Death in the Back Seat by Dorothy Cameron Disney

Jack and Lola Storm decided to leave the expensive life in New York City, and move to a small town where life would cheaper and more peaceful. Lola was an author and Jack was a painter. They found a charming cottage in Crockford, Connecticut. They rented this cottage from Luella Coatesnash, a sixty something woman, who lived in a much larger house nearby. Mrs. Coatesnash repeatedly asked them to run little errands for her - a trip to the grocery store or pharmacy. Jack and Lola did these little trips because they were basically nice people, and they didn't want to antagonize their landlady.

In February, Mrs. Coatesnash told them that she was leaving for a trip abroad. The handyman Silas Elkins would be around to help them if they needed any assistance. After she had gone, the Storms received a very strange phone call. The man calling said his name was Elmer Lewis and the Mrs. Coatenash had said the Jack would pick him up in New Haven and drive him to Crockford. Jack agreed to do this even though he had second thoughts, but did not know how to contact Elkins.

So Jack and Lola drove to New Haven in the rain, and picked up Lewis at the train station. Lewis put a suitcase in the front seat, and said that he would ride in the rumble seat, in the rain. Jack and Lola thought this a very odd arrangement, and Lola observed Lewis watching them through the back window during the trip. Jack drove back at such a speed that he was stopped on the way by police officer Lester Harkway who gave him a warning, not a ticket. When they got to Crockford, they stopped so that Jack could go to the grocery store and Lola to the drug store, leaving Lewis in the rumble seat. When they got back to the car, Lewis was dead. He had been shot.

The police were called and officer John Standish considered the evidence and seemed to decide that Jack and Lola were the murderers. This was a decision which would be changed as the investigation continued. Things was become much more complex, and Jack and Lola would take an active part in the final solution of the mystery.

I really enjoyed this book. It is well written with a remarkable number of complications and loose ends to be tied up. Dorothy Cameron Disney was born in Oklahoma in 1903. She worked as a secretary, copywriter, and night club hostess before she took up writing. She only wrote 9 novels. Death in the Back Seat was published in 1936.