A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #1 - You'll Die When You Hear This

I can remember as a kid (I would have been around 9 years old at the time) seeing a display in my local bookstore (Waldenbooks, if I recall correctly) about this new series of mysteries aimed at adults.  They were called the "Zebra Mystery Puzzlers," and they were advertised as "The novel that lets you be the detective!"  The cover to each book had the tagline: "Can You Solve the Crime? By finding the clues in the setory, on the cover, and in the illustrations - before you cut open the final, sealed chapter?"  Yes, that's right.  Even though these mysteries were aimed at adults, they had internal illustrations, and the last chapter was actually sealed - you would have to take scissors or a knife to cut it open!  Even though I was only nine, I was already reading Nancy Drew and other series books, and it did not take much for me to convince my mom to buy me the first book.  I was instantly hooked!  In fact, one of my mom's friends who lived down the street from us was also an avid reader, and she picked up this series as well, and I can remember when she came down to visit with my mom, she and I would compare notes (we would read the same books, so that we could see if we could solve the mystery before opening that final chapter!).  Nine times out of ten, she was able to figure it out, while I wasn't.  So, as an adult, I've managed to hunt down and buy back all 60 books in this series, and when I picked this up to start reading the series again, I had to wonder if I would have any better luck figuring out who the killer was than I did when I was young...

You'll Die When You Hear This is not only the first book in this series, but it is also the first of seven mysteries written by Marjorie J. Grove featuring her amateur sleuth, Maxine "Max" Reynolds. Max is a gossip columnist for TeleFilm, described as "the most important trade paper in Hollywood" (p. 6).  And not just any gossip columnist either; no, Max is one of the most sought-after columnists by Hollywood's elite - actors, directors, producers, publicists, and just about everyone else connected with film and television wants her to write them up in her column.  Because of this, she lives quite the lavish life in the land where dreams are made (and dashed!).  She's even got a handsome beau, Rob Allan, with whom she could see herself settling down one day.  The red-haired young woman is living the perfect life.  Until she gets into her car after a meeting with a talent agent to discover a cassette tape with a very unusual message - one that forewarns her of the death of a script writer and instructs her to write up his impending death in the next morning's column, or it will result in more deaths - and it will be her fault!

Talk about a unique way to open a murder mystery!  This kind of opening definitely grabbed my attention, which is actually a good thing, because the actual murder does not take place nearly half way through the book at page 115!  Grove spends a good portion of the first half of the mystery introducing readers to Max and her life in Hollywood, as well as the various members of the supporting cast (many of whom turn out to be suspects or possible murder victims).  Grove goes into great detail in describing the routes Max takes to get from one place to the next - the streets that she drives down, the various businesses she passes and what they mean to the Hollywood jet-set, and the time and distance between locations.  She also provides readers with considerable amounts of backstory to the characters, brought on with each meeting that Max has with them during the course of her day (and investigation).  Once Max actually comes across the body floating in the pool, her mind instinctively turns from gossip columnist to investigative journalist for two reasons - one, she does not think the police will actually figure out the identity of the killer because they don't really understand the Hollywood life, and two, if Max were to catch the killer, it would make such great headlines, she might actually get her own talk show!  Yeah, so there's a bit of self-serving in her desire to catch a killer, but at the end of the day, if a killer is put behind bars, does it really matter why she set out to solve the crime?

Max is a very likable character, and I thoroughly enjoyed her assistant, Pamela Tooth (affectionately called "Toothie" by Max).  The two have a great, natural rapport, and the way Grove writes them is not only believable, but truly run to read.  The overbearing cop who is investigating the murder is a bit on the stereotypical side, but it works for the story.  I will say this, however; while the cover blurb says to look for clues on the cover and internal illustrations, as well as the story, I found most of the clues to actually be in the story.  I only saw one actual clue in the internal illustrations, and the clue on the cover is kind of iffy in my opinion.  But that's okay, because I still enjoyed the story, I still thrilled at the huge climax when Max puts all the clues together and realizes who the killer is, and I was at the edge of my seat waiting to see how Grove was going to get her out of the trouble she found herself in in that final chapter!

Oh, yes, and speaking of that final chapter.  Grove did not exactly wait until the final SEALED chapter to reveal the identity of the killer.  Instead, it is the next to the last chapter where Max has the revelation after hearing something that gives the killer away (and not just to her, but to the reader as well).  Which was a bit disappointing, because it took away from the suspense of that sealed chapter, since we knew the killer's identity, and the final chapter would only be the showdown between Max and the killer.  I suppose the final chapter also gives the readers a recap of all the clues that we should have picked out of the story and illustrations, but I was honestly hoping the identity would only be revealed after you cut open those final pages.  Oh, well, perhaps future books will offer that surprise.

 

From what I was able to discern online, the author "Marjorie J. Grove" is actually a pseudonym for Martin Grove.  I could not really find any other books written by Martin Grove, however, I did find a Martin A. Grove who appears to be columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, which leads me to wonder if this could be the same person, since the main character in Marjorie J. Grove's books is a gossip columnist in Hollywood.  Plus, I was able to find one book written by Martin A. Grove, published in 1988 and set in the television industry.  This would lead a reasonable person to believe there is a very strong likelihood that this Martin A. Grove is the same Martin Grove who wrote these Zebra Mystery Puzzlers under the female pseudonym.  Plus, there is that quick reference on page 11, when Max is musing over her Gucci handbag and thinks about her "writer friend Martin Grove [who] had once joked that he and his wife, Marjorie, had named their son, Geoffrey, just so that the Gucci double G emblem would be his honest-to-goodness monogram!"  A little self-plug there, perhaps?

In any event, I'd say this book was a pretty good start for the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers, and I am looking forward to working my way through the series.

RATING:  8 tall glasses of Campari with Perrier water out of 10 for a crafty little mystery with a spunky amateur detective to solve the crime!