Patrick wrote:
> Remember the Christie story in which Poirot, after a long, involved
> investigation discovers the murderer because her knees were mature and she was
> trying to pass herself off as schoolgirl? CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS, wasn't it? Now,
> a woman lying about her age is not proof of murder. It is not evidence of
> murder. Go to a DA with information like that and they won't even bring her in
> for questioning, much less sign an arrest warrant. That, to me, is implausible.
> And Christie is guilty of it a lot. As are Rinehart, Queen, Gardner, the list
> goes on.
To which I counter simply with:
Juno was a man.
By the way, if by Gardner you mean Erle Stanley, well, he more correctly belongs with the hard-boiled school. Whatever happened to Perry Mason once he hit the tube, he and most of Gardner's early heroes, many of whom appeared in BLACK MASK and DIME DETECTIVE, were plenty tough enough. In fact, Gardner was one of BLACK MASK's most popular authors, along with Hammett and Daly.
Kevin Burton Smith
Editor/Founder of The Thrilling Detective Web Site
"The Man Who Put the Dead Back into Deadline."
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