354:". Hank leaves to take a jar of apple sauce to Millie's house in a horse and buggy. Sam and Millie follow Hank in another buggy. They are stopped briefly when Walt Rumsey drives his cattle across the road to drink from a pond, and Hank disappears into the distance while they are stopped. Sam and Millie follow Hank's tracks to a covered bridge. The tracks enter the bridge, but don't come out the other side. There is a smashed jar of apple sauce in the middle of the bridge. Hank, his horse and buggy have disappeared.
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to a halt. Realizing that Walt Rumsey was driving his cattle to drink from a frozen pond, Dr. Sam investigates and tries to apply the solution of "The
Problem of Thor Bridge" to the murder. When he works out what has happened, he gathers all of the suspects at the Bringlow house to reveal the solution.
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The
Bringlows call Sheriff Lens, who declares that Hank is playing a trick, and will return eventually. They later find Hank at the side of the road in his buggy, but he is dead, shot in the back of the head. The reins had been tied down, indicating that Hank was already dead before the buggy came
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Dr. Sam explains that the disappearance was planned as a joke by Hank, enlisting Rumsey's assistance. While the herd delayed Sam and Millie, Hank and Walt created fake buggy tracks into the covered bridge using a pair of extra buggy wheels. Then Hank hid in Walt's barn. Walt, having been in love
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Hoch was inspired while looking at a watercolor landscape of a covered bridge; the story developed from his idea of a carriage riding into the covered bridge but never coming out the other side. He says it took him two days to work out the idea and develop the story. He created as the detective
342:. He meets the Bringlow family, Jacob and Sarah, their daughters Susan and Sally, their son Hank, and Hank's fiancée Millie. Dr. Sam is treating Sarah, and has come to know the Bringlows well. He notices that Hank is reading copies of
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by an older Dr. Sam
Hawthorn to an unidentified listener. The flashback is set in March 1922, when Sam first came to the small town of Northmont in his new yellow
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This was probably the most talked about story of the series. Hoch wrote a later story, "The Second
Problem of the Covered Bridge", which was published in
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story. It introduces the characters of Dr. Sam
Hawthorn, Sheriff Lens, and the town of Northmont. It is included in Hoch's book
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319:'s famous Dr Sam: Johnson. The editors also suggested that Hoch make his character speak in a country dialect.
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with Millie and jealous of Hank, saw his opportunity to kill his romantic rival and cover up the crime.
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character a New
England doctor in 1930s, and named him Sam after
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December 1998. Three more stories about the character followed.
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Works originally published in Ellery Queen's
Mystery Magazine
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liked the idea, but added a surname to distinguish him from
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Diagnosis: Impossible: The
Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne
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297:(Crippen & Landru, 1996). It is also included in
285:(Dec 1974 issue). It is part of a sub-type of the
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