Seven Were Veiled by Kathleen Moore Knight, 1937

 

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About the author: Kathleen Moore Knight (1890-1984) is one of my absolute favorite authors. She wrote 34 mystery novels, most set on fictional Penberthy Island off Massachusetts, all published by the Crime Club; with a few under the pseudonym of Alan Amos. See my post All I Know about Kathleen Moore Knight, as well as this Wikipedia article and her booklist  on Fantastic Fiction.   

Major characters:

* Phyllis "Phil" Heath, would-be bride, our protagonist

Christopher Bryan, her fiancé

Marvin Heath, her foster father

Dwight Garrison, wannabe groom

* Francine Drake, young gold-digging widow

Norman Brent, orchestra leader

* Corliss Brent, his wife

Pete Bishop, travel agent

* Anita Templeton-Smith, wedding planner

* Aunt Laurie Ferris, Phyllis' aunt, Marvin's sister-in-law

* Ailsa Breton, writer

Dudley Houghton, Marvin's attorney

Elisha Macomber, chairman of the Board of Selectmen

Bill Deeter, private investigator from Boston

Dr. Larcom Sargent

Dr. Franklin Tolman

Bellows, the Heath's butler

* Hattie Parsons, the Heath's cook

Lisa, the Heath's maid

* The title indicates the seven women known to wear veils, indicated by * in the list above: one wedding veil (worn by both Phyllis Heath and Francine Drake), one allergy veil (Aunt Laurie Ferris), and four fashion veils (four others).

Locale: Penberthy Island, off Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Synopsis: It is the night before the wedding  of Phyllis Heath and Christopher Bryan on Penberthy Island. All is not well - Phyllis' foster father, Marvin Heath, is against the wedding; and wants to substitute Dwight Garrison as the groom, no matter what Phyllis wants. Marvin issues an ultimatum - he will sign a new will if she marries Bryan, leaving his $5M estate to charity instead of to her.

As Phyllis frets about what to do, Marvin takes ill after the rehearsal dinner and dies. First suspicion is poisoning from mushrooms provided for the dinner by Elisha Macomber - yet everyone ate them but only Marvin had ill effects. Then suspicion is directed at a medicine, and word circulates that a woman wearing a veil was seen exiting Marvin's room after the poisoning.

Someone steals Phyllis' veil, and Phyllis sees Francine Drake, a widow who had eyes on Marvin, carry it into the woods. She follows only to find Christopher and a dead body - a man no one recognizes. Francine does not return the house, and a search finds her stranded on a sand bar with the tide rising. 

Christopher is arrested for the murder of the unknown man, and the poisoning of Marvin. Following a newspaper story, the dead man is identified as Franklin Tolman, a Boston doctor.

Elisha Macomber heads up the investigation, competing with a hotshot private investigator from Boston, Bill Deeter.

Review: Lots of possibilities to ponder in this one. There are three possible poisons that took out Marvin, each connected to a different character. Lots of poison information as well, including belladonna/deadly nightshade, a bit concerning to me as this summer we found this growing wild on the fence surrounding our garden! 

The high drama point is the ocean rescue of Francine who is stuck on a sand bar as the tide is coming in. This scene was well done and exciting.

The situation of Phyllis having to choose between grooms - on her wedding night! - seemed farfetched and like something out of the Old Testament - like Jacob, Rachel, and Leah in reverse. 

There are lots of veils to go around, but the wedding veil is the primary one of interest. Hattie wears an "allergy veil" which was prescribed to her to block allergens  - apparently a complicated alternative to a simple mask. My wife is a nurse, and has allergies, but has never heard of such a thing. The fashion veils are mentioned briefly but not pertinent.

The cast of characters is way too large, I left a few out of the list. It could easily have been cut in half without affecting the plot. 

Elisha's ongoing competition with hotshot P.I. Deeter did distract from his investigation. I enjoy in other stories how he goes it alone. This is one of the earliest Elisha stories, and one thing I find distracting is when the author renders his dialect phonetically. It is not always obvious what he is saying, and I had to "sound it out". It seems she did this less and less and the series continued.