Cargo of Eagles by Margery Allingham, 1968

 

Series: Albert Campion #19 (last in series)

About the author: Margery Louise Allingham (1904 – 1966) was an English novelist from the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction". Allingham is best remembered for her hero, the gentleman sleuth Albert Campion. Initially believed to be a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers's detective Lord Peter Wimsey, Campion matured into a strongly individual character, part-detective, part-adventurer, who formed the basis for 18 novels and many short stories. (wikipedia) 

Major characters:

• Morty Kelsey, professor and historical writer
• James Teague, a released prisoner
• Target Burrows, ship's engineer, with a glass eye
• H.O. Wishart, poet
• Dixie Wishart, his wife, barkeep at "The Demon" [bar]
• Mossy Ling, the only one who has seen The [real] Demon
• Dr. Dido Jones
• Sir Albert Campion

Locale: England

Synopsis: Historical professor Mortimer "Morty" Kelsey brings Albert Campion to the seaside village of Saltey, a rather desolate and forbidding place. Kelsey regales Campion with stories of past pirate adventures, a legendary demon, and a hidden treasure. The action centers around the house of Miss Kitty Kytie, who has left it to attractive Dr. Dido Jones, who knew her when she was in hospital. Kelsey believes a treasure is hidden in the vicinity, sought after by released prisoner James Teague. When Dido arrives to take possession, she finds the body of her attorney, Hector Askew, inside. 

Review: This story takes us back to The Beatles era, with "mods" terrorizing the community on motorbikes with their tight black outfits, blasting music on their "transistors". The pirate/smuggling backstory is right out of Jamaica Inn (Daphne du Maurier). The hidden treasure is indeed found, and in a clever hiding place. The disposition of the treasure is an interesting exercise, and this is the significance of the title. Mossy Ling is an enjoyable character, hanging around the bar and telling his story (he was the only one who saw The Demon) in exchange for drinks. The true story behind the legend comes out, and it is quite funny.

 

Murder in Retrospect by Agatha Christie, 1942

 

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 This is Hercule Poirot #25. It was also published under the title Five Little Pigs.

Major characters:

• Carla Lemarchant, Poirot's client
• Amyas Crale, a painter, her father (deceased prior to story)
• Caroline Crale, her mother (deceased prior to story)
• Angela Warren, Caroline's half-sister
• Cecilia Williams, Angela's childhood governess
• Philip Blake, stockbroker, was Amyas' best friend and neighbor
• Meredith Blake, herb and potion hobbyist, Philips's brother
• Elsa Greer, Amyas' 'other woman'. Now Lady Dittisham
• Hercule Poirot

Synopsis: Carla Lemarchant visits Hercule Poirot to ask him to investigate a sixteen-year old murder. Her father, painter Amyas Crale, had been poisoned. Her mother, Caroline Crale, was convicted on circumstantial evidence. The alleged motive was jealousy: Amyas was going to divorce her to marry young Elsa Greer (after several marriages, now Lady Dittisham). Caroline died in prison.

Carla is convinced her mother was innocent. She wishes her name cleared posthumously so that she (Carla) can marry without her fiancé forever thinking her mother was guilty.

Poirot reviews the cold case by interviewing the principals. He finds the poison, a hemlock concoction, had been lifted from the hobby lab of Meredith Blake, brother of stockbroker Philip Blake, who had been Amyas' best friend; and introducted into his beer glass.

Review: One thing I especially liked about this one is that the circle of suspects remains small - always just five. It made it easy to keep track of the cast of characters. Another thing which is unique is that Poirot got each of the five to write a narrative of the 16-year old murder, from their perspectives. These narratives are provided to the reader. 

Finally, Poirot gets a significant clue from one of the five which untangles the entire murder. As he explains it in the denouément, the sequence of events and motives is crystal clear. I kept page-turning to the very end. 

A final note: The (over)use of pronouns instead of proper names in the beginning led me to a misunderstanding: I thought Angela was Carla's half-sister. She is not. She is Caroline's half-sister, about ten years older than Carla. At the time of the murder, Angela was about fifteen, Carla about five. It was puzzling to me why a 15-year-old rated a governess, while the five year old did not! I suppose the governess was in place of a parent for Angela, who did not have any parents in the picture.

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

 

The Wisdom of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton, 1914

 

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This is Father Brown #2.  

About the author: Gilbert Keith Chesterton  (1874 –  1936) was an English author,  philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays (mostly newspaper columns), and several plays.  His best-known character is the priest-detective Father Brown, who appeared only in short stories, while The Man Who Was Thursday is arguably his best-known novel. (Wikipedia)

This title is in the public domain and is available free from this page at Project Gutenberg. It consists of twelve short stories.

1. The Absence of Mr. Glass: Father Brown and criminologist Dr. Orion Hood investigate the mystery of James Todhunter, engaged to Maggie MacNab. Todhunter has some strange activities with a mysterious figure known as Mr. Glass.

• Mini-review: This has a wonderful description of Dr. Hood’s seaside library, and a clever locked room puzzle.

2. The Paradise of Thieves: Poet Muscari has his eye on lovely Ethel Harrogate. Along with her father, wealthy Samuel Harrogate; Father Brown, and guide Ezza Montano they set off sightseeing in the mountains of Spain, where brigands are known to operate.

• Mini-review: This story reminds me of the swashbucking adventures of The Saint, with romance, adventure, and fisticuffs.

3.The Duel of Dr. Hirsch: French Doctor Paul Hirsch has developed a noiseless explosive for the government. Colonel Jules Dubosc attempts to interefere, aided by two bystanders from the café across the street: M. Maurice Brun and M. Armand Armagnac.

• Mini-review: I couldn't figure out the point of this one, and why they were staging the entire drama.

4. The Man in the Passage: Actress Aurora Rome's dressing room is reached by a door off a long dark passage, which opens to the street on either end. Two admirers - Sir Wilson Seymour and Captain Cutler  - enter her room simultaneously, to find her dead. They each observe a man in the passage, but their descriptions are wildly different.

• Mini-review: An impossible crime, but I saw how it was done right away. Better lighting in the passage would have prevented all this.

5. The Mistake of the Machine: A prison break and a case of mistaken identity are a test for the "Psychometric Machine", which Greywood Usher, warden of a Chicago prison, claims can detect lies. 

• Mini-review: One thing leads to another, and a prison break sets the stage for this precursor of the lie detector.

6. The Head of Caesar: Christobel Carstairs notes a similarity between her boyfriend's face and that on a valuable coin depicting Caesar. As she gives it to him as a gift, another man with a crooked nose lurks nearby with his eye on the coin.

7. The Purple Wig: The Duke of Exmoor has taken to wearing a rather outrageous purple wig. Allegedlly it is to conceal a malformed ear, but it is really concealing something quite different.

8. The Perishing of the Pendragons: Father Brown takes a canoe trip and investigates a strange island tower, which has a more sinister purpose than watching for fires.

• Mini-review: This one requires a close read to catch the significance of the tower, which is mentioned too briefly at the end. You'll like this if you enjoyed Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. Now you know.

9. The God of the Gongs: (Not read due to racist content and use of N-words).

10. The Salad of Colonel Cray: Father Brown visits the home of Major Putnam and Colonel Cray, just as a burglary is discovered. The thief took the silver and a cruet-stand, but Father Brown sees it as a diversion to something more sinister.

• Mini-review: Father Brown's techique of revealing the solution is a new one, although a full explanation of the mysterious echoes is not provided.

11. The Strange Crime of John Boulnois: Calhoun Kidd, reporter for the Western Sun, seeks to interview intellectual John Boulnois. Boulnois lives in Grey Cottage, outside the gates to Pendragon Park; whose master is having an affair with Boulnois' wife. Until he is murdered.

• Mini-review: Moral of the story - if you are having an affair with your neighbor, refrain from acting out "Romeo and Juliet" in the yard. 

12. The Fairy Tale of Father Brown: Otto, Prince of Heiligwaldenstein, has a phobia of being outdoors and exposed. But he is found shot in the forest, and Father Brown solves the crime by telling a fairy tale.

• Mini-review: This story-within-a-story is a bit too complex, and could have used some editing. It was confusing as to which layer in the story we were.

 

Turn on the Heat by A.A. Fair, 1940

 

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About the author: A.A. Fair was a pseudonym of Erle Stanley Gardner.

Series: Donald Lam & Bertha Cool #2

Major characters:

• "Mr. Smith", the client
• Dr. James C. Lintig, a.k.a. Charles Loring Alftmont, a specialist
• Amelia Lintig, his estranged wife
• Vivian Carter, his nurse, corespondent in his divorce action
• Marian Dunton, office staff of The Blade
• Evaline Dell Harris
• Flo Danzer, night club hostess
• Donald Lam, P.I., our narrator
• Bertha Cool, P.I.

Locale: California

Synopsis: A mysterious client, "Mr. Smith", hires Bertha Cool and Donald Lam to do just one thing: locate Amelia Lintig, supposedly divorced from Dr. James C. Lintig. She dropped out of sight over twenty years ago and hasn't been seen since. Lam travels to Oakview to try to pick up her trail, with the assistance of Marian Dunton, office manager for the local newspaper, The Blade. He soon finds out that two others are looking for Amelia as well: Miller Cross and Evaline Dell Harris. 

Lam consults records to find Dr. Lintig had changed his name to Charles Loring Alftmont, and continued his practice. Lam tracks down Dr. Alftmont and finds he is the client, "Mr. Smith". Marian Dunton, looking for a news story, goes to Evaline's hotel room to find her strangled, and a man just leaving looks much like Dr. Alftmont - who is Bertha's client. 

Review: This is only the second book about Lam and Cool, and the dust is still settling as the characters shape up. Gardner seemed in a hurry to cram all the action in he could, action that would never fly in a Perry Mason - such as when Donald Lam steps aside to let Bertha Cool rough up another woman. The book is handicapped in a way as many characters go by more than one name and pose as other characters. As it nears the end, the name switcheroos and identity switcheroos are just too confusing to follow. I was not even able to determine if Amelia was alive, or ever found; as another character had been posing as her throughout the story.

 

Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout, 1939

 

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About the author: Rex Stout (1886 – 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and 39 novellas between 1934 and 1975. (wikipedia). (bibliography)

Series: Nero Wolfe #7

Major characters:

• Carla Lovchen, fencing coach
• Neya Tormic, fencing coach, Wolfe's daughter
• Nikola and Jeanne Miltan, owners of studio
• Nat Driscoll, who had the diamonds
• Percy Ludlow, agent of British government
• Madame Zorka, dressmaker
• Ted Gill, dancing student
• Rudolph Faber (The Chinless Wonder) agent of German government
• Arthur, the porter
• Nero Wolfe
• Archie Goodwin

Locale: New York City

Synopsis: Nero Wolfe is approached by Carla Lovchen, who seeks help for her fellow fencing coach Neya Tormic. To Wolfe's suprise, she produces a certificate - bearing Wolfe's signature - that Neya is Wolfe's adopted daughter. Neya is accused of stealing diamonds from the suit pocket of a client, Nat Driscoll, which was hanging in a locker.

Archie Goodwin visits the fencing studio, run by Nikola and Jeanne Miltan. Another client, Percy Ludlow, sheepishly explains Neya actually had her hand in his suit pocket instead, in the adjacent locker. Driscoll remembers he had actually given the diamonds to his secretary, so it was all just an honest mistake. The case seems closed, but then Ludlow is found dead, run through with an épée with a pointed adapter, a cul de mort, on the end. Archie returns to the office and finds the cul de mort has been slipped into his pocket.

Review: It's a small but cosmopolitan cast as we meet Wolfe's daughter, unseen since he left her behind in Montenegro; and she is one the main characters. There are a number of amusing incidents, particularly when Archie escapes the scene, pretending to be searching for a cat; and when Wolfe has various parties in his house and tries to keep them from seeing each other. Archie is still the tough guy and has several occasions to use his fists. I usually find dialect rendered phonetically annoying but here I found the dialect of Madame Zorka ("Zen I sink, murder ees so horrible...") a pleasure and added to her character. A quick, fast-moving read from the prime years of Rex Stout.

 

The Patriotic Murders by Agatha Christie, 1940

 

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Also published as One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and An Overdose of Death

Series: Hercule Poirot #23

Major characters:

• Henry Morley, dentist
• Gladys Nevill, his secretary/hygienist
• Frank Carter, Gladys' fiamcé
• Mr. --- Amberiotis, a patient
• Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, a patient
• Alistair Blunt, a patient and finance administrator
• Sylvia Chapman
• Julia Olivera, Blunt's niece
• Jane Olivera, Julia's daughter
• Helen Montressor, Blunt's cousin
• Hercule Poirot
• Inspector Japp

Locale: London and environs

Synopsis: A routine dentist visit by Hercule Poirot goes horribly wrong. Soon after Poirot leaves, the dentist, Henry Morley, is found shot to death. Inspector Japp looks at the day's patient list, and finds one of the day's earlier patients, --- Amberiotis, was apparently the last person to see Morley alive. Then Amberiotis himself is found dead, followed by another patient, Sainsbury Seale. Japp's suicide theory goes out the window.

Review: This is another Christie with a nursery-rhyme theme throughout. This one was a definite page-turner. I enjoyed the dentist office setting (there are worse possibilities than a drill). There is a switcheroo drama between Sainsbury Seale and Sylvia Chapman which has a surprising result. The mystery gets deeper and deeper with some international intrigue stirred in and some people who are not what they seem. Poirot's step-by-step denouément at the end revealed a surprising twist of how the murders were done. I can appreciate why the early title of The Patriotic Murders was changed - focusing on the most patriotic person in the story can be a definite spoiler.

Note: There is one occurence of the n-word.

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

 

2025 Reading Challenges

 For 2025, I have signed up for three Mystillery challenges and four of Bev Hankins' reading challenges at My Reader's Block. Please consider visiting these challenges and joining me! Each is linked below.

Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge 2025

Six Shooter Mystery Reading Challenge 2025

Mystery Marathon 2025

Vintage Scavenger Hunt 2025

Reading By The Numbers 2025

Calendar of Crime 2025

Color Coded Reading Challenge 2025

The Frightened Wife & Other Murder Stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart

 

About the author: Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876 – 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's first novel in 1920. Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it" from her novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase. Rinehart is also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing, with the publication of The Circular Staircase (1908). (from a Wikipedia article).

The Frightened Wife: Attorney Wade Forsythe II is hired by Anne Collier to make her will. It is a messy situation: her substantial accounts are in the name of Jessica Blake, a pseudonym she uses for writing a radio serial. She is afraid her domineering husband, Wilfred "Fred" Collier will get her money, leaving little for her six-year old son William Blake Collier. Wade realizes she was Anne Blake, a girl he knew when he was in college, and has pined for her ever since. Then Wilfred winds up shot to death, and Anne arrested for murder.

Mini-review: If you didn't know the author, you would swear it was Erle Stanley Gardner, with a tough-guy attorney doing the investigating for the wronged woman. A tight page-turner of novella length.

If Only It Were Yesterday: Amy had cared for her half-sister Jessie since her mother died when she was only nine. Now Jessie is an attractive young lady, and Amy's close friend Randolph Mason is beginning to move his attentions to Jessie. Jessie announces their engagement, and this is too much for Amy. Amy has a bottle of Jessie's sleeping pills.

The Scandal: Caroline Coleman, matriarch of the society family, is long dead and buried in a stately mausoleum. She had hoped the family scandal was buried with her: Her daughter, Jennifer, had an illegitimate child by the family chauffeur, Chris Burton. Jennifer and her baby, Edith, were estranged from the Coleman family. She and Burton planned to marry, but before they could, he was killed in a fire in the garage. Now Jennifer herself lies dying, and  the secret of Burton's death is coming out.

Murder and the South Wind: Coastal Florida is the scene for military practice during World War II. The locals are concerned about stray bullets from shooting practice. Hugh Gardiner is fishing for tarpon when he is struck, falls overboard, and drowns. Was it one of the stray bullets? Or did it come from his wife Pat? Or his ex-wife Fanny?

The Burned Chair: Elderly Horace Jewett lives next to his three children (and heirs). One morning he is found dead in his chair, and the M.E. notes a heart attack. Daughter-in-law Jessica Jewett is suspicious - it doesn't look right and she suspects murder. So do the police. Then his chair is set on fire - to destroy evidence? Which of the heirs hastened his death? Or was it his nurse Miss Scott?