Death Has a Small Voice

She had been in trouble before, thanks in large measure to having met, years ago, a policeman attached to Homicide. but the trouble, while never really expected, had grown out of something in which she, along with Jerry, had got herself involved. This was different. This time, Pam North told her screaming mind, I didn't do anything.
 ~Death Has a Small Voice (1953) by Frances & Richard Lockridge

Normally if Pamela North is going to find herself in a jam and at the mercy of a murderer, then she at least waits until the last chapter or so. And it's because she's suddenly figured something out or remembered something and the murderer realizes she's a danger to them. But this time she shakes things up a bit and just waltzes right into peril in just the second chapter. Jerry is on the West Coast, finalizing a book deal, and Pam has been away for a weekend in the country. She comes home to a set of very upset cats (What kind of human would abandon cats for a whole weekend leaving them at the mercy of the housekeeper, Martha, who--of course--never feeds cats. Or so the cats would have her believe.). She also comes home to a mysterious envelope with a dictaphone record in it which (if you scrunch your eyes up) seems to be addressed to Mrs. North.

Mrs. North remembers that Mr. North has a machine at the office that will play such records, so off she goes to find out what the mystery person wants her to hear. She no sooner listens to a recording of what seems to be a conversation leading up to murder when she hears someone approaching Jerry's office. Her instincts tell her to hide the record...so she does. She is promptly knocked out and toted who knows where and stashed in a coal bin where a whispering voice keeps badgering her to tell where the record is. The voice says that if she'll just cough up the record, then she'll be set free. But Pam is an old hand at this and knows full well that the whispering voice will more likely kill her. So she refuses....

Meanwhile, acting Captain Bill Weigand is intrigued by a report of the strangulation of a two-bit burglar well-known to the force. Men like Harry Eaton often get bumped off--shot, beaten up, possibly hit by cars...but hardly ever get strangled. And then Sergeant Mullins reveals that the little burglar had been an aspiring author (of the "My Life in Crime" variety) and had submitted the manuscript to....you guessed it....North Books. Mullins just knows it's gonna be another screwy one. And when they find out that the last thing that Eaton had stolen was a dictaphone machine belonging to a famous writer who has gone missing and they get told by the Norths' Martha that Pamela North is also missing. It looks like Mullins is right. They spend the rest of the story (urgently pressed by Jerry North who has made a mad-dash across country to help look for his missing wife) hunting for the missing Pam North and the missing Hilda Godwin (writer) and trying to find the connection between the two.

DJ that my copy is missing

I read this from the local library once long ago and had absolutely no memory of the plot (it has been over 20 years, after all). I had given it four stars in my minimalist book log and, upon reading my own copy now, I think I know why. At least, I know why I'm gonna keep that star count for this round of reading. I really enjoyed the fact that the Lockridges turned the plot around and led with Pam in trouble rather than just ending it that way. Not that she's not in trouble at the end as well--true to form she and Jerry are held at gun point by the villain of the piece as s/he is still trying to get their hands on that darn record. Jerry gets to play hero and wrestle the gun away just before the cavalry arrives in the form of Weigand and Mullins. The husband and wife writing team also did a great job building up the tension and portraying Jerry's fears about Pam's fate. And you'll always find me happy when an academic-type appears--this time in the form of Creative Writing faculty member Bernard Wilson. A very satisfying mystery. ★★★★

First Line: He was a small, quick man, walking an unfamiliar street.

A voice is recognized by its timbre and by its pitch: by gradations and phrasing. A whisper has no timbre; it may be pitched almost at will. a whisper has no body. (p. 47)

"Was she carrying anything?"Jerry asked. "A package?"
"Just one of these bags they carry," Helder said. He used the word "they" in reference to strange creatures, inexplicable creatures. (pp. 73-4)

"Listen Loot," Mullins said. [forgetting the acting Captain bit for the moment] "We got no warrant."
"No," Bill said. "We haven't, have we?"
"O.K.," Mullins said. "I just mentioned it." (p. 78)

It was difficult to see what the connection could be, Bill agreed. Nevertheless, it was strange, out of the ordinary. When things out of the ordinary, however, trivial in themselves, turned up in relation, however distant, to murder, one--well, thought twice. (p. 112)

Last Line: "Life," said Pam North, "is ridiculous."
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Deaths = 3 (two strangled; one fell from height)