The Black Iris

by Gwenyth Little and Constance Little

Book Overview

Book annotation not available for this title...Title: .The Black Iris..Author: .Little, Constance/ Little, Gwenyth..Publisher: .Rue Morgue..Publication Date: .2007/01/31..Number of Pages:... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1601870035
• ISBN13: 9781601870032
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Rue Morgue Press
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A most entertaining and endearing mystery!

The Rue Morgue Press reprints books that were considered the hallmark of the Golden Age of mystery fiction. Authors such as Dorothy Bowers; Pamela Branch; and Constance & Gwenyth Little (as well as many others) are included in this austere group, and picking up a Rue Morgue Press mystery is a sure winner. The sisters Little always wrote in bed and used the word "Black" in their all their titles but The Grey Mist Murders. Born in Australia, they settled in East Orange, New Jersey. Their backdrops include drafty old mansions; dank hospitals; eerie hotels; or forbidding cruise ships. Their plots were wacky and lots of fun. Miss Ivy and Miss Violet are elderly spinsters, whose father was so controlling that he had himself buried in the basement. They are constantly quarreling about items such as the placement of chairs, their own futures, and the disposition of their assets. Their nephew Richard looks in from time to time, and is horrified to learn they have been playing Russian Roulette with pistols to settle their estate. Richard has been dating Ada Terry, a Broadway actress related to the sisters by marriage. Richard and Ada decide to announce their engagement to try to stop the sisters' shenanigans, and as usual the best laid plans are fouled up by when murder makes its appearance: "She was covered only lightly with earth. Apparently there hadn't been time to bury her properly, but she was draped from head to foot in a bloodstained shawl. The chief gave a queer little grunt, stretched a tentative arm, and then withdrew it. Neither of them wanted to uncover her, and they remained still in a silence that presently became too much for the chief. He scrambled to his feet and lurched to the foot of the stairs, where he bawled, 'Pete!'" Constance and Gwenyth Little delighted in writing stories that had a touch of the absurd. Their natural sense of humor is evident throughout the book, as Richard and Ada find themselves married before they are really ready to examine their own feelings. This story would make a delightful play, with a Cary Grant clone as the hapless Richard. Those were the days of golden mysteries, and the Littles were in top form. A most entertaining and endearing mystery! (...)