Octavus Roy Cohen (1891–1959)

1920s, mysteries, private-investigators, crime-fiction, classic-crime, reprint, edited, short-stories, collection, Library Of Congress*****

Originally these well crafted short stories were published in the popular magazine Saturday Evening Post in the 1920s and have been residing in the Library of Congress until recently. This small collection has been given a great editing which explains the current value of any monies included, gives things like *had a watch chain like a hawser* an explanation, and who knew that what we know as a gas pedal today was a hand throttle then? The detective is really something else! To the eye, he is oddly sized and kind of irritating but he can out-Sherlock anyone with dogged patience and acute logic. He looks slow-witted, and especially outwits criminals who underestimate him and overestimate themselves. Classics indeed! Super reads!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!… (més)

Late on a very cold night, a taxi driver picks up a woman in a fur coat at the train station. When he arrives at her far-off destination, the woman has vanished--and there is a man's corpse on the back floorboard! This calls for a great detective--since the Chief of Police is a good guy but has no imagination or patience. This is an enjoyable, quick read, but at times Cohen could be the subject for a class on how not to write. Once he talks of building "bulking" in the distance. In another instance, he manages to use "crawfish" as a verb. Some of the other writing is pretty silly as well, but the mystery itself is interesting enough and has a logical enough conclusion. Got this for free and read it on my Kindle.… (més)