Mignon G. Eberhart's Best Mystery Stories

Another exciting book! The stories draw you in pretty quickly, abit like Agatha Christie stories do. Would totally recommend this book, for an exciting read on a cold day by the fire, or anywhere really.... nice cuppa and a snack...totally enjoyable.

None of Eberhart's sleuths are detectives by trade. One, James Wickwire, is a senior vice president of a bank. As such, he believes that one of his primary responsibilities is to keep "his widows" from being victimized by purveyors of various get rich schemes which are designed to make the purveyor, not the widow, rich. These stories, circa 1930, present banking services as much more personal than they are in today's era of computers and ATM machines. In all the Wickwire stories, his widows are a rather naive lot who seem perfectly ready to risk their inheritances on whatever scam comes along. While Wickwire is watching out for his widows, someone or other invariably gets himself or herself murdered. Wickwire, shrewd old banker that he is, always seems to deduce the identity of the killer well before the plodding, but well meaning, police have any idea of the identity of the perpetrator.Another of Eberhart's amateur sleuth is a murder mystery writer named Susan Dare. She appears in two or three of these stories. I don't think I would want to invite her to my country manor for the weekend because, when Susan's a guest, someone invariably gets murdered. But never fear, she, like Wickwire, always figures out the identity of the murderer, and usually before the weekend is over.Ms. Eberhart writes in a rather genteel manner as typified by her description of banker Wickwire's thoughts when admiring an attractive woman. "Eloise was almost beautiful, with creamy, magnolia smooth skin, soft red mouth, and a rather luxuriant figure." That's it. That's all there is. It's interesting to note just how much can be conveyed in a subtly understated manner. Mignon Eberhart is good at it,There are other stories and other amateur crime solvers in the book. All are "just everyday folks" going about their business while solving a murder or two. The book is dated, no computers, no DNA testing, and no high speed chases, just good analytic minds. I think that it's a better book for its reliance on the human mind as opposed to high-tech analytic methoods.