Sun 6 Jan 2013
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: CAROLYN WELLS – The Moss Mystery.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
William F. Deeck
CAROLYN WELLS – The Moss Mystery. First appeared in Four in One Mysteries, Garden City Publishing, hardcover, 1924. 119 pages. [Other novels in the same volume: Flat 2 by Edgar Wallace, The Death Bell by Edison Marshall, and The Remittance Woman by Achmed Abdullah.]
“I am a living man, and he is a Fictional Detective, but that is the only way in which I radically differ from Sherlock Holmes. We are both wonderful detectives, and I know of no other in our class.” Thus sayeth Owen Prall, who then goes on to add to the misquotation: “Elementary, really, my dear Watson.”
Readers of my reviews are aware that I am easily taken in by specious authors, which Wells to her credit, even when she may be trying, generally isn’t. As Prall is presented with the case he has desired his entire career — murder in a locked room — I was delighting in the spoof that Wells was engaged in as she made fun of her detective, whose ego is enormous. Reluctantly I was soon forced to conclude that Wells was serious in her intent, but this doesn’t detract from the pleasure of reading this short novel as a parody. If you wish to read it for other reasons, so be it, but don’t blame me if it is then far less enjoyable.
January 6th, 2013 at 3:46 pm
Thumbs up for Bill Deeck, dead or alive !
Honestly, I try to avoid ANY books with idiotic characters in them .
Especially those with idiotic ‘heroes’ .
Simply not for me.
And Wells was a favourite target for Deeck, if I remember correctly.
Given the reasons, I understand why, without ever having read Wells .
The Doc
January 6th, 2013 at 8:25 pm
Even Wells at her most awful (and she frequently was despite what Bill says above) can be highly entertaining. That she wrote the first how-to manual for writing detective novels outlining several rules that she herself broke all the time makes me smile and laugh. I think as serious as she pretended to be about the detective novel she was having a lot of fun at everyone’s expense. She was first and foremost a humorist, after all.
January 7th, 2013 at 11:10 am
Carolyn Wells has been covered extensively on this blog, and seldom to her favor. One such is this review by Curt Evans:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=3833
of MURDER IN THE CASINO, in which he says
“Wells’ greatest Great Detective, Fleming Stone, shows up and solves the case, though no discernible process of ratiocination that I could detect. Rather, Stone simply announces he knows who the killer is and the killer promptly confesses and kills him/herself with yet another one of those convenient poison pellets one finds so much in Golden Age tales, particularly those penned by Carolyn Wells.
“Talk about dumb! This person must have been even dumber than Renny.”
Myself, in my review of THE WOODEN INDIAN,
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1306
I said:
“This is also one of those books in which all of the suspects are gathered together in one room for a final confrontation, whether it’s necessary or not. Stone claims not to have known who the killer was until the very last moment, but an even less than astute reader should know from the questions he’s been asking who it is that he suspects long before then.
“As a detective story, then, The Wooden Indian lands solidly in the “mediocre†category. Enjoyable enough, but distinctly below par. Bill [Pronzini] concludes his comments about Carolyn Wells’ detective stories in general by saying, “… the casual reader looking for entertaining, well-written, believable mysteries would do well to look elsewhere.â€
The concept raised by Bill Deeck that Wells was deliberately writing parodies of detective fiction is one I hadn’t considered before, and I will keep it in mind the next time I read one of her books (if ever).
I really ought to read her manual on writing detective fiction. It pains me to admit that I have never yet done so, and I should have.
January 7th, 2013 at 11:11 am
More reviews of Wells’ books on this blog may be found by typing her name into the search box on the right hand sidebar. You will find quite a few.
January 7th, 2013 at 7:53 pm
Wells- a Clunker-Smith par excellence !
The Doc
January 11th, 2013 at 1:05 pm
I admired Bill’s opinions a lot, but I’ll skip this one as reading a mystery as a parody has never been something I have searched out.
January 11th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
A sure sign of good reviewer/critic is one who steers you AWAY from books you’d never read anyway.