Rawson, Clayton - The Footprints on the Ceiling (1939)

This starts out well (Chapters 1-10), with vivid nocturnal adventures in a little known part of New York City. Neat description of waterways, islands, and island life - something I've never seen in any other novel about NYC, mystery or not. But after this, Rawson's puzzle plot solutions seem pretty ho-hum. There is a tiny subplot about footprints - anticipating the later footprint mystery in Rawson's short story, "Nothing Is Impossible" (1958). And another small subplot about a man named Lamb is good.

As Robert Adey points out, only a small fraction of this book deals with impossibilities. The same is true with Rawson's next novel, "The Headless Lady". The descriptions of Rawson's works as being impossible crime centered can be a bit misleading in these cases.

Mike Grost