The Mystery at Greenfingers

 The Mystery at Greenfingers (1937) by J. B. Priestley

Priestley's mystery play is set at the Greenfingers Palace Hotel on the edge of the Peak District. In fact, one of the characters declares that's it's "easily the highest big hotel in England. We're nearly fifteen hundred feet up." A small group of employees have gone to the hotel in advance of the winter season to make sure the hotel is ready for business. There are several new faces in the crowd--employees who have joined the staff from other hotels--some owned by the same company and some not. A sudden snowstorm strands them all--including Mr. Crowther, a hotel detective sent by the home office to investigate a suspected crime, and Miss Tracey, an investor in the company who has brought along Mrs. Jernigan (described as "her companion."). 

The two ladies are no sooner installed in a couple of empty rooms than the snow cuts the hotel off from outside help, the phone lines go down, and loud bangs that sound like gunshots go off in Mrs. Jernigan's room. When Crowther and the hotel employees reach the room, they find it locked on the inside. The door is forced and, though there is a smell like gunpowder in the room there is no gun and...no Mrs. Jernigan. The windows and the door connecting to Miss Tracey's room are all locked from the inside. Who set off the pistol shots? What happened to the gun? Where is Mrs. Jernigan? And...is she still alive? These are the questions that face Crowther and the hotel staff. And Miss Tracey...for Miss Tracey is a devotee of murder mysteries and she's always fancied herself an amateur detective.

Though Priestley's play does contain a mystery--and a rather cleverly plotted one at that, it is far more steeped in comedy than mystery. It reads like a drawing room comedy where there are people popping in and out of the scene at the oddest moments. You never know who will come through which door next. And I'm quite sure it would have been a hoot to see performed. Miss Tracey reminds me of a far more intense, yet slightly arch Miss Marple or Miss Silver and it was great fun to watch her and Miss Edna Sandars (one of the staff) collect clues that Crowther was too obtuse to recognize. A fun little 1930s mystery/comedy. ★★★

First line: Mrs Heaton (scornfully): I'm sorry to interrupt your performance, Mr. Jordan.

I've no drama going on inside, as all you people have. So I can give all my time and energy to noticing what other people are like. You've no idea what a lot you do notice once you've stopped leading an intense personal life yourself. It's people like me who ought to be the detective. That's why I'm enjoying all this. [Miss Tracey; p. 61]

Last line: Miss Tracey: Wrong number! (All three laugh.)
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Deaths = one (but to tell how would be a spoiler)

Figure Away

 Figure Away (1937) by Phoebe Atwood Taylor

The town of Billingsgate is getting ready to celebrate "Old Home Week" and planning to clean up on the tourist trade as visitors flood in for a taste of a quaint old town. They've lined up all the journalists and a radio station and a well-known singer and all sorts of public dignitaries to attend and see the glory of Billingsgate. Town officials hope that it will bring in enough surplus to put the town back in the black and have enough left over to pave roads and support schools and all the other things that have been neglected. But it seems that someone doesn't want Old Home Week to succeed. They tried to set the Town Hall on fire. They've stolen the official town keys--"every last one of them." They sawed through the grandstand supports. And they've taken potshots at the town's selectmen. And after every shot the victims have heard an eerie laugh floating in the night air.

Selectman Weston Mayhew asks his cousin Asey Maho, New England's answer to Sherlock Holmes, to spend the week in Billingsgate to act as temporary chief of police, State Police liaison, and private eye all rolled into one. Everyone knows how good a detective Asey is, so surely that will stop the saboteur in his tracks. Well...it does put a stop to the wanton destruction, but it doesn't stop murder. Mary Randall, owner of the local antique shop, gets word to Asey that she wants to talk to him about something, but when he arrives at her place, he finds her shot to death. Did she know something about who was behind the Old Home Week sabotage and the culprit wanted to prevent her telling? Or is there a more prosaic motive for her murder? After all, Mary Randall knew quite a bit about the secrets of Billingsgate and had a few of her own. There's the life insurance policy leaving a large amount of cash to her goddaughter (who definitely needs the money). There's the henpecked husband who has an eye for the ladies and doesn't want his wife to find out. There's the soprano who seems to attract all the men and the painter whose politics ruffles everyone's feathers. And there's the General whose love for fireworks allowed the noise of the shotgun to go unremarked. Asey has quite a bit of sleuthing to do before he'll be able to find the killer and save Billingsgate's status as a quaint old town.

I don't know if Covid-brain is still in play or what, but I had a really difficult time following Asey's conversations in this one. I've read several of Taylor's Asey Mayo mysteries in the past and I don't remember him being quite so cryptic. There were whole passages where I felt like I was missing about half the conversation. The mystery itself is good--nicely complicated with plenty of suspects running around. I was all set to buy into a certain person, but then Taylor gave things a bit of a shake at the end to show why it couldn't be them. Nice surprise ending. Would have rated it higher if I hadn't felt so out of touch with our hero throughout. ★★★

First line: "You listen to me, Asey!" 

Last lines: "Huh," Win said. "Anyone can catch a bluefish!"
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Deaths = 2 (one shot; one fell from height)

The Puzzle of the Blue Banderilla

 The Puzzle of the Blue Banderilla (1937) by Stuart Palmer

Inspector Oscar Piper is headed to Mexico for a well-deserved vacation. Sure, he has to be an "official presence" on guard for the Democratic contingent headed south of the border to celebrate the new Mexico-US highway, but once those duties are done, he'll be free to enjoy some time off in the Mexican capital city. Well, maybe. On the train ride following the ribbon-cutting ceremonies, a customs inspector dies after he sniffs a perfume bottle in the luggage of Alderman Francis X. Mabie's wife Adele. Adele swears the bottle wasn't even hers. Was the customs agent the intended victim or does someone have it in for Adele Mabie? When someone provides Adele with a "cute little baby lizard" that is in reality a deadly poisonous snake, it becomes clear that her life is in danger. But then another passenger on that train is found stabbed to death at the bullfight. He had been sitting front of Adele. Is this another botched attempt on the Alderman's wife or is there more going on than meets the eye? Piper tries to investigate even though he's way out of his jurisdiction, but gets put in jail for his trouble. Fortunately, he has been in telegraphic communication with his old friend Hildegarde Withers and Miss Withers arrives just in time to spring him from his cell. Between the two of them, they manage to unravel the mystery surrounding Adele and the party on the train--just in time to prevent another death.

As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions of Miss Withers and Inspector Piper. She definitely gets to one-up him in this round, solving the mystery before him and recognizing who certain people are when he hasn't a clue. She also has an interesting go-round with self-proclaimed amateur sleuth, Julio Mendez who seems to be on the spot every time something happens and whose English seems to be straight out of central casting for cheesy Mexicans trying to speak English. But in general the mystery is underwelming. I just don't buy the motive for the murders--it seems pretty weak. I honestly can't believe the murderer would have taken the risk with the snake that Miss Withers says they did. One could not be certain that there would be someone available to take the necessary action. [I can't say more without spoiling it.] The setting is great; the mystery could have been stronger. ★★★ and 1/2

First line: A small and excited wire terrier answered the doorbell, paws sliding on waxed floors, whiskers flying.

Last line: "About twenty years, Oscar," the schoolteacher told him sadly.
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Deaths =2 (one poisoned; one stabbed)

The 1937 Club

 Twice a year Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings sponsor a group book club where those who would like to read books from the declared year. This April, the chosen year is 1937--a most appropriate year for those of us who like our Golden Age Mysteries. As I prepare for next week's reading, I thought I'd take a look at what 1937 books I've already read and list those that are on the TBR mountain range and could be used for the event.

Here are the books from 1937 that I've read and reviewed on the Block
Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham
A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon
The Crooked Hinge by John Dickson Carr
The Four False Weapons by John Dickson Carr
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
The Camera Clue by George Harmon Coxe
Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon
They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer
Double Cross Purposes by Ronald Knox
Bats in the Belfry by E. C. R. Lorac
The Castle Island Case by Van Wyck Mason
The Devil to Pay by Ellery Queen
Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Red Box by Rex Stout
Beginning with a Bash by Alice Tilton
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkein
Murder Down Under by Arthur W. Upfield

As you can see most of these are mysteries. But then mysteries make up the bulk of what I read. There are also a large number of mysteries in the list of 1937 books I read in my pre-blogging days...

The Case of the Late Pig by Margery Allingham
Trial & Error by Anthony Berkeley
There's Trouble Brewing by Nicholas Blake
Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie
The Anatomy of Murder by The Detection Club
Six Against the Yard by The Detection Club
Tenant for Death by Cyril Hare
Brentwood by Grace Livingston Hill
Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes
The Haunted Bridge by Carolyn Keene
The Whispering Statue by Carolyn Keene
Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh
The Case Is Closed by Patricia Wentworth

So, what does that leave on the TBR as possible 1937 Club Members? Well, quite a lot, actually...We'll see how many I can fit in.

The May Week Murders by Douglas G. Browne
The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr
The Peacock Feather Murders by Carter Dickson
A Figure in Hiding by Franklin W. Dixon
Pattern of Murder by Mignon Eberhart
The Black Envelope by David Frome
The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner
The D.A. Calls It Murder by Erle Stanley Gardner
Sunrise by Grace Livingston Hill
The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand
Think Fast, Mr. Moto by John P. Marquand
The Puzzle of the Blue Banderilla by Stuart Palmer (4/18/24)
Mystery at Greenfingers by J. B. Priestly
Mystery at High Hedges by Edith Bishop Sherman
The Hand in the Glove by Rex Stout
Figure Away by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (4/20/24)
Octagon House by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
Who Killed Robert Prentice? by Dennis Wheatley