James Powell (born 1932) is a Canadian author of mystery and humorous short stories. Many of his 130 stories have been published in ''

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fict ...

''. He has been nominated twice for the Crime Writers of Canada Award for the Best Short Story and, in 1989, won the Ellery Queen Readers' Award for the story "A Dirge for Clowntown" featuring Inspector Bozo of the Clowntown Police. Powell's occasionally dark sense of humor and developed irony has led to him being noted by Marvin Lachman as "The S.J. Perelman of the mystery story...outrageous, hilarious satires, international crime and surprise endings." Powell's most loved characters include Acting Sergeant Maynard Bullock of the RCMP and the four generation family of San Sebastiano detectives, The Ganelons. The author was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, attended the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and taught and studied in France for three years. He has worked on publications in New York City as well as in Rock Island, Illinois. A collection of his stories has recently been published in Japan. He has resided in

Marietta, Pennsylvania Marietta is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,633 at the 2020 census. It is located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River northwest of Columbia. Geography Marietta is located in western Lancaster County at ( ...

for many years with his wife, Mary Lou and their poodles Daphne and Daffodil.

Works

Powell has published two short story collections: *''A Murder Coming'' (Yonge & Bloor, 1990) *''A Pocketful of Noses; Stories of One Ganelon or Another'' (

Crippen & Landru Crippen & Landru Publishers is a small publisher of mystery fiction collections, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1994 by husband and wife Sandi and Douglas G. Greene in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is named af ...

, 2009)

Awards

*2003: Arthur Ellis award for best short story of the year, "Bottom Walker" *2006: Grant Allen Award, Scene of the Crime Festival

References

External links

* 1932 births Living people Canadian crime fiction writers Canadian male short story writers 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers People from Marietta, Pennsylvania {{Canada-writer-stub