The Encluesiast

Detailed Analyses of Fair-Play Mysteries

The “Chesterton’s Forest” Trope and My Second Hank Lau Story in EQMM

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Lawrence Ong

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2–3 minutes

As some of you may know, I’ve started publishing a series of mystery stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine starring police medical examiner Hank Lau. The first one, “Murder under Sedation,” came out in the March/April 2024 issue and was nominated for the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The second one, “Murder on Pins and Needles,” came out in the most recent issue of EQMM (July/August 2026). The third one has been accepted and will appear sometime next year. If any of you reading this blog want to find out what I’m like as a mystery author rather than just as a mystery analyst, I encourage you to hunt down copies of these issues.

Although EQMM and its sister Alfred Hitchock’s Mystery Magazine are the premier mystery magazines in America, they publish almost no fair-play mysteries (I’m not sure if anything they’ve published in the 2+ years between my first one and my second one would count), and this is surely not because they have any prejudice against the genre. (Janet Hutchings and Jackie Sherbow—the two editors of EQMM that I have worked with—were completely receptive and encouraging.) I suspect this is because very few working authors have an interest in writing this subgenre in short fiction form. So, consider my Hank Lau stories an attempt to help keep this style alive.

I mention the publication of my story in this blog post because it comes with the privilege of publishing a post on EQMM’s blog Something Is Going to Happen. I have a post up now that’s on a trope that I’m calling “Chesterton’s Forest.” I analyze it in G.K. Chesterton’s story “The Sign of the Broken Sword” from The Innocence of Father Brown. I’m going to publish a follow-up post tomorrow in which I discuss variations of this principle and Chesterton’s general approach to camouflage in five further stories from The Innocence of Father Brown: “The Queer Feet,” “The Wrong Shape,” “The Secret Garden,” “The Invisible Man,” and “The Sins of Prince Saradine.” Next week, I’ll trace the same principle of in four episodes of the TV series Monk. Stay tuned for those. 

4 responses to “The “Chesterton’s Forest” Trope and My Second Hank Lau Story in EQMM”

  1. S. M. Pierce Avatar
    S. M. Pierce

    You’re not totally alone. I try to make all my stories fair-play, and I had one in this year’s Jan/Feb issues (a whydunnit) and another story in Nov/Dec (I hope they’ll let me do a blog post for that one).

    I’ve read others I’d describe as fair-play since then. Some technically are, but the answer is really obvious. “The Adventure of the Belgravian Banshee” in Jan/Feb is a good one.

    Anyway, I read “Murder on Pins and Needles” and really liked it. It was funny, especially when the grandmother was around. Because I had Broken Sword in mind I managed to roughly guess why the killer used all the needles, but not the specifics. That was really clever! I’ll keep an eye out for your third Hank Lau story. It’s too bad I missed the first one.

    Where’s those other Chesterton and Monk posts???

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  2. S. M. Pierce Avatar
    S. M. Pierce

    You’re not totally alone. I try to keep all my stories fair-play, and I have one in the Jan/Feb EQMM (a whydunnit) and another coming out in Nov/Dec (I’m hoping they’ll let me do a blog post for that one). 

    Since then, I’ve read several stories in EQMM I’d describe as fair play. “The Adventure of the Belgravian Banshee” in Jan/Feb is a good example. Some technically have clues, but the solutions are also really easy to guess. 

    Anyway, I read “Murder on Pins and Needles” and really liked it! It was really funny, especially when the grandmother was around. Since I had “Broken Sword” on my mind, I managed to guess why the needles were used, though not the specifics. That was clever. I’ll keep an eye out for the next Hank Lau story. Too bad I missed the first one. 

    Where’s those other Chesterton and Monk posts??

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    1. Lawrence Ong Avatar
      Lawrence Ong

      Thanks for the kind words about my story, Stephen. But thanks even more for directing me to your story (“An rud a chaill muid sa díle”), which I missed when it first came out. It’s a very enjoyable whydunnit. And actually, your approach (which requires shaking oneself out of one’s own logic and into the logic of another type of person) reminds me quite a bit of Chesterton! I look forward to reading your next story (also featuring Dahlia?) in the November/December 2026 issue. (I’ve juste learned that my next Hank Lau story will be in the January/February 2027 issue.)

      I also neglected to read “The Adventure of the Belgravian Banshee” the first time around. I suppose you’re right that it’s technically fair-play, although I’d say that what needs to be clued is (ROT 13) ubj vg vf gung arvgure bs gurfr gjb crbcyr pna erpbtavmr gur fbhaq bs n sevttva’ grn xrggyr, which is the part that’s actually puzzling.

      If you have other examples of fair-play mysteries that leap to mind that are from issues of AHMM or EQMM from 2024–present, please feel free to let me know.

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      1. S. M. Pierce Avatar
        S. M. Pierce

        I’m glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, it also features Dahlia, but it’s a more straightforward whodunnit. I’ve written several stories with her and her bandmate Natasha, and a couple more are expecting publication in other venues. That’s cool that you’re next story is coming so soon too.

        The only other one that comes to mind is “Chapter 17: Perroquet Explains” in Jul/Aug. I honestly don’t remember how far-play it is, but it’s inspired by traditional mysteries so I think there’s some clues and misdirection in there.

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