The Poisoned Pen

This is a collection of twelve short Craig Kennedy stories. It involves just the elements one expects from Arthur B. Reeve: numerous murders, discussion of technolies to apprehend criminals, and some interesting settings. On the whole, it is up to Arthur B. Reeves standards, althouth the quality of the individual stories varies widely. The two weakest are the title story, where in fact the mystery is solved by luck and is, in any case, rather arbitrary, and The White Slave, also solved entirely by Kennedy's luck, which also allows to escape criminal charges for assault. On the other had,The Sand Hogs, The Firebug, and The Smuggler are above average. The book should the reader an hour or so of enjoyment.
This early works is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.