A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #8 - Murder in the Act

The eighth Zebra Mystery Puzzler brings us another new author into the series.  Elizabeth St. Clair is yet another pseudonym, but surprisingly, this time it is not for a male author.  St. Clair is actually a pen name used by Susan Lois Handler-Cohen, who utilized the name for eleven gothic romances and mysteries (including three in the Zebra Mystery Puzzler line).  And she offers up a wonderful mystery with more suspects than you can shake a stick at - in fact, I think this is the first Puzzler that I was not able to figure out the identity of the killer before reaching that sealed final chapter!

Murder in the Act features an actress turned director turned amateur sleuth by the name of Marilyn Ambers.  Not gonna lie here, when I first saw that name, my mind automatically thought of a certain "actress" by the name of Marilyn Chambers (if you know, you know).  Not sure if St. Clair (Handler-Cohen) actually pulled the name from that actress, but considering Chambers' notoriety after that film of hers debuted in 1972, it would not surprise me if the author saw that name in the headlines and simply altered a bit for her main character here.  In any event, Marilyn Ambers, in this book, is an actress who is ting her hand at directing for the first time in a small town dinner theater.  The show is being financed by Silas Bishop, a rather wealthy businessman whose wife also happens to be in the starring role of the play.  But Bishop is a rather unlikable man, and every person in the cast has a distaste for him.  So, when Marilyn discovers him dead behind his desk at his cottage, she has no shortage of suspects from which to choose!

Handler-Cohen (a/k/a St. Clair) offers up a superb mystery that, quite frankly, kept me guessing up until that very last chapter, and even then, I didn't have it figured out.  She gives readers plenty of suspects, all of whom have good motives and opportunity, and just like Marilyn, it's almost impossible to narrow it down.  And I give Handler-Cohen credit for truly misleading the reader, as there some very subtle clues that come into play along the way that lead you to believe one particular character is pretending to be someone he is not, and that he is the killer, but the author pulls another twist, which left me quite surprised, but thoroughly pleased.  It's always a joy to read a mystery where the killer does not become obvious within the first few chapters, and it's even more exciting when the killer's identity remains a secret until the very end reveal!  Such is the case with this book.

Dalton Perez is the self-absorbed actor who thinks he is God's gift to the theater world.  Sally Bishop is the producer's wife who lacks talent and appears to be having an affair with Dalton.  Randolph Rivers is an aging actor, always on the brink of failure, who desperately needs this play to be a success.  Vana MacIntyre is an actress whose career is just starting, but who got the part solely because Marilyn did not want her in the play and Silas forced her to take her on just to remind everyone who was financing the show.  Peter Dennis only has eyes for Vana, and he will do anything to protect her.  Richard Riordan is a professor of drama at Yale who only acts part time simply for the fun of it, and he quickly becomes Marilyn's friend and confidant.  Then there is Evelyn Blake, who has been Bishop's personal secretary for the past twenty years and who has a few secrets of her own.  And poor Ed Simpson, who is the chief of police for this small town, bounces from one suspect to the next, although in his eyes, Perez makes the perfect killer - after all, it was one of Perez's handkerchiefs that was found at the crime scene.  Marilyn is not so sure, since Bishop was found clutching one of the programs for the upcoming play, The Executive Secretary, which has the word "secretary" circled.  This would point to either Bishop's wife (who plays the secretary in the play) or Evelyn Blake, who was his actual secretary.  But, as Marilyn eventually learns, one word can have more than one meaning...

No clue as to who provided the cover art for this book, but the interior art was provided once again by Luke Ryan (who signed his name to the last internal illustration).  I believe this is the third or fourth Zebra Mystery Puzzler that boasts his interiors.  He provides beautiful pencil drawings, and it is always fun to carefully comb over each illustration to figure out exactly what clue each one contains.  After all, as the cover says, it's up to the reader to find the clues in the story, one the cover, and in the illustrations - before you cut open the final, sealed chapter!  And it is somewhat amusing, because the final illustration actually has a key that someone is holding, and the key represents a "key" clue that will help the reader (and Marilyn!) confirm or eliminate at least one suspect.  I thought this was a fun visual "pun."

Handler-Cohen (St. Clair) does give readers an exciting payoff for the conclusion to the mystery, as Marilyn faces off against the killer in the very same place where she found Bishop's body. And once the killer's identity is revealed, certain moments in the story suddenly come together and make a lot of sense - which shows some excellent writing, as this person is actually presented as one of the least likely of suspects, if not the most unlikely of all the suspects.  But it works, although the motive is not something that the reader could pick up on throughout the story, as that revelation is completely out of the blue.  That's okay, though, because the writing is riveting, that climactic confrontation is well worth the wait!

Thankfully, Handler-Cohen wrote a few more Zebra Mystery Puzzlers in this series, so I know we'll get to see Marilyn Ambers pop up again to solve another murder or two before the series ends.

RATING:  9 loudly quacking birds eating bread crumbs out of 10 for an exciting, engaging, and expertly-plotted murder mystery that should definitely not be missed!