The Silent Bullet

Rating:
Summary: Long Before C.S.I.
Review: This collection of the earliest Craig Kennedy "mysteries" is both an exciting dip into early 20th Century reverence to science and a fascinating early paean to the type of investigation we, in the 21st Century, take for granted. If you are a fan of any of the C.S.I. television shows, the mere fact that Reeve created Craig Kennedy in 1910 should surprise you. Although not a "classic" detective in even the loosest terms of his period, whereby the detective relies on the powers of intuition, pure thinking, or the routine of casebook practices, Kennedy solves crimes by various chemical tests, blood analyses, and strange new devices that are all considered "wonders." Some of the best stories in this book may also be read as vivid adventures, such as "The Steel Door." If you're looking for the fair play "whodunit" puzzle plots often associated with Golden Age mysteries, you will be disappointed. But the Reeve stories are bar none some of the best imaginative fiction we have from the Gilded Age, and should be ripe for dramatization by the BBC or others. You will be hooked early on, but don't worry. There are other volumes of Kennedy adventures!

Rating:
Summary: Long Before C.S.I.
Review: This collection of the earliest Craig Kennedy "mysteries" is both an exciting dip into early 20th Century reverence to science and a fascinating early paean to the type of investigation we, in the 21st Century, take for granted. If you are a fan of any of the C.S.I. television shows, the mere fact that Reeve created Craig Kennedy in 1910 should surprise you. Although not a "classic" detective in even the loosest terms of his period, whereby the detective relies on the powers of intuition, pure thinking, or the routine of casebook practices, Kennedy solves crimes by various chemical tests, blood analyses, and strange new devices that are all considered "wonders." Some of the best stories in this book may also be read as vivid adventures, such as "The Steel Door." If you're looking for the fair play "whodunit" puzzle plots often associated with Golden Age mysteries, you will be disappointed. But the Reeve stories are bar none some of the best imaginative fiction we have from the Gilded Age, and should be ripe for dramatization by the BBC or others. You will be hooked early on, but don't worry. There are other volumes of Kennedy adventures!