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3.0 out of 5 stars
Four Relatively Obscure Novellas - Three Stars, April 14, 2006
This review is from: Women Sleuths (Academy Mystery Novellas) (Paperback)
This collection, Women Sleuths, was the first in a series titled Academy Mystery Novellas. The noted editors, Martin Greenberg and Bill Pronzini, used two criteria for their selections: 1) excellence as a mystery or suspense story and 2) relative obscurity. They attributed the obscurity of these four stories to their novella length. Publishers consider the novella as too short to publish as an individual novel, and too long to include in most anthologies.
Now for the four novellas:
The Book That Squealed (1939): I liked Cornell Woolrich's amicable characterization of his amateur sleuth, Prudence Roberts, a young librarian. Prudence, becoming unexpectedly involved in a mystery, surprises herself when she undertakes her own investigation when the police disregard her suggestion that something was amiss.
The Broken Men (1985): Marcia Muller's sleuth is undoubtedly the most realistic character in this collection, a woman with nine years experience in the Bay Area as a private investigator. The Broken Men is a well-constructed, interesting story told in first person in a non-chronological sequence.
The Calico Dog (1934): Mignon Eberhart created an interesting plot. Two young men claim to be the same missing nephew, one that had become recently entitled to a large inheritance. The mystery puzzle is developed fairly with no sudden revelations or contrived ending. The sleuth, a Miss Susan Dare, is not professionally trained, but has demonstrated a flair for seeing solutions to problems that others missed. This novella warrants reading, but is not exceptional.
The Toys of Death (1939): G. D. H. and Margaret Cole collaborated on this overly contrived story. The solution involves a rather convoluted, complicated method for committing murder. Worse yet, the details are revealed in a written confession. Without this letter, the reader would not have been able to unravel the mystery.
Academy Mystery Novellas has developed an attractive concept, bundling together three or four, relatively obscure, mystery/suspense novellas. However, this particular collection is uneven. I give three stars to Women Sleuths.
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