Barry
is back today with his review the short story anthology Wicked Women. After you
read the review make sure you surf over to BV Lawson's very cool blog In Reference To Murder and check out other possibilities…
WICKED WOMEN (1960) edited by Lee Wright
Reviewed by Barry Ergang
Selected
and introduced by the esteemed mystery editor Lee Wright, this is a largely solid collection of tales by
(mostly) well-known authors. I have a criticism which some readers might
consider a spoiler that I’ll save until the last paragraph of the review. But
first, the stories:—
Margery Allingham: The case appears to be a relatively straightforward one: after he and
his wife dined with his aunt, Mary Alice Cibber, Richard Woodruff returned
later and shot her. Detective Inspector Kenny knows that once all the evidence
is presented, “One Morning They’ll Hang
Him.” But he needs Albert Campion’s help to locate a critical item: the
gun.
Robert Arthur:
It requires “Weapon, Motive, Method—”
to commit a crime. The ambitious Lucy has used each husband as a stepping-stone
to a better future, divorcing one as a better prospect comes along. Ferdinand
Relling could make her the First Lady
of the United States. Current husband Tom is an obstacle, and divorce won’t
play well with voters. Widowhood, on the other hand, is a different matter….
Agatha Christie:
Retired and now living in the country, former C.I.D. Inspector Evans recognizes
Mrs. Merrowdene as the former Mrs. Anthony, who was tried for and acquitted of
killing her husband, the death being deemed an “Accident.” Evans’s friend Haydock is all for leaving it in the
past, but Evans can’t let things lie, especially after he learns her current
husband has purchased a new life insurance policy.
M.R. James:
Although he is “not specially infected with the witch-finding mania,” Sir
Matthew Fell must testify to the strange events that have occurred three times
in “The Ash Tree” just beyond the
window of his bedroom in Castringham Hall—events involving Mrs. Mothersole. On
her way to the gallows she says: “There will be guests at the Hall.” Soon
after, bizarre and inexplicable death befalls, and it isn’t confined to a single
generation.
Kenneth Millar:
Santa Barbara-based private detective Rogers is hired by Mrs. Dreen to “Find the Woman,” her missing daughter,
young motion picture star Una Sand. Did Una vanish willingly, did she drown in
the sea beyond the family’s beach house, or was she murdered? Featuring much of
the author’s vivid, poetic prose—e.g., “Nothing could have looked more innocent
than the quiet blue cove, held in the curve of the white beach like a benign
blue eye set in a serene brow”—hardcore mystery fans will recognize that Millar
is the pseudonym of Ross Macdonald, author of the classic P.I. Lew Archer
novels, among others. Under the same title, a revised version of this story was
subsequently included in the Macdonald collection The Name is Archer.
Emily Neff: Marcia
Hendrix has long believed her marriage to oft- traveling businessman Charles is
ideal and idyllic, even when she finds a woman’s cigarette lighter in his coat
pocket. But when she eventually learns that there really is another woman in
Charles’s life, she sets out to do something about it, and unwittingly acquires
a “Partner in Crime” in the process.
The ending is easily foreseeable, but the story is entertaining nonetheless.
Q. Patrick: Thirty-six-year-old
John Tuthill Crane is the kind of man who’d ask, “Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?” because he’s always been
inordinately close to his doting, overprotective mother, Claire. Until, that
is, vacationing in Maine by himself because Claire has to help nurse another
son’s measles-infected children in Philadelphia, he meets and becomes
passionately involved with Lotte Rank. Mother stays in touch daily by phone,
and also by letters, so John’s loyalties are torn between the two women. What
will happen when Claire finally arrives in this story by an author I’ve seldom known to disappoint?
Ellery Queen:
“No Parking” is the problem for
writer and amateur sleuth Ellery Queen, one that could mean the difference
between life and death for Broadway actress Modesta Ryan on a stormy New York
evening. Having earlier accepted the proposal of one suitor and rejected two
others, she calls Ellery near midnight, says she’s in trouble, and begs him to
come to her Madison Avenue apartment. Once he finally arrives, he has an
emergency and a mystery to deal with.
Dorothy L. Sayers: It has been a month since a woman named Andrews has poisoned a family
in the nearby town of Lincoln, and the police have had no luck in capturing
her. Estate agent Harold Mummery, whose wife Ethel is recovering from a nervous
breakdown, is feeling slightly under the weather with digestive issues, despite
eating excellent meals from their newly-hired cook, Mrs. Sutton. When he
considers timelines, he develops the “Suspicion”
that Mrs. Sutton is really Mrs. Andrews….
Wilbur Daniel Steele: The philandering, egomaniacal B.J. Cantra fancies himself quite “The Lady-Killer.” But when he gets
separated in the Carolina woods from friends with whom he’s vacationing and
meets Cath, wife of farmer Jess Judah, he’s suddenly faced with the kind of
customer for his imagined charms he’s never had to deal with.
Joan Vatsek:
The principal of the missionary school in Egypt, Miss Haskell, a woman stern
and sometimes repellent, a woman of contradictory behaviors, is also a source
of magnetic fascination for Patricia Burney, the newest and youngest teacher.
Miss Haskell’s sister Ivy fell to her death from “The Balcony” in her bedroom, the bedroom now given to Patricia in
a story that’s subtly erotic in places, and which is the most literary of those
in the anthology.
Edgar Wallace:
The last and, for me, weakest story in the collection is “The Dancing Stones.” In colonial Africa, Commissioner Sanders
tries to negotiate a truce between Limbili, king of the Yitingi, who considers
himself the world’s greatest king, and the Icheli. When Sanders rejects the
advances of the fifteen-year-old dancing Daihili, who resents the rejection,
and whose father willingly gifts her to Limbili, a confrontation ensues that
almost costs Sanders his life.
This
is a nicely diverse group of stories that provides a good mix of mystery
categories including straightforward
crime, traditional and hardboiled detective stories, psychological suspense,
the supernatural, and one, as mentioned, I’d call literary.
The
book’s biggest problem is its title. Why? Because a couple of the stories are
fairly-clued whodunits. Wicked Women,
however, gives the game away so that even inexperienced mystery readers who
like to try to solve the puzzles before the detectives do needn’t worry about
spotting clues to a culprit’s identity in these. It’s evident from the outset
that the criminal will be a woman. Allowing for that relatively minor fault,
the book is recommended.
© 2015 Barry Ergang
Derringer Award-winner Barry
Ergang’s website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/.
You can find some of his written work at Amazon,
Smashwords, and Scribd.
This sounds like a solid collection that I somehow missed. I'll look for it, title spoiler and all. Thanks!
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