PENGUIN ACTIVE READING

Teacher Support Programme Teacher’s notes   LEVEL 4

Crime Story Collection

Sarah Parestsky and Others Story 5: Slowly, Slowly in the Wind by
Patricia Highsmith
Edward (Skip) Skipperton, a management consultant, has
been forced by ill health to retire to the country. He tries,
unsuccessfully, to persuade his neighbor, Peter Frosby, to
sell him the fishing rights on the land next to his property.
When Frosby’s son, also called Peter, elopes with Skip’s
daughter, Skip murders Frosby and disguises the body as
a scarecrow. Children celebrating Halloween discover the
body, and Skip commits suicide.
Story 6: Woodrow Wilson’s Tie by
Patricia Highsmith
Clive Wilkes is obsessed by a waxworks museum, Madame
Summary Thibault’s Hall of Waxworks. One night he hides in
the museum and steals the necktie from the model of
Story 1: Three is a Lucky Number by
President Woodrow Wilson. The following week he hides
Margery Allingham
there again, and this time he kills three members of the
Ronald Torbay has met and married Edyth, a 43-year-old
museum staff. He confesses to the police, who do not
woman, alone in the world, with a lot of money. He plans
believe him. So to make people take notice of him, he
to murder her and make it look like an accident, as he has
plans to kill a lot more people.
done with two previous wives. Edyth becomes suspicious
and alerts the police. She escapes and the police arrive to Story 7: The Absence of Emily by Jack Ritchie
arrest Ronald. Wanting to lose weight, Albert’s second wife, Emily, goes
secretly to a health farm. Emily’s sister, Millicent, believes
Story 2: Full Circle by Sue Grafton
that Albert has murdered her and tries to scare him into
Kinsey Millhone, a private detective, witnesses an
confessing. But Albert has planned to make himself appear
accident on the freeway that turns out to be a murder. She
to be guilty, so that Millicent will be obliged to give Albert
investigates and discovers the identity of the murderer. But
and Emily the financial help they need.
in his attempt to escape, the killer crashes his car and dies
in exactly the same spot where he committed the murder.
About the authors
Story 3: How’s Your Mother? by Simon Brett Margery Allingham (1904 – 66) was one of the leading
Humphrey Partridge pretends that he is living with his English crime writers of the period between the two World
elderly mother so that people will leave him alone. The Wars. In 1927, after various failed attempts at writing for
police believe he has murdered his mother for her money, the theatre, she wrote her first detective story as an ‘escape
and they arrest him, but when they cannot find a body, into the Mystery’, and continued writing in the genre for
he is released. Hearing that he has won a lot of money, his the rest her life. She famously described the mystery novel
mother appears and he really does kill her. He confesses as a box with four sides – ‘a Killing, a Mystery, an Enquiry
his crime to the police, but this time they do not believe and a Conclusion with an element of satisfaction in it.’
him.
Sue Grafton (born 1940) is a popular American writer of
Story 4: At the Old Swimming Hole by crime fiction. Published in 28 countries and 26 languages,
Sara Paretsky she is best known for a series of novels whose titles follow
Victoria (V. I.) Warshawski, a private detective, witnesses the letters of the alphabet, beginning in 1982 with A is for
a murder during a swimming competition. She realizes Alibi, and all featuring Kinsey Millhone. She has said that
that the intended victim was Alicia, an old friend of hers. Kinsey is herself, ‘only younger, smarter, and thinner’! She
Victoria investigates and discovers that Alicia’s brother, has also described the mystery novel as offering ‘a world in
Tom, was behind the attempt to kill her. She finds Alicia which justice is served. Maybe not in a court of law, but
and Tom at the swimming pool in their old high school, people do get their just desserts.’
but she arrives too late to save Alicia’s life.

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 PENGUIN ACTIVE READING
Teacher Support Programme Teacher’s notes   LEVEL 4

Crime Story Collection

Simon Brett (born 1945) worked as a writer and producer How’s Your Mother?, first published in The Mystery Guild
in radio and TV in the UK before becoming a full-time Anthology in 1980, also appeared in The Ellery Queen
writer of detective fiction in the late 1970s. He is best Mystery Magazine (1983), and in two anthologies: The
known for three series: the Charles Parris novels, featuring Oxford Book of English Detective Stories (1990) and Murder
an actor who gets involved in various crimes; the Mrs on Main Street (1993).
Pargeter series, featuring a widow who, with a little help At the Old Swimming Hole, first published in an
from her dead husband’s friends, is able to solve uncanny anthology called Mean Streets (1986), has appeared in two
mysteries; and the Fethering series, set in a fictional village further anthologies: Crimes of Passion (1993) and Lethal
on the south coast of England. Ladies (1996), as well as in a collection of V.I. Warshawski
Sara Paretsky (born 1947) is the American writer who stories, Windy City Blues (1995).
has done most to change the image of women in crime Slowly, Slowly in the Wind, originally published in 1976,
fiction. Her detective, Victoria (V.I.) Warshawski, is a and re-published in 1991, in The Ellery Queen Mystery
strong, independent character who specialises in financial Magazine, was the title story in a collection (1979) which
crime, but usually gets involved in murder plots. Her also included Woodrow Wilson’s Tie.
stories follow a conventional pattern: a murder to conceal
a crime, followed by more killings, and a climax where Woodrow Wilson’s Necktie was first published in 1997 in
Warshawski narrowly escapes being killed by the murderer. The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and also appeared in
But what makes Paretsky’s books very readable is her Fifty Years of the Best from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
characterization and the richness of detail in her portrayal (1991), and in A New Omnibus of Crime, 2005.
of contemporary Chicago. The Absence of Emily was first published in The Ellery
Patricia Highsmith (1921–95) was an American writer Queen Mystery Magazine in 1981, and won an Edgar
of crime fiction, who lived in Europe for the last thirty Award in that year from the Mystery Writers of America.
years of her life. Her novels were more concerned with It has been reprinted in five anthologies, including The
the psychology of the criminal than simply discovering Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (2000), and
who committed the crime. She is best known for her filmed twice, for the TV series Tales of the Unexpected, and
first book, Strangers on a Train, which was filmed by as a short film in 2005, when it won the Best Foreign Film
Alfred Hitchcock, and for a series of novels featuring the award at the Dixie Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.
amoral but charismatic anti-hero Tom Ripley. Even as Background and themes
a child, Highsmith used to fantasise in her diary about
her neighbours having secret psychological problems and Crime and retribution: In ‘How’s Your Mother?’ and
murderous personalities. ‘Woodrow Wilson’s Tie’, murderers get away with their
crimes, and in a third, ‘The Absence of Emily’, the
Jack Ritchie (1922–83) was a prolific American writer, narrator succeeds in his plot to extort money from his
whose work included thrillers, love stories, detective sister-in-law. In ‘Full Circle’ and ‘Slowly, Slowly in the
comedies, suspense tales and locked-room mysteries. Wind’, however, the killers die at the end of the story, and
He sold his first story to The New York Daily News in in the remaining two stories the criminals are caught by
1953 and over the next thirty years published over three the police.
hundred stories in popular fiction magazines. A number
of his stories were adapted for TV series such as Alfred Judging by appearances: All of the stories feature
Hitchcock Presents and Tales of the Unexpected. misjudgments on the basis of deceptive appearances. The
confessions of Humphrey Partridge and Clive Wilkes
The original texts are both rejected in disbelief by the police; in the stories
Three Is a Lucky Number, published in The Allingham by Margery Allingham and Sara Paretsky, murders are
Case-Book (1969), has appeared with a number of different disguised to look like accidents; Tom Dauphine makes it
titles: ‘Bluebeard’s Bathtub’, ‘Bubble Bath No. 3’ and look as if his sister has sold secret designs to the Chinese;
‘Murder Under the Surface’. Skip Skipperton tries to conceal his crime; and Jack
Full Circle was originally published in 1991, in A Woman’s Ritchie’s narrator, Albert, deceives his sister-in-law into
Eye, an anthology edited by Sara Paretsky. believing that he has committed murder.

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 PENGUIN ACTIVE READING
Teacher Support Programme Teacher’s notes   LEVEL 4

Crime Story Collection

Discussion activities 8 Role play: Have the students dramatise the police
The following teacher-led activities aim at discussion and interview with Tom.
extension. Student A: You are a police officer. You interview Tom to
find out why his sister was killed.
Story 1 Student B: You are Tom. You feel terrible about your
Before reading sister’s death and you tell the police the whole story.
1 Discuss: Talk about crime and punishment.
Have students talk about crime stories. Story 5
Do you like murder stories where the killer is caught at While reading
the end? Or do you prefer it when the criminal gets away 9 Guess: What’s going to happen? Get students to stop
with his or her crime? reading at the end of page 53 and say what they think
Talk about a crime story you have read, or a film you will happen.
have seen, that you particularly enjoyed, and say why you What do you think is going to happen? Will the police
liked it. discover Frosby’s body? Will Pete and Maggie come back
2 Guess: Have students read the text in italics below the when they hear that his father has disappeared? Will
title and predict what they think might happen. Andy go to the police?
Read these sentences and say what you think will happen
After reading
in the story. Why must the discovery not happen ‘too soon’?
10 Write: Have the students look at Maggie’s letter to
After reading her father on page 51.
3 Discuss: Have the students talk about the similarities Write the beginning of Maggie’s letter from Boston.
and differences between Ronald’s three marriages. 11 Check: Have students check the predictions they
Look at paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 on page 2. How were made in the previous activity and explain the
Ronald’s three marriages similar? And how were they reactions of Skip and Andy at the end of the story.
different? • Why does Skip shoot himself ?
• Why does Andy decide not to tell the police what he
Story 2 knows?
After reading
4 Role play: Have the students look at the picture on Story 6
page 11. After reading
Student A: You are a police officer at the scene of the 12 Discuss: Talk about the Hall of Waxworks. Madame
‘accident’. Interview one of the witnesses and find out Thibault’s Hall of Waxworks, like Madame Tussaud’s
what they saw. around the world, shows models of famous murders.
Student B: You are the driver of one of the cars in the Ask students what they think about shows like this.
picture. Answer the police officer’s questions and say what What do you think of a waxworks show with models of
happened and exactly what you saw. famous murders? Would you want to see a show like this?
5 Discuss: Talk about the title. Ask students if they 13 Write: Have students write a continuation of the
think the title of the story is a good one, or whether newspaper report on page 63.
they can supply a better title. You are a reporter. Continue the newspaper story on
Say why you think ‘Full Circle’ is a good title for this page 63, with short interviews with Fred Keating and
story, or agree on a better title. the husband and wife who found the bodies.

Story 3 Story 7
After reading While reading
6 Role play: Have the students look at the picture on 14 Read carefully: Ask students to stop reading on page
page 23. 69 when Albert reads the note.
Student A: You are Mr Denton. Reg Carter has told you What do you think has happened to Emily? Is she staying
about the fire and about Humphrey being in prison. Tell with friends in San Francisco? Why has she not taken
your wife what has happened. any clothes with her? Why did Albert go out into the
Student B: You are Mrs Denton. Ask your husband for woods with a spade?
more details and give him your opinion of Humphrey.
Vocabulary activities
Story 4 For the Word list and vocabulary activities, go to
After reading www.penguinreaders.com.
7 Write: Have students write Victoria’s statement to the
police.
Before Victoria is allowed to leave prison, she has to give
the police her story. Write down what she says.

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