Tricks and Treats

by Joe Gores (Editor), Bill Pronzini (Editor), Harlan Ellison

Contents

The Time of the Eye • (1959) • short story by Harlan Ellison
Violation • (1973) • short story by William F. Nolan
Robert • (1958) • short story by Stanley Ellin
We All Have to Go • short story by Elizabeth A. Lynn
The Deveraux Monster • (1962) • short story by Jack Ritchie
Multiples • short story by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg
Goodbye, Cora • (1968) • short story by Richard Ellington
My Sister and I • short story by Jean L. Backus
The Counterfeit Conman • (1975) • short story by Albert F. Nussbaum
The Silver Curtain • (1960) • short story by John Dickson Carr [as by Carter Dickson]
Hand in Glove • (1973) • short story by James Holding
The Girl Who Jumped in the River • (1973) • short story by Arthur Moore
Miser's Gold • (1971) • short story by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee [as by Ellery Queen]
You Can Get Used to Anything • (1955) • short story by Anthony Boucher
The Little Old Lady from Cricket Creek • (1969) • short story by Len Gray
Murder by Scalping • (1973) • short story by S. S. Rafferty
My Mother the Ghost • (1965) • short story by Henry Slesar
Rope Enough • short story by Joseph N. Gores
The Spoils System • (1965) • short story by Donald E. Westlake
If I Quench Thee... • short story by William E. Chambers
The Leopold Locked Room • (1971) • novelette by Edward D. Hoch
Face Value • (1962) • short story by Edward Wellen
Hollywood Footprints • short story by Betty Buchanan
No More Questions • (1975) • short story by Stephen R. Novak
Night Piece for Julia • (1970) • short story by Jessamyn West
The Crooked Picture • (1967) • short story by John Lutz
I Always Get the Cuties • non-genre • (1954) • short story by John D. MacDonald
The Pill Problem • (1972) • short story by Pauline C. Smith
The Donor • (1970) • short story by Dan J. Marlowe [as by Jaime Sandaval]
Introduction (Tricks and Treats) • essay by Joseph N. Gores and Bill Pronzini

Genres: Short Stories

243 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Joe Gores (1931-2011) was the author of the acclaimed DKA series of street-level crime and detection, as well as the stunning suspense novels Dead Man and Menaced Assassin.

He served in the U.S. Army - writing biographies of generals at the Pentagon - was educated at the University of Notre Dame and Stanford, and spent twelve years as a San Francisco private investigator. The author of dozens of novels, screenplays, and television scripts, he won three Edgar Allan Poe Awards and Japan's Maltese Falcon Award.

Reviews

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was published almost 30 years ago, the majority of the stories in this anthology hold up pretty well. The editors take turns introducing the stories and give a little bit of information about each author, which is helpful. In putting the book together, they subdivided the genre into different types of mysteries and then selected a story that fits each type. Some examples: The "Whydunit," Ratiocination, Man Bites Dog, etc.

There are some Big Name authors included here--Anthony Boucher, John Dickson Carr--but also many authors I've never heard of. I really do love short stories, especially when they are as varied as these. There is no chance of getting the characters from "The Deveraux Monster" mixed up with those in "Goodbye, Cora" (a sad little story, by the way). Sometimes in short story collections, it's a joy to be able to guiltlessly skip one story that just isn't doing it for you and move on to one that does. This is one of those collections in which I managed to find no skippable stories, although there is one--categorized as "?"--that is so weird that I can see why it could turn people right off.

It's also interesting to see Pronzini and Gores early in their careers working on this together. Having read both of them, it's interesting how two such stylistically different authors can work together and create a readable book.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the almost-annual Mystery Writers of America anthologies. The introduction to the book says, "This anthology depends on tricks and treats, surprise endings, twists, gimmicks..." There are thirty stories. Each of them is put into a different category, although in some cases, the separate designations are interchangeable. For example, all of the following are stories in which it is necessary to figure out how the crime was committed as well as who committed it. For each story, the classification assigned is in brackets:

▪️"I Always Get the Cuties" - John D. MacDonald [The "Howdunnit"]
▪️"The Crooked Picture" - John Lutz [The Locked Room]
▪️"The Leopold Locked Room" - Edward D. Hoch [The Impossible Crime]
▪️"Murder by Scalping" - S. S. Rafferty [Past: Tense - a reference to this also being a historical mystery]
▪️"The Silver Curtain" - John Dickson Carr [The Formal Mystery]

There are some science fiction or fantasy stories, some con game plots, a horror story, and a bunch of comic tales. As with most anthologies, not all the stories are wonderful, but most of them are at least acceptable. The only one I think is a total failure is the Ellery Queen "dying message" story, "Miser's Gold," but I don't think that I have ever enjoyed one of these.

Out of the thirty stories, I only anticipated one ending; that was in "My Sister and I" by Jean L. Backus.

My favorites are "We All Have to Go" by Elizabeth A. Lynn, "The Little Old Lady of Cricket Creek" by Len Gray, "The Silver Curtain" by John Dickson Carr (despite the unlikely solution), "Goodbye, Cora" by Richard Ellington, and "The Deveraux Monster" by Jack Ritchie, which has my favorite last line in the book.