Short Stories
Funeral in the Fog

by Edward D. Hoch
Crippen & Landru, August 2020, $22

Funeral in the Fog is an excellent collection of 16 Simon Ark puzzlers written by Edward D. Hoch. The eccentric Simon Ark is a former Egyptian Coptic priest. He claims to be 2,000 years-old, and while his knowledge is vast, his interests start with and end with “Satanism and evil.” Every Simon Ark mystery has a possible supernatural explanation, but the solutions are always rational, mundane, and very human.

The first tale, “Day of the Wizard,” finds Simon Ark and his unnamed narrator searching the Egyptian desert for a mysterious American military plane that disappeared in 1945. The aircraft’s secret cargo is as much a puzzle as is its disappearance. Ark is momentarily sidetracked when an impossible murder, featuring a magician and a beautiful American news reporter, begs for a solution, which is given moments before the mystery of the airplane is revealed. The other stories in this collection find Ark investigating the Devil’s taking of pledged souls, cursed trumpets, and lightning bolts crashing from blue skies.

The tales are marked by Hoch’s precise plotting, his placement of well-laid clues, and his masterful use of diversion and subterfuge to keep the reader guessing. Interestingly, Simon Ark was the protagonist in Hoch’s first published story, “Village of the Dead,” in 1955, which does not appear in this collection. My internet snooping didn’t provide me with an exact count of Hoch’s Simon Ark stories, but it appears there are more than 40, which makes me hopeful another collection of his adventures will appear.

Benjamin Boulden
Teri Duerr
7244
Hoch
August 2020
funeral-in-the-fog
22
Crippen & Landru