The Cat Wears a Noose

 The Cat Wears a Noose (1944) by D. B. Olsen (Dolores Hitchens)

Miss Jennifer Murdock, sister to that intrepid 70-year-old sleuth Miss Rachel, is coming home after a late session of balancing the books for the Parchly Heights Methodist Ladies Aid Society and stops to admire the brilliant silvery moonlight. As she stands in front of her fellow treasurer's house, a drunken man stumbles out of taxi and makes his unsteady way up to the vestibule of the house opposite. The next thing she knows, a shot rings out and the man falls to the ground. She's never liked Miss Rachel's involvement in murder and she's not about to be caught up in one herself--so she takes to her heels [the elderly women in Olsen's books are remarkably spry...] and rushes home...dropping her glasses case behind her.  And on the way she promises herself one thing: 

...that nothing short of death itself could maker her reveal to Rachel the part she had played in that night's terror. For if she were to know, of course Miss Rachel would be in the middle of things at once.

Meanwhile, back at the Murdock house, Miss Rachel has a late-night visitor. Shirley Grant, nineteen years old and who just happens to be a poor relation living at the house where a man has just been shot, has come to consult Miss Rachel about some disturbing incidents. Word of the septuagenarian's involvement in previous murder mysteries have got about and Pete, another poor relation in the house, had suggested that Shirley pay her a visit. Ever since Shirley was taken in by her Uncle John Terrice and his wife, they have treated her mostly as unpaid help. They and their family pretty much ignore her, but there's never seemed to be any ill-feeling or dislike. But now...things have been broken in such a way that the blame will fall on Shirley and, the prime reason the young woman decided to consult Miss Rachel, someone has killed Shirley's pet bird. Miss Rachel senses a malevolent hand behind the incidents and determines to help Shirley.

Despite warnings from Detective Stephen Mayhew to leave this case alone (for once!), she manages to infiltrate the house--applying for the position of cook when the family's Eastern European cook leaves after swearing she saw a werewolf stalking outside Shirley's room. In between making salads and plucking ducks, Miss Rachel tracks down a slew of clues. Before she is able to make sense of them, she will wind up sending her sister to jail, hiding under a bed while someone searchers the room, and discovering a second and more violent murder as well as murderous items planted on Shirley meant to distract the police away from the killer. But Miss Rachel comes through in the end and helps Mayhew spot the culprit.

Not my favorite of the Miss Rachel mystery series, but it does still have its good points. I think my favorite is the fact that it is the prim and proper Miss Jennifer who first stumbles upon the murder and thought she vows not to tell Rachel about it, she can't help spilling some of the beans as soon as she gets home. Of course, Rachel already knows something is up at that house (courtesy of Shirley), but Jennifer doesn't know that. And it's funny to see Jennifer's reaction when Rachel tells her, "There is something going on in that house....a mean and clever intelligence which has turned at last to death." Jennifer gets shakily out of her chair, doesn't say another word, and speeds off to her room and her bed.

...there was no getting Miss Jennifer out of bed. She was crouched under the bedding with all the lights on, shivering as if with cold, and when Miss Rachel peeped under at her she made a chattering remark about witches and a request that Miss Rachel go away.

    "You've meddled with it so long," Miss Jennifer got out as Miss Rachel paused at the door, "that you've gotten psychic about it. You know it before it happens."

And, of course, at this point Miss Rachel thinks her sister is batty because Miss Rachel doesn't know yet that murder has happened.

The mystery itself is fair and like Kate (who has reviewed this over at Cross Examining Crime) there was a subtle clue that I missed. I did have my suspicions about the culprit (especially after the second murder), but I didn't really have the clue in hand to prove why I thought so. ★★★

First line: Outside the moon filled the night with such a silver flood that Miss Jennifer Murdock stood still to take it in.

Last line: "And I had," Miss Jennifer rushed on, "the most wonderfully exciting time!"
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Deaths =  3 (one shot; two stabbed)