Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries

Maybe 2½ stars. These short mystery stories are not mysteries in the contemporary sense - they aren't whodunits which the reader has a chance to figure out the culprit. Rather, they are crime stories which show the darker corners of human nature. Post's main character, Uncle Abner, was interesting but not enough for me to want to read more. The style was sort of a cross between Washington Irving and Arthur Conan Doyle, which I found trying at times. The setting was a bit muddled - in some of the stories, it is clearly before 1860 (there are still slaves & the region described is part of Virginia instead of West Virginia) while in others there are indications that it is supposed to be the 1890s ("200 years since the massacre of Glen show more Coe"). show less

Excellent stories, really atmospheric; set in the backwoods of Virginia before the Civil War. According to Wikipedia, Post wrote 22 stories featuring Uncle Abner; this collection has 18; these are so good I think it worth the trouble to seek out the others.

Stories set in rural 19h century Virginia --though when is not clear --Ellery Queen describes it as being the" Jeffersonian Era" and Doomdorf in the famous and often-reprinted first story is said to have served with Iturbide in Mexico (c.1822) and does not appear to be more than middle-aged. But the next story contains obvious references to Reconstruction. Abner himself is a powerful character with a strong flavor of an oLd Testament prophet dispensing his own form of divine justice, backed by shrewd deductive powers --but I do not understand in "Angel of the Lord" why he gives a murderer a hundred dollars to flee the country with. The narrator is Abner's young nephew Marton, 9 years old at the time of that third story, though a very show more mature 9. show less