IN BRIEF: Exit with Intent - Philip Loraine

Theater Royal in Grafton is in trouble.  Just before opening night of Here Comes Harry, a variety revue starring Happy Harry Hemple, the comedian headliner star disappears along with Vera Silverini, an acrobat. While the producer and a talent agent swiftly hunt for a replacement Inspector Lundy and his police crew start an investigation uncovering all sorts of shenanigans among the cast and crew.  Two days later a dead body is found in a ravine by a footbridge in the slum neighborhood known as Vale End.  The police are surprised when the body turns out to be neither Harry nor Vera.

Exit with Intent (1950) is Philip Loraine's second detective novel and is a glorious throwback to traditional mystery novels of the Golden Age. Among the colorful cast we have Vera's jealous husband Carlo Silverini, a strongman in the revue who someone is trying to frame for murder; Tommy Barnaby, Hepple's last minute replacement best known for playing Dame parts in pantomimes; Anna Nelson, a singer being blackmailed; Edward Blackett, a reviled dresser up to no good with the secrets he collects; Cohen, temperamental producer; Johnny Campbell, the harried director; and The Great Nimmo, billed as "The Prince of Illusionists", a magician who sees similarity with crime and the art of stage magic.

Though Inspector Lundy may ostensibly be presented as the lead detective it is Nimmo who will unravel all the various puzzles and literally unmask the devious murderer. As with most mysteries in the theatrical realm there is much role playing and deceit. And of course, with a magician acting as a detective we get a lessons in misdirection and how criminals are similar to illusionists. Nimmo has a couple of pithy observations:

 "I tell you what Johnny: committing a crime must be like inventing a new trick in my line of business.  Alibis, you see: pretending to do one thing when really you're doing another."

"You can't force a conjuring trick, Inspector, any more than you can force a fact. The best tricks are the simplest ones and the best crimes -- if my detective stories don't mislead me -- are the same."

I liked the unusual Golden Age style clues like a heavy wardrobe basket and where it ended up, a missing white coat with diamond buttons, the pesky character Colson who wants Nimmo to explain all his tricks to him, a note with the number 6981, and the overall obsession with magic and misdirection. Loraine may not be on the same level as Carr or Rawson but he does an admirable job of using theater, magic and all the artifice of the performing arts to spin a lively tale of duplicitous characters and devilish mayhem. Though ultimately Loraine did not quite fool me (because of one single line in the book!) this does not really undercut the high entertainment value of one of the better detective novels set in the world of people who basically lie for a living.

Exit with Intent is unfortunately rather scarce. But you can place a bid on my copy in my eBay listings. Click here if interested.

The Opera Murders - Kirby Williams

THE STORY:  The Illinois Grand Opera Federation is being plagued by gruesome deaths. The opera company's small group of divas are turning up dead. All of the methods employed mimic the deaths of heroines in their repertoire. Dr. Thackery Place teams up with John Tracy, a reporter who serves as narrator, the police and members of the Cook County DA's office to put an end to the slaughter and bring the murderer to justice.

THE CHARACTERS:  Thackery Place, a criminologist by profession, previously appeared in The C.V.C. Murders (1929) in which he also investigated a mad killer eliminating members of a criminal watchdog agency called the Citizens Vigilance Committee. Had he been popular he might have gone on to more adventures and been noteworthy as an early practitioner of criminal profiling in multiple murder cases.  As he only appeared in these two books he is more of an anomaly. Modeled on the many intuitive detective who draw on psychology and behavior more than physical evidence, Place is alternately omniscient and cryptic throughout The Opera Murders (1933). Both books draw on the popularity of the bestselling Philo Vance series of this era. So much inspired that the book is narrated by an observer who acts less of a Watson than a recorder of the case just as S.S. Van Dine does in the Vance novels. The D.A. office is very much involved similar to both the Van Dine and early Ellery Queen books.

In many theater based mystery novels it is usually the cast of performers who are the most interesting and dominate the plot. In The Opera Murders the performers are supporting characters and the victims. We rarely get to know them fully.  The first victim is dispatched so early the only way we get to know anything about her is in a letter she writes to another singer, Valeria Millefiore, who later ends up a victim. Instead of the performers, designers, and technicians, the action turns attention to the Board of Directors.  Unlike any other theater mystery I've read in any era, let alone the Golden Age, The Opera Murders lets the reader in on the business aspect of how a theater -- or in this case an opera company. In fact, it's not even the artistic business end but the financial end. We read of the people who fund the performing arts, make it possible for the company to exist in the first place, and how their influence can make or break the opera company.

INNOVATIONS:  Serial killer novels in this era tended to have bizarre plots. Thanks to The Bishop Murder Case (1929), America's first true bestseller among detective novels, a weird thematic angle became part of the expected plot line. The Opera Murders is no exception. The deaths in Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto and Aida serve as inspiration for the gruesome killings in this mystery. Dr. Place spends a lot of time trying to make sense of this macabre touch and trying to get the police to believe this is the pattern. Other weird touches like a Japanese doll and an American flag placed at the scenes of the first murder add to the surreal aspect of this serial killer. When the police puzzle over the size of a canvas bag at another murder scene thinking it might be a bag for storing sails Place reminds them of the plot of Rigoletto trying to convince the police the bag is a prop from the opera company's storage.

Because this book is the work of journalists newspaper reporting plays a heavy part in the story.  The highlight of the novel -- perhaps the actual climax -- is a lengthy newspaper article inserted into the text of the novel outlining a police search in churches across Chicago. The article goes into great detail about horrific desecration of numerous church basements when Dr. Place insists that the final victim has been entombed alive as in the finale of Aida.

QUOTES:  Place remarked that the machinery through which the day's news is ladled out to the public resembles the tides, the winds, the seismic disturbances of the earth and other cosmic forces in its disregard for such purely human institutions as breakfast.

"Every good crime needs some slightly mad person to lend it color."

THE AUTHORS:  "Kirby Williams" is the alter ego for three journalist who all began their careers working for Chicago newspapers:  Irving Ramsdell, William A. Norris, and William Parker.  Of the three I learned the most about Ramsdell who later left Chicago for Wisconsin where he was theater critic for the Milwaukee Sentinel. In 1940 he headed out West and became the city editor for The Los Angeles Times. Ramsdell also wrote a play in the mid 1930s but it apparently was never produced. The three men wrote only two detective novels both featuring Dr. Place before they gave up fiction for the more demanding world of newspapers.

EASY TO FIND?  There are currently six five copies of this book for sale online. Most of them are fairly cheap but all come without a DJ. The only copy available with the rare DJ (the one shown in this post) was recently sold in my online listings.

Murder Up the Glen - Colin Campbell

THE STORY:  Lorin Weir is on a walking tour of the West Highlands. He is warned to stay away from his intended hiking paths because of the dangerous  poorly maintained trails that proved deadly to a couple of young men on recent unsuccessful climbs. But the terrain is not the only danger. Lorin learns of the legend of the Black Walker, ghost of a Spanish invader to Scotland, that appears in the area on Beltane (May 1) and Midsummer -- two nights favored by witches, warlocks and haunts.  Lorin dismisses the superstitious warning and camps in the forbidden area.  He witnesses a murder an d sees a black caped figure fleeing into the night.  Lorin also flees but in doing so he dsrops his monogrammed knife. Uh oh! Now he'll be implicated.

CHARACTERS:  Initially, Lorie Weir appears to t be the protagonist detective in Murder Up the Glen (1933), but the novel is structured in an unusual manner. In Part One Lorin and the villagers are featured as they all search for Duncan Grant, a gameskeeper who has gone missing then turns out to be the murder victim Lorin found in the highlands.  In Part Two a writer, Martin Loan, and his colleague Dr. Lawrence Neal, an Irish physician interested in crime and supernatural, take over as narrator and detective respectively.  As the story gets more complex and detailed Loan adds several letters and diary entries to his "manuscript" to offer up alternate points of view and provide eyewitness testimony that he was unable to provide himself.  Loan and Dr. Neal take an arduous journey to Fantassich Lodge where they set up temporary headquarters to help the Neil family (distant cousins of the physician) make sense of the murder and  clear up whether the ghost might be involved or not. 

The Neil family is headed up by Colonel Evan Neil. The others -- Cynthia, a 17 year old preparing for university, and John 14 years-old -- are joined by Neil's two stepchildren Alan and Mary, both under 10 years old. All these supporting characters have their own special scenes with Cynthia eventually taking on a major role as she becomes more and more attracted to Lorin Weir and determined to clear his name. In fact, the youngest boy Alan serves to be crucial to the investigation when he stumbles on the incriminating knife with Lorin's initials in a burn (a large stream) while fishing.

The austere and grim setting with its foreboding landscape dominates the first half of the book. Descriptions of the craggy land, mountains and glens, burns and rivers provide substantial creepy atmosphere. The landscape and geography become like a character unto itself.  The inclusion of a gorgeously rendered map (see below & click to enlarge) that serves as the front endpapers in the first edition allows the reader to realize more fully the all-important landscape.

The Neil's maid Mairag and Dugald Cameron, her boyfriend of sorts, will also emerge from the background and take up a majority of the story when Lorin focuses his efforts on proving that Dugald killed Duncan Grant. The comely Mairag was the object of many of the local men's attentions including Grant, the murder victim. Lorin is sure jealousy is the motive. Mairag, of course, denies Duglad had anything to do with the crime pointing out his relatively good nature, despite his temper, he would never kill anyone. However, Dugald becomes surly and often violent in his own denials. The two seem to be protecting each other.  Or are their actually protecting someone entirely different?  Cynthia is puzzling out all the seeming jealousies and cover-ups and tries to help Lorin see the truth.

Meanwhile, Dr. Neil is out to prove that the ghost is real and that the legends and stories surrounding  The Black Walker have some legitimacy.  Is it possible that this caped figure is an actual ghost? And what of Daft Jimmy who has been seen wandering the mountainous terrain in his own black cape? This local "half-wit" who spends much of his time herding sheep seems to be part of a crime. Lorin suggests that Daft Jimmy is being exploited and manipulated by an angry, more intelligent man in order to carry out violence and is doing so in a Black Walker get-up.

INNOVATIONS:  What makes Murder up the Glen a bit remarkable is the manner in which Campbell manages to blend the real with the legendary.  The shifting between suspects is also well done. By the final third of the novel the plot becomes similar to a Christianna Brand detective novel with quickly shifting accusations arising and almost as quickly demolished as new facts come to light. Ultimately, Dr. Neal uncovers a Gothic surprise of sorts and disproves what seems to be the ultimate accusation. Neal offers up his own ideas which incorporate a hint at supernatural activity while others dismiss his claims and point the finger at the only mortal suspect left to have been accused. While the book is not actually open-ended in the finale, there is a oddly ephemeral suggestion that is left up to the reader to either believe or dismiss. This book is unique among detective novels in this regard.  I thought of The Burning Court (1937) and wondered if perhaps John Dickson Carr had read this book and tried his hand at a similar introduction of genuine supernatural content revealed in the novel's conclusion.

THE AUTHOR:  Colin Campbell was the pseudonym of Douglas Christie (1894-1935) who wrote novels under his own name, his Campbell alter ego and a second pen name, Lynn Durie. According to Hubin's Bibliography of Crime Fiction Dr. Larry Neal, is a series detective and appears in two other mystery novels. The first novel, a frustratingly rare book I am still in search of for over 20 years (!), Out of the Wild Hills (1932) is a mystery with genuine supernatural content.  The third and last of the Neal mysteries, Murder on the Moors (1934),  I managed to find in a scarce POD reprint edition and will review that one in March.

EASY TO FIND?  If you want a hardcover edition -- well, good luck.  I found a battered copy a few years ago but recently sold that in my online listings. However, if you don't mind eBooks or digital texts, then you are indeed in luck!  I suggest you click here and you will find three different digital versions of Murder Up the Glen, one for Kindle, one in Epub, and one full length PDF.  Happy reading!

NEGLECTED DETECTIVES: Rosalie LeGrange, medium turned sleuth for hire

THE STORY:  Dr. Walter Blake meets Annette Markham on a train and falls in love with her.  She tells him she is not meant for men according to her aunt and guardian, Paula Markham, a student of Eastern occult religions. Annette says her Aunt Paula told her she has "the Light" and is meant for higher things. Dr. Blake soon meets Paula and is suspicious of an ulterior motive in her tutelage of her niece, possibly fraud. The physician seeks out Rosalie LeGrange, a medium, to help him expose Paula Markham. But Rosalie cautions Dr. Blake that Mrs. Markham is not a fraud at all, but the real thing. Exposing such a powerful woman (if she is faking it) will be difficult to impossible. Dr. Blake's real concern is the possible exploitation of Annette and he admits to his love for her.  Immediately Rosalie gives in for she has soft spot for young love. Turns out Mrs. Markham is in need of a new housekeeper and through clever manipulation Rosalie gains the job. The investigation begins! Stock manipulation and con artistry abound as Rosalie and Dr. Blake make their through The House of Mystery (1910).

THE CHARACTERS:  Rosalie lets Blake know that most medium fakery grows out of the genuine thing.  She should know because she is a real medium herself having from her teen years had visions and heard voices telling her things that later prove true.  In charging money for consultations she confesses that it is easy to give in to fake stories when the client is eager to hear anything positive. This, she says, is the crux of the fortune telling racket no matter how it shows up - crystal balls, tarot cards or seances. It's the showmanship that is so tempting and the resulting ease of foretelling good news rather than doling out the awful news that more often make up the real truth. She likes a challenge, though, and facing off with Paula Markham will test her like no other job she's taken on.

Rosalie is sharp witted, highly observant, sometimes wise, but hardly an intellectual. All of her dialogue is rendered in a working class style peppered with period slang and folksy idioms.  She makes for a refreshing detective fiction protagonist as most of these characters from the late 19th century and early 20th century are all cut form the same cloth: aloof, dispassionate, so logical as to appear ruthless and cruel. Rosalie bears little resemblance to those super sleuths.  No surprise that such a likeable, warm-hearted, amateur detective proved to be popular with readers for she returned in a sequel, The Red Button (1912), this time trying her hand at solving a murder.

In Paula Markham we actually see a personality that would make the perfect fictional detective of this time. Paula's personality is the coolly aloof sophisticate and she proves adept at subterfuge and deceit.  Rosalie has met her match just as she feared. Paula Markham seems inspired by the master criminals that were so popular in serial fiction and magazine short stories in the pre-WW1 era. She meets up with Arthur Bulgar, a corrupt mining company executive, fearful that his company is about to fail who seeks out Robert Norcross, Wall Street financier, haunted by the death of his lost love. Bulgar and Markham use this knowledge to cajole Norcross into helping bail out the mining company. Annette will play a part in the scheme acting as the voice -- and sometimes "body" -- of Norcross' dead lover.

THE AUTHOR:  Will Irwin (1873-1948) was a journalist and novelist. He covered the 1906 San Francisco earthquake for The New York Sun, wrote about Japanese racism in California, and had a series of newspaper articles appear in Colliers Weekly exposing fraudulent mediums and the "spirit racket".  No doubt that series led him to write The House of Mystery.  In addition to his two detective novels, Irwin was the author of numerous nonfiction books ranging from a history of San Francisco to a biography on Herbert Hoover for whom he worked from 1914-1915. Irwin was married to the writer Inez Haynes Irwin, noted feminist, novelist, and also a dabbler in detective fiction.  See my review of The Women Swore Revenge for a look at his wife's style of mystery novel

THINGS I LEARNED:   On p. 141 Rosalie says: "It all come from Mrs. Markham. It was like a sweet smell radiatin' from that room, and just makin' me drunk. It was like--maybe you've heard John B. Gough speak. Remember how he had you while you listened?"  Gough was a Temperence orator and revivalist, apparently known for his smooth and persuasive voice.  The internet is teeming with info on him.  Google away if you want to know more.

Two other personalities -- Marsh and Miss Debar -- are mentioned in passing as topical references which led me to look them up.  Marsh is Luther Marsh, a lawyer who was swindled by Ann O'Delia Diss Debar (at left), one of America's notorious crooked spiritualists. Houdini called her "one of the most extraordinary fake mediums and mysetry swindlers the world has ever known."  In 1888 she was finally undone when her extravagant greed led her to tricking Marsh into signing over the deed to his townhouse on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. The police caught up with her leading to a sensational trial. She was convicted and went to prison... for a mere six months! There's a wealth of info online about Debar. She makes for fascinating reading. Look her up!

Walter hears a piano playing a tune on p. 202.  Some lyrics pop into his head "Wild roamed an Indian maid..."  Turns out these are lyrics from the first American "popular hit" written by a woman. The song  is "The Blue Juniata" by Marion Dix Sullivan with lyrics by her husband J. W. Sullivan.  In the novel the song is used as a hypnotic cue to induce Annette to play her part in the spirit fakery.  For an upbeat 1956 arrangement of the folk tune click here.  It's a pleasant recording with a quick tempo featuring the male singing group The Plainsmen.

AVAILABILITY:  Lucky you! (a rare cry around here)  The House of Mystery has been uploaded to Project Gutenberg.  You can read it for free there, may be even download it.  As a bonus you get all eight original illustrations from the first US edition which I freely used to decorate this post. My edition has only four illustrations and the plates are tinted a faint yellow which I don't like. The artwork most likely appeared in a magazine when the story was first serialized. Illustrations are by noted American artist Frederick C. Yohn.