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A review by hannahstohelit
The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
3.75
It was cute, and clearly written as a one-off (based on the final page, and having read a much later book, I'm VERY curious to know how Palmer wrote himself out of the ending in the second book!). The murderer is SO utterly suspicious that the fact that it took Miss Withers as long as it did for her to suspect him honestly didn't do her a lot of favors, and the writing style felt a bit "I need to get this to my editor by next Wednesday," but it was still a good time. That said, as the first book in the series, the development of Withers and Piper individually as well as that of their relationship was definitely still nascent and it showed.
I will say, I learned something kind of alarming about New York State law while investigating what seemed to be an enormous plot hole-Miss Withers determines that Costello, the lawyer for Gwen Lester, is actually the killer because he knows that the victim was struck on the right ear, not the left ear as had been leaked to the press. My first thought was "he's her lawyer, doesn't he get this information in discovery?" only to find out that it wasn't until 2020 that "blindfold laws" related to discovery which could keep defense lawyers from getting information about evidence against their clients until trial were overturned. So that puts a lot in perspective in general, though a) I still do wonder whether they REALLY could have kept the medical report on the victim from the defendant's counsel and b) why he wouldn't have been given it it by the trial, which is when Miss Withers solves the case. Maybe he didn't need to get it til right before use? Maybe the law was totally different back in 1929 in general? Who knows, and I only have so much energy to figure it out .
Apparently it was made into a movie soon after, and I now kind of want to watch it because I do feel like it's the kind of book that actually might have been better as a movie because you get the story not through the framing of the narration.
I will say, I learned something kind of alarming about New York State law while investigating what seemed to be an enormous plot hole-
Apparently it was made into a movie soon after, and I now kind of want to watch it because I do feel like it's the kind of book that actually might have been better as a movie because you get the story not through the framing of the narration.