Review: Classic short stories
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 8, 2014
These are early short stories that appeared in various magazines (years ago most monthly magazines included short works of fiction).  While some of the descriptions in these stories are more than a bit dated, some disturbingly so, this is only a reflection of the time in which they were written.  The underlying stories, the problems that Ellery and his father tackled are still good puzzles, with all the clues fairly laid out so the reader is challenged to ferret out the answer before Ellery.Those new to the series would be able to enjoy these stories (if they keep in mind when the stories were originally written) and those who are already fans of Ellery, either from reading the books or viewing a tv series will be happy to finally be able to get to read these long difficult to obtain stories.  Fans of the Jim Hutton series will undoubtedly recognize the final story in this volume.Overall I enjoyed these stories but I did find the racist comments disturbing, although I am aware that such comments were commonplace at the time these stories were written.