(read Kindle version)
(no review)
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
The Case of the Bigamous Spouse by Erle Stanley Gardner, 1961
Peter Stern photo
This is Perry Mason #65.
(no review)
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Murder by the Book by Rex Stout, 1951
dustjackets.com
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)
Major characters:
Joan Wellman, editor, deceased prior to story
John Wellman, her father
Leonard Dykes, law clerk and author, a.k.a. Baird Archer
Rachel Abrams, typist
James A. Corrigan, senior partner in a law firm
Nero Wolfe, private detective
Archie Goodwin, private detective
Inspector Cramer, NYC Homicide Division
Locale: New York City
Synopsis: Inspector Cramer consults Nero Wolfe about the death of law clerk Leonard Dykes, found floating in the East River. Police found among his effects a list of names which puzzles them. Wolfe suggests it is a list of possible pseudonyms for a writer
Wolfe is then approached by John Wellman, and hired to investigate the death of his daughter, Joan Wellman, victim of a hit-and-run car accident. Joan had been an editor for a book publisher. Wolfe finds that Joan Wellman had recently rejected a novel, Put Not Your Trust by Baird Archer, and that was one of the names on Dykes' list. This connects her death with that of Dykes - and it becomes apparent Dykes wrote the novel under the name of Baird Archer.
Dykes had clerked for a law firm consisting of James A. Corrigan, Emmet Phelps, Louis Kustin, and Frederick Briggs. The firm also employs Conroy O'Malley, who had been disbarred following an anonymous accusation of bribing a juror.
The two people who died had one thing in common - they both knew what was in the manuscript. Wolfe focuses on who else may have read it, which leads to typist Rachel Abrams. Archie Goodwin heads to her office, arriving just after someone had thrown her out her window to her death. Three persons have now died, and the trail points to someone in the law firm as the culprit.
Review: This one is fast-paced and a page-turner, which I read over two evenings. We don't get to know the first two victims at all, they are dead before the story begins. We also see very little of Wolfe's client, John Wellman. He heads right back to Peoria and only checks in periodically.
It quickly becomes apparent that the manuscript (we never get to see any of it other than the title) is poison, and anyone who has read it is a target. But what is in it that is so dangerous? We do finally find out, but it is not too exciting a reveal.
Archie's method of pumping the female staff of the law office is amusing although quite unrealistic, although maybe he could have pulled it off in 1951.
This has one of Stout's famous 'false endings'. It is all wrapped up with a bow and we are ready for "The End" when Wolfe declares the person fingered is not the murderer, and it is someone else entirely. I should have seen it coming, since there were 20+ pages remaining, but it fooled me as always. The killer is identified in the usual office denouément with all the chairs lined up. As usual, the person whom Purley Stebbins stands behind is the killer.
Sunday, May 28, 2023
The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart. 1930
dustjackets.com
The Nurse Sarah Keate series:
1. The Patient in Room 18
2. The Mystery of Hunting's End
3. While the Patient Slept
4. From This Dark Stairway
5. Murder by an Aristocrat (a.p.a. Murder of My Patient)
6. Wolf in Mans Clothing
7. Man Missing
About the author: Mignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. (from Goodreads)
Major characters:
Huber Kingery, murdered five years prior to story
Matil Kingery, the hostess
Aunt Lucy Kingery, the patient
Miss Sarah Keate, nurse
The guests:
Juilian Barre
Gerald Frawley
Lawrence "Lil" Killian
Newell Morse
Signor José Paggi, opera singer
Signora Helene Paggi, his wife
Terice, Baroness Von Tircum
Lance O'Leary, detective undercover
The staff:
Annette, the cook
Brunker, the manservant
Locale: The Sand Hills, Nebraska
Synopsis: Wealthy socialite Matil Kingery is hosting a strange house party in her "hunting lodge" in desolate Nebraska. Five years ago, the lodge was full and someone shot and killed her father, and the killer never identified. She takes it upon herself to restage the event in the hopes of finding out which one of the guests was the killer, inviting the same assortment of guests and placing them all in the same rooms.
This time there are two new faces. Nurse Sarah Keate, hired to nurse her now-elderly aunt Lucy Kingery; and Detective Lance O'Leary in an undercover role posing as Sarah's friend.
Once everyone is settled in - with one change, Gerald Frawley taking the late Huber Kingery's room, a days-long snowstorm bears in and isolates the party.
Everyone views each other with suspicion - knowing this is really a plot to reveal a killer. Then Gerald Frawley is shot to death - in the same room Huber met his end five years ago. The killer is still among them.
O'Leary and Keate partially solve (method but not the killer's identity) the first set of murders (Huber and Frawley), and it looks like a wrap is imminent, but wait - another murder occurs and we still don't have the answers.
Review: I always enjoy a snowbound house party with a killer on the loose. This story has many similarities to another of my favorites, Deep Lay the Dead by Frederick C. Davis (1942) even including a snowstorm, no electricity or phone, a couple of dead bodies, and a famous musician as one of the guests.
I began to be suspicious when Frawley dies in the same room as Huber, even winding up in the same position. Then Frawley's body disappears, which was a plot twist I was not expecting. Usually when the body disappears, the victim is not really dead - but that was not the case.
The setup is excellent, down to the detailed map. Pairs of rooms, all separated by baths. Much is made of the lock arrangement, which is integral to the plot. Please note the terms 'gallery' and 'balcony' ae used interchangeably.
The Paggis are an enjoyable couple, as are bejewelled Terice, and the servants: crusty Brunker from Central Casting and lush Annette the cook. Barre, Killian, and Morse seemed rather two-dimensional throughout; but then again they are investment bankers.
An enjoyable read when a snowstorm is imminent.
Thursday, May 25, 2023
The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon, 1931
This is Inspector Maigret #3.
About the author: Georges Joseph Christian Simenon ( 1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer, most famous for his fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most popular authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 novels, 21 volumes of memoirs and many short stories, selling over 500 million copies. (wikipedia)
Major Characters:
- M. Emile Gallet, the deceased; a.k.a. M. Clement
- Mme. Aurore Gallet, the widow
- M. Henry gallet, the son
- Eleonore Boursand, Henry's girlfriend
- Tiburce de Saint-Hilaire, neighbor to the inn
- M. Tardivon, innkeeper
- M. Jacob, a newspaper seller
- Inspector Jules Maigret
- Joseph Moers, a police technician
Locale: Saint Fargeau and Sancerre, France
Synopsis: Inspector Maigret is called to investigate the death of M. Emile Gallet, who was shot and stabbed in quick succession in an inn. Maigret informs the widow, Mme. Aurore Gallet.
Maigret finds Gallet had been living a double life. He was pretending to still be employed as a commercial traveler (salesman) for a flatware company, when in fact he had not worked for them for many years. He had arranged for postcards to be sent home from his supposed sales stops to support this story to his wife, when in fact he was staying in a hotel in Sancerre under the name of M. Clement.
Maigret spends time in the crime scene room, trying to put himself into the character of Gallet. He finds the shot came in through the window. He interviews the innkeeper, M. Tardivon, and adjacent property owner, Tiburce de Saint-Hilaire. He calls in a police technician, Joseph Moers, to reconstruct some ashes found in the fireplace; and while he is doing so, two shots come in the window and injure him.
Review: This was an interesting read as Maigret slowly ponders the character of M. Gallet, and tries to reconstruct his final day. I found it interesting how he arranged the clothes of the deceased on the floor and even stuck the knife into them to try to re-enact the murder.
There is a long episode dealing with Tiburce de Saint-Hilaire which delves into the history of his name, and it is not relevant to plot and stalls the story quite a bit.
I did feel cheated at the end. Without giving it away, I will just say a murderer is not brought to justice and the case is 'written off'. The murder method turned out to be a mechnical contrivance like something from John Dickson Carr.
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham, 1930
ABE Books
This is Albert Campion #2. It also was published in the Collier Front Page Mystery 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:
- Judge Crowdy Lobbett
- Marlowe Lobbett, his son
- Isopel Lobbett, his daughter
- Giles Paget, owner of the Manor on Mystery Mile
- Biddy Paget, his sister
- Ali Fergusson Barber, art dealer
- Anthony Datchett, palm reader
- St. Swithen Cush, rector
- Albert Campion, amateur detective
Locale: Mystery Mile, on an island in the River Orwell, Suffolk, England
Synopsis: Judge Crowdy Lobbett is heading to England on a liner, hoping to avoid assassins who seem to be after him in revenge for his sentencing members of the notorious Simister Gang. He is accompanied by his son Marlowe and daughter Isopel. He arranges to rent a quiet manor, owned by Giles Paget and his sister Biddy, who are anxious to get some rental income from it.
The Manor is located on Mystery Mile, a the name given to a small village contained on an island, connected to the mainland by a causeway ("The Stroud"). The Lobbetts seek out Albert Campion to detect whether the assassins have followed the Lobbetts to England. All seems quiet until the rector, St. Swithen Cush, commits suicide; leaving behind a note and a red chess piece as a clue. Then Judge Lobbett disappears without a trace when walking through the hedges of the manor's maze, but leaves behind a cryptic note.
Review: I was pleased this paperback edition came with a map of Mystery Mile. I checked my Collier Front Page edition, it has the same map, larger with much clearer notations. I could not read some of them on the paperback version. The map is a piece of art in itself! Notice one cherub has a magnifying glass, the other a gun!
This is an enchanting story with lots of color. There are the Seven Whistlers who watch for comings and goings over The Stroud, a mysterious case full of children's books, a red chess piece, and of course the judge who walked into the maze and was not seen again.
Thoroughly enjoyable, and another Campion under my belt.
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