The Black Shrouds

by Constance Little, Gwenyth Little

Constance LittleRue Morgue Press10/19/2002155Binding Paperback0.59lbs9.18h x 6.04w x 0.45d9780915230525Review Citation(s):PW Notes and Reprints 01/06/2003 pg. 43Publishers Weekly 01/06/2003

Genres: Mystery

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Jessie Constance Little (1899-1980) co-authored with her sister Gwenyth Little mysteries in the screwball-comedy fashion. The Little sisters are referred to as "queens of the wacky cozy." They were sometimes published as Conyth Little, a portmanteau of their names.

Their youngest sister Iris wrote under the pseudonym Robert James.

Constance Little married Lawrence Baker, a men's clothing designer for the Dubois Uniform Company in New York City.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take an aspiring actress, an angry father who cuts off her allowance, forcing her to live in a small boarding house, a very handsome man who may (or may not) be trying to woo the daughter back to their home town, several corpses, a man who keeps disappearing and reappearing, ditto a few clues...It's another romp by the Little sisters, and what could be more enjoyable than that?

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoever designed the cover of this boarding house mystery has no idea what an Indian club is--it's exercise equipment shaped like a bowling pin--and came up with an outlandish weapon with feathers dangling from it, apparently thinking Native American rather than East Asian, a common modern American error. So ignore the cover. This mystery like others by the Littles take place inside a building with multiple rooms, here a 1940s boarding house rather than a hospital, although one renter suffers from dementia and really should be in some sort of care facility.

[Neer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining.

More here: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpr...

[Lizzie Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The action is all set in a New York a boarding house. Diana Prescott has aspirations to the stage and has run away from her rich domineering father to fulfil her ambitions. She has met a soul mate in Barbara Markham, the daughter of the boarding house owner, who is keen to become an actress.

To the delight of Grace Firebuck and Mary Eustace, two school teachers who fear they are on the shelf, a young man checks into the boarding house. Diana recognises him from her father’s pea canning factory and is convinced that he has been sent by her father to bring her back to the family home. She devises a plan to make the most of the situation, but before she can put it into action, corpses start to appear.

Hearing of the Murders, Quincy Prescott tears himself away from canning peas and comes to take his daughter home. But he is quickly sucked into the boarding house life, frantically pursued by Camille, an aging actress who insists she is 40. The search for the murderer is conducted whilst Quincy Prescott plays bridge with anyone he can coerce into a game.

When elderly pensioner Alvin Mott disappears in someone else’s hat and overcoat, Sergeant Schmaltz says, ‘it will be easy to pick him up as his clothes are too big for him’. Mary shook her head, ‘how is Schmaltz to tell when a man’s clothes don’t fit him, when his own coat won’t button across his front and hangs down to just above his knees, whilst his hat covers both his eyebrows and his ears’. With that wonderful picture of a policeman on the job, it’s good that Diana Prescott is keen to do a bit of amateur sleuthing.

The characterisation is marvellous, the writing wonderful, and the humour sparkling. A real fun mystery. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

[Julie Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

First 20 pages are a bit confusing, then everything flows well!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frankly, I was disappointed in THE BLACK SHROUDS. After reading several other mysteries by the Little sisters, I guess I was expecting a bit more here. I didn't guess the murderer until close to the end of the book, but I didn't really care. I almost wish the heroine had been one of the victims or even the murderer herself. Diana was constantly acting passive-aggressive towards her father and it got on my nerves. Yes, I know she didn't like the way he wanted to control her, but enough is enough. I'm not sure why anyone would want to be around her. Her supposed romance was not believable and the verbal sparring normally in the Littles' stories was absent. If I hadn't already read some of the authors' other books, I doubt I would want to read any more. C- rating.