[PW] "punchline" mysteries

[Dennis Lien]

At 12:21 PM 10/23/2007, you wrote:
>Hello from rainy Kentucky,
>
>I'm looking for suggestions of short mysteries that are what I call
>"punchline" mysteries; that is, the solutionis given in the last sentence or
>paragraph.
>
>I've used "The Good Lord Will Provide" for this, and students are asking for
>others.
>
>Any suggstions?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Susie

Belated thoughts:

Not a "mystery" by all definitions (it's a short suspense story with
supernatural inklings of foreknowledge and fated doom and all that
good stuff), but "August Heat" by W.F. Harvey is a classic short
where the full impact of what's happening only hits in the last sentence.

Variously available online, as at

http://www.annexed.net/box/augustheat/index.html

"The Doomdorf Mystery" by Melville Davisson Post doesn't quite qualify
as "last paragraph," since there are a couple of lines of dialog among
the participants expressing wonder at the solution that has just
arrived, but it's a wonderful short story and again is free online:

http://www.hornpipe.com/mystclas/myscl9.pdf

and elsewhere.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu