MOONLIGHTERS - Lesley Frost, the Poet's Daughter

Part of discovering so-called forgotten writers and their books is that the discovery is actually more of a recovery. These books already exist and the people who wrote them may have been forgotten by the mystery reading public but often they are actually renowned. Witness Lesley Frost, whose only foray into adult mystery writing is Murder at Large. At the time of the book's publication she was known as a former employee of the Publisher's Association, an airplane factory worker during the summer and fall of 1918, and spent six months in the Hampshire Bookshop in Northampton, Massachusetts. All this according to an author bio sketch on the rear flap of the DJ for her first novel.  She also mentions that she opened her own bookstore in Pittsfield (also in Massachusetts) in 1924.  Her only book prior to the murder mystery was Come Christmas (1929), "a delightful anthology of Christmas songs, carols, poetry, prose and drama." But I don't think she was ever forgotten to many.  She was, after all, the eldest surviving child of America's renowned Poet Laureate, four time Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry, the one and only Robert Frost.

But let's get to this rather remarkable and utterly forgotten detective novel. Murder at Large (1932) is first and foremost noteworthy for it's eerie similarities to a novel that would not appear for another seven years, one that would dominate mysterydom as a rule breaking, seminal work. Often imitated but never surpassed that book is And Then There Were None (1939).  I was astounded by the similarities in Frost's archly satiric and sophisticated murder mystery which in addition to an innovative plot is chockful of literary allusions from Shakespeare to Kipling, from Euripedes to S. S. Van Dine. She seemed to have prophesied Christie's novel in a completely different fashion as the skeletal framework of Bristow & Manning's The Invisible Host (1930) seemed to prophesy Christie's story of ten murderers who escaped justice and are doomed to be executed while they struggle to survive on a remote island.

Though Frost's host is hardly an anonymous voice imparting doom from a record player there is nevertheless a Judge present in the story. He is, in fact, the host of a similar dinner party. Bertrand Whittaker plans to expose a group of murderers by publishing his private diary in which he details the identities of seven different criminals and the murders they got away with. Shortly after reading out a passage in which he embarrasses one guest by pointing out his connections to gangsters the lights go out and the diary is stolen. Only hours later, someone is found stabbed to death. But surprisingly it is not Judge Whittaker. It is one of the guests. That one murder sets in motion a decimation plot as one by one guests begin to vanish or turn up dead, all done in by an efficient and clever murderer who uses a variety of brutal methods.

Though these guests are not housebound they are on an island -- Long Island, NY to be specific. As the bodies are discovered all over the house and grounds the level of fear and paranoia is handled almost as deftly and frighteningly as the Grand Dame did herself in her own version of a now overused plot motif. Two of the women characters have intriguingly presented solo chapters in which we get to see their nervous breakdowns and the aftermath of dealing with the exposure of their crimes. One of the women spends much of the book regretting her crime (she shot her fiancé because he wouldn't marry her even though she was pregnant), reliving her past and dwelling on it all morbidly.  It's all very similar to the way Vera Claythorne is plagued with guilt over the boy she let drown. 

 
One difference in Frost's book is that the police are summoned and descend upon the house. As they sort out who killed three guests in one hour and try to prevent further deaths (they don't -- three more die and one escapes death through sheer luck by the book's finale) the amateur sleuth Ordway Belknap does his best to guide the seemingly inept policemen headed by Lt. Det. Silas Berry and Sgt. Stebbins to the truth. Belknap is another Philo Vance clone, one of many who pop up in mystery fiction throughout the 1930s when Vance was the dominating amateur sleuth in popular culture. Erudite, condescending and inappropriately flippant in the face of violent death we are told in the very first sentence that Belknap is himself a former judge. Well, actually an ex-magistrate. He and Whitakker have not only a history in and out of the courtrooms they have a couple of secrets that several of the accused murderers are trying to uncover.

Though it may come across as a nightmarish thriller Murder at Large really does turn out to be a detective novel. Some fair play clueing turns up in some cleverly done passages and the book ends with a requisite twist in the finale, one perhaps that may not be too difficult to figure out by diehard detective novel fans.  Still, Frost manages to pull off the finale with panache and sardonic wit. The ultimate similarity to And Then There Were None will be found in the final pages which just like Christie's book comes from the writing of the judge character.  It is uncanny how much this book has in common with Agatha Christie's masterpiece. While not exactly on the same par for there are a couple of histrionic scenes, some stilted dialogue, and hand-wringing melodrama from the more hysterical characters, Murder at Large ought to be read by anyone who considers oneself a devotee of the Golden Age. I think it ought to be recognized for being more of a forerunner to Christie's seminal mystery than all the attention lavished on The Invisible Host which only has the anonymous host's voice on the record and several bizarre murders in common.  It's possible that Agatha read both books and took bits and pieces from both to come up with her own inimitable version.

Lesley Frost Francis Ballantine (1899-1983) was the oldest daughter of Robert Frost. Of his five children Lesley lived the longest. After the publication of her Christmas anthology and this murder mystery she turned to writing children's books and often lectured on English literature. Among her children's books are Digging Down to China, Not Really, and Going on Two. In 1969 she also published a memoir entitled New Hampshire's Child: The Derry Journals of Lesley Frost.  During WW2 she was named head of the U.S. Information Library in Madrid and 20 years later founded a Spanish language and culture school in La Granja where she had a home.  Most interestingly, in 1952 she co-founded a third national political party, the American Women's Party, meant to get women elected into policy-making positions in federal government. That same year she married her second husband Joseph Ballantine who was involved in foreign affairs in Asia. With her first husband she had two daughters: Elinor Wilber, a Connecticut state representative, and Dr. Lesley Francis. Lesley Frost died in Fairfield, CT at the age of 82.

EASY TO FIND?  There are several POD editions of Murder at Large offered for sale online.  I cannot vouch for any of these copies, most seem to be from Create Space, Amazon's POD service. One has an anime style illustration on the cover (rolling my eyes).  Three US 1st editions are offered online and priced a bit high despite the book's scarcity.

Listen, Please Listen - Naomi A. Hintze

Single mom Jo St. John is hiding from her past. Her real name is Darlene Heckart. Back in Missouri something happened when she was a teenager. Something bizarre and newsworthy. Books were written about her.  And her past pursued her to Chicago where she and her daughter were harassed. Nasty phone calls cam e almost nightly. Someone nailed a dead cat to their door. But now in Camelot, Connecticut with a new name and a second chance it seems she and Becca can start again. Will Jo's past catch up with her?

Listen, Please Listen (1973) begins as a domestic suspense novel with a heavy emphasis on the domestic side with detailed descriptions of daily routines, chit chat at the breakfast table, gossip about the daughter's friends, etc. etc. This is a typical novel of the 1970s overloaded with mundane minutiae and sprinkled with "hot topics" mentioned in passing to keep the book relevant, as they like to say these days. Among these side commentaries are passages about women's lib, male chauvinism, Native American abuses and retaliatory politics. The only really interesting aspect of the dull and plodding first half of the book is learning all about Jo's life as teenage Darlene and the dread secret she carries.

I have to mention this secret even though it came as something of a surprise despite the DJ blurb ineptly giving it all away in the first sentence. It has to be mentioned in order to discuss the book at all. And anyway that secret is revealed early on in a flashback. So here goes...

Darlene had telekinetic powers as a teen.

She was such a raging child that she consistently destroyed her home, both inside and out, with flying dishes and glasses, pelting stones, cracking windows and mirrors. Her religious zealot of a grandmother and her leering creepy uncle who were keeping her at home, basically imprisoned, because they would not have her attending a school that showed explicit sex education films, complained about the odd child and gossiped in town. Subsequently, the newspapers got a hold of the story and Darlene became headline news in her small Missouri town.

If this book actually had been about Darlene as a teen rather than Jo remembering her past via a flashback I think it would have been a lot more interesting. Certainly this entire flashback sequence which explains her powers, what happened to her house and her relatives, her meeting a 19 year-old newspaper reporter, her fleeing the house and subsequent shacking up with the reporter and eventual pregnancy are well written and often suspensefully told. But this amounts to a mere ten or so pages in a single chapter. 

I should have figured out that what Hintze was really after was a story of sins of the mother revisited on her child. Because --that's right -- the telekinetic disasters recur in her new Connecticut home.  At first Jo thinks this is her doing, but her landlady thinks that it's all Becca. She persuades Jo that her daughter has somehow inherited the mother's curse.

Simultaneously, Becca is going through a phase of teenage jealousy. Her friend Candy from her girl scout troop seems to be in competition with everyone. More disturbingly Candy flirts with Mr. Kenyon, the landlord of the boarding house where the St Johns live. Becca loves Mr K and sees him as a kindly grandfather figure. She can't stand Candy becoming overly familiar with the man. She sees Candy sitting in his lap and kissing him whenever he compliments or praises her. Is it possible that Becca is channeling her anger into telekinetic explosions with flying plates and glasses smashing against the walls?

The novel has one strength in that is is actually a cleverly disguised detective novel.  Jo cannot accept that Becca has inherited her curse.  She begins poking around and finds evidence that all of the phenomena were faked. Just as this plot point is beginning to resolve and Jo is planning to confront the culprit a shocking and violent death occurs.  I was totally unprepared for this in the final third of the book.  But I guess if I had been paying attention to subtle clues I would've been able to predict exactly who died so violently. And the entire book shifts focus, mood and intent. The two plot lines conveniently overlap and all is explained if a tad too contrived.

In the end the book is a mix of real and faked psychic phenomena and a unpalatable subplot (which I did manage to predict) that leads to the shocking death. The story resolves itself in a Grand Guignol fashion so common in books of this type published in the 1970s.  For all its piled on melodrama and shocks Listen, Please Listen fails to really carry off most of its intended thrills in our modern cynical times where such scandals and shameful secrets are commonplace.

Naomi A. Hintze (1909-1997) is best known for her debut suspense thriller which she does not seem ever to have topped. That book, You'll Like My Mother (1969), was nominated for an Edgar for Best Mystery.  It was also adapted into a claustrophobic and chilling movie starring Patty Duke, Richard Thomas and Rosemary Murphy. Another of her suspense novels Aloha Means Good-bye (1973) was also adapted into a TV movie in 1970s and starred Sally Struthers as a young woman pursued by a killer hired by an evil doctor who wants her heart for an organ transplant. Hintze's other four novels are a mix of occult, supernatural and suspense novels. After reading this book it was not surprising to learn that she was also a member of the American Society of Psychical Research and wrote a couple of non-fiction books on ESP and psychic phenomena. 

Of note, fans of Stephen King may be thinking this novel sounds like a rip-off of Carrie. A telekinetic teen living in a oppressive home with a religious zealot parental figure is too coincidental, right? However, Listen, Please Listen was published a full year before King's cult classic. Hintze ought to be congratulated for beating the soon-to-be multi-million bestselling author at his own game.