Part Four - Short Stories Review

This is Part Four of the short stories that I have been reviewing. They are in the collection titled "Masterpieces of Mystery and Suspense" by Martin H. Greenberg. The short stories that I'll be reviewing in this article are "The Dancing Detective" by Cornell Woolrich, and "The Man Who Collected Poe," by Robert Bloch. In this collection there are not as many stories as there are in the other three sections. Besides these two stories that I picked out for review, there are the following: "There Are No Snakes in Ireland" by Frederick Forsyth, "The Spintered Monday" by Charlotte Armstrong, "And So Died Riabouchinska" by Ray Bradbury, "Quitters, Inc." by Stephen King, and "The Nine-to-Five Man" by Stanley Ellin. For my reviews, I chose a few of the stories in each section. Now let's review the first story.

In "The Dancing Detective" by Cornell Woolrich, the main characters are Patsy Marino, who is the manager of the dancers at the dance hall, Julie, Ginger, Mom Henderson, Nick and Fat, who are the detectives, and Duke, who is the front man at the club. The narrator of the story is Ginger. The story focuses on the disappearance of Julie. Julie didn't return to work one day. Her friend, Ginger, is very worried about her and wonders what happened to her. She begins to wonder if Julie is killed. Ginger starts to do her own investigation in to Julie's disappearance. They were close friends, and Ginger wants to find out what happened. Here are some questions for you: Was Julie killed? Did she ever return to work? Who found Julie? You'll have to read the story to find out.

This was an interesting story, but it was confusing at first. I didn't know for awhile who the narrator was or what these girls were doing. The story would have been a little easier to comprehend if readers knew right away who the narrator was and her connection to the story or other characters.

In the second story, "The Man Who Collected Poe" by Robert Bloch, the main characters are Launcelot Canning and the narrator. The story is mainly narrative. It is told in first person. The theme of the story is Edgar Allan Poe and his works and how Launcelot Canning became the greatest collector of Poe. This was a good story, however, when I first read the story, I was a little confused as to who the narrator was. Some questions to think about are: How did Launcelot Canning become the greatest collector of Poe? What happened in the end to Launcelot Canning?

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