The Affairs of O'Malley
Author: William Briggs MacHarg (1872-1951)
Year: 1940
Publisher: The Dial Press
Place: New York
Description:
308 pages. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's green cloth with red lettering to spine and cover in original pictorial jacket. (Queen's Quorum title 95) First edition.
The Affairs of O'Malley is a classic 1940 collection of thirty three short mystery stories written by American mystery author William MacHarg. The book is highly regarded in the history of crime fiction and is notable for the following key features: The collection consists of 33 police procedural tales featuring O'Malley, a New York City cop who solves everyday murders using regular, hard police work rather than exotic or scientific methods. Each story follows a distinct, humorous structural pattern: it opens with O'Malley explaining to a narrator why he probably won't be able to solve the case, and closes with him grumbling about why he won't get any official credit from his superiors for solving it. The backgrounds paint a vivid picture of New York City, spanning from gritty tenement halls to high-society nightclubs. Critics note that this realistic urban approach likely served as a model for Ellery Queen's later short story collection, Q.B.I.
It was originally published as a hardcover by The Dial Press in 1940. In 1951, it was reissued as a paperback under the alternative title Smart Guy by Popular Library. The book is celebrated as a Queen's Quorum title, a prestigious designation compiled by Ellery Queen to identify the 100 most important and influential collections of crime short stories ever published. Collier's Magazine was the original home for the vast majority of the O'Malley stories, which ran from 1930 through the early 1940s.
Condition:
Endpapers toned, spine and edges sunned, shelf wear, light rubbing to spine ends, corners bumped. Jacket edge worn, rubbed at folds, rear panel soiled; , extremities with small closed tears, chips and dusty, spine ends chipped with some tears and creases else very good.
