"The Cat Saw Murder" by Dolores Hitchens

For several years, the British Library has been republishing classic British crime and mystery stories, under the general editorship of crime writer Martin Edwards. On this side of the Atlantic, a similar program has been underway under the title of American Mystery Classics and published by the reigning dean of the American mystery genre, Otto Penzler. 

One of those classic mysteries is The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens (1907-1973). First published in 1939, when Hitchens was using the pen name of D.B. Olson, the novel is one of the earliest mystery series involving cats (today its own sub-genre). This new edition of the story, published this year, includes an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates.

 

Seventy-year-old Rachel Murdock is called by her niece, Lila, who’s vaguely seeking help. Lila has gotten herself into some kind of trouble but won’t be specific. Miss Rachel decides to visit Lila, who is staying at an apartment house in a California seaside resort town. Lila even arranges for Miss Rachel, as she’s known, to have her own set of rooms. And the elderly lady brings the family black cat, Samantha, with her. The cat has the distinction of being the heiress of one of Miss Rachel’s sisters.

 

Dolores Hitchens

Miss Rachel, a fan of mystery books and movies, is slightly thrilled to visit her niece. That is, until she’s drugged and the niece murdered in a particularly gruesome way with an ax. Detective Inspector Stephen Mayhew arrives to investigate, and, once she recovers, Miss Rachel finds herself something of a consultant to the inspector. And almost all of the suspects seem perfectly capable of ruthlessly wielding an ax.

 

The story contains elements of the locked room mystery, and the standard bumbling-detective- aided-by-someone-like-Miss-Marple story. Generally, Mayhew and Miss Rachel arrive at major clues and developments at the same time. And Miss Rachel, despite her age, is still athletic enough to do some attic crawling and even breaking and entering. 

 

A native of Texas, Hitchens lived much of her life in California. She wrote poetry in college but embarked upon a nursing and teaching career before she became a full-time writer. She wrote numerous mysteries, both standalone stories and in series. The Miss Rachel cat series has 12 books, and Inspector Mayhew is featured in two books apart from Miss Rachel. 

 

The Cat Saw Murder is a well-written story, even with a couple of late plot developments to bring the story to a close. T times, it seems almost like a contemporary mystery story. Miss Rachel is clearly a self-sufficient woman with a first-rate mind, and she will solve the mystery before the police inspector. 

 

Related:

 

Why Delores Hitchens’ Less-Than-Glamorous Detective is the Hero We Need – Steph Cha at CrimeReads

"Dancers in Mourning" by Margery Allingham

As William Farraday writes his memoirs, he realizes that much of his life has been something less than exciting. So, he embellishes a bit. Even more than a bit. When the book is published under the title “Memoirs of an Old Duffer,” it becomes a hit. And then it becomes a successful musical in London’s West End, starring one of the top performers in the business, Jimmy Sutane.

For one performance, Farraday brings his friend Albert Campion. The purpose is for Campion to meet Jimmy Sutane after the show. Someone has been playing pranks on Sutane, and the pranks are becoming increasingly vicious.

Campion visits the Sutane home, 20 miles outside London, and discovers tensions simmering just below the polite surface. He also finds Sutane’s wife, Linda, and Campion finds himself complicating what he’s supposed to be doing by falling in love. The other guests are all connected to the theater and “those theatrical people” are always overly dramatic.

And then a dancer is killed in what appears to be an accident. More deaths follow. Because of Linda, Campion tries to avoid getting entangled. But his entanglement is inevitable.

Dancers in Mourning was first published by Mystery Golden Age writer Margery Allingham (1904-1966) in 1937. The mark of an Allingham novel is a good mystery combined with a touch of romance, but it’s surprising that the romance in this story involves Campion and the wife of one of the suspects.

Margery Allingham

Allingham began publishing in 1923 when she was only 19. But it was The Crime at Black Dudley in 1929 that established her as one of the best mystery writers of the era. That story introduced Campion, a private detective who has assumed his name because he’s actually a title in one of Britain’s leading aristocratic families. His “man” or butler Magersfontein Lugg, a convicted felon who has seen the inside of prison, also contributed to Allingham’s success, and in this story Campion loans him to Linda when her butler quits.

Dancers in Mourning is an excellent mystery, one that jeeps the reader guessing (and Campion himself guessing) all the way to the end.

Related:

The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham.

Two by Allingham: an almost Gothic and a Campion.

More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham.

The Mind Readers by Margery Allingham.
The China Governess by Margery Allingham.

The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham.

The Allingham Casebook by Margery Allingham.

Margery Allingham’s The Case of the Late Pig.

Margery Allingham’s Flowers for the Judge.

Margery Allingham’s Death of a Ghost.

Margery Allingham’s Black Plumes.

Margery Allingham’s Look to the Lady.

Margery Allingham’s Police at the Funeral.

The Essential Margery Allingham Collection.

Margery Allingham Box Set #2.

Margery Allingham’s The Fashion in Shrouds.

The Margery Allingham Society.

Top photograph: the Palace Theatre in London’s West End, which first opened in 1891.

“Death by the Book” by Julianna Deering

It’s the summer of 1932, and young Drew Farthering is focused on one thing – getting the beautiful American Madeline Parker to accept his proposal of marriage. She’s in love with him, but she isn’t quite ready to say yes. Nevertheless, Drew is having his will changed in Madeline’s favor, and is scheduled to meet with his lawyer.

Except the meeting never happens. The lawyer is found murdered, with an odd note stuck to his chest with a hairpin. The note, written in a beautiful cursive handwriting on parchment paper, doesn’t seem to make much sense.

And then a doctor is killed on a golf course belonging to Drew’s country club. And a note is found pinned to his chest; same handwriting and paper but a different inscription. And then there’s a third murder.

Something is clearly awry in the village of Farthering St. John. And the murders are getting closer and closer to Drew himself.

Julianna Deering

Death by the Book is Julianna Deering’s second novel in the Drew Fathering mystery series. Published in 2014, the stories are set in 1930s England – and they are meant to remind us of the Golden Age of Mystery (the 1920s and 1930s). Deering’s stories have the slight twist of also having references to faith. Others in the series include Rules of Murder, Murder at the Mikado, Dressed for Death, and Murder on the Moor. A sixth novel, Death at Thorburn Hall, is scheduled for publication in November.

With the help of his friend Nick Dennison, Drew begins to unravel the series of crimes. Madeline plays a somewhat smaller role than she did in the first novel; and she’s almost upstaged by a wonderfully domineering aunt who arrives from America to keep her niece out of the clutches of “those foreigners” like Drew.

Death by the Book is an intriguing mystery, and kudos to Deering for writing a story true to the Golden Age period.

Related:

My review of Julianna Deering’s Rules of Murder.

Top photograph by Petr Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.