Foggy, Foggy Death by Richard & Frances Lockridge, 1950

 

Series: This is Captain Heimrich #4.

About the author: Richard Orson Lockridge (1898 –1982) was an American writer of detective fiction. Richard Lockridge with his wife Frances (1896-1963) created one of the most famous American mystery series, Mr. and Mrs. North. (wikipedia).

Major characters:

• Lucretia Bromwell, the matriarch widow
• Scott Bromwell, her son
• Marta Bromwell, Scott's wife
• Elspeth "Pethy" Bromwell, their daughter
• Laurence "Lorry" Bromwell, their son
• Karen Mason, Lucretia's secretary
• William, the butler
• Flora, the maid
• Pauline James, the children's nurse
• Everett Hume, a.k.a. Stephen Nickel, the mysterious stranger
• Bill Higgins, a small time thief
• Captain Merton Heimrich

Locale: Westchester County, New York

Synopsis: The Bromwell estate, High Ridge, is controlled by widow matriarch Lucretia Bromwell. The estate is the center of a lot of drama; all revolving around Scott Bromwell's wife, Marta Bromwell. No one really wants her around, and Scott would love to separate if he can manage to keep the kids, Elspeth and Laurence. Tiptoeing around the family is Lucretia's secretary, Karen Mason, the only normal one of the batch, and our protagonist.

The fog has settled in firmly one night when everything happens all at once. A stranger, Everett Hume, shows up, looking to use the phone to call in help with his flat tire. Young Laurence has disappeared, and has apparently gone outside somewhere. During the search for Laurence, Karen Mason wanders into a swampy area and trips over the body of Marta. Everett Hume comes to her aid and declares it was murder. 

Police pull over a stop-sign violation and find a small time crook, Bill Higgins, driving the Bromwell Cadillac, with no explanation but a box full of Marta's jewels on board. Captain Merton Heimrich finds him the obvious suspect in Marta's death, but that only lasts until Higgins is murdered as well.

 

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

 

Death in a Sunny Place by Richard Lockridge, 1971

 

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. 

Not I, Said the Sparrow by Richard Lockridge, 1973

 

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:

• Arthur Jameson, wealthy master of The Tor
• Ursula Jameson, his spinster sister
• Rebecca Jameson, his first wife (dead prior to story)
• Ronald Jameson, son of Arthur and Rebecca
• Janet, Arthur's second wife (dead prior to story)
• Estelle Tennant, daughter of Arthur and Janet
• Dr. James Tennant, Estelle's husband
• Dorothy "Dot" Selby, Arthur's secretary, soon to be Arthur's wife #3
• Geoffrey Rankin, Dorothy's distant cousin
• Florence Selby, real estate agent, Dorothy's mother
• Barnes, the Jameson's valet/butler
• Captain Merton L. Heimrich, NY State Police
• Lieutenant Charlie Forniss, NY State Police

Locale: New York state

Synopsis: Merton and Susan Heimrich are invited to a birthday party for elderly Arthur Jameson, a Van Brunt local living in a castle-like mansion named "The Tor". They feel a bit out of place, but attend anyway. Arthur shocks the guests with a surprise announcement that he is going to marry his young secretary, Dorothy Selby. Everyone assumed Dorothy was the girlfriend of Geoffrey Rankin, although they describe themselves as distant cousins. 

The next morning Heimrich gets a call: Jameson has been found dead on a rowboat on a small lake on his estate, shot with an arrow. Heimrich goes to the Selby home and finds Dorothy unaware her fiancé is dead, as she had been hustled home early from the party by her overbearing mother Florence Selby. Florence did not want any appearance that Dorothy was spending the night with her (73 year old!) fiancé. But Heimrich walks into an awkward scene: Florence and Dorothy are in their back yard shooting arrows at targets.

The plot thickens when it is revealed Jameson had made a new will the night before, making Dorothy his residual legatee which gives her a pile of money, whether or not the marriage is ever made.

While the murder is being investigated, another incident occurs. Jameson's son-in-law, Dr. James Tennant, apparently falls down the steep lakeside steps and lands on his head; severely injuring him. This is a bit too much for coincidence, which causes Heimrich to think about a previous tragedy: Jameson's second wife, Janet Jameson, had been killed on the grounds after apparently being thrown from her horse.

Review: I particularly enjoyed how the opening cocktail party at The Tor was used by the author to give the reader the backstory on some of the characters. The various introductions which occur at the party not only introduce the characters to each other, but to the reader as well. Very seamless and elegant.

I also was fascinated how the author describes the layers of social strata, for example:

• When Susan explains her background as "the Upton girl" to Ursula, we see there is a distinct society difference between people from the two sides of town.
• The author describes how Capt. Heimrich, Forniss, and the other police act and speak differently just among themselves, then when there are civilians present.
• Frans Frankel, the yardman, makes a definite statement that he and his wife, while employees of the Jameson estate, are definitely not of the same class as the servants.

As for the murders - I was surprised at the identity of the killer. I had someone else pegged. The killer was responsible for the two deaths (Janet and Arthur) as well as the attempt on Dr. Tennant. I was puzzled by the last, as I could not see any motive for that one.

Also see this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.

Murder Roundabout by Richard Lockridge, 1966

 

photo: AbeBooks

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.

This book concerns the murder of Annette LeBaron Weaver, former actress. She was on her third marriage at the time of her death. She lived next door to matriarch Emily Drake, mother of her first husband Stephen Drake. Emily also has another son, Oliver Drake, an architect.

Annette's husbands, in order:

1. Stephen Drake (now married to Florence Drake)
2. James Brennan (now married to Leslie Brennan)
3. Ralph Weaver, current husband, theatrical agent

Everyone else:

• Leslie Brennan, real estate agent, married to James Brennan
• Father Jonathan Cunningham, Leslie's father, a bishop
• J. K. Knight, potential house buyer
• Harriet Larkin, cleaning woman
• Captain Merton Heimrich
• Sgt. Charlie Forniss

Locale: Westchester County, NY

Synopsis: Real estate agent Leslie Brennan is on her way to show a house to potential buyer J.K. Knight. The house is for sale by current owner, glamorous ex-actress Annette Weaver. (Leslie is married to James Brennan, Annette's ex #2). Annette had recently hosted a Fourth-of-July party - confident her house had been sold and she was moving away for good, and used the opportunity to tell off her low-life Van Brunt guests over the musician's P.A. system. This was a move she came to regret when the real estate deal fell through and she had to stay on. Leslie, finding no one (apparently) home, uses the key from the real estate lock box, opens the door, and finds Annette's body, shot to death.

Harriet Larkin, cleaning woman, arrives the next morning and is the second to find the body. She notifies authorities. Captain Merton Heimrich and Sgt. Charlie Forniss set about untangling the family relationships. The prospective house buyer, J. K. Knight, had been a no-show; but he calls Leslie on the phone. Leslie suspects it is a different person entirely, and consults with her father, bishop Jonathan Cunningham who is somewhat of an expert on voices. Then, on her way home, she disappears.

Review: I had a bit of trouble getting oriented in the first chapter (in which Leslie finds the body). It is told in first person, but the narrator's identity is not revealed. The narrator seems to be someone going to the house with Leslie, but in a separate vehicle.

Beginning in the second chapter, the rest of the story is told in the normal third person. Suddenly cleaning lady, Harriet Larkin, becomes the second person to find the body - huh? A bit startling, that. What happened to Leslie? Did she flee the scene and not bother to tell anybody? It eventually comes out that she was scared off by hearing a loud Porsche leaving the scene - and her husband, James, has one - and maybe he had done away with his ex.

The parade of Annette's ex-husbands and subsequent remarriages could be confusing to the casual reader, but I had made notes along the way to keep them straight (list above). The ex's all remained surprisingly cozy with Annette, as she enjoyed going out to lunches (and other after-dessert activities) with them. She is termed a 'nympho' by one of them.

Leslie's disapperance and pursuit in the woods was a tense, dramatic episode which kept me turning pages past my bedtime. Lockridge succeeded in fooling me - I had two prime candidates for murderer picked out, but neither of them turned out to be the one.

The question of who-is-the-Chapter-One-narrator finally got resolved in the end. Please also note one occurrence of the n-word.

Please also see this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block. 

Death on the Aisle by Frances and Richard Lockridge (1942)

 

dustjackets.com

About the authors: Richard Orson Lockridge (1898 –1982) was an American writer of detective fiction. Richard Lockridge with his wife Frances (1896-1963) created one of the most famous American mystery series, Mr. and Mrs. North. (wikipedia).

Major characters (see the convenient program!)

and...

• Pam and Jerry North, amateur detectives
• Lt. Bill Weigand
• Dorian Hunt, his fiancée
• Detective Sergeant Aloysius Mullins
• Edward Evans, theatre custodian

Locale: a theatre on New York City's Broadway

Synopsis: Police Lt. Bill Weigand is on the verge of finding a minister to marry him and his fiancée, Dorian Hunt, when he gets a call to a homicide at the West 45th St. Theatre in New York City.

He arrives to find Pam and Jerry North in attendance at a rehearsal for the play "Two in the Bush". During the rehearsal, Dr. Carney Bolton is found stabbed to death in the audience sears. Bolton had been a theatre enthusiast and had been backing this production. The weapon - an ice pick - is still in him. Weigand locks down the theatre and interviews the cast and staff. One cannnot be found - custodian Edward Evans. After a search, Evans is located unconscious in a storeroom, having been pushed down the stairs.

Weigand stresses to the cast/staff that one of them must be the killer, and anyone with any knowledge of the crime is in danger themselves. No one admits to anything, but his assertion comes true when actress Ellen Grady does not show up for the next rehearsal. Weigand and Pam respond to her apartment, to find her drowned in her bathtub.

Review: I enjoyed this one as Bill Weigand plods through the investigation, ever slowly going forward in a good procedural manner. A detailed analysis of who-was-where every minute and checks into background relationships gradually narrows down the suspects. There are only a handful of possibilities for the killer - but the motive remains elusive until Weigand makes a phone call and asks one medical question of the doctor. The reader is not privy to the question or the answer, and this has the one footnote in the book - in which the author explains that the subject of the question, although not revealed, concerns a 'fact in evidence', and that the particulars have been laid before the reader previously in this Ellery Queen-like fair play disclaimer. This is, in fact, the turning point of the book.

The Norths have only a small presence in the book, and their involvement stems from being present at the rehearsal when the murder occurred. Pam accompanies Weigand to Ellen Grady's apartment, and looks at the scene with a 'woman's eye' to note some aspects which elude the police's notice.

I learned that the term 'actor' is preferred by both male and female thespians - and that the term 'actress' is a faux pas. I thought this was a recent thing, but this was written in 1942!

If you like death-in-the-theatre-audience, also try The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen.

Please also see this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.