MYSTERY PUZZLES
Seven of the stories in "The Department of Queer Complaints," by Carter Dickson, an American publication, have to do with a department of Scotland Yard which deals with apparently impossible problems. Colonel March, who presides over the Department of Queer Complaints, dearly loves a puzzle and is invariably able to show that the solution is simple enough once one knows how to go about loloking for it. In "The New Invisible Man," for example, an eye-witness tells how he saw a man shot down by a bullet fired from a revolver held in a glove without a hand. Naturally, his story is referred to the Department of Queer Complaints, and Colonel March has a lot of fun explaining how the deed was done. The other six stories of this type are equally mysterious, and the solutions are equally ingenious.
The last four stories in the book are of different types. One of them has to do with a most unusual execution in a little Pennsylvania town, and the others deal, or seem to deal, with supernatural occurrences. All are excellent examples of short-story technique. Our choice for the best tale of the entire collection is "The Other Hangman," which happens also to be the only one which does not have an English background.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, Page 19
Word Count
215MYSTERY PUZZLES Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, Page 19
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