Power and Mystery

The four stories that we’ve just read by Freeman all seem to revolve around the power and will of the main female character. Every woman has her unique qualities, but they all have power in ways that are unexpected to the audience.

Not strong like her...

But like her!

The Long Arm and The Revolt of the ‘Mother’ were perhaps my favorite of the four, though I think it is easy to point out that in both of these stories it ends shockingly, and very satisfyingly. What made The Long Arm most interesting to me was the following of the mystery. All my life I have LOVED mystery movies and shows, when I was young I’d wake up early on Saturday mornings just to watch Murder She Wrote. In the course of my Murder She Wrote phase I eventually picked up on accurate picks for who actually was the murderer, and do you know who it always is on those shows?? The one seemingly least likely! Occasionally I’d give in to the obvious suspect, but ALWAYS regret it, because in these stories it’s never the character who is obvious to the audience!

Seriously, guys, I freaking love Angela Lansbury!
 This is one of her 'ah ha' moments!

It seems remarkable to me that while I enjoy mystery in movie and show form, I have not taken much to the books, however, once of the few books I loved as a child was a mystery book. Anyway, I had apparently just forgotten this genre until I read The Long Arm, and do you know what?! I forgot my well learned technique of picking who I think the murderer was, because I didn’t guess right!! Honestly I wasn’t sure who it was, but I definitely didn’t think it was the neighbor! The plot is always like an onion we don’t get to peal until the end though. The only indicator that things were fishy was the neighbor asking if the dad had talked to anyway, while she knew that she had, and Maria’s intense reaction—WHICH was inexplicable since we couldn’t see the other layers of the onion!

Clearly I enjoyed it.