Barry Forshaw on R. J. Ellory and Stanley Ellin...
A Quiet Belief in Angels was the breakthrough book for British writer R.J. Ellory, and his particular skill lies in a sprawling, ambitious realisation of American locales – at times reminiscent of the great Stanley Ellin. And like the sardonic American author of The Speciality of the House, Ellory has a taste for the darker recesses of human psychology.
Stanley Ellin's first short story, 'The Specialty of the House', about a New York restaurant with a special gourmet menu, was published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1948 and caused an immediate sensation, winning him a special Ellery Queen Award. 'The House Party' and 'The Blessington Method' subsequently both won Edgar Awards. Stanley Ellin, who was made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1980, is acknowledged as one of the great masters of the 20th-century short story, and this volume brings together the best of his work in the genre.
Stanley Ellin was born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Brooklyn College. He worked as a teacher, a steelworker and a dairy farmer and served in the US Army in World War Two before becoming a full-time writer in 1946. His first published short story, The Speciality of the House, won him a special Ellery Queen Award. He won two Edgar Awards for short stories, as well as one for The Eighth Circle, and the Grand Prix de la Litterature Policiere for Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. In 1980 he was made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America.
