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Fantasy Aspects, issue 2, November 1947
Page 8
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ious mystery this reviewer has seen all year. It has novelty in form, simplicity and deception in plot and toughness and speed in action plus good writing. It starts with a ban and ends with a surprise twist as good as anything since "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," altho we should say since we brought it up, the solution isn't the same as in that much discussed classic. "The story's told in letters to the girl he loves written by Charles Horne, a privete "tec who gets one of those mysterious commissions followed quickly by the rubbing out of his client,=. There's a gambling den, a tuxedoed manager, sleek black cars with exotic Chinese girl drivers --- that's where the doll comes in --- a woman doctor, a group of amateur journalists, smalltime cops and politicians, sluggings, shooting and sleuthing. Not a thing new in the lot, you see, except the cleverness of the author who takes these well-worn items and combines them into a tale that sparkles with originality and winds up with a wallop not one experienced connoisseur in armchair mayhem in fifty will see coming." --Columbus, Ohio. Dispatch. Ackerman will promptly re-order his four copies. Comparing this one to the one written in the City of Brotherly Love, the harried author will begin circulating petitions calling for transfer of that miss-applied slogan to the beautiful Ohio city, where they really love all mankind. Even the clumsy mystery writers who nudge towards literacy at two-fifty a copy. But seriously, review number three seems as far fetched in one direction as review number two seemed in the other. Review #4: "Fairly tough, generally consistant tale of killings in small Illinois city mixed up with local politics and gambling. The solution involves an odd twist which you may not like." -- Providence, R.I.,, Journal/ Ackerman ships back two of the four copies, deciding that perhaps he over-estimated the worthiness of the book. And Then: Review #5: ". . .Tucker chose one of the most awkward of literary techniques (he tells his story in letters from a man to his wife) for "The Chinese Doll." However, his chapters are so little like letters from a man to his wife that the reader will hardly be conscious of the device until, at the last, he finds out why it was adopted. . . . . . .The setting is a small town but the pace of events in in big-time tempo. Tucker chooses to disregard one of the long-accepted limitations on detective fiction. The reader may form his own opinion as to the fairness of the solution." ---Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch There! Ackerman went and shipped back a third copy, kepping only one for his library. He has come to conclusion that played a dirty trick on the customers and keeps that one copy only because he is a completionist. In regards this continually - appearing hint in many reviews that I didn't play fair with this on that rule, or that I broke a long-standing convention concerning myster- (cont. on page 26) (Page 8)
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ious mystery this reviewer has seen all year. It has novelty in form, simplicity and deception in plot and toughness and speed in action plus good writing. It starts with a ban and ends with a surprise twist as good as anything since "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," altho we should say since we brought it up, the solution isn't the same as in that much discussed classic. "The story's told in letters to the girl he loves written by Charles Horne, a privete "tec who gets one of those mysterious commissions followed quickly by the rubbing out of his client,=. There's a gambling den, a tuxedoed manager, sleek black cars with exotic Chinese girl drivers --- that's where the doll comes in --- a woman doctor, a group of amateur journalists, smalltime cops and politicians, sluggings, shooting and sleuthing. Not a thing new in the lot, you see, except the cleverness of the author who takes these well-worn items and combines them into a tale that sparkles with originality and winds up with a wallop not one experienced connoisseur in armchair mayhem in fifty will see coming." --Columbus, Ohio. Dispatch. Ackerman will promptly re-order his four copies. Comparing this one to the one written in the City of Brotherly Love, the harried author will begin circulating petitions calling for transfer of that miss-applied slogan to the beautiful Ohio city, where they really love all mankind. Even the clumsy mystery writers who nudge towards literacy at two-fifty a copy. But seriously, review number three seems as far fetched in one direction as review number two seemed in the other. Review #4: "Fairly tough, generally consistant tale of killings in small Illinois city mixed up with local politics and gambling. The solution involves an odd twist which you may not like." -- Providence, R.I.,, Journal/ Ackerman ships back two of the four copies, deciding that perhaps he over-estimated the worthiness of the book. And Then: Review #5: ". . .Tucker chose one of the most awkward of literary techniques (he tells his story in letters from a man to his wife) for "The Chinese Doll." However, his chapters are so little like letters from a man to his wife that the reader will hardly be conscious of the device until, at the last, he finds out why it was adopted. . . . . . .The setting is a small town but the pace of events in in big-time tempo. Tucker chooses to disregard one of the long-accepted limitations on detective fiction. The reader may form his own opinion as to the fairness of the solution." ---Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch There! Ackerman went and shipped back a third copy, kepping only one for his library. He has come to conclusion that played a dirty trick on the customers and keeps that one copy only because he is a completionist. In regards this continually - appearing hint in many reviews that I didn't play fair with this on that rule, or that I broke a long-standing convention concerning myster- (cont. on page 26) (Page 8)
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