As readers of this blog might remember, last summer I managed to find about a dozen short story anthologies at our Historical Society's summer book sales. The Spring-Summer 1979 Hitchcock's Anthology contains my entry into Patti Abbott's Forgotten Short Stories. You can find links to the rest of the forgotten stories at http://pattinase.blogspot.com/
With nearly 940 published short stories to his credit, Mr. Hoch has left us with a rich legacy of mystery short stories that will endure for years to come. While most of his shorts revolve around series characters like Nick Velvet and Captain Leopold, "Warrior's Farewell" is a stand-alone.
The story begins with a man reading about the death of his old Army buddy, Sam Zodiak. Our narrator takes us back to Korea and the killing of a North Korean officer during the war. As the story unfolds we learn about Sam's sense of right and wrong and how he deals with what he calls a lack of justice in the world. Our narrator is appalled as he realizes what Sam has become and deals with it the only way he knows how.
I love how this story unfolds so softly, yet builds up to a horrific ending that leaves our narrator realizing that there's not much difference between him and Sam. A marvelous noir told by a master of the short story.
In 2007 I read a short essay by Ed Hoch that was published on the Criminal Brief blog. The piece is called "Why the Short Story?" and its worth the read to see why this master preferred writing short stories to novels. http://criminalbrief.com/?p=18
8 comments:
I can’t say enough good about Mr. Hoch. I would buy EQMM for his tales of Dr. Sam Hawthorne or Stanton and Ives. And at the top of the list is Simon Ark and thief Nick Velvet. He was such an accomplished writer. I’ve heard the French did a TV series based on Velvet that I should look for.
I could never get into his stories that were published in EQ. Hard as I tried they just didn't draw me in. But this story really hit a cord for me, even on a second reading. I was surprised when I read his essay and he noted that reviewers prefered his earlier noir standalones to his series characters, but he loved writing the series characters, so that's where he focused his writing. He wrote what he enjoyed, not to please the critics. A good lesson for all of us.
Thanks for this and thanks for the link to the essay on CB.
That essay link is gold. Thanks for remembering Ed Hoch. He certainly took the crime short story to an exalted height.
From a young age, I always loved reading Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen--and I usually read Edward Hoch's stories first. I believe he's part of the reason writing short stories will always be my first love.
Thank you for the great post and the link to the forgotten stories!
You're welcome, ladies. That essay stuck with me and I thought it was only fitting that Mr. Hoch have his say today. I'm just glad I found it in their blog archives.
Ever hear of this place:
http://www.orchardpressmysteries.com/
This was a real treat for me, Sandra.
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