Twelve short stories from P.G. Wodehouse-- famous for his Jeeves and Bertie Wooster characters-- make for an enjoyable book. Originally published in the 1920's and 1930's, these stories hearken back to an all-but-forgotten era of earls and butlers, country house parties and village festivals.

The common theme? Crime and fiendish cunning, of course! The last story in the anthology seemed to end a little abruptly, but the rest of the stories were Wodehouse at his solid, amusing best. Air-guns and arson, infidelity and impersonation, even rigged egg-and-spoon races--- they're all given a lighthearted and comical treatment that makes this a pleasure to read.

Six years ago, Constance and Merricat's family were murdered-- someone had placed arsenic in the sugarbowl, and their mother, father, brother, and aunt all died in one night, leaving behind only themselves (Constance, who made dinner, didn't take sugar on her berries; Merricat had been sent upstairs without dinner as punishment) and their Uncle, who was much-weakened from the ordeal and now suffers from dementia. The villagers are all hostile and suspicious of the Blackwood family, and the sisters lead an isolated existence... until a cousin appears on their doorstep and threatens their well-ordered lives...

You begin the book and think, "Oh, my, they're both so childish!" And as you get further and further along, you begin to realize... they're insane, not immature. Their paranoia, neuroticism, superstition, and self-centeredness are tangible. Even so, they manage to lead a comfortably isolated and polite existence until the arrival of Cousin Charles, who is interested in seducing Constance in order to gain hold of the Blackwood fortune. Merricat is against him from the beginning; and as his greed shines through more and more strongly, the reader also wishes he would leave. Efforts to drive him away lead inexorably to events which turn the sisters' lives upside-down permanently. Who needs vampires and werewolves, when the sisters' normal, everyday lives are just as scary?