Emma Lathen was the better known pseudonym of Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Henissart who were active from 1962 until the former's death in 1997. They also wrote several mysteries as R.B. Dominic, but were popular primarily for creating John Putnam Thatcher, a senior officer at a major bank who had a penchant for solving crimes.
Thatcher
made his debut in Banking on Death (1962). Thatcher becomes interested in
a relatively minor trust that involves a family closely connected to the paper
products industry. The imminent death of an elderly woman will precipitate the
distribution of the trust, but the apparent disappearance of one of the
beneficiaries complicates things. Thatcher assigns the investigation to one of
his subordinates, but before long they discover that the man in question has
recently been murdered. There are a horde of suspects. The dead man was disliked
by his co-workers and hated by his boss. The daughter of the latter was
having an affair with him, which obviously didn't endear him to her husband. He
also had a wife of his own, although they were estranged, and she had numerous
reasons for wishing him dead. On the family side we have a self centered single
woman with a penchant for drinking herself into oblivion and no regard at all
for others, a manipulative sales manager who has recently made unwise
investments and is on the brink of bankruptcy, and the manager of the paper
products company, who seems to have no real motive for wanting him dead.
The latter's daughter is also positioned as a possible suspect but she is
obviously meant to provide the romantic interest for Thatcher's assistant.
Alibis for everyone are complicated by a massive snowstorm that delayed everyone
for hours, which would conveniently mask a sidetrip for homicidal purposes.
The dead man also worked for a rival paper products company although the family
claims not to have any idea where he is.
Lathen uses an unusual remote form of investigation. Thatcher works primarily by proxies and the viewpoint shifts among a good many characters. Although this was quite entertaining, it suffers from being too obvious. The only one who really doesn't seem to have a strong motive is also the only one who does seem to have an alibi, so my suspicions immediately focused on the business manager. When it is revealed that the victim was on the verge of creating a revolutionary new process that would wipe out the competition, I had motive as well. We aren't really given enough information to detect the flaw in his alibi, but it was obvious that there had to be one and in due course Thatcher stumbles across it, almost by accident. A good mystery but not a classic.
The
dry sense of humor that pops up occasionally in Banking on Death is more
in evidence in A Place for Murder (1963). Thatcher is dragooned into
helping resolve problems when the bank manager's sister is swept up in a messy
divorce. There's a power struggle between her and her husband's new love, a
younger woman, over control of the family home, a symbol of prestige more than
anything else. And it's no surprise when the young woman turns up dead early in
the proceedings. She is survived by an ambitious mother and obnoxious brother,
both of whom hoped to gain monetarily from the new marriage, which makes them
unlikely candidates as the killer. The estranged husband, however, has
clearly had some second thoughts about his new liaison, which makes him as
likely as his presumed soon to be ex-wife. There is also a husband and wife dog
handling team who work for the wife, and an outspoken local restaurant owner. They have no apparent motive, but then they
wouldn't have. Finally we have the divorcing couple's son, who blames his father
for the breakup. Kenneth Nicolls, who did the legwork for Thatcher in the
first book, is at it again and this time he is the one who discovers that the
murdered woman was pregnant, and that just perhaps the love affair was not as
mutual as first suggested. Then we learn that there was a substantial insurance
policy on the dead woman, suggesting that her family may have had a motive after
all.
This time no one at all has an alibi since the murder took place during a parade and everyone was scattered about. Further events seem to point toward the wayward husband when his paramour's brother indicates that he wants a private meeting, then ends up murdered in a field on the man's farm. This, of course, suggests to the experienced mystery reader that he is the only one who is certainly innocent. Several people are suppressing information in order to protect someone else, and when they finally reveal what turns out to be rather innocuous, the police are reluctant to believe them in any case. An integral but puzzling part of the mystery is a set of antlers which the dead woman was grasping. When the police finally release them, they are promptly stolen, underlining their significance, although it is actually the fact that they can be moved through a crowd unnoticed that is the clue to the fact that the murder did not take place where everyone believed it did. As in the first book, Thatcher figures out the solution after a revelatory experience triggers his deductive powers. I guessed the murderer again this time, but I wasn't nearly as certain as I had been before.
Accounting
for Murder (1964) is in the same vein. A high powered accountant
happens to be a stock holder in a large firm whose finances strike him as
irregular. He forces an audit, but before he can announced his findings, he is
found strangled by the cord to his adding machine. Thatcher is involved because
the bank holds some investments. The technical problem is why two plants which
manufacture the same profit run at a loss in one case, and a profit in the
other. But when an independent audit is performed, the losing plant is
shown to be above board. And why would a criminal arrange things to make more
profit for the company instead of himself. There's a reasonably clever
explanation for this, although I would have thought the problem would have
become obvious much earlier. Pleasant but unexceptional.
Murder
Makes the Wheels Go 'Round (1966) switches to the auto industry. Michigan
Motors is recovering from a price fixing scam that sent three of their top
executives to prison and others into early retirement or job transfers. The
three convicted men have just been released and their future is uncertain, and
worrisome to people like Thatcher who are contemplating investing in the
company. Then the most prominent of the threesome, Ray Jensen, is found
shot and stuffed into the back seat of a presentation car. Jensen, who was
expected to become company president, has been upset about the ambivalence about
his future with the company, and is also investigating to determine who the
anonymous whistleblower was who contacted the government. There's no shortage of
people with both motive and opportunity either. There's Wahl, who took Jensen's
place and is nervous about being demoted back to his old position. There's
Krebbel, the new president, whose plans might be hindered if a fresh scandal
erupts. There's Jensen's ex-wife and her lover, another company executive. The
other two convicted men also resent Jensen's disregard of their precarious
positions, a sentiment shared by their wives, plus the whistleblower who would
not want his/her identity revealed, plus other company figures who might be
implicated if Jensen revealed all that he knew about the illegal scheme.
Thatcher admits that he remains in the vicinity because he is curious rather
than professionally involved this time.
Readers who fancy themselves amateur detectives are going to be a bit frustrated here. There are literally no clues to analyze. One can make guesses among the various suspects (and non-suspects) but it's pure guesswork. As the final chapters unfold, the killer could quite clearly be any of the characters, although for dramatic purposes we can safely eliminate the estranged wife and her now incarcerated lover (someone planted the murder weapon in his filing cabinet). They're both much too obvious and Thatcher refuses to believe they're guilty. Although I did guess correctly in this case, it was by considering the way in which Lathen portrayed several characters and choosing the one that was in theory the least likely to be the guilty party. Not a classic mystery, perhaps, but an entertaining one.
Death
Shall Overcome (1966) involves efforts to install a black man as a full
partner in a Wall Street trading firm, despite opposition ranging from skeptical
to openly racist. One of his colleagues is poisoned in what later appears to
have been a botched attempt on the new prospect, Parry, and a stroke of luck
allows him to escape unscathed when someone fires a rifle at his moving car. The
open racist seems to be too obvious a suspect but there are others with reasons
to want Parry dead, or to at least embarrass the man proposing his elevation.
Much of the middle of the novel has nothing to do with the mystery. When the
story of the two murder attempts reaches the newspapers, it sets off a storm of
protests, genuine and otherwise, and Thatcher gets drafted into a Wall Street
committee to deal with the mess, even though there's little that he can do about
it. The sides grow even more polarized amidst some generally humorous episodes
but we learn nothing more about motive, method, or opportunity during the fun
and games. The unfolding events are amusing and entertaining but the mystery
element really doesn't return until quite late in the book, and even then it's
more of a revelation out of the blue than anything else. The reader can only
guess who the killer is - there are no clues at all to speak of - and I guessed
wrong this time. Some of the information that Thatcher uses to reach the
solution is concealed from the reader, which is a significant cheat.
Thatcher's
bank gets defrauded of nearly a million dollars in
Murder Against the Grain
(1967), after a forged bill of lading connected to a major wheat sale to the
Soviet Union goes awry. The messenger who delivered the check to the crooks
apparently knew more than he revealed to the police because he is found murdered
in the vicinity of the Russian embassy. The bank representative who approved the
check and the merchant who should have received payment both fall under
suspicion by the competent police, while various federal agents fall over one
another providing the usual comic relief. At least one Russian official also
appears to be acting suspiciously, although this might be his natural uneasiness
in awkward circumstances. Once again the story is more about the complications
of the theft and there are very few clues for the reader, or the police for that
matter. I noticed a significant step forward in the prose, however, which flows
much more smoothly than in the first few books. The solution involves
identifying two people since it is obvious that one person could not have had
all of the access and knowledge required. One half of the criminal team is
actually fairly obvious and I knew her identity very early on. Her partner could
have been one of several people and while the authors provide Thatcher with some
slight evidence to justify his decision, it's pretty spurious. It's still the
best Lathen book to date.
Come
to Dust (1968) was the most serious in tone and the best constructed mystery
that Lathen had yet produced. It opens with the disappearance of an unremarkable
man who served as part of the interview committee for a private college. His
wife is reluctant to contact the police, but then his car is identified as being
involved in a fatal hit and run accident, a $50,000 bearer bond goes missing,
and there are fears that he may have embezzled money from his primary employer.
Thatcher gets pulled into things somewhat awkwardly and tries to disengage
throughout most of the novel. What appears to be a coalescing explanation goes
awry when it is discovered that the missing man sold his car shortly before the
accident, that he had been planning his disappearance for at least a year, and
that he apparently took a number of college records away with him for no
discernible purpose. Further complications arise when a document is discovered
which lists for of his college classmates, all bachelors, none of whom seem to
have any connection. There are also a couple of red herrings, one involving his
planned attendance at his class reunion, where rumors of his presence do arise.
That's where murder strikes. The last boy to have been interviewed is found
stabbed to death in the bed of another of the committee members, who was himself
passed out drunk elsewhere, or so he says. I didn't guess the murderer this
time, and could not have done so based on the clues although I had concluded it
must be one of the three members of the committee. I did figure out the
motivation for the disappearance, in part, although there's a twist there that I
never saw coming. The high quality of the previous volume is maintained
here.
A
Stitch in Time (1968) starts with a legal case involving a man who died
after trying to commit suicide. Because there were a number of serious mistakes
made by the attending doctor, the man died but the cause of death - and the
payment of his insurance policy - is in dispute. The doctor in question is an
irascible, irritating person who makes a public nuisance of himself, to the
chagrin of his co-workers and others, until he ends up dead in the parking lot,
apparently mugged. There are a number of immediate suspects - his apparently
doting wife who was set to inherit a considerable amount of money, which is also
apparently missing, a former colleague whom he caused to be fired, another who
seems to be next on his target list, and other doctors who don't want the
adverse attention at the hospital. This last turns out to be more serious than
it seems because the dead man and many of his peers were involved in an illegal
prescription operation as well as covering up substandard operating procedures
at the hospital. His continued erratic behavior would have inevitably brought
scrutiny to that operation as well. Although well written, the clue that helps
Thatcher solve the murder is displayed early on and is glaringly obvious. There
was never any doubt in my mind about the killer's identity.
Murder Sunny Side Up (1968) was the first time the authors used the R.B.
Dominic byline. Since I haven't been able to find a copy of even the
paperback that sells for less than $70, I have not read this one. The
second Dominic, Murder in High Places (1969) followed shortly afterward
but frankly it was so disappointing that I don't mind missing its predecessor.
Her detective/protagonist this time is a Congressman who becomes involved with
the plight of an American student who was kicked out of an imaginary country
where she was doing research after pictures were faked showing her acting
scandalously. Even though she can prove her innocence, government officials and
private sponsors seem oddly unwilling to make an issue of it, and the student
also seems to have irritated some members of the foreign government as well.
Then a diplomat is pushed out of a window and falls to his death and his
involvement with the case, though peripheral, makes the link obvious to the
reader. The plot is jumbled and sometimes almost incoherent, the characters are
sometimes wildly exaggerated and they come and go so quickly that we can't
relate to any of them. Nor is the wittiness of the Thatcher books present. Very
disappointing.
When
in Greece (1969) is generally considered Lathen's best novel. There is a
murder mystery in it, but the story is basically an adventure set against the
background of the colonels' coup. One of Thatcher's subordinates, Ken Nicolls,
is in Greece preparing for a meeting on a development project when he is
arrested by the army after a brief conversation with a stranger - who is
promptly murdered. An earthquake sets him free shortly thereafter and he is on
the run from parties whose identities he doesn't know. Another banker is
sent to look for him and he is promptly kidnapped off a busy Athens street,
which finally provokes Thatcher into traveling to Greece himself to take things
in hand, although most of the initiative is provided by others. We alternate
among the three bankers, one of whom wanders the countryside from one brief safe
haven to another, one of whom outwits and escapes his captors, and Thatcher
himself - who enlists the aid of two feisty female archaeologists. The story
concludes with a fairly clever plot to trap the murderer, extricate the
fugitive, and protect the bank's interests. This is all handled quite well
and if the mystery element is fairly weak, the plot itself is quite lively.
Murder
to Go (1969) is about the fast food industry. A chicken delivery chain is
targeted by someone who substitutes poison for one of the ingredients on a
delivery truck. The driver who physically made the change disappears but shows
up later, strangled, in the car of one of the owners of the chain. Suspicious
characters include his partner, who disagrees about how the business is going,
his wife because she hates playing second fiddle, members of the board of a
small insurance company who object to a takeover bid, and the company's main
supplier of chickens, who seems to have no motive but who knows that the chain
is considering raising their own chickens in the future. Most of the novel
involves the internal feuding among the management and their wives, and some
peripheral maneuvering with outsiders and their own distributors. This time the
solution is accessible to the reader far in advance of Thatcher's insight. In
fact, it's a bit too obvious. The killer drops a piece of information he could
not possibly have known well in advance and I just assumed he was the guilty
party from that point on. Correctly, as it turned out. Not quite up to the
standards of the previous couple of books.
Thatcher
goes for an extended walk on the Appalachian Trail in Pick Up Sticks
(1970), but his companion stumbles across a body and they are diverted to a hard
sell real estate promotion at a remote lodge. There they discover that the dead
man was dismayed to find that his ex-wife was also present, since there was no
love lost between her and his new wife, and there was a custody battle over the
first wife's son as well. As the story unfolds we learn that the dead man,
Lester, was known to have argued with the project architect for reasons unknown,
and that he'd also spent hours walking around the site on his own just prior to
his murder. The circumstances of his death seem to indicate no premeditation, an
act of impulse. One of the sales managers is also acting strangely, attempting
to foment discord between the two wives when it is revealed that Lester died
without a will and that the divorced wife's son is probably entitled to part of
the estate. No solution seems to be in sight and then one of the realtors is
stabbed in the back at another sales pitch and things accelerate toward the
conclusion.
The
future of a parochial school is at the heart of the issue in
Ashes to Ashes
(1971). The head of the community group resisting the church's plan to sell the
land to a real estate developer is murdered late one night and at first it
appears that the only person with a credible motive is the investor. Other
potential suspects include an overly ambitious lawyer, a candy store owner who
hopes to make a killing if the deal goes through, other members of the protest
committee, and a curate whose indignation is disproportionate. Much of the book
involves the complications that ensue when outside interests get involved in the
issue, and the lawyer's attempts to change the focus of the group to a wider
range of changes. Bomb threats and a real bomb follow before Thatcher figures
out who is responsible. This is another one where the motive is not revealed
until the solution is provided, which is technically cheating, but the story is
an amusing one.
The
Longer the Thread
(1971) is set in a clothing manufacturing plant in Puerto
Rico. There has been a rash of sabotage at the plant and management suspects a
troublesome supervisor with connections to radical political movements. Thatcher
is visiting just as the troublemaker is found murdered in the executive offices,
shot through the back of the head, with incriminating evidence on his person.
But was he the saboteur or did he discover the real culprit's identity. As with
several of the other novels, the story is more about the peripheral events - in
this case pragmatism versus political idealism, though stupidly conceived - and
there isn't much about the evidence or detection process, or even about the
personalities of the major suspects. There is also a growing feud between two
members of the management team, one of whom is ostensibly kidnapped by a group
of radical students, who are also prime suspects in an arson incident that
destroys the company's warehouse. Both of these seemed suspicious to me and I
assumed at this point that one of the managers was actually behind both events
for reasons as yet unknown, and that the kidnapped man was probably dead. Sure
enough, his body turns up a short while later. I had narrowed down the list of
suspects to two people and it was one of them, but there was really no way to
guess correctly because of withheld information. We know that one of them is
looking for another job, but we don't know that the other one is not.
There
is No Justice (1971) is an improvement over the previous R.B. Dominic novel.
A senator makes a personal vendetta out of finding dirt on a Supreme Court
nominee, and is promptly shot to death while jogging. The nominee is outed as an
adulterer when love letters to the wife of another man are made public and there
are insinuations that he might have been involved in some shady legal dealings
as well. His wife stands by him during the scandal, but then he is poisoned at a
college graduation and the police suspect that the two men were killed by the
same person. Congressman Ben Safford, our protagonist, figures things out right
at the end. There's a goof by the second victim that I caught but I couldn't
figure out the significance until other information is revealed at the end,
although I did correctly identify the murderer, if not the motive. Not bad but
still not as good as the Lathen novels, and occasionally rushed, particularly in
the opening chapters.
Murder
Without Icing (1972) is unusual in that it starts with the murder of the
wrong person. Frank Moore was interested in buying a hockey team stake from Win
Holland, much to the dismay of his partner, Clemmie Post, but the deal had
publicly fallen through when Moore was found shot to death. Holland did owe him
money at the time, but it does not appear to have been an unusual or pressing
debt and Post was gleeful that the deal had been aborted. On the other hand,
some people - notably the players on the hockey team - were not aware that the
deal had fallen through and most of them had something to lose if Moore acquired
and then moved the team, as he had implied he was planning to do. Then the star
player is poisoned, but there seems to be nothing to link the two murders and in
fact they seem to have been perpetrated for contradictory reasons. This
time I not only guessed the killer's identity early but I had a pretty good idea
what the motive was. It's an okay story but probably a bit below average in
overall quality.
Thatcher
gets appointed to the board of directors of a large trust fund in
Sweet and
Low (1974), which in turn is connected to a major candy company. During a
get together for the board members, one of them is murdered and thrown into the
swimming pool, shortly after arguing with the underling of a prominent employee
of the candy company. This one gets off to a slow start and by a third of the
way through the book I was still having some trouble differentiating the
characters, which is not a good sign. The politics of the cocoa futures
market is explained at length, but not well enough that I completely understood
the financial maneuvering which turns out to be the motive for the first and a
later follow up murder. I also wondered in the latter case why someone would
happen to be carrying a knife big enough to stab someone fatally in the back
when the murder was spur of the moment rather than preplanned. Much of the
information leading to the discovery is withheld until the resolution, and the
ending seemed quite rushed. I thought this was the weakest of the Lathen's to
date, barely better than the Dominics, with almost none of the amusing byplay
among the recurring characters to sustain it.
Epitaph
for a Lobbyist (1974) is another R.B. Dominic, and like the others it feels
much more rushed and thin than the Lathens. A lobbyist has been outed by her
daughter who revealed a written note indicating that one of three Congressmen
had accepted a bribe. The lobbyist herself has been hiding out with her
estranged husband but she decides to fly back to Washington, only to turn up
dead shortly after arriving. The three men under suspicion for the bribe are
obvious suspects for the murder as well, but we can also include head of the
lobby that hired her. The daughter and husband seem to be in the clear. The dead
woman's secretary apparently makes a personal crusade out of finding out the
truth, and she ends up nearly dead when she tries to contact the head of the
lobby group. There is speculation that there is more written evidence, possibly
in the possession of the daughter, and concern that the killer might strike
again, but there are no clues, nothing that could allow the reader to logically
choose among the various suspects. The revelation comes as no surprise but
there's no way to anticipate it except by a random guess. Not much of a
mystery.
By
Hook or By Crook (1975) is much much better. Thatcher and company have to
deal with a Persian rug company whose aging CEO is being challenged by his
children. When another relative emerges from within the Soviet Union, her shares
could decide the contest, if she really is who she says she is. But before
anyone can check her background, she is poisoned, presumably by one of the
family. Then a business associate is poisoned under similar circumstances, just
as he was apparently about to reveal something about the proper identity of a
family member, but not necessarily the dead aunt. The children were on their own
during World War II and it is entirely possible that one or all of them is not
who they think they are. In the aftermath, the family squabbles are temporarily
smoothed over but the real problems have not been addressed. I guessed the
murderer again, but as with most of the earlier novels, it was a hunch based on
the situation since much of the incriminating evidence is withheld until the
end. This is one of the better Thatcher stories
Murder
Out of Commission (1976) was the next R.B. Dominic title. It revolves around
the controversy associated with building a nuclear power plant in a rural
community. There's a good deal of superficial examination of the actual issues,
but the story really involves the murder of a safety commissioner and suspicions
that a local environmental protest group might be responsible. Then a noted
authority gets involved and he calls our hero, Congressman Ben Safford,
indicating that he has just discovered something very important. Predictably he
too is murdered before he can spill the beans, so Safford has to figure out what
he knew and solve the two crimes. The story line is pretty lean this time as
well and while there is a bit more effort to flesh in the characters, they are
still little more than stick figures. The difference between the Lathens and the
Dominics is surprising and consistent.
Double,
Double, Oil and Trouble (1978) takes Thatcher to Zurich just as a
businessman negotiating oil development rights is kidnapped by terrorists and
held for ransom. The ransom is paid, spirited away by a disguised woman with a
backpack, but the detainee is not released. Weeks pass and the oil deal is
completed, but there is still no sign of the missing businessman and despite a
renewed threat from the supposed abductors, there are no further demands. At
this point one might wonder if the terrorists - of whom no one had previously
heard - might actually be agents of the competing oil bidders, or perhaps his
assistant, who would have liked the job for himself. Or maybe even the estranged
wife. The latter looks more attractive as a solution when she shows up escorted
by the opposition's chief negotiator. Our suspicions change when the kidnap
victim becomes very nervous about talking to the police. Is he afraid of
reprisals or was the kidnapping actually faked in order to defraud his company
of the ransom? Then a bomb is planted in his car, making the first option seem
more plausible, but there are too many questions to be resolved. This one is a
pretty good thriller, though not a particularly good mystery novel since there
are four criminals out of a cast of only eight suspects.
We
return to R.B. Dominic with The Attending Physician (1980). Ben Safford
is one of several people investigating Medicaid abuses when a scandal in his own
district draws national attention. Seven doctors have received disproportionate
and apparently illegal subsidies, and a local lawyer is pressing the issue. When
the lawyer turns up dead, we have seven instant suspects, although there's
somewhat of a surprise in the solution. This was one of the better Dominics,
though still inferior to the Lathens, and for the usual reasons, although there
is a bit more flesh on the bones this time than previously. Safford and the
other regular characters never develop any depth or individuality like they do
in the Lathens.
Going
for the Gold (1980), not surprisingly, is set during the Winter Olympics at
Lake Placid and opens with a French skier being shot to death in the midst of a
practice jump. Immediately thereafter it is discovered that a massive
counterfeit travelers' check scheme is underway and that the dead man, Bisson,
was involved, perhaps innocently but more likely not. This one is more of a
traditional detective story than most of the others in the series, but it also
feels more rushed, resembling an R.B. Dominic rather than a Lathen, with the
familiar characters treated brusquely at times. There's also suspicion that one
or more of the athletes might have taken illegal performance enhancing drugs.
There's a major storm to complicate matters, and some political wrangling on the
IOC, but neither assumes major proportions. The structure of the plot is closer
to my preferences in this genre than most of the other Lathen novels, but there
doesn't seem to be enough flesh on the bones.
Green
Grow the Dollars (1982) involves a lawsuit between two seed companies
regarding who actually developed a super tomato worth a fortune to whoever
prevails. The challengers include a scientist with a long standing if not
entirely rational grudge against the company that had actually planned to bring
it to market. The challengees are largely members of a family who have run the
business for years. Because of injunctions against the bank account of the
latter, Thatcher and company are thrown into the mix. As the arguments get
hotter, one woman seems likely to be the key to revealing just who was
responsible for some industrial espionage, and so naturally she ends up being
murdered. I didn't guess the murderer this time, but there really wasn't enough
evidence to figure it out in advance. It's still one of the better Lathens,
particularly from this late in their career.
Unexpected
Developments (1984) was the last of the R.B. Dominic novels. It's atypical
of their work, more of a spy novel than a mystery. Congressman Safford attempts
to come to the assistance of a military pilot whom he believes is being unfairly
blamed for a crash. Then there's a murder, of course, plus a bomb plot, faked
suicide, and an experimental aircraft with abilities which have international
implications. Caught in the middle, Safford has to solve the crime and figure
out just what's going on. Oddly enough, this was different enough that I
actually liked it better than the previous Dominic novels, although it still
doesn't measure up to most of the Lathens. The change of pace was stillborn,
however, as there were no further Safford adventures.
Something
in the Air (1988) switches to the airline industry. A small carrier is on
the verge of a major expansion, and since it is partly employee owned, that
sparks controversy. The crisis worsens when a chosen spokesperson for the
employees goes off on his own mania during a meeting, inciting everyone in
sight, after which he is found murdered. The president of the company is the
chief suspect but the issue is muddied when evidence turns up suggesting that
the dead man had accepted a bribe to cause trouble at the company, possibly as a
prelude to a hostile takeover. Speculation then turns to the company's
competitors, particularly a man who used to work for them and who is now an
executive at a potentially foundering rival. The internal politics of the
central company takes up a large part of the book, and it's better done than I
would have expected, revealing a good deal about some interesting characters
though not contributing much to exploration of the mystery. The bribes have been
going on for a considerable period of time, suggesting blackmail, which leads to
a widening of the suspect list. This is one of the best of the Lathens, and I
only guessed the killer a few pages before it was revealed. I was a bit
disappointed that the resolution of the non-murder related power struggle was
settled off stage.
East
is East (1991) takes Thatcher to Japan. An attempt by an American company to
open a lucrative market in Japan runs into problems with vested interests there.
One corporation stands to gain and another to lose, both on a very large scale.
The government, not normally open to outside interests, is hoping to divert
attention from a scandal and the American entrepreneur is charismatic and
popular with the Japanese press. When a minor clerk working for a government
office is murdered, it initially appears to have nothing to do with the
impending deal. A letter turns up in the dead man's files suggesting that a
bribe was paid to get approval of the project and suddenly the American
delegation is being hastily hustled out of the country. Then another scandal
rocks a Japanese company and it looks like the deal might be back on.
Unfortunately, there's very little Thatcher in any of this and the machinations
among the politicians and businessmen become a bit wearing after a while. Soon
there's dissension within the American company as well, suspicions of private
agendas and sabotage. Eventually another Japanese official is shot, though not
fatally, and apparently by accident because it is the unhappy American employee
who was the real target, and who is murdered shortly thereafter. The solution is
a mild cheat, based on withheld information, and I guessed half right - since
there were two conspirators. One of the least interesting of the Thatcher
adventures.
Right
on the Money (1993) is another mystery centering on a controversial business
merger. For various reasons there are people on both sides of the acquisition
who have doubts about its wisdom, or its potential impact on their own careers.
Rumors of improper conduct in the research division of the larger company and
industrial espionage also complicate matters. The chief troublemaker, who has
enemies in both camps, is destined to be the victim and before long he meets his
fate. Arson at one of the companies ruins records which may have provided that
evidence that at least one of the various rumors about wrongdoing was based on
fact, although the arson might well have been committed by the troublemaker from
the second firm, who is now dead. Some of the apparently guilty actions are
pretty transparent; a man protecting his wife because he thinks she's the
arsonist, others covering their own butts in advance. Satisfactory ending
although once again the solution is based on unrevealed information so you have
to be a lucky guesser to figure out who the killer was.
Brewing
Up a Storm (1996) was the penultimate Thatcher novel. It's about average.
When a brewery introduces a new non-alcoholic beer, and a restaurant chain
offers it to its younger patrons, a protest movement led by an abrasive woman
takes to the streets. She ends up dead before long and the obvious suspects are
those she is suing, although the investigation reveals that she has made a good
many more enemies as well. Thatcher lurks around the edges of the story and then
has an insight which leads to the proper resolution. I thought the build up this
time was a bit awkwardly contrived but for the most part it's not bad, though
far from their best.
The final Thatcher novel was A Shark Out of Water (1997). Happily they ended the Lathen career on a strong note. The setting is mostly Poland where an international development organization's chief of staff is bludgeoned to death shortly after announcing that he had unearthed a major scandal and was about to make it public. There's no end of enemies for this victim either. His obsession with building a new Kiel Canal has irritated his boss, members of the development's board, at least one businessman who feels he is being discriminated against, and a host of others. Looming over all of this is a major disaster in the canal, a chain of collisions that closes it indefinitely, which may or may not have been a misguided effort by environmentalists - some of whom claim credit - or may have had darker purposes. There's even an actual clue leading to the truth about who the killer is and I guessed correctly.