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Monday, December 28, 2015

Vintage Mystery Bingo Wrap-up 2015

I am submitting my final golden bingo card after a year of very good reading. I believe that I have 8 lines covered.


Thanks as always to Bev Hankins for all she does. I am looking forward to next year.

 G1  Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon. A book with a color in the title.

G2 Greenmask   by J. Jefferson Farjeon. A book which is not set in England or the US.

G3  The Secret Adversary  by Agatha Christie. A book which features a crime other than murder.

G4 To Wake the Dead  by John Dickson Carr. A locked room mystery.

G5  The Nursing Home Murders by Ngaio Marsh and Dr. H. Jellett. A book with a medical mystery.

G6 The Long Farewell by Michael Innes. A book with a professional detective.

O1 Evidence of Things Seen by Elizabeth Daly. TBR first lines.

O2 The Case of the Seven Sneezes by Anthony Boucher. A book with a number in the title.

O3 The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin. A book with an animal in the title.

O4 The Blotting Book by E. F. Benson. A book by an author whom I have never read before.

O5 Double for Death by Rex Stout. A book with something "spooky" on the cover.

O6 Mrs. Murdock Takes a Case by George Harmon Coxe. A book with a woman in the title.

L1 When the Wind Blows by Cyril Hare. A book set in the entertainment world.

L2  The Glass Key  by Dashiell Hammett. A book which has been made into a movie.

L3  Drury Lane's Last Case  by Ellery Queen. A book with an amateur detective.

L4 Patrick Butler for the Defense  by John Dickson Carr. A book with a man in the title.

L5  Gaudy Night  by Dorothy Sayers. An academic mystery.
  
L6  Nine - and Death Makes Ten by Carter Dickson. A book which involves a mode of transportation.

D1 A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh. A country house mystery.

D2 The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C. W. Grafton. A book with a lawyer.

D5 Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher. A book that involves clergy or religion.

D5 Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand. A book set in England or the US.

D6  Case with 4 Clowns   by Leo Bruce. An author whose first and last initials are the same as mine.

E1  Murder Comes First  by Richard and Frances Lockridge. A book with a detective team.

E3  Unexpected Night  by Elizabeth Daly. A book published in my birth year.

E2   The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth. A book with a time in the title.

E4  In the Teeth of the Evidence    by Dorothy Sayers.  A short story collection.

E6  Lord Edgware Dies  by Agatha Christie. A book which I had to borrow.

N1 The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow by Anna Katherine Green. A book with a method of murder in the title.

N2 What Happened at Hazelwood by Michael Innes. A book with a place in the title.

N5 The Black Stage by Anthony Gilbert. A book written by an author with a pseudonym.

N6 Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh. A book featuring a party.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Vintage Mystery Cover Scavenger Hunt 2016



For the year 2016, Bev Hankins of My Reader's Block has come up with a very clever idea. Previous years have challenged readers to complete mystery bingos. In 2016, readers will be challenged to locate objects on the covers of the books which they read. Thus, they will judge a book by its cover.

 Some of the rules read as follows:

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to find as many objects on the scavenger hunt list as possible on the covers of the mystery books you read. As has been the case for Vintage Bingo you may play along in either the Golden or Silver Mystery Eras (or, for the more adventurous, both)."

"*Minimum number of items to complete the challenge and to be eligible for the participation prize drawing at the end of the year is six items from the covers of books read from a single Vintage Mystery Era.  If you choose to do both eras, you must use separate checklists. You may not, for example, find three golden age items and three silver age items to claim the minimum six."

 
A  more complete list of rules may be found at Bev's web site.

The list of items to be located for the Golden Challenge are in the graphic below

 The lists of items for the Silver Challenge are in the graphic below

I am looking forward to entering the Golden Scavenger hunt, and I do hope to find more objects that the required six.

My progress:

1. Hag's Nook   by John Dickson Carr. Picture of any other animal (rat)

2. The Lost Gallows   by John Dickson Carr.  Picture of a hangman's noose.

3.   The Santa Klaus Murder  by Mavis Doriel Hay. Picture of a Christmas tree.

4.   Speak No Evil  by Mignon G. Eberhart. Picture of a telephone.

5.    The Deadly Truth  by Helen McCloy. Picture of a drinking glass.

6.    Artists in Crime  by Ngaio Marsh. Picture of Artist/Art Equipment.

7.   The Skeleton in the Clock  by John Dickson Carr. Picture of a clock/timepiece.

8.   The Estate of the Beckoning Lady  by Marjorie Allingham. Picture of a policeman.

9.   No Coffin for the Corpse  by Clayton Rawson. Picture of just one person.

10. And So to Murder   by Carter Dickson. Picture of a typewriter.

11.  The Reader is Warned   by Carter Dickson. Picture of a mask.

12.   Watson's Choice  by Gladys Mitchell. Picture of a skull.

13.   Love Lies Bleeding  by Edmund Crispin. Picture of a revolver.

14.    The Emperor's Snuff Box   by John Dickson Carr. Picture of a broken object.

15.    The Fallen Sparrow  by Dorothy B. Hughes. Picture of a bird.



I have now entered the Silver Cover Scavenger Hunt also.

1.  Sweet Death, Kind Death  by Amanda Cross. Picture of a body of water.

2. No Case for the Police  by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley. Picture of a clock.

3.  Death's Bright Dart  by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley. Picture of a blue object.

4.  A Stitch in Time  by Emma Lathen. Picture of a nurse.

5.  Murder Against the Grain  by Emma Lathen. Picture of two people.

6. Death of a Mystery Writer   by Robert Barnard. Picture of a drinking glass.

7. The Bay Psalm Book Murder by Will Harriss. Picture of a skeletal hand.

8. Banking on Death  by Emma Lathen. Picture of a dead body.

9.  The Longer the Thread  by Emma Lathen. Picture of just one person.

10.   Green Grow the Dollars  by Emma Lathen. Picture of a green object.











Drury Lane's Last Case by Ellery Queen

Drury Lane is a retired actor. Indeed, he was a very affluent retired actor who lives a secluded life at his large estate with a castle and gardens. He, unfortunately, is deaf, but this does not prevent him from taking an active interest in solving challenging crimes. His friend, Inspector Thumm, is a retired police detective who has opened a private detective agency along with his daughter Patience. Thumm is a plain, outspoken man; Patience has been educated in the best of schools.

This book opens when a very peculiar man with a very colorful beard engages Inspector Thumm to safeguard an important document in a sealed envelope. The peculiar man, who is undoubtedly wearing a disguise, says that he will call Thumm once a month. If he does not call at the agreed upon time, Thumm should open the envelope.

Inspector Thumm then takes another case. A security guard at the Britannic Museum, which houses rare and important old English documents, has gone missing and his friend has come to ask for assistance in locating him. Inspector Thumm and his daughter then visit the Britannic Museum which has been closed for renovations. The caretaker refuses them admission so Thumm calls on Drury Lane, who is a patron of the museum, to convince the museum to let them in. This time they are greeted by Alonzo Choate, the aging curator. Here they also meet Gordon Rowe, a young man who is doing research on Shakespeare at the museum. During this visit, they discover that one of the glass exhibition cases is broken although nothing seems to have been taken.

They return to the museum the next day with Drury Lane. Here they meet Hamnet Sedlar who is to become the new curator upon the retirement of Mr. Choate. They all go again to look at the case which had been broken. Drury Lane examines the three copies of The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare which are in the case and announces that one of them has been replaced with another copy of the same book which is a much rarer and priceless edition than the one it replaces.

Here you have the starting points of this mystery. Much will be learned about Shakespeare, and there will be more about disguises, false identities and a coded message before Drury Lane concludes his final case.  I found this book to quite an enjoyable read. It will appeal to both fans of Ellery Queen and of Shakespeare.

Ellery Queen wrote 4 Drury Lane mysteries using the pen name of Barnaby Ross in the years of 1932 and 1933. They have been reprinted by Mysterious Press in e-book format. In my e-book, there were several pages which I assume were supposed to have illustrations but which were blank.





Saturday, December 5, 2015

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett

Ned Beaumont is a gambler and political follower of political boss Paul Madvig in an unnamed city which is run by a corrupt government. Paul Madvig is supporting senator Ralph Henry in his re-election campaign, and he also has his eye on Henry's daughter, Janet Henry. Henry's son, Taylor Henry, is found murdered. At first it is believed that the murder was the result of a robbery, but later suspicion falls on Paul Madvig.

Ned Beaumont sets out to establish that Madvig did not commit the murder. Along the way, he is beaten up by henchman of Shad O'Rory another political boss who is competing with Madvig for control of the city. Mysterious letters are sent to Ned Beaumont and many others involved with this crime and these letters strongly imply that Paul Madvig is the murderer. Ned Beaumont, in time,  will find the author of the letters and the real murderer.

This book is a classic and was said to be Dashiell Hammett's favorite among his own writings. This crime is not solved by a detective but by a private citizen who is certainly not well meaning or above reproach. Ned Beaumont, who is called by his full name throughout the book, is tall, has a mustache, and eyes capable of an incredible gamut of emotions. This book really does not deal with the motivations or emotions of Ned Beaumont or any of the other characters. The book was published in 1930.

I am afraid that this type of hard-boiled mystery novel is not my favorite, and that I have not really read enough of this type of book to make an informed comparison of this book with others. Criticisms and analyses are available on the internet for someone who wants to dig deeper into this.  

This book has twice been made into movies. The first was in 1935 and starred George Raft as Ned Beaumont, and Edward Arnold as Paul Madvig. The second was in 1942 and starred Alan Ladd as Ned Beaumont, Brian Donleavy as Paul Madvig, and Veronica Lake as Janet Henry.






Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth

Mr. James Paradine had invited ten family members to a New Year's dinner at his large and expensive home in Birleton.  Mr. James Paradine was head of Paradine-Moffat Works, a company which was involved in producing materials for the war effort. At this dinner, James Paradine announced that one person at the table had betrayed the interests of the family. He said that he knew who that person was, and that he would be waiting in his study between nine and twelve that evening for that person to come and confess. The family members were shocked by this, but they would be even more shocked in the morning when the body of James Paradine was found at the foot of a cliff below the parapet of the terace which was outside the door of his study.

The police, of course, were called even though the family members believed that death was an accident. Inspector Vyner believed that the police surgeon had found sufficient evidence on the body to declare that James Paradine had been pushed off of the parapet. Questioning of the family members about their activities of the previous evening was begun. James Paradine's son and principal heir Mark Paradine and young Lydia Pennington wanted the murderer found, and really did not feel that the police could do it. Lydia had heard of private detective, Miss Maud Silver, who had been successful in previous cases, so Mark hired Miss Silver to come to Birleton to find the murderer.

There are ten possible murderers in this book. They are in some way or another related to each other, and they have histories of interactions with and emotional attachments to each other. And when it comes to their activities on the night of the murder, most of them would initially lie about what they were doing. Miss Silver, an elderly spinster,  has indeed a challenging case here, but she continues calmly with her knitting as she interviews each member of the family and slowly arrives at the important clues which will eventually identify the murderer.

This book was written in 1944, and the seventh Maud Silver book. It is currently available as e-book. It is a classic country house mystery. It has a bit more romance than usual. I am however quite fond of Miss Silver and found it quite enjoyable.





Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Unexpected Night by Elizabeth Daly

Amberly Cowden had been seriously ill his whole life. If he survived to his 21st birthday, he stood to inherit one million dollars. If he died before then, the money was to go to distant relatives in France. It was late at night now, a few hours short of his birthday, and he was in a car with his sister Alma, his aunt Eleanor, and his tutor,  Hugh Sanderson. They were on their way to attend a theater performance by Amberly's cousin Arthur Atwood at a small summer theater. Amberly, who had been able to do so little in life due to his heart condition, very much admired his flamboyant cousin and had offered him financial aid for this theatre.

On their way to the hotel where they would be staying, the Cowden party stopped to visit  the Barclays. Mrs. Barclay was Amberly's aunt, and she was married to Colonel Barclay. They had one son Frederick who was also in the army. Also visiting with the Barclay's that night was a young man named Henry Gamage who was an expert in manuscripts. The Cowdens arrived, and stayed for a short visit, and departed for their hotel, Ocean House where they would arrive after one a.m. Amberly was now 21 and a millionaire, and he proudly signed the hotel register for the people in his party.

The next morning, Amberly's body was discovered at the foot of a cliff. He had apparently left the hotel shortly after arriving and had walked to the cliff possibly to meet somebody. The police were notified and Inspector Mitchell arrived to investigate. It was assumed that Amberly had become ill while he was at the cliff, had lost his balance, and fell over the edge.

Henry Gamage had an inquiring mind and was drawn into the investigation. It was said that Amberly had drawn up a will which left $100,000 to his cousin Arthur, $100,000 to his cousin Fred, $100,000 to Eleanor Cowden, and the rest to his sister Alma. This will could not be found, so it was assumed that the one million dollars would go to his sister Alma who was only 19 and would not receive the inheritance until she was 21. She said that she would honor these bequests. She was so distraught over the death, and the events which followed it, that she retired to her room.

Gamage went to the summer theater to meet Arthur Amberly and found that a death had also occurred there. An actress had died from what appeared to be an overdose of morphine. Before Gamage arrived at a solution to the causes of these deaths, several attempts would be made on the life of a one person involved, and another death would occur.

The initial situation in this book is remarkably improbable. However, it does set the stage for a rather clever ending. This was Henry Gamage's first appearance in a mystery novel and fifteen more books would appear in this series. The book was published in 1940, and is still in print.





Wednesday, November 4, 2015

To Wake the Dead by John Dickson Carr

On January 31st, young Christopher Kent was standing in front of the Royal Scarlet Hotel, and he had no money and he was very hungry. Kent was from South Africa and he had access to a considerable amount of money from his stake in Kent's South African Ales, his father's company.  Christopher had not wanted to spend his life brewing ale and instead wrote mystery novels. His friend Dan Reaper had told Christopher that he knew too little about real life and real people to write novels, and he challenged Christopher to work his way from Durban to London in four months without using any of the family funds. They were to meet at the Royal Scarlet Hotel at 10 am on February 1st.  As he stood there a room assignment card for room 707 blew past him. It guaranteed a room, bath, and breakfast. Christopher decided to try to use this card to get breakfast. He did get breakfast and a lot more then he had bargained for.

Christopher had gone to room 707 at the Royal Scarlet and had found the body of Jenny Kent. She had been strangled and beaten about the face. Christopher panicked, fled the hotel, and went to the home of Gideon Fell with whom he had corresponded. There he also found Inspector Hadley who told him about the murder of his cousin Rodney Kent. Dan Reaper's party from South Africa had been staying in the home of Sir Gyles Gay in Kent.  Rodney had been very violently strangled in his bedroom. The only witness to any thing connected to the strangling was Ritchie Bellows who was the son of the builder of the house. Ritchie was a drunk who seems to have come to the house after a binge, and fallen asleep on the couch. He said that he had seen a mysterious person in the uniform of a hotel employee walking down the hall. Rodney's wife Jenny was not in the house as she was visiting aunts elsewhere.

Reaper's party and Sir Gyles Gay left Kent and came to the Royal Scarlett early for the meeting with Christopher. Reaper's party consisted of his wife, Matilda, Jenny Kent, Francine Forbes, Reaper's niece, and Harvey Wrayburn. They had all taken rooms on the same floor of the hotel, and there was nobody else on that floor. Even the employees of the hotel would not be on that floor after midnight which was the time when Jenny had died.

Now Gideon Fell had two murders to solve in two separate locations. The members of the party spent a great deal of time developing suspicions of each other, and the manager of the hotel. Fell, of course, came through with the solution which will depended a great deal on keys and locks.

I was not quite happy about this book. Fell has information important to the solution of the crimes which is not given to the reader which is not playing fair. The mysterious room assignment card for room 707 which seems like it would have much significance is merely attributed to the wind blowing through a room. There are some other things which seem a bit contrived but I do not want to give any spoilers. This book was published in 1938, and is still in print.






Sunday, October 25, 2015

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

The Lusitania was sinking after being struck by two torpedoes. A man approached the young American Jane Finn and asked her if she would take papers which were important to the war effort which had to be saved. He did this because he believed that women would be saved first from the sinking ship. He told her that if he survived he would contact her. If he did not, she should contact the American embassy. Jane Finn and the papers were not seen again.

Now the war is over. Prudence Cowley know by her friends as Tuppence encounters her old friend Tommy Beresford on a London Street. Both had just been demobbed, both were young, and both were looking for a job. They put there heads together and came up with the idea of joining forces to become the Young Adventurers who would take any job as long as the pay was good.  They would put an advertisement in the paper. Tommy mentioned the strange ads he had read, and the strange name of Jane Finn that he had just overheard two men talking about.

A man in the tea shop where they were talking overheard them and approached Tuppence on the street. He suggested that she come to his office, and discuss doing a job for him. Tuppence did so, and when asked her name thought it a good idea to have a pseudonym and gave the name Jane Finn. This name set the man, Mr. Wittington,  off in a rage. He suspected that Tuppence knew far more than she was telling him. He paid her fifty pounds and they agreed to meet the next day. However, the next day, he had disappeared.

This is the way that Tommy and Tuppence's adventure began. They placed an ad in the newspaper seeking information on Jane Finn. They got one reply from Mr. Carter who seemed to represent a British government department seeking information about Jane Finn.  They also got a reply from Julius P. Hersheimmer, a young American millionaire who said that Jane Finn was his cousin, and that he had come to England to find her.

Their search for Jane Finn would place Tommy and Tuppence in a great deal of danger as they found out that the papers Jane had would be very dangerous to the future of the English government if they fell into the hands of a mysterious Mr. Brown who was plotting a Communist conspiracy to attack the government and call a general strike of workers. Tommy and Tuppence received help in their efforts from Mr. Carter and Julius Hersheimmer, and also from a very distinguished and well known lawyer, Sir James Peel Edgerton, who some thought would some day become prime minister.

This book is a fun read, though there are several clues along the way to the real identity of the mysterious Mr. Brown which should enable the reader to solve this mystery before Tommy and Tuppence do. The book was published in 1922, and thus a very early Christie. It is the first of the Tommy and Tuppence series. A recent adaptation (2015) of The Secret Adversary is now streaming on Acorn TV. It has been updated to after World War II, and bears some faint resemblance to the original novel.







Sunday, October 18, 2015

Greenmask by Jefferson Farjeon

John Letherton was a man who believed that there was magic in life. He, however, had never experienced it. He was now on the train on his way to Wales for a walking holiday. He was joined in his compartment by a good looking but rather "common" woman with black hair and good legs by the name of Daisy Vail. They had a nice chat, and John was quite surprised that she got off the train at Dolberis which was his destination. She was met by a car at the station, while John needed to walk.

Dolberis was a lovely town surrounded by mountains, however, John decided that he did not wish to stay in the town, but to seek lodgings farther out of the town. He started walking and eventually found what appeared to be a hotel called the White Lion. When he tried to get a room, it was evident that the manager did not want him to stay there. Then Daisy Vail showed up. It was apparent that she was staying there, and she told the manager that the room next to hers was vacant, and so he got that room. When John went down for dinner, it seemed that the other guests were a very strange and unfriendly lot. He was told that the occupant of room 9 was seriously ill, but when John took a peek in the room after dinner, he found that it was empty.  Later in the evening, as John was walking along a bridge near the hotel, somebody tried to push him over the edge. Daisy Vail found him, brought him his knapsack and told him to get away from there and to go back to the town of Dolberis.

John got away but not to Dolberis. Instead he headed off into the woods in the dark of night. He eventually grew tired and went to sleep in the woods where he was found by Robert Gill, a kindly and pudgy elderly man. Gill told John that he had always wanted to live in a castle, and now he had the money to rent one for the summer. Gill invited John to come and stay at the castle. There John learned that Gill had trouble keeping servants because it was believed that the ghost of a highwayman, Greenmask, haunted the castle and the servants left after seeing the ghost. Mrs. Gill was also visibly upset by Greenmask. The only dependable servants remaining were Benson, the butler, and Ruth his daughter.

John and Gill discovered the bodies of two of the servants in the nearby river, but could not report the crime to the police because the phone line at the castle had been cut, and Gill's car had been put out of commission. Then two of the people from the mysterious White Lion hotel showed up at the castle and applied for the servants' positions. John found himself in the midst of a very ominous mystery involving both dead bodies and a ghost.

This book is set in a very lovely and remote part of Wales. The isolation of the setting adds to the ominous story. The book is full of suspicious people, both at the White Lion and at the castle. Indeed as the story progressed, I began to suspect everybody of being in some illegal conspiracy even though I didn't exactly know what that conspiracy was. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

J. Jefferson Farjeon is one of the overlooked writers of the Golden Age of the mystery, but he is finding new readers as the British Library is republishing some of his books. Greenmask was published in 1944 and only used copies seem to be available.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

In the Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy Sayers

This is a collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers which was published in 1940. It contains two Lord Peter Wimsey stories, five Montague Egg stories and ten stories classified as "other".

I am rather fond on Montague Egg, the traveling salesman for the firm of Plummett & Rose, suppliers of wines and fine spirits and liqueurs. He tends to find crimes as he travels and follows the very good advice which he receives from The Salesman's Handbook such as "Attend to details and you'll make your sale" in solving them. Among other things, Montague investigates a very hirsute professor who is an author of a book on the history of the Christian Church, a torn scrap of paper which might be linked to a murder, and assists the police in the solution of another murder case involving the death of another traveling salesman.

The "other" stories include a impoverished barber who sees that a reward is being offered for information on a criminal, and believes that he will never see this person. Another involves a milkman who becomes worried when nobody takes the milk bottles inside the door after his deliveries. Then there is the playwright whose play is successful but hates the producer for altering his script. Sayers was probably quite sympathetic in the story about an unpublished writer who thinks up an extremely clever way to promote his book with a potential publisher.  

Of course, you are wondering about the title of the book. This is the title of the Lord Peter Wimsey story in which Lord Peter is told a story about a suspicious death while being treated by his dentist. The corpse was badly burned and the identification of the body hinges on its teeth.

I found all the stories in this book to be very enjoyable. This book is currently available in ebook format.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Patrick Butler for the Defense by John Dickson Carr

Hugh Prentice, a junior partner in the law firm of Prentice, Prentice and Vaughn, was having an argument in his office with Helen Dean, his serious romantic interest. She had accused him of not being serious enough and of spending too much time reading detective stories and wishing that something like these stories would occur in his life. She said that he was wishing that a mysterious character named Omar of Ispaham would come to his office with a mysterious mission. Hugh denied this and said he must be going because he had an appointment to deliver some papers to the barrister Patrick Butler.

The clock struck five and there was a knocking on the door. A short, dark man wearing a fez entered the office and said that he was Abu of Ispaham, and that he needed a private word with Mister Prentice. Helen took that as her cue to leave. Abu said that his brother's life was in danger, and he told Hugh that all of the dangers in his life were due to Hugh's gloves. Hugh left Abu in his office and went to the office of his fellow junior partner, Jim Vaughn, and asked him to keep and eye on Abu while Hugh delivered the papers to Patrick Butler. They had this conversation in the small space in the hall between their  office doors. When Hugh turned to look in his office again, Abu had died of a stab wound. It was impossible for any one to enter the office without the lawyers seeing them. There was no place for any one to hide in Jim's office. This was essentially a locked room murder.

Hugh left to seek help leaving Jim with the body. This was the beginning of Hugh's mad cap adventure. He sought the help of Patrick Butler, an extremely effective defense lawyer and an extreme egotist. These two  would be joined along the way by Helen and by Lady Pamela de Saxe, a dumb blond, who was apparently Butler's current romantic interest. The beautiful Lady Pamela seemed to be much more interested in Hugh than Butler.

Hugh's adventures would take him through a very foggy London to some very unexpected places before the solution of the puzzle would be reached. He went to the police museum at Scotland Yard, an antique shop at Seven Dials selling historical gloves, a theater with a magic show, and a hotel which was hosting a convention of the Society of Ancient Sins.

This is a fun book which I enjoyed very much. It does deal with murder and other crimes, but Hugh's  jolly trip around London in the fog  makes it quite enjoyable.

This book was written in 1956 by John Dickson Carr, the master of the locked room mystery. It is apparently no longer in print, but used copies are available online.





Friday, September 25, 2015

The Long Farewell by Michael Innes

Lewis Packford was a Shakespearean scholar, and he was noted for finding obscure and hidden documents which he brought to the attention of other scholars with great theatrical gestures which did not endear himself to these scholars.  Sir John Appleby, who was Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, had met him several years before when Appleby had recovered some documents which had been stolen from Packford. When Appleby visited Packford in Italy in the summer, Appleby got the definite feeling that Packford was on the trail of another important document.

In the fall, Lewis Packford committed suicide at his English home of Urchins. Packford had apparently shot himself, and left a note on a postcard which said "A Long Farewell". Appleby was quite puzzled as to why Packford, who seemed to be on the brink of such a great success, should end his life. A chance encounter with Mr. Room who was Packford's solicitor, encouraged Appleby to look into the suicide because Mr. Room believed that Packford had been murdered.

Appleby traveled to Urchins, and met the very strange collection of people who had been there at the time of Packford's death. There were Packford's two wives. Yes, this was a surprise to many people who had not even known that Packford was married. It was also a surprise to Packford when they showed up at Urchins at the same time.  One was Ruth, a university professor, and the other was Alice, a very attractive bar maid. There was also Edward, the brother of Lewis, and Mrs. Husbands, the very serious housekeeper. Also there were several eccentric Shakespearean scholars and two collectors of rare books who were very anxious to get their hands on Packford's collection of books and other documents.

I enjoyed this book very much, but I am a great fan of Michael Innes. Readers who demand stark realism and believable characters may not be so pleased. The characters in the book may be a bit unrealistic, but they are fun. The writing is witty and includes some enjoyable comments on those who are dedicated to the serious study of literary fiction and on those who collect rare books. I especially enjoyed Alice, the bar maid, who seems to have a limited intelligence and just did not understand what all these scholarly types were talking about.This book was written in 1958, and is still in print.


Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Case with 4 Clowns by Leo Bruce

This book tells of the investigation of a murder which has not yet been committed. The nephew of Sargent Beef's wife had taken a job with a traveling circus. The nephew, Albert Stiles, had written to Mrs. Beef that he had had his fortune told by a old fortune teller who traveled with the circus. She had told him there would be a murder in the circus, and that that would be the end of the circus. Albert had suggested that she tell this to Beef because he was "interested in murders". Beef was indeed interested and intended to go and visit the circus. Mr. Townsend, who chronicles Beef's cases, tried to convince Beef that he was just wasting his time, but they went anyway.

Beef and Townsend were given an old trailer so that they could travel along. They saw how everything was set up for the performances, and how the animals were handled. They got to know all the people of the circus, and the connections and hostilities among them. They found that the circus was a world of its own with it own slang and its own conventions of behavior. Some people had grown up in the circus world and it was the only way of life that they knew. Others had wandered into working for the circus. Beef, with his friendly air and convivial personality, adapted easily to the performers. Townsend was a little stiffer and felt a bit excluded. He did develop a romantic interest in one of the performers.

The murder in this book does not occur until the very end. Beef, with all of his observations of the circus performers, does solve it. If you enjoy a thorough knowledge of the motivations of all the people who could possibly commit a crime, you will find this a very enjoyable read. It is also a fascinating look at the world of the traveling circuses in the 1930's.

This book was published in 1939, and is in print both on paper and as an ebook.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Lord Edgware was found murdered in his study. His wife, the noted actress Jane Wilkinson, had entered the house that evening at about the time the murder must have occurred according to the testimony of the remarkably handsome butler. The problem was that Jane Wilkinson had been at a dinner with several other people at the same time as she was seen entering Edgware's house.

There was really no shortage of people who would wish for Edgware's death. Jane Wilkinson who was a self absorbed, amoral actress had publicly said that she would kill him. She wanted a divorce so that she could marry the very wealthy but reclusive Lord Merton, but Lord Edgware had refused to give her a divorce.  Jane had engaged Poirot to go to Lord Edgware and to negotiate a divorce. Poirot had seen Lord Edgware on the morning of the day he died, and Edgware agree to divorce Jane much to surprise of Poirot and the joy of Jane. Edgware had a nephew who was in need of money and who would become the new Lord Edgware following the murder. Edgware had a daughter, Geraldine, who hated him.

Poirot undertakes an investigation on his own without being hired by anybody because he is fascinated by the case. Inspector Japp believes that he, Japp, has found a solution, but Poirot does not believe that he is correct. Other deaths will occur before the solution is reached.

I was very impressed with Christie's use of conversation in this book. Almost the whole story is told in the form of conversation with only a few narrative asides from Captain Hastings. Mainly Hastings expresses his thoughts that Poirot is becoming too old to actively handle investigations, and that he spends too much time sitting in a chair using "the little grey cells".  The reader should also use his little grey cells because Poirot hits upon a solution early, and Christie had me so convinced that Poirot is right that both he and I failed to think about another possible solution along the same lines.

This book was published in 1933 and, of course, is still in print. This book also had the American title Thirteen at Dinner.

Do not judge a book by its cover. The cover of this edition has a gun and a Bible which is open to the Book of Nehemiah. Nobody in this book is killed by a gun. Nobody in this book seems to own a gun, and I do not believe the word gun appears in the book. There is one character in the book who is more than usually religious, but I am not sure how this relates to Nehemiah.




Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Nine - And Death Makes Ten by Carter Dickson

It is 1940 and the ocean liner Edwardic is leaving New York for "a British port".  It is carrying half a million pounds of high explosives and has four Lockheed bombers on her top deck. It is also carrying nine passengers. The ship is taking the shorter, more dangerous route to England rather the safer southern route so each of these nine passengers must have a very important reason for traveling on this ship.

One of these passengers is Max Matthews who is going to England to get a job as a reporter. He is the brother of the captain of the ship, Commander Francis Matthews, who did not know that Max was coming on this dangerous trip. It is through Max's eyes that we view what is going on on the ship. At the dinner the first night only six passengers appeared in the dining room. Miss Valerie Chatworth and the Honorable Jerome Kenworthy sent word that they were too seasick to eat. This was only accounted for eight, and Max assumed that Edward Lathrop, the passenger who said that there were nine had made a mistake. Indeed, the passenger list which he received only had eight names. The most striking person on board was Mrs. Estelle Zia Bey, a woman of remarkable presence, and remarkable clothes. Lathrop said that she was on her way to get a divorce from her second husband.

On the second night of the voyage, Max encountered Estelle Zia Bey in the lounge, and she was very drunk. Max suggested  that they go on deck for some air. When they got there, Estelle said that she was going to her cabin to get a wrap. Max waited for quite a while, and when she did not return he went to her cabin which was across from his. He found that Zia had been murdered; her throat had been cut. On her clothes were very distinct fingerprints in blood. It seems that Mr. Lathrop and the ship's purser were knowledgeable  in analyzing fingerprints so all of the passengers and crew were fingerprinted. The results were that the fingerprints belonged to nobody on the ship.

So I am going to leave you there on a ship loaded with explosives in waters which could hide German submarines. One of the passengers has been murdered by a person who is not on the ship. Where is the mysterious passenger number nine? Could one of these passengers be a German spy? This book is a great read. You can almost hear the throb of the engines and the occasional screams of the passengers.

This book was written by Carter Dickson which is a pen name of the great golden age author John Dickson Carr. The book has two other titles Murder in the Submarine Zone and Murder in the Atlantic.  In a short introduction, the author dedicates the book to his fellow passengers on the Georgic  which crossed the Atlantic in 1939 by the same route as the Edwardic took in the book. The blackout conditions and life jacket  drill were as described in the novel, however there were no munitions and no murders.






Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh

It is the season in London when the debutantes "come out". Parties, luncheons, and other events abound. Even Lady Alleyn has agreed to "bring out" her grand daughter Sarah. Meanwhile, her son Roderick, an inspector at Scotland Yard, has a case of blackmail involving the London elite brought to his attention. It seems that someone is trying to blackmail Lady Halcut-Hackett who has a secret which she desperately wants kept from her husband. Roderick Alleyn calls upon Lord Robert Gospell for assistance. Lord Robert, "Bunchy",  has been of assistance to the Yard before because he has good sleuthing skills. He is a charming man, much appreciated by the upper class set, and a good friend of Alleyn. Lord Robert agrees, and goes to a concert where Lady Halcut-Hackett leaves the money for the blackmailer. Lord Robert sees the hand of the blackmailer and believes that it belongs to Dimitri who is the caterer for many of the big society events of the social season.

Lord Robert then goes to the ball which Lady Carrados was giving for the coming out of her daughter Bridget O'Brien. This ball, catered by Dimitri, is a rousing success. The champagne flowed, the dancers danced, and everyone was highly satisfied with the event. Lord Robert kept his eye on Dimitri and the guests. When he made a phone call to the Yard to report on his progress, his call was interrupted by someone coming into the room who may have heard what he was saying. Lord Robert was one of the last to leave the ball. He left the house into the foggy night and he and another man got a taxi. The other man left the cab first, and the driver drove on to Lord Robert's house and when they arrived, the driver discovered that Lord Robert was dead. He had a blow to the head and had been suffocated.

Roderick Alleyn was quite upset by the death of his friend, and vowed to find the murderer. The cab driver could not identify the other man in  the cab. Alleyn and Fox undertook a series of interviews with those who had attended the ball. It seems that Lord Robert's nephew Donald had gotten in with a bad crowd and was deeply in debt. Lord Robert had agreed to pay some of his bills if he straightened himself out, but Donald still needed more money and he was one of Lord Robert's heirs. In his interviews, Alleyn finds another case of blackmail, an illegal gambling house, and eventually the solution of crime.. It should be noted that one of the attendees at the ball was Agatha Troy, the artist who would in the future, would play an inportant role in Alleyn's life.

I am a great fan of Ngaio Marsh, and enjoyed this book even though the interviewing process does seem to go on a bit long. This book was published in 1938, and is still available in print and as an e-book.




Wednesday, September 2, 2015

What Happened at Hazelwood by Michael Innes

"Nobody could have predicted just what has happened at Hazelwood, and at the moment it appears as if nobody can elucidate it either" These are the opening lines of the first section of this book which is being written by Nicolette, Lady Simney. Nicolette had been a successful actress before she married George Simney who was twenty year older than she. The local cleric, Mr. Deamer, believed that George Simmey was totally evil and believed that he had sold his soul to the devil. Nicolette found him to be abusive.  Simney had gone to Australia when he was young, engaged in some kind of illegal dealings and returned accompanied by Owden, who had one eye and looked like a pirate, and who was now the butler.

There are others in the Simney family. There is George's brother,  Bevis,  and Bevis' son Willoughby who is twenty and seems to be trying to be an artist. There are George's sisters, Lucy and Grace. Lucy is widowed and has a son Mervyn who is nineteen and an outspoken pest. Grace is unmarried, but seems to her eye on Mr. Deamer. Then there is Timmy who is supposed to be Owden's son. Teenage Timmy bears a very stong resemblence to the Simneys, and it is supposed that Owden fathered the boy with one of the Simney sisters. George uses Timmy as a footman.

If this were not enough Simneys, more arrive from Australia in a very unexpected visit. There is cousin Hippias Simney, his son Gerard, and Gerard's wife Joyleen. They seem to be there to settle some business dealing about the Dismal Swamp. An argument occurs between members of the family and a whiskey bottle is thrown. On the second day of the visit, George appears to have a romantic encounter with Joyleen and Nicolette is kissed by Gerard.

Late in the evening of the second day, George was murdered in his study by being struck over the back of his head with a heavy object. Looking away from his body collapsed on the study table, you would see that George had decorated his study walls by alternating paintings of his illustrious ancestors with paintings of nude women. These nude paintings have been done by artists such as Caravaggio, Titian, and Bordone and are not to be taken too lightly.

The second section of the book is narrated by Harold who is a young policeman helping Inspector Cadover in his investigation. This narration takes the form of letters to his father with some side comments directed to his Aunt Flo. They have arrived at Hazelwood in Appleby's Bentley. Cadover asks himself what Appleby would have done? Harold thinks that Appleby would have "Talked Greek and swopped tags out of Shakespeare". Cadover and Harold do conduct an investigation which Appleby would have approved of. All is revealed in the third section of the book which is narrated by Nicolette again.

If you are the type of mystery reader who likes a logical, believable solution of a crime, this is possibly not the book for you.  If you, however, like wit and humor in your story, you will enjoy this novel. Both Nicolette and Harold are delightful writers, and I enjoyed their accounts very much. For me, it was this type of book which made the Golden Age golden.

This book was published in 1946, and fortunately still in print. If you are wondering who Appleby is, then you should dash out and acquire some of the novels which Michael Innes wrote about the detective exploits of Appleby.





Monday, August 24, 2015

Murder Comes First by Richard and Francis Lockridge

Pam and Jerry North received a letter which contained the announcement that Pam's maiden aunts from Cleveland were stopping in New York on their annual trip to Florida for the winter. The letter arrived on the morning of the day that the aunts were coming so Pam and Jerry made hasty preparations and met aunts Thelma, Pennina and Lucinda Whitsett at Grand Central Station.

The aunts wanted to visit their old friend Grace Logan while they in New York. This was something which they did every year on their annual trip to the city. They went to Grace's apartment and had a nice chat. The maid brought in a very pleasant tea. Grace took her usual vitamin pill with her tea and shortly afterwards died in a very unpleasant manner.

The police arrived and accused Aunt Thelma of putting a cyanide capsule in Grace's vitamin bottle because some twenty years earlier, Thelma had been disappointed when Paul Logan had married Grace instead of her. Pam, Jerry, and their friend Lieutenant Bill Weigand did not believe that she could have held a grudge for so long a period, and Aunt Thelma was released from police custody.

It was determined that the cyanide capsule could have been put in the vitamin bottle within the two weeks prior to the death. There were several people who had access to the bottle during this time. Grace Logan had a son, Paul Logan, whom she seemed to control even though he was in his twenties. She also had a niece Sally whom she had raised and who was now married to Barton Sandford, a biochemist. Sally had decided that their marriage had come to an end and she had driven off somewhere - nobody was quite sure where. She could be in Missouri or she could have returned to New York. Grace had also had a companion, Rose Hickey, who had been with her for five years. Rose had left just a few days before - reason unknown. Rose had a daughter, Lynn, who had an apartment of her own, but she did come to visit her mother at Grace's apartment. Lynn and Paul Logan wished to get married, but Grace Logan certainly did not approve of this.

Pam North just could not resist getting involved in the solution of the crime especially when the police found a bottle of cyanide capsules in Aunt Thelma's luggage and accused her again of the murder. Aunt Lucinda, who was a great reader, believed that she found the solution of the crime in a book that she had read and set off to solve the murder. Pam and Dorian Weigand followed Lucinda hoping to keep her safe. Jerry and Bill Weigand then joined the mad cap chase by following Pam and Dorian.

I have always been a great fan of Pan and Jerry North, and I did enjoy this book. The sophisticated Norths present a pleasant change from more gruesome mystery novels. The book was first published in 1951. It is out of print, but used copies are available.



Monday, August 17, 2015

The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow by Anna Katherine Green

At the hour of noon in a gallery in a museum in New York City, a young and pretty girl died with an arrow through her chest. The few visitors to the museum rushed to the scene of the crime, and saw, leaning over the body, an older woman with her hand on the arrow and a look of horror on her face.  A curator, William Jewett, went to the woman who said that her name was Ermentrude Taylor and  said that she was just passing through the gallery when the young woman was struck down. She was also questioned by the director of the museum,  Carleton Roberts, but she admitted that she had seen no one actually shoot the arrow.

The curator called the police, and asked for a reliable detective to be sent. The museum doors were locked, and those visitors inside were not allowed to leave. At this time the curator believed that Mrs. Taylor had struck the young woman with the arrow thus killing her. The police did arrive in the person of Ebenezer Gryce who was over 80 years of age and troubled by rheumatism. Gryce was accompanied by other policemen including his favorite assistant, Sweetwater.

It was found that the young woman carried no identification. Gryce interviewed Mrs. Taylor who was extremely distraught by the death. When questioned about her marital status she said that she was a widow and that she believed that her husband had died within the previous hour. It was obvious to all viewing this proceeding that Mrs. Taylor was losing her grip on reality. The other visitors to the museum were questioned, and their positions in the museum were mapped. None of them was in a position to have shot an arrow. There were many arrows in the gallery, but only one bow which was hung so high to be out of reach. Gryce would later call in a Native American who was skilled in the use of bow and arrow to recreate the crime.

Gryce now had many questions which needed to be answered. Who was the young girl? How had she been murdered? What was wrong with Mrs. Taylor? Who actually committed the murder? I do not want to spoil the story for the reader, but will say that the murderer is found, and the background of this crime will be given in a long and rather melodramatic form. It is indeed a remarkably tragic story.

This book was written in 1917 and was one of the last full length mysteries written by Ms. Green who is considered to be the mother of American mysteries. The part of the book which deals with the solution of how the crime was committed and who did it are quite interesting, but the part which describes the events leading up to the commission of the crime are a bit turgid and slow going for the modern reader.

During the investigation of the crime, maps are made of the museum and of the location of the visitors. I believe that they would be very useful in understanding the commission of the crime. I, however, read the ebook collection of the Collected Works of Anna Katherine Green and the maps were not included although the legends of the maps were.  




Wednesday, July 29, 2015

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh

Nigel Bathgate was quite excited to be going to a country house weekend at Frantock.  Nigel was a twenty five year old journalist, and still had a very youthful enthusiasm for the weekend party which was being given by Sir Hubert Handesley who was known for his unique parties. Nigel traveled there on the train with his older and more sophisticated cousin Charles Rankin who was a connoisseur of house parties. Charles already knew most of the people who would be attending. There would be Angela North who was Sir Charles's niece, and Arthur and Marjorie Wilde. Arthur was an archaeologist and Marjorie was very attractive. Rosamund Grant who was a very beautiful woman, would be there. The new person in the group was Doctor Foma Tokareff, a Russian, who had probably met Sir Hubert when Sir Hubert was at the embassy in Petrograd.

Sir Hubert announced at the beginning that they were going to play a "murder" game. One person would be selected to be the murderer. The murderer would select his victim and turn off the lights to indicated the death.  The rest of the party would be tasked with finding the identity of the murderer.

Charles Rankin told the group about a fantastic dagger that he had brought with him. He had received it from a Russian man whom he had rescued from a crevasse in Switzerland. It was a beautiful  antique Mongolian dagger, and  Dr. Tokareff told the group that this dagger was a symbol of a Russian secret society, and that Charles should not have been given it. Sir Hubert who collected weapons coveted this dagger and finally a silly agreement was reached in which Charles would leave the dagger to Sir Hubert after his death.

The next day the group had an enjoyable day. Nigel was not named the murderer. He got to know Angela better as they toured the house and played badminton. In the evening as they were dressing for dinner, a gong sounded and the lights went off. The victim had been chosen. When the members of the party came down the stairs, they found the body of Charles Rankin at the foot of the stairs. He had been stabbed with his Russian dagger.

Inspector Alleyn arrived at Frantock to  find the murderer. He was young, sophisticated, and had an upper class accent. Hardly what the members of the party expected from a member of the police. He interviewed the members of the party, and Nigel was cleared of suspicion because of the testimony of a maid. He and Alleyn became friends which allowed Nigel to follow the investigation of the murder.

There is a side plot in this book which involves finding members of a Russian secret society. The book was written in the 1930's when there was suspicion in England of Soviet conspiracies. Alleyn would seek the help of Nigel and Angela in his investigation of this group.

This book, written in 1934, was Ngaio Marsh's first mystery novel and introduced Inspector Alleyn who would go on to star in many other of her mysteries. It is still in print.





Sunday, July 26, 2015

Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon

It was Christmas eve and a few people were in the coach of the 11:37 train from Euston to Manchester. There was an elderly bore, Mr. Hopkins, who had his eye on a young chorus girl, Jessie Noyes,  who was on her way to audition. There were a brother and sister, David and Lydia Carrington, and a young clerk, Mr. Robert Thomson, who didn't feel well because he might be getting a cold. There was also an elderly gentleman, Mr. Edward Maltby, who was a member of the Royal Psychical Society. Mr. Maltby was on his way to interview Charles I at Naseby.

The train had been making its way slowly through a dreadful snowstorm, and then the train stopped. It could not go any farther. The occupants debated what to do and whether it might be a good idea to leave the train and strike out through the snow. Mr. Maltby thought that he saw someone go by outside the coach, and he jumped up and left the train.  David, Lydia, Jessica, and Mr Thomson then decided to strike out cross country through the drifts. Jessica fell and sprained her ankle and David had to carry her. When this group had almost given up hope of finding anything, they encountered a house. The door was unlocked, the house was comfortable and warm, and the kettle was on the stove, but there was nobody home. There was, however, a bread knife on the kitchen floor.

While they were preparing to have tea, there was a knock on the door. It was Mr. Maltby and a stranger. The stranger was a rather rough looking fellow with a cockney accent. He gave his name as Smith. Maltby had encountered him just before he reached the door of the house. Smith was very reluctant to tell anything about himself. While they were talking, they heard a cry for help from outside of the house. David and Mr. Thomson rushed out and found the elderly bore floundering in the snow. The bore said that he had left the train when it was found that some one had been murdered in the compartment next to the one in which he was sitting; he did not know the name of the murder victim.

The snow continued to come down, and the complications to the situation in the house increased. A dead body was found buried by snow outside the house. Mr. Thomson became quite ill with his cold. Jessica remained in bed with her sprained ankle. Lydia Carrington tried to make plans to celebrate Christmas with what she could find in the house. I will not introduce  spoilers here, but will say that everything was resolved by Mr. Maltby who used a mixture of logic and his psychic sense.

I found this book to be an interesting read even though I was reading it in July. The author allows the reader to look at the inner thoughts of Mr. Thomson, Mr. Hopkins, and Jessica which make them very sympathetic characters. David and Lydia remain positive, attractive people, and their thoughts are not explored. Mr Maltby may supply the reader with a bit too much information on psychic phenomenon.

J. Jefferson Farjeon was a prolific writer of mystery fiction, but his works sank into obscurity as time passed. This book, which was originally published in 1937,  has recently been reissued as part of the British Library Crime Classic series. It has an introduction by Martin Edwards.



Wednesday, July 22, 2015

When the Wind Blows by Cyril Hare

It was a great loss to the world of classical music when the excellent violinist Lucy Carless was murdered shortly before she was due to perform the Mendelssohn violin concerto with the Markshire orchestra.

Francis Pettigrew was a lawyer who had retired from the bustle of London to the town of Markhampton. His wife Eleanor was an amateur violinist who had joined the Markshire symphony orchestra. Francis was drafted to be the honorary treasurer of the orchestra committee even though he had no financial skills, and only a mild interest in classical music. It was in this position that he witnessed the events leading up to the murder. Clayton Evans, the conductor of the orchestra, proposed a program for the season's first concert which would include a Handel organ piece, the Mozart Prague symphony, and the Mendelssohn concerto. This was quite agreeable to the orchestra committee though there was some doubt about the ability of the organist, Mr. Ventry, to perform the organ piece. There was also a problem with the woodwinds. The orchestra was mainly composed of amateur performers who were mainly string players. It was thus necessary to hire brass and woodwind players for concerts, and the orchestra was short a clarinet player. It was decided to hire a Polish refugee, Mr. Zbartorowski, who had been playing with a local popular music group.

Problems started developing when the orchestra committee held a reception before the concert to welcome Lucy Carless to Markhampton. It turned out that Mr. Dixon, a member of the orchestra committee, had been Lucy's husband before they divorced. Both had since remarried and their new spouses were also at the reception. Also Lucy Carless was Polish, and she and Mr Zbartorowski had a violent argument, and he refused to play in the concert with her. Now the orchestra was again short one clarinet player, and arrangements were made to hire one from a nearby town.

Then the day of the concert arrived and things went totally wrong. The concert was supposed to start with the Handel, but Mr. Ventry did not arrive in time so the program was reversed and started with the Mozart symphony. The new clarinet player did arrive but was  a bit late. When it was time for the violin concerto, Lucy Carless was discovered to have been strangled in the room off stage where she had been waiting to perform.

Now the police took over the investigation. Inspector Trimble was new to the district, and was a bit insecure. He was assisted by Sargent Tate who was experienced and who believed that Trimble was incapable of doing any thing correctly. Trimble feared that the Chief Constable, Mr. MacWilliam, did not believe that he was capable of solving the crime. Indeed, Mr. MacWilliam didn't, and asked Francis Pettigrew for assistance. He knew that Pettigrew had helped the police in other investigations, and he asked Pettigrew to look over the evidence but to never let Trimble find out that he was helping. The relationship of these investigators with each other was one of the most interesting points of the book.

The murderer is, of course, found with both Pettigrew and Trimble contributing to the solution. The reader with a knowledge of Mozart symphonies, of Dickens, and of British law may be able to work out the solution. The actual commission of the crime was rather intricate and involved. I had trouble with two witnesses who could have provided much needed information but who had "poor eye sight".  There are rather few mysteries which involve the world of classical music, and this book is an interesting addition to this group.

Cyril Hare is the pen name of Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark. Clark was a lawyer and eventually a judge. He started writing mystery novels in 1937 with the publication of his first mystery Tenant for Death. This book was published in 1949, and is no longer in print. Used copies are available.



Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C. W. Grafton

Gil Henry, a young lawyer, was approached by a new client, Ruth McClure. Right off, she said that she wanted him to find out what shares of stock in Harper Products were worth.  He started to look at the stock listings, but she told him that she didn't want to know the market price which was 23 dollars, but wanted to know what the stock was actually worth. It seems that her father, John McClure,  had been a foreman for Harper Products for many years, and that he had died in an accident 10 days earlier. She had been approached by William Jasper Harper, the head of the company, who wanted to give her one hundred and ten dollars a share for her hundred shares of stock and all the papers which her father had related to the company. She could not understand why she had been offered such a generous price for the shares which she had inherited from her father.

Gil was a member of the firm of Mead, Opdyke, Smallwood, Garrison and Henry. He went to the senior partner, James Mead, to get approval for taking this case. He knew that James Mead had been seeing a lot of Janice Harper, the daughter of William Jasper Harper. Mead said that taking the case was ok.

When Gil got back to his residence at the YMCA, he received a call from Ruth McClure who said that someone had searched her house while she was away. She asked if Gil could come that evening to Harpersville where she lived. This was the start of the dangerous events which would happen in the previously uneventful life of short and pudgy lawyer, Gil Henry. He rented a car and on the way to Harpersville someone shot at and blew out his car tire, and the car ran off of the road. Bruised in the accident, Gil walked to Harpersville. At Ruth's house he met her adopted brother, Tim McClure, and learned more about the family finances. Her father had been making thirty five dollars a week for many years, and yet had managed to put both Ruth and Tim through college, and buy them a nice car. Obviously, there was another source of income which they did not know about. He also met their neighbor, Miss Katie, an older woman with a very disfigured face, who seemed to making a living from selling the eggs of the few chickens that she owned. She also seemed to be getting little financial gifts from William Jasper Harper.

Gil's investigation would take him to Louisville where he would steal the annual financial reports of Harper products. On his return to Harpersville, he found out that William Jasper Harper was dead, shot in the head. The whole situation became more and more complex, more murders happened,  and the dangers and the injuries of Gil would increase before he solved the murders, unraveled the mysterious finances of John McClure, and found out the true value of the stock in Harper Products.

This is a very readable book, and Grafton keeps the action going at a rapid pace.  His lawyer detective Gil Henry is a very sympathetic character. If you are familiar with the stock market, you may figure out what the motives for the crimes are before the end of the book.

Cornelius Warren Grafton (1909 - 1982) was born and grew up in China. He studied law in South Carolina, and served in World War II in the India-Burma Theater. He was a practicing lawyer in Louisville, Kentucky. He married Vivian Harnsberger and had two daughters, Ann and Sue.  His daughter Sue became a very successful mystery novelist.

This book was published in 1943. Grafton would write one more Gil Henry book in 1944. Grafton's books are out of print, but used copies are available.





Monday, May 18, 2015

Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand

Stephen Pendock was entertaining guests at his home, Pigeonsford, in Cornwall.  Lady Hart, who had been a friend of his family for years, was there with her two granddaughters Fran and Venetia. Henry Gold, Venetia's husband, was also there as was James Nicoll who was a rather sleepy looking young man who was in the British Army and spending his leave with Pendock.

Grace Morland was on the porch of the house painting yet another picture of the church tower in the snow. Grace rented a cottage from Pendock, and was in love with him. Fran came out of the house to look at the picture, and she exclaimed that Grace was painting a picture of the woods where a kitchen maid had been killed the previous summer. The poor girl had been beheaded with a large scythe, and the murderer had never been found. Grace hated Fran because Pendock, who was fifty, was in love with Fran who was lovely and only in her twenties. Indeed, Grace disliked everybody in the party except for Pendock.
 
 The group moved into the house to have tea, and Fran showed off her new and stylish hat. Grace had reached the end of her patience at this point and her jealousy of Fran showed when Grace said that she "wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch" in that hat. After this comment, Grace left the gathering and returned home. The group had dinner and played cards until ten thirty, and then apparently all went to bed.  Late in the night, Bunsen, the butler, returned from visiting his sick sister and found the body of Grace Morland, dead in a ditch and wearing Fran's hat. Grace had been decapitated.

Enter Inspector Cockrill, "a little brown man" who was said to have a heart of gold under his gruff exterior. He was know to the residents of the village as Cockie.  He had know Grace Morland for many years and thought of her as a "sentimental goat". The day after Grace was murdered, a young woman who had been staying with Grace showed up at Pendock's house. She was Pippi Le May who was Grace's cousin, and a slightly successful character actress on the West End stage. That evening, Miss Le May was also murdered and decapitated.

We now have six people who could be possible murderers, Pendock, Fran, Venetia, Henry, James, and Lady Hart. The butler, Bunsen, had been eliminated from suspicion.  None of them believed that any of the others could have committed the crimes. Both Pendock and James are in love with Fran, would like to marry her, and fear very much for her safety. Family secrets are exposed as the investigation contines.  Cockie and the members of the group come up with ways that the murder could have been committed; all of these are in one way or another unsatisfactory. I found the solution of the murders to be somewhat unsatisfactory, but it was unexpected.

This book was written in 1940, and is currently available an an ebook.  It was the first appearance of Inspector Cockrill. In this book, he is so relaxed, and so accepted by the group, that he seems to be more of a friend of the family than a police detective.

I have read this book for the 2015 Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge in the category of a book set in England or the US.




Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher

Ahasver was the leader of the religious group The Children of Light. Ahasver, wearing his trademark yellow robe, declared himself to be the Wandering Jew, and proclaimed that the gospels of the Bible were wrong, and that he preached the true gospel which was written by Joseph of Arimathea and which he had found in a Tibetan lamasery.

Wolfe Harrigan had written a book Fleece my Sheep which exposed religious rackets such as that of Ahasver. On Easter Sunday, Wolfe Harrigan was murdered in a locked room and witnesses looking through a window clearly saw Ahasver in the room but no one saw him enter or leave that room. There were one hundred and eight witnesses who would testify that Ahasver was at the Temple of Light at the time that the murder was committed.

Matt Duncan was a writer who had just been employed by Wolfe Harrigan to help in his research on phony religious groups. The Harrigans were a wealthy family. Ellen Harrigan was quite religious and contributed to Catholic charities especially to the convent of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany for whom she had recently donated funds for a new chapel. R. Joseph Harrigan had been an attorney, but was currently engaged in speaking on politics to many and varied groups. Arthur and Mary Harrigan were the children of Wolfe. Mary had been determined to go into a convent until Sister Ursula of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany talked her out of the idea.  As the investigation of the crime continue, Sister Ursula asked for information which had been found. Indeed, she was the only one who understood a clue which the dying Wolfe had left to the identity of his murderer.

Detective Lieutenant Terrance Marshall was the policeman investigating the case of Wolfe Harrigan's murder. Marshall had been a Rhodes Scholar and an all-American football player. Instead of accepting a teaching position, he had joined the Los Angeles police force as  a patrolman and had worked his way up. Marshall and Matt Duncan joined forces to try and figure out how Wolfe Harrigan could have been murdered in a locked room. They carefully analyzed the various methods in which such a murder could have been committed which were given in the book The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr. Their analysis, however, failed to find a way that the murder could have been done. It was Sister Ursula who finally figured out how the murder was committed.

This book was written in 1940 with Boucher using the pen name H. H. Holmes. He dedicated the book to John Dickson Carr. Fortunately, it is still in print.


Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Black Stage by Anthony Gilbert

 Oh, comforting - killing night!
Black stage for tragedies and murder fell!
                       - Shakespeare

 
Alistair and Anne Vereker returned home from fighting in World War II to find a situation which treatened the stability of their home and the lives of all its occupants.  Alistair had been in the military, and Anne had been a driver for military personnel in the Balkans. Four Acres, their home, was the residence of Tessa Goodier, their aunt, who was one of those helpless females who seemed incapable of understanding the more practical things of life. Her affairs had been managed by Mrs.  Dutchley, a reliable and practical woman who was the housekeeper. In Alistair's absence, the estate had been managed by the rather incompetent Mr. Bledsoe. Also living in the house, was cousin Alicia who was young and totally untrained for any occupation whatsoever.

Upon their arrival, Alistair and Anne met the two new guests of the house. There was James Goodier who was the brother of Tessa's late husband. James had spent the war years in the safety of South America and had returned to England to get the money from Tessa which he felt that he should have received in his brother's will. The greatest threat came from Lewis Bishop. Tessa said that she was in love with Bishop and that she was going to marry him. She was already giving Bishop full rights to manage Four Acres and to decide its future. Bishop wanted to sell Four Acres to an industrial concern, and after the sale, he and Tessa would move to London. Alistair felt that Four Acres should be his, Mrs. Dutchley and Alicia would lose their home, Mr. Bledsoe would lose his job, and Anne, who had know Bishop during the war, realized that he was holding a dreadful secret about her. It is no wonder that someone killed Bishop. The police found out about Anne's secret, and arrested her for the murder.

Alistair went to the lawyer, Arthur Crook, hoping that he could find a way to defend Anne. Crook believed that the only was to establish the innocence of a client was to find the guilty party, and began an investigation.  Crook wears a rather disreputable brown suit, enjoys drinking beer, and sometimes resorts to unscrupulous methods to solve crimes. He is quite middle class, and the other characters in the book tended to look down upon him. I found this book  to be well written with good plotting and intelligent conversations.

Anthony Gilbert was the pen name of Lucy Beatrice Malleson who was an early member of the Detection Club.  Her first novel featuring Crook was Murder by Experts and was published in 1936. The Black Stage was published in 1945.  Her books are no longer in print, and I found this copy at Alibris. I hope that some publisher brings her works back into print.



Sunday, April 5, 2015

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers

It all began when Harriet Vane, a noted mystery novelist, attended the Gaudy Dinner at her Oxford alma mater, Shrewsbury College. At first, Harriet was reluctant to attend because she had become involved in a notorious murder case after her graduation, and she was well aware that many people were put off by the publicity surrounding it. The dean of Shrewsbury welcomed her warmly, and Harriet felt that she could relax and enjoy her return to Oxford.

Then the mysterious events started happening. Harriet and others in the college received hateful, anonymous notes. One scholar's book manuscript was badly damaged. The new library was vandalized on the day of its opening. These and other events created an incredibly tense atmosphere in the small college, and members of the faculty started to suspect and fear each other. The Dean asked Harriet to investigate these events knowing that Harriet had assisted Lord Peter Winsey in solving an earlier mystery, and Harriet had accepted.

Harriet started observing and keeping a journal of the events. She believed that she could solve the problem on her own, but after the suicide of a student which was linked to the hostile notes, she realized that she needed help. She was very reluctant to call upon Sir Peter Wimsey who had been asking her to marry her for the last five years, but she finally decided that his help would be necessary before these events tore the college apart. The charming Lord Peter does take matters in hand and exposes the writer of the poison pen letters.

This book is an exploration of the problems that women who wanted a scholastic and scholarly career faced. They were viewed as dried up spinsters who were unable to undertake the more "feminine" career of a wife and mother. The women's college was not taken seriously by their male counterparts. The book reaches a screaming conclusion with the conflict about the roles of women in the academic world.

I read this book many, many years ago, but I have just read The Late Scholar which is the latest of Jill Paton Walsh's Lord Peter Wimsey books, and I really wanted to go back and look at Oxford in the way that Dorothy Sayers described it. As I reread Gaudy Night, I could see how much she loved the city of Oxford and the scholastic life. The descriptions of the colleges are positively glowing.

Dorothy Sayers studied at Somerville College in Oxford and graduated with honors in 1915. She received a master's degree from this college in 1920. From here she went to a position in an advertising agency, and then in 1923 to writing mystery novels  in order to earn a living. I have read that she stopped writing the mystery novels when she felt that she had enough money to enable her to undertake more scholarly endeavors such as translating The Divine Comedy.

I have also recently read A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf which was is a collection of speeches which she delivered at two women's colleges in Cambridge in 1929. In these essays, she describes the difficulties which are encountered by women who hope to become writers and scholars. Woolf always regretted that she did not receive a university education though she did have the financial means to support her writing without needing to have a job. Sayers did not have this luxury, and mystery readers have benefited from her financial needs. Gaudy Night was published in 1935, and was the next to last Peter Wimsey book. It is still in print.