BRUNO FISCHER – Quoth the Raven. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1944. Bestseller Mystery #B82, digest-sized paperback, 1950. Reprinted as The Fingered Man, Ace Double D-27, paperback, 1953; published back to back with Double Take by Mel Colton.

   Grocer Sam Tree’s wife had two previous husbands. The first was killed escaping from the police; the second is a drunk, a gambler, and not averse to a little blackmail. Where is his wife getting the money to pay him? And is her first husband really dead?

   In this book Fischer deftly balances the clever with the cheap cliché. Except for Sam’s wife, who has neatly mastered the technique of cuddly double talk to answer her way around any question, the dialogue is trite and corny. But I will tell you this: the ending surprised me.

Rating: C plus.