Miss Withers Regrets

Different decades of the 1900s brought different styles of writing crime novels in different countries. The reader can look for the Murder between tea and cakes at the English manor or the Parisian so sparse it is almost not there book or the When is next one-liner PI novel of the United States. But outside the cliches of above, there are some small gems to look for-- try Craig Rice and Stewart Palmer of the United States. The former often has the same madcap style as Bringing Up Baby has in the movies while the latter has Miss Hildegarde Withers (I would not dream of missing out the Miss!) Miss Withers is a hatchet, or horse, faced lady of undetermined age who is, frankly, a busybody, but a likeable one. She is invariably drawn into some murderous situation which she manages to solve, eventually. And she does so with fervour, sometimes having to change her opinion-- and a great deal of humour. The Miss Withers books I have read are all very readable and enjoyable and are great examples of the 1930s- 1940s detective story.