Included in omnibus The Complete Uncle Abner
Collection of short stories about the narrator’s “Uncle Abner,” who fights for right and uncovers dark deeds.
I was curious about a very early example of historical mysteries, but I enjoyed these stories more than I had expected to. It was obvious in most cases what the solution to the mystery would be, but the people and situations were intriguing enough that I didn’t mind. Abner’s self-righteous attitude that he is above the law got old, however.
In 1700, a destitute countess and her former maid agree to work together to collect gossip for a tabloid, but when Countess de la Zouche is found fallen onto a bloody corpse and arrested, Alpiew must find the real killer alone.
I couldn’t get into this story. The countess is a self-obsessed bore and Alpiew (what a horrible name) is a breast-obsessed slut. Since I wouldn’t want to spend time with them in real life, I didn’t care what happened to them in a book.
Collection of short stories with a theme of mystery in a fantasy or science fiction setting.
Stabenow writes that this book was commissioned when “Powers of Detection” was a success. And it shares the same theme. But the stories in here ranged from absolutely bizarre (as in “made no sense”) to seriously grisly. It should tell you something that the Sookie Stackhouse story was the most “normal” of the bunch. I have to say I really liked the last story, though.
The finding of a body interrupts a quiet visit to Dalgliesh’s aunt, and the local investigator seems to both want Adam’s input and resent his presence. Dalgliesh looks into whether the current death is related to a long-ago suicide or the dead writer’s current book.
Not worth the time to read. Too much “he realized how it was possible” and not enough clues to the reader. I consider a long, detailed confession made for the killer’s own amusement to be the worst sort of deus ex machina. This series hasn’t been worth my time overall and I’m giving up on it.
Juvenile book of mostly cute poems with a Christmas theme. I particularly liked the story about the brown king going to see the baby Jesus.
Not bad, but turning into more a psychological romance than a murder mystery. Besides trying to find a killer, Melanie has to cope with Sam's distraction and wondering if she is about to lose her fiance. The murder mystery is fair and logical.
Even I figured out whodunnit and why within a couple of pages following the murder, and I'm not very good at murder mysteries. But it was still interesting to see how Berenson got to the finale and still easy to skim through the too-detailed dog show parts.