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About the author: See Mystery Monday: Who was Milton Propper? by Linda Shenton Matchett
Major characters:
- Philip Nixon, president of American Motors
- Eleanor Nixon, his daughter
- Donald Gardiner, his secretary
- Charles Parker, his chauffeur
- -- Bennett, his butler
- Clem, Frank, & Martha Marley, siblings who lived adjacent to the railroad
- Lew Ferris, convicted thief
- Arthur Stahl, one of Ferris' gang
- Ike Morin, one of Ferris' gang
- Ralph Burke, railroad trainman
- Det. Sgt. Daniel Gilmore
- Det. Tommy Rankin
Locale: New Jersey
Synopsis: Detective Sergeant Daniel Gilmore is riding a late train to Cape May, New Jersey. The train stops suddenly - it has apparently hit and killed a man on the tracks. Gilmore looks at the body and is shocked to find it is millionaire Philip Nixon, who had recently applied to the police for his protection; which was to begin later that night.
Nixon's fear was a series of threatening letters. At a party for his daughter, Eleanor Nixon, her diamond necklace had been stolen by a gang of four. The leader, Lew Ferris, was caught and convicted. The letters appear to be from the other gang members.
Gilmore teams up with [series detective] Tommy Rankin and they each pursue separate leads throughout the book. Much investigation centers on a farmhouse adjacent to the tracks where the body was found - occupied by siblings Clem, Frank, and Martha Marley.
It is found that Nixon was dead before being placed on the tracks, thus murder. Initial suspicion focuses on his chauffeur, Charles Parker, who had a grudge against him. Gilmore suspects Parker was the fourth gang member.
Review: The book begins with Nixon's body being hit by the train, and then goes into a flashback describing how Sgt. Gilmore met with him previously. The transition to the flashback was a bit confusing, I wasn't sure which time period we were in for a bit.
There is no ticker-tape in the book. The title refers to the stock market in general, as our victim is highly involved in stock transactions, which begin in great detail on page 2. The various stock values are given in too much detail, leaving the reader a bit lost.
The action focuses on the movements of people on evening trains between Camden and Cape May, NJ. A little timetable would have simplified the presentation of the story a lot, and here is one I created from times given, which will save you a lot of visualization:
Oh, this book is dense. There are lots of characters, with new ones constantly being introduced; and all with an overload of detail. Everything is described a notch too much. For example, when two handwriting samples are being compared: rather than just giving us the conclusion that they do not match, we are taken letter-by-letter through the comparison.
One final nitpick: we never found out if Lew Ferris actually got away with Eleanor's necklace or not!
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