The Crying Sisters: A Mystery

by Mabel Seeley

When Mabel Seeley died at the age of eighty-eight in New Jersey in 1991, the St. Paul Pioneer Press described the former St. Paulite as a "well-known mystery writer in the '30s and '40s." That she was Mabel Seeley's novels were published by Doubleday and distriubted nationally by the prestigious Crime Club. Her last mystery, THE WHISTLING SHADOW (set in Minneapolis) was published in 1954 to high praise from the New York Herold Tribune Book Review: "In this new tale she is as adroit as ever in evoking and expressing terror, fed fat on intuitions." Cover painting for these new Afton Press reprint editions THE BECKONING DOOR, THE CHUCKLING FINGERS, THE WHISTLING SHADOW, and THE CRYING SISTERS] by Paul S. Kramer.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

317 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

Mabel Seeley was born Mabel Hodnefield in Herman, Minnesota. Her family moved to St. Paul in 1920, and she attended Mechanic Arts High School. Her first book, The Listening House, was published in 1938. In 1941, she won the Mystery of the Year Award for her book The Chuckling Fingers. Over the course of her career, she wrote seven mysteries, all between 1938 and 1954, and all of them period pieces set in the Midwest.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Janet Ruell is a small town librarian who is taking her first vacation without her mother. She's escaping her humdrum, rural life where the most "exciting" thing to happen to her is a proposal from the dull, older banker (the only eligible bachelor in town). She's determined to accept the attentions of the first man she meets and to take on any adventures that come her way during her month's stay in northern Minnesota. She gets her chance at both when she makes an unexpected stop at a small tourist camp along the way.

There she meets Steve Corbett and his young son "Cottie." She is immediately charmed by the little boy--though not quite so much by his father. Steve is a man of little words, short-spoken, and often mysterious. But he offers her an adventure of sorts--come with him to Crying Sisters lodge and look after his son. When she agrees (unaccountably after the rudest offer ever made), she finds herself stepping into a life of deception--pretending to be Steve's wife and the mother of Cottie. As soon as they are installed in their cabin, Steve hands her a gun--to protect herself and the boy--and starts making late-night excursions around the camp. He won't explain anything and tells her to just keep her mind on the boy and her nose out of his business. Before her adventure is over, she hears screams in the night, stumbles over a dead man who disappears and then reappears in the most unlikely places, is locked up with Steve as possible murderers, becomes briefly associated with gangsters, witnesses an explosion at the gambling den across the lake, and shoots a crazed killer. She certainly gets her wish for excitement in spades....

I seem to be in the minority on Goodreads (not rating this a three or higher)...but I honestly could not get over the opening and the heroine's whole reason for getting mixed up in this murder mystery. Here we have a supposedly level-headed librarian who just ups and goes off with a surly man she just met and winds up pretending to be his wife and mother to his small son. She's sure he's up to something, but she is so starved for adventure in her life that she's going along with it. Really?! And then, of course, once the nasty things start happening, she's gotten so attached to Cottie that she can't possibly leave. Again, really?!

The mystery plot itself is fairly solid. I did think throwing in the obvious red-herring gangsters was a bit much, but other than that, it was a nice, tidy mystery with a decent amount of clues sprinkled around. The reader might not figure out the whole story, but there is enough to point in the right direction if you know what you're looking at. I enjoyed that part of the book the most and have given all the star-rating based on plot alone. If our protagonists had been more engaging and the behavior of Janet had been more believable, then the rating would be higher. As it is...★★

I also find the sudden romantic ending to be totally unbelievable. Here's a man who has gone to all this trouble to search for his wife and has constantly been more than rude to the woman currently caring for his son and out of the blue he just proposes to her? Sure--maybe he's trying to keep his distance from her to keep her and Cottie safe. But there is absolutely no undercurrent of feelings between these two people. If you want a romantic ending, then please lay a little groundwork for it. Even if it's just a few hints of romantic tension here and there. But don't just give us nothing....

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.

[Sylvia Sarno · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome and unfortunately not well known. After I read Crying Sisters I went ahead and read everything else Seeley wrote, I like CS that much.

[Eileen Lynx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good but very creepy story.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because I saw it listed as a "classic" mystery. On the whole, I think it deserves it. I had my doubts because early on, and intermittently thereafter, it is was very heavy on the "Had I but known" sort of very obvious foreshadowing by the first-person narrator. But I found that tended to drop away when the story really took off. The narrator is a small-town librarian who takes a job caring for
a mysterious man's charming son (and pretending to be the man's wife -- emphatically not sexually) while they stay at an isolated small resort near Duluth known as the Crying Sisters (from a legend about the lakes on which the resort is set). The man spends his time prowling around at night,
another man is murdered, the murder is blamed on a passing
bank robber who is himself killed, a woman vanishes, and finally there is a climactic confrontation with a genuinely unlikely villain. Once everything is unravelled, it does make sense. Much of the suspense is supposed to derive from
the question of whether the narrator's enigmatic employer is himself a villain. That particular aspect did not work for me, but much of the rest I thought competently done.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. I picked this up at my mom's house; it had been my granmother's book. I expected it to be outdated since it was 1939 but it was good from start to finish! Ony disappointment is that I cant buy any of her books on Kindle.

[Gaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and exciting.

[SaraJane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice period piece.

[Chazzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an atmospheric suspense book. There was a lot of tension between the various characters. Each may not have been who they were portraying themselves to be. It was the case of two of the main characters.

Janet Ruell was going on vacation with hopes of having an adventure. Living the dull life of a librarian in a small town in Minnesota, she craved experiencing excitement. When she met up with Steve Corbett and his little boy Cottie Corbett she got more than what she was hoping for. Corbett asked her to come with them to a small lakeside resort and take care of his son. The unusual thing is that she was to act as if she was Corbett's wife and Cottie's mother. She felt that this was her chance for adventure and agreed.

Cottie is a charming little boy and Janet found herself becoming attached to him. Corbett, on the other hand, was a mystery. He went out late at night, locking Janet and Cottie in the cabin they were staying in. What he did and where he went he didn't tell her about. She was a little frightened of him, but there was a little attraction too.

The other visitors staying at the resort were quite an assortment.Edna Rudeen, the Willards, Al Sprung, Hoxie Mueller and the others. All seemed to have something to hide. When Al Sprung is found dead next to the Corbett's cottage the cans of worms start to open up.

Sheriff Boxruud may seem like a back country cop, but there is much more to him and he sees much more than people think.

I took my time reading this. It did not hit me as a fast read, but rather something to work through. To take in the tension and mystery that the author took the trouble to portray. The story kept building to a crescendo with a bang of an ending. It is not my usual, but I do like reading something different periodically. It keeps me from getting into a rut...reading/subject wise.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quintessential "had-I-but-known," with a heroine who withholds evidence from the authorities at the insistence of a brutish man who appears to be a dangerous criminal. Her reasoning (this is told in the first person) is flawed, and the whole story lacks conviction.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in high school and loved it. Many years later I tried to locate it to re-read by searching for the title (which I had wrong) and the description. Somehow, I ran onto it-45 years after last reading it. It is still a great book, full of mystery and suspense.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!
This is a suspenseful mystery, set in a small lakeside resort in Minnesota.
This book was published in 1939.
I loved the characters, the story, the way the story unfolds, and the setting.

[Heather Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have to appreciate this book for the time it was written. It’s a solid mystery, with an ending I never suspected. I also learned what milk toast was. Also appreciated the World War II references casually thrown in.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't believe I haven't read Mabel Seeley! Checking out the rest of the books now!
Really enjoyed this mystery set in Minnesota.

[Gail Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oldie, but goodie.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the main characters, particularly Steve Corbett, who is an embodiment of independence, individualism, and strength of character.
The story was going to live or die by the ending, and it was a bit of a wet noodle--not in the events themselves, but in the telling, which was uncharacteristically expository.

I'll remember the characters and the atmosphere of this story for a long time, but the climax did manage to diminish the experience.

[Darla McCall · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandmother gave me this book that use to be her mothers when I was just a young teen. This book was the beginning of the love for mysteries and reading. I loved this book and cherish it, it was my very first mystery I every read. Thank you grandma for giving me the love of reading and for sending me on many adventures ... specially with an author like MS (Mabel Seeley).

[Mare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a classic early cosy mystery I loved it. The atmosphere at the vacation resort and the local story of the Crying Sisters was great. Very enjoyable "comfort" read.