Stodghill Says So

An opinionated posting on a variety of subjects by a former newspaper reporter and columnist whose daily column was named best in Indiana by UPI. The Blog title is that used in his high school sports predictions for the Muncie Evening Press.

My Photo
Name:
Location: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, United States

At the age of 18 I was a 4th Infantry Division rifleman in the invasion of Normandy, then later was called back for the Korean War. Put in a couple of years as a Pinkerton detective. Much of my life was spent as a newspaper reporter, sports writer and daily columnist. Published three books on high school sports in Ohio and Indiana. I write mystery fiction for Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and others. Three books, Normandy 1944 - A Young Rifleman's War, The Hoosier Hot Shots, and From Devout Catholic to Communist Agitator are now available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. So are four collections of short mysteries: Jack Eddy Stories Volumes 1 and 2, Midland Murders, and The Rough Old Stuff From Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.

Powered By Blogger TM

Sunday, May 03, 2009

An Excellent Collection of Stories

My favorite fiction is short and to the point. I read mystery novels, of course, but prefer the shorter form. One of the best of the short mystery writers was the late Jack Ritchie, a man who claimed he never read a novel that wouldn't have made a better short story. I won't go quite that far. I'd put the figure at 95 per cent.
Too many novels are padded. This shows up in the middle and hits the reader in many ways. A favorite of the writers of the cozy style is rehashing everything that has gone before - again and again. Others tell you far more than you need or want to know about the characters and their background. Some go into great detail on the setting. Those who write that way disagree with Raymond Chandler when he said the story should move forward on every page. They prefer to drag it out to increase the word count.
To see if you agree with me, pick up the latest Mystery Writers of America anthology, The Prosecution Rests (Little, Brown $24.95). The book edited by Linda Fairstein contains 22 fast-paced stories centering on the legal system.
One of my favorites is Death, Cheated by James Grippando. A woman diagnosed with a disease the medics say will kill her within a few years receives a $1.5 million payment from a group of investors who bet on death so they can collect on an insurance policy doubling their money. But what happens if the medics are wrong?
An ex-con who swears he was innocent but convicted by an overly-zealous prosecutor seeks revenge in Hard Blows by Morley Swingle. How he plans to achieve it makes the story a spine tingler right to the final sentence.
Other exciting stories are by such writers as S.J. Rozan, Angela Zeman, Twist Phelan and the late Edward D. Hoch, king of short mystery writers. Picking a favorite from the entire collection would be a challenge, but Leigh Lundin's Quality Of Mercy certainly would be one of the front runners. This is a timely tale in which the husband of a woman afflicted with Alzheimer's faces the dilemma of ignoring or fulfilling his promise to place a certain bottle of pills within her reach when she feels the last remnant of her memory is about to vanish. Assisted suicide? Euthanasia? Call it what you will, it's a decision almost anyone might someday face. Merely contemplating it is frightening.
It's hard to imagine that anyone could read this book and not agree that here is a superb method of telling a story.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Leigh said...

Thank you for your wonderful review. I fretted about the article since it was sandwiched between so many popular writers, but the editor was patient as I agonized over excess modifiers.

Dick, thank you for the time you took to write about The Prosecution Rests and especially Quality of Mercy.

11:46 PM  

Post a Comment

Blog Directory

<< Home