13 stories, 4 of them reprints (one of them an unidentified one at the time) plus the first ever The Jury Box column.

Edward D. Hoch opens the issue with one of his Captain Leopold stories: The Rainy-Day Bandit (at this point Hoch is already a prolific author but his unbroken (and probably unbeatable) streak of 35 years of having a story in each issue of EQMM had not started yet - it starts 3 years later, in May 1973). A string of robberies had been baffling the police for a long time and it is an almost chance encounter that finally solves it. It is a nicely crafted story as is usual for Hoch. Although if the name of the main character is changed, it still can work and I tend to prefer his series stories where that is not true.

Lael J. Littke's Mrs. Twiller Takes a Trip, the only speculative story in the issue, shows what a bad idea it is to underestimate little old ladies... regardless if who you are. The fact that Hell is under a mall should not surprise anyone either.

Holly Roth's The Girl Who Saw Too Much (originally in The American Magazine, August 1956) is one of the two short novels (long novelettes/short novellas really) in this issue. A damsel in distress gets two protectors but every time someone turns, new information changes the idea of what she really saw. It is a bit dated and the blushing hero is a bit too much to take in places but it is a nice story otherwise.

Josh Pachter's E.Q. Griffen’s Second Case reintroduces us to Ellery Queen Griffen - named after the the mystery writer Ellery Queen (as are all the children of Inspector Griffen - they all carry the name of a mystery writer of note). The young man convinces the Inspector to help trying to break a murderer - everyone seems sure that he is the guilty party but noone can prove it. The story's solution is designed on the "GI Story" by the actual Queen and in the process spoils the earlier story (although in a way it is the opposite of the Queen story which defeats the story idea a bit. The author is apparently extremely young at the time and it shows).

And then the magazine followed with Ellery Queen's GI Story (originally from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, August 1954). If you are reading the magazine, read this one before the previous one -- it is a much better story and it does not deserve to be spoiled by the previous one. Ellery is called to try to help figure out who killed a man even though the police is pretty sure they know who (but cannot prove it).

The two First stories are both short and competent without shiningl Dante Stirpe's Granma’s Insomnia is a trick story whose punch line pays off (even if you expect it) and Mary Barrett's The Silver Saltcellar is a small reminder that being too ordered may sometimes be a problem. Both are exactly as short as they should be for them to work.

Isaac Asimov follows them with his first story in EQMM - the numerical enigma A Problem of Numbers which requires some chemistry knowledge to solve (if you decide to try on your own). It is a nice little story, with no speculative elements.

And then comes The Jury Box by John Dickson Carr, the very first installment of the review column that is still being published in every issue of the magazine. He mentions only 4 books (3 new, 1 a reprint) and spends the first page of the column explaining why such columns rarely contain strongly negative reviews and why his won't be different). For anyone interested, the 4 books are "Death at the Chase" by Michael Innes, "The Pushbutton Butterfly" by Kin Platt, "Assignment - White Rajah" by Edward S. Aarons and "The Red House Mystery" by A. A. Milne.

The next 3 stories are again short: Phil Richards's Play It Safe has a man escape from prison with a solid plan (which seems to actually work for a bit), Frank Sisk's Mr. Blot and Mr. Blister deals with two men who are connected to the same woman (forget about a woman scorned, a man scorned is at least as dangerous) and the third reprint of the issue, Brett Halliday's Murder in Miami featuring Mike Shayne is offered as a puzzle story (with the end being published at the end of the magazine - and you could have solved it indeed - the clues are spelled out). A woman is dead and everyone seems to have an alibi. (It is not marked as new on the cover but it is copyrighted 1970 so not sure where it was reprinted from - if at all). All three are enjoyable and well written.

The second short novel/novella is James Powell's Coins in the Frascati Fountain (one of his Ambrose Ganelon stories) gets us into the tiny principality of San Sebastiano where Ambrose Ganelon IV is trying to keep the family detective agency afloat (not very successfully). There is another company trying to shoulder in (led by the men responsible for earlier Ganelons deaths), there are money missing from a fountain and all kinds of weirdness. The whole series is much closer to pulps than to the modern stories but I enjoy it usually - and this story was not an exception. It can sound a bit silly and its humor can be a bit on the nose though.

The last story, marked as newly discovered and not printed before (although the magazine does admit that it is true only as far as they had been able to discover) is Gerald Kersh's The Scar (Galactic Central traced it back to The Bystander, April 7 1937). A guy with a scar on his head starts telling the story of the scar and gets a bit distracted along the way. The end made me laugh - I had met people like that. I wonder if there is a later story connected to this one.

Overall another solid issue. ( )