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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is fun. I enjoyed Hildegarde Winters. She's great fun. But it was written in 1941 and it shows. Language describing black minor characters is demeaning and attitudes toward women are what you'd expect. But it's a great puzzle mystery. And a look back at old Hollywood. I do find it interesting that the racist language is never put in the mouth of Miss Withers or her detective sidekick Oscar Peters. I wonder if that was a conscious decision by the author. They are represented as the forces of intelligence and inquiry. Probably overthinking it. But it's a nice thought
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Classism
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was very fun! The Hollywood setting's affect on the writing was maybe a bit too "cute" for me but I don't know what about that was my not being used to Palmer in novel form and what was actually the setting itself. Miss Withers and Inspector Piper were fun as always, and in particular the midway twist was a cool way to use them. The mystery was interesting but, as someone who's used to the Agatha Christie style of "name every poison someone kills people with," the idea that the whole mystery is "how can you break someone's neck without leaving a trace" and then we never really find out how" is sort of disappointing . Overall fun, though I now would want to try one of the Miss Withers stories actually set in New York City.
This book is funny. The characters feel real, but certain things were unbelievable. Its fiction so its fine.
In my imagination, Hildergarde Withers is a cross between Miss Marple and Mrs Jeffries. She loves to collect gossip and take the first step in solving a mystery.
The murderer part was a surprise and how he/she did it seemed unreal. But still a very good read for fans of golden age of detective fiction.
In my imagination, Hildergarde Withers is a cross between Miss Marple and Mrs Jeffries. She loves to collect gossip and take the first step in solving a mystery.
The murderer part was a surprise and how he/she did it seemed unreal. But still a very good read for fans of golden age of detective fiction.
The story opens with two screenplay writers setting up a fire underneath the chair of a napping third. The two, Stafford and Dobie, are well known at Mammoth Studios for being merry pranksters, though few others find their jokes funny. And then, one day, Stafford is found dead in his office. Who finds him? Why, none other than retired schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers. She was hired on by the studio as a technical adviser for a screen adaptation of the Lizzie Borden murders. She stirs up trouble by insisting that this was a murder, even when the cops around her insist even harder that that was an accident. Two more murders and ties to an even older murder that help bring Otis Piper onto the scene and Miss Withers is desperately trying to figure out what is going on before she herself is killed as well.