Anderson Crow, Detective

Ten linked stories follow the marshal of Tinkletown, a small New York village where Anderson Crow has held office for forty years, minus two in the nineties when he briefly stepped aside. He has collected nearly every title the place offers: fire chief, commander of the local Grand Army post, dog catcher, and detective by his own appointment. At seventy-three he meets each crisis with enormous confidence and very little method. Smock’s grain elevator burns with a high wind pushing the flames toward the churches and the high school, and while the whole town watches it, bandits loot the First National Bank and empty the lock-up. Things come right in spite of Crow rather than because of him. McCutcheon was writing affectionate satire of small-town self-importance, and the reporter at the Banner needles him with the nickname Shellback Holmes.