Nothing Is Impossible: Further Problems for Dr. Sam Hawthorne

by Hoch Edward D.

  “Angela didn’t know he killed Judy?”

  I shook my head. “When I got her quieted down in the car she told me she’d been swimming while he put up the shutters. She also said he found some excuse to throw the tack hammer away in the rubbish. You’ll want to go back there for it. You’ll probably find her car on one of those back roads, unless he drove it into the lake.”

  Sheriff Lens grinned at me. “You were guessin’ back at the cottage, Doc. Even if Phil Gilbert was involved in the disappearance, he might not have killed the Irving girl.”

  “You play the odds, Sheriff. Judy came looking for Angela. Was I to believe she found an entirely separate criminal with a weapon shaped just like Gilbert’s tack hammer?”

  “Angela might have been an accomplice to the killing.”

  “No, she rode out with those girls on Tuesday night because they were her closest friends. She wasn’t going off to college, but she was going far away, where she’d never see them again. She wouldn’t have killed Judy, or stuck with Gilbert if she knew he had. She’s a decent girl who got mixed up with the wrong boy.”

  That’s what it was like as the summer of ’36 ended. I never saw Angela ride her bicycle again.

  A DR. SAM HAWTHORNE CHECKLIST

  Books

  Diagnosis: Impossible, The Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne. Norfolk: Crippen & Landru Publishers, 1996. Contains Dr. Sam’s first twelve cases.

  More Things Impossible, The Second Casebook of Dr. Sam Hawthorne. Norfolk: Crippen & Landru Publishers, 2006. Contains Dr. Sam’s next 15 cases.

  Nothing Is Impossible, Further Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne. Norfolk: Crippen & Landru Publishers, 2013. Contains 15 more cases.

  Individual Stories

  All of Dr. Sam Hawthorne’s reminiscences were first published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine [EQMM]. Dates when the events took place are recorded below in brackets.

  “The Problem of the Covered Bridge” [March 1922]. EQMM, December 1974.

  “The Problem of the Old Gristmill” [July 1923]. EQMM, March 1975.

  “The Problem of the Lobster Shack” [June 1924]. EQMM, September 1975.

  “The Problem of the Haunted Bandstand” [July 1924]. EQMM, January 1976.

  “The Problem of the Locked Caboose” [Spring 1925]. EQMM, May 1976.

  “The Problem of the Little Red Schoolhouse” [Fall 1925]. EQMM, September 1976.

  “The Problem of the Christmas Steeple” [December 25, 1925]. EQMM, January 1977.

  “The Problem of Cell 16” [Spring 1926]. EQMM, March 1977.

  “The Problem of the Country Inn” [Summer 1926]. EQMM, September 1977.

  “The Problem of the Voting Booth” [November 1926]. EQMM, December 1977.

  “The Problem of the County Fair” [Summer 1927]. EQMM, February 1978.

  “The Problem of the Old Oak Tree” [September 1927]. EQMM, July 1978.

  “The Problem of the Revival Tent” [Fall 1927]. EQMM, November 1978.

  “The Problem of the Whispering House” [February 1928]. EQMM, April 1979.

  “The Problem of the Boston Common” [Spring 1928]. EQMM, August 1979.

  “The Problem of the General Store” [Summer 1928]. EQMM, November 1979.

  “The Problem of the Courthouse Gargoyle” [September 1928]. EQMM,

  June 30, 1980.

  “The Problem of the Pilgrims Windmill” [March 1929]. EQMM, September 10, 1980.

  “The Problem of the Gingerbread Houseboat” [Summer 1929]. EQMM, January 28, 1981.

  “The Problem of the Pink Post Office” [October 1929]. EQMM, June 17, 1981.

  “The Problem of the Octagon Room” [December 1929]. EQMM, October 7, 1981.

  “The Problem of the Gypsy Camp” [January 1930]. EQMM, January 1, 1982.

  “The Problem of the Bootleggers Car” [May 1930]. EQMM, July 1982.

  “The Problem of the Tin Goose” [July 1930]. EQMM, December 1982.

  “The Problem of the Hunting Lodge” [Fall 1930]. EQMM, May 1983.

  “The Problem of the Body in the Haystack” [July 1931]. EQMM, August 1983.

  “The Problem of Santa’s Lighthouse” [December 1931]. EQMM, December 1983.

  “The Problem of the Graveyard Picnic” [Spring 1932]. EQMM, June 1984.

  “The Problem of the Crying Room” [June 1932]. EQMM, November 1984.

  “The Problem of the Fatal Fireworks” [July 4, 1932]. EQMM, May 1985.

  “The Problem of the Unfinished Painting” [Fall 1932]. EQMM, February 1986.

  “The Problem of the Sealed Bottle” [December 5, 1933]. EQMM, September 1986.

  “The Problem of the Invisible Acrobat” [July 1933]. EQMM, Mid-December 1986.

  “The Problem of the Curing Barn” [September 1934]. EQMM, August 1987.

  “The Problem of the Snowbound Cabin” [January 1935]. EQMM, December 1987.

  “The Problem of the Thunder Room” [March 1935]. EQMM, April 1988.

  “The Problem of the Black Roadster” [April 1935]. EQMM, November 1988.

  “The Problem of the Two Birthmarks” [May 1935]. EQMM, May 1989.

  “The Problem of the Dying Patient” [June 1935]. EQMM, December 1989.

  “The Problem of the Protected Farmhouse” [August or September 1935]. EQMM, May 1990.

  “The Problem of the Haunted Tepee” [September 1935]. EQMM, December 1990. Also featuring Ben Snow.

  “The Problem of the Blue Bicycle” [September 1936]. EQMM, April 1991.

  “The Problem of the Country Church” [November 1936]. EQMM, August 1991.

  “The Problem of the Grange Hall” [March 1937]. EQMM, Mid-December 1991.

  “The Problem of the Vanishing Salesman” [May 1937]. EQMM, August 1992.

  “The Problem of the Leather Man” [August 1937]. EQMM, December 1992.

  “The Problem of the Phantom Parlor” [August 1937]. EQMM, June 1993.

  “The Problem of the Poisoned Pool” [September 1937]. EQMM, December 1993.

  “The Problem of the Missing Roadhouse” [August 1938]. EQMM, June 1994.

  “The Problem of the Country Mailbox” [Fall 1938]. EQMM, Mid-December 1994.

  “The Problem of the Crowded Cemetery” [Spring 1939]. EQMM, May 1995.

  “The Problem of the Enormous Owl” [August-September 1939]. EQMM, January 1996.

  “The Problem of the Miraculous Jar” [November 1939]. EQMM, August 1996.

  “The Problem of the Enchanted Terrace” [October 1939]. EQMM, April 1997.

  “The Problem of the Unfound Door” [Midsummer 1940]. EQMM, June 1998.

  “The Second Problem of the Covered Bridge” [January 1940]. EQMM, December 1998.

  “The Problem of the Scarecrow Congress” [late July 1940]. EQMM, June 1999.

  “The Problem of Annabel’s Ark” [September 1940]. EQMM, March 2000.

  “The Problem of the Potting Shed” [October 1940]. EQMM, July 2000.

  “The Problem of the Yellow Wallpaper” [November 1940]. EQMM, March 2001.

  “The Problem of the Haunted Hospital” [March 1941]. EQMM, August 2001.

  “The Problem of the Traveler’s Tale” [August 1941]. EQMM, June 2002.

  “The Problem of Bailey’s Buzzard” [December 1941]. EQMM, December 2002.

  “The Problem of the Interrupted Séance” [June 1942]. EQMM, September/October 2003.

  “The Problem of the Candidate’s Cabin” [October-November 1942]. EQMM, July 2004.

  “The Problem of the Black Cloister” [April 1943]. EQMM, December 2004.

  “The Problem of the Secret Passage” [May 1943]. EQMM, July 2005.

  “The Problem of the Devil’s Orchard” [September 1943]. EQMM, January 2006.

  “The Problem of the Shepherd’s Ring” [December 1943]. EQMM, September/October 2006.

  “The Problem of the Suicide Cottage” [July 1944]. EQMM, July 2007.

  “The Problem of the Summer Snowman” [August 1944]. EQMM, November 2007.

  “The Problem of the Secret Patient�
� [October 1944]. EQMM, May 2008.