#and even her rare helpless heroines usually have something interesting going on in the background that saves the story | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

e-louise-bates · 7 months ago

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"... And once I stole something." "What did you steal?" Susan did not look very guilty. "It was a puppy belonging to the woman next door--when I lived with Camilla. The people used to go away for days and leave it without anything to eat. And at last I couldn't bear it, so I burgled their back yard at midnight. I was about twelve. And first Camilla scolded me like mad, and then she became an enthusiastic accessory after the fact, and we went out hand in hand with the puppy in a basket, and walked about four miles in the middle of the night, and knocked up some friends of hers who were all fast asleep and made them accessories too. They were just moving into the country, so they were frightfully pleased, because they were meaning to get a dog, but they couldn't really afford to buy one." "After that," said Anthony, "of course the whole thing's off. My heart is broken--" he clutched it-- "but I can never, never, never marry a puppy-snatcher."

Patricia Wentworth, The Coldstone

#patricia wentworth #the coldstone #wentworth is such a delight #because some of her books are so good you wonder why she never had the popularity of the other female detective story authors of her day #and some are such stinkers you wonder how she managed to keep getting published at all #and some are thoroughly mediocre but have this sort of gem buried in them #she does characters so well #even if they all tend to be stock characters at first glance #they all have something to them that makes them real and fun and charming #and even her rare helpless heroines usually have something interesting going on in the background that saves the story #not always--in the balance had no redeeming features that I could find #but often--the ivory dagger being a good case in point

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