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A review by kienie
The Murder in the Stork Club by Vera Caspary
2.0
Stranger in the house: what do you do when your husband is a traitor and brings evil people into your house.
Sugar and Spice: and he didn't know she loved him. Sigh.
The Murder at the Stork Club: Husband realizes his wife may keeps secrets from him. Shocked. But then someone gets murdered.
Ruth: Husband keeps secrets from wife. The maid did it.
Lots of secret keeping, which is an essential part of any mystery, but also a part of any relationship. And when you find out for the first time that your significant other still has a life of their own - sometimes a very significant life - how do you react?
Overall Ruth was my favorite, because it was focused on characters whose emotions made sense and informed their actions. The murderer was set up properly, and it wasn't tedious. Sugar and Spice was tedious, possibly because of the format of being re-told by someone from an oral account - a convention I dislike.
The Murder at the Stork Club didn't have a satisfying conclusion because it wasn't set up well. There are surprises, and then there are things introduced and concluded in the last act. And that's to do with the perspective of the story, which was limited to the husband, and perhaps wasn't the best choice for this mystery.
Stranger in the House had a good payoff, but could have been a little shorter, or a little longer. It just feels like it ended abruptly. But it's still my second favorite, and that goes down to a preference of the heroine in Ruth over the one in this story. They both deal with a lying husband and violence, and both draw a line, only Ruth draws a line earlier. On the other hand, who knows whether Ruth's resolve would have remained.
Sugar and Spice: and he didn't know she loved him. Sigh.
The Murder at the Stork Club: Husband realizes his wife may keeps secrets from him. Shocked. But then someone gets murdered.
Ruth: Husband keeps secrets from wife. The maid did it.
Lots of secret keeping, which is an essential part of any mystery, but also a part of any relationship. And when you find out for the first time that your significant other still has a life of their own - sometimes a very significant life - how do you react?
Overall Ruth was my favorite, because it was focused on characters whose emotions made sense and informed their actions. The murderer was set up properly, and it wasn't tedious. Sugar and Spice was tedious, possibly because of the format of being re-told by someone from an oral account - a convention I dislike.
The Murder at the Stork Club didn't have a satisfying conclusion because it wasn't set up well. There are surprises, and then there are things introduced and concluded in the last act. And that's to do with the perspective of the story, which was limited to the husband, and perhaps wasn't the best choice for this mystery.
Stranger in the House had a good payoff, but could have been a little shorter, or a little longer. It just feels like it ended abruptly. But it's still my second favorite, and that goes down to a preference of the heroine in Ruth over the one in this story. They both deal with a lying husband and violence, and both draw a line, only Ruth draws a line earlier. On the other hand, who knows whether Ruth's resolve would have remained.