July 23 - "The Clarion Call"

“The Clarion Call”
by O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories (2002)

* * * (Good) Realistic

Cornered by Detective Barney Woods after murdering a millionaire, Johnny Kernan counts on the detective’s reluctance to arrest a man he’s indebted to. Woods turns Kernan’s arrogance into a way to capture the man with some help from the local newspaper.

The need to brag, or show off, will bring you crashing down every time. I knew that the overly principled policeman would eventually find a way to capture his murderer, but it seemed a protracted way of basically writing and I.O.U. on a napkin and handing it to the man to erase the debt. The story was okay, but once you realized what was bound to happen, Kernan’s repetitive bragging became a bore.