Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Encyclopedia
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM) is a monthly digest size
fiction magazine specializing in crime
and detective
fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock
, the famed director of suspense
films and television.
(and later, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour). A few writers, such as Henry Slesar
, wrote for both. Other contributors during the magazine’s early years included Evan Hunter/Ed McBain
, Ed Lacy
, Bill Pronzini
, Jim Thompson
, Donald E. Westlake
and Charles Willeford
(who briefly worked for the magazine).
In 1975 AHMM was acquired by Davis Publications, Inc., and since 1992 it has been published by Dell Magazines
(which also produces its sister publication, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
). Cathleen Jordan edited the magazine from 1981 to 2002, and since then it has been edited by Linda Landrigan. After EQMM, AHMM is the second-longest-running mystery fiction magazine. In 2006, the magazine celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with the publication of the anthology Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense.
/Nero Wolfe
society, to sponsor the Black Orchid Novella Contest for stories in the “classic detective” style of Stout’s Nero Wolf.
, Lawrence Block
, G. K. Chesterton
, Ron Goulart
, Dorothy L. Sayers
, and Donald E. Westlake
. The magazine has also regularly featured such short story specialists as John H. Dirckx, Kenneth Gavrell, Edward D. Hoch
, Jack Ritchie, and Stephen Wasylyk.
Many writers have published their first mystery story in AHMM, including Mitch Alderman, Doug Allyn, Gregory Fallis, Steve Hockensmith
, Martin Limon, D. A. McGuire
, and I. J. Parker
.
In recent years, regular contributors have also included Rhys Bowen, Jan Burke
, O'Neil De Noux
, John F. Dobbyn
, Joan Druett
, Brendan DuBois
, Loren D. Estleman
, David Edgerley Gates, Toni L. P. Kelner
, R. T. Lawton, Robert Lopresti, Beverle Graves Myers
, Jas R. Petrin, Stephen Ross
, Gilbert M. Stack, Marianne Wilski Strong, Steven Torres, Elaine Viets
, James Lincoln Warren, Sarah Weinman, Mike Wiecek, and Angela Zeman.
presented by the Private Eye Writers of America.
Digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches, but can also be 5⅜ x 8⅜ inches and 5½ x 7½ inches. These sizes have evolved from the printing press operation end...
fiction magazine specializing in crime
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
and detective
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, the famed director of suspense
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
films and television.
History
AHMM was founded in 1956 by HSD Publications, which licensed the use of the director's name. Though there was no formal connection with the television show, stories published in the magazine were sometimes adapted by the producers of Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
(and later, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour). A few writers, such as Henry Slesar
Henry Slesar
Henry Slesar was an American author, playwright, and copywriter. He was also known as O.H. Leslie and Jay Street.-Early life:...
, wrote for both. Other contributors during the magazine’s early years included Evan Hunter/Ed McBain
Evan Hunter
Evan Hunter was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
, Ed Lacy
Ed Lacy
Ed Lacy , born Leonard "Len" S. Zinberg, was an American writer of crime and detective fiction. Lacy, who was white, is credited with creating "the first credible African-American PI" character in fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore...
, Bill Pronzini
Bill Pronzini
Bill Pronzini is an American writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories....
, Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson (writer)
James Myers Thompson was an American author and screenwriter, known for his pulp crime fiction....
, Donald E. Westlake
Donald E. Westlake
Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres...
and Charles Willeford
Charles Willeford
Charles Ray Willeford III was an American writer. An author of fiction, poetry, autobiography, and literary criticism, Willeford is best known for his series of novels featuring hardboiled detective Hoke Moseley. The first Hoke Moseley book, Miami Blues , is considered one of its era's most...
(who briefly worked for the magazine).
In 1975 AHMM was acquired by Davis Publications, Inc., and since 1992 it has been published by Dell Magazines
Dell Magazines
Dell Magazines was a company founded by George T. Delacorte Jr. in 1921 as part of his Dell Publishing Co. Dell is today known for its many puzzle magazines, as well as fiction magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction, and...
(which also produces its sister publication, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
). Cathleen Jordan edited the magazine from 1981 to 2002, and since then it has been edited by Linda Landrigan. After EQMM, AHMM is the second-longest-running mystery fiction magazine. In 2006, the magazine celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with the publication of the anthology Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense.
Black Orchid
In 2007, AHMM joined with The Wolfe Pack, the Rex StoutRex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
/Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
society, to sponsor the Black Orchid Novella Contest for stories in the “classic detective” style of Stout’s Nero Wolf.
Contents
Each issue contains original works of short crime or mystery fiction as well as a book review column (“Booked & Printed”), a movie and television column (“Reel Crime”), a puzzle, a “Mysterious Photograph” story contest, and a "Mystery Classic" reprint.Authors
Over its history AHMM has published short fiction by noted mystery novelists such as Robert BlochRobert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
, Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively...
, G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
, Ron Goulart
Ron Goulart
Ron Goulart is an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy and science fiction author.The prolific Goulart wrote many novelizations and other routine work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson , Con Steffanson , Chad Calhoun, R.T...
, Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
, and Donald E. Westlake
Donald E. Westlake
Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction or other genres...
. The magazine has also regularly featured such short story specialists as John H. Dirckx, Kenneth Gavrell, Edward D. Hoch
Edward D. Hoch
Edward Dentinger Hoch 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.-Biography:...
, Jack Ritchie, and Stephen Wasylyk.
Many writers have published their first mystery story in AHMM, including Mitch Alderman, Doug Allyn, Gregory Fallis, Steve Hockensmith
Steve Hockensmith
Steve Hockensmith is an American author. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He now lives in California.-Biography:Hockensmith is the author of the Holmes on the Range mystery series...
, Martin Limon, D. A. McGuire
D. A. McGuire
Diane Andrews McGuire is an American writer of mystery short stories. Her works have been published in the magazines Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine....
, and I. J. Parker
I. J. Parker
Ingrid J. Parker is a detective/mystery writer, best known for creating Sugawara Akitada, who solved crimes in Heian era of ancient Japan. She was born and raised in Germany.She was the winner of Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award for Best P.I...
.
In recent years, regular contributors have also included Rhys Bowen, Jan Burke
Jan Burke
Jan Burke is an award-winning author of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel.-Bio:Burke was born in Texas, but has lived in Southern California most of her life. She comes from a close-knit family, and remains close to her parents, two sisters and a brother. ...
, O'Neil De Noux
O'Neil De Noux
O’Neil De Noux is a prolific US novelist and short story writer. Although most of De Noux’s fiction falls under the mystery genre, critics describe his work as character-driven crime fiction...
, John F. Dobbyn
John F. Dobbyn
John F. Dobbyn is an American mystery writer and Professor of Law at the Villanova University School of Law.As a mystery writer, he is best known for his stories set in Boston and featuring the lawyers Lex Devlin and Michael Knight...
, Joan Druett
Joan Druett
Joan Druett is a New Zealand historian and novelist, specialising in maritime history.-Life:Joan Druett was born in Nelson, and raised in Palmerston North, moving to New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, when she was 16...
, Brendan DuBois
Brendan DuBois
Brendan DuBois is an American mystery fiction and suspense writer. In this field he has won a Shamus Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He also had his short story "The Dark Snow'" published in Best American Mystery Stories of the Century edited by Otto Penzler and Tony Hillerman ISBN 0618012710...
, Loren D. Estleman
Loren D. Estleman
Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He writes with a manual typewriter....
, David Edgerley Gates, Toni L. P. Kelner
Toni Kelner
Toni LP Kelner is an award-winning author of two mystery series: the eight Laura Fleming novels, which include: Wed and Buried, Death of a Damn Yankee, Tight as a Tick, and several others; and the Where Are They Now? series, which debuted in January 2008 with Without Mercy. She has also edited...
, R. T. Lawton, Robert Lopresti, Beverle Graves Myers
Beverle Graves Myers
Beverle Graves Myers is an American author of mystery novels and short stories. Her major work is the Baroque Mystery series set in 18th-century Venice, published by Poisoned Pen Press. The novels are traditional mysteries which feature a large cast of characters, a deep sense of time and place,...
, Jas R. Petrin, Stephen Ross
Stephen Ross
Stephen Ross may refer to:* Stephen Jay Ross , U.S. communications businessman* Stephen Ross, Baron Ross of Newport , former Liberal Member of Parliament* Stephen Ross , financial economist and textbook author...
, Gilbert M. Stack, Marianne Wilski Strong, Steven Torres, Elaine Viets
Elaine Viets
Elaine Viets is a Midwestern American newspaperwoman and mystery writer.A native of the working-class white southside of St. Louis, Missouri, the statuesque Viets has a degree in journalism and became a long-time popular media figure in St. Louis. She was a regular columnist for the St...
, James Lincoln Warren, Sarah Weinman, Mike Wiecek, and Angela Zeman.
Awards
Since 2004, AHMM has had eleven stories as finalists for the Shamus AwardShamus Award
The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America for the best detective fiction genre novels and short stories of the year....
presented by the Private Eye Writers of America.