"And That's How It Was, Officer"Ralph SholtoOmniClassics · Literature
"And That's How It Was, Officer"
Ralph SholtoA newlywed's letter to the police explains why the local underworld has inexplicably disappeared.
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About the book
Homer Nicholas addresses the police chief with an account of events involving his bride Joy, the eccentric Uncle Peter, and a friend known as Bag Ears Mulligan. What began as preparations for a wedding became entangled with Peter's experimental serum and his plans for improving society. The narrator's insistence that great good has been accomplished does not make the methods or their consequences immediately reassuring. Sholto uses the explanatory letter as a comic frame, allowing each confident clarification to introduce further complications. Family respectability, criminal acquaintances, scientific enthusiasm, and the difficulty of beginning a honeymoon all contribute to the disorder. The story's pleasure lies in the gap between the scale of the apparent public mystery and the improvised personal history offered to account for it.
- Comic explanation
- Scientific meddling
- Respectability and crime
Why read it
The narrator's conversational defense turns a police mystery into a fast-moving family farce with fantastic machinery.
English story text