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.

Comments

Book 7: Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński (reading notes)

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How to make a simple origami bookmark

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Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

Reading in Reykjavík

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