google-site-verification: googlef64103236b9f4855.html Philly Reader: November 2015

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth

Mr. James Paradine had invited ten family members to a New Year's dinner at his large and expensive home in Birleton.  Mr. James Paradine was head of Paradine-Moffat Works, a company which was involved in producing materials for the war effort. At this dinner, James Paradine announced that one person at the table had betrayed the interests of the family. He said that he knew who that person was, and that he would be waiting in his study between nine and twelve that evening for that person to come and confess. The family members were shocked by this, but they would be even more shocked in the morning when the body of James Paradine was found at the foot of a cliff below the parapet of the terace which was outside the door of his study.

The police, of course, were called even though the family members believed that death was an accident. Inspector Vyner believed that the police surgeon had found sufficient evidence on the body to declare that James Paradine had been pushed off of the parapet. Questioning of the family members about their activities of the previous evening was begun. James Paradine's son and principal heir Mark Paradine and young Lydia Pennington wanted the murderer found, and really did not feel that the police could do it. Lydia had heard of private detective, Miss Maud Silver, who had been successful in previous cases, so Mark hired Miss Silver to come to Birleton to find the murderer.

There are ten possible murderers in this book. They are in some way or another related to each other, and they have histories of interactions with and emotional attachments to each other. And when it comes to their activities on the night of the murder, most of them would initially lie about what they were doing. Miss Silver, an elderly spinster,  has indeed a challenging case here, but she continues calmly with her knitting as she interviews each member of the family and slowly arrives at the important clues which will eventually identify the murderer.

This book was written in 1944, and the seventh Maud Silver book. It is currently available as e-book. It is a classic country house mystery. It has a bit more romance than usual. I am however quite fond of Miss Silver and found it quite enjoyable.





Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Unexpected Night by Elizabeth Daly

Amberly Cowden had been seriously ill his whole life. If he survived to his 21st birthday, he stood to inherit one million dollars. If he died before then, the money was to go to distant relatives in France. It was late at night now, a few hours short of his birthday, and he was in a car with his sister Alma, his aunt Eleanor, and his tutor,  Hugh Sanderson. They were on their way to attend a theater performance by Amberly's cousin Arthur Atwood at a small summer theater. Amberly, who had been able to do so little in life due to his heart condition, very much admired his flamboyant cousin and had offered him financial aid for this theatre.

On their way to the hotel where they would be staying, the Cowden party stopped to visit  the Barclays. Mrs. Barclay was Amberly's aunt, and she was married to Colonel Barclay. They had one son Frederick who was also in the army. Also visiting with the Barclay's that night was a young man named Henry Gamage who was an expert in manuscripts. The Cowdens arrived, and stayed for a short visit, and departed for their hotel, Ocean House where they would arrive after one a.m. Amberly was now 21 and a millionaire, and he proudly signed the hotel register for the people in his party.

The next morning, Amberly's body was discovered at the foot of a cliff. He had apparently left the hotel shortly after arriving and had walked to the cliff possibly to meet somebody. The police were notified and Inspector Mitchell arrived to investigate. It was assumed that Amberly had become ill while he was at the cliff, had lost his balance, and fell over the edge.

Henry Gamage had an inquiring mind and was drawn into the investigation. It was said that Amberly had drawn up a will which left $100,000 to his cousin Arthur, $100,000 to his cousin Fred, $100,000 to Eleanor Cowden, and the rest to his sister Alma. This will could not be found, so it was assumed that the one million dollars would go to his sister Alma who was only 19 and would not receive the inheritance until she was 21. She said that she would honor these bequests. She was so distraught over the death, and the events which followed it, that she retired to her room.

Gamage went to the summer theater to meet Arthur Amberly and found that a death had also occurred there. An actress had died from what appeared to be an overdose of morphine. Before Gamage arrived at a solution to the causes of these deaths, several attempts would be made on the life of a one person involved, and another death would occur.

The initial situation in this book is remarkably improbable. However, it does set the stage for a rather clever ending. This was Henry Gamage's first appearance in a mystery novel and fifteen more books would appear in this series. The book was published in 1940, and is still in print.





Wednesday, November 4, 2015

To Wake the Dead by John Dickson Carr

On January 31st, young Christopher Kent was standing in front of the Royal Scarlet Hotel, and he had no money and he was very hungry. Kent was from South Africa and he had access to a considerable amount of money from his stake in Kent's South African Ales, his father's company.  Christopher had not wanted to spend his life brewing ale and instead wrote mystery novels. His friend Dan Reaper had told Christopher that he knew too little about real life and real people to write novels, and he challenged Christopher to work his way from Durban to London in four months without using any of the family funds. They were to meet at the Royal Scarlet Hotel at 10 am on February 1st.  As he stood there a room assignment card for room 707 blew past him. It guaranteed a room, bath, and breakfast. Christopher decided to try to use this card to get breakfast. He did get breakfast and a lot more then he had bargained for.

Christopher had gone to room 707 at the Royal Scarlet and had found the body of Jenny Kent. She had been strangled and beaten about the face. Christopher panicked, fled the hotel, and went to the home of Gideon Fell with whom he had corresponded. There he also found Inspector Hadley who told him about the murder of his cousin Rodney Kent. Dan Reaper's party from South Africa had been staying in the home of Sir Gyles Gay in Kent.  Rodney had been very violently strangled in his bedroom. The only witness to any thing connected to the strangling was Ritchie Bellows who was the son of the builder of the house. Ritchie was a drunk who seems to have come to the house after a binge, and fallen asleep on the couch. He said that he had seen a mysterious person in the uniform of a hotel employee walking down the hall. Rodney's wife Jenny was not in the house as she was visiting aunts elsewhere.

Reaper's party and Sir Gyles Gay left Kent and came to the Royal Scarlett early for the meeting with Christopher. Reaper's party consisted of his wife, Matilda, Jenny Kent, Francine Forbes, Reaper's niece, and Harvey Wrayburn. They had all taken rooms on the same floor of the hotel, and there was nobody else on that floor. Even the employees of the hotel would not be on that floor after midnight which was the time when Jenny had died.

Now Gideon Fell had two murders to solve in two separate locations. The members of the party spent a great deal of time developing suspicions of each other, and the manager of the hotel. Fell, of course, came through with the solution which will depended a great deal on keys and locks.

I was not quite happy about this book. Fell has information important to the solution of the crimes which is not given to the reader which is not playing fair. The mysterious room assignment card for room 707 which seems like it would have much significance is merely attributed to the wind blowing through a room. There are some other things which seem a bit contrived but I do not want to give any spoilers. This book was published in 1938, and is still in print.