About the author: Richard Orson Lockridge (1898 –1982) was an American writer of detective fiction. He began the Captain Heimrich series with his wife Frances (1896-1963), and continued the series following her death.
Major characters:
- Enid Towne, our protagonist
- Martha Towne, her recently-deceased mother
- Albert and Emily Mills, caretakers of the Connecticut house
- "Aunt" Lily Wexford Stanton, co-owner of The Hilltop Club
- Neal Stanton, her husband
- Angela Parkins, housekeeper at The Hilltop Club
- Ted Hadley, a guest
- Tommy Thompson, a guest
- Samuel Thompson, a guest, Tommy's brother - or is he Anthony Rizzo?
- Nathaniel & Betty Clemson, guests, the young lovers
Locale: Connecticut and North Carolina
Synopsis: Enid Towne is tired from dealing with all the responsibility following the death of her widowed mother, Martha Towne. Enid prepares to put their large 17-room Connecticut mansion on the market. The house is so large, there are two live-in caretakers - Albert Mills and his wife Emily Mills. Martha had tried to keep the estate up to the condition it was kept by her late husband, but this has drained her capital over the years; so now there is lots of property but little cash.
Enid receives an invitation from her former neighbor, "Aunt" Lily Stanton, who now lives in North Carolina. She and her much-younger husband, Neal Stanton, built The Hilltop Club, a private invitation-only vacation club. This allows them to invite the sorts of people they "like", and exclude any (minorities) they don't. Enid accepts and flies to North Carolina to stay at the club for a while.
The first night, Enid's sleep is disturbed by an apparent fight on the terrace below her window. The next day, guest Samuel Thompson is missing. The police are called in, drag the lake, and recover his body - tied up and weighted down with a rock.
Another guest, Ted Hadley, annoys Enid with his persistent questioning about what she saw, and personal details about her background. Enid rebuffs him repeatedly, asking him if he is with the police - which he denies. He mentions the dead man is not really Samuel Thompson, but Anthony Rizzo, a construction company owner from Connecticut.
Review: Anyone who has dealt with settling their parents' estate and liquidating the family home will recognize the deep responsibility in the opening chapter - it is a somber process.
The descriptions of the Hilltop Club are enjoyable, although this book could have benefitted from a sketch map of the place.
I had expected to action to move back to Connecticut, but everything wrapped in North Carolina; so we don't find out if the Towne property sold or not.
The 1970's show through here, will thinly-disguised racism: the Stantons don't want any Blacks for guests, but they are perfectly fine having them as servants. As in other Lockridge books, constant drinking is featured throughout. And the interstate highway boom is in full swing - which is part of the plot.
It seems the conservative North Carolina liquor laws about mixed drinks and private clubs described in the book - which were strange to begin with - persisted in some form until 2022 but have now changed substantially. Check the changes before traveling there and drinking.
Also see this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.
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