My selection from the Classic Mysteries vault this week might be used to define a category of Golden Age mystery: "Best 'Country House' Mystery Not Actually Set Inside a Country House." That pretty well sums up Elizabeth Daly's excellent mystery, Somewhere in the House, published in 1946. First of all, it's set in a New York City private home, just off Central Park, rather than an English country estate. Second, the detective and the author are both Americans, not English at all. And while Agatha Christie might have been pleased to have written it, the book was actually written by one of Agatha Christie's favorite American authors, Elizabeth Daly. It's an excellent book, with an unusual premise. About seven years ago, I recorded an audio review for the Classic Mysteries podcast. Here's a transcript of that review, slightly edited:
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The family was certainly one of the leading families of New York City society during the early years of the twentieth century. But there was little familial love there. And, in fact, one member of the family appears to have been keeping a terrible secret for twenty years. But that secret is about to come out. And it is terrible enough to perhaps drive someone mad. The results are on view in Somewhere in the House, by Elizabeth Daly.
Elizabeth Daly is said to have been Agatha Christie’s favorite American author. Daly wrote sixteen books featuring the New York City bibliophile Henry Gamadge, a man who makes his living by inspecting and authenticating manuscripts, books and autographs. He is also – quite unofficially – a detective, usually pressed into service by friends, or the friends of friends. And as he moves through New York City society in the 1940s, he runs across some very interesting – and often frightening and dangerous – cases.
Somewhere in the House, originally published in 1946, is an excellent entry in Daly’s series. It begins with Gamadge being approached by Harriet Clayborn Leeder – a woman he does not know, but who says a mutual friend has suggested that Gamadge could provide the kind of discreet help she is looking for. Harriet is divorced from Rowe Leeder, who was widely suspected of the murder of a showgirl twenty years earlier. Harriet wants Gamadge to come to the Clayborn mansion to be present when a room – sealed up twenty years earlier by the family – is unsealed, according to the terms of Harriet’s grandmother’s will. Harriet thinks that a particularly valuable collection of buttons – yes, buttons – may be hidden inside that room, along with other relics, and she wants Gamadge to be on hand to try to find the missing items, as she doesn’t trust other members of the Clayborn family.
It’s an uncomfortable job, to say the least, but Gamadge agrees to help Harriet, over the protest of some of the other family members. But he is unprepared for what actually lies inside that sealed room, which hasn’t been entered in 20 years. It is a secret far more macabre than anyone had anticipated – and it brings the police into the Clayborn house.
And that’s just the beginning of this marvelously written and plotted mystery. The secrets revealed in the unsealed room will drive someone to commit murder – I should really say to commit murder AGAIN – and there is little Gamadge or anyone else can do to stop it. And the reader, presented with all the facts, will be led quite nicely to draw many wrong conclusions from the information provided here. Daly’s plot is full of the kind of twists and misdirection that made Agatha Christie’s books so memorable; it is very easy to see why Christie enjoyed reading Daly’s books.
All this is set in a New York City that may be unrecognizable to some readers, although it wasn’t written that long ago. It was an era when the city’s wealthiest and most socially connected citizens lived in town houses and mansions off the east side of Central Park – as some of them still do – and it does awaken some degree of nostalgia among some of us who walked those streets not too many years after the events described in this book.
Daly’s writing manages to charm the reader, with quiet humor and marvelous characters. Near the beginning of the book, when Gamadge is in the middle of that first telephone call from Harriet, we are given this delightful passage:
“Gamadge had not been giving his full attention to the speaker. He stood at the telephone table in the hall, looking through the double doorway of the library, and the scene he watched was nerve-racking. His young assistant, David Malcolm, stood in the middle of the room with an arm upraised above his head, and on his palm the Gamadge baby was balanced as a waiter balances a tray. The baby, mildly interested as usual, made swimming motions with its arms and legs.
“Gamadge said loudly: “Put that thing down before you break it.”
“I beg your pardon?” asked the telephone.
“I beg yours.” Gamadge waited until the baby had been lowered to the rug, and then apologized again.
As an introduction to Henry Gamadge, that will do very nicely, I think. I can also promise a lot of suspense and a lot of surprises that should thoroughly engage you. Felony and Mayhem Press has been reissuing Elizabeth Daly’s books, an event for which I am profoundly grateful. I urge you to make the acquaintance of Mr. Gamadge, and I recommend Somewhere in the House as an excellent form of introduction.
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You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.
Next: A Going Concern, by Catherine Aird
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