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PICK YOUR VICTIM
222 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
58 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 21, 2022
This mystery had me going until the end. I'm not sure I was completely satisfied with the conclusion, but I rarely am with mysteries. The build up and intrigue is usually more interesting.
As in other mysteries written by McGerr, we learn of the murder up front, but not who was murdered. Then we spend the rest of the story getting to know all the players involved. In this case the murderer is known up front, even though the victim is not. The reader studies each person in the story wondering who will end up being the victim.
Summary: It is WWII. Our story starts in the Aleutian Islands. Pete Robbins and the rest of his platoon are in their barracks reading and rereading every book and magazine they can get their hands on to alleviate their boredom and to touch a piece of the U.S. which is so far away to them.
A package comes in from one of the Marine's mothers. She has packed the box with old newspapers. the men eagerly pull out the scraps and read what they can about sports, the latest news, the latest murder...
Except this murder occurred in Pete Robbins work place back home. His boss Stetson is arrested for murdering one of his employees. Unfortunately, he doesn't know which, because only half of the page was stuffed into the box.
Pete figures he'll write a coworker from his old office and get the missing information from her. In the meantime, his fellow marines decided to place bets on who the victim is. They sit Pete down and tell him to describe the four years he worked in this office and provide details of all of his coworkers.
The bulk of the book is from Robbin's viewpoint and he lays out each member of his office. The edition I own even has a cast of characters on the fly leaf and a map of the office on the back cover.
There's so much drama between the office co workers that it was easy to forget I was reading a murder mystery.
Like the other McGerr book I reviewed, this one was written in 1946 and the roles men and women played back then will seem dated to the modern reader, but I kind of liked it. The women in this book were as tough as the men and as intelligent, yet acted feminine. It was nice.
My fellow classic crime story lovers will probably enjoy this book.
As in other mysteries written by McGerr, we learn of the murder up front, but not who was murdered. Then we spend the rest of the story getting to know all the players involved. In this case the murderer is known up front, even though the victim is not. The reader studies each person in the story wondering who will end up being the victim.
Summary: It is WWII. Our story starts in the Aleutian Islands. Pete Robbins and the rest of his platoon are in their barracks reading and rereading every book and magazine they can get their hands on to alleviate their boredom and to touch a piece of the U.S. which is so far away to them.
A package comes in from one of the Marine's mothers. She has packed the box with old newspapers. the men eagerly pull out the scraps and read what they can about sports, the latest news, the latest murder...
Except this murder occurred in Pete Robbins work place back home. His boss Stetson is arrested for murdering one of his employees. Unfortunately, he doesn't know which, because only half of the page was stuffed into the box.
Pete figures he'll write a coworker from his old office and get the missing information from her. In the meantime, his fellow marines decided to place bets on who the victim is. They sit Pete down and tell him to describe the four years he worked in this office and provide details of all of his coworkers.
The bulk of the book is from Robbin's viewpoint and he lays out each member of his office. The edition I own even has a cast of characters on the fly leaf and a map of the office on the back cover.
There's so much drama between the office co workers that it was easy to forget I was reading a murder mystery.
Like the other McGerr book I reviewed, this one was written in 1946 and the roles men and women played back then will seem dated to the modern reader, but I kind of liked it. The women in this book were as tough as the men and as intelligent, yet acted feminine. It was nice.
My fellow classic crime story lovers will probably enjoy this book.
October 16, 2019
Life at SUDS is made up of maliciously eager publicists, ambitious temperate West Coast speakers, catfights and innuendos, a head with anger management issues and a parasitic friend. No wonder everything ends up in a murder. . .The enjoyment lies in the complexities of the operation of SUDS and its ambitious highly colorful cast.
January 10, 2010
This is one of the 50 classics of Crime Fiction. You have guys on a deserted military base and the only news they get is from newspaper clippings used to wrap care packages. Some sees that a former coworker died, but the paper was missing the who. He recalls what he knows about his coworkers and the other guys on the base bet on who the victim is. Pretty novel idea!
April 30, 2019
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
June 8, 2022
An easy read with the twist being you know who the murderer is, but not who he killed. Most of the book is a long recital about the narrator's time at SUDS (Society to Uplift Domestic Service) and gives the Marines enough information to form their own conclusions. The solution is held back until the last page, which leaves you with a satisfying feeling (many of the Marines give their reason for choosing "their" victim, so you do have an explanation of the crime jumbled in with other theories.)
Written by a woman, it appears she had her tongue in her cheek as she wrote borderline misogynistic comments about the role of women in the workplace (hinting it should be the home, which is the focus of the organization in question.)
I read this because it was listed as one of the 50 Classics of Crime Fiction (1900 - 1950), but I think there are many other choices, and I think some of the rest of the 50 are lacking as well.
Written by a woman, it appears she had her tongue in her cheek as she wrote borderline misogynistic comments about the role of women in the workplace (hinting it should be the home, which is the focus of the organization in question.)
I read this because it was listed as one of the 50 Classics of Crime Fiction (1900 - 1950), but I think there are many other choices, and I think some of the rest of the 50 are lacking as well.
February 11, 2023
读的是中文版，在 goodreads 没有，就用英文版来标记一下。
最后的推理在古典侦探小说里算很出彩的了，考虑到写法创新，以及内容当中的一些女性主义暗示，可以给四颗星。翻译略有些不可避免的问题，但整体还算流畅。
最后的推理在古典侦探小说里算很出彩的了，考虑到写法创新，以及内容当中的一些女性主义暗示，可以给四颗星。翻译略有些不可避免的问题，但整体还算流畅。
October 30, 2011
Military men living on an island base, starved for news (and new things to bet on), try to piece together a murder mystery from a partial newspaper article. They have the name of the murderer, can they solve the case working backwards?
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March 30, 2019Synopsis: men on a deserted military base have a newspaper wrapping to read. It describes a murder. But only partially. Who was the murderer?
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews