A collection of puzzling whodunits featuring Sister Ursula and Nick Noble, from the author of Nine Times Nine and “a fine craftsman” (Ellery Queen). Anthony Boucher was a literary renaissance man: an Edgar Award–winning mystery reviewer, an esteemed editor of the Hugo Award–winning Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a prolific scriptwriter of radio mystery programs, and an accomplished writer of mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. With a particular fondness for the locked room mystery, Boucher created such iconic sleuths as Los Angeles PI Fergus O’Breen, amateur sleuth Sister Ursula, and alcoholic ex-cop Nick Noble. This anthology features some of Boucher’s most beloved characters as well as some less common—but equally fascinating—narrators. In part one, “An Ennead of Nobles,” retired detective Nick Noble, who was asked to leave the force due to his problems with alcohol, is determined to redeem himself by solving the toughest cases. Part two, “Conundrums for the Cloister,” features the wise and empathetic Sister Ursula, the daughter of a cop who once aspired to work in law and order until health issues caused her to rethink her life’s direction and take up holy orders instead. But she still can’t give up the habit of sleuthing. Part three, “Jeux de Meurtre,” offers an assortment of nonseries mystery stories narrated by cops and amateurs detectives—and occasionally by the murderers themselves.
Author
Anthony Boucher (born William Anthony Parker White) (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968) was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to 'Anthony Boucher,' White also employed the pseudonym 'H. H. Holmes', which was the name of a 19th-century serial killer. In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time. White was born in Oakland, California, and went to college at the University of Southern California. He later received a Masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He was admired for his mystery writing but was most noted for his editing, his science fiction anthologies, and his mystery reviews for many years in The New York Times. He was the first English translator of Jorge Luis Borges, translating "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He helped found the Mystery Writers of America in 1946 and, in the same year, was one of the first winners of the MWA's Edgar Award for his mystery reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle. He was founding editor (with J. Francis McComas) of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1949 to 1958, and was seminal in attempting to make literary quality an important aspect of science fiction. He won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine in 1957 and 1958. Boucher also edited the long-running Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction anthology series, 1952-1959. His short story "The Quest for Saint Aquin" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories of all time. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964. Boucher also scripted for radio and was involved in many other activities, as described by William F. Nolan in his essay, "Who Was Anthony Boucher?": The 1940s proved to be a very busy and productive decade for Boucher. In 1945 he launched into a spectacular three-year radio career, plotting more than 100 episodes for The Adventures of Ellery Queen, while also providing plots for the bulk of the Sherlock Holmes radio dramas. By the summer of 1946 he had created his own mystery series for the airwaves, The Casebook of Gregory Hood. ("I was turning out three scripts each week for as many shows," he stated. "It was a mix of hard work and great fun.") Tony left dramatic radio in 1948, "mainly because I was putting in a lot of hours working with J. Francis McComas in creating what soon became The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. We got it off the ground in 1949 and saw it take hold solidly by 1950. This was a major creative challenge and although I was involved in a lot of other projects, I stayed with F&SF into 1958." Indeed, throughout his years with the magazine, Boucher was certainly involved in "a lot of other projects." Among them: • Supplying the SF and crime markets with new fiction. • Teaching an informal writing class from his home in Berkeley. • Continuing his Sunday mystery columns for the New York Times Book Review. • Functioning as chief critic for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. • Reviewing SF and fantasy (as H.H. Holmes) for the New York Herald Tribune. • Editing True Crime Detective. • Supervising the Mercury Mystery Line and (later) the Dell Great Mystery Library. • Hosting Golden Voices, his series of historical opera recordings for Pacifica Radio. • Serving (in 1951) as president of Mystery Writers of America. In addition to all of this, Tony was a devoted poker player, a political activist, a rabid sport fan (
