Death is a Tory - a political murder mystery

A good friend gifted me this book some months ago for a very specific reason.  I'm not one to normally pick up a book that is not a part of a series; but if the book has a connection to a series, then I might be apt to do so.  And this book, well, it just so happens that the author also wrote three books in the original Nancy Drew series back in the 1930s.  You might not recognize the name "Keats Patrick," but if I told you that name was nothing more than a pseudonym (just as "Carolyn Keene" is a pseudonym), then you might begin to wonder.  Well, according to my friend (as well as other sources online), "Keats Patrick" is a pen name for Walter Karig, the author of books 8 through 10 of the Nancy Drew series, as well as books 3 and 4 of the Doris Force series and books 2 through 4 of the Perry Pierce series.  My friend also shared with me that the pen name "Keats Patrick" is derived from Karig's two daughters, Keating and Patricia.  So, with these things in mind, I figured I'd sit down and read Walter Karig's political murder mystery and see how it fares.

Death is a Tory is definitely a far cry from Karig's Nancy Drew and Doris Force stories.  Published in 1935 (two years after his Nancy Drew stories were published), the book centers around a double murder in Washington, D.C.  In a nutshell - Tom and Homer are newspapermen in 1930s' D.C.  Homer takes a call at the office intended for Tom from Marshall Rich.  Marsh says that he just killed Cactus and Felix.  It turns out Cactus is his wife, and Felix is her lover.  Marsh says he came home early and found them together, so he killed them and intends to kill himself.  Tom stops him in time, but cannot prevent him from being arrested for the double homicide for which he has confessed.  Tom and Homer (and their wives) are shocked by these events, but not so shocked as Sally Shaftoe, a columnist who has a habit of sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.  Throw into the mix a congressman, A. Gilligan Lightfoot, who knew Cactus when she was just a kid, and you've got all the makings of a crafty little murder mystery.

I have to give Karig credit.  He definitely sets it all up.  The clues are all right there in front of your face, if you just know what to look for.  There's the simple fact that there were two guns at the scene - the one Marsh was holding and the one found down in the creek behind his house.  There's also the fact that Cactus was killed with one shot, while Felix's body had two - the same number of shots that happen to have been fired into the fountain in Marsh's back yard.  Then there's the fact that Marsh is proven to have been at work at the time of the murders, and he was seen by several people on his way home after the murders took place. Which all lead to the question - why in the world would this man confess to a crime there is no way in the world he could have committed?

While Sally seems to be the amateur sleuth in the story (I guess poor Karig just couldn't get away from writing those female detectives!), Tom and Mildred, along with Homer and Prentice, spend a good portion of the book going over the facts, proposing different scenarios, and discussing plenty of "what ifs."  As much as they try to stay out of it ... as much as they keep saying they don't want any part of it and want their lives to go back to normal ... they just can't seem to let go, especially once they decide that poor Marsh is innocent.  But, if Marsh is innocent, then that begs the question - who is the real killer?

I'll give you a hint.  Once of these people in the story is not really who they pretend to be!  You might say, "Well, the story is set in Washington, D.C. - is there anyone in that city that ever really tells the truth?"  And you'd be right.  But that's not how this story goes.  Karig writes the narrative as if he himself were a reporter simply telling us (the reader) the story of everything that happened.  He even gets sidetracked a few times and has to reign himself in (which makes for some interesting reading, as it leaves one to wonder if these side trips are Karig actually spilling some of his personal opinions, or just a fancy narrative meant to distract the reader from the clues planted in the story).  But the casual way in which the story is told is actually part of what draws the reader in - you don't feel like you are reading a formal mystery; rather, you feel like you're listening to a friend tell you what's happened.

Oh, and did I mention Mildred's sister, Katherine O'Day (better known simply as "Ka") plays a big part of the story?  And that she, Sally, and the congressman find themselves entangled in a love triangle (whether they want to admit it or not)?  Plus, there are the anonymous letters sent to Marsh while he is in prison, with Bible verses written on them ... and the poisoned candies sent to Sally ... and the dead dog ... and the sheriff who seems to be able to memorize anything he reads.  

I honestly thought I had it all figured out, but Karig threw in a rather interesting twist there near the end - and an even BIGGER twist in those final pages!  I was quite impressed, because it takes a lot these days for  murder mystery to surprise me as much as this one did.  Of course, once the killer is revealed, it all made perfect sense - which just goes to show that Karig had the writing skills to tell a marvelously engaging adult mystery.  This book may never have been one I would have picked up and read on my own, but I definitely thank Geoffrey for gifting it to me, as it is now a treasure on my bookshelf in the library!

RATING:  9 wadded up envelopes in the trash out of 10 for a murder mystery truly unlike any other I've read - one that manages to keep you guessing literally up to the very end!