It is one thing to stumble over a body in a private railroad car, as Asey Mayo, the "Codfish Sherlock," did. It becomes somewhat more complicated, however, when the body promptly disappears. That's what happens in "Punch with Care
Taylor wrote some two dozen mysteries featured Asey Mayo, a Cape Cod native whose job (as best we can tell) is as a general factotum, inventor, handyman and overall assistant to the owner of a major automobile manufacturer. But on Cape Cod, where he lives and relaxes, he's also known for his ability to solve puzzling and sometimes extremely complex crimes. "Punch with Care" falls in that category: Asey is asked to find a missing house guest. He finds her - dead - in a private railroad car, holding a punched green rail ticket. But before he can summon police, the body disappears - and that's when it REALLY starts to get complicated.
Many of the Asey Mayo books feature pretty outrageous plots with a fair amount of slapstick humor, and that's certainly true of "Punch with Care." By the way, if that title sounds familiar, it's because it comes from a bit of doggerel verse about railroad conductors, made infamous by Mark Twain:
Punch, brothers, punch with care,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare...
Yes, even that doggerel, which tends to invade your brain somewhat the same way as the song from Disney's "It's a Small World," gets wound into the plot before Asey Mayo unravels it all. It's fun to read - sort of a vintage cozy, if you will. "Punch with Care" is a great way to meet Asey Mayo.
This is another entry in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, sponsored by Bev at the My Reader's Block blog. Follow the link to see what others are reading - and I hope you'll decide to join the challenge!
I love the Asey Mayo mysteries! Thanks for bringing this one to my attention...I'd not come across it before. Have you read any of the mysteries she wrote under the name of Alice Tilton? Those, I think are even more madcap than the Mayo books. I have to take Leonidas Weatherall (I think I got the name right...doing it from memory) in smaller doses than Asey.
Posted by: Bev | January 17, 2011 at 07:39 PM
Yes, Bev, the Leonidas Witherall mysteries are flat-out farce, and they're tremendous fun, full of cliffhangers, wildly improbable (and very funny) situations and complicated plots. I reviewed one on this site last year, The Iron Clew. ( http://www.classicmysteries.net/2010/02/the-iron-clew.html ) Taylor (writing as Tilton) only wrote 8 of those, but Witherall became very popular, and I think there are some old radio Leonidas Witherall mystery shows available on the web as well.
Posted by: Les Blatt | January 17, 2011 at 07:53 PM