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West, its allies and neutral states." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Quai d'Orsay":

  "The Quai d'Orsay is a quay [a shipping wharf] in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Allez-y": "Go ahead."

- "a capsule of potassim cyanide":

  "The effects of potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide are identical, and symptoms of poisoning typically occur within a few minutes of ingesting the substance: the person loses consciousness, and brain death eventually follows. During this period the victim may suffer convulsions." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- According to FictionMags, John Savage made relatively small contributions to the slicks of the time, the 1950s, '60s, and '70s: The Saturday Evening Post (his first credit), Collier's, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, This Week, Redbook, even the Ladies' Home Journal; however, he can't be regarded as a detective fiction writer.

- The latest bona fide magician that we've bumped into would have to be The Great Merlini (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.

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