A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #24 - The Sandcastle Murder

It has been sixteen books since we last saw aspiring actress Marilyn Ambers in a Zebra Mystery Puzzler, but book 24 sees the return of this amateur sleuth in the second mystery written by Elizabeth St. Clair, otherwise known as Susan Lois Handler-Cohen. This book marks the second of three books Handler-Cohen has in this series, and just like the first one (Murder in the Act), she offers up more suspects than one person can possibly keep track of!  And, just like the first one, it kept me guessing right up until that final chapter, and the big reveal turned out to be quite a surprise; not at all what I was expecting!

 

The Sandcastle Murder takes Marilyn and her friend Serena (who is also an actress) from Hollywood where they just finished their small parts in a film to the other side of the country for a relaxing vacation in Nantucket - at the Sandcastle Hotel (which is the "Sandcastle" referred to in the title - and here I thought it was going to be an actual sandcastle on the beach!).  It seems they are not the only ones with that same idea, as the VERY famous actress, Peggy de Beers, is also at the resort with her husband, Jack de Beers ... as well as a large number of her followers:  Hector and Florence Dorchester, owners of an art gallery in New York; Roy Andrews, an extremely over-confident and self-absorbed theater actor; Tom and Monica Cannon, a couple whose marriage is on the rocks because of Tom's affair with Peggy; and Eliot Foster, a life-long friend of Peggy's who knows everything about her.  Rounding out the rather large cast are Chuck Johnson, a drifter who has anchored his boat just off the island and shows an uncanny interest in the de Beers; Mrs. Hill, who is managing the Hotel while the owner is away, doing her best to keep all of the drama from escalating; Jimmy, the young bartender who seems to stay in the background and out of the limelight; and the late arrivals, Dr. and Mrs. Mathews, whose appearance at the hotel seems to have a very adverse affect on Peggy de Beers.

 

Marilyn becomes intrigued with the drama unfolding before her, since it seems that most, if not all, of the cast have some connection with Peggy de Beers.  Which, of course, makes it all the more difficult when the beautiful, but aging, actress is found dead on the beach.  It is assumed by everyone she drowned, having walked out into a dangerously foggy night and failed to see the incoming tide.  But Marilyn knows otherwise, and she sets about, with Serena's help, to unmask the killer.  As with any good murder mystery, all of the characters have secrets, and it is up to Marilyn to ferret them out, sift through them all, and figure out which ones point to the actual murderer.  There are certainly no short supply of motives, as it seems everyone had a reason to want the demanding actress dead.  The affairs, the lies, the betrayals, the threats, the hidden agendas - all the good makings of a great soap opera!  Handler-Cohen (St. Clair) can definitely write a super whodunnit, as my guess as to the killer's identity kept changing with each chapter I read.  At one point, I even had to wonder if Marilyn's friend Serena was in on the plot to kill the actress (and I'm not saying she isn't, but I'm not saying she is either...).

 

The cover art is provided by Bruce Emmett, who has provided the cover art for a number of the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers (books 6, 10, 11, 14, and 16).  The scene depicts the moment when Marilyn joins the crowd of people surrounding the body of Peggy de Beers on the beach.  The clue on the cover, as well as those in the internal illustrations, are very subtle and are not really clear until near the end, when Peggy de Beer's past is revealed and the identity and motive of the killer are made known.  Unfortunately, none of the internal illustrations are signed, so I have no way of knowing who provided the art for those; however, the first one bears a slight resemblance to the art of Paul Frame, who did a number of children's series back in the day (Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew, to name a couple).  However, none of the other internals resemble his work, so it is unlikely Frame provided the art for the interiors.  (One thing I did find odd is that the first illustration has a name plate for Mrs. Hill, but the lettering on the name plate is backwards, making me think the publisher reversed the image when it was printed, not realizing the lettering would be backwards!)

I am definitely enjoying the Marilyn Ambers mysteries, and it's a shame that there is only one left to read in this series.  I suppose I will have to track down the remaining Gothic books Handler-Cohen wrote (as St. Clair), so I can enjoy more of her writing!

 

This book, as with the previous three, has the misprints on the front listing and the order form in the back, with the titles for books 21 and 22 switched on the front list and book 28 incorrectly listed as book 25 on the order form (bumping books 25, 26, and 27 into the incorrect 26, 27, and 28 spots).  I can only assume that since these four books were published simultaneously, that is why the same misprint appears in all four books.  Unfortunately, glancing ahead, it seems the misprints continue into the next four books... 

 

RATING:  10 exotic colorful shells out of 10 for crafting another superbly-plotted mystery that is neither obvious nor unsolvable - all the clues are there if you just know how to look for them! 

 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #16 - The Final Guest

It's been six books since Marcia Blair's (a/k/a Marc Baker's) last Zebra Mystery Puzzler, rather than the standard four between each of her Tory Baxter mysteries; but she's back with another wickedly good murder mystery.  While the interior art seems to change with each one of her stories, the characterization remains consistent and the plots are well done.  This one not only had me guessing up until the very end when I reached that sealed chapter, but it took my by surprise who the killer turned out to be (and I thought I had it all figured out!).  That, of course, made for a great read.

 

The Final Guest, the fourth nurse Tory Baxter mystery, finds our intrepid young sleuth playing nursemaid to an elderly woman with a somewhat weak heart at a boarding house not far from home.  It does not take long before her patient turns up dead of an apparent heart attack.  But what explanation is there for the position the body was found?  Or the pillow on the floor next to the bed?  Or the small red spot on the pillow case?  Tory is not sure what to think, even after the local doctor assures everyone in the house it was simply a weak heart.  Then the phone calls start.  Someone is sure Mrs. Vestry did not die of natural causes and wants to ensure the truth comes to light.  Tory begins to wonder, but her police lieutenant friend, Jay Thorpe, is certain the phone calls are nothing but pranks.  Then another death occurs - it could have been an accident, but then again, maybe it was not.  Then Mrs. Maxwell's young daughter goes missing, only to be discovered locked in the basement refrigerator, having been drugged.  Then Mr. Wickerson is discovered on his bed, drugged, his pillow on the floor next to him.  There is no doubt a murderer in the house, but who is it?

 

Blair (Baker) did Agatha Christie proud with this mystery.  A house full of suspects, murders that appear otherwise, and an amateur sleuth that the police refuse to believe.  And with the kooky cast of characters in this story, the reader is in a real quandary of sifting through clue after clue to determine who the killer is.  Essie Cabot is the old woman with the beginning stages of dementia; but is she merely faking it so she can add to her growing collection of jewelry?  Mrs. Maxwell is the single mother, whose obsession with daytime soap operas leave her young daughter Suzy free to roam the house, causing havoc with the other residents; but is her daughter merely a distraction while she commits crimes? Cristen Page is the actress, who has set her eyes on Jay Thorpe; but is her interest in him merely a ruse to keep him from uncovering the truth?  Colonel McGuire seems stuck in the past, retelling stories of his glory days and trying to maintain some peace among the residents; but is his affinity for his heroic past a mask to hide the villainy he is doing today? Mrs. Wickerson is an overbearing, bossy, rude kleptomaniac who, despite her great wealth, cannot help but steal what she wants; but does the obscene control she has over her husband hide a much darker side?  And then there is Mr. Wickerson, who is resolved to bowing to his wife's every demand; is he truly that weak-willed, or is he covering up more than anyone realizes?  Of course, we also cannot forget Lucinda Prescott, who runs the boarding house - her concern for her tenants and her anxiety over the deaths seems real enough; but is it all a smokescreen for a devious plan to steal her tenants' fortunes?

 

I will readily admit the mystery had me stumped.  I had my suspicions about a couple of the characters, but it turned out I was way off!  The ultimate revelations as to the killer's identity came as a surprise; although, looking back over the story, the clues were there to point to this person - you just have to dig them out from all of the red herrings.

 

While the previous Marcia Blair books featured cover art by Bruce Emmett, the art on this book does not have a signature or other identifying mark; however, Nurse Tory looks considerably better than she did on the cover of her last book.  That being said there are a couple of things about the cover that stand out right away - the first being that doll (?) lying on the bottom right hand corner of the cover.  I question whether it is supposed to be a doll with no clothes, or whether it is to represent the first murder victim, found face down on her bed.  It seems out of place on the cover and would be more appropriate on a men's pulp novel than on a cover like this!  The second item of note is the young girl - Suzy.  The girl on the cover is shown with short brown hair; yet, in the book, Suzy is described as having long blond hair, and even the internal illustrations support that description.  So, I'm not sure why the cover artist depicted her this way, unless he or she simply was not provided any character descriptions upon which to use for the art.

 

The internal illustrator is also unidentified, and based on the style of art, I believe this is the artist's first book.  As with prior books, there are inconsistencies between the illustrations and the story - such as Nurse Tory always being depicted in her nurse's uniform, yet, in the story, she is wearing regular clothes in those scenes.  Additionally, there are no real clues to be found in any of the illustrations for this book, except the one on page 131, which depicts Tory in one of the tenants' bathroom, looking at all of the bottles in the medicine cabinet, one of which is clearly marked as "poison."  Otherwise, while the illustrations depict important moments in the story, there are no clues that would point to the identity of the killer.  It is the cover that holds the biggest clue for that.

 

One final thing I want to mention is the continued tension between Tory and Jay - from the very beginning, it was clear that these two belong together - yet Blair (Baker) has managed to keep the tension strong between them, keeping the reader guessing, will they or won't they?  I hope they do manage to make it official before the end of the series.  And the killer's ominous threat at the end - "I won't forget this," the killer says to Tory.  Does this mean we might see this person in a later book come back for revenge? That would make for a thriller!

 

I think this, by far, was my favorite Tory Baxter mystery in the series up till now.  Well written, well plotted, and a surprise reveal - everything one could want in a great murder mystery!

 

RATING:  10 fringed paisley shawls out of 10 for giving readers of this series an outstanding mystery well worth the read!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #14 - Death on the Late Show

Country singer Darby Castle, who appeared just two books prior when she solved the murder of her music promoter (Sing a Song of Murder), is back for her second and last appearance in the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series.  While the series is known for its recurring sleuths, I am surprised they brought one back so quickly after her first appearance - usually there are at least two or three books between appearances.  I guess at this late date we are likely to never know the reasons Zebra Books published the books in the order they did, but the obsessive-compulsive in me would have preferred if they had kept some semblance of order as the appearances of the sleuths!  Nevertheless, I do like the character of Darby Castle, so I am glad she at least got one more opportunity in the series to solve a murder...

 

Death on the Late Show takes Darby out of Tennessee and thrusts her into the hustle and bustle of New York City for three days of concert, as well as a number of interviews and one fateful appearance on a late night show.  "The Gordon Garrity Show" is hosted by a rather unlikable man who would rather insult his guests for ratings than actually treat them with respect.  Darby is not looking forward to her appearance, and upon arriving at the studio, she quickly learns the man has more than earned his reputation.  The firing of the make-up man leads to a staged walk-out of the show just before it goes on air, requiring some quick backtracking in order to keep the guests - including Darby (the country singer), Anthony Vickers (a Shakespearean actor), and David Kirk (an aquarist who caters to the wealthy).  Once on air, Garrity is surprisingly cordial to Darby and Vickers; however, when Kirk comes on to display his aquarium filled with a variety of fish, including some very deadly ones, Garrity turns hostile.  Well, of course, Garrity is encouraged to reach in to touch one of the fish, but he inadvertently gets stung by the deadly stonefish and within moments, he is dead - live on air!  Darby does not believe it was an accident, and she sets about proving that Garrity was murdered.  The only question is, who did it?

 

Jan Milella, writing under her pseudonym of Jan Michaels, gives readers an even faster-paced story than her previous entry in this series.  The story is only 138 pages, nearly 40-pages less than her prior book, so there is less time for build-up and investigation.  Darby has to move quickly if she is going to sift through the suspects and clues to reveal the killer's identity.  There is the make-up artist who was fired, an obvious suspect.  There is also the show's producer, who it turns out was already trying to find someone to replace Garrity on his own show.  There is Garrity's wife, who was having an affair, as well as the man with whom she was having the affair.  Then there is the aquarist who brought the dangerous fish to the show, as well as his assistant, who Darby leans has a criminal record he does not wish to be made known.  Finally, there is Garrity's second-hand on the show, who is up for the position of taking over the show if Garrity were to be out of the picture.  So many suspects with so many reasons to get rid of Garrity, Darby (and the reader!) definitely has her work cut out for her.

 

The mystery is well-written, and the murder itself is quite creative!  While the clues are a little bit obvious, making the killer not that much of a surprise, it is still a fun read to follow along with Darby as she works with New York City police lieutenant Peter Riley to catch a murderer.  It's funny how easily both the Tennessee police and now the New York City police allow Darby to tag along with them during the investigation, even allowing her to be a part of the interrogations.  This definitely reminds the reader just how fictitious the story really is (very reminiscent of how Nancy Drew always has cooperation from the police, no matter where she is).  At least Milella a/k/a Michaels does have Riley admit he spoke with Charlie Hanson, the police detective from Nashville from the prior case, who vouched for Darby (p. 61).  I suppose that does give some credence to Riley's willingness to accept help from Darby.  

Since this mystery is set in New York City, there are a number of references to actual streets, intersections, and locations, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center (p. 7).  That sort of stopped me for a moment, until I remembered this book was published back in 1978, more than twenty years prior to that horrific day when the towers fell.  There are also a couple of pop cultural references to Archie Bunker (p. 48) living in Queens, and Kojak (p. 60) with regard to the Midtown South precinct.  There is also a surprising reference to Joey Gallo (p. 81), known in real life as Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo, a mobster in New York about whom a movie titled Crazy Joe was made.  Interesting that the author tied in one of her characters to this mobster, who was shot and killed six years prior to the publication of this book.

 

Unlike the last Darby mystery, the artist for this book's cover is clearly identified as Bruce Emmett, whose signature appears on the bottom right hand corner of the cover.  Since this is a different artist, poor Darby looks completely different than she did on the cover of the previous book.  The only similarity is that on both covers, she is wearing a scarf around her neck (red on the first cover, blue on this one). The interior artist is also plainly not the same, as the art style is vastly different; however, as with most of this series, there is no credit given, and none of the black and white illustrations have a signature on them.  Not really sure which of the interior artists I prefer (this book or the last one), but I do wish Zebra / Kensington had maintained some level of consistency with the books.  Changing artists throughout the series would not be bad if they had simply put the same artists on the same author's books.  

 

Something that stands out about the interior illustrations - well, two of them, anyway - is that they were not inserted in the proper order.  On page 113, there is an illustration of someone holding a receipt for the purchase of a wall safe.  This confused me, as there was nothing at that point in the story that referred to such a scene.  At that point in the mystery, Darby and her manager are questioning Garrity's producer.  Well, in the next chapter, on page 122, there is an illustration that aptly fits that particular scene; and just one page prior, on page 121, is the moment where Darby's manager discovers the receipt for the safe.  Thus, it is obvious the two illustrations were somehow switched when the book was put together, and no one caught the error before it was published and sent out to stores!

 

I enjoyed both of Darby's appearances in this series, and it's a shame she only had these two books.  I suppose we can assume her singing career took off after the three sold out concerts in this book, and she simply did not have time to solve any more murders after this one (which, no doubt, made her manager / boyfriend a very happy man!).

 

RATING:  7 small capsules of tetracycline out of 10 for giving readers a completely new type of murder weapon and a rather ingenuous method of perpetrating the crime!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #11 - Death on the Slopes

With the eleventh Zebra Mystery Puzzler, we are treated to a new author to the series, Norma Schier.  This is the first of four books Schier writes for this series, all of which feature the young assistant district attorney, Kay Barth.  From what I have been able to learn, Norma Scheir was the author's actual name, and aside from these Zebra Mystery Puzzlers, Ms. Schier has also authored some very unique short stories over the years in which she parodies well-known mystery writers, using anagrams throughout her tales.  In fact, many of the pseudonyms used for these short stories are anagrams of actual authors, many of which are collected in Schier's book, The Anagram Detectives (for more about this, see Norma Schier - Anagam Detectives).  However, other than these Zebra mysteries and the short stories, I was unable to find any other books by Schier.

Death on the Slopes was published at the end of 1978, just one year prior to her book, The Anagram Detectives - leading me to believe that her short story fiction was published prior to her first Zebra Mystery Puzzler (and those stories may have been why Kensington asked her to write some of the mysteries for this series).  The book opens in rather unique way, with readers being dropped into a scene just moments before the murder occurs, as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of a witness who does not come back into play until considerably later in the book.  We even get our first interior illustration in that barely three-page prologue - but it is definitely enough to set the stage for all that comes after!

The first six chapters introduce readers to the vindictive, self-absorbed victim, Valerie Mayne, as well as the large cast of suspects - from Jason Ryder, newly transplanted from New York to Colorado to teach as the college in Aspen; to Drew Courtney, the tenured professor who will determine whether Jason is hired; to Alicia Courtney, the professor's wife who spends more time in the bottle than anywhere else; to Tammie Courtney, the professor's daughter, who is not thrilled her boyfriend is paying more attention to Valerie than her; to Anton Duval, a Frenchman who is a member of the ski patrol and thinks himself quite the ladies' man; to Charlie Winstead, the head of the ski patrol on the Aspen slopes, who is still getting over the fact his wife left him - with the exception of Valerie, who showed up on his doorstep in New York claiming to be an old friend of his dead wife who was in need of a place to stay before following him to Colorado. Jason knows none of these people.  When Valerie turns up dead, and Jason is the prime suspect, he can't help but wonder if one of these people is the real killer?

And that is the very question to which Kay Barth, the young assistant district attorney with shiny black hair that tumbles to her shoulders, wants to find an answer!  Our protagonist of the tale finally makes her appearance in chapter 7, well after the other characters, the murder, and the setting are all established.  Schier provides readers with a very strong female lead, one who goes up against the chief of police, Mark Field, in an effort to solve this murder.  She quickly realizes that Jason Ryder is not the killer, but Field thinks it is only because she has developed feelings for the guy.  Determined to show Field that she is more than just a pretty face (and the mother of a young girl), Kay sets out to uncover the truth about what happened to Valerie Mayne - the only problem is, Valerie Mayne doesn't exist!  None of her back story that she told Jason checks out, and no one has come to claim her body, despite news reports showing her picture all over the place.  Kay realizes that in order to solve the murder, she is going to have to figure out who Valerie Mayne really is!

The mystery is very well written, and Schier does manage to throw out there a number of clues that will lead the reader in different directions.  However, when Kay ultimately tracks down Valerie's real identity and begins to put the pieces of her past together, there is one piece of that puzzle that made it clear for me who the killer was (and yes, it is definitely one of those suspects listed above - only not the one you would expect!).  And I found it interesting that Schier changes point-of-view a number of times throughout the book, switching between Jason and Kay, and even among some of the other cast as well - but she is careful not to give away anything too early in the story, which makes for a great read.

The internal illustrations are nicely done, but one again, no credit is given, and there are no signatures on any of the drawings.  They are quite detailed, reminding me a great deal of Ruth Sanderson's work in the Nancy Drew books published by Simon & Schuster back in the early 1980s.  (And speaking of which, as an aside here, Schier does manage to sneak in a Nancy Drew reference in there, when Kay tells her daughter she is investigating a crime, and her daughter asks, "Like Nancy Drew?" [p. 83])  I just wish the books had given a list of the "clues" that were supposedly in the illustrations, as I looked at all eight internal illustrations, and I honestly did not see any clue at all in them.  The cover, on the other hand, does have one rather subtle clue.  And speaking of the cover, Bruce Emmett (who painted the covers of the Marcia Blair books in this series) provided the art for this book - which gives this book another "Nancy Drew" connection, as Emmett provided the second cover art for Nancy Drew 68 - The Elusive Heiress.  (I won't even mention the "Ski Jump" sign in the internal illustration on page 85, which made me immediately think of Nancy Drew 29 - Mystery at the Ski Jump!)

This ranks among the best in this series, and it makes me look forward to Schier's future entries into the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers.

RATING:  9 blue Pontiac Bonnevilles out of 10 for mixing murder and mystery in the snow-covered mountains of Colorado and introducing readers to a great new sleuth!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #10 - The Final Pose

Marc Baker a/k/a Marcia Blair comes back with his third Zebra Mystery Puzzler, bringing his nurse, Tory Baxter, back for yet another murder mystery to solve.  The one thing I really like about Baker's (Blair's?) mysteries is that he always starts them right off with a murder.  Unlike some of the other books in this series, we do not have to wait several chapters for that murder to take place - no, Baker takes us right into it from the get-go, and as such, his protagonist is thrust into the mystery right from the beginning.  This means, for the reader, that there is page-turning excitement and suspense right away, and so we must begin to search for clues in those first first few pages (not to mention in the cover art, as well as the internal illustrations).   And for this third go-around, readers follow Tory Baxter to the magical, mysterious land of Spain...

The Final Pose opens with Tory Baxter getting ready to board her plane to Palma, Spain to care for Ann Blaine Milton (who is called "Mrs. Robert" by her family and staff), who has an unexplained sleeping illness.  Despite warnings from everyone about the "Badluck Blaines," Tory takes the job, not believing all of the superstitious nonsense.  Just because the one sister (Edith) is crippled by a boating accident ... and Ann's husband and daughter die in an airplane crash ... and their nephew falls down the stairs, greatly injuring his leg ... it does not mean the family is cursed by bad luck.  But when a man calls out to Tory at the airport, just before she boards the plane, to ask for her help - then falls down dead at her feet ... when a young woman sitting next to her on the plane quickly changes seats when she finds out where Tory is headed and why ... Tory begins to wonder if perhaps taking this job was not the best idea.

 

Things only get curioser and curioser (as Alice would say) when Tory arrives at the Blaine home - it seems everyone is completely taken back by Tory's appearance, even though Miss Merriweather, the nurse who had originally been scheduled to take this case had notified them of the last minute substitution.  It is clear something is very off in this household.  The chauffeur and housekeeper are clearly not pleased with Tory's presence.  The Blaine's nephew seems to run hot and cold with her, doing everything in his power to keep any friendliness towards her a secret from his aunts.  Ann Milton's sleeping sickness seems to be more of an escape than an actual illness.  Edith Blaine is the only one that truly welcomes Tory, although her concern for her sister's failing health seems to overshadow everything else.  And then there's the cook...

 

Mattie, the cook, is probably one of my favorite characters from the story.  She is gruff and a rather nasty piece of work, but Tory has no problems talking back to her, which quickly earns her Mattie's respect.  "I'd thank you to get those trays down as soon as Mrs. Robert has finished pushing her food around ," says the cook, to which Tory promptly  and coldly responds, "And I'd suggest you go up and tell Mrs. Robert you want her to do her food-pushing faster!" (p. 97).  It is scenes and dialogue like this that made me smile as I was reading the book.

The murders begin with a young woman found dead after falling from the balcony of Edith Blaine's studio out behind the main house - a young woman who used to work for the Blaines, but who was fired after stealing some jewelry.  The same young woman who happened to be on the plane with Tory as she was flying to Spain.  Coincidence?  I think you know better than that!  And it's not too long before another body turns up, this time it is the family lawyer, who supposedly commits suicide over the guilt he feels from having caused the accident that put Edith in the wheelchair.  Tory, of course, suspects there is a lot more to it than that, and her sleuthing ultimately pins her as the next victim of the heartless killer!

Blair (Baker) writes a perfectly plotted murder mystery that will keep you guessing right up until the end.  I readily admit that I kept jumping back and forth between the suspects as the story progressed, and although I did ultimately figure out the culprit before that final, sealed chapter, I was completely wrong about how and why!  The author also utilizes a considerable amount of real information about Spain throughout the story - from the location in Palma to the Bellver Castle (p. 62) to the Pueblo Espanol a/k/a Spanish Village in Palma de Mallorca (p. 62), and even the pearl factories and shops in Majorica / Manacor (p. 116).  Although, the one thing I did question was Blair's use of a motorized wheelchair (p. 31).  I did not recall there being motorized wheelchairs in 1978 when this book was published, and a friend who is in a wheechair made the same comment when I told him; however, upon researching the question, it seems motorized wheelchairs have been around since 1953, when electric wheelchairs entered the market at large.

And since we are speaking of the wheelchair, I find it funny that the cover art for the book pictures Edith in a standard, non-motorized wheelchair, when the story is so blatantly clear about Edith's motorized wheelchair (even mentioning on more than one occasion how adept she was with the chair, moving around faster than someone can walk!).  I know the illustrations in these books do not always match the story, but this one seems a bit too far out of synch.  Bruce Emmett, who also did the cover art for Blair's previous two Zebra Mystery Puzzlers (book 2, The Final Ring, and book 6, The Final Lie), provided the art for this book, and I have to say - poor Tory looks completely different on each of the three covers. I am not sure if that is because the artist used different models for each book, or what the reason is, but of the three, Tory looks the worst on this cover.  In fact, Edith Blaine, as depicted on the cover, looks younger and prettier than Tory, which is definitely not the case in the story!  As far as the internal illustrations go, they are not bad, but Tory does not look anything like she has in previous books, nor does she resemble her image on the cover.  I suppose with the amount of books they were publishing in this series at the time, they could not use one artist for all of the illustrations in the books, but some level of consistency would have been nice, at least for those books that were written by the same author and featured a regular protagonist!

This is definitely one of the better mysteries in this series, and the title of this book actually gives the reader the greatest clue as to the identity of the killer.  Now I have to wait six more books before Tory Baxter returns for another murder mystery...

RATING:  9 thermoses of hot chocolate out of 10 for a wickedly good mystery with a devilishly devious killer!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #6 - The Final Lie

Just as Marjorie Grove's second jaunt into the world of Zebra Mystery Puzzlers was better than her first, so is Marcia Blair's (or should I more accurately say Marc Baker's?) second mystery better than her first!  Perhaps as these authors start to get a better feel for their characters, they are able to focus more on crafting a well-written murder mystery and spend less time trying to give readers all the back-story on the protagonists.  Whatever the reason, it definitely gives me high hopes as this series moves upward and onward, that the stories will just keep getting better and better.  Now, if only the publisher had used the same artist as in the first Blair mystery...

 

The Final Lie returns us to the world of nurse Tory Baxter, and in similar format to the first of her tales, the reader is treated to the murder from the get-go.  No waiting around to see who is going to be murdered and how; no, in these Tory Baxter mysteries, the author gives us the murder pretty much from the first couple of pages, and Tory (and the reader!) has the entire book to sniff out the clues and make sense of everything we see in order to figure out who committed the crime and why!  And as this series progresses, I'm starting to get better at picking out the clues from the cover and the internal illustrations - either that, or the artists are making the clues more obvious.  In either event, it is rewarding to be able to notice something that plays an important part in figuring out exactly what is going on, because this mystery needed it (although, in all honesty, I picked out the killer pretty early on - not necessarily from any particular clues, but more because of the unassuming way this character was being presented in the story).

In this mystery, Tory must figure out whether her best friend's cousin, who died as a result of a hit-and-run, was killed by accident, or was it premeditated murder?  Her good friend, Kate Jeffers, who is also a nurse, is faced with the fact that her cousin, Ann Lassen, was run down coming out of a drug store and left for dead.  The police have no clues, and Kate is convinced that a mysterious man that Ann was dating is somehow at the root of it all.  When Tory and Kate uncover a large sum of money that was pulled out of Ann's bank account, as well as a strange love letter, they realize that Ann was murdered.  Now, if Tory could only get her friend on the force, Lt. Jay Thorpe, to agree.  Once again, Tory finds herself searching for clues, uncovering secrets, and putting herself in harm's way to get to the bottom of it all.

Blair (Baker) provides some great misdirects in the story, and also provides a number of good suspects.  There's Mr. Ross from the hospital's business office, who shows up at Kate's apartment just after Tory gets an anonymous call to go there.  There's also the nervous man with the dog who seems ever-so-anxious to get in touch with Kate and ultimately reaches out to Tory instead.  There's the mystery man that Ann was dating, who is believed to have been ready to marry Ann, yet he fails to appear at her funeral and no one can figure out who he is.  And there are a few other individuals who could potentially be considered suspects, if one only know which clues are important and which are nothing but red herrings.

I do love the relationship Tory has with her Aunt Tildy, who is the author of the Max Good mystery series. The two have a natural banter that is lighthearted at times, yet share some very serious conspiratorial moments.  And the relationship between Tory and Jay that they both insist is only friendship is clearly something much more than that - they are both just too blind to see it!  Oh, and it was fun to see Aunt Tildy's cook, Mrs. Jameson, play a very important part in the story!  (Speaking of which, this book was published in the late 1970s, so I have to wonder - how many middle-class, single women had the money to afford cooks back then?  Or was Aunt Tildy much more well-off than just middle class - the book is never really clear on that point...)

The artist for the internal illustrations of this book seems to be the same artist who provided the internals for the two Marjorie J. Grove books (books 1 and 5 thus far).  While they are not bad by any means, the drawings are done in very light pencil, and sometimes the details are hard to make out.  With no signature on any of the drawings, it's impossible to know who the artist is.  The cover art, however, does have a signature in the bottom right corner, just below he red car - unfortunately, it is very small, and even when enlarged, it is difficult to tell who it is - but with a little digging, I discovered the cover artist is actually Bruce Emmett.  And as it turns out, Emmett also provided cover art for the second Wanderer edition of Nancy Drew #68, The Elusive Heiress.  And speaking of the Stratemeyer Syndicate series books, this mystery has a cute reference when Tory makes a dinner date with resident Dr. Sandy Brockman, and they both mention they are still in their hospital scrubs, to which Dr. Brockman remarks, "We'll look like the Bobbsey Twins" (p. 33).

The fact that these mysteries are getting better and better as the series progresses definitely has me looking forward to reading the future Zebra Mystery Puzzlers!

RATING:  9 shards of headlight glass out of 10 for a crafty little murder mystery that has exactly the right clues to lead you down the path to the murderer!