Melville Davisson Post (1869–1930)

Maybe 2½ stars. These short mystery stories are not mysteries in the contemporary sense - they aren't whodunits which the reader has a chance to figure out the culprit. Rather, they are crime stories which show the darker corners of human nature. Post's main character, Uncle Abner, was interesting but not enough for me to want to read more. The style was sort of a cross between Washington Irving and Arthur Conan Doyle, which I found trying at times. The setting was a bit muddled - in some of the stories, it is clearly before 1860 (there are still slaves & the region described is part of Virginia instead of West Virginia) while in others there are indications that it is supposed to be the 1890s ("200 years since the massacre of Glen Coe").… (more)

This is a posthumous collection in book form of four Uncle Abner stories which Post published in The Country Gentleman magazine in 1927-28 (after the publication of the first Uncle Abner collection in book form in 1918). Three of them had also been reprinted in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The book also includes an introduction about Post and the Uncle Abner stories by the editors. The four stories in the book are "The Mystery at Hillhouse" (which the introduction says is 3 times longer than any other Abner story) in which Abner confronts three suspects in the murder of a wealthy cattleman as well as a posse originally bet on lynch justice, which he persuades to wait for the law, The second case" The God of the Hills" involves a land-hungry judge named Benson and a young woman he would dispossess of her land. It also brings in the country preacher Adam Bird, which as the introduction points out is clearly meant to be the Adam Bronson of the first series of stories. The third case, "The Dark Night" involves a case of an "act of God" or as Abner maintains, of the devil. The last story, "The Devil's Track" begins with a dispute between Abner and a greedy cattleman named Dillworth over a fence. but leads to darker issues.… (more)