Fingerprints: A Collection of Mystery Stories

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Seventeen of the Crime Writers of Canada contributed to produce this collection of short mystery and suspense fiction, with rather uneven results. A few of the short pieces are excellent, some are less than terrific; but which are which will, as always, depend finally upon the reader’s taste. Among the star turns, Howard Engel’s “My Vacation in the Numbers Racket,” which at last gives detective Benny Cooperman’s mother centre stage, where she clearly belongs, will certainly delight his throng of fans. And Eric Wright’s “The Cure,” the wry and entertaining story of a local blowhard getting his comeuppance, scratches a universal itch.

All the stories are readable, though one or two are somewhat long-drawn-out. Together they provide welcome proof that the relatively new Canadian school of crime/detective fiction is thriving nicely.