"The Pink Umbrella"

In the center of New York City, right during the heart of World War II, a young private detective, Pat Abbott, is dealing with some major changes in his life. For one thing, he has just joined the Marines, and he is awaiting call-up to active duty - which, in 1943, almost certainly meant heading overseas to fight. For another thing, he has just married a young woman named Jean Holly. And the young couple has come to New York City, hoping for some quiet time alone together before Pat is called up.

That's what they had hoped would happen. What happens instead is the events in "The Pink Umbrella," by Frances Crane, the fourth mystery to feature Pat and Jean Abbott, who went on to become enormously popular with the mystery-reading public during the mid-twentieth century. It's the subject of today's review on the Classic Mysteries Podcast, and you can listen to that review here.

In New York, Pat runs into an old friend and her family, now refugees from war-torn Europe. Ellen Bland has a particularly unpleasant former husband still hanging around. The rest of her family is deeply embroiled in feuds, passions and jealousies. And before the Abbotts know it, they're involved in some very nasty murders, and the local police want Pat, as a private detective, to help them solve the case. Jean Abbott serves as both Watson and narrator.

It's all handled with something of a light touch - or as much as you might expect in a story where war is never far from the reader's consciousness. Pat and Jean Abbott appeared in more than two dozen mysteries, most of which would qualify as forerunners of today's "cozies." To a public that loved these husband-and-wife teams such as Nick and Nora Charles or Pam and Jerry North, the Abbotts were great company. The Rue Morgue Press has been republishing Frances Crane's novels. They make for light and enjoyable reading.

"The Pink Umbrella" is another book for the Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge under way at the My Reader's Block blog. You'll find a huge number of vintage titles there, all pre-1960, offering lots of ideas about books you may not have read - and probably should.

Comments

[Bev]

Oh, Les, this sounds delightful (she says as her TBR list grows even longer...)! I lovey Pam & Jerry North. I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled for this series.

I'll update the progress/review site when I'm up to sitting at the desktop (for some weird reason, whenever I make blog entry changes on my laptop it messes up the formatting).

[Bev]

(I could have sworn I deleted that Y at the end of "lovey.") :-)

[Yvette]

Now these sound like something I'd definitely like. More books to add to my TBR list. I'm not sure I should thank you, Les. Ha!

[Les Blatt]

Yvette, I suspect your TBR pile is like mine - getting dangerously high and threatening to collapse and bury us beneath it one of these days! But there's so much goodness there to be enjoyed! As you say, Ha!