The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie, 1924

 

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Apr 21 2024: reading now, please check back soon. RM

Major characters:

• Madame Nadine, a dancer and a spy
• Count Sergius Pavolvitch, Russian spy
• Anne Beddingfeld, young adventurer, our protagonist
• L.B. Carton, "Mothball Man", electrocuted on the third rail
• Sir Eustace Pedler, M.P., owner of the house to let
• Mrs. deCastina, victim found in Pedler's house
• The Man in the Brown Suit, a.k.a. The Fake Doctor
• Lord Masby, publisher of The Daily Budget
• Colonel Race
• Mrs. Clarence Blair

Synopsis:

Upon the passing of her father, young Anne Beddingfeld is ready to leave London to seek adventure and romance. She is standing on the subway platform when another passenger is startled and falls off the platform, getting himself electrocuted on the third rail. As she watches, he is hauled off the tracks and declared dead by a man claiming to be a doctor. She observes his procedure is quite un-doctor-like. As he departs the scene, he drops a paper with a notation: 17 . 122 Kilmorden Castle.

The Daily Budget reports the victim was identified as L.B. Carton, and was carrying a real estate order-to-view for Mill House,  up for rent by Sir Eustace Pedler, M.P. Not only that, but a murdered woman was found in Mill House, identified as Mrs. deCastina. She also had an order-to-view, and met a man there, apparently her murderer. He was wearing a distinctive brown suit, and Anne realizes that he is the fake doctor from the subway incident.

Anne noticed the dead man had a distinct mothball odor, so she refers to him as "Mothball Man". She approaches Scotland Yard with her information, but the inspector there seems uninterested. She then goes to the pubisher of The Daily Budget, Lord Nasby, who agrees to support her in her amateur investigation in search of a publishable story.

She tries to locate Kilmorden Castle without luck, then finds it is not a place, but the name of a passenger liner. She books passage on it to South Africa. 

Review:

You may also enjoy Review #1 and Review #2 by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.

My Late Wives by Carter Dickson, 1946

 

Major characters:

Roger Bewlay - the killer husband

Angela Phipps - late wife #1

Elizabeth Posner - late wife #2

Andrée Cooper - late wife #3

(Unnamed) - late wife #4

Mildred Lyons - witness

Beryl West - theatre director

Dennis Foster - attorney

Bruce Ransom - actor

Daphne Herbert - bait in the trap

John Herbert - her father

Sir Henry Merrivale

Inspector Masters

Synopsis:

Scotland Yard has been after Roger Bewlay ever since a string of murders eleven years ago, in which he killed four wives in succession to gain their money. No bodies were ever found, and all they have to go on is a witness to the fourth, Mildred Lyons.

Now theatre director Beryl West invites her friend, attorney Dennis Foster, to meet famed leading-man actor Bruce Ransom. Someone has sent him the manuscript of a play based on Bewlay's murders. There are details in the play known only to the killer and the police, leading them to suspect Bewlay is the author.

In an attempt to flush Bewlay out, Ransom pretends to be Bewlay and starts a relationship with Daphne Herbert, following the plot of the play. 

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, 1920

 

Image only - no review

You may enjoy this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block. 

A Graveyard to Let by Carter Dickson, 1949

 

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Major characters:

Frederick Manning, widower

Irene Stanley, his new girlfriend 

Crystal Manning, 24, his daughter

Bob Manning, 22, his son

Jean Manning, 21, his daughter

Huntington Davis Jr., "Dave", Jean's fiancé

Cy Norton, newspaperman

Howard Betterton, attorney

Gilbert Byles, D.A.

Sir Henry Merrivale

Synopsis:

Sir Henry Merrivale is in New York City. He astounds his companions by demonstrating passing through a subway turnstile without paying.

His friend, widower Frederick Manning, operates a prep school rumored to be in financial difficulty. Manning goes to his bank and apparently withdraws a large sum of cash. He meets with his three children: Bob, Crystal, and Jean and explains that he is going to run away with Irene Stanley, that he never liked them but is making sure they are provided for; and that he will disappear and never be seen again.

The Manning family estate includes a swimming pool, baseball diamond, and an old cemetery. The next day the family is at the swimming pool. Jean, her fiancé Huntington "Dave", and attorney Howard Betterton are in the water. Fred Manning dives into the pool but does not come up. The pool is searched but he is not found. 

H.M. knows how it was done, but he only says it was the same principle he used in passing through the subway turnstiles.

You may enjoy this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block. 

The Perfect Crime by Ellery Queen, 1942

 

Major characters:

Ellery Queen, detective

Nikki Porter, his secretary

Walter Mathews, young millionaire

John Mathews, his uncle, a stock swindler

Carlotta "Aunty Carlo" Emerson, Walter's maiden aunt with the on/off accent

Togo, her pet chimpanzee

Arthur Rhodes, a lawyer, partner of John

Raymond Garten, rare book collector

Marian, his daughter, fiancée of Walter

Henry Griswold, his librarian

Locale: New York City

Synopsis:

Rich Walter Mathews comes to ask Ellery Queen for his help. His uncle, John Mathews, has swindled many people with oil well stock scams; including Raymond Garten, the father of Walter's fiancée, Marian Garten.

Raymond Garten, now broke, is forced to auction his beloved rare book collection. Altruistic Walter has an idea: He gives Ellery $250k to purchase the collection for him as a third-party, so Raymond will be unaware Walter is the buyer. He plans to give it to Marian as a wedding gift, so that it will stay in the Garten family and Raymond will be unable to refuse it. Ellery buys the lot and moves it to Walter's home; next door to the Mathews home.

No sooner has this been accomplished than John Mathews is found dead in his study. 

Review:

This book is prefaced with "Based on the Columbia Motion Picture Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime", an ominous admission that it was back-written from the movie - generally a bad sign, and one that the Queen authors (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee) had little to do with writing it. Eye-rolling continued when I find that one of the characters is a chimpanzee who has been taught how to shoot a gun (thought this sort of thing went out with Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue).

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a respectable, concise plot; in the same vein as Queen's country-titled novels of the same era (Chinese Orange, French Powder, etc). My 1942 Grosset & Dunlap edition has a sketch map of the crime scene in Chapter 6 (p. 75), which is essential if you wish to figure out how the murder occurred, and careful study of the map itself may provide the answer for you.

A rather humorous aside is the conversations in which the investigators speculate 1). does a chimpanzee have fingerprints, and 2). if so, is it possible to take them?

And Four To Go by Rex Stout, 1959

 

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Four novellas:

 Christmas Party:  Archie Goodwin is invited to an office Christmas party. The bartender is dressed as Santa Claus, a guest winds up poisoned, and Santa disappears leaving his outfit behind in the elevator.

 Easter Parade:  An orchid grower's wife is going to display a one-of-a-kind orchid on her outfit at a Fifth Avenue church on Easter Sunday. Nero Wolfe wants to get the orchid, but as his sketchy hireling  "Tabby" reaches for it, the woman falls down dead.

 Fourth of July Picnic:  Nero Wolfe is invited to be one of the speakers at a union picnic. Just as begins his speech, one of the other speakers is found stabbed to death behind the stage.

 Murder in No Joke:  A woman and calls on Nero Wolfe, makes a phone call from his office, and hands the phone to Wolfe just in time for him to hear the woman on the other end of the call killed. Was it real or was it staged? The woman is dead, and another woman who may have a conspirator is found dead also.  

Fer-de-lance by Rex Stout, 1934

 

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No review, cover image only.