The Lodger

 The Lodger (1913) by Marie Belloc Lowndes

The Lodger is the first known novelization based on the murder attributed to Jack the Ripper. Last fall I read a volume which contained two shorter fictional pieces (The Hypno-Ripper edited by Donald K. Hartman), but this is the first novel-length story. Here the terrifying murderer signs himself "The Avenger" and seems to have a fixation on drunken women. His murders take place when the streets are fairly empty and come in pairs--either one murder on two nights close together or two murders in a single night. But the story doesn't focus on the murders themselves, rather it focuses on Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, former servants--butler and maid--who have fallen on hard times and have decided to take in lodgers to bolster their dwindling finances. But they've had little luck and have just about given up hope when Mr. Sleuth arrives at the door. 

He's looking for somewhere very quiet and is pleased that he will be the only lodger. In fact, he pays well over the asking price so the Buntings will not take in any other lodgers. And Ellen and her husband believe their luck has turned at last. But then...they each begin to suspect that there may be more to their reclusive, rather odd tenant than first appeared. Could it be possible that they are harboring the villainous creature who preys upon women at night?

The story is full of psychological suspense. We watch the effect Mr. Sleuth's presence and the onslaught of news about the murders have on the Bunting's--particularly on Ellen. Ellen is the one who has the most contact with Sleuth--serving his meals and cleaning his rooms. It isn't until Mr. Bunting encounters Sleuth when returning home late one night that he begins to have doubts about the man. But the first time Mr. Sleuth is out late, Ellen is wakeful and hears him moving about. From that moment on her fears and suspicions grow. She tells herself that if he is the killer, then he isn't responsible. Obviously, he's a bit odd--what other man sits up reading the Bible at all hours, reciting all the cruel bits about women? How many people talk to themselves in that bizarre manner? His oddness serves as a shield--and an excuse for her to accept his money for the lodging. She believes he must be The Avenger, but she doesn't want to have to accept it. 

This is an excellent example of early psychological suspense--it mounts steadily until the final scenes and provides a satisfying ending. ★★★ and 1/2.

First line: Robert Bunting and Ellen his wife sat before their dully burning, carefully-banked-up fire.

Last line: Mr. Bunting and his Ellen are now in the service of an old lady, by whom they are feared as well as respected, and whom they make very comfortable.

*****************

Deaths = two stabbed (there were several more--but the names were not given for those)

The Sunburned Corpse

 The Sunburned Corpse (1952) by Adam Knight

New York private eye Steve Conacher thinks he off on a simple little skip trace case--with the bonus of a free cruise to Puerto Rico and a bevy of beautiful babes to fraternize with along the way. Nancy Scott's father has hired him to track down his daughter and convince her to come back home to New York. Conacher's first contact is a pleasant one--at least temporarily--a lovely young woman who knows Nancy and just may know where she's at...as well as having a definite yen for anything in trousers. But Conacher gets one night with her and only manages to learn part of what she knows before Nancy is strangled and her body dumped overboard. Steve's the only who believes she's been murdered and the captain "sadly" notes her down as a suicide. So, while looking for Nancy, Steve is also on the track of a murderer. And the trail leads him to one San Juan's night spots as well as to a picture gallery. He winds up mixed up with artists and gallery owners, drug smugglers and killers. But his nosy little questions and tendency to follow the cast of characters about soon leads him into trouble. And maybe this time he's in too deep to get out.

I hate to spoil things....but there isn't...a sunburned corpse, that is. Corpses we got--plenty of 'em. One's a little bit tanned. But no sunburns to be had. Hope you weren't counting on it. 

I do wish that sellers on Ebay would stop grouping this kind of thing in with a lot of Golden Age Detective novels. For several Christmases and birthdays now my husband has picked up an Ebay offering with several books in it (books on my To Be Found list) and the seller--desperate to get rid of them, I guess- will shove in a Steve Conacher private eye or something totally off-the-wall like The Ugly American. And I keep hoping the Conacher books will get better--because I can't resist reading books that come into my house. After three, I can tell you--they don't. In fact, this fourth entry drops back to the level of the first book in the series. It doesn't have a very interesting plot and unlike I'll Kill You Next! (book 5) the motive isn't particularly exciting either. We've got drugs and diamonds...and high class gangsters and their gunsels as well as low-class swindlers trying to muscle in on the racket. Conacher gets knocked out a few times--which seems to be one of the things he's good at; it happens in every book. I'd think the man would be permanently brain damaged. It's all too dreary for words. ★

First line: The girl with the straw-colored hair was beautiful.

Last line: I ran to the telephone and called them.

**************

Deaths = 4 (one strangled; two hit on head; one shot)

March Pick of the Month

 

Another month in the books (😉) and it's time to see what I've read and which mystery stands out among the crowd. I'm delighted to see that I'm keeping up the reading pace--even though things have picked up considerably at work. I managed another 23 books in March and all 23 had a mystery flair. As long as I keep marching along at this rate, I'll be planting a flag on Mount Olympus on Mars (in my Mount TBR challenge) before the year is out. The quality this month was better than February--the lowest rating is three stars. But I'm still looking for that elusive five-star rating for a new-to-me book. Strong Poison by Sayers and The Devil in Music by Kate Ross are our only five-star winners this month and I've read that Sayers so many times I could probably recite portions in my sleep. She has also won the coveted P.O.M. Award in the past, as has Ross (in January). But before we hand out the shiny prize, let's take a look at the stats.

Total Books Read: 23
Total Pages: 5,504
Average Rating: 3.74 stars  
Top Rating: 5 stars 
Percentage by Female Authors: 22%

Percentage by Male Authors: 74%

Percentage by both Female & Male Authors: 4%
Percentage by US Authors: 83%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors:  0%
Percentage Mystery: 100%

Percentage Fiction: 100%
Percentage written 2000+: 26%
Percentage of Rereads: 43%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}    
Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 10 (32%)

Mysteries Read

Clue by Paul Allor (3 stars)

The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot by Robert Arthur (4 stars)

The Mystery of the Talking Skull by Robert Arthur (3 stars)

Calamity at Harwood by George Bellairs (4 stars)

Death Treads Softly by George Bellairs (4 stars)

Home by Nightfall by Charles Finch (3 stars)

The Inheritance by Charles Finch (3.5 stars)

The Laws of Murder by Charles Finch (3 stars)

Death of an Angel by Frances & Richard Lockridge (4 stars)

Inspector's Holiday by Richard Lockridge (3.5 stars)

Murder for Art's Sake by Richard Lockridge (4 stars)

Murder Roundabout by Richard Lockridge (3.5 stars)

A Plate of Red Herrings by Richard Lockridge (4 stars)

With Option to Die by Richard Lockridge (4 stars)

The Castle Island Case by F. Van Wyck Mason (3 stars)

The Man in the Moonlight by Helen McCloy (4 stars)

The Ghost Finders by Adam McOmber (4.5 stars)

The Cat Saw Murder by D. B. Olsen [Dolores Hitchens] (3.5 stars)

The Devil in Music by Kate Ross (5 stars)

Whom the Gods Love by Kate Ross (4 stars)

Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (5 stars)

Clue: Candlestick by Dash Shaw (3 stars)

The Corpse with the Grimy Glove by R. A. J. Walling (3.5 stars)

When we take out our five star winners (Sayers and Ross), we are left with one book which garnered a four and a half star rating. Adam McOmber's The Ghost Finders is (as I noted in my review) a wonderfully gothic, horrifically fun and mysterious adventure. He creates a nifty puzzle behind the gaslit world full of supernatural creatures and humans with extraordinary powers. The three main characters are vividly drawn with interesting backstories that are at once disparate, yet also fitting together so perfectly to provide friendship and kinship among these three wildly different individuals. The separate histories weave together to create the fabric necessary for the final scenes. It was interesting to watch these three work their way through various layers of loyalty and betrayal to discover what is necessary to save themselves...and perhaps all reality.  Definitely worth of the P.O.M. Award for March.

An Hour Before Daylight

 An Hour Before Daylight (2000) by Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter brings us his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm before the civil rights movement was imagined. He writes vividly, powerfully, and honestly about his family and the area he grew up in--providing a portrait of the rhythms of farming in a sharecropping economy and giving us an intimate look at his father, who was a brilliant farmer. Earl Carter was a strict segregationist, but treated black workers with respect and fairness--allowing his son to play with the children of his black farm workers and to learn farming and life-long skills from the parents. His mother was strong-willed, well-read, and a registered nurse who flouted segregation in many small ways. He also tells us of the five other people who shaped his young life--three of whom were black

Told as if he were reminiscing--one topic leads to another and then circles back again. It is a rich, evocative story of a time when family was first and closest. A time when everyone worked hard, played hard, and spent evenings sitting on the front porch. A time when everyone knew their neighbors--and their vehicles, mules, and dogs--and knew when someone or something was around who didn't belong. Carter gives us an excellent recollection of what life during the Depression was like for farmers in the South and tells how the times shaped him as well as the nation. ★★★★

First line: If you leave Savannah on the coast and travel on the only U.S. highway that goes almost straight westward across the state of Georgia, you will cross the Ogeechee, Oconee, and Ocmulgee rivers, all of which flow to the south and east and empty into the Atlantic Ocean.

Last line: After all, the land belonged to the Indians before it was ours.

April Reading by the Numbers Reviews

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

April Virtual Mount TBR Reviews

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

April Mount TBR Reviews

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

April Vintage Scattergories Reviews

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot

 The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot (1964) by Robert Arthur

The second book featuring The Three Investigators, Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews, and Pete Crenshaw. This adventure starts with a request from their mentor Alfred Hitchcock to help his friend Malcolm Fentriss find his missing parrot. The boys wind up tracking down not one parrot, but six...plus a mynah bird. It winds up that the birds, named after literary and historical figures, can quote portions of a riddle taught them by a man named John Silver. And if they can find the birds and decode the message they just might find some buried treasure. But there is large man with a devilish temper and a cunning European thief hot on their trail. They're going to have to be quick to outwit those two. It all ends with a confrontation in a spooky, foggy graveyard.

I somehow missed this adventure in the Investigators' chronicles when I was young. And, boy, did I miss a good one. This has it all--adventure, nasty bad guys with threats, a hidden treasure, a coded message to decipher, and Pete gets to do some action hero moves on the bad guys in the end while Jupe figures out all the obscure clues and Bob plays decoy to try and lure the villains away from the treasure. We meet Carlos, a very observant Mexican boy who gives the young detectives some good clues and helps them identify the car belonging to the large man. This is one of the best of The Three Investigators' mysteries. ★★★★★

First line: "Help!" The voice that called out was strangely shrill and muffled.

Last line: Slowly and thoughtfully, he gathered up the newspapers and stacked them in a neat pile.

******************

Deaths = one natural 

The Inheritance

 The Inheritance (2016) by Charles Finch

Charles Lenox finds himself involved more personally in an investigation when an old friend from his days at Harrow sends him a cryptic message saying he will call on Lenox at 3 pm. Gerald Leigh, who has spent years away from London on scientific quests, is back in England, is in trouble, and is looking for help. The note doesn't specify what kind of trouble--only alludes to a mystery from their school days which was never solved. That is...who the mysterious benefactor was who paid Leigh's fees for the exclusive school. Leigh's family could never have afforded the bills if "a friend" hadn't stepped in. Leigh always suspected that it was the guilty conscience of the man whose wagon had run down and killed his father, but Lenox suggested a titled distant relative. They never did figure it out.

But when the appointed hour passes and his friend has not shown up, Lenox becomes uneasy. He heads to hotel from which Leigh's note arrived, but is told that the man had left early that morning and has not returned. In fact, Lenox's message--acknowledging Leigh's note and welcoming a visit--is still sitting in the box for his friend's room. He becomes even more worried when he leaves and returns the next day to find that Leigh's red-headed "secretary" had stopped by to retrieve any mail in the box. Leigh has never, to Lenox's knowledge, had a secretary and, besides that, the description of the man matches one of the most dangerous men in The Farthings, a tough gang from the notorious East End. When Lenox and his partner Polly Buchanan finally track Leigh to a coffeehouse known as a port of refuge for the scientific crowd, they learn that the red-head and his equally violent partner had been dogging the scientist's steps since he arrived in London. But why is an East End gang taking an interest in a scientist who has been far afield?

It seems that a mysterious financial benefactor has cropped up again in Leigh's life. This time it's an inheritance to the tune of 25,000 pounds. That's the reason he has returned to England--the bequest required him to sign certain papers in person. He completed part of the paperwork and was due to return to the lawyer's office when he realized that these thugs were following him. Now he's not so sure he should accept the inheritance. And when the lawyer is found shot to death it becomes apparent that there is something particularly unhealthy about this inheritance.

Meanwhile, the agency which Lenox, Polly Buchanan, and Lord John Dallington have founded is on retainer with Parliament...and there's been a break-in. Or, rather, a break-out. Someone has been using one of the reservable rooms in the building and one evening a broken window is found. It looks like someone has been breaking and entering. But then Lenox notices that the evidence points to the fact that the window was broken from the inside...who of those eligible to be in the Parliament rooms would need to break a window to get out? And why?

For me, this book is a somewhat mixed bag. The basic mystery--who is behind the will and the thugs and why--is good. The logic of the solution and the clues I missed make for a good plot. I was a little disappointed in the way it ultimately ended--gur rfpncr bs gur ivyynva, uvf qrpvfvba gb tb nurnq naq tvir 25,000 cbhaqf gb Yrvtu, naq gur vaqvpngvbaf gung Yrvtu znlor sbetvirf uvz? whfg qba'g fvg jryy jvgu zr. Ur xvyyrq va pbyq oybbq. Ur jnf cercnerq gb qb fb ntnva--gelvat gb xvyy obgu Yrvtu naq Yrabk. V'z fbeel ohg--xrrc uvz va wnvy naq fraq uvz gb gevny.* Of course, I thoroughly enjoy the recurring characters and I was pleased to see McConnell given his moment to shine. Finch's strong points are characters and the conversations they have. It was very entertaining to watch Lenox's interactions with Leigh and Leigh's interactions with everyone.

The secondary mysteries--who the mysterious benefactor was in Leigh's youth (and whether they are the same as the testator/testatrix and the goings-on at Parliament were also a bit disappointing. Gb unir gur zlfgrevbhf orarsnpgbe jvaq hc orvat Yrvtu'f zbgure naq abg pbaarpgrq gb znva zlfgrel va nal funcr be sbez jnf n ovg bs n yrg-qbja. Univat gung vapvqrag va gur cnfg freir nf n ubbx sbe gur zber erprag vaurevgnapr jbexf bxnl...ohg zl crefbany bcvavba vf gung gur fgbel jbhyq unir orra fgebatre vs gur gjb guvatf unq npghnyyl orra eryngrq va fbzr jnl (bgure guna gur ubbx). Naq...gung ohfvarff ng Cneyvnzrag...ntnva, yrggvat gur phycevg trg njnl? Bar phycevg va gur fgbel rfpncvat vf bxnl (jryy, abg ernyyl...ohg V'q npprcg bar orggre guna gjb.)

However, quibbles aside, this is a very good story in an engaging series and I enjoyed it very much. ★★★ and 1/2.

*spoilers encoded in ROT13--to decode: cut & paste coded portion, follow the link, and follow the directions.

First line: London was silent with snow; soft flakes of it dropping evenly into the white streets; nobody outside who had somewhere inside to be.

Last line: Already he looked forward to returning to see them again.

*****************

Deaths = 4 (one hit by horses & wagon; one shot; one heart attack; one natural)

Strong Poison

 Strong Poison (1930) by Dorothy L. Sayers (read by Ian Carmichael)

As I mention in my previous review of the audio version of the first of Sayers's books to feature Harriet Vane, this is a perennial favorite. I love listening to Ian Carmichael read the story. I love going back to the beginning of his romance with Harriet and the beginnings of the changes and growth in his character. But most delightful for me this time was following the adventures of the minor characters, Miss Climpson and Miss Murchison. It's worth the price of admission to see Blindfold Bill teach Miss Murchison how to pick the lock of a certain deed box:

"Deed-box, that's nuffin'. That ain't no field for a man's skill. Robbin' the kids' money-box, that's what it is with they trumpery little locks. There ain't a deed-box in this 'ere city wot I couldn't open blindfold in boxing gloves with a stick of boiled macaroni."

"I know Bill; but it isn't you who's got to do it. Can you teach the lady how to work it?"

And, course Miss Climpson (with her CAPITALS and italicized letters to Lord Peter) describing her adventures through the tricks of fake table-turning and ouija board manipulation to find the will of an old lady--the contents of which may just hold the answer to who really murdered Philip Boyes, since we jolly well know that Harriet Vane didn't. Her details on the behind-the-scenes in the jury room are also most exciting.

I hope I never get tired of the Lord Peter Wimsey books. The language is so rich and delightful; it never seems to lose its flavor, no matter how many times I read them or listen to the audio novels. And I always feel like I'm visiting with old friends when I sit down and sink into one of the stories. ★★★★★

First line: There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood.

Last line: "If she'll have me," said Lord Peter Wimsey.

*****************

Deaths = one poisoned

A Plate of Red Herrings

 A Plate Red Herrings (1968) by Richard Lockridge

The United Broadcasting Network throws a grand party for the editorial staff of its newly acquired property The Guardian magazine. Well, the staff better drink up, it will make the big news of the evening go down a little smoother. Maybe. Bryan Colley is a network axe man who has been brought in to cut out the dead wood. And six staff members are called in for private meetings during the course of the evening to be told that their services were no longer needed.

"Clean sweep" Colley apparently enjoyed telling everyone the bad news. This included Kent Simpson, the fiction editor; Nora Curran, the assistant fiction editor; Dr. Clifford Armstrong, a historian writing a book for which The Guardian had given advances; Rosalie Shaffer, the fashion editor; H. R. Stubbs, the advertising manager, and Mr. Fremont, the religious editor. He apparently enjoyed firing people so much that he recorded the meetings on tape--perhaps so he could savor the powerful feeling of destroying lives one more time? 

When Bryan Colley is found murdered in that same office, having been stabbed with the metal fishing pole attached to to fishing trophy, that recording becomes exhibit A in the police's evidence. It provides them with a nice platter of red herrings amongst which a murderer can hide. Bernie Simmons, assistant D. A. sits in on the case, even though Lieutenant John Stein has his eye on his friend Nora as prime suspect. Bernie knows Nora couldn't have done it--but will the evidence prove his private opinion to be correct? And can he keep his personal feelings out of his very public job if he's wrong?

I really enjoyed this one when I read it the first time. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it this time, but this is the first of the Lockridge books that I've read again (after a very long time) where I absolutely remembered the plot from the opening pages. Every bit. That doesn't usually happen--my memory has gotten sieve-like enough that certain bits might be familiar, but I don't normally remember everything. It did make it a little difficult to really sink into the story as I normally do with Lockridge books. 

I did still appreciate the set-up--the serving up of the suspects through their own recorded conversations with the deceased. It's not often the police get a word-for-word rendition of the victim's last conversations. I also enjoyed how Lockridge plays with that set-up to use it to force certain expectations. I gave the book four stars on my previous reading and I'm going to let that stand. ★★★★

First line: The party was set for a Friday afternoon in early July.

Last line: "Perhaps we might have one more before we go out to dinner, dear."

***************

Deaths = 2 (one stabbed; one hit by car)

Murder for Art's Sake

 Murder for Art's Sake (1967) Richard Lockridge

Shackleford Jones had a high opinion of himself as a painter--one time insuring one of his paintings in transit to a gallery to the tune of $100,000. Maybe too high and got his egotistical bubble burst. He's found one morning in his studio, shot with his own gun, and the Precinct cops think he did it himself. Because apparently, according to the gallery owner who displayed and sold his work, he had "painted himself out," run out of what talent he had. Lieutenant Nathan Shapiro isn't sure they aren't right...except...there are just a few niggling things. Like the fact that others in the art world say that Shack (as he signed himself) was painting better than ever. And the fact that a certain list of his paintings has gone missing. And that he had painted a very revealing portrait of the wife of another man. And the fact that after he's dead just about everyone who knew him comes sneaking back into his art studio for reasons that sound decidedly fishy to the good lieutenant. Not that anything these people in the art world do makes sense to Shaprio. Why on earth does Captain Wiegand insist on giving Nate cases where he knows good and well his subordinate will be out of his depth?

Poor Lieutenant Shapiro. He really is the Eeyore of the detective force--very gloomy, with little self-confidence. It doesn't matter how many times he goes "out of his depth" and solves the murder, he still thinks it only happened through dumb luck. It couldn't possibly be that he really is an observant man who notices oddities that don't add up until he finally makes the sum into a solution that gives him the murderer. In this case, it is the matter of phone calls made in April, the shaving of a "signature" beard, the timing of some screams and footsteps, and the question of who painted a picture labeled "Cityscape" that keep puzzling Shapiro until he finally sees the whole picture. He is assisted by Sergeant Tony Cook...and Bill Wiegand's wife Dorian, who guides the detectives through the sometimes baffling world of artists and their masterpieces.

The Shapiro novels are a little darker than the Pam & Jerry North (with Bill Weigand) and don't have as much of the light humor, but they take place in the same areas of New York City and we run into familiar faces. The good lieutenant could use a good dose of confidence, but, like Eeyore, I do find him charming and endearing. And, despite his feeling that he's just a guy who's good with a gun (and he does have to shoot a weapon out of a bad guy's hand...), he is a good detective as well...as Captain Bill Wiegand knows. ★★★★

First lines: She paid the cabdriver. She stood on the sidewalk and watched the cab roll slowly down the street to the next corner.

Last lines: "Now, Tony," Rachel said. "Don't muss my pretty dress." Then suddenly she grinned. "Now." Rachel Famer added.

******************

Deaths = one shot

The Cat Saw Murder

 The Cat Saw Murder (1939) by D. B. Olsen/Dolores Hitchens

The first in a series of "cat" mysteries, featuring Miss Rachel Murdock, our intrepid amateur sleuth. Miss Rachel has always enjoyed reading mysteries, but has never, in her 70-odd years been involved in anything the least bit mysterious. Then one day she and her sister Jennifer receive a phone call from their niece Lily Stickleman. She sounds frightened and asks if her aunts can come and help her with some "trouble"--but won't elaborate over the phone. Miss Jennifer is a homebody and doesn't want to venture a small California beach town, so Miss Rachel sets out with their cat Samantha (who won't eat if Miss Rachel isn't there) to see what's up with Lily.

Miss Rachel knows Lily's flaws--she likes to be all mysterious and coy about her affairs; she's probably in need of money; and she isn't the most honest or intelligent young woman--but she's family and Miss Rachel knows her duty. When she gets to boarding house (and what a run-down, ramshackle place it is!), Lily, as expected, goes all coy. Trouble? Oh, well, it wasn't really much. And she's sorry she dragged "Dear Auntie" all the way down here for nothing. But she's so glad to see "Dear Auntie!"  Eventually Lily drops enough hints that Miss Rachel is sure that it's the same old trouble men and/or money. But before she can really get Lily to share everything, Miss Rachel is drugged with morphia and Lily is brutally murdered. She winds up working with Detective Lieutenant Mayhew to discover what the near-poisoning and then bathing of Samantha, Lily's gambling debts, the missing Mr. Malloy, and the boarding house's attic have to do with the murder.

In this first mystery with Miss Rachel, I feel like Hitchens had some falls along the way, but overall, like the titular cat, she nearly always managed to land on her feet. Our spunky heroine (Miss Rachel...not Samantha) is just getting the hang of this amateur detective business, so she doesn't spot clues quite as quickly as she has in the two books I've read previously, but she does know when Mayhew is going astray. He is all set to arrest someone (twice!) and she manages to convince him that the solution still isn't quite right. She might have come to the final conclusion as soon as I did (yes, I did spot the murderer before Miss Rachel)...if she had been privy to all the mentions of a certain something that the reader was. 

I do find it amazing that a 70-something old woman (whom we have no evidence of having been particularly active/physically strong) can climb about in the attic crawl space and up and down through attic access points in the various rooms. Her two nights of such ramblings make me tired and I'm a good twenty years younger....And things get quite exciting at the end when she and Mayhew make a mad-dash car chase to prevent the murderer from polishing off one more victim. A good solid beginning to a series that I have enjoyed (as I'm able to find titles...). ★★★ and 1/2.

First line: Detective Lieutenant Stephen Mayhew has been heard to complain that the murder of the Stickleman woman was the damnedest case he ever met up with; that solving the thing was like working a
jigsaw puzzle upside down and backward; that it got progressively worse as it dragged along; and that it set him at such insane tasks as pulling hairs out of Miss Rachel's cat and forcing a timid fat woman to scream.

Last line: But Miss Rachel had no answer for that one.

***************

Deaths = 4 (one beaten to death; one stabbed; one auto accident; one fell from height)

For the Monthly Motif Challenge prompt (Buzzed About Books)--this one saw a lot of talk among Golden Age Detective Fans last fall. It was nominated for our annual "Reprint of the Year award."

With Option to Die

 With Option to Die (1967) by Richard Lockridge

When Ann and Eric Martin rent a country house in North Wellwood, New York, they find themselves in the middle of a divided community. The current uproar is over the request for a building permit for a new, integrated country club. Thomas Peters, a well-known African American lawyer, had moved into the area with this grand plan to make a club where everyone (or at least everyone who could pay the membership fees) could gather--no restrictions. But North Wellwood is a conservative, Republican town and there are many folks who don't care for the idea at all--not that they have anything against people of color, you understand...but the location isn't right OR it's a fine experiment but can't we experiment somewhere else first? Of course, there are those who are downright hostile and those folks get even more stirred up when outside influences under the name "Patriots United" hook up with members of the North Wellwood Preservation Association. A high-profile instigator in Patriots United is spotted in the town. There's general name-calling (using "liberal" as a derogatory term isn't anything new it seems) and complaints that those who want to change things are communists or socialists...or worse. 

And then there's murder. Mrs. Faith Powers, who has been vocal in her support of the club, is shot as she's out driving in her little Mercedes. Lieutenant Forniss takes the lead in the investigation with the recently-promoted Inspector Heimrich leaving his desk often to "delegate" on the spot as it were. (It takes time to get used to a new position with less field work...) Then the newspaper office (where an editorial in support of the club had been printed) is attacked with a dynamite booby-trap attached to one of its presses. And the Martins suffer a round of attacks, culminating in a couple of hand grenades tossed in the windows. Ann works as an investigative reporter and had recently been credited on a television program about racial conditions in the south. So, even though the Martins are new to town, it's obvious where their loyalties lie...Forniss and Heimrich will have to decide if these incidents are all of a piece or if there are other motives hidden in the racial unrest.

The more things change...the more they stay the same. Racial unrest. "True Patriots" vs. Liberals. What a familiar ring this Lockridge book has. It is an excellent view of how propaganda and a hate compaign can take over the most calm and quiet communities. How evil--whether in the name of racial hatred or using that hatred as a cover for other crimes--can flourish with just a little wind to fan the flames. 

It is also a nicely plotted mystery and it is fun to watch Heimrich try and get comfortable in his new role. The old war horse has a difficult time staying out of the thick of the battle, but Forniss makes a good detective in his own right and gathers plenty of evidence on his own. Another good read in the Heimrich series. ★★★★

First line: The blacktop drifted up a gentle slope, and old maples with spring's young leaves arched over it.

Last line: Colonel licked him to make sure. Mite was tolerant. [Colonel = Great Dane; Mite = kitten]

***************

Deaths = 2 (one shot; one beaten to death)