The Girl from the Mimosa Club

 The Girl from the Mimosa Club (1957) ~Leslie Ford (Zenith Jones Brown)

When the newly-minted young lawyer Johnny Brayton is sent to represent the girls from the Mimosa Club, he doesn't expect to fall in love with one of them.. But life is funny that way. His uppercrust family doesn't really approve of his relationship with Kerry O'Keefe, a "sitter" (hostess expected to sit with and entertain gentlemen at the club), but he doesn't care. Then his father is found shot to death in his study. His mother is suspect number one. And Kerry is a star witness for the prosecution.

Unknown to Johnny, Kerry is an undercover policewoman working as a sitter to investigate vice. All he knows is she seems determined to send his mother to the electric chair. Of course, it doesn't help that his mother seems equally determined to wind up there. She does nothing to make a black situation any less bleak. Her reactions in court only make her look more guilty. Johnny knows his mother could never have shot anyone, but how can he prove it was anyone else when Kerry testifies to sitting outside the house and seeing no one else go in? And then an unexpected witness pops up...just in time.

I've finally decided that I'm just not a big fan of Ford's standalone thriller/suspense mysteries. This is a perfectly fine example of one of those and I have no real complaints about the mystery itself. I just found the romance a bit forced as well as the difficulties thrown in their way. And why on earth Johnny's mother had to behave in such a guilty manner is beyond me. If she didn't want to say anything to implicate someone else, fine. If she wanted to play society madam and "this is all beneath me," fine. But to start and stare like a guilty thing? Really? Too much melodrama to no good purpose. I much prefer her Grace Latham and Colonel Primrose mysteries. They are fun and filled with witty comments between the two protagonists. But--if you like suspense and mysteries where an obviously innocent person is in danger of conviction with last-minute revelations that save the day, then this just might be the book for you. ★★★

First line: Johnny Brayton squeezed his car in to the curb between a snowball stand and a beat-up cart of canteloupes (sic), sweet corn and lima beans, turned off his engine and put the keys in his pocket.

Last lines: They started over. But not from scratch.
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Deaths = one shot