Last Update 6/3/23
The Gang Girl by
G.H. Teed, Stillwoods, 2022 (originally published in 1931)
The
villainous George Marsden Plummer escapes to California after his latest
scheme was disrupted by Sexton Blake. He is looking for a new way to
enrich himself when he is captured by the minions of Muriel Marl, a
failed actress whose scandalous and criminal activities have made her
unemployable. She has a new enterprise in mind and forces Plummer to
help her. But an earlier murder committed by her orders has attracted
the attention of Blake. When their attempt to kill him fails, he sets
out to track them down. They escape, in order to reappear in future
stories, but their plans are fatally wounded. 6/3/23
Dark Is the Clue
by E.R. Punshon, Dean Street, 2017 (originally published in 1955)
Bobby
Owen is on the trail of some stolen cash when he runs into a dead body
in the woods. Two feuding neighbors complicate the issue, as well as the
widow of a thief who has multiple identities and several characters
including an ex-convict who have a habit of disappearing just when they
are wanted. For the third time in a row, I thought the killer’s identity
was obvious after only a few chapters and in this case there was not
even any mystery about the motive. Punshon seemed to be losing interest
in his hero, and had even added a new recurring character – a reporter –
in these three books. That said, I will be sorry to see the series end
with the next book. 5/3/23
Yellow Guile
by G.H. Teed, Stillwoods, 2022 (originally published in 1931)
A
female tourist in a Chinese hotel is attacked in her hotel room by a man
who wants a lacquer figure that she purchased in a bazaar. He attracts
the attention of Huxton Rymer, another of Sexton Blake’s recurring
enemies. The figurine is a valuable antique that was recently stolen and
inadvertently sold to the woman. Sexton Blake is also in the country,
meeting with his friend in the Chinese police department. Blake wants to
recover the figure and Rymer wants to acquire and sell it. Blake is the
winner after a mildly interesting battle of wits, and fists. Barely a
novella. 6/1/23
Triple Quest
by E.R. Punshon, Dean Street, 2017 (originally published in 1955)
Two
art connoisseurs have become enemies over the search for a lost
Rembrandt, now displayed in a museum. But there are hints right from the
outset that it was a fake, or that it has been replaced by a fake. A
private investigator and a group of thugs both become interested when
the theft of the Rembrandt results in the offer of a very large reward.
Various parties run around looking for it and two people die as a
consequence. One of the feuders is also dead, but was it because of the
painting, because his wife and her lover wanted to get rid of him, or
because his mistress’ husband wanted him gone. Fairly good but the
solution is pretty obvious way too early. 6/1/23
Tim Frazer Again
by Francis Durbridge, Arcturus, 2013 (originally published in 1972)
Frazer
works for a British spy agency but the death of an agent under possibly
accidental circumstances causes him to become involved with a diamond
smuggling ring led by a master criminal named Ericson. He is assigned to
follow an attractive woman but can find no evidence that she is involved
and he rather likes her. Then there is a murder and he is one of the
suspects. It becomes obvious that several people he has encountered are
working for Ericson and later a Dutch police investigator is assaulted
and nearly killed as well. I guessed Ericson’s real identity
incorrectly. A bit lightweight, but fun. 5/30/23
The
Treasure of the Isabella by G.H. Teed, Stillwoods, 2022
(originally published in 1928)
A
Sexton Blake novella, although his assistant Tinker has most of the
adventures this time around and he appears mostly at the windup. Tinker
saves the life of a drowning girl and discovers that her father is part
of a gang run by George Marsden Plummer, one of Blake’s recurring arch
enemies. He is taken captive and almost killed, but the girl alerts
Blake to the situation in the nick of time and he is able to penetrate
into some underground caverns in time to rescue his friend and thwart
Plummer’s latest plot. 5/29/23
The Mystery of
Room 11 by G.H. Teed,
Stillwoods, 2022 (originally published in 1910)
Sexton
Blake’s arch-enemy, George Marsden Plummer, has escaped jail yet again.
He decides that he wants revenge against a French detective rather than
match wits with Blake again so he sneaks off to Paris. He decides to
impersonate Armand, the detective, but while he thought he was carefully
avoiding attracting the attention of Blake, things do not go the way he
planned and they are locked in battle once again. Plummer was supposedly
a cold blooded killer, but Teed rarely showed him actually killing
anyone. 5/28/23
Brought to Light
by E.R. Punshon, Dean Street, 2017 (originally published in 1954)
This
mystery novel revolves around the grave of a woman reputed to be the
lover of a famous, now dead poet who sealed his last few years of work
and some potentially scandalous letters in her coffin. An aggressive
would-be biographer is determined to open the grave, legally or
otherwise, and he is found shot to death. The vicar who was responsible
for the graveyard disappeared two years earlier. The poet’s widow, the
dead woman’s niece, the acting vicar and his son, a highly educated
sexton, a London thug, a newspaper reporter, and others are all suspects
in the case. There is some mildly clumsy foreshadowing that gave me the
solution midway through. 5/28/23
Adventure of the Green Imps by G.H. Teed, Stillwoods, 2023
(originally published in 1927)
Sexton
Blake is in Monte Carlo investigating a murder designed to look like
suicide. He is present when another outsider is killed in an arranged
automobile accident. His assistant spots a known female criminal in a
casino, and he himself discovers the presence of George Marsden Plummer,
an arch-enemy. But there is another force in play. A degenerate,
secretive remnant of ancient people live in the hills, dwarves known as
the green people, and Plummer may have enlisted them in his cause, which
is obviously a nefarious one. Guess who wins in the end. 5/23/23
Strange Ending
by E.R. Punshon, Dean Street, 2017 (originally published in 1953)
When
a young woman begins appearing at the site of an unsolved murder, Bobby
Owen decides that it’s time to re-examine the case. The dead man was a
known master chef, though not officially recognized. Almost everyone
else connected to the case has some cuisinary skills. The major except
is an oddball anarchist who seems to be at the center of mysterious
goings on involving smuggled watches, a missing entrepreneur, a
delinquent husband, a femme fatale, and a vanished deckhand. The complex
plot is brought to a reasonably good conclusion, although it was never
quite clear what the young woman’s interest was since she was
romantically interested in someone other than the dead man, despite her
early claim to the contrary. 5/23/23
The Hymn Tune
Mystery by George Birmingham, Oreon, 2022 (originally published
in 1930)
Here
we have a pretty good murder mystery. There are some stolen and missing
jewels, and various parties are determined to recover them, legally or
otherwise. When the local organist is murdered, attention is paid to a
supposed musical composition which he authored, which turns out to be a
convoluted cipher revealing the location of the jewels. A minor church
official teams up with the local police to unravel a web of
impersonations, dubious memories, contradictory statements, and missing
facts to track down the killer – I guessed correctly – and find the
loot. The author wrote a couple other mysteries and I’ll watch for
them. 5/19/20
The Wages of Zen
by James Melville, Crest, 1979
This
is the first in a series about Superintendent Otani, a Japanese police
official. A man is murdered at a Zen Buddhist retreat run by a man who
has connections to the criminal elements in the adjacent city. Otani
investigates the suspects, who are largely non-Japanese. Melville goes
out of his way to explain elements of Japanese culture, whereas Japanese
writers tend to take them for granted, so the book has a slightly
artificial undertone. The mystery itself is fair but not exceptional,
and involves some international espionage that muddies the solution
considerably. Good enough that I will try the next, but not good enough
that I’m in any hurry. 5/19/20
The Lonely Silver
Sky by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1984
This
was the 21st and final Travis McGee novel. McGee is hired to
look for a stolen yacht. He finds it, with three dead bodies aboard and
evidence that drug cartels are involved. He wants no part of this and
attempts to cover his tracks. Unfortunately, he is caught between two
violent gangs. One wants revenge for the death of the daughter of one of
its leaders. The other is attempting to cover up the fact that one of
their number is responsible. So McGee and the man who hired him are
chosen to be scapegoats. Lots of people die in this one, including a DEA
agent and a number of criminals when the truth comes out and a gang war
ensues. A pretty good farewell to the series – which ends with McGee
discovering he has a grown daughter. 5/17/23
Murder on B Deck
by Vincent Starrett, Penzler, 2022 (originally published in 1929)
This
was the first of three mystery novels about a man named Ghost who is a
kind of amateur detective. It is also one of that small but lively
subset of mystery novels that take place entirely during an ocean
cruise. A woman who claims to be an Italian countess is murdered in here
cabin. She had brought with her a mysterious amateur silent film about a
villainous character who strangles an actress, and the actress is the
dead woman. That same night, a friend of the countess falls or is thrown
over the rail and is lost at sea. Ghost investigates at the request of
the captain and the killer is eventually found. The resolution, however,
is very unsatisfactory. The killer has never appeared, even by
implication, until he is identified as the murderer. His motive was
never hinted at. The red herrings are actually better than the
solution. 5/17/23
Barrier Island
by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1986
This
was MacDonald’s final novel and it only marginally counts as a crime
story. A shady developer fakes plans to develop an island but is
actually planning to sell it to the government for an exorbitant price.
The façade requires the use of a front organization, a small partnership
whose owners do not realize that they are part of a fraud. One of them
suspects the truth, however, and initiates an investigation of his own
which leads to the truth. MacDonald's dislike of developers is evident
as usual.
Death in
Castle Dark by Veronica Bond, Berkley, 2021
Someone
recommended this to me as an attempt to return to the classic murder
mystery mode and away from cozies. It’s set in a castle in the Midwest
that is the stage for an unusual kind of mystery dinner party. And
naturally a real murder supplants the fake one that was devised in the
script. The protagonist is a member of the cast, an out of work actress
who finds herself caught up in events. Not a bad story, but it’s still
just a cozy with some slight twists and I will probably not read further
in the series. The author is actually Julia Buckley, who has written a
lot of cozies under her own name. 5/13/23Death on May
Morning by Max Dalman, Oreon, 2022 (originally published in
1938)
Although
this has an interesting opening – a man is shot to death while attending
a function on the top of a tower at Oxford – the delivery has serious
problems. Characters go off on tangents without any reasonable
motivation. They make assumptions with no evidentiary basis. They
benefit from coincidences rather than uncovering facts logically. There
is also a tendency for words to be missing from sentences so that they
end prematurely, or don’t make any sense. The protagonist is assaulted
by a man the night after the murder. Everyone automatically assumes that
this was the killer. A piece of torn cloth is found nearby, but there is
no evidence that it had any connection to the mystery man. But everyone
assumes it does. No effort is made to match the torn piece to any of the
formal academic gowns which match it because they all tend to be worn
and torn – even though this particular scrap could easily be matched to
the proper one if it was examined. It deserves the obscurity from which
it has been resurrected in this new edition.
Miss Seeton
Flies High by Hamilton Crane, Farrago, 2018
This
appears to have been the final Miss Seeton novel by Sarah Mason. Miss
Seeton has been treated to a holiday in Glastonbury, which just happens
to be where the son of a prominent businessman has been kidnapped. The
police prevail upon her to use her psychic sketching abilities to help
them rescue him. But this time her drawings display a bizarre surrealism
that surprises and perplexes both Seeton and her friends, although
eventually they lead to a happy ending. About average but the
formula is too familiar by now. 5/11/23
Free Fall in
Crimson by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1981
Travis
McGee is asked to look into the murder of a man’s estranged father. It
was supposedly a random attack, but the timing was such that his fortune
went to someone other than the way it was probably intended. The trail
leads to an enigmatic film maker who has connection to violent biker
gangs and who just happens to be the lover of the person who did in fact
receive the money, all of which has by now been squandered on a movie
about hot air balloons that never quite got off the ground – pun
intended. There are multiple murders in the closing chapters and McGee
even has to ask for some bodyguards before it is over. 5/9/23
Cinnamon Skin
by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1982
When
someone bombs a boat, killing some of Travis McGee’s friends, he tries
to figure out who was responsible. His investigation suggests that one
of the people who should have been aboard is not, and is therefore still
alive and probably responsible for the bomb. He backtracks the man’s
life and discovers that he is a serial killer with a long string of
victims. Eventually he and friend Meyer discover that he is living in
Mexico and confront him. A gunfight ensues and the killer is eventually
trapped in a cave after a landslide. Our two heroes decide not to tell
anyone that he is there. Prettyn good, and more of a conventional
mystery than is usual for this series. 5/9/23
The Ocean Sleuth
by Maurice Drake, Spitfire, 2022 (originally published in 1916)
A
shipwreck supposedly caused a fugitive banker to be lost at sea, along
with the money he embezzled. But when some of that money begins to show
up in London, suspicions are obviously aroused about its fate and his
guilt. The protagonist is a bored, fairly wealthy man who volunteers to
work on the salvage vessel and then undertakes to solve the mystery of
the misplaced money. The prose is rather rough in this one, partly
because it didn’t age well and there are references that I didn’t catch.
A fairly routine mystery did not help either. Drake wrote only seven
mysteries, most with nautical themes or settings. 5/8/23
The Green Ripper
by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1980
I
think this was my least favorite Travis McGee novel. For one thing, it
opens with him on the verge of marrying a young woman, which naturally
means that she dies. She does so of a mysterious disease that results
from her having been poisoned by Soviet agents because she saw something
that might have repercussions. Much of the novel consists of McGee
penetrating a cult that is actually a cover for a surreptitious group of
saboteurs. Their political conversations are stereotypically over
simplistic and ultimately he manages to kill all twelve of them,
although none of the group actually committed the murder that brought
him there. I normally read a McGee novel in one day, but I kept setting
this one aside and it took two.
Miss
Seeton Quilts the Village by Hamilton Crane, Farrago, 2017
The
penultimate Miss Seeton novel is longer and a bit more serious than most
of its predecessors. There is to be a festival of history in the village
and Seeton is involved in the preparations. In her own unique fashion
she stumbles upon some secrets from the past which certain people do not
want to see the light of days. The puzzle involves Nazi spies and old
murders, and with new ones on the horizon. This struck me as closer in
tone to Sarah Mason's own work than her continuation of the Seeton
series. 5/6/23
The Good Old Stuff
by John D. MacDonald, Harper & Row, 1982
This
is a very high quality selection of MacDonald’s short fiction, including
a novella, “They Let Me Live,” about espionage in Ceylon. There are also
a few unsuccessful attempts to commit the perfect murder, a man driven
insane who narrates his story unreliably, murders made to look like
accidents, blackmailers, and other criminals. Unlike his first two
collections, these stories are all crime related. A couple of them have
predictable endings, but the majority are very well told. MacDonald was
an accomplished short story writer, particularly early in his
career. 5/3/23
More Good Old
Stuff by John D. MacDonald, Knopf, 1984
A
collection of vintage crime stories, several of them with minor updates
to make them more contemporary. The protagonists include police
officers, ex-police officers, ex-convicts, thugs, killers, kidnappers,
and hapless victims. There is a dark tone to most of the stories, even
though most have “happy” endings. About half of them are quite short and
one is a novella. There are a couple of weak stories and this is not
nearly as good as its companion volume, The Good Old Stuff, but
it is still well worth reading. MacDonald had a real gift for creating
a seedy, often repellent setting, and making you care about the
frequently deeply flawed characters who lived there. 5/3/23
The Middle of
Things by J.S. Fletcher, Oreon, 2022 (originally published in
1922)
This
was actually the best novel by Fletcher that I’ve read so far. It has
his usual faults - characters jump to conclusions constantly and
sometimes belabor the obvious. In this case a man is found murdered in
an alley and a homeless man is arrested for the crime. He is innocent,
of course. The murder has actually been motivated by a gang who want to
insert an impostor into a wealthy family and extort money. A neighbor
and a lawyer team up to investigate, although they actually don’t do
much investigating. They run an ad in the newspapers and the bulk of the
book is various people showing up to provide another piece of the
puzzle. There are a couple of boggling coincidences but otherwise this
one was entertaining. 5/2/23
The Empty Copper
Sea by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1978
Once
again Travis McGee has to help an old friend. This one is suspected of
having inadvertently killed his employer, who has gone missing at sea.
McGee wants to restore his reputation. Almost immediately he hears
rumors that the missing man is hiding in Mexico, and it is clear thar he
looted his business before vanishing. But that solution would be too
obvious. For a while it appears that he was killed by his mistress, but
she has disappeared as well and I was well ahead of McGee in believing
they were both dead. He did fool me with the identity of the killer,
however. 5/1/23
Miss
Seeton’s Finest Hour by Hamilton Crane, Berkley, 1999
This
was a significant break in the series, a retrospective novel in which a
younger Miss Seeton exercises her psychic talent during World War II.
Naturally the authorities conclude that her mysterious insights mean
that she is a spy, but eventually a more imaginative officer realizes
that she is an asset. He puts her to work tracking down saboteurs who
are undercutting military production facilities. It is an interesting
change of pace, but really didn’t feel like a Miss Seeton story. 5/1/23
Prisoner of
the Harem by G.H. Teed, Stillwoods, 2023 (originally published
in 1931)
Yet
another battle between Sexton Blake and his arch-enemy, George Marsden
Plummer, this time set in the exotic location of Cairo. Plummer has
forged an alliance with a similarly devious woman to form a small crime
syndicate in Egypt, and he doesn’t believe there is anyone local who can
stop him. But with his usual bad luck, he is unaware that Sexton Blake
is in the country as well, and as soon as Blake gets wind of the
operation, it is doomed to fail. This was one of Teed’s better novels,
which considerably more action than in most of his stories of this
rivalry. 4/28/23
The Dreadful
Lemon Sky by John D.
MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1974
Another
old friend of Travis McGee shows up, and dies in a staged accident a few
days later. Naturally he decides to investigate. Murder and
disappearances follow. He is almost killed when a bomb explodes in his
houseboat. He is almost killed when a murderer tries to run him down
with a jeep. There are five murders by the end, committed by three
different people for differing motives. There are smuggled drugs,
missing cash, a disappearance at sea, accidental deaths real and faked,
and McGee ends up in bed with two different women, almost three. Throw
in an honest police detective and a dishonest judge. A couple of really
good scenes, but it felt like the plot got away on its own a couple of
times as well. 4/28/23
The Turquoise
Lament by John D. MacDonald,
Gold Medal, 1973
Another
old friend of Travis McGee is in trouble. She is convinced that her
husband is trying to kill her. There are also some missing documents
that suggest the locations of some sunken treasure ships. Add a serial
killer, a corrupt lawyer, a blackmailed banker, doctored photographs,
and you have most of the plot, although this one is a lot less linear
than is usually the case in this series. McGee almost gets killed again
– he has a habit of not taking precautions when confronting murderous
criminals. It also appears that he might be contemplating marriage, but
that gets shot down in a rather perfunctory fashion in the last few
pages. 4/27/23
The Scarlet Ruse
by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1973
The
mysterious theft of some valuable stamps leads Travis McGee into a
fairly conventional murder mystery this time. The stamp dealer’s client
is a criminal but their business was legal. There are two women working
for the dealer and it seems certain that one or the other engineered the
theft. There is very little action in this one until the climactic end
when the various parties converge for a shootout that leaves three of
them dead. A bit slow moving and the villain is pretty obvious, but
pretty good overall. 4/25/23
The Crime
of a Christmas Toy by Henry Herman, Oreon, 2022 (originally
published in 1953)
This
is a not very interesting mystery story. A wealthy man receives a
package on the night before his wedding. It is a booby trap that
releases a poison gas and kills him. His old will is still in force
because the marriage did not take place. His brother, who is heavily in
debt, is next in line to the bulk of the fortune. Another man, who
blames the dead man for driving his sister to suicide, is another strong
suspect. And there are others who also had reason to want him dead. This
feels like the outline for a mystery – the author usually wrote plays –
and never takes itself seriously enough. 4/25/23
Death of an
Editor by Vernon Loder, Oreon, 2022 (originally published in
1931)
The
first couple of chapters are a bit disorganized, but this settles down
into a nice mystery after that. Various people are guests at a large
country house where an influential editor is shot to death in his host’s
study. Early evidence suggests that he was shot through the window by
someone concealed in an anchored yacht, but the very systematic
detective soon proves that this is a red herring. He was actually killed
by someone standing next to him, someone who doctored the scene to give
a misleading impression of the sequence of events. There are a number of
suspects in a physical sense, but there does not seem to be anyone with
a motive. A touch of espionage livens things up a bit as well. 4/24/23
A Tan and
Sandy Silence by John D.
MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1971
An
old friend of Travis McGee has left her husband and disappeared, and the
husband is convinced McGee is hiding her. This leads him into a complex
plot to steal money from a trust fund that involves murder,
impersonation, and extortion. McGee is unusually inept in this one. He
is taken prisoner by the villain twice and escapes in both cases more
through luck than skill. By this point in the series, I was glad that I
was not among McGee’s friends, as they have a very high mortality rate.
4/23/23
Bonjour, Miss
Seeton by Hamilton Crane, Berkley, 1997
Miss
Seeton takes a vacation in France and makes a friend who comes to visit
her after she returns to England. At about the same time there is a
murder in the village that may be related to the discovery of an
unexploded German bomb from World War II. Miss Seeton and her psychic
artistic abilities eventually make sense of the situation, but only
after some of the usual zany adventures. This was about average for the
series for Crane (Sarah Mason).. 4/23/23
The Long
Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1969
Travis
McGee is arrested for murdering a man he does not know. He is released
fairly soon and decides to do some investigating on his own. The case
involves an old armored car robbery, a falling out among thieves, a
police officer who runs a string of call girls, a virulently evil young
woman, various dubious characters, and ends with McGee seriously injured
and hospitalized. This was well above average and easily the most
violent novel in the series at this point – there are seven murders and
possibly an eighth. 4/20/23
Sweet Miss Seeton
by Hamilton Crane, Berkley, 1996
There
are two subplots in this one, although they eventually converge. A
sculptor rather implausibly covets the cottage which Miss Seeton
occupies and is ruthless in his efforts to run her off so that he can
work on his next project. The second involves the mysterious deaths of a
number of elderly villagers, each of whom had recently made purchases
from the same asphalt company. Clearly not a coincidence. This one is a
bit uneven but generally a solid entry in the series. 4/20/23
Dress Her in
Indigo by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1969
Travis
McGee reluctantly agrees to go to Mexico to learn about the final days
of a young American woman who died in a traffic mishap. She was seen in
the company of some questionable people and had obviously become a drug
addict. There is suspicion that the accident was contrived. His
investigation uncovers drug abuse, murder, and an insane serial killer
and almost costs him his life. The villain’s identity is supposed to be
a surprise but it is evident far too soon in the story. Fortunately in
this case it does not matter because subsequent events are not dependent
upon the element of mystery. 4/18/23
Castle of Fear
by J. Jefferson Farjeon, Collins, 1954
An
Old Dark House style mystery. A young woman from Australia inherits a
castle in England, but there are complications. She is being stalked by
a mysterious assassin, her cousin is supposedly away on a trip but is
actually using a secret passage to move around the castle, a supposed
historian is living there and is obviously lying. Add a young man with
secrets of his own and a malevolent housekeeper who locks people in
their rooms and you have an entertaining set up for a suspense novel. It
proceeds reasonably well from there without ever quite managing to
become noteworthy. 4/18/23
The
Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald, Gold
Medal, 1968
Travis
McGee is asked by a dying friend to help her married daughter, who seems
to be losing her mind. The husband is very sympathetic, but his image
becomes increasingly tarnished as the story progresses. The family
doctor supposedly committed suicide, but there are some inconsistencies
there. A not very likable attorney is investigating the doctor’s death
with the help of a nurse, who is murdered a short time later. There is
also a shady police detective who keeps crossing paths with the other
characters. The husband is obviously drugging his wife in order to
inherit her trust fund, so there is not much mystery. About average for
the series. 4/16/23
Sold to Miss
Seeton by Hamilton Crane, Berkley, 1995
Miss
Seeton attends an auction and inadvertently purchases a sealed box. When
she manages to open it, she finds objects connected to the royal
family. A short time later one of the employees at the auction house is
murdered, and it is pretty obviously connected to the box. I balked a
bit at this. The auction house would certainly have opened the box to
ascertain its contents before putting it up for sale. After that, the
story proceeds in the usual fashion. The mystery element is stronger
than usual in this adventure, and the tone considerably more serious.
4/16/23
Night Watch by Stephen Kendrick,
Berkley, 2001
Sherlock
Holmes is asked to investigate when a priest is brutally murdered as an
ecumenical council of world religious leaders is meeting, He
doesn't like political cases but the puzzle is interesting, As he
explores the intricacies of the church - the author is a priest - he
runs into G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown, and the two have a kind of
unofficial collaboration. Although this was a decent mystery, it did not
capture the feeling of either Holmes or Brown and I had to keep
reminding myself who they were. 4/13/23
The Attending Truth by E.R.
Punshon, Dean Street, 2017 (originally published in 1952)
I
am, alas, reaching the last few books in a series I have generally
enjoyed a great deal. Bobby Owen is now a Scotland Yard commander and is
sent to a small village to investigate the murder of an unassuming
traveling salesman in an area where he was supposedly a stranger.
Naturally almost no one tells him the entire truth and there are
virtually no physical clues to help. None of the potential suspects - a
vicar, a businesswoman, a sculptor, a retired colonel, an aspiring
politician, the local constable's son, an aggressive drunkard, an
unidentified tramp, a mysterious young woman, and an amiable grocer -
have alibis and several of them are obviously lying. Punshon provides a
clue early on and then never mentions it again, even when it is obvious
that it should be, which gives away the identity of the killer to the
perspicacious reader. 4/13/23
Pale Gray for
Guilt by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1968
Travis
McGee is enraged when an old friend is murdered, rigged to look like
suicide. It is clear that he was creating a problem for an investor who
wanted his land for a development project, but the investor appears to
have one so there was no reason to kill him. McGee buys the land from
the widow to block the project, then runs two separate elaborate scams
to damage the interests of the two businessmen who were responsible for
the campaign of intimidation. The killing was actually only peripherally
related and is almost accidental. A somewhat more complex and satisfying
plot than usual. 4/11/23
Crook O Lune
by E.C.R. Lorac, British Library, 2022 (originally published in 1953)
This
one is a low key but very atmospheric detective story set in very rural
England, a desolate area populated by only a handful of farmers who
mostly raise sheep and dairy cows. There is no actual murder until the
final scene - although an earlier death was probably not the accident it
was deemed to be. There is manslaughter - a woman sleeping in a
supposedly empty house is killed when someone starts a fire in the
basement - and sheep stealing on a large scale. The real motive turns
out to involve a centuries old bequest that has been misdirected over
the years. The remoteness of the area - only thirteen people live within
several square miles - is integral to the plot. One of this author';s
best. 4/11/23
One Fearful
Yellow Eye by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1966
An
old friend asks for help when her recently deceased husband’s estate
seems to have disappeared. Someone was blackmailing him – and frankly
the identity of the villain is just too obvious. There are complications
including uncertain paternity, fugitive Nazis, a pair of mysterious
heavies who do not seem to be interested in the money, various rapes and
assaults, and a murder. There is one cringeworthy scene where McGee
tries to convince a woman she will be able to cure her frigidity by
going to bed with him – which eventually does happen. Below average for
the series. 4/8/23
The Secret Weapon
by Francis Beeding, Harper, 1940
A
wartime spy thriller. The protagonist is on his way to England to enlist
when he encounters a German agent with some sensitive papers. He steals
the papers when the ship is torpedoed and ends up in Spain, where
various Nazi agents are after him and the papers. Since he speaks German
fluently, he is able to impersonate the original courier, and things get
very convoluted after that. A lively plot that somehow never really
drew me into the story. 4/8/23
The Secret Search
by E.R. Punshon, Dean Street, 2017 (originally published in 1951)
Bobby
Owen returns for a complicated case in which three characters have the
same name. An elderly man is being looked after by his doting niece, bur
Owen suspects she is after his money. Another woman with the same name
has recently arrived from Canada and promptly disappeared. Two criminal
gangs are both interested, though they hate each other. One of them has
made up one of their members to impersonate Owen, a ploy never
adequately explained. There is never much mystery involved. The old man
is murdered and a rather clumsy attempt to make it seem like natural
causes falls apart within hours. A nice crime story and surprising in
that it involves a drug that allows a woman to astrally project herself
in order to witness crimes. 4/5/23
Miss Seeton Rules
by Hamilton Crane, Berkley, 1994
A
member of the royal family is coming to visit Miss Seeton’s village, but
there is a group who are planning her abduction. When they pounce, Miss
Seeton inadvertently provides them some assistance, which naturally
displeases Scotland Yard when they set about looking for the missing
woman. But they need not fear because in her indirect and generally
humorous fashion, she will prove instrumental in the rescue. Somewhat
above average for the books in this series written under the Crane name
by Sarah J. Mason. 4/5/23
So Many Doors
by E.R. Punshon, Dean Street, 2017 (originally published in 1949)
One
of the best in the Bobby Owen series. The elopement of a young woman
with a man suspected of having gotten away with murder turns into an
elaborately entertaining free for all. There are multiple love
triangles, a criminal subplot to confuse things, a missing body which
means the police do not know who was murdered, impersonations, false
identities, conflicting testimony, coincidences, a legend about an
abandoned tin mine, a car chase, faked suicide, and other complexities.
At one point all of the suspects disappear independently, and all
reappear in Cornwall using false names and other ploys. Lots of fun and
some nice characterizations. 4/2/23
Darker Than
Amber by John D. MacDonald, Gold Medal, 1966
This
was made into a movie for television, but I never saw it. McGee rescues
a prostitute who is about to be murdered, although she does not survive
a second attempt. She had hinted about a gang that swindled and murdered
unwary men, and McGee decides to put them out of business. He does so in
a methodical fashion, although he slips up a couple of times and
succeeds more through luck than good planning. The gang lures men onto
cruises, throws them overboard, and fools the crew by substituting a
stowaway each time. I’m not convinced this would work, and how did they
convince the men to bring so much money in cash on a cruise? 4/2/23
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