Marie R. Reno

I picked up this book at a library sale a few months ago. It's a nice hefty volume, with two novels and a number of short stories by well-known mystery writers. "Modern" is a bit relative -- the book is copyright 1973.

As for the stories themselves, some I liked better than others, but they were all competent and readable, which goes a long way with me these days. The two novels were Agatha Christie's Endless Night, which I didn't like as well as some of her stuff -- I don't like that particular kind of twist ending -- and Ross McDonald's The Goodbye Look, which I liked a lot, despite the hard time I have keeping complicated plots and relationships straight these days.

The stories included Daphne du Maurier's "Don't Look Now," which is the only one I vaguely remembered having read before. I have a volume of du Maurier's work which includes "Don't Look Now," and it remains as creepy and bizarre as ever. I think I once saw the movie based on it, but only remember a few images, and the feeling that I found it ultimately too absurd to be satisfying, despite the way the puzzle came perfectly together at the end.

All in all, it was a good book, well worth the dollar or whatever it was I paid for it.… (mer)