From Publishers Weekly
Lovesey adds his "The Bathroom" to the stories inspired by actual crimes of the distant past and present in this outstanding collection. It includes a tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that does not feature Sherlock Holmes and a twisty case recalled by a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. But the most arresting period piece is Sir Osbert Sitwell's "The Greeting," so elegantly written that the force of the denouement is magnified. In contrast, Angela Carter's "The Fall River Axe Murders" is too garish even for that bloody legend as well as mistaken on certain factual points. Another letdown is the title piece, John Dickson Carr's contrivance about an American assassin averting a killing in France. Planned as a surprise, the American's identity is obvious from the start. The other 13 entries, however, reward suspense fans generously. Perhaps Harlan Ellison's "The Whisper of Whipped Dogs" will also haunt readers, with its evocation of the real-life Kitty Genovese, killed in full view of 38 people. She could have been saved but the onlookers did nothing.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The crimes serving as the basis for several of the 15 stories in this satisfying collection will be immediately recognizable. But while the details of Angela Carter's "Fall River Axe Murders" and Arthur Conan Doyle's "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" are familiar, their telling still stirs the imagination. Moving chronologically to the present, and by such widely varied stylists as O. Henry, Boucher, Sitwell, Borges, and Ellison, these stories also range from coziness to horror. Only "The Trailer Murder Mystery" by Abraham Lincoln seems out of place, without imaginative flow and emotion. Yet perhaps justifying its inclusion, John Dickson Carr's "The Black Cabinet," based on the assassination of Lincoln, neatly wraps up the collection. Recommended.
- M. Janet Simmons, Duluth P.L., Minn.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- M. Janet Simmons, Duluth P.L., Minn.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
