A Verdict of Twelve by Raymond Postgate

Today, novels about jury trials focus on the efforts of flashy lawyers who try to persuade jurors that their client is innocent. The jurors always seem to be 12 people who are rather dim witted and have no personalities. In the mystery Verdict of Twelve, Postgate takes a very different approach. The book begins with a look at each one of the jurors, ten men and two women, so that the reader is aware of their personality, their past, and the events in their life which could effect their decisions.

Mrs. Rosalie van Beer is on trial for the murder of her young nephew. Mrs. van Beer disliked her nephew, and he, in turn, hated her.The lawyers are not especially gifted. A very unusual form of poison was used in the crime, and the elderly family physician and a young doctor he called in to assist failed to detect it in time.

The case proceeded in the usual manner. The jury members did have their person thoughts as testimony was heard. Then the jury members retired to the jury room to reach their verdict. I will not provide a spoiler by telling you any more. I enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it.

Raymond Postgate (1896 - 1971) was from a wealthy family and studied at St. John's college, Oxford. He rebelled against his conservative family and he refused to serve in the army He joined the Communist party but left it later to join the Labour party. This book, Verdict of Twelve, which was published in 1940 has long been considered as a crime classic. Postgate wrote 2 other mysteries which were poorly received, and he quite trying to write mystery novels and, instead, began writing The Good Food Guide.

I have read this book for the 2018 Just the Facts, Ma'am challenge. It will be entered in my detective notebook in the Category Where - Features a courtroom scene. Indeed this novel mainly deals with courtroom scenes.

The Crimson Clue by George Harmon Coxe

Kent Murdock found that photographing a wedding reception turned out to lead to a hunt for a murderer. Murdock was the chief photographer of the Courier newspaper. The job of photographing the wedding was not for the newspaper. Instead it was a private job for Patricia Canning, a member of high society, and a friend of Murdock. She was going to marry Roger Armington who was also a high ranking member of society.

Murdock arrived at the wedding reception and took all of the expected shots of the wedding preparations, and the expected shots of the reception. Then he found that he was running out of film and needed a quiet place to put new film in his camera. His search for this spot took him to the third floor of this rather palatial house. When he opened a door, he found it was a closet and that the closet held a dead body. Murdock took pictures of the body, and then made a big mistake. He decided to wait to report the murder to the police until it was possible for this to be a big story in the Courier. However the murderer was ahead of him. When Murdock returned to place where he had stored his cameras and film, he found that it had all been stolen. When he returned to the closet with the body, he found that the body had also disappeared.

Murdock set out on a hunt for the dead body,  for the murderer, and for his stolen cameras. The cameras may have been the main reason for this hunt, but Murdock also hoped that his search would lead to a big story in the Courier. Murdock's search would involve the powerful Canning family and their paid detectives, popular musicians, and an attractive young woman named Audrey Wayne. He would also be introduced to the newest technology - the tape recorder.

George Harmon Coxe wrote 63 mystery novels - 23 of these dealing with the adventures of Kent Murdock. Coxe was named a Grand Master of Mystery in 1964. I like Murdock because he is more laid back than the private detectives of this period, and really a nice guy.

Bad for Business by Rex Stout

When Amy Duncan woke up, she found that her hand was in something wet. Further examination showed that it was a pool of blood coming from the body of her uncle Arthur Tingley who was very dead.

It all started when two large food corporations stated their wish to buy out Tingley Tidbits which was the company Arthur Tingley headed. Then quinine was found to have been added to some Tidbits products, and Tingley sales went down. Amy was hired to find out what was going, but after an angry dispute with her uncle, Amy furiously ran out of the building, ran blindly across the street, and ran into the car which was being driven by detective Tecumseh Fox. Fox, always a gentleman, took Amy home and learned the whole story of the Tingley Tidbits problems.

Later that day, Amy received a call from Arthur Tingley asking her to come to his office that evening. When she got there, she saw his body on the floor. Then somebody hit her over the head and knocked her out. When she came to, she called Tecumseh Fox to come to this office. He surveyed the body, and sent Amy to a doctor. Amy was suspected of the murder by Inspector Damon of the New York homicide squad, and Tecumseh resolved to get her out of trouble and to find out who murdered Arthur Tingley.

What follows is a very readable story which involves industrial espionage, family problems, and a little love story.

Rex Stout is quite well know for his Nero Wolfe books, but he also wrote three books which feature detective Tecumseh Fox. Fox is much more active physically than Wolfe is, but they seem to operate in the area of New York but never seem to encounter each other. This book was published in 1940.

Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne

Miss Mary Gregor was murdered in her bedroom in Duchlan Castle. The white haired lady was found kneeling by her bed as though in prayer. She had received a dreadful knife wound in her chest. The puzzling thing was that the room was locked. Nobody could have entered because the door was locked on the inside and could not be unlocked from the hall. The windows were closed and could not be opened from the outside. The bedroom did not have secret passages or secret doors.

At first, amateur crime solver, Dr. Eustace Hailey, who was in the neighborhood was called to investigate by Mr. Leod McLeod, the Procurator Fiscal of Mid-Argyll in Scotland. Dr. Hailey's inspection of the room turned up a fish scale in the wound which would mean that the knife used had been in the kitchen or on a local fishing boat.

Dr. Hailey interviewed the members of the family. Miss Gregor's brother, the Laird Duchlan, was extremely upset at her death, but would not talk about her. His son, Eoghan Duclan, had just returned to the castle from his military service. Eoghan had a great enjoyment of gambling and was financially troubled. Eoghan's wife Oonagh was apparently a very unhappy woman. She seemed to be showing an interest in the local doctor, Dr. McDonald. There were also the servants who had been with the family a long time. Christina was now the nurse for Oonagh's son Hamish who was sick, and the butler, Angus, who was also the castle piper.

Then the police arrived in the person of young Inspector Robert Dundas. Dundas took over the investigation and told Dr. Hailey that he did not need his assistance, and that Hailey could leave the castle. Hailey remained in the neighborhood and his talk with the local residents yielded the information that Miss Mary Gregor had been very kind and generous to the poor and the gypsies in the area, but she did not have any friends of her own social class.

Dundas finally has to admit to Dr. Hailey that he getting nowhere in his investigation, and that if he doesn't succeed in finding the murderer he will lose his status in the police department.  He asked Dr. Hailey to help him. Here we find too different approaches to solving a mystery. Dundas follows a fact based approach and seeks for clues. Dr. Hailey believes that the solution of the mystery will be found in learning the characters of the victim and those people who had dealings with her.

The situation in the castle became much more complicated, and two more murders occurred. Christina and Angus believed in local folktales and thought that evil spirits were the murderers.  The family members were reticent about sharing family secrets, and the police called to investigate nominate a family member to arrest, but something always goes wrong with their plans. Dr. Hailey conducts many interrogations of the family, and finally finds the identity of the murderer, and a rather unusual method of conducting a locked room murder.

Anthony Wynne was a pseudonym of Robert McNair Wilson (1882-1963) who was a Glasgow-born physician. Wynne wrote twenty-seven detective novels featuring Eustace Hailey. Wynne wrote a variety of other things which included a medical column in the newspaper and a biography of Napoleon. He wrote some excellent locked room mysteries, but his books have been long out of print. Murder of a Lady was published in 1931, and has been reprinted by Poisoned Pen Press. It has an introduction by Martin Edwards.

Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh

It is rather rare in mystery literature for someone to be shot by a piano, but this does occur when the residents of Pen Cuckoo put on their theatrical performance.

These residents had gathered to plan a dramatic performance to benefit the church youth group. There was Jocelyn Jerningham who proudly surveyed his land holdings in Penn Cuckoo He was the seventh Jocelyn Jerningham to hold his house and lands. His son, Henry, would inherit the land and house. Henry was currently in love with Dinah Copeland who was the daughter of the vicar. Unfortunately she did not have the money which Jocelyn needed to maintain his holdings, so the prospects for Henry and Dinah's wedding did not look good. Diana was at the meeting along with her father, Reverend Copeland.  Dinah was studying theater and had been in several plays so she would be directing the performance.

Also attending were two middle aged village spinsters, Idris Campanula  and Eleanor Prentiss. Both were interested in Reverend Copeland who was now a widower. Both women had developed a strong interest in the church, and both went to confession with the reverend. Doctor Templett was there, and he had brought Miss Ross. Miss Ross was new to the village, and she was not well received by the others at the meeting. She was considered to be socially beneath them, but she dressed well. Dr. Templett showed quite an interest in her even though he was married but his wife was an invalid who never left home.

The first thing this group had to decide was which play to perform. This was a controversial topic but finally the choice of the play advocated by Miss Ross and Dinah was chosen. The rehearsals commenced and they were a disaster. Dinah was reaching her wit's end. The players did not learn their lines, and forget where they were to stand. Things did not at all seem promising for the performance. Then there was a battle over who would play the music for the beginning of the play. Miss Prentiss wanted to play her perpetual piece which she always played, but she had seriously injured her finger. It was decided at the very last moment, that Miss Campanula would play the opening music.

Every thing was ready, the audience was seated. Miss Campanula sat at the piano and started playing. When she pressed the soft pedal, she was shot by the piano which was holding a revolver.

Scotland Yard was called to investigate this murder. The Yard arrived in the person of Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his assistant, Inspector-Detective Fox. Soon their favorite journalist, Nigel Bathgate arrived, and the investigative team was complete. They interview all concerned in the performance and examined significant clues such as a child's toy and an onion before they finally could name the murderer.

This book was published in 1939 and was the seventh mystery in Alleyn series which was written by Dame Ngaio Marsh. I have read the book for the 2018 Just the Facts, Ma'am Mystery Challenge. It is entered in my detective notebook in the category of Why - an author who I have read and loved before.

The Curved Blades by Caroline Wells

Miss Lucy Carrington was the matriarch of the family, and she was not a very nice woman. She was wealthy and possessed a fortune in jewels yet she had been unhappy all of her life because she was unattractive. She had never married, and she still at age 50 was hoping to find a man. She had two relatives, her niece Pauline Stuart who lived with her, and her nephew, Carrington Loria who was an amateur archaeologist who was currently in Egypt excavating. These two relatives would each receive half of her estate upon her death. Miss Lucy had a secretary, Anita Fayne, whom she treated very poorly, and a business manager, Gray Haviland. Pauline and Anita were both attractive which made Miss Lucy very jealous and which drew constant criticism from her.   Miss Lucy was hoping that she could attract the attention of Count Charlier and lure him to marry her.

Then one evening she had dinner with all the people named above. They played bridge. Miss Lucy was a very temperament bridge played and would get angry and throw her cards around the room when she was losing. Later Pauline and Anita came to her room, and Miss Lucy got angry and told both of them to leave the house the next morning.

The next morning, Miss Lucy was found dead in her rooms. She was sitting facing her mirror with a smile on her face, and she was wearing the most valuable of her jewels. She had a paper snake wrapped around her neck which was very odd because she was terrified of snakes, and she had one of Count Charier's gloves in her hand. She had been hit over the head which appeared to be the way that she was killed. An autopsy revealed, however, that she had been poisoned with aconitine; she had been hit over the head after she was dead from the poison. The local police interviewed everyone and it seemed that several of the people in Miss Lucy's life were in the hall that evening. Anita admitted listening outside of Miss Carington's door and hearing her speaking to someone, but she could not hear the other person's voice.

The police failed to come up with a satisfactory suspect, so it was decided to call in Fleming Stone, a professional investigator. He interviewed the occupants of the house, and examined Miss Lucy's room in detail, and fell in love with one of the suspects which rather clouded his view of the investigation. He did find the murderer, but it must be admitted that the most important clue that he found should have been found by the police but they were rather careless by modern standards.

This book was written in 1915 by Caroline Wells. I found it to be an interesting read. I did guess the identity of the murderer before Fleming Stone did, but I could not have proved it until Stone found the crucial piece of evidence. You may wonder, as I did,  about the title of the book and what curved blades have to do with the story since blades are never mentioned. They will be explained at the very end of the book. This book is currently available in paperback and as an e-book.