fantastic fiction
About the author: Surprising little is known about Kathleen Moore Knight (1890-1984), at least online. She is not listed in Wikipedia nor the more popular mystery fiction directories; her booklist is on Fantastic Fiction. My count is 34 mystery novels, all published by the Crime Club; a few under the pseudonym of Alan Amos. See this 1946 interview.
Major characters:
- Margot Blair, our narrator, a partner in a public relations firm
- Felix Norman, her partner in a public relations firm
- Corey Graham, of Public Relations
- Adrien ter Brock, a Dutch diamond merchant
- Katrien ter Brock, his daughter
- Anselmo Colin, Katrien's fiancé #1
- Dr. Dirck van Ryper, Katrien's fiancé #2
- Piet Maartens, Katrien's old friend from Holland
- Fritz & Ellen Prathers, owners of the Mexican casa
- Anna Gregor, sculptress, a house guest
- Sean O'Shane, opera singer, a house guest
- Dr. Lewers, archeologist, a house guest
Locale: New York City and Mexico
Synopsis: The story opens in 1940's New York. The 1939 World's Fair is still open, and the winds of war are blowing over Europe. Adrien ter Brock is a Dutch diamond merchant who is exhibiting at the fair. He is returning to Holland, but does not want to bring his $3M diamond collection back, fearing confiscation by the Nazis. He arranges to leave it with his public relations firm, comprising Margot Blair and Felix Norman. He arranges a contingency plan in case he is unable to retrieve the gems later - they are to be passed to his daughter Katrien ter Brock, or anyone who possesses a certain marked lapel pin displaying the fair's signature Trylon and Perisphere.
The story then jumps to 1942. Margot and Felix are still holding the diamonds, and the US is deep into the war. They receive a call from Katrien, in Mexico. She reports her father died in a German concentration camp, and she wishes to claim the diamonds. She is unable to travel to the US, but will send her fiancé, Anselmo Colin, to collect the diamonds. Colin shows up but is attacked and hospitalized. Margot is suspicious of the whole setup.
Margot and her assistant Corey Graham go to Mexico to see Katrien. They wind up in a Fritz and Ellen Prather's casa, along with several house guests. All is not well, as Katrien suddenly drops Anselmo and rushes into a marriage with Dr. Dirck van Ryper. Margot tries to figure out who are friends and who are Nazis after the diamonds. Things get confusing when she runs into another Anselmo Colin, and this one claims Katrien is an imposter.
Review: This is an excellent Margot Blair story (the last of four). Margot is in her prime, and assistant Corey is cast as her Archie Goodwin-like assistant who does a lot of the dirty work.
There is always a certain déjà vu: as in many of Knight's books, settings in Mexico/South/Central America always involve a "standard" two-story open-square flat-roof casa house with balconies all the way around the exterior (perfect for eavesdropping), circular stairs on each outside corner (perfect for sneaking in and out unnoticed), surrounded by dense gardens and hedges (perfect for nighttime lurking), with a patio and pool in the middle. The entire casa is surrounded by a wall with a locked door and a doorkeeper. The casa always has several random house guests in residence who have no apparent connection with the hosts or each other. The casa house is identical no matter in which country it is placed, only the inhabitants change.
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