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Uncle Abner: A Novel
First published in 1918, this collection of tales of Abner's investigations, told by his nephew and chronicled by the prolific Melville Davisson Post, was hailed as the most important volume of American crime fiction since the work of Edgar Allan Poe.
"It is a world…filled with the mysterious justice of God!"
The titular Uncle Abner is a man with extraordinary powers of observation, a close reader of the Bible, and a towering code of morality, and he does not shy from taking matters into his own hands when the law is too slow or too blind to dispense justice. A landowner in nineteenth-century West Virginia, Abner is a fountainhead of God's wisdom and justice for the territory. Post's stories and novels were highly popular, appearing in national magazines and book form. Though the stories are little read today, there is nothing old-fashioned about the terrible crimes committed in the backwoods or Abner's extraordinary skills as an observer of men and evil.
"It is a world…filled with the mysterious justice of God!"
The titular Uncle Abner is a man with extraordinary powers of observation, a close reader of the Bible, and a towering code of morality, and he does not shy from taking matters into his own hands when the law is too slow or too blind to dispense justice. A landowner in nineteenth-century West Virginia, Abner is a fountainhead of God's wisdom and justice for the territory. Post's stories and novels were highly popular, appearing in national magazines and book form. Though the stories are little read today, there is nothing old-fashioned about the terrible crimes committed in the backwoods or Abner's extraordinary skills as an observer of men and evil.
304 pages, Paperback
Published June 17, 2025
2 people want to read
About the author
Melville Davisson Post
192 books11 followersMelville Davisson Post (April 19, 1869–June 23, 1930) is an American author, born in Harrison County, West Virginia. He earned a law degree from West Virginia University in 1892, and was married in 1903 to Ann Bloomfield Gamble Schofield. Their only child, a son, died at eighteen months old and Mrs. Post died of pneumonia in 1919.
After the death of their son, he left law practice and went on an European tour with his wife. Upon return from Europe, he began writing short stories and became America's highest paid short story writer. He was an avid horseman, and died on June 23, 1930, after a fall from his horse, and was buried in Harrison County. His boyhood home, "Templemoor", is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1982.
Although Post's name is not immediately familiar to many in this era, his stories are available through Gutenberg and many collections of detective fiction include works by Post. There is a case to be made for these stories to be among the finest of detective fiction in America. No less than Ellery Queen and Howard Haycraft both praised Post's writing as among the finest of American detective writing.
Post's best-known character is the mystery-solving, justice dispensing Virginian backwoodsman, Uncle Abner. Post also created two other recurring characters, Sir Henry Marquis and Randolph Mason. He also wrote two non-crime novels. His total output was approximately 230 titles.
After the death of their son, he left law practice and went on an European tour with his wife. Upon return from Europe, he began writing short stories and became America's highest paid short story writer. He was an avid horseman, and died on June 23, 1930, after a fall from his horse, and was buried in Harrison County. His boyhood home, "Templemoor", is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1982.
Although Post's name is not immediately familiar to many in this era, his stories are available through Gutenberg and many collections of detective fiction include works by Post. There is a case to be made for these stories to be among the finest of detective fiction in America. No less than Ellery Queen and Howard Haycraft both praised Post's writing as among the finest of American detective writing.
Post's best-known character is the mystery-solving, justice dispensing Virginian backwoodsman, Uncle Abner. Post also created two other recurring characters, Sir Henry Marquis and Randolph Mason. He also wrote two non-crime novels. His total output was approximately 230 titles.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 11, 2025
These stories were published in the Saturday Evening Post and other popular magazines between 1911 and 1916. They were published in this collection in 1918 and have been re-released in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series.
In 1950 Ellery Queen listed the 106 most important American mystery short stories. He said that these stories were "second only to Poe's tales among all the books of detective stories written by American authors."
The stories are set in the 1840-50s in what is now West Virginia. Uncle Abner is a landowner and amateur detective. He is a righteous force of nature. He is also a very clever detective.
The basic structure of most of the stories is, a good person, often a young girl, has been cheated, often out of land, by a bad person, often a miser or a scamp. Someone is killed. Uncle Abner shows up and tries to convince the bad guy to do good to avoid the vengeance of the Lord. It doesn't work and so then he solves the crime, and the bad guy is punished or kills himself.
The crime solving is pretty clever. Uncle Abner picks up the significance of minor marks on the trail or the gloves worn by the dead man or wax on a coin. These are not 'fair play" type stories. We usually aren't told about the clues he relies on. We just get a dump of information on the last page or two which gives the solution.
Uncle Abner has no use for the law. His sidekick on many of the adventures is Squire Randolph, the Justice of the Peace. He is a pompous guy who always guesses wrong about who the murderer is. Abner doesn't believe that Courts bring justice. At times he lets a murderer go free, because of his higher justice. He asks, "It's the law, but is it justice?"
The stories are narrated by Abner's nephew. In the first few stories he is with his Uncle and tell us what he saw. In the later stories he does not seem to be with his Uncle when the crime is solved and it is not clear how he knows all the details he narrates.
I find Uncle Abner annoying. He never just solves the crime. He first gives a cryptic sermon about the Lord's wrath or the importance of riotousness. Someone asks him who committed the crime, and he answers, "Dix, do you believe in the providence of God?".
These are decent stories. The setting is unusual. There is sameness about them. Many revolve around bad guys stealing or cheating land from nice people. I am not tempted to seek out the other volumes of Uncle Abner stories.
In 1950 Ellery Queen listed the 106 most important American mystery short stories. He said that these stories were "second only to Poe's tales among all the books of detective stories written by American authors."
The stories are set in the 1840-50s in what is now West Virginia. Uncle Abner is a landowner and amateur detective. He is a righteous force of nature. He is also a very clever detective.
The basic structure of most of the stories is, a good person, often a young girl, has been cheated, often out of land, by a bad person, often a miser or a scamp. Someone is killed. Uncle Abner shows up and tries to convince the bad guy to do good to avoid the vengeance of the Lord. It doesn't work and so then he solves the crime, and the bad guy is punished or kills himself.
The crime solving is pretty clever. Uncle Abner picks up the significance of minor marks on the trail or the gloves worn by the dead man or wax on a coin. These are not 'fair play" type stories. We usually aren't told about the clues he relies on. We just get a dump of information on the last page or two which gives the solution.
Uncle Abner has no use for the law. His sidekick on many of the adventures is Squire Randolph, the Justice of the Peace. He is a pompous guy who always guesses wrong about who the murderer is. Abner doesn't believe that Courts bring justice. At times he lets a murderer go free, because of his higher justice. He asks, "It's the law, but is it justice?"
The stories are narrated by Abner's nephew. In the first few stories he is with his Uncle and tell us what he saw. In the later stories he does not seem to be with his Uncle when the crime is solved and it is not clear how he knows all the details he narrates.
I find Uncle Abner annoying. He never just solves the crime. He first gives a cryptic sermon about the Lord's wrath or the importance of riotousness. Someone asks him who committed the crime, and he answers, "Dix, do you believe in the providence of God?".
These are decent stories. The setting is unusual. There is sameness about them. Many revolve around bad guys stealing or cheating land from nice people. I am not tempted to seek out the other volumes of Uncle Abner stories.
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