Short Story Wednesday: "A Nice Place to Stay" by Nedra Tyre

I read this story in Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, an anthology edited by Sarah Weinman. In the introduction to this story, Sarah Weinman says...

"A Nice Place to Stay," first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1970, is among Tyre's best and most anthologized works, and thus an excellent reintroduction to this unjustly neglected author.

This is the story of a woman who has always been the one to keep house and cook for others in the family. Initially she lives with her parents after her brothers get married and move out. When her father dies, her brothers get a small place for her and their mother to stay, and give them just enough money to get by on. She knows that her brothers will not be so good to her when her mother dies. And she does have to fend for herself at that point. 

She finds jobs as a carer for the sick or elderly, but only temporary, low paid work, since she has no training. The money she gets hardly keeps her alive. Things keep going from bad to worse. She turns to stealing, but only small things, old clothing that she can get a few pennies for. Just enough to buy new shoes when hers are no longer wearable. When one of the women she cares for, Mrs. Crowe, gives her a silver box for trinkets, Mrs. Crowe's relatives claim that she stole it. So she is arrested. And finally she finds in prison a place to stay, to have food and a bed. And even then, her new-found comfort is thwarted. 

This dark and chilling story shows the effects of severe poverty and how it can affect people, even those with the best intentions.

A few years ago, I read another story by Nedra Tyre, "Recipe for a Happy Marriage." It was collected in Murder on the Menu, edited by Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, and Isaac Asimov. I discussed the story here.

Also see my earlier post on some stories from Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives.

"Recipe for a Happy Marriage" by Nedra Tyre

Deal Me In Short Story #7

This week I drew the Ace of Hearts and thus I read "Recipe for a Happy Marriage" by Nedra Tyre. Some of my choices for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis were deliberate. For my list of short stories to read throughout 2015, I chose authors I was familiar with or wanted to return to. But this story was a total unknown. I knew nothing about the author.

Nedra Tyre was born in Georgia in 1921 and worked as a social worker in Virginia. Her short stories were published in various mystery magazines starting in 1955. She also published several suspense novels. This story was first published in the March 1971 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

I found the story in the anthology, Murder on the Menu, so I knew it would feature food in some way. The story is told by a woman who is laid up in her bed with a broken ankle. She tells us about her interview with a local reporter who is writing up an article on love. The narrator has had several husbands, all of which have predeceased her. There is a nice twist at the end. Although I suspect the experienced mystery reader could predict the ending, it was still a very enjoyable tale.

Nedra Tyre has a story, "A Nice Place to Stay", in the anthology, Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, edited by Sarah Weinman. Weinman has a very interesting website called Domestic Suspense devoted to her book, which gathers information about each of the authors featured in the book. John at Pretty Sinister Books has reviewed Weinman's book here.