Murder Enters the Picture

 Murder Enters the Picture (1942) by Willetta Ann Barber & R. F. Schabelitz

Christopher "Kit" Storm is a moderately successful commercial artist who also does portraits and acts as an artistic consultant to the New York Police Department. He regularly assists his friend, Captain Tony Shand with sketches of the crime scenes as well as the suspects interviewed. And has gotten more intimately involved in more recent cases (see my review of Murder Draws a Line) But he and his new bride, Sheridan (Sherry), are off on their honeymoon--little suspecting that a plea from Sherry's aunt will embroil them even more deeply in murder than ever before.

Sherry's Aunt Mattie asks the couple to stop by the Plateau, home to the Mints and a place that Sherry knew well growing up. It seems that Uncle Ezra (long since deceased) has recently been seen roaming the grounds--or rather his ghost has. And Aunt Mattie wants them to check in on Sara (the seer of ghosts) and find out what's going on. What's soon to be going on is murder. Andrew Mint, the heir of the Mint's Meats business and fortune is soon found murdered--killed by the stab of an ice pick. He's quickly followed by other members of the family. The youngest of the clan goes missing for a while (but found safe, thankfully); a field is set on fire; there's a question whether some valuable etchings have been sold (and replaced with replicas); there's blackmail; and a whole slew of motives swirling about. Kit is quick with his sketches and spotting the clues he captures in them--but Chief JIm Lang doesn't know Kit like Captain Tony Shand does and is more apt to view him with an eye of suspicion. After all, isn't odd that Kit's always on the spot when another body is discovered? Kit will have to work hard to convince Lang of his innocence and even harder to put the sketched clues together to identify the culprit. Especially if he doesn't want to become the killer's final victim.

There are a lot of things to like about this series. I love the drawings that accompany the stories and the fact that if I were better at spotting all the clues then I could have had solid evidence to justify my suspicions. Yes, I did spot the killer (after an initial miscalculation)--and most of the motive--but I missed the biggest clues in the sketches that would have supported my theory.] Barber and Schabelitz also provide terrific characters with interesting personalities and good interactions. The mystery itself is solid and all the clues are provided, as well as enough red herrings to muddy things nicely. 

My biggest complaint is Sherry. Not as a character--but as a narrator. I noted my dislike of Sherry's "Had-I-But-Knowning" in the previous review and it's still in evidence here (though toned down a bit). I really think we could do without it altogether and get rid of Sherry's first-person narration and we'd have a better book. I'm not a huge fan of first-person perspective in general and Sherry's perspective just doesn't sit well. You'd think since she's a newlywed and all that we'd get a lot more of Kit in this story than we do--after all, the book's conceit is based on his sketches. But other than the last few chapters and the places where it's necessary to bring him in so we can have another sketch, we don't see a lot of him. The first couple chapters he's there in name only. It's really a bit bizarre.

Don't think that means I didn't enjoy the book. I did. Quite a lot. It's a fun book and a good mystery despite my quibbles with the narrative voice. ★★★★

First line: Ezra's ghost, come back to haunt the Plateau!

Peter Plow is handsomer than any man has a right to be; that is, in a vigorous, reckless, half-ugly sort of way. (p. 21)

Last line: But, in time, that would come too.
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Death = 5 (four stabbed; one poisoned)