Good Luck to the Corpse

Good Luck to the Corpse (1951) was written by Max Murray. Murray was a journalist from Australia who started out working on a paper in Sydney. He then opted to leave Australia and work his way around the world--holding jobs in lumber camps, freight yards, and on a tugboat on the Mississippi. He later worked as a foreign correspondent and wrote and edited a newsreel for the BBC during WWII. His mobile lifestyle informs his books--with many of his mysteries set in foreign climes. This particular novel takes place in Nice among the society set who frequent the hotels and casinos as well as the local residents who call Nice home.

Among the locals is Penelope Whitecliffe who has inherited her father's language school and is trying to make a go of it. Helping her is her uncle Ainslie Whitecliffe--an older gentleman who has never outgrown the boys own adventure novels of his youth and imagines himself in a hero's role. He's come to help his niece save the school and when he discovers that Raoul de Wolfe and his beautiful wife are determined to take the school away from Penelope he decides to do a little spy-work to discourage them. But Ainslie isn't cut out for high adventure and his spying leads him into even more dangerous waters than a simple school takeover. 

Meanwhile, Julian Ashford and his son Tyler have arrived in Nice after years of living in far more dangerous locales. Julian is hoping to settle his son somewhere quiet while he (Julian) does one more job for his company. He enrolls Tyler in the Whitecliffe school and hires Ainslie as a private tutor and companion for his son while he's away. Then he packs his bags and prepares to set off on his journey later in that day.

The next thing we know Ainslie is in the casino gambling with wads of money like his life depends on it. But if that's the case, even though he's winning...he loses. Because as his winnings hit the eighty thousand franc mark and he prepares to scoop up his winnings, he falls over dead. Since Julian was one of the last people to see Ainslee before his gambling streak, he's prevented from leaving the country and the police begin sifting through Whitecliffe's life to discover who could have wanted the little man dead. Before they're through, they'll dig up surprises at the school, the past will come back to haunt Julian, the de Wolfes will come under the microscope, a refugee language student will wind up dead as well, and a lady's jewels will go missing. 

After working on this book for eleven days, I finally finished it! The whole social-distancing, working-from-home, seeing-my-husband-24/7, what-day-is-it-anyway? thing really threw my reading mojo for a loop and I was beginning to think I would never get back to reading even though I have scads of time now. And it wasn't like this was a big book (only 190 pages) or a bad book (it was quite enjoyable, really). I just had trouble settling down with it.

It certainly isn't a complicated book. There's a fairly straight-forward plot device driving the murders and the investigation was interesting. Not quite fair--because there's an element to the motive that isn't revealed until the wrap-up (and there's no way for the reader to know what it is). Still a tidy little mystery with angles that keep things moving. But the best part is the characters--particularly Julian and his son and a friend from their travels, John Keeble. And then when Mrs. Tilford decides to take on Julian and Tyler and enters their household, well, she's simply delightful. ★★★ and 1/2.

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Vintage Mystery Scattergories Gold #21 Things That Go Bump In the Night--"Corpse" in the title
Pick Your Poison: Careers (written by a former/current journalist)
Mystery Reporter: How = poison
Deaths = one poisoned; two stabbed, one drowned

First Line: He had always known he would meet Risa again.

Why on earth? Don't ask me to fathom a woman's mind; sorry for you perhaps, with an instinctive feeling that you had become embroiled in something that was none of your business....Perhaps that was it. Risa, I am happy to say, is unpredictable. At the risk of sounding suburban, that's why I love her. (Raoul de Wolfe; p. 72)

Yes, Julian realized that it would be his prestige that would count. The social standing of Raoul de Wolfe would have to be maintained at all costs. He was like an actor with his public. Here now, sitting in the sun, looking with amused tolerance on the passing scene, he was playing a part and quite obviously enjoying the part of Raoul de Wolfe. (p. 73)

...when you set out to carry a baby through a jungle infested with Japanese, you don't carry a bundle of documents. You carry quinine and a rifle and some basic food, not the birth certificate and marriage lines. (Julian Ashford; p. 82)

RdW: All your life you've been able to behave naturally, haven't you?
JA: I suppose I have, but why not?
(Risa de Wolfe, Julian Ashford; p. 83)

I find that trying to protect somebody is in nine cases out of ten a complete waste of time yet the idea is dinned int people's heads from the time they are born. (Mrs. Tilford; pp. 100-101)

Her head was close to his shoulder. He touched her hair with his lips, and she raised a hand and let it lie in surrender on his shoulder. Childlike and at rest. To love, he thought, you don't have to make love, you keep it like this and like this till it is no longer bearable; wait without movement till it is no longer tolerable. Wait because never again will it have this enchantment. (p. 145)

Last Lines: He grinned and made a little wave of dismissal. And then he walked away.