The Whistling Shadow: A Mystery

by Mabel Seeley

Mystery Writer Mabel Seeley (1903-1991) was enormously popular from the late 1930s through the 1950s. Her mystery novels were published by Doubleday in New York and distributed nationally by The Crime Club. In The Whistling Shadow, heroine Gail Kiskadden finds herself at the center of a vortex of violence and impending disaster in her own Lake of the Isles neighborhood in Minneapolis.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

205 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1954

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

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book may have been well-intentioned, but it was a boring mess. The librarian had all the judgment of a hamster. The book might have been a nice short story, but dragging the reader across the country on an aimless journey was pointless. The young boy develops his own opinion about the rules and reasoning of adults. Requiring the boy to lie to protect her seems to cancel out the goal of protecting him from misguided adults. Horrible book. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this book in a quaint little bookstore in Grand Marais a year and a half ago, and have finally gotten around to reading it. The author, Mabel Seeley, published this book in 1954 and one of the things that drew me to this book was the setting. It takes place primarily in the Minneapolis area during the 1950's, which I enjoyed since I am familiar with many of the places and locations mentioned.
This is definitely a suspenseful mystery, with a fairly unexpected ending (although, I must admit that I was quite suspicious of the character implicated in the crimes prior to the revelation at the very end.).
It was, all in all, an enjoyable read. Mabel Seeley has also penned some other lesser known mysteries which I may have to try sometime.

[dmayr · Rating 2 out of 5]

After her son died in a car accident, Gail Kiskadden discovers that her son had a secret marriage and that the girl was pregnant. So then she takes the girl under her wing but did not expect the baggage that comes with her: the girl's aloofness, a creepy man who gets killed later, a stalking murderous ex-boyfriend who whistles in the neighborhood and leaves dolls on doorways. The plot was fairly predictable, the villain very much obvious, and what I found really ridiculous was the amount of manpower the police spent on protecting Gail and hunting for a phantom, all because somebody whistles in the dark and leaves dummies.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I expected something a little more conventional from a book published in 1954, this book was definitely a suspense thriller. I never guessed that the story would end with a psychopathic killer chasing the protagonist around a church! Needless to say, I probably won't read this book a second time.

[Denise Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but think my rating might be high because of reading several stinkers before this and also because of enjoying the sense of going back in time to 1954 and seeing how things were written and how things were said. I also heard someone whistling while I was out in public reading which added to the suspense! ha

[Cws]

M See

[Sylvia Sarno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeley knows how to write and keep the reader engaged.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woman loses son but finds pregnant daughtet-in-law. And we learn not all women have a maternal instinct. But don't really nasty characters make for a good read.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never read anything quite like it before. Kept me on edge the whole time.