Uncle Abner

The adventures of a true American original—a detective who puts equal faith in his Bible and his brains In the backwoods of West Virginia, years before the Civil War, a man arrives with gold in his purse and evil on his mind. His land too barren for farming, Doomdorf builds a still and grows rich selling high-proof moonshine to anyone with a bit of change in his pocket. As drunkenness and debauchery run rampant across the countryside, the locals turn against him. They are preparing to exact frontier justice when the bootlegger is found dead, shot through the heart in a room locked from the inside. At the scene is Uncle Abner, a folksy sleuth who uses a keen eye and steadfast beliefs to solve the mysteries of Appalachia. In this landmark story collection, Abner contends with hunchbacks and drunkards, killers and thieves. In a time and a place beyond the rule of law, justice belongs to the Lord—and Uncle Abner is His instrument. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Acclaimed collection chronicles crime-solving exploits of a powerful mind and moral figure in 19th- century Appalachia. In 18 intriguing tales, Uncle Abner employs deductive skills and his faith-based sense of justice to expose evil-doing.

Melville Davisson Post's famed historical detective, Uncle Abner, solved perplexing crimes of passion and greed with courage and the understanding that justice must be served. All 22 of the original Uncle Abner stories are included here.

Uncle Abner, the mystery solving West Virginian backwoodsman, is the best-known literary creation of Melville Davisson Post. Uncle Abner solved the mysteries that confronted him in a backwoods West Virginia community, immediately prior to the American Civil War and before the infant nation had any proper police system. He had two great attributes for his self-imposed task: a profound knowledge of and love for the Bible, and a keen observation of human actions. One example of Uncle Abner's keen deductive skills is his showing a deaf man had not written a document, because a word in it was phonetically misspelt. The first one of these tales, "The Angel of the Lord", is perhaps the very first work in the historical mystery genre. Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) was an American author, born in West Virginia. Although his name is not immediately familiar to those outside of specialist circles many collections of detective fiction include works by him. Post's best-known character is the mystery solving, justice dispensing West Virginian backwoodsman, Uncle Abner. Table of Contents: The Doomdorf Mystery The Wrong Hand The Angel of the Lord An Act of God The Treasure Hunter The House of the Dead Man A Twilight Adventure The Age of Miracles The Tenth Commandment The Devil's Tools The Hidden Law The Riddle The Straw Man The Mystery of Chance The Concealed Path The Edge of the Shadow The Adopted Daughter Naboth's Vineyard

This carefully edited collection of murder mysteries has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) was an American author, born in West Virginia. Post's best-known character is the mystery solving, justice dispensing West Virginian backwoodsman, Uncle Abner. Post also wrote number of stories about Randolph Mason, a brusque New York lawyer who is highly skilled at turning legal loopholes and technicalities to his clients' advantage. Post's other recurring characters include Sir Henry Marquis of Scotland Yard, the French policeman Monsieur Jonquelle and the Virginia lawyer Colonel Braxton. Table of Contents: The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason The Corpus Delicti Two Plungers of Manhattan Woodford's Partner The Error of William Van Broom The Men of the Jimmy The Sheriff of Gullmore The Animus Furandi The Man of Last Resort (The Clients of Randolph Mason) The Governor's Machine Mrs. Van Barton Once in Jeopardy The Grazier The Rule Against Carper Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries The Doomdorf Mystery The Wrong Hand The Angel of the Lord An Act of God The Treasure Hunter The House of the Dead Man A Twilight Adventure The Age of Miracles The Tenth Commandment The Devil's Tools The Hidden Law The Riddle The Straw Man The Mystery of Chance The Concealed Path The Edge of the Shadow The Adopted Daughter Naboth's Vineyard The Sleuth of St. James Square The Thing on the Hearth The Reward The Lost Lady The Cambered Foot The Man in the Green Hat The Wrong Sign The Fortune Teller The Hole in the Mahogany Panel The End of the Road The Last Adventure American Horses The Spread Rails The Pumpkin Coach The Yellow Flower Satire of the Sea The House by the Loch

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Robert S. Paul suggests that the reason detective fiction has won legions of readers may be that "the writer of detective fiction, without conscious intent, appeals directly to those moral and spiritual roots of society unconsciously affirmed and endorsed by the readers." Because detective stories deal with crime and punishment they cannot help dealing implicitly with theological issues, such as the reality of good and evil, the recognition that humankind has the potential for both, the nature of evidence (truth and error), the significance of our existence in a rational order and hence the reality of truth, and the value of the individual in a civilized society. Paul argues that the genre traces its true beginning to the Enlightenment and documents two related but different reactions to the theological issues involved: first, a line of writers who are generally positive in relation to their cultural setting, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Conan Doyle; and second, a reactionary strain, critical of the prevailing culture, that begins in William Godwin s Caleb Williams and continues through the anti-heroic writers like Arsene Lupin to Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and John MacDonald. "