Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 12, No. 59, October 1948

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Early in October 1947, about two weeks before EQMM’S Third Annual Contest closed, your Editor received the following note from Philip MacDonald: “I have a contest story coming up which I think you’re going to like. I actually believe I have done the near-impossible — created a really new detective and a new technique.” Well, you can imagine the anticipation which began to boil and bubble in your Editor’s mind! A new type of detective and a new technical approach from a writer of such outstanding accomplishment as Philip MacDonald, who in the opinion of most critics has already produced two of the mightiest classics in the genre! We wrote to Mr. MacDonald, telling him how eagerly we looked forward to his manuscript, and waited — biting our nails. And on the final day of the contest the story arrived — the first recorded adventure of the esoteric Doctor Alcazar. Aficionados, there are thrills in this bloodhound business entirely apart from those to be found in the stories themselves — the suspense of observing a mailman fish a large manila envelope out of his bag, the excitement of reading an important and long expected manuscript — the feeling, on first looking into a writer’s dream, of some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken... and the wild surprise that comes, silent, upon a peek into daring...

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