Fulton Oursler in Mystery Magazine.

Fulton Oursler, ca. 1928

I was browsing the Nickel Weeklies digital collection at BGSU's Browne Popular Culture Library and found a familiar name in the pages of Mystery Magazine: Charles Fulton Oursler (1893–1952). We might know him better as Fulton Oursler (the editor of Liberty magazine and Reader's Digest as well as the author of The Greatest Story Ever Told) or mystery author Anthony Abbot.

His Mystery Magazine contributions: 

"The Sign of the Seven Sharks," MM no. 12, 1 May 1918 

"Shadowing the Blue Triangle," MM no 16, 1 Jul 1918 

"The Magician Detective," MM no. 20, 1 Sept 1918 

"The Evil Eye," MM no. 28, 1 Jan. 1919 

Cover of Mystery Magazine no 81

"The Mystery of the Seven Shadows," MM no. 43, 15 Aug 1919 ("Unraveler of mysteries" Gordon Keene comes to the aid of a young woman whose life is in danger.)

"The Whispering Head," MM no 50, 1 Feb 1920 

"The Clue of the Red Lamp," MM no 63, 15 Jun 1920 

"The Spirit Bell," MM no 69, 15 Dec 1920 

"The Jeweled Pipe of Persia," MM vol 3, no 75, 15 Dec 1920 (An inspector and a magician attempt to thwart the theft of a priceless object.)

"The Spirit Witness," MM no 76, 1 Jan 1921 

"Professor Satan," MM no 81, 15 Mar 1921. (Professor Satan is a daring jewel thief)

"The Man in Room No. 7," MM no 87, 15 Jun 1921 

"The Trance Detective," MM no 91. Aug 1921 

"Counterfeit Clues," MM no 98, 1 Dec 1921 

"A Man from Siam," MM no 105, 15 Mar 1922 (A detective tangles with a mysterious figure from the East.)

"A Whispering Mummy," MM no. 110, 1 Jun 1922 

"The District Attorney's Secret," MM no 114, 1 Aug 1922 

"A Master of Millions," MM no 123, 1 Jan 1923 

"The Hand in the Dark," MM no 130, 15 Apr 1923 (A man seeks to clear his former love of a charge of murdering her husband.)

"One Clue Missing," MM no 135, 1 Jul 1923 

"The Footprints on the Ceiling," MM no 150, 15 Feb 1924 

Ava Dickerson on the papers of Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels/Barbara Mertz.

An episode of the podcast Another Shirt Ruined (focusing on Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody Emerson series) features Ava Dickerson, an archivist at IU Bloomington's Lilly Library, who catalogued the papers of Peters (aka Barbara Michaels and Barbara Mertz). Learn about aspects of the collection, some fans who wrote to Peters, challenges in cataloguing, and more. 

Further Reading: Ava Dickerson, "Journey to the Center of the Mertz" (blog posts). 

My July-Aug 2026 EQMM column.

My new Jury Box column w/reviews of mystery short story collections and classic reprints is now posted at Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, featuring works that focus on the impossible crime (Elsa Barker, Christianna Brand, Charles Chadwick, Mary Collins, Celia Fremlin, Peter Lovesey, T.S. Stribling).

New film music releases: Fried, Rozsa.

New music releases include:

•  The Grissom Gang (1971; composer Gerald Fried). Dragon's Domain Records. For more information or to hear some clips, go here.

• The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977) and Background to Violence suite (composer Miklós Rózsa); the suite includes selections from The Naked City,  The Killers, and Brute Force). Citadel Records. For more information or to hear some clips, go here.

 

 

Return to Reichenbach Falls.

"The Death of Sherlock Holmes"
by Sidney Paget. 1893.

Members of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London recently re-created the fateful encounter between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls.