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Beastly Tales
Presents a collection of fifteen chilling stories, in each of which an animal figures prominently, by a group of already regarded and newly discovered authors, including Isaac Asimov, James Holding, Margaret Maron, and Donald E. Westlake
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1989
49 people want to read
About the author
Sara Paretsky
272 books2,381 followersSara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction. Paretsky was raised in Kansas, and graduated from the state university with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in 1968 to work there. She ultimately completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of Chicago, entitled The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War, and finally earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Married to a professor of physics at the University of Chicago, she has lived in Chicago since 1968.
The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. Warshawski's eclectic personality defies easy categorization. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes, sings opera along with the radio, and enjoys her sex life.
Paretsky is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.
Her two books that are non-Warshawski novels are : Ghost Country (1998) and Bleeding Kansas (2008).
The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. Warshawski's eclectic personality defies easy categorization. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes, sings opera along with the radio, and enjoys her sex life.
Paretsky is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.
Her two books that are non-Warshawski novels are : Ghost Country (1998) and Bleeding Kansas (2008).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 10, 2023
CONTENTS
●Introduction - Sara Paretsky
●Fiction:
•"Spring Fever" - Dorothy Salisbury Davis
•"Dwindle, Peak and Pine" - Joyce Harrington
•"A Cat Too Small for His Whiskers" - Lilian Jackson Braun
•"The White Death" - Justin Scott
•"A Visitor to Mombasa" - James Holding
•"A Good Story" - Donald E. Westlake
•"Best Evidence" - Dick Stodghill
•"Intruder in the Maize" - Joan Richter
•"Plateau" - Clark Howard
•"The Lost Dog" - Isaac Asimov
•"Neighbors" - Hope Raymond
•"On Windy Ridge" - Margaret Maron
•"Stork Trek" - Edward Wellen & Josh Pachter
•"A Gift of the Gods" - Gahan Wilson
•"The Problem of the Hunting Lodge" - Edward D. Hoch
●About the Contributors
This is one of a series of anthologies issued by the Mystery Writers of America . This volume is from 1989. There are fifteen stories; four were evidently new to this anthology, five came from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, four from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and two from Playboy. The original publication dates for the reprinted stories range from 1952 to 1989.
Many of the Mystery Writers of America anthologies are put together around a given theme. In Beastly Tales that theme, not surprisingly, is "stories in which animals play a major role." In most of these collections, some of the stories seem remotely - if at all - related to the theme. In some of the stories here, the non-human creatures are absolutely essential to the tale. In others, especially "Spring Fever" and "The Problem of the Hunting Lodge," there are animals in the story but they are not necessary to the plot. This does not mean these are poor stories, just that they are not entirely appropriate for this particular book.
I was surprised at how many stories in this collection have strong elements of science fiction or fantasy. A couple of stories here are as much horror tales as mysteries.
I will begin my discussion of the individual stories with a couple that I think are not very good. Edward D. Hoch's "The Problem of the Hunting Lodge" is an entry in Hoch's series about Dr. Sam Hawthorne, a physician in a New England town in the 1940s. These are all "impossible crimes," which Hawthorne is able to solve. In this one, a man is murdered with a club while he is alone in a hunting lodge surrounded by snow, with the only footprints outside the building being those of the murdered man. The solution seems to me to be so unlikely that it is just as "impossible" as the murder appears to be.
A dying homeless man wants to be reunited with his dog before he dies in "The Lost Dog" by Isaac Asimov. He knows that the dog was taken to the dog pound but he is too ill to give people more information, not even a description of the dog. He has stated that the dog will answer to its name but lapses into a "semicoma" without mentioning the dog's name. The narrator takes one piece of information, guesses the dog's name, brings comfort to a dying man, and then goes on to do further good deeds. This just seems silly to me.
Clark Howard was one of my favorite authors of mystery short fiction. "Plateau" is one of the few stories by him that I think are less than very good. There are ony two buffalo still living and one of them dies. People bid for the chance to kill the last living buffalo. One man fights to get the buffalo to safety. Howard was too fine a writer for this to be as foolish as it might be, but it is not a good story.
The people named in the title of Joyce Harrington's "Dwindle, Peak and Pine" are Max Dwindle, an aging warlock, Loretta Peak, a teenage witch, and Peter Pine, "ex-advertising clairvoyant." They now work together as private investigators. The animal in this story is a talking elephant, occupied by the consciousness of their client's late husband. The elephant gets most of the best lines.
That elephant is not the only talking animal in the book. In "The White Death" by Justin Scott, animals of different species can chat with each other and they also understand English. Sheep are being killed on a Connecticut farm, evidently by coyotes. The folks running the farm get three large dogs - White Death One, Two, and Three - to guard the sheep. This seems to end the coyotes' attacks on the sheep, but now neighborhood dogs are being killed (but not eaten). The farm cat is the central character in this story. I think talking animals are fine in fables or tales for children - usually not in mysteries though.
The "cat" in the story "A Cat Too Small for His Whiskers" is evidently an extraterrestrial creature, who can be seen by children but not adults. It communicates with noises that sound like quacking and electronic beeps. This is cute and not remotely a mystery story.
The dog in Margaret Maron's story "On Windy Ridge" also seems to be visible only at certain times and to certain people. The woman narrating is unmarried, still bereft by her sweetheart's death in combat years before. Her niece is now engaged, having recently rejected another suitor. Her fiancé and the other man go hunting together - perhaps not the best plan. This is a real mystery story but with a strong fantasy element.
Gahan Wlison, known best as a cartoonist with a macabre bent, has a horror story, "A Gift of the Gods." A boy finds what appears to be some kind of animal pelt which he finds he can put on, giving him fangs and claws. But someone else also wants the pelt.
The remaining stories do not contain science fiction or fantasy aspects. "A Good Story" by Donald E. Westlake is certainly a mystery - but it includes another genre as well. An American living somewhere in sight of the Andes has a job in which "the work he did was easy and the money terrific," helping to sell exotic animals - and, perhaps, other things as well. A job in which it is absolutely necessary always to be discreet.
The animals central to "Neighbors" by Hope Raymond are not mentioned in most of the story, but the story could not take place without them. A woman's neighbor dies and the woman, concerned for her privacy and peace, attempts to buy that property. However, the new neighbor wants to open a tavern there. But there are others in the neighborhood as well.
The animal that is central to "Best Evidence" by Dick Stodghill is a hamster, a much-loved pet. Anyone who mistreated such a pet would, of course, deserve punishment of some sort.
And the animal mentioned in Joan Richter's story "Intruder in the Maize" is thought to be a wild pig eating the crops of a White farmer in East Africa. The farmer is a man who will not tolerate an animal - or anyone else - stealing from him. But the farmer knows less about conditions than he believes he does. This is one of the best stories in this collection.
Another of the best stories is also set in Africa. In "A Visitor to Mombasa" by James Holding a police officer in Kenya gets reports that a leopard is at large in the city of Mombasa. This seems unlikely, but if it is true, this might be turned to that officer's advantage.
Part of the most complex story here also takes place in Africa. Most of "Stork Trek" by Edward Wellen and Josh Pachter is set in Holland. A man devises a scheme to smuggle diamonds from South Africa to Holland by putting them in a tube attached to the leg of a migrating stork. Many people - and other creatures - become involved. I liked this, even though I found it not always easy to follow. And I have no idea how one person winds up in prison.
The first story in the book is certainly one of the best, "Spring Fever" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis. A lonely housewife, married to a traveling salesman who is often away from home, becomes increasingly friendly with a farmer living next door, a widower. The animal in the story is the farmer's horse, whose part in the story is basically just a trot-on.
The dust cover has a picture by Britt Taylor Collins showing a white swan floating in the water. Over the swan there are pink flowers; the swan's reflection in the water is also pink. At the top of the picture are fluffy white clouds, some of which have morphed into skulls.
This is, in my opinion, an undistinguished anthology with many stories being no better than merely acceptable. The ones that I might recommend, in no particular order, are "Spring Fever" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, "A Visitor to Mombasa" by James Holding, "Intruder in the Maize" by Joan Richter, "Neighbors" by Hope Raymond, and (with reservations) "Stork Trek" by Edward Wellen and Josh Pachter.
●Introduction - Sara Paretsky
●Fiction:
•"Spring Fever" - Dorothy Salisbury Davis
•"Dwindle, Peak and Pine" - Joyce Harrington
•"A Cat Too Small for His Whiskers" - Lilian Jackson Braun
•"The White Death" - Justin Scott
•"A Visitor to Mombasa" - James Holding
•"A Good Story" - Donald E. Westlake
•"Best Evidence" - Dick Stodghill
•"Intruder in the Maize" - Joan Richter
•"Plateau" - Clark Howard
•"The Lost Dog" - Isaac Asimov
•"Neighbors" - Hope Raymond
•"On Windy Ridge" - Margaret Maron
•"Stork Trek" - Edward Wellen & Josh Pachter
•"A Gift of the Gods" - Gahan Wilson
•"The Problem of the Hunting Lodge" - Edward D. Hoch
●About the Contributors
This is one of a series of anthologies issued by the Mystery Writers of America . This volume is from 1989. There are fifteen stories; four were evidently new to this anthology, five came from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, four from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and two from Playboy. The original publication dates for the reprinted stories range from 1952 to 1989.
Many of the Mystery Writers of America anthologies are put together around a given theme. In Beastly Tales that theme, not surprisingly, is "stories in which animals play a major role." In most of these collections, some of the stories seem remotely - if at all - related to the theme. In some of the stories here, the non-human creatures are absolutely essential to the tale. In others, especially "Spring Fever" and "The Problem of the Hunting Lodge," there are animals in the story but they are not necessary to the plot. This does not mean these are poor stories, just that they are not entirely appropriate for this particular book.
I was surprised at how many stories in this collection have strong elements of science fiction or fantasy. A couple of stories here are as much horror tales as mysteries.
I will begin my discussion of the individual stories with a couple that I think are not very good. Edward D. Hoch's "The Problem of the Hunting Lodge" is an entry in Hoch's series about Dr. Sam Hawthorne, a physician in a New England town in the 1940s. These are all "impossible crimes," which Hawthorne is able to solve. In this one, a man is murdered with a club while he is alone in a hunting lodge surrounded by snow, with the only footprints outside the building being those of the murdered man. The solution seems to me to be so unlikely that it is just as "impossible" as the murder appears to be.
A dying homeless man wants to be reunited with his dog before he dies in "The Lost Dog" by Isaac Asimov. He knows that the dog was taken to the dog pound but he is too ill to give people more information, not even a description of the dog. He has stated that the dog will answer to its name but lapses into a "semicoma" without mentioning the dog's name. The narrator takes one piece of information, guesses the dog's name, brings comfort to a dying man, and then goes on to do further good deeds. This just seems silly to me.
Clark Howard was one of my favorite authors of mystery short fiction. "Plateau" is one of the few stories by him that I think are less than very good. There are ony two buffalo still living and one of them dies. People bid for the chance to kill the last living buffalo. One man fights to get the buffalo to safety. Howard was too fine a writer for this to be as foolish as it might be, but it is not a good story.
The people named in the title of Joyce Harrington's "Dwindle, Peak and Pine" are Max Dwindle, an aging warlock, Loretta Peak, a teenage witch, and Peter Pine, "ex-advertising clairvoyant." They now work together as private investigators. The animal in this story is a talking elephant, occupied by the consciousness of their client's late husband. The elephant gets most of the best lines.
That elephant is not the only talking animal in the book. In "The White Death" by Justin Scott, animals of different species can chat with each other and they also understand English. Sheep are being killed on a Connecticut farm, evidently by coyotes. The folks running the farm get three large dogs - White Death One, Two, and Three - to guard the sheep. This seems to end the coyotes' attacks on the sheep, but now neighborhood dogs are being killed (but not eaten). The farm cat is the central character in this story. I think talking animals are fine in fables or tales for children - usually not in mysteries though.
The "cat" in the story "A Cat Too Small for His Whiskers" is evidently an extraterrestrial creature, who can be seen by children but not adults. It communicates with noises that sound like quacking and electronic beeps. This is cute and not remotely a mystery story.
The dog in Margaret Maron's story "On Windy Ridge" also seems to be visible only at certain times and to certain people. The woman narrating is unmarried, still bereft by her sweetheart's death in combat years before. Her niece is now engaged, having recently rejected another suitor. Her fiancé and the other man go hunting together - perhaps not the best plan. This is a real mystery story but with a strong fantasy element.
Gahan Wlison, known best as a cartoonist with a macabre bent, has a horror story, "A Gift of the Gods." A boy finds what appears to be some kind of animal pelt which he finds he can put on, giving him fangs and claws. But someone else also wants the pelt.
The remaining stories do not contain science fiction or fantasy aspects. "A Good Story" by Donald E. Westlake is certainly a mystery - but it includes another genre as well. An American living somewhere in sight of the Andes has a job in which "the work he did was easy and the money terrific," helping to sell exotic animals - and, perhaps, other things as well. A job in which it is absolutely necessary always to be discreet.
The animals central to "Neighbors" by Hope Raymond are not mentioned in most of the story, but the story could not take place without them. A woman's neighbor dies and the woman, concerned for her privacy and peace, attempts to buy that property. However, the new neighbor wants to open a tavern there. But there are others in the neighborhood as well.
The animal that is central to "Best Evidence" by Dick Stodghill is a hamster, a much-loved pet. Anyone who mistreated such a pet would, of course, deserve punishment of some sort.
And the animal mentioned in Joan Richter's story "Intruder in the Maize" is thought to be a wild pig eating the crops of a White farmer in East Africa. The farmer is a man who will not tolerate an animal - or anyone else - stealing from him. But the farmer knows less about conditions than he believes he does. This is one of the best stories in this collection.
Another of the best stories is also set in Africa. In "A Visitor to Mombasa" by James Holding a police officer in Kenya gets reports that a leopard is at large in the city of Mombasa. This seems unlikely, but if it is true, this might be turned to that officer's advantage.
Part of the most complex story here also takes place in Africa. Most of "Stork Trek" by Edward Wellen and Josh Pachter is set in Holland. A man devises a scheme to smuggle diamonds from South Africa to Holland by putting them in a tube attached to the leg of a migrating stork. Many people - and other creatures - become involved. I liked this, even though I found it not always easy to follow. And I have no idea how one person winds up in prison.
The first story in the book is certainly one of the best, "Spring Fever" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis. A lonely housewife, married to a traveling salesman who is often away from home, becomes increasingly friendly with a farmer living next door, a widower. The animal in the story is the farmer's horse, whose part in the story is basically just a trot-on.
The dust cover has a picture by Britt Taylor Collins showing a white swan floating in the water. Over the swan there are pink flowers; the swan's reflection in the water is also pink. At the top of the picture are fluffy white clouds, some of which have morphed into skulls.
This is, in my opinion, an undistinguished anthology with many stories being no better than merely acceptable. The ones that I might recommend, in no particular order, are "Spring Fever" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, "A Visitor to Mombasa" by James Holding, "Intruder in the Maize" by Joan Richter, "Neighbors" by Hope Raymond, and (with reservations) "Stork Trek" by Edward Wellen and Josh Pachter.
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April 10, 2016Liked some, didn't like at least one.
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