The Chuckling Fingers: A Mystery

Rating:
Summary: More than just a plot...
Review: Everyone expects a quality mystery story to have a clever plot with plenty of twists and turns along the way. If it's a "classic" mystery, one also expects the protagonist to be quirky but noble. If the story is more modern, one probably expects the heroine to be either feisty or hard-boiled. What one doesn't expect is lovable.

That's what sets Mabel Seeley apart from most other mystery writers past and present. Without allowing them to degenerate into soppiness or wimpiness, she lets her main characters be believeable and really decent people. As a reader, I find that I really care about these characters, and that's so refreshing.

The above is certainly true of Ann Gay, the heroine of this novel. Determined to extricate her close friend and relative Jacqueline from a perilous situation, she arrives in the Minnesota north woods just in time for that situation to change from threatening to truly murderous. Her struggle to determine just who can and who can not be trusted among all the friends, neighbors and relatives that fill out the cast is told in a gripping and suspenseful way.

So, why only four stars? Much as atmosphere and character rate much higher with me personally, I felt a little disappointed in the solution to this mystery. I saw it coming and was waiting for the explanation that would make it seem inevitable and right, but I just didn't feel the motivation was all that convincing.

This book was enough, however, to get me to seek out every other Mabel Seeley book I could find and I highly recommend it to those who are tired of the familiar and expected.

Rating:
Summary: A great review of the book.
Review: This book is terrific, like a Nancy Drew for adults. It was written in 1941, prior to WW II and so is authentic in it's historical detail. The setting is the north woods of Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior at a family's summer estate in a pine forest.

Eerie, unexplained happenings occur that make this a true page-turner, culminating with a murder that took me by surprise. I couldn't put it down. There are enough red herrings and suspense to satisfy even the most fussy mystery buffs. The writing is also a breath of fresh air. The characters are well-developed, the plot is tight and the setting for the story fired my imagination.