Customer Reviews

Crime on Her Mind: A Collection of Short Stories (Five Star First Edition Mystery)

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Mystery short stories are not usually my favourite genre, simply because there's not enough room to get really "mysterious." I generally find the solution either obvious or contrived. Several of the stories in this collection get around that simply by letting the reader know "who dun it" from the get-go, and then having the sleuth set out to prove it.

Still, I was not impressed with one story in which the sleuth decides she knows the culprit and, unable to prove it, proceeds to plant evidence. I mean, that happens in real life, but in mystery stories the fun is having the sleuth figure it all out and either nab the bad guy or be SURE -- and I wasn't satisfied with her reasoning. I wasn't sure enough I believed she had the right person to cheer her decision.

That also happened in the the story in which someone is garroted. Henrie O immediately starts looking for a suspect old enough to have worked in Intelligence during the Second World War, because only such a person would think of garroting as a method of murder. Speaking as one who's seen "The Godfather" and immediately reached a completely different conclusion, I wasn't impressed with her logic. Hart allows her sleuths to make unjustifiable assumptions and get away with them, which must be very nice for them, but these leaps in logic can be frustrating to the reader! When I read a story, it is a big problem when the sleuth claims to have proved something and I can see several other explanations for the situation.

And oh, all right: by the last Henrie O story, I was kind of sick of her "Roman coin profile" and the assertion that she packed more surprises into a single day "than O Henry ever packed into his short stories." Somebody needs to tell Ms Hart there's a reason they call them "O Henry endings" -- the single surprise comes at the end. And if you read three or four O Henry stories in a row, you can see the twist coming. That, unfortunately, is what started happening with these stories long before I had finished the anthology.

Overall, no worse than most mystery short stories, but nothing to get excited about.

Carolyn Hart has been described as "The New Agatha Christie" by Mystery Scene. Crime on Her Mind is a collection of Hart's short stories. Female sleuths looking for answers is the common theme of most of the tales which offer a variety of settings, relationships and crimes.

Women make terrific sleuths, Hart feels, because they are nosey. Her most notable sleuth is HENRIE O (Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins), a retired reporter with a talent for trouble and a keen nose for facts. Henrie O's yearning for the facts to add up, her thirst for adventure, plus mountain climbing and lock-picking skills definitely seperate her from the stereotype of a sweet little pie-baking granny! Although Henrie O does bake on occasion.

Carolyn G. Hart's CRIME ON HER MIND is a fun filled adventure of short stories using her well-known protagonists Annie Darling and Henrietta O'Dwyer "Henrie O" Collins, plus a few surprises thrown in to stand alone.
I am a Mrs. Hart fan of long standing and though I enjoy "Death on Demand", it is the Henrie O stories that have fascinated me. Hence, for me, CRIME ON HER MIND was a delight as the majority of the stories feature Henrie O as a nosey retired reporter and second-career college professor. Only one thing became irritating as I read the stories, Ms. Hart didn't need to tell the reader of each story how the character got her nickname, once was enough.
The final story, "Accidents Happen" is a clinching change of pace.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.