Melville Davisson PostRecensioni

Maybe 2½ stars. These short mystery stories are not mysteries in the contemporary sense - they aren't whodunits which the reader has a chance to figure out the culprit. Rather, they are crime stories which show the darker corners of human nature. Post's main character, Uncle Abner, was interesting but not enough for me to want to read more. The style was sort of a cross between Washington Irving and Arthur Conan Doyle, which I found trying at times. The setting was a bit muddled - in some of the stories, it is clearly before 1860 (there are still slaves & the region described is part of Virginia instead of West Virginia) while in others there are indications that it is supposed to be the 1890s ("200 years since the massacre of Glen Coe").

Short stories in early twentieth century style with Sir Henry of the CID.

Excellent stories, really atmospheric; set in the backwoods of Virginia before the Civil War. According to Wikipedia, Post wrote 22 stories featuring Uncle Abner; this collection has 18; these are so good I think it worth the trouble to seek out the others.

This is a posthumous collection in book form of four Uncle Abner stories which Post published in The Country Gentleman magazine in 1927-28 (after the publication of the first Uncle Abner collection in book form in 1918). Three of them had also been reprinted in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The book also includes an introduction about Post and the Uncle Abner stories by the editors. The four stories in the book are "The Mystery at Hillhouse" (which the introduction says is 3 times longer than any other Abner story) in which Abner confronts three suspects in the murder of a wealthy cattleman as well as a posse originally bet on lynch justice, which he persuades to wait for the law, The second case" The God of the Hills" involves a land-hungry judge named Benson and a young woman he would dispossess of her land. It also brings in the country preacher Adam Bird, which as the introduction points out is clearly meant to be the Adam Bronson of the first series of stories. The third case, "The Dark Night" involves a case of an "act of God" or as Abner maintains, of the devil. The last story, "The Devil's Track" begins with a dispute between Abner and a greedy cattleman named Dillworth over a fence. but leads to darker issues.

Stories set in rural 19h century Virginia --though when is not clear --Ellery Queen describes it as being the" Jeffersonian Era" and Doomdorf in the famous and often-reprinted first story is said to have served with Iturbide in Mexico (c.1822) and does not appear to be more than middle-aged. But the next story contains obvious references to Reconstruction. Abner himself is a powerful character with a strong flavor of an oLd Testament prophet dispensing his own form of divine justice, backed by shrewd deductive powers --but I do not understand in "Angel of the Lord" why he gives a murderer a hundred dollars to flee the country with. The narrator is Abner's young nephew Marton, 9 years old at the time of that third story, though a very mature 9.

Uncle Abner is a monumental figure of pre-Civil War Virginia. A God-fearing man who is a great quoter of the Bible. He is also expert in solving crime and bringing the guilty to justice.
This slim volume contains a novella and three short stories and in addition a useful introduction to the author and his work.
Highly recommended.

Pleasantly written but predictable story about a man trying to get away with the perfect murder, with the help of an unscrupulous lawyer. The trappings are better than the story itself, but the method of getting rid of the corpse will be familiar if you're a Tarantino fan.½

Melville Davisson Post is best known for his Uncle Abner stories. This particular volume contains 14 short stories which mostly feature the much less well-known Sir Henry Marqius. Marquis is chief of the Criminal Investigation Department of Scotland Yard and in the course of these stories investigates and solves both criminal cases and those concerning German spies of the First World War,who threaten Great Britain.
These stories are of variable quality,many being first-class thrillers,but others are rather second-rate. Overall however this collection is well worth taking the trouble to discover, if only for the period style of the writing.½