The early Homer Evans mysteries were light-hearted frolics with crazy antics and cartoonish characters. One reviewer noted that The Mysterious Mickey Finn "has the delirious irresponsibility of a Wodehouse plot" (Charles Poore, New York Times), and another stated, "I astonished and delighted myself by reading it. . . . [it] is like no mystery story I know. It may not please the orthodox mystery fans; it is, in its way a satire on orthodox mysteries. . . . I have seldom read a book which gave me so intensely the impression ...
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The early Homer Evans mysteries were light-hearted frolics with crazy antics and cartoonish characters. One reviewer noted that The Mysterious Mickey Finn "has the delirious irresponsibility of a Wodehouse plot" (Charles Poore, New York Times), and another stated, "I astonished and delighted myself by reading it. . . . [it] is like no mystery story I know. It may not please the orthodox mystery fans; it is, in its way a satire on orthodox mysteries. . . . I have seldom read a book which gave me so intensely the impression that the author had a grand good time writing it. The hilarity is infectious" (Lewis Gannett, New York Herald Tribune). After World War Two, author Elliot Paul continued writing the series, but there is a distinct change of tone. The humor (and satire) is still there, but the cartoonish frivolity has been replaced with a more serious attempt at creating a mystery for readers to enjoy. Readers of the earlier novels will welcome the return of many characters from earlier books, of course. This volume includes the novella, I'll Hate Myself in the Morning, along with the full-length mystery, Murder on the Left Bank. I'll Hate Myself in the Morning is a transitional piece, bridging the pre- and post-War writings. The amateur and reluctant detective, Homer Evans, is more pensive than usual, but finds himself investigating the murder of an innocuous little man who only wanted a friend. The fiendish murder takes place on a train traveling through the West, but sorting out the suspects becomes more difficult when they don't all stay put. Murder on the Left Bank finds Homer back in post-War Paris, where he helps an American family investigate the death of a soldier friend of their son, who died in the War, along with the mysterious circumstances of a strange oral declaration before the son died. Author Elliot Paul recognized the problematic nature of the "super-detective" he created in Homer Evans, but brilliantly sends up his own character by giving us a second detective, the Boston-Irish Finke Maguire, for whom nothing is easy, but proving an able partner for the cerebral and sophisticated Evans. Syndicated reviewer Dorothy Hughes noted of Murder on the Left Bank: "frolic and crime among Americans in Paris with Paul again proving that the intellectual and the zany can mate as happily today as in Sterne's time." (J.P.H. of This & That was less impressed: "If there are screwier whodunits than Elliot Paul periodically turns out, our eyes never have encountered them. And he keeps turning them out. The latest, Murder on the Left Bank, is just as nerve-wracking as its predecessors.") But, those who enjoyed the early Homer Evans mysteries should find the later mysteries just as fun and more detailed in their puzzle creation.
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