Chapter 2 preamble

"Village of the Dead" is the first short story I officially published.It was first published on September 26, 1955, in the twelfth issue of "Detective Stories" magazine that year.This was one of the only old push magazines left at that time, and I was twenty-five years old. Although more than thirty years have passed, I still have a fresh impression of the original source of inspiration for "Village of the Dead". In the summer of 1953, I was dating my then girlfriend on the beach in Lye, New York.This beach is located in an outdoor amusement park called Playland, and many sightseeing boats cross the Long Island Sound from the nearby port to attract tourists.In the evening, we went to the beach to rest, and there were no ships in sight, and the rolling crowds flocked to a long and narrow pier that pierced the bay. It felt like a group of lemmings going to death.Of course, the boat came quickly, and no one jumped into the sea, but the scene stuck in my mind.Later, some researchers discovered that the followers of the Seccanthran sect in North Africa had the custom of throwing themselves off a cliff, and I instantly thought of the pier in my memory.

I made a quick decision and started creating.The concept called for an unusual--a mysterious protagonist.So I chose Simon Yake.In fact, he had already appeared in some unpublished works of mine a year ago, but this time I assigned him an unnamed narrator to play the role of Watson.The story was unsuccessful at first, because the "Jonestown" incident had not yet occurred, and the idea of ​​cult leaders inducing mass suicide among believers surprised many editors.Happily, the manuscript ended up in the hands of Robert AW Lowndes, then editor of Detective Stories and other magazines at Columbia Publishing Group.He likes the setting of super detectives, such as Carnacki (Carnacki) written by William Hope Hawkinson, French detective Jules de Grandin (Jules de Grandin) portrayed by Sibley Quinn, and Argentine. John Silence conceived by Gernon Blackwood.Maybe he found the shadows of these early detectives from Simon Yake.In any case, Simon Acker is on the cover of the current issue, and Landes said he would like to see more of Simon Acker's story.Since then, my career as a mystery novelist has begun.

As mentioned above, one year before the publication of "Village of the Dead", there was another unpublished work.This is the second Simon Acker detective story published in Detective Stories.I didn't include it in this book because it's told in Simon Yaker's third-person perspective, which is different from the narrative in subsequent works.There are other early works, which were not included because Simon was portrayed as a private eye.Other early works can be seen in this book.I implore readers to face these immature works at that time with a tolerant attitude. When Columbia Publishing Group's Mystery magazine ceased publication, Simon Acker moved to The Saint Mystery Magazine and The Saint Mystery Library series edited by Hans Stefan Sandsen. Saint Mystery Library).By the mid-1960s, I had moved on to other ideas and series characters, and Simon Acker was temporarily dormant.Strangely enough, he did not fall asleep in the hearts of many readers, but instead appeared frequently in self-published publications of reasoning fans - including a letter dedicated to the meaning of the place name Gidaz, which is Simon Where Jacques began his adventures - actually I just spelled Voltaire's Zadig backwards.

During 1971, two collections of Simon Acker's short stories were published.In the same year, his story was even put on the screen.During that year, I wrote two new stories, brought Simon back to life, and then stopped working on the series again.I was a regular reader of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (EQMM) at the time, but Simon Acker was not to Frederick Dennay's liking.It wasn't until 1978 that I had an idea that was perfect for Simon Acker.This time, Frederick Dennay had no objections, and The Treasure of Jack the Ripper made Simon Acker's debut on EQMM.Since then, Simon Yake seemed to be reborn and became a regular guest of "EQMM" and "AHMM" in the following years.

In this book, I have selected the essence of a total of thirty-nine Simon Jake detective stories so far, and divided them into two parts: the early stage and the late stage.If there is one thing these cases have in common, it is "mission."Sometimes it's searching for a lost book or manuscript, other times it's exploring lost treasure.All in all, in Simon Yaker's mind, these missions are all related to the actions of Satan.But I want to declare that this is not a fantasy story, and every mystery has a common sense answer.I have always believed that, compared with Carnacci and other super detectives, Simon Yaker inherited more of Father Brown's mantle.

Is Simon Acker really as old as he claims to be two thousand years old?While there are people with the same name in the Bible, I'm not going to give it too much thought.I hope readers will enjoy Simon Acker's stories, whether based on the purity of the detective story or the fantastical nature of the story.I often feel that "Perhaps" is one of my favorite words, which best reflects the novelist's skill. At that time, I was simply overjoyed. Is Simon Acker really two thousand years old? Maybe.

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