Scarecrow by Eaton K. Goldthwaite

The man limped painfully through the streets of Sudwich. His right leg didn't function properly, and his right shoulder was much too low. His face was dreadfully distorted, and his cold blue eyes did not seem to see around him. This was the scarecrow.This was the man who was calling himself Cotton Kendall, and he had returned to Sudwich from World War II. The plane which he had been piloting has been shot at, set on fire, and then had crashed. William Stanczyk, the gunner, had also survived the crash.

Old Man Kendall was the wealthiest man in Sudwich because he owned the local mill. He was Cotton's father, and Cotton went to him. Old Man Kendall was hopeful that this was his son, but he was also very careful. He had received records from Marine Corps which did not clearly establish that this was Cotton. Old Man Kendall was just not sure.

Cotton went to a noted local artist, Frederick Thorne, but Cotton did not let Thorne see his disfigured face. They had been friends before Cotton left for the war, and Cotton wanted a drawing of himself from this time. Cotton took the drawing to a plastic surgeon, Doctor Julian Martens, who found his case interesting. Martens was not sure that Cotton was who he said he was, and Martens was very careful that he did not do plastic surgery on a criminal. Martens called Lieutenant Joseph Dickerson of the Boston police to look into the past history of this disfigured man. Martens also knew that he could never get the man's face to resemble the drawing which he had brought.

Meanwhile other murderous events were occurring in Sudwich. Ford Sheppard was a wealthy playboy although how much wealth he still had was questionable. Ford was scheming with Henry Heath, who was the manager of the Kendall mills, to take over control of the mills away from Old Man Kendall. Ford was having a romance with Marion Kendall who was the wife of Cotton Kendall. She had married him for his money, and thought that he was dead. Henry Heath was showing a great deal of interest in his secretary Tessie Morgan and was paying for her apartment. Tessie Morgan was showing interest in other men in Sudwich, and was the nude model of the artist Frederick Thorne. Then in one evening, both Ford Sheppard and Tessie Morgan were murdered in separate locations in Sudwich.

Lieutenant Joseph Dickerson came to Sudwich to investigate, and he was a very methodical investigator. His thinking about things was always accompanied by his chewing on his mustache. This is a complicated case, and there are a large number of suspects. Dickerson did manage to get it all solved in the end with his mustache still intact.

This book was written by Eaton Kenneth Goldthwaite and published in 1945.  Little seems to be known about Goldthwaite who lived from 1907 to 1994. He published 10 detective novels and his series character was Lieutenant Joseph Dickerson. I have found some information about Goldthwaite's career as a seargent major in Marine Bombing Squadron 433 which may be found at http://www.vmb433.com/memories.htm.   This article also says that Goldthwaite was the editor and publisher of several newspapers.

A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer

Mr. Ernest Fletcher was seated at his desk, and he was quite dead. His head had been bashed in with a blunt instrument. What this blunt instrument is will not be revealed until the end of the book. I will tell the reader that this instrument is present and visible in several episodes of the book, and if the reader can identify the blunt instrument, he or she will also know the identity of the murderer.

Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant Hemingway were called in to investigate the murder of Mr. Fletcher. The body had been discovered by police constable Glass who was investigating because he saw a stranger leaving the house. P. C. Glass was a very God fearing man and had a Bible quote ready at all times and for all events.  This ability really got on the nerves of Hannasyde and  Hemmingway as they persisted in trying to find the killer.

Mr. Ernest Fletcher had one nephew, Neville, who was to inherit all of Ernest's rather prosperous estate. Neville appeared to be too vacuous, and too detached to commit a murder. Living nearby were two sisters, one of whom did have reason to kill Ernest. Helen North was fond of gambling, and Ernest held some of the IOU's for her gambling losses. Helen definitely did not want her husband to find out about these losses. Helen's sister, Sally, was an author of mystery novels and wore a monocle. She did not seem to have a motive for killing Ernest. Ernest also had a stockbroker who was cheating him, and there was another man who was very peeved with Ernest about a dalliance which Ernest had had with a young lady. So there were certainly enough people who would want Ernest dead and a very complicated time table for the time of the murder was developed. Alas, they could not find the murder weapon.

This book was published in 1938 by Georgette Heyer who wrote 12 mystery novels. I wish she had written more instead of spending time writing all of those romance novels. Her books are witty, clever, and very entertaining. This book has an introduction by Anthony Boucher who does mention that it will be worthwhile to read this book twice, and I certainly do agree with him.

The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart

"It had been a long hard winter, with ice gorges in all the upper valley. Then, in early March, there came a thaw. The gorges broke up and began to come down, filling the rivers with crushing, grinding ice."

Elizabeth Pitman was the keeper of a cheap boarding house in the flood district of Pittsburgh. At the time of the flood, her boarders were Mr. Ladley and his wife, Jennie Brice, who was an actress in a local theater company. Mr. Ladley was supposed to be writing a play, but it is questionable whether he was doing anything at all. Also there was Mr. Zachariah Reynolds who worked in the silk department of a large department store.

When Mrs. Pitman got the news of the coming flood, she started moving the furniture to the second floor. While she was doing this, the Ladley's were having a big argument, and his wife would later say that he was a "fiend, a devil". The day went on and by evening the waters in the boarding house had risen half way up the stairs to the second floor. Mrs. Pitman even had a boat tied up to the stair case railing.

The next morning, Jennie Brice had disappeared, and her husband said that he had rowed her to Federal Street. A man came by in a boat and floated it into her house. He, Mr. Holcombe, had been feeding  dogs and cats who were being neglected because of the rising waters. While he was in the kitchen cooking liver for the dog, Mr. Ladley took his boat and left.

Mrs. Pitman and Mr. Holcombe took a look at the room which the Ladley's were using and found that Jenny Brice's clothes were missing, and they also found blood stains. Later they would find a broken knife from the kitchen in the flood waters.  Also Mrs. Pitman's onyx clock was discovered to be missing. It would definitely appear that Jennie Brice had been murdered, but later it was the testimony of a young newpaper reporter, Ellis Howell, that he had seen Jenny Brice very much alive on the day after she was supposed to have been murdered. A headless dead body was found as the flood waters receded, but another witness swore that she had seen Jennie Brice on two days after the murder was supposed to have taken place. This book presents the dilemma of whether or not Jennie Brice was alive, and a jury trial of Mr. Ladley was held even though this question was not answered when the trial began.

Mary Roberts Rinehart was born in and grew up in Pittsburgh in the section of the city described in this book. She wrote her first novel, The Circular Staircase, in 1907. There was a major flood in Pittsburgh in 1907 which she would have witnessed. The Case of Jennie Brice was written in 1913.

Cold Poison by Stuart Palmer

Murder at a movie studio provides a challenge for Hildegarde Withers, school teacher and amateur detective. She had left New York hoping that the climate of Los Angeles would help her asthma, but now she was getting a bit bored. She was also across the country from her crime solving friend, Inspector Oscar Piper, of the New York Ciry Police Department. Then she received a visit from Ralph Cusak, a production manager for a movie studio which produced animated movies (sort of like Disney). Mr. Cusak wanted to hire her to find out who was sending threatening valentines to members of the studio staff. She was to pretend to be the keeper of her dog, Talleyrand, who was to pose as the model for a new cartoon movie, The Circus Poodle.

Hildegard wanted to get a good start on her new job so early in the morning of the next day, she went to meet Larry Reed at his home. Larry was a cartoonist and was know for his practical jokes which made him seem to be a likely candidate for the valentine sender. She found Larry Reed dead in his bedroom. He had been poisoned with an extract of poison ivy which is a very unusual material to use for murder. Hilda questioned the members of the studio staff, but felt that she could not solve the crime on her own so she called Oscar Piper to travel to the west coast to help her. I was a bit disappointed in this move. I felt that she could have solved it on her own.

Anyway, Hildegarde and Oscar did investigate, and did find the murderer. The final clue which lead to the identity of the killer was something which we have all observed in our cartoon watching days but have probably never consciously noticed.

This is a fun read, but it is a very light weight mystery novel. There are bits of humor along the way, and it is interesting to watch the workings of a cartoon studio in 1954. I am sure that it has all been changed by now.