The Dutch Shoe Mystery by Ellery Queen

Abby Doorn was the rich founder of the Dutch Memorial Hospital, and she continued her interest in the hospital, its patients and its doctors. Now she was over seventy, diabetic, and very dead. She had come in in the morning to visit the charity ward, went into a diabetic coma, fell down the steps, and hurt herself seriously. She was to be operated on by Dr. Francis Janney who was believed to be the best surgeon in the hospital. When she was wheeled into the operating room for the surgery,she was already dead because someone had strangled her.

Ellery Queen was visiting the hospital that day with a question about another case for Doctor Minchin, but when it was know that Abby Doorn was dead, Ellery rapidly took over the investigation into her death. I was amazed at the way everybody in the hospital let this amateur investigator go looking around the operating room and questioning the members of the staff. He did not even wait for the police to arrive, but when the police did arrive they were accompanied by Ellery's father, Inspector Richard Queen who got things under control.

Ellery's investigation led him to examine what motives the members of the hospital staff and of Abby's family could lead to her murder. Her large fortune would be divided between her daughter Hulda and a nephew who was off in some remote corner of the world. Abby had a companion, Sarah Fuller, and they were always arguing with each other. Sarah would receive a lifetime income from the will. There would be other bequests to the doctors on the staff. There was a research project conducted by Dr. Kneisel going on at the hospital which would seem to lead a very profitable result, but it seems to me that it had nothing to do with medicine. Abby Doorn had been financing it until just before her death when she had cut off the money.

The problem here was not one of motive, but of opportunity. Who could have murdered Abby Doorn  while she was in the hospital under the surveillance of doctors and nurses. Ellery feel that he is totally stumped in his search for the murderer - especially when another murder by strangulation occurs to a member of the hospital staff. But of course, all is solved in the end and Ellery gives a remarkably long explanation for his solution. I found this book interesting, but Ellery with his pince-nez and his chain smoking and his know-it-all attitude was a bit much. This book was published in 1931 and was the third Ellery Queen novel written by the cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee.

Murder in a Hurry by Richard and Francis Lockridge

Liza O'Brien certainly did not suspect that drawing pictures of cats would lead her to finding a murder victim and putting her own life in danger. She had simply started out to draw pictures of cats for a book which she was preparing. She had visited the home of Pam and Jerry North to draw pictures of their cats - Gin, Martini, and Sherry. Jerry North was Liza's publisher, and he and Pam were noted for their crime solving abilities.

Then Liza moved on to draw more cats at a little pet shop on West Kepp street. When she got there the shop was open, and she went in to admire the animals. It seemed that the owner, Mr. J. K. Halder, wasn't around. A very little man came in, and Liza and the little man looked around the shop and found the dead body of J.K. Halder in an animal cage. The little man looked so upset that Liza dashed into the room where Halder lived and got a drink for the little man. When she returned to the shop, the little man had gone, and she was alone in the shop with the dead body. Instead of calling the police, she called her boy friend, Brien Halder, the dead man's son.

This was how it all started. It would all become much more complex. It would turn out that J.K. Halder was a bit more than a simple pet shop owner. Liza met the members of the Halder family who were fighting among themselves. Another murder would occur, and Liza began to wonder if she wouldn't be the next victim because she might know something about the murderer. She even began to suspect that Brien Halder wanted to murder her. Pam and Jerry North came to her assistance along with Bill Weigand of the New York police force. All would be solved, but the reader should be warned that the really important clue comes quite near the end of the book.

I always enjoy the Pam and Jerry North books. The Norths enjoy a good life in New York, make witty comments, and seem to drink a good bit of alcohol while solving crimes. These books are very pleasant cozies, and may be read for enjoyment rather than for the intricacies of the plot.

The Black Curtain by Cornell Woolrich

When Frank Townsend came to, he was laying on the street and people were brushing plaster off of him and trying to help him stand up. He had been hit on the head by a piece of falling plaster. Frank managed to stand up and staggered home. When he got to the house he remembered leaving in the morning, he was told that his wife had moved out. He got his wife's new address, and went to see her. She was amazed to see him since he had been gone for two and half years - from January 30, 1938 to May 10, 1941. He had lost 2 and a half years of his life.

 Frank then set about to resume his old life. Frank's old employer hired him again. Then one day, Frank saw a man on the street who seemed to be watching him. In the following days, Frank was sure that the man was following him.

Frank decided that the time had come to find out what he had been doing during the lost years of his life. He sent his wife to a safer place, and went back to the street where  he had come to after been hit by the falling plaster. He wandered this street until finally he made a connection to this time that he couldn't remember. He discovered that he was accused of a murder, and he found a young woman who was in love with him and would help him in clearing his name.

Cornell Woolrich who was born in 1903, dropped out of college, and started writing novels in 1926. These serious novels of the Jazz Age were failures. It was in the 1940's when he turned to writing detective novels and pulp fiction that his career took off. He is said to have written the story upon which the movie Rear Window was based, although there seems to be some disagreement about this. Although he was earning money from his writing, he lived most of his life with his mother in rather seedy hotels. His health declined after his mother's death in 1957, and he died in 1968. Many movies have been based on his books. Some of his books are being reissued in paper and e-book formats.