Classic Mysteries

"The Headless Lady"

The woman who walked into The Great Merlini's magic  store was very insistent: she wanted to buy the apparatus needed to perform a magic trick known as "The Headless Lady" - a stage illusion that culminated in the appearance of a live woman with only a machine where her head should have been. The would-be customer made it very clear she didn't want to take "no" for an answer, so when Merlini refused to sell it to her, she took pretty drastic action. All of which explains how The Great Merlini, along with his Watson, free-lance newspaperman Ross Harte, wound up involved with the traveling circus known as The Mighty Hannum Combined Shows and the case presented to us as The Headless Lady, by Clayton Rawson. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

First published in 1940, The Headless Lady was one of just four mystery novels by stage magician Clayton Rawson to feature The Great Merlini. Merlini is not only a practicing stage magician, and the supplier to other magicians of the machinery required to present stunning stage illusions, but he is also a detective who has become involved in several difficult murder cases, helping police figure out how seemingly impossible crimes could have occurred. 

The circus in the book is one of those traveling shows that still exist in many suburban and rural areas, but which were undoubtedly more popular and elaborate during the early years of the twentieth century. In addition to traditional circus acrobats and clowns and trained animals, these circuses also featured sideshows, most of them carefully designed to part the spectators from their money. Stage illusions were often a part of the sideshow setups. For example, the headless lady illusion. What kind of a show is it? Well, according to the story told to the crowd by the attraction’s pitchman, the headless lady supposedly was the victim of a terrible accident, but a doctor had been able to keep her alive while he amputated her head and substituted an astounding machine for it. Spectators would see a live woman seated on a stool - with nothing apparently above her shoulders but a fantastic array of tubes and vials and no sign of her head.

Don't expect Merlini to explain how the trick is done, by the way - as with all magicians, Rawson adheres to that code of behavior which forbids sharing the secrets of such illusions. Besides, Merlini will have his hands quite full when a murder occurs and the police decide that he is the prime suspect in the murder.

It's all thoroughly entertaining, with some first-rate surprises along the way. The book is not only a well-plotted and clued mystery, it is also a fascinating look at the world of the traveling circus, at least as it existed in the first half of the 20^th century. Every chapter is filled with some of the colorful slang terms used by the circus people to identify each other, to describe their audiences, and to exchange messages with each other that may not be understood by local law enforcement officials. All these terms are explained to the reader – either by Merlini or in footnotes – and they add a nice layer of local color to the story. I recommend it highly. At the moment, it appears to be available only as an e-book, but there should be used copies available through your favorite mystery book dealer.

The 2015 Bingo Challenge

Continuing my participation in the 2015 Vintage Mystery Bingo challenge. under way at the My Reader's Block blog, The Headless Lady is my entry for the square (first row, third column) calling for one book set in the entertainment world.

"Death in Ecstasy"

It would be fair to say that the elaborate ritual being carried out that evening at the House of the Sacred Flame did not go as expected. The observers (including journalist Nigel Bathgate) certainly did not anticipate the death of one initiate who had somehow been poisoned with cyanide from the communal chalice being passed around the circle. There didn't seem to be any way that the wine in the chalice could have been poisoned - but it was. In order to figure out whodunit, Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn was going to have to figure out howdunit...and why. The story is told in Death in Ecstasy, by Ngaio Marsh, and it is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the complete review by clicking here.

 Originally published in 1936, Death in Ecstasy was Ngaio Marsh's fourth novel to feature Alleyn. It begins with Nigel Bathgate looking out his window on a stormy night and noticing, for the first time, the swinging sign that announces the House of the Sacred Flame. He sees people walking up to the door of the church and walking in. Being bored - and being a journalist, who can often find an entertaining feature story in a religious cult - Bathgate goes out and talks his way into the church. That is why he is on hand later that evening, during a rather peculiar ritual for the cult's initiates, when one of the participants dies after drinking cyanide from the communal cup which had been passed around to all of them.

Bathgate's friend, Inspector Alleyn, takes over the case and finds himself forced to solve the question of exactly how that poison got into the cup and whether it was intended for a particular victim. He also finds remarkably little that is holy or sacred about the cult, and the disappearance of thousands of pounds' worth of bonds suggests there may be a far-from-holy motive for murder. 

The book has a great many memorable characters, many of them fairly unpleasant. Some of them are quite politically incorrect; for example, there are a couple of characters very clearly intended to be gay (and to provide some degree of comic relief as well). They are treated as objects of scorn and derision, not surprising perhaps in a book of this type written during the 1930s, but quite likely to be offensive to some readers today.

I must admit that Death in Ecstasy is not my favorite Marsh book. I think that she handled the theme of murder among the members of a religious cult far better in a later novel, Spinsters in Jeopardy. Still, the plot of Death in Ecstasy is quite clever, many of the characters are quite presentable, and there are a fair number of clues carefully planted for the clever reader to spot. It's available in both paper and e-book formats from the Felony & Mayhem Press.

The 2015 Bingo Challenge

Continuing my participation in the 2015 Vintage Mystery Bingo challenge. under way at the My Reader's Block blog, Death in Ecstasy is my entry for the square (fifth row, fourth column) calling for one book that involves the clergy or religion.

"The Golden Age of Murder"

Regular visitors to this page, and/or regular listeners to the podcast, surely are familiar with the term "Golden Age of Detective Fiction." It refers - to define it very roughly - to the years between the two world wars of the 20th century and to the writers, especially English writers, who flourished during that period (or at least began their writing during those years).

Now, British mystery author Martin Edwards has come up with a deeply-researched, eminently readable history of those authors and those years, in an examination aimed at showing precisely how that Golden Age came about. The book is called The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story, and it was published in May by HarperCollins. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone who enjoys the traditional detective story and wants to learn more about the authors who created those stories. Although this blog and podcast generally focus on the fine mystery fiction available to be read and re-read, rather than looking at non-fiction, The Golden Age of Murder is the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the entire review by clicking here.

At the heart of the Golden Age, and at the heart of this book, was a group of authors who banded together into an organization called The Detection Club, an organization which still exists in the U. K. today. It began, formally, in 1930. The members were all selected by their colleagues by unanimous vote. You'll know the names of many of those members - Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton and Anthony Berkeley, for example - and will learn about so many more in this book: people such as J. J. Connington, John Street, R. Austin Freeman, G. D. H. and M. Cole, Freeman Wills Crofts, and H. C. Bailey, to name only a few. Without the Detection Club, we would hardly have had such a Golden Age. Edwards, who has served for many years as the club's archivist, takes as his thesis the idea that by examining these people, their beliefs, the things they held dear and the things they loathed, and how they interacted with each other, today’s readers will better understand how these authors in effect created the modern detective story, in all its many forms.

This is a large book – nearly 450 pages of stories, anecdotes and insights, lovingly detailed, illustrated by portraits of the authors and assorted other memorabilia. Edwards makes it quite clear that when too many of today's critics and academics limit their discussion of the Golden Age to the work of a handful of "crime queens," they miss the reality of the enormous talent of so many other writers and their significance in shaping the detective story. Happily, some publishers are stepping forward to re-issue the work of some of these authors for the enjoyment of a new generation of readers. I think The Golden Age of Murder is an indispensable popular history, one which often reads like a detective story in its own right. It should not be missed.

Comment Trouble?

I've had reports from some of my visitors about a new difficulty signing in to leave a comment - apparently they are getting a warning about Typepad's security certificate.

I'm getting the same thing when I try to log on to the comments area.

Here's what Typepad had to say when I questioned it/them:

Thanks for the report.    We are looking into updating our certificate
but in the meantime, you should be able to proceed by accepting the
certificate and add the exception. That should allow you and readers to
move forward in viewing your blog.  We should have this updated by
early next week. 

No English language translation available, but I think it means that we should go ahead and log in, ignoring the warning. I'll let you know when I hear more - that would be the "early next week" part of the message, I believe.

Sigh. Ain't technology wunnerful?

The David Award Nominees

The Deadly Ink mystery conference, which I'll be attending again this summer, has announced its nominees for the 2015 David Award, presented to the best mystery novel of the previous year. This year's nominees are:

• Blood Rubies, by Jane Cleland
• The Question of the Missing Head, by E. J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen
• Circle of Influence, by Annette Dashofy
• Death and White Diamonds, by Jeff Markowitz
• The Roar of the Crowd, by Janice MacDonald
• The Ousmarting of Criminals, by Steven Rigolosi

Attendees at the Deadly Ink conference in New Brunswick, NJ, August 7-9, will vote on the finalists, and the winner will receive the award at the group's banquet on August 8. Congratulations to all the nominees! The award is presented in memory of David G. Sasher, Sr.

The Nero Award for 2015

The Wolfe Pack, the organization devoted to author Rex Stout and his most corpulent creation, Nero Wolfe, has announced the nominees for this year's Nero Award, presented annually for the best American mystery published in the previous year and written in the tradition of the Nero Wolfe mysteries.

The nominees are:

• Herbie's Game, Timothy Hallinan (Soho Press)
• The Detective & The Pipe Girl Michael Craven, (HarperCollins)
• First Light, Al Lamanda (Five Star)
• The Detective, James Patrick Hunt (Cengage Gale)
• Peter Pan Must Die, John Verdon (Crown Publishing Group)

The winner will be announced, and the award presented, at the annual Black Orchid banquet in New York City this December. As always, congratulations to all the nominees!

Hat tip: Janet Rudolph at Mystery Fanfare Magazine

"Deadly Nightshade"

Was somebody in rural Maine going around giving poisonous berries to childen?

That was the question troubling police. It's the reason why a detective named Mitchell telephoned Henry Gamadge in New York. Gamadge had been able to help Mitchell on a previous case. Could he possibly come up to Maine and tackle a most peculiar case involving children who apparently got hold of the poisonous berries of the nightshade plant? You'll find the full details in Deadly Nightshade, by Elizabeth Daly. Originally published in 1940, right at the end of the Golden Age of detective fiction, it was the second case involving book-and-document expert Henry Gamadge. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

The situation, as explained to Gamadge, was like this: the belladonna poisonings appeared to be accidental – but the victims were children. One child had lived, one child had died, and a third child – and her cat – had disappeared. It’s not clear how the children got the poisoned berries. Could they have come from a tribe of gypsies camping in the area? There is also talk of a mysterious lady in a car who may have given the deadly berries to the children. But why would anyone do that?

Gamadge becomes convinced that the poisonings were, in fact, deliberate - and that there may be a link to the death of a local police officer in a motorcycle crash on the night when the poisonings happened. And he will find himself in considerable danger as he gets closer to the truth in this case.

I'm a fan of Elizabeth Daly, an American author with a fine talent for misdirecting the reader's attention as she skillfully hides clues to the real nature of the events in her books. Deadly Nightshade was only her second book and, frankly, I think her later books improved considerably, although I did enjoy this one as well. It's quite lively, with plenty of surprising twists and certainly deserves a place on your To Be Read list.

The 2015 Bingo Challenge

Continuing my participation in the 2015 Vintage Mystery Bingo challenge. under way at the My Reader's Block blog, Deadly Nightshade is my entry for the square (first row, sixth column) calling for one book with a method of murder in the title.

"Miss Pym Disposes"

The students and teachers at the Leys Physical Training College for Women seem, on the surface, to be a hard-working, industrious group of personalities. Certainly that's the way they are seen by Miss Lucy Pym, a self-made author of popular psychology books. Miss Pym is flattered and pleased when a former schoolmate, who runs Leys College, invites her to present a lecture to the graduating senior students.

Miss Pym is thoroughly charmed by the young women. But she also discovers a fair amount of tension as final examinations approach. On discovering that one of the students may be cheating on an exam, Miss Pym is able to arrange it so that her apparent cheating will be ineffective.

But as Miss Pym moves to defuse a sensitive situation...well, there are difficulties. And those difficulties will lead to a suspicious and tragic death - one Miss Pym believes is murder.

The story of how that happens - and what Miss Pym does about it - is told in Miss Pym Disposes, by the remarkable Josephine Tey. It is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here. Published in 1946, it is one of only eight mysteries written by Tey during her relatively short lifetime.

If you are one of those who believe that the traditional mystery authors of the 1940s wrote only sterile puzzles with unbelievable characters and plastic settings, you really need to meet both Josephine Tey and Miss Lucy Pym. The students and teachers at Leys are all different - and believable - characters, and the reader will care deeply about what happens to them and to their school. For about three-quarters of the book, you might be reading a sophisticated comedy of manners. When tragedy intrudes quite suddenly, the reader is likely to feel it as acutely as Miss Pym. But beware of unexpected plot twists...

The 2015 Bingo Challenge

Continuing my participation in the 2015 Vintage Mystery Bingo challenge. under way at the My Reader's Block blog, Miss Pym Disposes is my entry for the square (fifth row, third column) calling for one academic mystery.