Rufus King
Five stories and a novelette featuring Dr.Colin Starr of Laurel Falls, Ohio. King only used the character in short stories. Starr solves cases by putting together the smallest of clues. The character isn’t fleshed out so you don’t get any idea what Starr is all about. He just a forty something small town Doctor who knows everybody and who works with the local D.A. The five short stories in this collection aren’t anything special. They’re all little mysteries that Starr solves out of left field. If you’ve never read King, don’t start with this. He has an excellent series featuring police Lieutenent Valcour.
The novelette in this group isn’t all that bad. A little far fetched but still an entertaining read.: “The Case Of The Lonely Ladies” – Lily Elser’s husband dies and she’s short of cash. She decides to make her home a stopover for tourists. Her daughter Nan won a contest for fashion design and is in Detroit so she has room.
The first night the sign goes up a man stops in out of a snowstorm. Then her daughter returns. She and the man seem to know each other but don’t say anything. He’s a disagreeable character. Lily discovers his body. He’s been shot. She thinks her daughter did it and drags the body down the hall to the bathroom and tries to make it look like suicide.
Another guest finds the body. He’s in a state of shock. When the D.A. and Dr.Starr show up he’s taken to the hospital. Turns out he’s a morphine addict. As things move along it’s slowly revealed that the two guests knew each other and Nan is in the middle of it all.
