Summer Reading: Asey Mayo Mysteries

Summertime and the reading is easy, or at least it should be. If you're looking for summer reading, something ideal for that vacation at the beach or poolside or even your own back yard, you might want to get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with Asey Mayo, the hero of two dozen books written by Phoebe Atwood Taylor between 1931 and 1951.

Asey Mayo is known as the "codfish Sherlock." He's a resident of Cape Cod, on Massachusetts, and all the mysteries are set on the Cape, which may have been a little less crowded and more rural in the 1930s and 1940s but was still an extremely popular vacation spot. Taylor's books are always fun. She had a well-developed sense of humor which is very much in evidence. The early books could be a little grim, but most of the series was pretty light-hearted. Asey combines a good deal of Yankee ingenuity and shrewdness with a fair amount of take-charge leadership. His cousin Jenny and her husband and a small group of other regular characters make very good company.

In the past couple of years, I have reviewed three of the Taylor books on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you're welcome to listen to my take on "The Asey Mayo Trio," "The Criminal C.O.D." and "Death Lights a Candle." If you want to try Phoebe Atwood Taylor, Amazon.com has most of her books available, You might also enjoy her mysteries featuring Leonidas Witherall, written as Alice Tilton, which could best be described as the Marx Brothers and the Keystone Kops meet Sherlock Holmes and Bulldog Drummond - they're slapstick thriller-mysteries and great fun to read.

Almost all of these are in print, and your favorite mystery bookstore would be delighted to get them for you! Or, that Amazon link above will do the trick (and toss a few pennies my way...)

Comments

[Renee Yocum]

I was inspired to rediscover this series (and a few others) a few months ago because of these podcast reviews. I had always meant to go back and check them out again at the library where I worked for many years and then no surprise to many of us they were no longer available purged in a weeding frenzy to make room for some books that will become classics in their own right but most that are simply not as good as those titles that gave up the coveted shelf space. I purchased a Kindle as my Christmas Present to Me last year and use these podcast reviews as a reading list for those that are in the public domain. Titles that are not in the public domain are fairly scarce but some are available for reasonable prices in ebook form but several I covet for my Kindle, such as recent Rex Stout titles, are far, far too high so that I will be using the online used book sources for quite some time. Thank you for providing such excellent and entertaining reviews.

[Les Blatt]

As far as Public Domain books are concerned, you may already know that Project Gutenberg Australia has a fine collection of early mysteries (and other books as well) that are P. D. in Australia - not necessarily in the U. S., however, so be careful. But that's a good way to find people like Edgar Wallace, for example. Enjoy your Kindle!