"An Example of the Kind of Outside the Box Thinking That Made Philo Vance and Ellery Queen So Distinctive in the Realm of Amateur Sleuths"

ONE DROP OF BLOOD.
By Anne Austin.
Macmillan.
1932. 319 pages.
Reissued in 2012. For sale HERE.
Available on Kindle.

A detective novel from the Golden Age:

. . . One Drop of Blood is the penultimate detective novel by little known American writer Anne Austin. Based on this one book I'd say she was influenced by the works of Van Dine and Queen. The detective work involving the reason for the oversight of a single drop of blood is an example of the kind of outside the box thinking that made Philo Vance and Ellery Queen so distinctive in the realm of amateur sleuths.

. . . As long as you can accept the 1932 setting and forgive some of the passe, often risible, psychobabble and focus on Austin's much more impressive handling of the mystery plot you'll enjoy this forgotten writer's book. — John, PRETTY SINISTER BOOKS (January 19, 2014)

A few other short Anne Austin reviews:

~ THE BLACK PIGEON (1929): "This mystery story is unique both as to plot and execution." Reviewed HERE.

~ MURDER BACKSTAIRS (1930): "The clues are all there in plain sight, yet are so well hidden that you are bound to miss some of them at first. But the author plays absolutely fair with her reader, and you will have a great time trying to outwit her." Reviewed HERE.

~ MURDER AT BRIDGE (1931): We have no review of this one, but it is available online HERE.

~ A WICKED WOMAN (1933): "Miss Austin, highly successful with murder mysteries, now tries a different sort of murder story." Reviewed HERE.

~ MURDERED BUT NOT DEAD (1939): "Dramatic." Reviewed HERE.

Resource:
- "[Austin's] series detective is James Dundee, a special investigator for a District Attorney Sanderson. Because of his Scottish ancestry Dundee is given the nickname Bonnie by the police captain Strawn, a typically gruff smart ass cop one finds in American mysteries of this era. Austin's mystery plotting can be complex as in Murder at Bridge and One Drop of Blood and she does her best to follow the rules of the fair play detective novel." — GAD Wiki

Category: Detective fiction