A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #4 - Is This Coffin Taken?

With this fourth Zebra Mystery Puzzler, published in October 1978, we not only get a different kind of mystery, but also get our fourth author - Jean Francis Webb (1910-1991).  While I could not find any direct information on Webb, I found a number of blogs and other sources that reveal much about his writing career.  It seems  Webb began hiswriting career early on, having tales of mystery published in those infamous pulp magazines of the '30s and '40s.  From what I can gather, he created one of the first female detectives, Grace "Redsie" Culver.  This character appeared in a number of issues of The Shadow Magazine, from 1934 - 1937, all written under the pen name of Roswell Brown.  Webb also wrote several gothic novels during their heyday of the '60s and '70s, as well as various other books, including this one for Zebra's "Mystery Puzzler" line and a novel in the Guiding Light series (based on the TV show).  This is the only book Webb wrote for this series.

 

Is This Coffin Taken? is set in the beautiful, lush paradise of Hawaii, where protagonist EileenTracy (erroneously identified as "Ellen" Tracy on the description set forth on the back cover) lives and works as a photographer. The book opens with Eileen driving her sister, Rosemary, and young nephew, Toby, back to her secluded up high atop the cliffs overlooking Honolulu.  Her sister and nephew are sound asleep in the back after a long day of traipsing along after Eileen as she pursued photographs of a spewing volcano for her publisher.  Eileen's thoughts as she is driving, however, are focused on the fact that her sister fled to Hawaii to escape her husband - an up-and-coming film director who she claims is threatening to kill her in order to get his hands on the inheritance the sisters received from their grandmother.  She has yet to give Eileen the details, but it is clear Rosemary is frightened for her own safety, as well as that of her son.

By the end of the first chapter, Webb sets up the mystery - Rosemary, who got out of Eileen's car and walked the short distance from the car to the house, entered the house, never came back out, yet disappeared!  Eileen searches relentlessly every room in the house, the outside yards, and finds nothing but a set of footprints in the front yard where her sister stepped into the yard rather than walk around on the concrete walk.  The police are called, but the lieutenant who comes to the scene (Dave Atwater) is not exactly helpful.  Calm and detached, he does not take the disappearance seriously, suggesting that perhaps Rosemary simply wandered off or left of her own accord.  Even after explaining her sister's fear of her husband, Eileen finds herself a potential suspect when Atwater asks her whether there was any rift between them concerning the inheritance.  From this interaction, the reader immediately realizes Eileen is going to have to take matters into her own hands if she wants to find her sister.

From the beginning, this is more of a missing person's case than it is a murder mystery.  Eileen spends the first half of the book scared for her sister, wondering what is happening to her; however, about half-way through, she becomes so irate at the lack of concern from the police and their "by-the-book" way of handling the case, that she decides to search for her sister on her own.  This, of course, takes her to a seedy boarding house where she confronts a witness; to the carnival that is going up  to raise funds for the local hospital; and to the restaurant that was the last place she and her sister were actually together.  And Webb does not hold back with the danger, either.  At one point, Eileen is tied up in her own shed-turned-darkroom behind her house and left with a bomb set to go off in ten minutes!  Talk about some suspenseful reading as Eileen tries to figure a way out of it!  And not one, but two potential witnesses turn up dead before the end of the story, showing readers just how much danger Eileen (and her sister!) are truly facing!

I have to give Webb kudos for working so hard to keep the identity of the kidnapper / murderer fairly well hidden until the big reveal in that final, sealed chapter.  Yes, I had some suspicions, but those suspicions fell on two different characters (and, yes, one of them did actually turn out to be the culprit).  Early on, though, I admit, I was debating whether Rosemary ran off or whether she really was kidnapped.  

 

It has to be noted that Eileen is described as having "copper" and "red" hair.  In the previous book, Terry Spring is described as having "long auburn" hair.  And in the first book, Maxine Reynolds is said to have "long red" hair.  So, I have to ask - why did these authors give all of these amateur sleuths red or reddish colored hair?  Was it perhaps a slight nod to a certain teen detective who was famous for her "titian" colored hair?  It is a rather large coincidence that three out of the first four books in this series have protagonists with the same hair color.

The internal illustrations are beautifully rendered, although, again, like with some of the previous books, the scenes depicted do not necessarily match the story.  I really have to wonder if the artists are not given exact details, but merely general descriptions of what to draw, and so that is why they don't mirror the narrative of the story.  For instance, when Eileen first spots the footprints in the flower bed that borders the lanai, they are described as "clear as a perfectly matched pair of spike-heeled slippers..." (p. 39). Yet, in the illustration, the footprints appear to be that of a normal shoe (male, more than female).  Later, when Eileen and her publisher are looking at a photograph she took at the restaurant the night of the disappearance, the description given in the book by no means matches the illustration of the photograph at all.  If only they identified the artists, so that they could be contacted to learn inside information such as this!

Of the first four Zebra Mystery Puzzlers, I would have to say, this is, by far, my favorite.  And sadly, this is the only one written by Webb and starring Eileen Tracy.  This is a shame, as the writing was so good, and the character so likable, I would have loved to have seen more mysteries with this sleuth!

***Interesting side note is that sources online indicate Webb was married to "Nancy" Webb (with her names in quotes on the website I found), and I have an old paperback titled Marcia Blake, Publicity Girl that is written by one Nancy Webb.  I have to wonder if it is one and the same...

RATING:  10 yellow paper chrysanthemums out of 10 for a wonderfully written missing person mystery that is so much more than a simple murder mystery, making is a fantastic read.