Rob Atkinson > Recent Status Updates

The third collection of stories 'A Thief In The Night' is classic Raffles, closer to 'The Amateur Cracksman' than to its darker sequel 'The Black Mask', in its roguishly blithe tone. Great fun overall. Now on to 'Mr Justice Raffles'. By all accounts it was a flop with critics and the public, but having loved all the stories I can't imagine it's quite THAT bad. We shall see!

One story in and I sense I've discovered a new, and a great, favorite.

Thank you Antipodes Press! Finally a decent, nicely designed, well produced, and cleanly edited edition!

Already having issues with this National Book Award winner. First is the worldly wise and erudite narration, credited to a manumitted Illinois slave turned thief in 1830 New Orleans. Even with a liberal and well read cleric for a master, and the education credited to him, narrator Rutherford's worldly tone and depth of knowledge is hard to credit."

An obvious anachronism: the date of the narrative is 1830, and in discussing a woman's travel to New Orleans from the Northeast he says "She came south by coach, avoiding the new-fangled trains after reading an expert say that traveling at over 20 miles an hour would suffocate all aboard when the speed sucked all the air from the cars." Amusing, but there were no steam railroads operating that early in the US.