Other Mini-Mystery AuthorsSome notes by Stan Smith
Although this site emphasizes my Stanwick mini-mysteries, several other mini-mystery authors have made their mark in the field. So if you’re not familiar with the fine works of Hy Conrad, Ken Weber, Jim Sukach, Donald Sobol, Lawrence Treat, Austin Ripley, Eric Doubleday, or Dennis Shasha (among others), please read on and learn about them!
Hy Conrad is one of the most talented writers ever to make his presence felt in the mini- mystery genre. He is an accomplished author, playwright, and now screenwriter, as he is currently engaged as a producer for the popular and award-winning USA Network series Monk. He is also developing a new Clue-based game comprised of fifty Clue mysteries for Hasbro.
Hy has published several collections of mini-mysteries with Sterling Publishing, which was recently acquired by Barnes & Noble. Not counting anthologies, here is a listing of his principal works:
Almost Perfect Crimes (1995)
Those who like their MM’s to have a series detective, like my Stanwick books, will especially enjoy Hy's 2002 and 2003 books. They feature the adventures of Sherman Oliver Holmes of Capital City, the great-great-grandson of Sherlock Holmes (or so Sherman claims). Sherman is decidedly eccentric, but undoubtedly brilliant when it comes to solving crimes. Sergeant Gunther Wilson of the Major Crimes Division can (albeit grudgingly) attest to that.
Hy’s fans will be glad to hear that, in addition to his work on Monk, he continues to develop other MM collections and screenwriting projects.
KEN WEBER
Although I have no hard sales figures, it would be hard to discuss contemporary MM writing without mentioning Ken Weber. His MM books are everywhere, and deservedly so, for they are excellent. In my opinion, he can plausibly take credit for launching the revival of the MM genre over the last fifteen years by the success of his Five-Minute Mysteries series that began back in 1989.
Ken is a retired professor of special education at the University of Toronto, and has written more than forty books on a variety of topics, including a trivia series called Five-Minute Challenge.
Here are his MM books:
Five-Minute Mysteries (1989)
The Five-Minute Mysteries series was published by Running Press. The two Armchair Detective books were originally published by Stoddart, but have since been incorporated into the Five-Minute Mysteries series by Running Press, under the titles of Absolutely Amazing Five-Minute Mysteries (for Armchair Detective #1) and Utterly Ingenious Five- Minute Mysteries (for Armchair Detective #2).
JIM SUKACH Jim Sukach is the prolific author of the Professor Quicksolve series.
Quicksolve Whodunit Puzzles (1995)
All the above books are published by Sterling Publishing. Jim has also written a book called Kidnapped and Spinning Wheels (2001), published by Authors Choice Press (an iUniverse imprint). Although it features some of the characters of the Quicksolve Whodunit books listed above, it is not, strictly speaking, an MM book, but rather a pair of novelettes.
Learn more about Jim and his Quicksolve mini-mysteries by visiting his Website
here.
DONALD J. SOBOL Donald Sobol is the author of perhaps the most famous MM series in the genre, the Encyclopedia Brown stories for children. He has written more than sixty-five children’s books, and the Encyclopedia Brown stories have been translated into fourteen languages.
I won’t attempt to list the numerous Encyclopedia Brown books here. You will find the series in most bookstores, published by Bantam Skylark, a division of Random House.
Donald has also written a series of non-EB mini-mystery books (Two-Minute Mysteries), starring one Dr. Haledjian. They are well worth a look. The publisher is Scholastic.
Two-Minute Mysteries (1967)
Many of Donald’s stories depend on a degree of special knowledge (knowing that lobsters don’t turn red until they are boiled, etc.). Others require nothing more than common knowledge and alertness. All are worth reading.
LAWRENCE TREAT
Although Lawrence Treat died recently, his MM books are still in print. He wrote the Crime and Puzzlement series in which an illustration containing vital clues accompanies a page of text and a series of questions.
Crime and Puzzlement (1981)
The first four of these are published by David R. Godine. The other two are published by Henry Holt.
Grosset and Dunlap also publishes a Get a Clue series by Lawrence Treat and Paul Karasik (illustrator). The text and pictures of this series are somewhat simpler than those of the Crime and Puzzlement series.
Lawrence Treat deserves special mention as a founder and past president of Mystery Writers of America, and as the author of many mystery novels and short stories as well as MM’s. He won an Edgar Allan Poe award for Best Short Mystery in 1965, and special Edgars in 1978 (for editing the Mystery Writers’ Handbook) and 1986 (for a TV story on the Alfred Hitchcock program). He always encouraged younger mystery writers, including me (a fellow graduate of Dartmouth College).
AUSTIN RIPLEY (H. A. RIPLEY)
Back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, Austin Ripley wrote a very popular series of MM’s starring Professor Joe Fordney. Most appeared in newspapers or magazines, but he also issued four books:
How Good a Detective Are You? (1934)
ERIC DOUBLEDAY
Eric Doubleday created a number of excellent MM’s starring Inspector Carter. They appeared in his series of “Test Your Wits” puzzle books that were published by Ace Books in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Test Your Wits (1969)
In the books, Mr. Doubleday claims that his Inspector Carter MM’s appeared in several European newspapers weekly over a period of years. I have been unable to get more specific information on that, or on Mr. Doubleday himself. Anyone with more information is invited to contact me at stan(AT)stanwick-mini-mysteries.com. (Substitute @ for (AT), of course!) The books unfortunately are out of print, but if you find one, check it out. The MM’s are excellent, and the other puzzles in the books are great fun!
WOLFGANG ECKE
Herr Ecke (b. 1927) wrote a wonderful series of MM books in the 1970’s and 1980’s that were translated from German to English and published by Prentice-Hall. Many of his stories feature private investigator Perry Clifton.
The Face at the Window (English 1978)
Though now out of print, they are obtainable through used-book vendors. The books are oriented toward younger readers, but are amusingly illustrated and fun for adult MM enthusiasts to read as well.
DENNIS SHASHA Doctor Jacob Ecco, genius and “omniheurist” (solver of all problems) is the name of the ingenious sleuth in Dennis Shasha’s MM books. The puzzles have a mathematical slant and veer increasingly into computer programming as the series progresses (as might be expected from a computer science professor like Shasha!). The puzzles are woven nicely into a narrative with appealing series characters.
The Puzzling Adventures of Doctor Ecco (1988)
SOME MORE MM AUTHORS
Here is a sampling of other MM authors. They generally have done single works rather than a series, and in some cases I am less familiar with their work than I am with the work of the authors discussed above. But please do give them a look!
(And, er…don’t forget mine too, OK? You can link to my books at the bottom of the Sample Mini-Mysteries page!)
Michael Avallone
Tom Bullimore
Christopher Golden
A. C. Gordon
Derrick Niederman
Raymond Smullyan
Falcon Travis
Jackie Vivelo
Robert Gallinger |