You might think of Alice Dunbar as a sort of "poor little rich girl." Living with her family on the upper East Side of New York City during the late 1940s, the unmarried young woman had to conform to her family's expectations about behavior and such. But Alice Dunbar had secret aspirations of her own. As readers, we're going to accompany Alice as she decides to make certain major changes in the way she lives. We will see her pack, leave that house of hers, follow her through the crowded streets of New York City, into the subway, and then...
Alice vanishes.
Mr. Macloud, a lawyer and a business partner of Alice Dunbar’s father, sums it up very neatly, as he talks to a family friend, Henry Gamadge: “Off the map,” he says. “Right off the map.”
Macleod wants Gamadge, who has some experience at solving mysteries that have baffled professional investigators, to do a little of his own investigating, to see if he can succeed where the police – so far – have failed in their efforts to find Alice Dunbar. The story is told in And Dangerous to Know, by Elizabeth Daly. It is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the entire review by clicking here.
Elizabeth Daly, said to have been one of Agatha Christie's favorite American authors, wrote sixteen books featuring biblio expert Henry Gamadge. By profession, he is an expert in books, manuscripts and other documents, and he is willing to provide discreet help for Macloud. And so he begins to carry out his own inquiries. What he discovers will shake the orderly foundation of the Dunbars’ world, as he tries to learn how a young woman never allowed very far away from close supervision by her family – remember, this is the late 1940s – how such a person might have been able to find some hidden place that would let her live a secret life – at least for a while. But Gamadge will also discover hidden passions that lead to murder.
Like Christie, Elizabeth Daly could build a twisted plot that would leave readers pursuing red herrings while she provided carefully hidden clues to the true story. And Dangerous to Know was one of Daly’s later books, first published in 1949. The story isn’t very cheerful, I’m afraid, but Daly is a fine writer and storyteller. And Henry Gamadge is someone I’d love to meet. I suspect you’ll feel the same way when you read And Dangerous to Know.
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