IT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE that as one of the masters of the locked-room mystery, Joseph Commings (1913–1992) enjoyed the friendship of Edward D. Hoch, one of the greatest and most prolific writers in that challenging sub-genre, and Robert Adey, one of the foremost experts of detective fiction generally and impossible crimes specifically. Born in New York City, Commings lived there most of his life and met Hoch when the latter was stationed there for his army service in 1952 and 1953. They began a weekly correspondence that lasted until Commings had a stroke in 1971 and then continued sporadically until his death.
Senator Brooks U. Banner, the giant (63, 270-pound) accomplished magician and adventurer, was his series character, born from when Commings made up stories to entertain his fellow soldiers in Sardinia during World War II. With some rewriting after the war, he found a ready market for them in the pulps 10-Story Detective and Ten Detective Aces (whose editor changed the character’s name to Mayor Tom Landin; when later reprinted, the name was changed back to Banner). Although the pulps were dying in the late 1940s, new digest-sized magazines came to life and Commings sold stories to Mystery Digest, The Saint Mystery Magazine, and Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Although he wrote several full-length mystery novels, none was published, in spite of the encouragement of his friend John Dickson Carr. The only Commings novels to see print were paperback original soft-core porn novels. The only book edition of his stories was published posthumously: Banner Deadlines: The Impossible Files of Senator Brooks U. Banner (Norfolk, Virginia, Crippen & Landru, 2004).
“The Glass Gravestone” was first published in the October 1966 issue of The Saint Mystery Magazine. This is its first appearance in book form.