Customer Reviews

MURDER/BLACKBOARD

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Palmer writes with a flare that is seldom seen now-a-days.He was ahead of his time. He gives a strong female character in a time when there was little or no interest in women who were independant. The story is full of red herrings that draw you into story and shocks you with the climatic death of the murderer. The characters all a more than they same from the simplist urchin to the most complex criminologist. Here's to hoping for many reprints of all of Palmer's novels.

Miss Hidegarde Withers, strong-minded New York schoolteacher, has a way of getting involved in solving murders, and this time the murder is very close to home, in the school in which she teaches. A young and lovely teacher has been murdered, and possibly others will follow unless Miss Withers and Inspector Oscar Piper can solve the case.

As always, there is an exciting story and lots of interesting and eccentric characters, with amusing sparring between Miss Withers and Inspector Piper. These books are always fun to read, the Inspector and Miss Withers never disappoint.

These mystery stories(books)were definitely written for people, such as myself, who don't want a lot of stuffy, fluffy, non-sense reading! Written with the "common man" in perspective. Palmer's stories are always very interesting and have a surprise ending in some form or fashion.
He had a great way of writing the books so that you want to keep reading. These mysteries are almost exactly like the Hildegard Withers mystery movies made in the 1930's with Edna Mae Oliver. You can actually picture her and Inspector Piper, played by James Gleason, "going at it, hammer and tongs." They always were verbally fighting each other, but in a whimsical way. No one makes movies like that anymore and no one writes stories, especially mysteries, like Palmer did for so long. When he died, a whole different genre of mystery writing died with him.