FFB: Ominous Star - Rae Foley

THE STORY: Mary Turner befriends an elderly book collector and antique dealer while working at her new job in an antiquarian bookstore in Manhattan. Out of gratitude for their many delightful evenings together, talks of books and antiques, and platonic friendship Charles Sheridan gives her the deed to a cottage, a place he knows she will appreciate. But she can only accept his gift on one condition -- upon his death she must find a locked box in the attic and destroy its contents. She must never look at or read what's in the documents in this box. A few weeks later someone robs Charles of a few rare antiques. He catches the thief in the act, they exchange words, the thief punches Sheridan in the face, he falls striking his head and later dies. When the police learn that Mary was willed the cottage they suspect she had a hand in the theft and Sheridan's death. Then a mysterious man enters Mary's life and the two of them decide to beat the police at their own investigation and find out the truth behind the theft and how Sheridan died.

THE CHARACTERS: The summary above makes this Ominous Star (1971) sound like a Phyllis Whitney novel, a suspense novel with fanciful elements drawn from Gothic mystery novels of the past. Young female protagonist and elderly erudite gentleman become friends, and he entrusts a secret task to the other. But the whole business with the box and its contents is akin to a MacGuffin in a Hitchcock movie. It merely serves as an object, or in this case a task, that will propel the plot. The real story is about who stole the antiques from Sheridan's home and how and why he died. There is also a subplot involving Miller, Sheridan's butler and confidante, and his deep, dark secret. The novel turns out to be a surprisingly well plotted detective novel along the lines of a police procedural. Nearly three quarters of the story deals with the police investigation. Mary appears only at the start of the book and the last couple of chapters, with the obligatory damsel in distress sequence to serve as a climax.

Hippie hitchhiker, circa 1968
A rich kid in disguise?
(photo © Getty Pictures)

The supporting players were more to my liking than Mary (a rather drab and cookie cutter style heroine one finds in these woman in peril novels). I thought for sure I had pegged Randy, Sheridan's black sheep relative, who spends most of his time in a hippie disguise, as the villain. Had this been a Phyllis Whitney book he most definitely would have turned out to be a handsome rogue. I'll not reveal whether I was right or wrong but I was a bit surprised by the way this book turned out. Especially with the anticlimactic business with the box and its contents.

However, two of the supporting women characters were well worth the trip through these pages. Phoebe Cortlandt ("Oh, that Cortlandt!" everyone says when they finally meet her) is a highlight in this novel. She's a rich kid living in a penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side and despite her well-to-do and entitled roots she is completely counterculture. She dresses like a Mod and fancies herself an artist. She is upset that the "true artists" of New York never get a break in the snobby galleries of the city. In retaliation she has opened her home as a gallery to her friends so they can display their work. She even invites the police to the art exhibit. It's going to be a party, of course. She promises food, drink, lots of interesting people and eye-opening art. Several people the police want to interview in relation to the Sheridan crimes will be present at the party and Petersen instructs Sgt. Carpenter to get some good clothes and make an appearance. The scenes with Phoebe are filled with wry humor and off kilter characters and allow Elinore Denniston (the real name of "Rae Foley") to make some fascinating commentary on the art scene, the hippies and young people of the 1970s.

I also enjoyed a silly sequence when a floozie secretary flirts with Sgt Carpenter at the office of the grandiose and odious Kenneth Wilkinson. She's a very minor character, appears only once and serves no other purpose than as a sexpot comic part. The entire sequence made me laugh out loud. Whether this was Denniston's intent or not didn't matter to me. I thought it was hilarious and very un-PC all at once.

INNOVATIONS: Denniston uses the bohemian and artist scene of the 1970s Manhattan to comment on the pop culture phenomenon of Hippies and the "groovy scene." Some of the best elements in this book are the characters' reactions to meeting people like Phoebe and Randy. Randy's ludicrous disguise is clearly meant as a chance for Denniston to ridicule the ubiquitous hippie look. Randy chooses probably the most cliche look of all: fringe vest, long blond wig, wildly colored shirt, tight pants, and a guitar case with actual guitar inside. This last bit is overkill; a stupid prop that he carries with him everywhere. But I don't recall that he even plays the thing.

QUOTES: Instead of quotes of the author's writing I thought I'd show you how much Dennison was entranced by literature, mostly the work of playwrights. I've read three of her mysteries so far, all of them overloaded with literary allusions. The title of this one comes from John Webster's bloody revenge tragedy The White Devil ("This thy death/Shall make me like a blazing ominous star/Look up and tremble.") Everyone seems to be well read in her fictional worlds. I mean everyone! From the erudite sophisticates of the Upper East Side to the cops, every character in Ominous Star loves to quote famous writers or allude to literary works.

Charles Sheridan: "I'm no philanthropist. I have no use for what Shaw called 'the undeserving poor,' the world-owes-me-a-living type."

and: "I feel like Sir Walter Raleigh. Do you remember his bitter lament after having been forced to attend a garden party? ..." And then he goes on to recite from memory a six line verse in doggerel which I will not reproduce here.

plus: "like Leacock's horseman I ride my hobby off in all directions."

also: "Do you remember Maggie in What Every Woman Knows or has our nudist theater made [James M.] Barrie part of the general discard?"

OK, enough of Charles. The first chapter alone has close to fifteen allusions uttered by him.

Peterson: "As Scott Fitzgerald once remarked, 'Rich people are different.'"

Vincent Young, Sheridan's financial advisor on Kenneth Wilkinson, a fatuous lawyer: "The Falstaff of the legal profession without the wit; a sponge without will."

Phoebe Cathhart: "What is he really up to? Is he threatening to cast you in the role of First Murderer?" (Macbeth allusion referring to one of the two dull-witted killers enlisted to murder the Macduffs.)

THINGS I LEARNED: Yet another allusion but one so arcane I needed to do some research. Lt. Peterson is talking to his sergeant about the suspects and when they get to Miller, the butler and the sergeant's easy target for Sheridan's killer, Peterson says, "Your King Charles's head." Clearly this refers to the execution of Charles I and seems to imply that the sergeant was stuck on one idea. But I needed to know its origin. The phrase stems from a character in David Copperfield, Mr. Dick, who has been trying to write an autobiography on the King and is "regularly defeated by the intrusive image of King Charles' I head" after execution. To speak of "King Charles' head" is basically the same concept as the folk saying "to have a bee in your bonnet." It's a bothersome or obsessive idea that one finds difficult to get rid of.

EDITION: The first batch of the Rae Foley Dell paperback reprints had a uniform look and were illustrated and marketed to look as if the books were romantic suspense or neo-Gothic novels. (See the image above in the QUOTES section.) In many cases with Foley's books this is utterly misleading. The plot summary of Ominous Star makes it seem as if the lead character is Mary Turner, but the bulk of the book is a police investigation with Peterson, the Homicide detective being the focus. If anything this is more like a Helen Reilly or Elizabeth Linington novel than it is part of "romantic suspense" subgenre. The "romance" angle is thrown in as an afterthought taking up less than two chapters towards the end. It seems totally out of place, too and is rather unbelievable.

EASY TO FIND? A handful of copies of Ominous Star in various editions, including one in French translation, are currently offered via the usual used bookseller websites. One handsome US first edition with a nearly pristine dustjacket is offered via eBay at a very affordable price. But the majority are either Ulverscroft large print editions or Dell paperbacks. Happy hunting and reading!

Rae Foley's Non-Series Mystery & Suspense
No Tears for the Dead (1948)
Bones of Contention (1950), US paperback: The Other Woman (1976)
Wake the Sleeping Wolf (1952)
The Man in the Shadow (1953)
Dark Intent (1954)
Suffer a Witch (1965)
Scared to Death (1966)
Wild Night (1966)
Fear of a Stranger (1967)
The Shelton Conspiracy (1967)
Malice Domestic (1968)
Nightmare House (1968)
Girl on a High Wire (1969)
No Hiding Place (1969)
This Woman Wanted (1971)
Ominous Star (1971)
Sleep Without Morning (1972)
The First Mrs. Winston (1972)
Trust a Woman? (1973)
Reckless Lady (1973)
The Brownstone House (1974), UK title: Murder by Bequest (1976)
One O’Clock at the Gotham (1974)
The Barclay Place (1975)
The Dark Hill (1975)
Where Helen Lies (1976)
Put Out the Light (1976)
The Girl Who Had Everything (1977)
The Slippery Step (1977)

FFB: Dangerous to Me - Rae Foley

THE STORY: Answering a personal ad for an unusual job leads Paula Savage to discover the ugly past of Coxbury, Connecticut. What should have been a simple research job for a local historian instead turns into a perilous adventure accented by attempted murder, anonymous letters, an angry lynch mob and the strangling of her employer’s close friend. All the turmoil is linked to a crime committed twenty years ago in Coxbury and the release of the man sent to prison for that crime. Was he in fact innocent all the time? And if so, is the real murderer seeking to keep the truth buried and secret at all costs?

THE CHARACTERS: Paula is a woman with secrets of her own. We don't find out why she desires to escape from New York and take on a job for which she seems ill-equipped until well pass the midpoint. Over the course of the novel we learn of her true profession which she gave up recently, her failed marriage, and the fate of Derek, her possessive and unbalanced husband. Dangerous to Me (1959) though ostensibly about Paula and her new job prospects is really all about the release of Lenny Horgan from prison, the murder of Evelyn Dwight for which he was found guilty, and the truth of why Evelyn was killed and who was really responsible.

In being interviewed for the research position by Helen Quarles, a friend of the Coxbury historian, Paula hears from Helen the story of Evelyn Dwight’s murder, the trial and the fact Helen’s testimony was key in achieving a guilty verdict against Lenny. She feels Lenny Horgan is dangerous to her and she fears for her life when she learns of his release. Her fears prove prophetic when she is found dead outside the Central Park Zoo. Police try to pass it off as a mugging. But when Paula is pushed into the path of an oncoming taxi and saved at the last moment she believes that both she and Helen had information about Evelyn’s death that the real killer wanted kept hidden. But what exactly was it that Helen Quarles told Paula that could have been so threatening to that person? Paula turns to Hiram Potter for advice and help.

Hiram Potter is Rae Foley’s accidental detective. He had appeared in four novels prior to Dangerous to Me and in each of them reminds us that he does not consider himself a private detective. He takes no payment for his help but always ends up questioning townspeople and behaving like a private inquiry agent. He says he cannot help himself, that he has an insatiable curiosity. As Paula’s playwright friend Graham Collinge tells her, “All you have to do is let him scent a mystery and he’ll follow it like a bloodhound.”

French paperback edition

Potter is descended from a long line of fictional bachelors of independent means in detective and mystery novels who see themselves as knights errant on quests of good deeds. He has a knack for charming people into revealing themselves in casual conversation. As a consequence of his probing questions often gets himself into dire situations. In the final pages of Dangerous to Me Hiram finds himself in a Poe-like predicament that while harrowing is also excessively melodramatic and a bit too unbelievable for the culprit to have carried off.
This is ultimately a tale of long hidden secrets, misguided friendships taken to extreme and a perversion of the concept of loyalty. A close-knit group of young men who were all teenagers when Evelyn was killed are the focus of Hiram’s investigations. Also the wife of one of those young men Claire Tooling features prominently. Claire is a vindictive woman who saw Evelyn as her rival. Paula at one point begins to think that Claire might have killed Evelyn herself but Hiram thinks she is more suited for orchestrating an Iago-like conspiracy that led to Evelyn’s death. The truth is ultimately more harrowing than either of their surmises.

Among the most memorable of the supporting characters is Ross Bentwick, an alcoholic actor, whose dissipation allows for an arresting candor. He has a telling scene with Paula in which he exposes the truth Coxbury’s collective guilty conscience, and that there are uglier and worse crimes than murder – “Such as cruelty, malice and all uncharitableness. Such as exploitation and domination. Such as sowing the seeds of hate and fear…” Ross is one of the better examples of the dissolute misfit who no one takes seriously and yet who has a wisdom and insight into everyone he meets and everything he sees. He also has a keen sense of humor and I enjoyed his banter with Paula. When she reveals to him who she really is they develop a kindred soul type of bonding. Together they help Hiram get to the bottom of Coxbury’s messy past and the still unresolved mysteries surrounding Evelyn’s death.

UK 1st edition
(Hammond, 1960)

INNOVATIONS:
Despite all the trappings of what appears to be yet another woman in peril thriller mixed with an amateur gentleman as detective plot, Dangerous to Me is ultimately a treatise on “crimes worse than murder” and the terrible effects they have on the small-mindedness of small towns. Foley uses the conventions of a detective novel to explore -- sometimes penetratingly, sometimes too melodramatically -- the consequences of judgmental behavior, prejudices that turn to hatred and the dangers of vigilante style groupthink.

Despite the negative press Foley gets as a poor writer (see this unfairly negative review from 1001 Midnights) I have found that she is a great plotter as well as an imaginative and insightful writer with intelligent ideas. I'm planning multiple posts of some of her more unusually plotted novels as well as her scarcer titles published under her "Dennis Allen" pen name.

QUOTES:
"What I am driving at is that the people who cause most of the trouble in the world remain unpunished—hell, sometimes we hail them as great men – but Lenny had paid with twenty years of his life for killing Evelyn Dwight."

"I seem to have a talking jag. I must be high as a kite."
"You are," Paula assured him.
"That’s the little woman. Running true to form. Are you a descendant of Carrie Nation?"
"No," Paula snapped, "but right now I wish I had her ax."
"It wasn’t an ax, it was a hatchet. You are thinking of Lizzie Borden."

"I’ve always told Hiram that he has all the domestic virtues of a man-eating shark."

"There’s only one person who has been dangerous to any of you from the beginning." He looked from face to face. "Yourselves. You hated Evelyn and you wanted her dead."

THE AUTHOR:
Rae Foley is the most recognized of three pseudonyms used by Elinore Denniston, a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She began her crime writing career in 1936 as “Dennis Allen” and wrote four novels under that name over a ten year period often drawing from the private eye tradition. Her first book as Rae Foley is the exceptionally scarce No Tears for the Dead (1948). She continued writing a variety of Mignon Eberhart type “woman in peril” thrillers as well as traditional detective novels and romantic suspense well into the late 1970s. Sadly, because most of her books were reprinted in paperback with Gothic Romance looking covers she has been mistakenly pegged as a Gothic writer. I have yet to find a single book that comes close to what most people think of as Gothic. Foley’s novels tend to be interesting twists on traditional detective fiction and psychological suspense with a smattering of social criticism in her late 1950s and 1960s books.

Theresa Helburn
(from Bryn Mawr Library's
"Women in the Arts" exhibit)

Most interesting to me is her life as a non-fiction writer. Denniston worked for decades as the assistant to theater impresario and pioneering producer Theresa Helburn who as the director of Theatre Guild was responsible for inventing modern musical theater. Helburn suggested that a previously produced Theatre Guild play called Green Grow the Lilacs be turned into a musical and hired Richard Rodgers to do that. He came up with Oklahoma! She did it again when she suggested a little known play by a Hungarian writer be musicalized and Rodgers and Hammerstein created Carousel from that script. In the late 1950s Denniston helped Helburn complete her theatrical memoir A Wayward Quest. Working alongside Helburn, who had an infectious love of theater as both a performing art and literature, must have left its mark on Denniston. The Rae Foley mysteries are filled with theater references and playful literary quotes from Shakespeare while actresses and actors are often her main characters.

Later, Denniston was hired as assistant and Dictaphone transcriber to Eleanor Roosevelt while she was working on her memoirs in preparation for an autobiography. When mainstream romantic fiction writer Emilie Loring died her two sons asked Little Brown & Company to hire a ghostwriter to complete several unfinished manuscripts. Denniston was that writer and she wrote four books as “Emilie Loring.”

The Girl from Nowhere (1949)
features John Harland, Foley's
other series detective

EASY TO FIND?
Rae Foley’s books are all out of print and less than half are easy to find. Copies of Dangerous to Me are rather scarce in any edition. Your best bet for this title is a $2.99 paperback currently offered on eBay in an auction (People still use the auction option!). Most copies of her books offered for sale come in beat-up used paperback copies with those silly Gothic romance style covers or in large print editions from Thorndike. Assiduous searching for the scarcer early titles sometimes turn up reprints in three-in-one volumes put out by the long defunct Detective Book Club. At one time the Rae Foley books were very popular in the US as reflected by the numerous paperback reprints. If you live here you ought to be able to find some of her books in your local library. That is, if they haven’t been culling the shelves lately.

Hiram Potter Detective novels
Death and Mr. Potter (1955) APA: The Peacock Is a Bird of Prey (1976)
The Last Gamble (1956)
Run for Your Life (1957)
Where Is Mary Bostwick? (1958), APA: Escape to Fear (1958)
Dangerous to Me (1959)
It's Murder, Mr. Potter (1961), APA: Curtain Call (1976)
Repent at Leisure (1962), APA: The Deadly Noose (1963)
Back Door to Death (1963), APA: Nightmare Honeymoon (1976)
Fatal Lady (1964)
Call It Accident (1965)
A Calculated Risk (1970)