In the back of my mind when I started The Invisible Event was the idea that exactly half of what I’d post about would feature impossible crimes, locked room mysteries, and/or miracle problems — and although this proportion started an irreversible slide after the first 500 or so posts, the impossible crime remains my first love.
Continue readingTheodore Roscoe
#995: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 2: ‘Ghost on Lonesome Hill’ (1941) by Theodore Roscoe
#992: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 2: ‘Stay As Sweet As You Are’ (1939) by Theodore Roscoe
#989: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 2: ‘There Are Smiles That Make You Happy’ (1939) by Theodore Roscoe
The Four Corners stories by Theodore Roscoe, concerning mysterious and suspenseful happenings in the so-named town in northern NY, are legitimate masterpieces in setting and tone — and ‘There Are Smiles That Make You Happy’ (1939) is another beautiful example of the storyteller’s craft.
Continue reading#986: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 2: ‘The Man Who Hated Lincoln’ (1939) by Theodore Roscoe
Relatively late in his career, Theodore Roscoe wrote a book about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, The Web of Conspiracy (1959), and it’s difficult not to wonder if the seed for that might have been planted in this visit to the fictional town of Four Corners, NY.
Continue reading#983: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 2: ‘Ghoul’s Paradise’ (1938) by Theodore Roscoe
Back in August, I read the first volume of Theodore Roscoe’s stories set in the fictional town of Four Corners, and enjoyed them so much that I’m back this month for the five tales that comprise Volume 2.
Continue reading#956: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 1: ‘Daisies Won’t Tell’ (1938) by Theodore Roscoe
One final, for now, trip to Four Corners, “the kind of one-horse burg where they leave the doors open at night”, and the story of ‘Daisy Boy’ Dumont and the Curlew fortune.
Continue reading#953: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 1: ‘I Was the Kid with the Drum’ (1937) by Theodore Roscoe
Where next for Theodore Roscoe’s tales of small own life in upstate New York? Well, how about some Suspense?
Continue reading#950: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 1: ‘Barber, Barber, Shave a Pig’ (1937) by Theodore Roscoe
Another tales of small town Americana from Theodore Roscoe, his time focussing on the effects of a crime on one man’s standing in the tiny community of Four Corners, the fictional town in upstate New York
Continue reading#947: Little Fictions – Four Corners, Volume 1: ‘Frivolous Sal’ (1937) by Theodore Roscoe
Given how much classic (and modern!) crime and detective fiction relies on the concept of Othering — identifying the person who doesn’t ‘fit’ in a situation, and hoping guilt can be pinned on them — it’s interesting to see Theodore Roscoe employ the concept in the story of ‘Frivolous’ Clariselle Allders.
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