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The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway

© Janet Kay Blaylock

This is a short story review of "The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway" by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. It is found in the anthology titled "Murderous Schemes." If you enjoy reading mysteries by various classic authors, you will enjoy this collection.

This story starts out talking about Polly and Mr. Richard Frobisher. Polly was going to go with him to a Maud Allan matinee. However, she couldn't make it. She was talking to a man about the mysterious death on the Underground Railway. Polly lost track of time because she was intrigued about the incident. As they sat and talked about the crime, the man started asking her to describe the man who had been sitting near her. Polly was wondering why he was asking her about that man who left. They started talking about observing people and remembering what people looked like. He was trying to show her that since she was a journalist, she needed to observe people and remember their appearance after they left. It was also important for her to remember distinguishing features if he had been involved in a crime. Then, she would be able to recognize the person.

After that, they talked about the apparent suicide or possible murder of the woman, Mrs. Hazeldene on the Underground Railway. Then, they started discussing what happened at the inquest.

Later on, they found out that Mrs. Hazeldene was poisoned with prussic acid. They found out that Mrs. Hazeldene did have an empty bottle in her purse that contained prussic acid, so they are wondering if she injected herself with it. But did she? Did someone plant that empty bottle in her bag to make people think she gave it to herself?

Suspense continued to build as they started discussing different suspects who had the possibility of getting the bottle of prussic acid. After that, they needed to decide how it was administered to her. They discussed the possibility of her allowing someone she was with to inject her with the poison. They didn't think it was possible for her to allow that to happen unless she wanted to die. Would she have allowed someone to inject her with poison? Did she want to die, or was there another way for someone to inject her with the poison?

This was an interesting story. I wanted to keep reading the story until the last page. Anyone who enjoys mysteries will enjoy this story as well as the collection of short stories.