I guess one of the reasons why I enjoy Elizabeth Daly's stories so much is her ability to surprise me every time I read or re-read one of her books. Daly wrote sixteen books about her biblio-expert protagonist, Henry Gamadge, and they're full of surprises that can take a reader's breath away. Her gifts at the art of misdirection were matched by few other authors - yet she generally does "play fair" with those readers. That's probably why she's frequently said to have been Agatha Christie's favorite American author. Here's one of her books which I first reviewed in an audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago. The book is Night Walk, first published in 1947. It's been lightly edited, mostly to update the availability of her books:
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The village of Frazer’s Mills, New York, was one of those quiet, sleepy little towns where everyone knows everyone else’s business…where most of the people still lived in the same house where they were born and would never dream of moving…the kind of place where people generally didn’t bother about locking their doors at night.
That changed after a hot August night in 1946…the night somebody walked through the village, along the back trails that ran up into the woods behind the houses. The walker stopped at the rest home, rattling Mrs. Norbury’s door – but vanished before she opened it. Next stop was at the public library, where Hattie Bluett was working late…but this time, a locked screen door kept the walker from intruding. At the Bay Horse Tavern, the walker apparently tried to get into old Mr. Compson’s room, but failed – although the stalker did take a fire axe off the wall and left it on the floor outside the room. And then this mysterious person visited the home of the Carrington’s…and this time, there was a murder. It was the kind of thing that nobody in Frazer’s Mills could have expected. And it posed a delicate and dangerous problem for Henry Gamadge, when a friend asked for his help. You can read about it in Night Walk, by Elizabeth Daly.
It says a great deal about the books of Elizabeth Daly to point out that Agatha Christie considered Daly to be her favorite American mystery author. Daly’s books are set in the United States – mostly in and around New York City – and they feature the kind of misdirection and careful plotting that were also hallmarks of Christie’s best books. For those of us senior citizens, it is worth pointing out that she was more than sixty years old when her first book was published, and she went on to write fifteen more in the next dozen years. Daly’s detective was Henry Gamadge, a bibliophile and expert on books and documents, whose specialized knowledge frequently helped him discover and decipher clues that other detectives might have missed.
Night Walk was Daly’s twelfth book in the series. This time, the action takes place in that tiny village of Frazer’s Mills, when a homeowner is murdered, apparently by a prowler who had earlier tried to gain access to several homes and other buildings in the town. Is there some lunatic, perhaps hiding out in the woods that surround the town? What possible link could there be among the people living or working in the places where the night stalker had tried to enter? The entire town finds itself under a cloud of suspicion. One of the possible suspects – a young man visiting the town – asks a friend of a friend for help…and Henry Gamadge arrives in town. It doesn’t take very long for him to form some theories about the goings-on – but he may not be able to prevent a determined killer from striking again.
Henry Gamadge is one of my favorite detectives, and Elizabeth Daly’s books are fine examples of the well-crafted puzzle mystery. In addition, Daly has a good eye and ear for the places where she sets her books. She presents us with characters whom we will care about as well; we get a very good idea of what life is like for the residents of this tiny village – and we will see how difficult it is for someone to escape its confines. That’s particularly true, I think, of the first several chapters, when we follow that unknown prowler, walking through the town, frightening the villagers in a series of encounters and incidents that will ultimately end in murder.
The Felony and Mayhem Press has reprinted [all 16] of Daly’s novels. Night Walk isn’t my favorite Daly book – I’d still have to go with that marvelous novel, The Book of the Dead – but it is still remarkably fine. I think you would enjoy it.
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You are welcome to listen to the original audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast by clicking here.
Next: Death in a White Tie, by Ngaio Marsh.
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