The Tannahill Tangle by Carolyn Wells (1928)

 

This is Fleming Stone #25.

About the author: Carolyn Wells (1862-1942) was married to Hadwin Houghton, the heir of the Houghton-Mifflin publishing empire. Like Mary Roberts Rinehart, being in a publishing family created an easy pipeline for getting her works into print. She wrote a total of more than 170 books. See this Wikipedia article.

Major characters: (ages listed, as the age groupings are a significant plot point.)

• Patterson "Pat" Grant, our narrator, age 27
• Captain Charley Kipp, age 50
• Bert Gilray, the groom
• Alexandra "Sannie" Crane, the bride, age 21
• Jim Tannahill, uncle of Sannie, age 54
• Muriel Tannahill, his trophy wife, age 25
• Ellis Ellison, the Apollo god type
• Kathleen Ellison, his cougar wife
• Sheridan "Sherry" Masters, family lawyer
• Violet Lane, maid of honor
• Miss Amanda "Mandy" Folsom, Muriel's elderly spinster cousin
• Anne Alden, "The Girl in Blue"
• Detective Dawlish
• Fleming Stone, private detective

Locale: the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts

Synopsis: We join Patterson "Pat" Grant (27), narrator, as he meets up with Captain Charley Kipp (50) on their way by train from New York City to the Massachusetts mansion of Jim Tannahill (54) and his much younger trophy wife Muriel Tannahill (25).

The occasion is an engagement party for Jim's niece/ward, Alexandra "Sannie" Crane (21) to Pat Grant's old buddy, Bert Gilray.  As they arrive, there is much raised-eyebrow anxiety about the Ellisons who will be attending: Ellis Ellison, a young god-like type, and his much older cougar wife, Kathleen Ellison. 

Muriel's cousin, elderly spinster Amanda "Mandy" Folsom reveals the drama everyone knows about - a love quadrangle: Jim Tannahill with Kathleen Ellison, and Muriel Tannahill with Ellis Ellison. These matchings bring together couples of similar ages; and they make no attempt to hide it. Pat questions why they do not all divorce and remarry all around, but being Roman Catholic, it is prohibited by their religion. Mandy has some heavy religion herself, and proclaims herself to be God's agent in bringing about retribution for these sinful relationships. 

The group gathers to admire a box of precious jewels which will pass from Jim to Sannie upon her marriage. As they gather for cocktails, the Tannahills and Ellisons cannot be found. The butler forces the locked door of the library to find Jim and Kathleen both shot dead, with Ellis and Muriel engaged in a tête-à-tête in an upstairs alcove. The authorities arrive, led by Detective Dawlish. With the room locked, Ellis and Muriel are the top suspects, but even their stories do not agree.

On top of the disruption of the murder, an unknown woman is found sleeping in Grant's bed. She claims she has lost her memory* and doesn't even know her name - so she is referred to as "The girl in blue". Then she disappears as quickly as she appeared. As the investigation grinds to a standstill, Fleming Stone arrives, and sees things the others all missed.

Review: This has a well done introduction, as Pat and Kipp travel on the train together and Kipp provides thumbnail sketches of all the characters to Pat, which introduces them to the reader as well. 

This was the best Fleming Stone story I have read thus far - even though he, as usual, only shows up late in the book (page 216!). The story is not dated at all, and could easily be present day. Wells had fun writing this one. In the beginning, the characters are all agog over "The Casey Case", a popular detective novel. Grant declares himself an expert on deduction, on the basis of having read so many mystery stories!

The locked room aspect is revealed as a clever but simple twist.

*The text refers to the loss of memory (which we know as "amnesia") as "aphasia", which is a different condition (word selection and speech difficulty). Perhaps the meaning of the term has changed over time.

Please visit me on Goodreads and check out The Mystillery Reading Challenges!