Something Old: Stronghold, by Stanley Ellin

Something New: The Husband, by Dean Koontz

 

Stanley Ellin (1916-1986) was surely one of the best writers in the history of the mystery short story. Beginning with his first published story, the classic “The Specialty of the House,” Ellin wrote stories outside the usual run of detective fiction being published by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in the 1940’s and 1950’s, and Fred Dannay, editor of EQMM, published many of his stories and promoted him heartily.

Ellin won two Edgar awards for his short stories, and although his novels may be slightly lesser known in the genre, he won another Edgar for his 1972 book Mirror Mirror on the Wall. At the time on the cutting edge with respect to the use of sex in crime fiction, it has dated a bit now, although the plot is dazzlingly pyrotechnic. Meanwhile, several of his other books have not dated at all, like House of Cards, The Dark Fantastic… or Stronghold.

Written in 1975, Stronghold is an unusual tale of a hostage-taking and a ransom demand, with a non-violent protagonist you would think little prepared to take on the kidnappers. Marcus Hayworth, along with the other leaders of a Quaker community in upstate New York, had at one time tried to help a young troublemaker named James Flood. Despite their efforts, Flood came to no good, and now has returned to the community to seek revenge by taking several members of Hayworth’s household hostage and demanding a four million dollar ransom. Hayworth himself is not one of the hostages, and instead of calling in the authorities he decides on a bold plan: he will devises a strategy intended to free the hostages without paying the ransom–and without violence in keeping with Quaker philosophy.

Don’t imagine for a minute that you can’t be ruthless without being violent. Hayworth’s first move in the stand-off is breathtakingly audacious. Before the tense standoff is over both Hayworth and the reader have had to examine their own convictions several times over.

Dean Koontz has been writing since 1968, and his first of many bestsellers came in 1980 with Whispers. Most of the time he writes either straight thrillers or thrillers with a bit of the paranormal mixed in. Until recently I would have said that my favorite Koontz was either The Servants of Twilight or Watchers, both of the paranormal variety. But in 2006 he wrote The Husband.

The Husband is an unusual tale of a hostage-taking and a ransom demand with a non-violent protagonist you would think little prepared to take on the kidnapers. Mitchell Rafferty is a professional gardener, and one day on the job his cell phone rings. It’s his wife:

“Mitch, I love you,” Holly said.

“Hey, sweetie.”

“Whatever happens, I love you.”

She cried out in pain. A clatter and crash suggested a struggle. Alarmed, Mitch rose to his feet. “Holly?”

Some guy said something, some guy who now had the phone. Mitch didn’t hear the words because he was focused on the background noise.

Holly squealed. He’d never heard such a sound from her, such fear.

She was silenced by a sharp crack, as though she’d been slapped.

The stranger on the phone said, “You hear me, Rafferty?”

The stranger goes on to demand two million dollars in ransom money, money that Mitch doesn’t have, money that the stranger knows Mitch doesn’t have. The kidnappers prove via a violent demonstration that they are serious, and Mitch finds out that, gardener or no gardener, he will do just about anything to get his wife back. You’ll believe it too. There are a couple of mind-blowing plot twists along the way, and a very satisfying ending. Don’t miss it.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 6:56 am and is filed under Something Old, Something New. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.