The Methods of Uncle Abner

Post, Melville Davisson

Literature & Fiction

Rue Morgue

The Mirror

Millhiser, Marlys

Contemporary

Murder, Chop Chop

Norman, James

The Man from Tibet: A Theocritus Lucius Westborough Mystery

Clason, Clyde B.

Schantz, Enid

Spinster sleuth Jane Amanda Edwards didn't have to go looking for recipes to Cook Up a Crime.Meet Jane Amanda Edwards, a self-styled "full-fashioned" spinster who complains she hasn't looked at herself in a full-length mirror since Helen Hokinson started drawing for The New Yorker. But you can always count on Jane to look into other people's affairs, especially when there's a juicy murder case to investigate.This one starts when Jane's friend, Detective Captain George Hammond, puts the idea of publishing a cookbook in her mind. That leads her to visit Jesse Nye, an irritating woman who unfortunately is the safe keeper of her family's famous recipes, Jesse thinks a cookbook a marvelous idea but immediately announces that she is far better suited to put it together than Jane.So when Jesse turns up dead, Jane decides to look for clues -- and recipes -- among the murdered woman's effects. In the meantime, Jane's hapless brother Arthur -- a true lily of the field --gets a valentine from a secret admirer and goes courting, only to find himself accused of the murder. Sister Annie warns Jane to stay put and goes off to watch female wrestling on television. Through it all, Theresa, their long-suffering cook and general housekeeper, keeps one and all well fed with tempting treats from her kitchen (the recipes for these and other dishes are included between chapters.)Set in a fictionalized version of Charlotte Murray Russell's own hometown of Rock Island, Illinois, Cook Up a Crime was first published in 1951 and was the last of twelve books featuring Jane Amanda. Russell herself published her first book in 1935 and was one of the earliest and best practitioners of the cozy malice domestic, a sort of literary godmother to modern writers like Joan Hess and Charlotte MacLeod.

Cook Up a Crime

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Russell, Charlotte Murray

Mystery

Twenty six year old Emma March seems as knowledgeable as her employer, Jeff Graham, when it comes to selling antiques in the shop where she works. The action begins when she stumbles upon the body of a rich collector on the shop floor. For a while everyone is suspect, even Emma herself. With help from her would-be criminologist boyfriend Hank, she uncovers clues and bravely follows leads in an effort to solve the crime.Dean, writing in the 1930s, gives us some insight into what it was like to be a single woman living in a big city toward the end of the Great Depression. Emma lives alone, is financially self sufficient, and is able to hold her own against male barbs and putdowns when she joins the boys sipping scotch in the shop's basement. She also is given to insights and ruminations about human nature, particularly of the male variety.This is not a fast paced story, but a nicely written one. There is only brief mention of the effects of the Depression, and nothing about larger political events. Nineteen thirties Boston, however, is fully described. In a way the city become a character on its own.

Murder Is a Collector's Item

Dean, Elizabeth

Book by Little, Constance, Little, Gwenyth

The Black Gloves

Little, Constance

Little, Gwenyth

A nurse accused of murder discovers that her new husband may have married her for ulterior motives and locks him out of her bedroom. While her formerly rich father is reduced to taking in her laundry for a living, she snoops for a killer. First published in 1944.

The Black Honeymoon

A 1944 murder mystery with comic interludes set on board the Trans-Australia Railway.

Great Black Kanba

Young Inspector Northeast falls under the spell of an unconventional older woman novelist who is the chief suspect in a village murder. "The Dog" of the title is a pub, which is modeled after the pub in Oxfordshire frequented by the author during the Second World War. Set in the late fall of 1939 during the first anxious months of World War II, this is a fine example of the classic English detective novel. It marked the second and final appearance for Northeast. First published in 1941.

Death at the Dog

Cannan, Joanna

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Books by Rue Morgue