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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
MANY ARE NOT DETECTIVE STORIES DESPITE THE TITLE, BUT . . .,
By
This review is from: Best Detective Stories (Paperback)
First published in 1959, BEST DETECTIVE STORIES OF CYRIL HARE is misleadingly titled: many of its 30 stories are NOT detective stories. Still, a high percentage of them are very skillfully written and will provide readers with several kinds of enjoyment. Further, the Introduction by Michael Gilbert, who selected the stories, provides insights into the crafting of crime fiction and the nature of the special "voice" of Cyril Hare (pen name of Alfred Gordon Clark, a lawyer, who served as a judge for many years).
In terms of structure, the majority of the stories in this collection fall into three main categories: 7 of them are Puzzle Stories which test readers' wits, 6 of them are "What If--" Premise Stories which have "punitive plots" (i.e., at the ending a wrong-doer has something bad happen to him, usually because he has outsmarted himself), and 15 of them are "What If--" Premise Stories which disclose a more or less ironic and surprising twist at their endings. The 30th story, perhaps the worst in the collection, is "Dropper's Delight," a rambling, disjointed, and unaffecting tale of a bank clerk's good luck (few readers will care either way what happens to anyone in this piece). The best Puzzle Story, I think, is "Death of a Blackmailer," a sad and touching tale with a tragedy embedded in it; as with Ring Lardner's famous story "Haircut," readers are trusted to solve things that characters cannot. "The Death of Amy Robsart" is a very good Puzzle Story involving an American film actor, his French wife, and a British starlet who dies shortly after playing the part of Amy Robsart (the historical wife of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, supposedly the lover of Queen Elizabeth I), who died under suspicious circumstances in 1560. The least effective Puzzle Story is "The Rivals" (which was praised by Gilbert): probably it will not work for current-day readers because it requires specialized knowledge about an aspect of "old-tyme dances" (which the Internet does not clearly provide). Of the Premise Stories with ironic Punitive Plots, perhaps the best is "'It Takes Two,'" about a diamond thief. "Sister Bessie or Your Old Leech" (which Gilbert briefly discusses) is unsavory and its ending easily foreseeable. Many of the stories in this category and the next are similar to stories by Roald Dahl, Saki, and Lord Dunsany. Among the best Premise Stories with Disclosure Plots are "The Markhampton Miracle" about children's prayers, "Miss Burnside's Dilemma" about a vicar's wrongdoing, "The Ruling Passion" about an antique teapot, and "A Very Useful Relationship" about con artists. Some of the stories in this category are humorous, while others are rather nasty or unsavory in their final revelations. "The Tragedy of Young MacIntyre," a comic piece, is perhaps the weakest. "A Life for a Life" in my own view is not only the best story in this category but the best and most touching piece in this whole collection: it involves a stranger joining a barroom debate about capital punishment and telling how his own life was once saved under what seemed to be supernatural circumstances.
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