ONE OF AMERICA’S greatest but most underappreciated mystery writers was the Brooklyn-born Stanley Bernard Ellin (1916–1986), a three-time Edgar Award winner and the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master honoree in 1981. Upon his return to civilian life after serving in the army during World War II, his wife agreed to support him for a year (they had a small chicken farm) while he tried to make a career as a writer. Just before the deadline, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine accepted his short story “The Specialty of the House” (1948), which went on to become a relentlessly anthologized classic of crime fiction and was adapted for an episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Many more of his stories were adapted for TV by Hitchcock and other series. Six of his stories were nominated for Edgars, two of which, “The House Party” (1954) and “The Blessington Method” (1956), won; his superb novel The Eighth Circle (1958) also won an Edgar. In addition to a number of his works having been adapted for television, many have been produced as feature films. Dreadful Summit (1948), his first novel, was filmed by Joseph Losey as The Big Night (1951), starring John Drew Barrymore, Preston Foster, and Joan Lorring. Leda (1959), a French film directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Madeline Robinson and Jean-Paul Belmondo, was based on his second novel, The Key to Nicholas Street (1952). A short story, “The Best of Everything” (1952), became Nothing But the Best (1964), directed by Clive Donner and starring Alan Bates, Denholm Elliott, and Harry Andrews. House of Cards (1967) was filmed with the same title in 1968, directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, Inger Stevens, and Orson Welles. The abysmal Sunburn (1979), starring Farrah Fawcett, Charles Grodin, and Art Carney, was based so loosely on The Bind (1970) that Ellin asked that his name be removed from the credits.
“The Twelfth Statue” was first published in the February 1967 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine; it was first collected in Kindly Dig Your Grave and Other Wicked Stories (New York, Davis, 1975).