KILLING TIME and Other Stories
Introduction by Alfred Jan
A Sample of Joel Townsley Rogers’ Mystery Novelettes
Introduction by Alfred Jan
One of the most versatile authors of the pulp era, Joel Townsley Rogers appeared in magazines as diverse as Wings, Snappy Stories, Adventure, Argosy, Detective Fiction Weekly, and Thrilling Wonder Stories. Even within the mystery genre, Rogers did not adhere to one formula, as this collection will show. Regarding my previously published essay on imminent menace, I made it an Afterword, because I analyzed plots and revealed endings in “The Red Right Hand”, “Killing Time”, and “The Hiding Horror”, so readers who want the thrill of discovery should attend to the stories before the Afterword. The remaining story discussed, “The Murderer”, can be found in Night of Horror and Other Stories, the first Ramble House Rogers collection edited by Barry Warren.
I included the original pulp version of his masterpiece The Red Right Hand, because while the novel has been reprinted numerous times since its 1945 release, the pulp novelette upon which it was based has never been reprinted to my knowledge. Both exude identical degrees of horror and tension despite length difference. “Murder of the Dead Man”, a traditional murder mystery taking place in a resort hotel reprised the venomous snake theme Rogers used in the supernatural yarn “Hark! The Rattle!” which was honored by its appearance in the first issue of Weird Tales, March 1923. “The Crimson Vampire” combined his interest in aviation (which he taught to recruits near the end of World War I) with the standard weird menace plot found in pulps like Horror Stories, Terror Tales, Dime Mystery. “The Hiding Horror”, with its creepy old house and eccentric inhabitants, employs devices anticipating those in “The Red Right Hand”, but also contains social/political commentary usually missing from his stories. “My Friend Death” allows us access to the mental deterioration of a psychopath whose defenses crumble before our eyes.
The most amazing connections, however, occurred between “Killing Time” and Cornell Woolrich’s “The Penny-A-Worder” from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September 1958. Self-referentially, both used pulp magazine writers as main characters, and the act of writing, along with its chief tool the typewriter played prominent roles in their plots. Furthermore, Rogers’ title mirrors Woolrich’s fictional story title, “Killing Time” used for the story by his character Dan Moody for a detective pulp called Startling Stories! But Rogers also wrote “The Night the World Turned Over” for the real Startling Stories, a science fiction pulp dated November 1952! The chances of the reclusive Woolrich contacting his contemporary were probably nil, making these parallels very unusual.
Despite plot diversity, Rogers maintains thematic unity of expressionistic evocative concepts such as touches of Grand Guignol, psychopathology, fluidity of identity, and the banality of evil represented by horrific acts committed by milquetoast men. The double meaning of “killing time” collapses temporality by alluding to instantaneous murder and the long build up preceding it. Roger’s atmospheric style approaches, but is distinct from Cornell Woolrich’s, which may render the previously described coincidences less shocking. As I wrote in my published essay, Joel Townsley Rogers remains under-appreciated today, but Ramble House is doing its best to remedy this situation.