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Short stories 341-350

  • “Santa Claus Beat” by Rex Stout. A clever policeman clears up a theft case.
  • “Whatever Became of Ebenezer Scrooge?” by Tom Tolnay. What happened on Boxing Day, after the events of A Christmas Carol.
  • “Who Killed Father Christmas?” by Patricia Moyes. A third murdered Santa.
This ends Mystery for Christmas.
  • “The Telephone” by Mary Threadgold. About a ghost, or maybe not.
  • “Afterward” by Edith Wharton. About a ghost one doesn’t realise one has seen until long afterward.
  • “On the Brighton Road” by Richard Middleton. About a tramp who is joined by a spooky companion on the road to Brighton.
  • “The Absent-minded Coterie” by Robert Barr. A funny story about a super-sleuth who bears more than a little resemblance to Hercule Poirot, except he predates that estimable detective by more than a decade. The story itself is more in the vein of Doyle. Recommended.
  • “The Problem of Cell 13” by Jacques Futrelle. A funny story about the original Thinking Machine and how he was able to think himself out of a prison cell. Highly recommended.
  • “Arsène Lupin in Prison” by Maurice Leblanc. A funny trickster story. Recommended.
  • “The Superfluous Finger” by Jacques Futrelle. The Thinking machine solves a strange case.

Apologies for the reposts of the short stories - I hope I haven't messed up any feeds too much, but it was necessary as I had counted wrong and needed to make corrections.
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