"The Message of the Mute Dog"

"Formidable"!

There's a good, old-fashioned word to describe a character who is of awesome size and strength, one who can induce fear in the heart of an adversary. I tend to think of, say, Superman, or Batman, both formidable opponents.

Or, perhaps, Jane Amanda Edwards.

You don't know Jane Amanda Edwards? Time to rectify that oversight. She's a "spinster," as older, unmarried women were generally called in Jane's time, but she tips the scales at around 180 - "full-fashioned," she might say - and she is a most aggressive pursuer of villains. She's the heroine of "The Message of the Mute Dog," by Charlotte Murray Russell, our book reviewed on this week's "Classic Mysteries" podcast, and you can listen to the full review here. Jane was the precursor of many of today's cozy mystery heroines. She tends to ride roughshod over her occasional friend, Rockford, Illinois, Police Captain George Hammond. She has been known to walk off with - and hide - evidence from Captain Hammond and the police, mostly because she doesn't think they'll know what to do with it. And, as she has a pretty good reputation as a crime solver (and always makes sure that Captain Hammond gets all the credit), she gets away with things that might earn you or me a long prison sentence.

In "The Affair of the Mute Dog," published in 1942, Jane gets mixed up with a murder that may (or may not) be tied in with the operation of some suspected Nazi spies at the local defense plant. Jane's younger brother, Arthur, and their sister, Annie, get on Captain Hammond's list of suspects, but Jane isn't having any of that, thank you very much, and plows her way through to the true solution, with help from a small China figurine of a dog. It's all good fun, a very light-hearted mystery indeed. Today's cozies are the spiritual descendents of the traditional Golden-Age mysteries, and Charlotte Murray Russell certainly was among the first to take the traditional mystery along the cozy path. You'll enjoy meeting Jane, who says of herself, "She sees all, hears some, and tells everything."

Comments

[Yvette]

Another I'm adding to my list.