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Title: Daring Detectives
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 150
Words: 62.5K

Synopsis:

From the Inside Cover

A collection of stories, designed for young readers, about brave detectives and tracking down unscrupulous criminals.

Includes the following 8 stories:

Through a Dead Man’s Eye - CORNELL WOOLRICH

The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim - AGATHA CHRISTIE

The Adventure of the Seven Black Cats - ELLERY QUEEN

The Day the Children Vanished - HUGH PENTECOST

The Footprint in the Sky - JOHN DICKSON CARR

The Case of the Irate Witness - ERLE STANLEY GARDNER

Adventure of the Grice-Paterson Curse - AUGUST DERLETH

Green Ice - STUART PALMER

My Thoughts:

I was glad that the little blurb baldly stated “for young readers”, otherwise my expectations would have been very different and as such so would my reactions to this. In many ways this reminded me of the Haunted Houseful that I read 2 years ago. That was also “for young readers” but I hadn't realized it at the time.

If you've read much detective/crime fiction, you'll already have heard of some of these authors or realize how some of them stole their ideas from the greats. For example, Christie's story's idea is lifted almost wholesale from a Sherlock Holmes story. I won't go into details, but as soon as I read “X happened”, I knew the rest of the story immediately.

What this book really made apparent to me is that Hitchcock threw his name everywhere, like a possessed child projectile vomiting. Trying to sort out what is his adult fiction vs his young readers stuff is much like trying to pick out the carrots from said projectile vomit. It's doable, but man, it is messy!

I still enjoyed this, despite comparing it to vomit, hahahahaa. Hitchcock had a talent for picking out stories that he thought would sell and as such they are “good” stories. They are stories that you want to read. None of these books edited by Hitchcock have left me thinking that I should stop. I want to keep on reading them. I can't think of a better recommendation than that.

★★★✬☆ ( )

Old Children's Book. Liked it as a kid, but haven't read it in years. ( )