Granted that old Hezekiah Morse was unlucky enough to be a murder victim. But one might argue that his granddaughter Sylvia found herself in an equally unlucky position, given that the police were convinced she must have murdered him. After all, the only way into the room where he was stabbed was through the door from her room - where she was sitting alone, summoning the courage to go tell her grandfather that she was defying his wishes to marry someone of whom he didn't approve. And she was being cut out of his will - being left only a small, apparently worthless statuette of a purple parrot. So there you are - motive, means, opportunity - and a situation where apparently nobody else could have done it.
No, Sylvia's position was anything but ideal. And that's the situation we find in "The Purple Parrot
While the police believe that Sylvia committed the murder, it is worth pointing out that she had a fair number of defenders. Her husband-to-be, a lawyer (and our narrator), was also in the house at the time, and he insists that Sylvia could not have done it. Fortunately, he is supported in that belief by Professor Theocritus Lucius Westborough, an expert on Roman history - and a man with quite a track record as an amateur sleuth who has provided invaluable assistance in the past to Chicago police detective Johnny Mack. Westborough has a reputation for explaining impossible crimes. He also is intrigued by that strange statue of a purple parrot - which, by the way, seems to have disappeared. And it is only when he uncovers the secret of the bird - and a number of other seemingly incidental details concerning rare wines, malevolent gangsters and rare first editions - that the mystery will be explained.
Other American mystery writers - most notably John Dickson Carr - were more famous for their locked room mysteries, but Clyde B. Clason really deserves a wider readership. He wrote ten mysteries between 1936 and 1941, most of them involving seemingly impossible crimes for Professor Westborough to solve. Those of his books which I have read don't have the kind of atmospherics, the touch of terror that Carr brought to his novels. But they were very good, enjoyable mysteries, with some ingenious solutions to the seemingly impossible problems. The Rue Morgue Press has republished "The Purple Parrot" and a few other Clason novels. If you like locked room puzzle mysteries, you really ought to make his acquaintance.
Les - I must admit I'm not as familiar with Clason as I am with Carr and some of the other classic "locked room" authors. But from what I do know, ingenious is an apt description his solutions. Thanks for the reminder that I really should read more of his work.
Posted by: Margot Kinberg | June 25, 2012 at 06:21 PM
Margot, I do enjoy the Clason books. I do find them a bit dry (compared, say, to Carr), but they are always well-reasoned and inventive. In at least the last couple I've read, the murders happen in the first couple of pages, which makes it more difficult, I think, to expect the reader to empathize at all with the victim. But that's just carping on my part.
Posted by: Les Blatt | June 25, 2012 at 07:07 PM
You've added to my mystery education once again, Les. Never heard of Clason, but I'm adding him to my list of vintage authors to look out for.
Posted by: Yvette | July 08, 2012 at 03:32 PM
I think you'll enjoy him, Yvette. By the way, I'm writing this reply from Honolulu...home of one of your much-admired classic detective characters, I believe. More about Charlie tomorrow... ;-)
Posted by: Les Blatt | July 08, 2012 at 09:55 PM