A Moment On the Edge : 100 Years of Crime Stories By Women

A Moment on the Edge 100 YEARS OF CRIME STORIES BY WOMEN Edited by Elizabeth George

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: ELIZABETH GEORGE

v

A Jury of Her Peers SUSAN GLASPELL

1

The Man Who Knew How DOROTHY L. SAYERS

27

I Can Find My Way Out NGAIO MARSH

45

The Summer People SHIRLEY JACKSON

75

St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG

93

The Purple Is Everything DOROTHY SALISBURY DAVIS

119

Money to Burn MARGERY ALLINGHAM

133

A Nice Place to Stay NEDRA TYRE

147

Clever and Quick CHRISTIANNA BRAND

161

Country Lovers NADINE GORDIMER

177

The Irony of Hate RUTH RENDELL

189

Sweet Baby Jenny JOYCE HARRINGTON

207

Wild Mustard MARCIA MULLER

229

Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave ANTONIA FRASER

241

The Case of the Pietro Andromache SARA PARETSKY

279

Afraid All the Time NANCY PICKARD

309

The Young Shall See Visions, and the Old Dream Dreams

KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH

327

A Predatory Woman SHARYN McCRUMB

349

Jack Be Quick BARBARA PAUL

363

Ghost Station CAROLYN WHEAT

399

New Moon and Rattlesnakes WENDY HORNSBY

417

Death of a Snowbird J. A. JANCE

437

The River Mouth LIA MATERA

459

A Scandal in Winter GILLIAN LINSCOTT

475

Murder-Two JOYCE CAROL OATES

505

English Autumn — American Fall MINETTE WALTERS

533

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE EDITOR

OTHER BOOKS BY ELIZABETH GEORGE

PRAISE

CREDITS

COVER

COPYRIGHT

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

INTRODUCTION by Elizabeth George

Whether the story is a murder mystery, a tale of suspense, a psychological study of the characters affected by a devastating event, the retelling of a famous criminal act, a courtroom drama, an expose, a police procedural, or a truthful account of an actual offense, the question remains the same. Why crime? Whether the characters involved are FBI agents, policemen and women, forensic scientists, journalists, military personnel, the man or woman on the street, private detectives, or the little old lady who lives next door, the question remains the same. Why crime? Be it murder (singular, serial, or mass), mayhem, robbery, assault, kidnapping, burglary, extortion, or blackmail, we still want to know: why crime? Why exists this fascination with crime and why, above all, exists this fascination with crime on the part of female writers?

I think there are several answers to these questions.

Crime writing is practically as old as writing itself and is consequently very much part of our literary tradition. The earliest crime stories come to us from the Bible: in a jealous rage, Cain kills Abel; in a jealous conspiracy, Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt and fake his death for their devastated father; in lustful jealousy, David sends Bathsheba’s husband to the front lines in battle so that he might have the winsome woman for himself; in unrequited lust, two respected elders bear false witness against the virtuous Susanna, condemning her to death for adultery unless someone can come forward and disprove their story; fathers lie with their daughters in criminal acts of incest; brothers kill, fight with, lie about, and otherwise abuse their brothers; women demand the heads of men on platters; Judith decapitates Holofernes; Judas betrays Jesus of Nazareth; King Herod slays the newborn male children of the Hebrews…It’s a nasty place in the Old and New Testament, and we feed off this place from our earliest years.

Crime is mankind on the edge, in extremis, but more than that, crime is mankind stepping outside of the norm. For every Cain, there are a billion brothers who have co-existed throughout the centuries. For every David, there are ten million men who’ve turned away from a woman they want when they learn