Edward D Hoch Popular Books

Edward D Hoch Biography & Facts

Edward Dentinger Hoch (February 22, 1930 – January 17, 2008) was an American writer of detective fiction. Although he wrote several novels, he was primarily known for his vast output of over 950 short stories. He was one of the few America fiction writers of his generation who supported himself financially through short story publication, rather than novels or screenplays. Early life and career Hoch (pronounced hoke) was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Alice Ann Hoch (née Dentinger) and Earl George Hoch, a banker who outlasted both the Wall Street Crash and subsequent Depression. Graduating from the Aquinas Institute of Rochester in 1947, Edward attended the University of Rochester for two years before dropping out in 1949. He enlisted in the Army the following year, serving as a military policeman at Fort Jay on Governor's Island in New York Harbor. After his discharge in 1952, Hoch remained in New York City for another year, working at Pocket Books, Inc.. Returning to New Rochelle, he began working at Hutchins Advertising Company as a copy and public relations writer, in which capacity he remained for roughly 15 years, until transitioning to strictly fiction writing in 1968. Hoch began writing in the 1950s; his first story appeared in 1955 in Famous Detective Stories and was followed by stories in The Saint Mystery Magazine. In January 1962, he began appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. In December 1962, he kicked off his most successful collaboration, with the appearance of his first story in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; in the years since EQMM has published over 450 of Hoch's stories, roughly half of his total output. In May 1973, EQMM began publishing a new Hoch story in every monthly issue; as of May 2007, the author had gone an astonishing 34 years without missing a single issue. Other magazines Hoch wrote for included Adventure, Double-Action Detective, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, The Magazine of Horror and Web Detective Stories. Hoch was a master of the classic detective story, emphasizing mystery and deduction rather than suspense and fast action; EQMM has called him "The King of the Classical Whodunit." His stories are regarded as very well written and are usually tightly plotted puzzles, with carefully and fairly presented clues, both physical and psychological. He was particularly partial to "impossible crime" tales, where to all appearances the crime (usually a murder) could not have been committed at all; he invented numerous variants on the locked room mystery popularized by John Dickson Carr and others. For instance, in "The Second Problem of the Covered Bridge", a man is shot at close range while alone on a covered bridge, while crowds of witnesses watch both ends of the bridge. Hoch cited Graham Greene, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen and Jorge Luis Borges as influences on his fiction, and reportedly took great pride in the compliment Carr paid him in a review of the 1970 anthology, Ellery Queen's Grand Slam: 25 Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Let prejudice speak. My concern is with who and how and seldom with why. Therefore, in one person's opinion, the prize should go to the very first story, "Murder Offstage," a short-short by Edward D. Hoch; Satan himself could be proud of its ingenuity. Hoch also published magazine stories under the names "Stephen Dentinger", "R. L. Stevens", "Pat McMahon", "Anthony Circus", "Irwin Booth", "R. E. Porter", "Mr. X" and the House Name "Ellery Queen". In many cases, he also had a story under his own name in the same magazine issue. Hoch also wrote a novel published as Ellery Queen, under the supervision and editing of Manfred Lee, half of the writing partnership known as Ellery Queen. In 2001, Hoch was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, the first time a Grand Master was known primarily for short fiction rather than novels. Hoch, a Catholic, died at home in Rochester of a heart attack, aged 77. His wife, née Patricia McMahon, was his only immediate survivor. Series stories The overwhelming majority of Hoch's stories feature series characters. He has created at least a dozen different series of stories for EQMM alone. His Captain Leopold series reached over 100 stories. Nick Velvet Nick Velvet is a professional thief for hire, with a peculiar specialty: for a flat fee, he steals only objects of negligible apparent value. Since his first appearance in EQMM in September 1966, he has stolen such things as an old spiderweb (which he was then obliged to replace), a day-old newspaper, and a used teabag. His original fee for a theft was $20,000. In 1980 he raised it to $25,000 at the urging of his long-time girlfriend Gloria (who met Nick in 1965 when he was burgling her New York apartment); in the 21st century his fee has risen to $50,000. Unlike many fictional thieves, Nick usually works alone on his thefts—in fact, until 1979 Gloria believed that Nick worked for the U.S. government. The Nick Velvet caper stories generally combine a near-impossible theft with the mystery of why someone would pay $20,000 to have an apparently valueless item stolen. Although Nick often appears as devoid of curiosity as his targets are of value, circumstances usually force him to identify his clients' true motives, making him as much of a detective as Hoch's more conventional characters. Most of the Nick Velvet stories have a light and humorous tone reminiscent of Leslie Charteris' early stories of the Saint. The fundamental immorality of Nick's chosen profession is frequently offset by the larger justice resulting from his detective work. A Nick Velvet story, "The Theft of the Circus Poster" in May 1973, began Hoch's unbroken string of monthly appearances in EQMM. Another story, "The Theft of the Rusty Bookmark" in January 1998 featured the real-life Mysterious Bookshop of New York City, and its real-life owner (and Edgar-winning publisher and editor), Otto Penzler. "The Theft of Gloria's Greatcoat" (May 1998), which describes the first meeting of Nick and Gloria, is unusual in that it is told in the first person by Gloria; all of the other Nick Velvet stories (and indeed the majority of Hoch's stories) are third-person narratives. Captain Leopold Captain Jules Leopold is a police detective, the head of the Violent Crimes Squad of the police department for the fictional city of Monroe, Conneciticut, a city apparently modeled on Hoch's own home town, Rochester, New York, in Monroe County, New York. Along with his colleagues Lieutenant Fletcher and Sergeant Connie Trent, he is one of Hoch's most conventional characters. The Leopold stories are police procedurals on the surface, showing the interaction of the officers as they investigate crimes, but the crimes themselves are frequently unusual and reflect Hoch's skill at plotting and placement of clues. The story outcomes usually depend on the deductive ability of Le.... Discover the Edward D Hoch popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Edward D Hoch books.