The
Killer Everyone Knew and Other Captain Leopold Stories (2023) is
the thirteenth volume of Edward
D. Hoch's fiction, published by Crippen & Landru, collecting
fifteen short stories from his series of police procedurals featuring
one of his most enduring creations, Captain Jules Leopold – who
appeared in over a hundred short stories. A not inconsiderable chunk
of Hoch's output counting nearly a thousand short stories covering
more than a dozen different series and standalone stories.
Captain
Leopold is the head of the Violent Crimes Squad of Monroe, a
fictitious town somewhere in Connecticut, who's a normal, competent
and levelheaded policeman. So he's basically a modern-day Inspector
French. Being one of Hoch's rare conventional characters doesn't mean
his caseload is always normal or everyday. I know Captain Leopold
from the odd anthologized short story which tended to be locked room
mysteries and impossible crime stories. I suppose the known of these
stories "The
Leopold Locked Room" (1971) in which Captain Leopold is framed
for the murder of his ex-wife, but not to be overlooked is "Captain
Leopold and the Impossible Murder" (1976) staging a locked room
slaying in the middle of a rush hour traffic jam.There
is, of course, more to the Captain Leopold series than an excellent
impossible crime story or locked
room mystery every now and then. Roland
Lacourbe illustrated this in his excellent introduction and
detailed overview of the series, "The Best of Captain Leopold,"
which opens The Killer Everyone Knew. A insightful,
non-spoiler introduction for those not overly familiar with the
series or are new to it and a refresher course for those who might
not have encountered Captain Leopold for while. After all, the last
Captain Leopold story, "Leopold Undercover" (2007), was published
seventeen years ago and The Killer Everyone Knew is the first
Captain Leopold collection since Leopold's Way (1985). So this
publication was long overdue. Even longer than that second Ben Snow
collection.
Lastly,
before delving into this collection, the stories in The Killer
Everyone Knew originally appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery
Magazine from 1981 to 2000. Yes, this is a shoddy attempt to
prevent another unnecessary long and bloated SSC
review. So with that out of the way...
The
first story, "The Woman Without a Past" (1981), confronts
Captain Leopold with the double murder of an unmarried couple, Judy
Thomas and Carl Forrester, who were gunned down on their own doorstep
when returning home from a birthday dinner. She has a past going back
only ten months before it goes completely blank and he has
forty-eight cans of ether in the closet. So who was the killer after,
Judy or Carl? A good and intriguing setup, but, in the end, not much
of a mystery as the culprit is glaringly obvious in spite of wearing
the garb of the least-likely-suspect. I think the next story would
have made a better opener to this otherwise excellent collection.
"Captain
Leopold Beats the Machine" (1983) is a neat little impossible
poisoning mystery. Tommy Rusto is a two-bit criminal implicated in
the fatal car bombing of Vice-Mayor Mark Prior, but now that his
trial is coming up, he's ready to talk and name names. So the D.A.
asks Captain Leopold to borrow their interrogation room and for him
to be present as a witness, which is when things take a turn for the
worst as Rusto asks for a cup of coffee – brought to him by Captain
Leopold. Rusto takes a sip of the coffee, mutters something about the
taste of the coffee ("this coffee tastes...") and drops
dead from cyanide poisoning. The coffee came from the vending machine
of the police squad, which is taken apart and closely examined, but
is proven to be clean and not tampered with. So who poisoned the
stool pigeon and how? Well, those are, admittedly, not terrible
difficult questions to answer and it's strange Leopold is never
considered as a suspect. Nevertheless, it's a good, timely example of
the detective story exploring new possibilities technology can bring
to the table (beside a cyanide laced coffee) and loved the clue that
identified the murderer. To quote Leopold, "this is truly the
age of the machine."
The
third story, "Finding Joe Finch" (1984), begins with the
announcement of Captain Leopold's engagement to Molly Calendar, a
defense lawyer, who appeared in the previous story as Rusto's legal
representative. A strain is placed on the engagement following a
deadly payroll robbery at the Greenways factory. The primary suspects
is one of the factory workers, Joe Finch, who's nowhere to be found.
Not to mention that he's the brother-in-law of Lieutenant Fletcher.
This causes some problems at home ("...you're all the same,
aren't you?"). So more of a police procedural with troubled
cops than a proper detective story, but the clueing is fair and the
factory setting well realized. And added something to everything from
the characters and storytelling to the plot.I
already reviewed "The Murder in Room 1010" (1987) back in June alongside
Hoch's "The Theft of Cinderella's Slipper" (1987) and "The
Theft of Leopold's Badge" (1991), but it's a small gem of an
impossible crime story.
"The
Crime in Heaven" (1988) boosts one of Hoch's most creative and
original setups when a woman comes to Captain Leopold to report a
murder far, far outside of his jurisdiction. Mrs. Roberts has been
communicating with the spirit of her grandfather, dead for half a
century, through the medium Madame Vane and her spirit guide, Grey
Elk ("they're often Indians, you know") – whom she
accuses of murdering her dead grandfather! During their last séance,
Mrs. Roberts heard the voice of Grey Elk screaming at her grandfather
and someone saying, "put down that gun," before a gunshot
rang out. Nothing was heard after the shot and Madame Vane refused
any more seances. Something weird or unusual happened, but where do
you even begin to investigate when "the murder victim was a man
who's already been dead for fifty-five years"? Captain
Leopold's colleague, Sergeant Connie Trent, plays a big role in
unraveling this criminal scheme gone horribly awry. Simply a great
story with an original approach to presenting and picking apart a
plot.
The
title story of this collection, "The Killer Everyone Knew"
(1989), begins when Captain Leopold is visited by a criminal
psychiatrist, Dr. Arthur Frees, who works with convicted murderers.
Dr. Frees regresses them through hypnosis to the moment of the murder
and he's convinced one of his patients is innocent. Five years ago,
Ralph Simmons was identified by several witnesses as the man "who'd
taken Laurie Mae Nelson out to her car in the parking lot and
strangled her." So he was arrested, put on trial and sentenced
to twenty years to life ("...still protesting his innocence"),
but now Dr. Frees claims his hypnotic sessions uncovered Simmons was "nowhere near the scene of the crime that night." Captain
Leopold is more than a little skeptical, but promises to look over
the file. And the case notes don't look too promising. But,
curiously, it turns out the witnesses have begun to die. This story
is a bit of downer as it obviously leans more to the serious crime
story/police procedural, but how Leopold uses a chain-of-knowledge,
rather than evidence, to identify the murderer is not bad. That and
it was interesting how Hoch decided to tackle the shopworn premise of
a man innocently convicted of murder.
If
you think "The Killer Everyone Knew" is a bit depressing, you
haven't read "Captain Leopold's Birthday" (1990). Captain
Leopold is not looking forward to his coming birthday as the
department's mandatory retirement policy is "now only twelve
short months away." On top of that, Leopold learns that an
ex-colleague from the Arson Squad, Marty Doyle, died from a heart
attack a year into his early retirement. Something that has
unexpected consequences when one of the Doyles neighbors is shot to
death with a target pistol and Leopold has to investigate a murder
involving people he knows personally. A dark, gloomy and somewhat
depressing cop drama/police procedural, but Hoch (SPOILER/ROT13)
uvatrq gur jubyr guvat ba n pyrireyl uvqqra, grpu-onfrq nyvov
hfvat gur pncgnva uvzfrys nf n jvgarff. So I didn't hate it, nor
loved it, but definitely liked how it reads like a miniature version
of a Roger
Ormerod novel with its dead ex-cop and use of a target pistol as
murder weapon.The
cover image of this collection comes from the next story, "The
Retired Magician" (1991), which plays out over the course of
several months. Captain Leopold learns that the famous stage
magician, Rex Furcula, retired to Monroe and bought a house complete
with a small carriage house to store his magic collection and
memorabilia – nothing much was heard of him for several years. Two
years later, Furcula sister is murdered when she caught a burglar in
the carriage house and killer is killed himself during his getaway.
So an open and shut case. Over the course of several months, Leopold
and Molly become acquainted with Furcula and his wife. Leopold begins
to like the Furcula's, but suspicion begins to sneak in when he
learns about a one-million dollar life insurance policy. Just like in
a magic act, "nothing is ever quite what it seems." I
enjoyed the deliberate vagueness, but clued, of the setup punctuated
by a new wrinkle on a classic idea. A solid Hoch short story!
"Puzzle
in a Smoke Filled Room" (1991) is another story with a premise
as intriguing as it's original. The men of Fire Company 5 respond to
a house fire and find a woman in pajamas on the doorstep begging to
save her husband who went to bed early, but, when entering the
burning, smoke filled bedroom, they hear the crack of an exploding
cartridge. Firefighter Randy Dwyer is fatally hit in the chest by
bullet. The victim of a bizarre, but not an unheard-of, accident in
which "the intense heat of the fire had detonated the powder
charge in several pistol cartridges stored in the homeowner's
bedroom." However, the bullet that was removed from the body
has lands and grooves on its sides proving "it had been fired
from a gun barrel." Captain Leopold and his team go from a
freak accident to a quasi-impossible murder. So it's unfortunate the
solution doesn't hold up. I can overlook Leopold not immediately
grasping (SPOILER/ROT13) gur fvtavsvpnapr bs na rkvg jbhaq
gung fubhyqa'g or gurer, ohg jung nobhg gur cngubybtvfg? Fubhyqa'g
ur, bs nyy crbcyr, abgvpr gur obql unf bayl bar ragel jbhaq naq bar
rkvg jbhaq, ohg fgvyy qht n ohyyrg bhg bs gur ivpgvz'f purfg? Juvyr
gur frpbaq ohyyrg jnf sverq guebhtu gur svefg ohyyrg jbhaq, vg qvqa'g
sbyybj gur genpx bs gur svefg ohyyrg be gurl jbhyq unir pbyyvqrq. Naq
gur cngubybtvfg jbhyq unir qht gjb fyhtf bhg bs gur obql. So
loved how the story was presented, but its resolution left me
unconvinced. Only just realized the method is basically a poor,
simplified reworking of a rather elaborate trick from another and
better Captain Leopold story.
"The
Summer of Our Discontent" (1992) is not so much a detective
story as it's an important character-arc. Captain Leopold has the
long-dreaded retirement talk with Chief Ringold and agrees to retire
by the end of the month. Everyone assumed Lieutenant Fletcher is
going to be promoted to captain and appointed commander of the
Violent Crimes Squad, but Chief Ringold tells him Lieutenant George
Vivian, of the Burglary Squad, is picked as his successor – which
comes as a smack in their face. Things get worse when one of Vivian's
men, Sergeant Patrick O'Mera, is found shot dead in his patrol car
with evidence suggesting bribery and corruption. The excellent and
fitting motive behind the murder should have made this story a worthy
retirement case for Captain Leopold, but everything felt mired in
needless cop drama. So the story becomes more about how this murder
is going to ruin Vivian's promotion and hand it back to Fletcher
rather than allowing Leopold to tidy up his last case, before
officially handing over the reigns to Fletcher. Why not do the same
thing, except (ROT13) Ivivna trgf cebzbgrq gb pncgnva naq
pbzznaqre bs gur Ohetynel Fdhnq? Gung jnl, gur zbgvir fgvyy jbexf
jvgubhg gur fbncl qenzn gung pbhyq bayl raq bar jnl."Leopold
at Rest" (1993) is a minor, but pleasantly surprising, story
showing Fletcher in Leopold's role as head of the Violent Crimes
Squad handling everyday routine cases like an attempted murder.
Charlie McGregor was shot by his wife's lover, Tod Baxter, who's
released after his brother backed the half-million dollar bail.
Another story that's pleasantly mysterious about the direction of the
story, but the ending delivered. Not a very happy ending, but
unexpectedly good after the previous two stories. This series is
strong on unexpected, original motives and cleverly-hidden criminal
schemes. So even the stories leaning heavily in the direction of the
dark, grim police procedural and character-driven crime fiction feel
more substantial, because they have a plot to stand on.
"Leopold
Lends a Hand" (1995) is another good one bringing together the
classically-styled detective story and the modern police procedural.
Captain Fletcher is short staffed, "more cases than the Violent
Crime Squad can handle at the moment," which is why he asked
Leopold to help out with some routine questioning of witnesses at the
scene of a murder. Construction workers discovered the body of
Vladimir Petrov, a Russian businessman, when they returned to work on
his million dollar, partially finished condominium – shot twice in
the chest. Petrov possessed a couple of antique religious icon,
dating back to sixth or seventh century, which are worth a small
fortune and considered to be potential motive. Only then Fletcher is
shot and seriously wounded. Suddenly, Leopold is back on the job as "acting head of the Violent Crimes division," when another
complication rears it ugly head. The woman who appraised one of the
icons, Rachel Dean, is shot and killed behind the locked door and
barred windows of her private office. She lived long enough to leave
behind a dying message! A detective story with a dying message inside
a locked room comes with certain expectations, regarding the
solution, but Hoch delivers the goods. More importantly, it came with
that jolt of surprise I remember from my first encounters with Agatha
Christie. I need to nitpick a little here and point out the
central idea behind the locked room-trick had been tried before, one
or two times, but Hoch arguably employed it to greater effect.
I
didn't like the next story, "The Mystery That Wouldn't Stay
Solved" (1997), which brings a true crime writer to the retired
Leopold to discuss one of his old cases. Nine years ago, Alex
Clemmins received the death penalty for the car bombing that killed
his wife and their two young children. Now that the execution is less
than a week away, the case is getting renewed attention in the media
with rumors swirling around about new evidence. Leopold begins to
suspect "the evidence that convicted him might be flawed."
The previous stories set the precedent that even the stories leaning
more towards the police procedurals and crime stories aren't without
plot virtues, but that's not the case here. If "Leopold Helps a
Hand" shows what the traditional, but modernized, detective story
could have been in the nineties, "The Mystery That Wouldn't Stay
Solved" rubs the tripe we got instead in your face."The
Phantom Lover" (1999) is another fairly minor, unusually
structured story beginning as a missing person's case. Stanley
Falkner is fairly well-known in the city, "a local Realtor who
dabbled in politics," who had a very public, headline making
brawl with Lynn at a restaurant ("she'd jabbed him in the neck
with a salad fork..."). So she becomes a person of interest
when her husband goes missing and is found shortly thereafter dead in
a gravel pit. Surprisingly, Lynn comes clean halfway through and
confesses she conspired with her lover, Gavin Stark, to dispose her
husband – which gets her indicted on two counts ("second-degree
murder and conspiracy to commit murder"). However, the
so-called phantom lover is nowhere to be found and when she recants
her confession, the case against her threatens to collapse. Lynn has
a rock solid alibi for the time Gavin killed Stanley. So, unless the
D.A. can produce Lynn's lover, there's "no way the D.A. can
prove a conspiracy." Captain Fletcher has his work cut out as
Leopold is "following this case closely in the papers."
Like I said, the structure is unusual, for a detective story, but the
truth behind the phantom lover left me unimpressed.
The
final story, "The Emerald Expert" (2000), ends the
collection on a high note. Leopold and Molly open their home to a
French gemologist, Henri Scarlotti, who has come to the United States
to testify as an expert witness on behalf of the defense in the
Jaspar case. Jeff Shields and Beryl Constantine, his girlfriend,
stand trial for the murdering and robbing of a jewelry salesman, Alex
Jaspar. Both were caught in New York when they tried to dispose of
the stolen emeralds, or so the prosecution claims, but they claim to
be innocent. Scarlotti can apparently prove the emerald they tried to
sell in New York were mined in a different location than Jaspar's
stolen emeralds ("...a small sample from the gem's surface is
measured for oxygen isotopes"). This provides the story with
fascinating sidelight on emeralds and emerald mining, before the home
of the Leopolds becomes a crime scene. Scarlotti was shot and killed
in their home! The solution is pretty solid with a surprising killer
and, once again, an original motive. So a fine and fitting story to
close out this overall excellent collection of Captain Leopold
stories.
Lacourbe
writes in the introduction that the stories have "verve and
imagination" in their variation with "the weirdness of
many of the situations" standing "in sharp contrast to the
seeming banality of the cases themselves." Something all the
stories in this collection can attest to, whether they're good or
not, but it's also impressive when you hold the stories up to Hoch's
other series. Lacourbe notes that Leopold is one of Hoch's most
grounded series-character. Leopold is not a gunslinger from the Wild
West (Ben Snow), a thief-for-hire (Nick Velvet), a locked room expert
(Dr. Hawthorne) or an immortal detective (Simon Ark). Just a normal,
everyday homicide cop who relies as much on his experience as he does
on his intelligence and Hoch genuinely tried to create miniature
versions of the then contemporary, character-driven crime drama's and
police procedurals – complete with their dark, gritty tone and
bleak endings. So not everyone is going to like, what Mike Grost
dubbed, "The
Gloomy Tales," but I admired Hoch craftily giving a classical
twist to most of these bleak, gritty modern-day police procedurals.
And with only four less than stellar stories, The Killer Everyone
Knew ensured Leopold's Way is on its way to the top of the
pile. Simply a must-read for Hoch fans!
A
note for the curious: if you ever wondered what the mostly
untranslated, Dutch police procedurals/detective stories by M.P.O.
Books/"Anne
van Doorn" are like, The Killer Everyone Knew comes
pretty close to the short stories collected in De
bergen die geen vergetelheid kennen en andere mysteries (The
Mountains That Do Not Forget and Other Mysteries, 2018) and Meer
mysteries voor Robbie Corbijn (More Mysteries for Robbie
Corbijn, 2021). Just throwing that out as a reminder there's
still some untranslated gold over here.