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Casebooks Dissembled: Omnibus I (Harry Reese Mysteries) Kindle Edition
At long last, the first three novels and four short stories (including all three Emmie Reese Mysteries) are available in one economically priced volume. The books are presented in chronological order, so the reader might better experience the evolution of Harry’s relationship with his curious wife Emmie, and his gradual absorption into the off-kilter world he terms Emmie-land. This eBook comprises:
* Always a Cold Deck
* Humbug on the Hudson
* The Birth of M.E. Meegs
* Crossings
* Hidden Booty
* Kalorama Shakedown
* Psi no more…
Plus, a list of characters and a glossary of period language.
For more information on the series, please visit: HarryReeseMysteries.com,
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJune 22, 2015
- File size3635 KB
Editorial Reviews
Review
Product details
- ASIN : B0108T3I2Y
- Publisher : Street Car Mysteries (June 22, 2015)
- Publication date : June 22, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 3635 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 761 pages
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Robert Bruce Stewart](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/dp0bhqkqr2rn3tqif392auosgs._SY600_.jpg)
Finding himself misplaced in the 21st century, Robert Bruce Stewart has opted to retire to what he hopes will be a more congenial era for a person of his sensibilities by means of fiction writing.
Meanwhile, his temporal self lives with his wife and cat in a small-town hermitage in western Massachusetts where he spends his idle hours tending to the needs of tadpoles and keeping his ill-mannered bamboo grove in check.
Customer reviews
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Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2015I own all of these novels and stories in one form or another. I was introduced to author Robert Bruce Stewart's delightful married sleuths, Harry and Emmie Reese, when I received a copy of the second novel in the series, 'Crossings,' (included in this omnibus) in 2013 via Goodreads.
I have reviewed the individual novels elsewhere, so I'll just say here that these novels and stories will be enjoyed by anyone who likes historical mysteries with solid characters, deftly rendered historical settings and sophisticated farce.
Harry and Emmie Reese are not your typical turn-of-the-century couple, I'm sure. I have described them as Nick and Nora (from Hammett's 'The Thin Man') meet Lucy and Desi. Harry is an independent insurance investigator. Emmie is his dedicated teammate, whether he wants her involved, or not. Emmie is charming, clever and a bit conniving. Harry has her number, but sometimes, it's not quite enough.
These stories are some of the freshest and most enjoyable I have come across in a long time. They make use of many familiar devices of the genre while remaining authentically original. I'm always glad to recommend Stewart's series to friends who like their mysteries served up with a little humor and a little history.
In this collection, you will get 3 fine historical mystery novels and 4 short stories. The three novels and the short story, 'Humbug on the Hudson,' are told from Harry's point of view. The other three stories are told from Emmie's point of view. (A note on 'Humbug on the Hudson:' I have this story on my Kindle, but, unlike the others listed in this collection, it doesn't appear to be available separately now. The only place to get it would seem to be this omnibus.)
I highly recommend these books, as I find Harry and Emmie excellent company for an afternoon read. I hope you will, too.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2015I was fortunate enough to have gotten the First 3 books of the series from the Author and I thoroughly enjoyed them. He now offers them in the Omnibus 1, Harry Reese Series, which is a wonderful way to get to know all the characters and follow along as Harry and wife find themselves in some funny situations. The series is very entertaining, with plenty of humor, interesting facts about the time period and of course plenty of mystery that needs to be solved. A charming addition to anybody who enjoys a good murder mystery.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2015Amusing and slightly quirky, but not exactly riveting. I don't agree at all with those who compared the author with P.G. Wodehouse. If these were the early stories of Harry and Emma, I am hoping that perhaps the later ones are an improvement.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2015These books are like the screwball comedies of the 1930’s! The Omnibus contains the first three books of the Harry Reese series so you can enjoy the growth of the author, as well as the development of the characters.
There is lots of witty humor and quite a few chuckles. Many at poor Harry's expense. Emmie gets bored when she does not have a mystery to solve and goes to the most extraordinary lengths to keep herself occupied and the reader entertained with her unique take on logic.
These are very charming stories with engaging characters that take place in the early 1900's. The main detectives remind me of Nick and Nora Charles. The mysteries are very complex and involving. They become more challenging to solve in each book. The language is true to the era and some of the terminology may be strange to the modern ear but it adds to the fun of the story.
I am not sure whether each volume gets better than the last or because the characters are so familiar each adventure just seems better than the last because the reader is back with old friends.
If you want entertainment, the Harry Reese Mystery series never fails to deliver
- Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2015This is a collection of several books from Harry and Emmie Reese mystery series.
Always a Cold Deck.
Meet Harry Reese, the guy who has a very boring work: he is an independent insurance investigator; only it is never boring with him doing the investigations. The moment his future wife joins the said investigations promptly move from lighthearted (the guy does not take himself seriously) to absurdly funny as her enthusiasm in joining the fun and crazy unconventional schemes to get the results often lends them both in very unusual situations - think Lucy Ricardo from the old I Love Lucy sitcom and her desire to be in the show.
This time Harry - a resident of Brooklyn - is sent to Buffalo to investigate a fire that destroyed a grain elevator - insured for a large sum of money, obviously. During his investigations he stumbles upon missing people, seemingly dead people, smugglers, and his future wife.
The first thing to say about the book is it is very easy read. The writing style made it so with no clumsy or heavy sentence structure. The fast-moving plot helps as well. The mystery part is quite good, the humor part is well done, but I would not mind for it to be present in a greater degree. Having read two next books of the series I can say that the second one has better mystery and the third has much better humor, but this book makes a nice job of introducing the new characters and setting up their relationships. Sufficient to say I was never bored while reading it.
As I already mentioned this is the first book of the series and as such has some minor rough edges which can be easily overlooked considering that the series improve as they go along. It is available for free from several places including Amazon.
The final rating would be 3.5 stars rounded up for being the author's first published work and the fact that it successfully accomplished the main goal of the first book of a mystery series: character introduction and making its readers interested in them.
Humbug on the Hudson.
Harry Reese is sent to Glens Falls to investigate a major fire. This time his boss gave him an unusual assignment: to keep things which might be inconvenient to "the right people", under cover. His boss likes to gamble, so "the right people" in this case are owners of gambling houses. The problem is another investigator who is supposed to be a great expert in insurance fraud involving a fire already investigates the event without any consideration for "the right people", so Harry's mission boils down to prevent his colleagues from doing anything productive. This becomes more difficult after the major suspect was found dead.
As usual the humor and lightheartedness is here. The story is short enough to be read during a short break. Its length is the major reason for me to lower the rating by one star as it ends somewhat abruptly. All in all it is well worth reading, considering its price (free).
The Birth of M.E. Meegs.
Chronologically this story follows Humbug on the Hudson short story from Harry Reese series which in turn follows Always a Cold Deck novel. In this story Harry's wife Emmie takes on a leading role for the first time. Reese family has some financial problems due to Harry not being able to find a work; Emmie's gambling did not help the situation. Latter, who always dreamed of becoming a writer takes on a job to write some small stories for obscure British publications.
Fortunately for her, Emmie has a wild imagination and is never afraid of bending the truth, or inventing it. Her stories get published; the payoff is not that great - but it is a beginning. Suddenly a dead man is found with a clipping of her story in his pocket. Emmie cannot resist starting her own investigation.
This short story is short; sorry for a bad pun. It is really nice to have Emmie as a main character of a new series as it is never boring with her around as Harry Reese stories showed us. It is also fun to read. Its length was the main reason for the rating as I would really like to stick around with the heroine more and see what she is up to.
The beginning of a new series promise to be as fun as Harry Reese mysteries. The next book is on my to-read shelf.
Crossings.
Harry Reese is called in to investigate seemingly normal insurance claims with some very peculiar circumstances. An independent insurance broker always worked within a particular area except for two cases where he insured people outside of his usual place of operations. These two people in question died one after the other in unrelated accidents. Soon after this the broker committed a suicide. Do you think it is too much of a coincidence? So did Harry Reese's boss. So did his wife who promptly joins the investigations despite her husband's best efforts to prevent her from doing it. A complicated mystery and hilarity follow.
The book gives a very good picture of life in US (around New York) in the very beginning of the 20th century. I really felt I was transported into that time and place. The author really did his research to make everything come alive. The book also shows improvement over the first one in both mystery and humor departments. Speaking about latter, most of it comes from Harry's wife Emmie who gets more fleshed up this time around.
I was fairly sure I will rate the book with 4 stars until I hit the middle. At this point I realized that I still have no idea whatsoever about what is going on - but something most definitely did. The mystery alone was good enough for me to upgrade the rating to 5 stars. This leaves me with a question: what is the best book of the series so far? In regards to mystery this one is the best, if it is humor you are looking for, than the next one in the series has even more of it. I have really high hopes for the next (fourth) installment of the series and will most definitely buy it.
Hidden Booty.
Thanks to Emmie's gambling in a French resort, the couple finds itself with practically no money, so Emmie volunteers her husband Harry for a job of finding a missing shipment of gold. The latter has never done this kind of investigation before, but this fact did not stop his wife. The results of these efforts revealed right on the first page, so I will not give away any spoilers when I say that Emmie and Harry did independent investigations which resulted in Harry finding the gold and Emmie finding the culprits.
The book was more on the mystery side and less on humor which was surprising for me as Emmie is the most humorous character in the series. Still the humor was there, especially regarding Harry's investigation from Emmie POV which did not make any sense at all until the very end of the story. Emmie's highly unconventional efforts at gambling are also worth noticing.
This short story is a good addition to Emmie and Harry Reese mysteries with 4 star rating.
Kalorama Shakedown.
The time: early twenties; Harry Reeves, the insurance investigator comes to Washington to investigate a string of jewelry thefts. He has to dive deeply into the lives of politicians, lobbyists, and other people related to Big Politics. It does not help any that his wife Emmie comes along.
Speaking about his wife, I could not help recalling the old classic sitcom I Love Lucy. Remember Lucy always tried to get in a show with Ricky? Well, Ricky had it easy; Emmie makes Lucy look like an amateur in trying to get what she wants, in her case it is to be in the center of an investigation, preferably with dead bodies. Poor Harry has to always keep an eye on his wife during his investigations as she uses highly unconventional and sometimes borderline illegal methods in getting to the bottom of the mystery.
A quote kept coming to my mind while I was reading, "War. War never changes". In this case it should be changed to "Politicians. Politicians never change". As I mentioned the book takes place in early twenties shortly before the Great Depression. The way politicians act has not change at all, in fact they used to be more open about their own corruption - at least nowadays corruption is frowned upon and poor elected representatives in DC sometimes have to go to great lengths to create an impression of hiding it.
The style of the book reminded me of P.G. Wodehouse; while I rarely laughed out loud, I chuckled a lot while reading. Emmie gets into a lot of absurdly strange situations, and Harry is not immune to them either, even when he is free from his wife's influence. Something else needs to be mentioned: somewhere by the middle of the book I got the impression that the mystery is solved. It was not, there was a plot twist coming which I did not see until it practically hit me in the face.
With this book deserving 4 very solid stars, I will definitely check out the rest of the series.
Emmie Reese decided to start publishing her own magazine to promote her works. She suddenly has means to do so: her girlfriend got divorced and received the rights to a certain publication as a part of the settlement. While trying to organize the whole business, Emmie is confronted by 4 mini-mysteries which she promptly solves (some of them was solved by themselves).
Psi no more…
This is the weakest story of both Harry Reese and Emmie Reese series. The mini-mysteries I mentioned are not too exciting and fairly trivial which while were interesting to Emmie failed to awaken my interest as a reader. As much as I like Emmie's crazy antics, she was out-crazed by the other two female characters of the story; she actually looks like a pillar of logic and stability compared to them.
The overall wackiness of the short story warrants a fairly high rating: 3.5 stars. If you are new to both series I mentioned above, do not start reading here as you might be disappointed.
Top reviews from other countries
- Ian H.Reviewed in Canada on April 7, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful
Wonderful characters in convoluted situations. The dynamic between Harry and his inventive bride makes for great fun as we are taken through some truly creative mysteries. You'll love it.