The Gilded Man - Carter Dickson

Sheer chance led me to choose The Gilded Man as my final read for 2025. And waddya know? The book takes place on Dec 29-31, 1938 (even though it was published in 1942). In another neat coincidence as I was finishing up the book last night it began to snow.  We have about a half of inch covering the lawns and sidewalks (mostly still unshovelled) mirroring the final day in Carr's novel in which a heavy snowfall affects the plot in multiple incidents.

Like most of John Dickson Carr's murder mysteries this book has been covered by several vintage mystery bloggers and I won't go into great detail about the story. In essence it's primarily about a burglary that takes place during a house party, a tiresome cliche in detective fiction during the Golden Age, but in the hands of Carr and with the presence of Henry Merirvale you know you're going to get a lot of frothy farce and amusing incidents. This book is hardly tiresome.  It moves along at a clip, the action begins almost immediately with witty banter and a crucial scene involving two characters eavesdropping while completely unseen on two other characters.  That dialogue sequence pays a very important part in the plot.

The setting as well is pure Carr -- an immense four story mansion previously owned by a hedonistic, vain actress named Flavia Venner. She had a theater built on the top floor beneath the ornate cupola that tops the outside of the house. The architecture of the theater owes a lot to late 18th century theaters including two secret curtained booths called baignores (but spelled beignoir in the book). Nick Wood and Betty Stanhope are hidden in one of these curtained booths when they accidentally overhear the conversation between her father Dwight and his business partner Buller Naseby.

For a while it seems as if there will be no murder in this book. The burglar is stabbed but does not die.  He is dressed like a thief from a French silent movie - all in black with a mask covering his entire head. When the mask is removed they see the face of Dwight Stanhope. No one can believe that the man was burglarizing his own home and in the process of removing an El Greco painting from its ornate frame. We learn that his wife Cristabel wanted to have a masquerade party for New Year's Eve but her husband cannot abide dressing up of any kind and forbade her from staging such a party. Why then did he dress up as stereotypical cat burglar, break into his home, and attempt to remove the painting?

While Dwight Stanhope is recuperating Nick Wood makes sure that his bedroom is guarded so that when Stanhope is better and able to talk he can be questioned about who attacked him. Let's say that plan will not work out to Wood's advantage. When death occurs it is unnecessarily theatrical. Merrivale is astounded that the person who attempted to kill Stanhope would try again. Anyone would realize, Merrivale says, that an attempted murder would result in a punishment of only a few years while an actual murder is a capital offense and leads to the gallows. He is sure they are dealing with a vain individual.

Among the various puzzling elements of the burglary are footprints in the icy stone outside the French windows that forced to gain entry, some strange wounds on Stanhope's body and face that seem to indicate a person of small stature and lightweight physique stomped on him, scratches on some silver plates and bowls that were scattered around Stanhope's body, and a roll of adhesive tape with bloodstains on it. Other unusual clues include an oily saucer washed in a sink, a mini lesson in art history, and an offhand remark from the chauffeur who wants to see Merrivale perform the Indian rope trick. All of these clues and more are cleverly introduced into the story. Remarkably, the explanations for all of them can be logically explained if one has been an assiduous reader. This is one of the Carr's most intricately laid out fair play detective novels with nearly all of the clues being front-loaded in the first three chapters. One remark in a casual conversation between Eleanor Stanhope (Betty's frivolous and sarcastic older sister), Christabel Stanhope, and Vincent James (a playboy athlete who Eleanor seems to be in love with) may be easily dismissed as fluffy chitchat. But no! It is in fact something that should be filed away because it comes back to play an important part in the final reveal.

The Merrivale books tend to show off Carr's love of slapstick and low comedy. Apart from The Punch and Judy Murders, an all out farce and probably Carr's most ridiculous detective novel, The Gilded Man is probably his second most successful mystery as a comic farce. It has several and laugh out loud funny moments from some slapstick with snowballs to Merrivale's blustery outbursts. We learn that Merrivale is adept at sleight of hand tricks as well as stage illusions. When the planned entertainment for NewYear's Eve - magician Ram Das Singh, aka the Great Kafoozalum - sends a telegram that he cannot make it due to the snowstorm Merrivale volunteers to be his substitute.  The resulting rehearsal and final performance make for some hilarious scenes. The magic show itself is a huge hit with the invited schoolchildren who make up most of the audience especially when one audience member who loudly spoils nearly every trick by loudly explaining the secrets receives a well-deserved comeuppance. I confess I roared with laughter.

Finally, I thought this was one of Carr's most cinematically written novels.  It would make a terrific movie and wouldn't need much adaptation because it reads as if it were a screenplay. There is one chapter in particular written as if it were a long parallel edited sequence showing five different characters in their bedrooms mulling over the preceding events all at the same time.  It was an excellent sequence which of course included five subtle clues to the solution to the various mysteries. The setting also cries out to be viewed, especially the theater where two crucial scenes take place and where the unveiling of the murderer takes place during which all riddles and puzzles are explained in full.

The Gilded Man is easily obtained in a variety of paperback and hardcovers from both US and UK publishers. I found close to 125 copies offered for sale from several online sellers and most of them are very cheap. While the book has not been reprinted since the US IPL paperback in 1988 I suspect it will turn up soon from one of the reprint houses. It certainly ought to be reprinted! It's one of the most fun reads in the Henry Merrivale series. A breezy read and thoroughly entertaining mystery novel. And it may be the only one that most readers will be able to figure out on their own.

Death at the Door - Anthony Gilbert

THE STORY: Mary Ann Manners receives a surprise visit from her no good nephew Tom Griggs. He threatens her with exposure of a secret if she does not give him shelter. He has some involvement with a death in Swansea. He never admits to killing anyone but Mary is sure Tom is guilty. She agrees to hide him but no in her house as she is expecting her grandson ted to visit very soon.  She finds Tom a remote church in a nearby village. The church is barely used and she hides Tom in an alcove. The next night Arthur Crook passes by on a bicycle, he has an accident and decides to enter the church. In exploring the place he inadvertently finds the alcove. Tom is dead inside -- suffocated on smoke and carbon monoxide from an extinguished charcoal heater he was using.

THE CHARACTERS:  The first half of the novel is concerned with the inquest on Tom Griggs' death. Due to circumstances surrounding where the body was discovered and that the entrance to the alcove was blocked from the outside by a heavy table it is certain the inquest will end in a verdict of murder.  Mary Ann Manners is arrested as she was the only person who knew Tom was in the church. The verdict is specifically names Mary Ann Manners and she is taken away to jail.  Arthur, convinced the woman is innocent, manages to get himself hired as her defense attorney. 

Hovering over this gruesome and cruel death of Tom Griggs is the real reason he came to town and the implications of his blackmail and threats. The investigation will show that Tom wanted to visit the present Earl of Cleveland but never got his chance.  Crook discovers that Tom had information about the inherited title.  We learn of a legend in which the eldest son of every Cleveland is doomed to die a violent death and never receive the title of Earl. The next in line for the title is Simon Oliver who met with Griggs just prior to his death. Simon gives all sorts of opinions mixed in with his eyewitness testimony at the inquest. The coroner loses patience with him and practically dismisses everything he says related to the meeting.  Crook knows better. Tom's murder is certainly tied to this strange legnde and to the Cleveland family who have many secrets they want kept hidden.

A subplot involving Stella, Simon Oliver's fiancée, takes the story in an entirely different direction when her life is endangered in a strange, nearly fatal trap. Disguises, anonymous messages, and a deceitful ploy that lures Stella to an empty house belonging to the Clevelands thinking Simon will meet her there nearly ends in death. Crook realizes that Tom's murderer thinks that Stella has some sort of information, possibly that she saw something she shouldn't have, that makes her a danger to the killer.  He has police keep an eye on her in the hospital while he sets his own trap for the killer.

Among the more interesting characters in this large cast are:

Lady Cleveland often referred to as The Dowager) , another one of Gilbert's favorite types: the imperious matriarch. She has some devastatingly insulting lines in some of the best family scenes. At one point she conspires with one her relatives to make sure Stella does not marry Simon, her son. I was certain the Dowager had something to do with Stella's near death-trap. She comes across not only as imperious but a bit wicked and sinister.

Rhoda Oliver - Simon's aunt and overly protective of the family. Perhaps a bit too devoted to her nephew. Lady Cleveland dismisses nearly everything Rhoda says. Rhoda reveals to Crook that the Dowager was once the governess in the Cleveland household and she married the master (more Jane Eyre motifs, so popular with crime writers) in an ambitious move to become the lady of the house. Rhoda calls her "an implacable enemy of anyone who threatens Cleveland."

Stella Reed - she comes to Crook and asks for his help in exposing the Cleveland family and helping her secure her marriage to Simon. She asserts she loves Simon for himself and that his money and title mean nothing to her. She ends her meeting with Arthur Crook vowing she will have Simon and "will stop at nothing to get him."

Simon Oliver - immensely likeable but naive and obstinate. Try as he might to get Mary Ann Manners freed during the inquest his highly opinionated way of speaking works against him. Though he is certain Mary could not have been near Tom because of his ten minute encounter with the murder victim outside of the Cleveland estate she is still found responsible for the murder.

INNOVATIONS: Crook gives several lectures on the trial by jury system and how he is unconcerned with who the guilty party is.  He reminds Simon, Stella, and anyone else who will listen that he only needs to prove Mary Ann innocent.  He talks about how he can sway the jury to believe any truth he can concoct based on the evidence and turn all suspicion away from Mary. The idea of actual truth vs. invented turth comes up several times over the course of the story making this WW2 era murder mystery all the more resonant in our 21st age of similar debates over actual truth as it applies to justice.

I also liked the multiple viewpoints employed. Often we get the thoughts of the characters in asides within long stretches of dialogue. Also I was unprepared for the unusual switch to Stella as the protagonist at around the midpoint of the book. Rather than a straightforward detective novel Death at the Door (1945) takes on aspects of a suspense thriller when th eaction pivots to Stella and the various attmepts made on her life.

Gilbert has subtle satiric touches throughout the novel as evidenced in the use of what at first seems like silly melodramatic trap later proven to be the work of a murderer inspired by a diet of lurid movies. The dialogue is often interspersed with trenchant and witty remarks from Crook, the tart-tongued Dowager and waspish Rhoda.

QUOTES:  ...though time wears out many things secrets are like first editions -- they're often more valuable when they're thirty years old.

Crook:  "Who the hell cares what I think? It's what the jury thinks, and the jury'll think what they're damn well told to think."

"Truth, in case you haven't recognized the fact, is what you can persuade the other chap to believe. And a snake charmer with a pipe and a python hasn't got anything on Arthur Crook, take my word." 

Rhoda arguing that Simon will be the next suspected murderer if Mary is proven innocent: "Law doesn't rest on inalienable proof, it rests on probabilities, and if [Crook], who looked as dishonest a creature as ever I set eyes on, can make people believe she didn't do it, he won't care who hangs."

You couldn't argue with a man like [Crook], Cleveland thought irritably. It was like wrestling with an eel.

THINGS I LEARNED:  Crook makes a passing reference to Beth-Gelert and the wolf which went over my head and of course sent me off on a mad Google search. It's Welsh folklore. Or history. Or utterly made up by an innkeeper who knew of the legend and adapted it for his hotel in the town of Beddgelert in Wales. But whichever you believe and wherever you choose to find this supposed legend here's the basic story. Prince Llywelyn had a faithful dog named Gelert who was entrusted to watch over a baby. I'll just cut and paste the rest from a page on Historic UK website:

When Llywelyn returned from the hunt, he was greeted by Gelert who came bounding towards him …his jaws dripping with blood.

The Prince was appalled, and a horrible thought came into his mind …was the blood on the dog’s muzzle that of his one-year old son. His worst fears were realised when he saw in the child’s nursery, an upturned cradle, and walls spattered with blood! He searched for the child but there was no sign of him. Llywelyn was convinced that his favourite hound had killed his son.

Mad with grief he took his sword and plunged it into Gelert’s heart.

But the hasty-thinking Llewelyn had jumped to conclusions before fully investigating the room. There was a dead wolf near the crib and the dog had torn the wolf's throat open.  He was in fact guarding the baby who was safe and unharmed beneath the overturned crib.

Gelert by Charles Burton Barber (1884)

 The story is alluded to point out how fear often supersedes reason. Crook emphasizes that he will not listen to prejudice based on fear or hate.

EASY TO FIND?  Anthony Gilbert mystery novels while unfortunately not reprinted in any contemporary editions (other than as digital books) since the 1950s are very common in the used market place. In the UK the book was published as He Came By Night and both the US edition and UK editions were reprinted in paperback. Both hardcover and paperback copies are out there for sale, many of them extremely affordable.  I'm offering a 1st US edition with the uncommon DJ at an reasonable price. You can find it here. 

  

A Song, A Song High above the Trees

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Blessed Solstice
...and all that jazz!

I have an eclectic variety of Christmas and Winter Solstice music in my vast collection of CDs and old LPs.  One of my favorite holiday songs is "The Bells of Bethlehem" hardly ever heard anywhere and recorded only twice that I know of.  I have jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd playing the lovely little carol in his typical fingerstyle on a compilation of his solo guitar Christmas music. Listening to that song led me to hunt down classical guitar music for Christmas and wintertime. Recently I came across this lovely upbeat tune though many guitarists play it much slower in tempo. Entitled Villancicco de Navidad it was written by little known Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885-1944).

Well... little known if you live in the USA and only listen to contemporary music. If you listen to or play classical guitar you may very well know him. He was one of the most prolific composers for that instrument when he was alive. After searching online for a suitable video I found this quick video of Costa Rican classical guitarist David Coto playing the tune. He re-recorded it this year only a two weeks ago, but I prefer this first version he recorded in 2019 because of the close-ups of his hands on the strings. Enjoy!

 

Whoever or whatever you believe in, however you celebrate this end of the year, have a memorable and magical time. Make the most of it you wonderful people out there in the dark! Looking forward to more literary Lost in Limbo discoveries and sharing them with you in a hopefully saner, more humane and compassionate 2026. 

People Will Talk - E. C. R. Lorac

THE STORY:  Anne Wordhead is concerned about the disappearance of her sister Elizabeth Ryan, a well known writer of sensational novels. She goes to the police and rather sternly accuses Colonel Ryan, her brother-in-law, of murdering her sister. Police are reluctant to intervene in what appears to be two people who decided to end their marriage unofficially and go their separate ways.  The Ryans were recently in Italy and Ryan is sure is wife went onto Germany without him. But days later the police discover a body in a car wreck. The corpse turns out to be Colonel Philip Ryan. He has been poisoned and it looks to be suicide of a guilt ridden man. But there are too many odd events and whispered rumors that force Supt. Kempson and his police colleagues to investigate the Colonel's death while simultaneously trying to  discover what happened to Mrs. Ryan.

THE STRUCTURE:  I prefer the US title People Will Talk (1958), much more suitable for this story of gossip and malicious rumormongering that leads to several deaths. The original UK title is Death in Triplicate as you might have guessed from the DJ cover illustrating this post (I was unable to find a DJ of the US edition). But that title unfortunately gets the reader thinking about three deaths and so the plot is slightly ruined as it will be obvious well before the midpoint that Mrs. Ryan will eventually turn up dead. But who is the third victim? That will come as no surprise to anyone. It is easily predicted based on the behavior of that doomed individual.

For the most part this is a straightforward police procedural style mystery novel. There are shifting viewpoints at times to liven up the middling Q&A narrative. But Lorac throws in enough unexpected surprises to keep the pages turning. The highlight of the book comes when the action shifts from the police investigation to an amateur sleuthing adventure initiated by the Colonel's nephew, Jim.  He heads off to Italy with his old college pal Benito Conti, English born to Italian immigrants and fluent in the language,  where they hope to prove that Uncle Phil could not have killed his wife while they were in Italy. Benito carefully questions a variety of hotel porters, train station employees, and a hotel chauffeur among other service people. The two young men learn that Mrs. Ryan had an eventful trip apart from her husband visiting four different cities on her way to Lake Como. This was truly the most entertaining and inventive portion of the novel.

THE CHARACTERS:  The suspects and victims are listed below:

Jim Ryan - The Colonel's nephew and sole heir to his estate which increases in worth dramatically should Mrs. Ryan prove to be dead as well. He is convinced that his uncle is innocent of any crime.

Anne Wordhead - An imperious, highly opinionated,  and meddlesome woman who is sure her sister died at Colonel Ryan’s hands. She inveigles her way into the investigation riling Kempson who does his best not to show how irritated she makes him.

Emma & Ted Baydock - Sister and brother servants who worked for the Ryans. Emma is a horrid gossip mainly responsible for furthering Miss Wordhead's suspicions and enhancing them with nasty innuendo. Ted is a gardener/handyman and pretty much of a dullard.

Dr. and Lois Verron - The second duo of amateur sleuths thought they do so in the privacy of their home.  Literal armchair detectives this husband and wife offer up their opinions to each other of what happened to the Ryans and who did in who. Intriguingly, Kempson at one point confronts Dr. Verron naming him a suspect pointing out in a surprise moment the physician's unusual motive that makes him a suspect. The chapters with the Verrons are as equally entertaining as the Italian interlude.

Mrs. Culley - another gossip who claims to have seen Mrs. Ryan in her car driving in a nearby village days before the Colonel was found dead. Is Mrs. Ryan actually in England hiding out somewhere?

Another Mrs. Ryan (!) - This one is Jim’s mother. She lives in Bristol. Kempson sends one of the constables to visit her. During this visit he learns of a letter that Col. Ryan sent to Jim. He asks to open it with Mrs. Ryan's permission. The two of them find an enclosure with the letter -- Philip Ryan's will.

Edith Caroline Rivett, AKA E. C. R. Lorac
and Carol Carnac

INNOVATIONS: While the police Q&A sections tend to be routine and rather dull, the amateur sleuth chapters with the Verrons and later Jim & Ben are engaging often invigorated with Lorac's wit and humor. In addition to the unexpected discovery of Uncle Phil's will there are other traditional detective novel  conventions like poison pen letters, blackmail, a missing manuscript of Elizabeth Ryan's latest novel, something stolen from the Ryan safe, and poison samples turning up in unusual locations. Several of these plot twists turn out to be utter red herrings and in one case I was a bit disappointed that one red herring leaves one mystery unexplained.  

In the end however, the culprit is something of an eyebrow raising surprise if not a gasp inducing one. And the third murder is unexpectedly gruesome! The motive for all murders is cleverly hidden but still fair play as it was mentioned very early in the story. 

EASY TO FIND?  Lorac is hit or miss for me. This one though at first seemingly very familiar transforms into a clever, often ingenious, mix of police procedural and amateur sleuth novel. It comes recommended should you be lucky to find a copy.  It's extremely scarce in the US edition -- mine was amazingly found at the main branch of the Chicago Public Library. There are copies for sale of the UK edition under the title Death in Triplicate. Also, I uncovered a few in French translation offered for sale online. Still as one of Lorac's rather scarce titles, I think libraries are your best bet for this book.

Advent Ghosts 2025: To Face Unafraid the Plans that We Made

Here in Chicago the snowfall from the last three weeks is all but melted but the Christmas lights are up, the wreaths are hanging on front doors and inflatables keep blowing down from the gusty winter winds. It's the holiday season and that means it's Advent Ghosts time.

Loren Eaton who blogs at I Saw Lightning Fall invites bloggers and creative writers to contribute vignettes for his Advent Ghosts celebration. It's a Flash Fiction Challenge but with a word limit set at exactly 100. No more, no less. The only other rule is that we write in homage to the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas time. Be it old-fashioned, chain rattling specters or visions of bloody horror each writer makes up his or her own mind how to interpret that rule.

Here's my contribution inspired by our nationwide menace worse than any winter storm.

To Face Unafraid the Plans that We Made

When the whistle blew, she went into action. It was December, the perfect time.

A Bruja had cursed Esperanza punishing her cold hearted, cruel self transforming her into a wintry Midas with a frozen touch. But isn’t it possible to turn the curse into a blessing, she thought.

And now the neighborhood was a veritable sculpture garden of literal ICE men. Her neighbors were wishing for a white Christmas that would blanket these ICE men with glistening snow. But Esperanza secretly desired a rise in temperature.

She smiled when she checked the weather. For tonight, the evening forecast was rain.

Source: StockCake 

The Girl Who Passed for Normal - Hugh Fleetwood

At the start of The Girl Who Passed for Normal (1973) I was prepared for yet another spin on the Jane Eyre plot motif done up as a suspense thriller.  It's one in a long line of novels about a young girl hired by a matriarch or patriarch to care for a young girl.  Though in this case Barbara Michaels, the woman hired, is not really seeking to be a caretaker or even a teacher of anything.  She meets her prospective employer Mary Emerson almost by chance at a party in Rome where Barbara is living temporarily. Mrs. Emerson casually drops into their conversation that her daughter is different and needs watching more than anything but she never seems to be able to find the right person. We are never really told what is wrong with Catherine, the daughter, only that her mother calls her slow and sometimes stupid. Supposedly, Catherine cannot read and cannot do much of anything.  When Barbara meets Catherine she is oddly taken with the girlwho is about 20 years old but often acts as if she were a tween. Despite what Mrs. Emerson has told her Barbara discovers that on occasion Catherine appears to understand Italian and can read English. Who is fooling who here?

And so I was sure this was going to be another book about a sinister mother plotting to have her daughter left in the care of a naive governess of sorts and abandon both of them. But the book is filled ambiguity and shifting points of view. No one is really trustworthy. At the start of the novel Barbara's boyfriend (of sorts) has disappeared. Everyone tells her he's gone off to America. But at one point when Catherine and Barbara are alone the young woman tells her teacher that she believes her mother was having a sexual relationship with David. Barbara knows that she could never keep her hands off of him and begins to suspect this is true. Then Catherine continues with her story-- because David didn't really want Mrs. Emerson he was going to leave Rome.  Catherine says her mother would never have that and so she killed him and buried him in the fields out back of their Italian estate. Barbara dismisses all of this as imaginary story chalking it up to Catherine's child-like nature. But she would be very wrong to dismiss anything that Catherine says from this point onward.

The novel begins as an odd travelogue of ex-pats in Italy focusing on Barbara's education of Catherine and the young woman's transformation from child-like nitwit into a mature young woman with occasional episodes from the past describing Barbara's love-hate relationship with her ailing mother in London and her obsessive love for David. Inexorably the story morphs from mainstream character study into a creepy suspense novel with the main questions being what happened to David? Did someone kill him? Or did he really leave for America?  And if dead, is he really buried in the fields out back of the Emerson estate?

By the midpoint the reader can't really trust anything that anyone says. Mary Emerson at first appears to be a flaky eccentric, transplanted from her American Southern roots into her private oasis on the outskirts of Rome and looking for every opportunity to get rid of her nuisance child hoping to dump her on any young woman she can exploit as a nursemaid. Barbara is obsessed with her unrequited love for David and she allows her imagination to get the better of her on a daily basis.  She is quick to believe that anyone has run off with him or that he was having sex with anyone who paid attention to him At times she even believes him to be gay and in love with his best friend, an older philosopher professor named Marcello.  Meanwhile, Catherine continues to tell frightening stories about violence in the present and the past. She can't help herself.  The stories just come tumbling out. Like the one about her mother poisoning her father and trying to make it look as if he committed suicide. Barbara begins to worry, but soon it will be too late to worry.

The Girl Who Passed for Normal is ostensibly meant to refer to Catherine. By the end of the novel when Catherine and Barbara have become inextricably entwined in a perverse surrogate mother/daughter relationship and bound to each other through a gruesome and utterly bizarre violent act it is pretty clear that the girl in the title is no longer Catherine but Barbara.

I was very impressed with this book. Some of the paperback blurbs promise a horrible surprise in the final chapters. Another understatement! Fleetwood strikes me as a male version of Patricia Highsmith. I was very much drawn into this strange world pervaded by a sinister ambiguity in his second novel. Everyone seemed a little bit off and I was never sure who was up to no good and who was truly telling the truth. Though the gothic elements pile on a bit too thick in the last three chapters it seemed to be the inevitable outcome for this odd pair of young women.

Hugh Fleetwood, circa 1979
from the jacket of The Redeemer, US edition

THE AUTHOR: Hugh Fleetwood (1944 - ) is a writer and painter still alive and creating works of art. At 18 he moved to France to paint and by age 21 he was living in Italy. He lived there for 14 years and set many of his early novels in and around Rome. The Girl Who Passed for Normal was his second novel but his first foray into weird crime/suspense. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1972.  He followed up with about eight or so other novels that might be classified as crime or psychological suspense novels. In total he produced 24 novels, a volume of poetry and several collections of short stories.  As an artist he has had exhibits of his paintings in Spoleto and in London. Fleetwood continues to write and paint in his home in London. His most recent novels were all written (or revised versions of incomplete books) during the pandemic year of 2020 and are available as digital books produced by the author himself.

EASY TO FIND?  There are several paperback versions of this book in US, UK and foreign language translations.  Most copies in English I found were affordably priced.  Sadly, I have yet to locate a UK 1st edition.  The DJ illustration was designed and painted by the author and I was hoping one would turn up online. But not even his website where you can view his eerie, other worldly artwork offers one up for viewing. Ah well...  happy hunting anyway! More reviews of Hugh Fleetwood's crime novels are coming in the months ahead. But probably not until next year.

Poor, Poor Yorick - Frederick C. Davis

THE STORY:  Cyrus Hatch is invited to a cocktail party at the home of Marcia Clay, his former fiancee from their college days. When he arrives the apartment is filled with people none of whom Marcia invited. The party was as much a surprise to her as the invitation was to the guests. She tells Cy she had to make emergency order of food and liquor for the dozens of people who she was too overwhelmed to turn away.  She also tells Cy that she was just about to leave for Reno to divorce her husband. While Cy puzzles over the strange instant party thrown by some anonymous host and why it was arranged Marcia goes to her bedroom to finish packing. But she doesn't return Cy and his bodyguard break into her bedroom to discover she's been poisoned and a man is escaping via the balcony. Marcia is saved in the nick of time. Then Cy discovers what appears to be a suicide note that includes a confession to a murder and ends with the unfinished sentence: "The body is hidden in ..."  Is Marcia a murderer and who was murdered and where is the body?

THE CHARACTERS:  Cy Hatch is our unwilling sleuth in this story. He doesn't want to get involved but having saved Marcia and being confronted with the odd suicide note that he is sure was forced out of her by the mystery man they saw fleeing the bedroom he ever so reluctantly finds himself drawn into a complex case. As he proceeds in his sleuthing he will locate a missing person and have a gruesome discovery of where the body was hidden. But Cy is also the son of Police Commissioner Mark Hatch who is fed up with his son interfering in the city's most unusual murder cases. He was already nearly killed in the first case (Coffins for Three) and was tampering with evidence in another. Mark warns his son he will not hesitate to arrest him and throw him in jail if Cy insists on playing detective or obstructing justice in this case.

Everywhere Cy goes he's accompanied by Danny Delavan, his bodyguard who was initially hired by Cy's father. Since then they've become friends of sorts and Danny does his best to give his two cents worth on the many puzzling aspects of the case.  For a former boxer I thought he was rather inept as a bodyguard.  Cy tends to throw the punches first and Danny ends up at the mercy of some of the more talented assailants. At one point a woman with expert fencing skills holds Danny at bay at the end of her épée! Speaking of boxing Danny will be competing in a comeback match at Madison Square Garden defending his title as welterweight champion. He never ceases to talk about how he will knock out his opponent in the first round.  He also has a seemingly endless supply of comp ringside tickets and he hands these out to anyone who will accept them. By the evening of the actual fight all of the primary suspects will show up at the Garden for a boxing match that will end in a bizarre bit of spontaneous violence and a confession from the murderer.

As for the rest of the cast we have:

Richard Clay - theater producer, husband to Marcia, in love with Elspeth and primary suspect. His photography darkroom includes a variety of chemicals including cyanide that turn up to have been used in several crimes. The lover's tetrahedron of Richard-Elspeth-Marcia-Ronald (Elspeth's husband) serves as a one of the most obvious motives for Marcia's attempted poisoning murder by cyanide.

Marcia Clay - Poisoning victim and the victim of what Cy believes to be a complex frame-up to get her accused of the murder of...

Ronald Dexter - husband to Elspeth Burridge. He is a failed actor whose most notable a role was as Yorick, in a burlesque of Hamlet. The skull was not a prop in that production. Instead, Ronald played the deceased clown wearing a full skeleton outfit. It was supposed to be a silent comic role but he literally fainted onstage in his debut and gave up a stage career immediately after. Marcia has fallen in love with Ronald and was planning to leave her husband for him.  In giving up the stage Ronald turned to financial chicanery and has a reputation for con artistry and double crossing his investors.

Philip Carden - a professional adventurer obsessed with treasure hunting which requires a lot of money to pull off. Consequently he's always looking for investors. Ronald and Richard were primary investors in Carden's latest project to recover treasure from a shipwreck off the coast of Florida. Carden is also in love with Elspeth. They did the fall in love at first sight malarkey and Richard Clay was well aware of their instant attraction for each other.

Nicky & Toni DeLancey - two married Italian emigrants who have started a school for teaching a special form of contract bridge. Nicky is a professional bridge player and often competes at the Domino Club where Cy meets...

Nelson Sayre - president of the elite Domino Club which charges an initiation fee of $1000 and then $500 annual dues. Cy thinks the place is a front for card playing gamblers.  Ronald Dexter was involved in a scheme at the club for finding new members and for each new member he acquired he got a kickback.  Dexter has his fingers in everyone's bank accounts. He also was very vocal with Sayre about not receiving his fair share of those "incentives" for new members. Sayre was threatened repeatedly by Dexter who was planning to expose the club for what it really was.

Ted Pella - ridiculously handsome aide to Sayre.  Cy feels Pella has a sinister side based on the supercilious smirk that never disappears from his face. Danny thinks Pella is one of those pretty boy hitmen and he's more than just Nelson's aide.

Gail Reynolds - I was never sure of this woman. She appears at every scene as if she was employed everywhere at once. Did she work for Clay at the theater or for Sayre at the Club?  I hadn't a clue. But her primary role by midpoint is as a romantic foil. She is pursuing Philip Carden making it clear she wanted him and would possibly stop at nothing to get him.

Agatha Burridge - Elspeth's mother. Typical imperious matron found in murder mysteries of this era.  She's also a zealous stage mother who does everything in her power to advance Elspeth's acting career.  Also she tries her best to orchestrate a marriage between Richard and her daughter. She's not above exploitation, manipulation and possibly criminal behavior to make the match a reality. But could she actually have murdered Ronald Dexter and hidden his body?

Elspeth Burridge - a cipher character. Yes, she's an actress. Yes, she's excited many men's libidos. But we never really know her. She exists solely in relationship to other characters. We only know of her through other people. Elspeth appears in only two brief scenes (both alongside her mother) and she barely speaks. But she is always talked about by the rest of the cast and seems to be involved in the primary motive for Dexter's death

ATMOSPHERE: Frederick C. Davis began his career as short story writer in pulp magazines and their influence is always notable in his early full length novels. They are action oriented, chock full of fistfights and other violence between men, and include several truly bizarre, over-the-top murders. The discovery of Ronald Dexter's body is straight out of the weird menace pulps. It might even recall the macabre touches of Edgar Allan Poe to well read aficionados of the great writer. Poor, Poor, Yorick (1939) not only has Poe allusions, but a Shakespeare allusion and Gothic elements galore. Davis also throws in one of my favorite Golden Age plot motifs -- knife throwing!  Check out the illustration on the first edition dust jacket up there at the top of the post. Richard Clay has converted an old wine cellar in his home into a game room including knife throwing targets and a complete set of professional quality knives designed especially for throwing. Everyone in the cast has tried their hand at tossing around those knives; some excel at the skill, others aren't so adept. Four of those knives go missing at one point in the book and they are used inexpertly in several more murder attempts.

The detective novel motifs are also put to good use. Cy and Danny have a lot to contend with besides the strange attempted murder of Marcia and the faked suicide note. Another note turns up supposedly written by Ronald Dexter and fro a while everyone thinks he's alive until Cy proves that note also is a forgery when he points out the discrepancies in the typewriting in the body of the message compared with the greeting and date. It was a note actually written by Ronald long ago and altered to appear to be written two days ago. He later finds the typewriter used to alter that message and it implicates the Sayre's staff at the Domino Club. Which person used the typewriter?  Or was it a member who broke into Sayre's office to use it?

Other puzzling aspects of the case: why were two dozen bottles of Chablis stolen from the wine cellar in Richard Clay's home? How did human blood get on a dart gun used to pull darts out of a dart board? Why were the shoes on Ronald Dexter's body put on the wrong feet? And most surprising of all -- quite a shock for me -- was the second murder that occurs late int he novel.

Leonarde Keeler and wife with his update
of the polygraph machine, circa 1935

THINGS I LEARNED: My knowledge of polygraphs was certainly enhanced by reading this book. Davis goes out of his way to lecture (via his erudite criminologist hero) on the science of the polygraph. He makes sure that Cy calls it a deception indicator and not a lie detector, then goes into great detail about how the polygraph he is using records changes in pulse and respiration rate which are known to increase and later when a person is showing signs of deception while communicating. 

Philip Carden delivers a four page length monologue on the history of sunken treasures and shipwrecks that goes on for four full pages. He cites historical instance with dates or successes an failures in this risky and dangerous hobby of those looking to get rich quick.  The most fascinating was the case of a diver who accidentally came across a legendary shipwreck known to have been carrying gold bullion. He later went back surreptitiously to recover some of the loot but was ignorant of an approaching hurricane. He had to abort the search. After the hurricane subsided he returned only to find the entire wreck was gone. The storm had either moved it or entirely buried it once again. 

During one of Cy's criminology classes at Knickerbocker College,
where he is assistant professor in the sociology department, he lectures his students on the concept of the perfect murder and how a large per centage of murders never are prosecuted simply because they are never known to be murders. But, he posits, if you have been arrested on suspicion of murder there are a variety of instances in the inherently flawed American trial by jury system that may allow you to get away with your crime.  He then gives multiple examples ranging from jury boredom or indifference (citing several examples from actual court cases) to impartiality from the judge. I didn't make note of all the examples because the lecture goes on five or six pages and was utterly engrossing. This part of the book may have been the most insightful  castigation of American justice system I've come across in a popular work of fiction. Nothing seems to have changed in over 70 years. In fact, it's only worsened.

Danny at the mercy of Toni's
fencing skills on the UK edition

EASY TO FIND?  Good luck finding one, my friends. Of all of Davis' detective novels this one seems to be the most elusive.  I had a copy sitting on my shelves for almost ten years before I finally decided to read it. And I had to read it quickly because I had just sold it from one of my many listing online. Now it's on its way to a lucky reader/collector. It was the only copy of Poor, Poor Yorick offered since I bought it. There are no copies offered for a sale online as of today's date. And I know of no reprints either. Perhaps someone uploaded the book to an online library.  I never bother looking for those. If you come across a copy in the wild, as it were, snap it up.  This book though elusive is highly recommended as an imaginative, entertaining, unexpectedly educational, and often surprise-filled example of a traditional Golden Age detective novel.

UPDATE!! As pointed out in the comment below this book was published in the UK by Heinemann as Murder Doesn’t Always Out. I found three copies of that edition for sale online. One is priced affordably but has no DJ. The other two are well over  US$300. I’m sure all three will sell soon. Happy Hunting! 

FIRST BOOKS: The Corpse in the Corner Saloon - Hampton Stone

Jeremiah X. Gibson, Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, is accompanied by his colleague from the D.A.'s office known only as "Mac" who also serves as the narrator in their debut which deals with the murder of a promiscuous barfly and sometime entertainer as well as the apparent suicide by poisoning of the man who supposedly killed her. But it's a lot more complicated than a tawdry sex crime --she was strangled, her clothing was carefully cut from her back and the word "Bitch" was written in lipstick on her bare skin-- and suicide. The first complication is that there are multiple witnesses who saw the man, night club dancer Hubert von Mund, in the woman's apartment. He has a very distinctive garish plaid coat he wears everywhere. And a man wearing that coat was seen in the window of Fleurette Val's home. It wasn't just his coat that make the witnesses remember him --  he was doing something rather lewd with his pants down. Gibby doesn't buy that someone would go to the trouble of such an elaborate crime, perform a sex act, and then come to a bar wearing the same coat and knock back a beer with a cyanide chaser. He starts an intensive investigation that takes him from tenement apartments to bars to small businesses meeting up with a collector of erotic photographs and dirty books, an odd husband and wife who seem to spend a lot of time playing voyeur on their neighbors, Hubert's ex-dancing partner who was abandoned when he broke his contract leaving her without a job, and a coiuple of hunky tattooed bartenders who have attracted quite a following from the regular female bar patrons.

The Corpse in the Corner Saloon (1948) is a forerunner to the sex-and-crime murder mysteries that would flood the popular fiction marketplace in the 1950s.  For the year of publication this book is incredibly racy, just shy of salacious. You get a veritable cornucopia of transgressive topics and incidents: exhibitionism, , erotic drawings, pornographic books, and sex in bedooms with draperies open. Naked people and voyeurs are everywhere. The reviewer for The Saturday Review in November 1948 said "Well enough done, but definitely not for queasy palates." Understatement! Stone manages to raise several sexual topics with wiseacre dialogue and well placed innuendo avoiding vulgarity with ironic humor.  The characters themselves are mostly a sleazy bunch (I counted only two suspects who weren't sex obsessed or window lurkers), no need to make it raunchier by going into great detail. Besides, I think the editors must've thought they were risking too much by including the murderer fondling himself in a window. They had to tone down all the rest of it somehow.

As for the mystery elements Gibby (as he is referred to by our narrator) is keen on the "Clue of the Coat", as it were. In fact, clothing and the world of tailoring play an extremely important part in the solution to the two crimes. A tailoring business owned by Marlowe Trutt features prominently in the story. Arnold Carroll is Trutt's longtime associate and friend.  For a long time the story seems to be implicating Carroll as the murderer with a motive of over-protectiveness of Trutt and revenge. Trutt has a surprise connection to Fleurette Val that turns the case on its head. And when an unusual order for a fabric that matches the strange yellow and blue plaid of Hubert's distinctive coat is trace back to Trutt's business Mac becomes highly suspicious of Carroll.

One of the more interesting clues is the word neatly written on Fleurette's back. Of great interest to Gibby is the "t" which is not fully crossed. This turns out to be the trademark of someone's signature and is well known to anyone who uses Trutt as their tailor.  His signature with partially crossed T's (see the illustration on the Dell paperback) is well known because his name is the company logo. His flourishing signature appears on labels in clothes as well as the ornate business cards he hands out to clients. Someone is trying to frame Marlowe Trutt. Gibby sees through this transparent ploy immediately.

Despite the tawdry nature of the crimes and the prurient interests of the window spies in the various apartments that face the murder scene this is a well plotted mystery with deft twists and several excellent red herrings that fooled me and led me away from the real unexpected villain of the book. I'd classify it as a fair play detective novel that mixes up noirish subject matter found in typical private eye novels of this era with traditional mystery novel plotting. One particular clothing related clue mentioned exactly once in the early part of the book is a clincher to the identity of the killer. I completely missed that clothing remark. It was placed nonchalantly with the expertise of Carr or Christie. Kudos to the writer for that one. 

THE AUTHOR:  "Hampton Stone" is one of the many pseudonyms used by Aaron Marc Stein (1902-1985) who began his mystery writing career as early as 1935 when as "George Bagby" he wrote a long series of detective novels inspired by the growing popularity of police procedurals. They all feature Inspector Schmidt and the narrator George Bagby who, like S. S. Van Dine, "authors" the books as if the cases were real. Under his own name Stein created the archaeologist sleuthing team of Timm Mulligan and Elsie Mae Hunt, and the engineer Matt Herridge. The "Hampton Stone" detective novels all feature Gibby and Mac and lasted into the early 1970s with a total of 18 books.

THINGS I LEARNED: The art of tailoring and the business of being a tailor is a highlight of the novel.  Even supporting characters turn out to have tailoring and sewing skills. Clothing aficionados take note!  You will learn all about the snobbery of high end tailors and their tastes in fabric, the commercial aspect of clothing industry disdained by true tailors, the "ghetto" of Manhattan's garment district, and even the intricacies of inserting a zipper into a pair of pants. It was all sort of fascinating. The many crime movies I've seen featuring tailors as protagonists from The Tailor in Panama to The Outfit don't offer anywhere near the depth of understanding nor give as much insight into tailoring as in this book.

EASY TO FIND? Dozens of copies of the two vintage paperback editions are out there for sale. Pries for the vintag e paperbacks range from $3 - $15. You can choose from the nifty Dell Mapback shown above, or a Paperback Library edition from 1971 with cover art that makes Gibby look like long gone, action movie star Steve McQueen. Hilarious! A few copies of the US 1st edition shown at the top of this post are also available for sale ranging from $15 to $54, with and without DJs. I read my copy from the Chicago Public Library. Don't have one to sell you. Sorry.

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: Sinister House - Leland Hall

The most uncanny thing about my reading Sinister House (1919) is not so much the content of this fine tale of a haunted house and malevolent ghosts but my timing.  A few days after I started the book I attended a performance of the new stage thriller Paranormal Activity (conceived and directed by Felix Barrett, written by Levi Holloway) based on the series of horror movies of the same name. The play deserves a post all to itself and I will have to refrain from talking about it here. But the eerie coincidences between a supernatural novel written more than a century ago and a play only written one year ago are seriously unreal. They both begin as commentary on routine living then morph slowly into tales of malign presences infecting the living. There is even a manifestation that takes place in the novel that is exactly the same as a fleeting moment in the play I saw.  That's chillingly coincidental and mindbogglingly uncanny as far as I’m concerned!

Leland Hall's novel starts out so utterly mundane that he includes lectures on the real estate business, building concerns and one of the characters' disdain for developmental communities which were already a blight on American neighborhoods in 1919, at least according to Leland Hall. Then the routine of everyday life gives way to disturbing and unsettling events. The first major shift in the story happens when the narrator Pierre is visited -- during a torrential thunderstorm, no less -- by his neighbor Eric Grier who has recently moved into a ramshackle home on the outskirts of the cookie cutter development known as Forsby. He has returned from a business trip in Buffalo, walked from the train station as there were no cabs at that late hour and when he saw the light on in Pierre's house hoped to gain entry and shelter from the storm. Eric is eager to get home to his new bride Julia who he could not stop thinking of while he was away.

Immediately, there is a discussion of the difference between the two homes in the novel. Pierre's house in Forsby is wholly modern made of cement with a "granolithic walkway" leading up to the front door, equipped with modern plumbing including turn-of-the-century fad of exposed pipes and, of course, electricity. Eric's 19th century home is still trapped in the past made almost entirely of wood and stone and no modern conveniences. Gaslight and fireplaces providing heat and illumination, water is fetched from a well. Eric is beginning to behave differently and Pierre and his wife Annette notice that Julia is especially happy in the gloomy house when her husband is absent. At first Pierre cannot understand why the two young newlyweds have moved into such an eyesore of a house. Annette finds nothing at all attractive about the place neither outside nor in. But Julia seems happy and finds comfort in its old-fashioned atmosphere. Pierre, however, finds that atmosphere chilling -- literally and figuratively.

Frontispiece from the US 1st edition,
illustrations all by Haydon Jones

 

It seems a malign influence has permeated the house and is infecting Eric. One night when Pierre, his wife and three year-old son Bobbie are traveling home their car breaks down with not one but two flat tires. They are forced to seek out help and shelter from the Griers. Little Bobbie is terrified of setting foot in the house having had his fertile young imagination stimulated by some strange fairy tales his mother has told him, notably one about the Loreley. In her version the siren sings tempting songs in order to lure men to the death and she eventually eats them! Bobbie calls the Grier home the "Singing House" and does not want to go in. His mother manages to calm him until he sees Eric. Bobbie has a fit of hysterical screaming crying out: "No, mama! Get him away, get him away! Don't let him touch me. He's going to eat me!"

Annette's cousin Giles is the primary skeptic in this cast. He is certain that Eric did not just stumble upon the house in Stanton by accident as he claims. Pierre learned that the house belonged to Morgan Snart, "an eccentric old man, very religious," and his  homely daughter Huldah "who had taken to religion even more entirely than her father." Giles digs into the Snart's past and uncovers secrets about the two that belie their supposed good character and surface religious demeanor. He also finds out a bit more about Eric but is circumspect in relaying that news to everyone.  Compounding this mystery is a forbidden room that Julia insists Eric never open. It remains locked for the majority of the novel. When it is opened out of necessity terror reigns down upon everyone.

Sinister House is clearly a precursor to Shirley Jackson's pioneering haunted house novel The Haunting of Hill House published five decades later in its depiction of a malign presence in an evil house that affects one single person. Hall's novel is both prophetic and iconoclastic in that he defies the traditions of Gothic literature by making the man the object of the haunting and not the woman. In fact, both Julia and Annette are the voices of reason throughout the entire book. It is the men who suffer the most -- from fear, susceptibility, and rash judgment -- when the evil presences finally manifest themselves and carry out their wicked plans. True Julia is targeted in a frightening scene (see illustration plate at right) but it is Eric, Pierre and even Giles who are the sorriest victims suffering both physical and psychological injury more than either of the women.

QUOTES:   I say it walked; but really it moved in some half-human, half-fiendish gait, slowly yet in springs. It was the shape of a tall woman. ...as this thing passed along the wall, its insubstantial head was turned to me, so that I was subjected to a lidless stare of incredibly sinister malice.

Books which teach etiquette of the drawing room had better put in a special clause to warn students against behaving before their hosts as if they were seeing the hideous family specter pass along the wall of the dwelling in which they are being entertained.

There's nothing like a familiar unpleasant job to keep the mind from brooding. 

Giles: "Dead men rise up never --read even your poets.  Ghosts breed in the living. That's where we'll catch them."

Truly I believe that the past was dead to [Eric]. By force of his will to live he had made it as if it had never been. He denied it to himself. And if he denied it to himself, it was no lie for him to deny it to others.

It doesn't do any good at all to say "Boo!" at the past if you're afraid of it.

THINGS I LEARNED:  Pierre talks about his intolerance for lack of modern utilities at the Grier house. He mentions one of his pet peeves is the presence of cannel coal in so many country homes and how he much prefers gaslight. Cannel coal, also called  candle coal and oil shale, was used in the 19th century for its bright and steady flame. Because it burned longer than wood it was a preferred choice for home fireplaces. Its compact dense structure also made it an easily carved material for sculpture, ornaments and jewelry.

Pierre comforts an injured Giles in the finale and describes himself as "kneeling like a Mussulman beside him in the gloom." He's not talking about an apple sauce brand or a misspelling of a he-man here. Mussulman is an archaic term for anyone of the Islam faith. We use the word Muslim now.

THE AUTHOR:  Leland Hall (1883-1957) was born and raised in Massachusetts. I was unable to locate a newspaper obituary online to share other biographical info. According to his gravestone shown in a photo at Find A Grave he was born in Malden and was laid to rest there alongside one of his relatives. Based on the dates this is most likely his father. Anyone with info on Hall is welcome to email more info or comment below. I can't even verify any other books he may have written. I'm curious about his work, if any more exists.

EASY TO FIND? Copies of the original edition are few and far between.  I found only two copies, priced rather steeply, of the US edition (Houghton & Mifflin, 1919) offered for sale online. It was first reprinted in hardcover in the 1970s by the private publisher Bookfinger in a limited edition of about 500 copies. Some if those turn up frequently for sale at affordable prices. Finally, there is a comparatively cheaper reprint in a paperback omnibus (Hippocampus Press, 2008) that is still out there in the used book market and available brand new from the publisher. In addition to Sinister House you get another classic haunted house novel in that two-fer reprint:  Cold Harbor by Francis Brett Young. 

Death Goes Native - Max Long

THE STORY:  Hastings Hoyt is eager to escape his "murder jinx" after his adventures recorded in the first two books by Max Long. In Death Goes Native (1941), the final mystery in Long's trilogy, Hoyt sets sail to the remote, nearly inaccessible Valley of Waimaka, a little visited Eden away from Big Island. When he arrives he is surprised to find a colony of 12 mainlanders who have set up a private village and have "gone native" dressing in Hawaiian clothes, taking up Hawaiian art of weaving, and eating almost exclusively native foods. When one of the colony is found murdered on Hoyt's boat with a weapon that has Hoyt's initials on it he covers up evidence before reporting the death. then when he brings the self-proclaimed leader of the village to the boat they discover a thoroughly cleaned up crime scene and no sign of the body.

THE CHARACTERS:  Hastings Hoyt usually acts as the Watson to Long's series detective plantation cop Komako Koa.  While he does narrate, like a true Watson, he is usually much in the background. In Death Goes Native, however, he takes center stage as it appears someone is exploiting his presence on Waimaka. He is seen as an intruder and scapegoat rather than a humble visitor.  Several crimes occur, not just the murder of the playwright who was killed on his boat and then mysteriously disposed of.  Each time Hoyt is implicated in some way - initials on weapons, being the last person to see someone alive.  He has no luck and is seemingly at the mercy of someone who clearly want shim blamed and arrested for all the deaths and crimes.  Almost miraculously Komako shows up just in time to take over before policemen from Big Island can arrive to begin an official murder investigation. The suspects are numerous and all of them seem to be have some kind of secret they are harboring.

Bronson Delmar  - first victim of murder. A playwright who has bragged about his current manuscript recently completed while living on the island. The plot deals with crime and his inspiration for some of the characters comes from recent headlines

Bessie Delmar - The playwright's wife and co-writer of the play. When her husband dies she show little grief and is more worried about the location of the manuscript and getting proper credit for the plot. A notebook with newspaper clippings that serve as inspiration for the play's story turns up among Bessie's belongings and gives Komako a major clue as to the motivation of the killer

Elaine - being cared for by the local physician. She is suffering from amnesia and does not even know her name. Her caretakers gave her the name of Elaine. On two nights she is seen sleepwalking and talking about someone named Peter.  

Dr. Latham - While caring for Elaine Dr Latham has fallen in love with her. He fears if she recovers her memory and she learns about her life --possibly she is married -- that he will lose her. And who is Peter?  It's not him. His first name is .

Mrs. Latham - The doctor's imperious mother who seems almost a peripheral character. Until she has a private conversation with Komako and Hoyt about her suspicons of their so-called village leader...

Mr. Budd - the village chief, so to speak. He organized the colony and seems to be in charge of everything. Why did he want to set up this private idyll far away form the mainland? Is he hiding from his past? 

Turva Massic - Hoyt is struck by Turva's exotic appearance despite the long scar that runs down the side of her face. Of all the people she seems to be transforming into a true native. Her fascination with weaving keeps her occupied. But she is wary of Hoyt who she thinks has a dangerous side. 

Mary & Henry - two Hawaiians who act as servants for the villagers.  They are in love and also become key witnesses 

Mokino - another Hawaiian and Mary's father. He is the kahuna of the area, a shaman of sorts, who spends much of his time taking care of a shark that visits the lagoon near a local swimming spot. Komako tells Hoyt that the shark is a reincarnation of a dead boy and thus Mokino treats the shark as if it is his own child, feeding it and making sure no one molests the creature.

The Wests - Josephine and Thornton, married couple having some domestic difficulty. Thornton, am musician and composer, spends too much time working on a symphony. Josephine feels ignored and so she has been flirting with some of the men -- one of them being Delmar.

Herb - the manager/handyman of the village. Though most of his duties are confined to repair work Herb has taken it upon himself to micromanage the activities of the villagers. For instance, he rings a bell to remind everyone that its time for exercise and swimming. Needless to say many of the villagers find this laughable and many ignore his schedules and regulations.

Inscription with Max Long's signature
"with Aloha Nui Oe"is his greeting

INNOVATIONS:  More than the other two mystery novels Long wrote with Komako Koa and Hasting Hoyt Death Goes Native is the most accomplished and satisfying as a detective novel. He does well with trying to plant clues. More importantly he improves in building suspense in this final novel by focusing the story on the "wrong man" motif so familiar to crime novel devotees. With Hoyt discovering the crime and then foolishly covering up the crime the reader is eager to see how he will get out of the mess Hoyt creates for himself. When the body vanishes he and Komako must then re-examine the crime scene to figure out what was done with the corpse. Hoyt fears that is was fed to the roaming shark, but Komako tells him that is unlikely. This is when we learn the truth of the shark and why it is revered and cared for by Mokino. 

Long seems to have modeled this mystery novel on those of his contemporaries making use of other familiar conventions such as crimes in the past and impersonation. The play the Delmars wrote is the Macguffin of the piece - everyone wants to find it, especially Koa and Hoyt. They believe it will reveal the motive for all the murders. But has it been destroyed? If so, how will they expose the killer who they are sure is one of the villagers pretending to be someone else? Impostors will turn up over the course of the novel and more than one character will have a secret exposed. Long also dares to flaunt some of the assumed rules of detective fiction by having multiple villains having a hand in the various crimes other than murder. The plot is filled with incident as well as some intriguing insight into Hawaiian culture and superstition. These aspects are blended well into the story rather than being didactic intrusions as in the case of the volcano lectures in The Lava Flow Murders (1940), the second of the Komako Koa books.

THE AUTHOR:  Max Freedom Long (1890 - 1971) was born in Colorado and then moved to California where he was raised, schooled and eventually graduated from Los Angeles State Normal School with an associates degree.  In 1917 he moved to Hawaii and taught school there for several years.  While living and working in Hawaii Long became fascinated with local culture, folklore and what he called Hawaiian magic. These would lead to his developing a philosophy he called Huna. In the 1930s he left Hawaii and set up home again in California. By August 1941 he was living in Laguna Beach based on an inscription I have in my copy of Death Goes Native.

He wrote three detective novels with Komako Koa. I am surmising that the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, four months after the publication of his third novel, put an end to his writing anymore mystery novels set in Hawaii. Long is better known for his books on Huna, his personal philosophy that incorporates Hawaiian "magic" and culture into a kind of New Age worldview. Three of these Huna books are apparently still in print while his detective novels have been basically forgotten.

FOR SALE!  I've listed all three copies of Komako Koa mystery novels and they are currently available for purchase. Click here. This morning I checked and already The Lava Flow Murders is sold, but the other two are still eager for someone to purchase them.  Happy hunting! 

Komako Koa Trilogy
Murder Between Dark and Dark (1939)
The Lava Flow Murders (1940)
Death Goes Native (1941)