A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #22 - The Final Fair

Everyone's favorite nurse-turned-sleuth (and, no, I'm not talking about Cherry Ames!) returns for her sixth Zebra Mystery Puzzler.  Author Marcia Blair (in reality, Marc Baker) brings back Victoria "Tory" Baxter for another murder mystery - only, for the first time, the murder is not in any way connected to a patient for whom Tory is caring.  And that is not the only unusual thing about this book - there are a couple of other "firsts" in this one.  Oh, and this book also sports the misnumbered titles in both the front listing and the order from at the back of the book.  I'm guessing since books 21, 22, 23, and 24 were published simultaneously, they all contain the same errors in the listings.  When I read the next two books in the series, I suppose I'll find out whether that holds true.

 

The Final Fair does open pretty much the same way as all of the other Tory Baxter books in this series - the murder takes place right there in the opening pages. Which means, the reader has absolutely no opportunity to meet any of the characters prior to the killing, and therefore, we know nothing about anyone as the story progresses.  That honestly is okay with me.  I think it adds a certain nuance to the story, because the readers goes into it without any preconceived notions about any of the characters that the author may have inadvertently put into them.  In this instance, Tory and her coworker, Dr. Sandy Brockman (oh, he of the flashy red hair!), are attending a renaissance faire, all decked out in costume, when she hears a scream.  Before you know it, a jester gets up on stage and asks if there is a doctor in the house (and, of course, there is - literally).  Tory and Sandy follow the costumed clown to where a man is lying on his back with a knife protruding from his chest.  The dead man is Dr. Michael Peters, another resident at the hospital where Sandy works.  And the knife in his chest belongs to none other than his date, Nurse Leanne Davis, a women who Terry generally knows.  She claims someone took the knife and did this - but, as it turns out, only her fingerprints are on the hilt of the knife.  So, if she did not do it, then who did?  And how?

 

This is quite the challenging mystery, I will admit. There are not a tremendous amount of suspects.  There is Leanne, obviously, who was being blackmailed by Dr. Peters into marrying him.  There is also Leanne's father, who has been the one shelling out the money to protect his daughter's reputation.  And then there is Dr. Jeremy Jones, a married doctor with whom Leanne was once having an affair - an affair that Dr. Peters walked in on by accident and then used that "accident" as a means to get money.  And we must not forget Dr. Peters wife, who is so obsessed with social climbing, she stares daggers at any woman who comes in contact with her husband.  All of them have motive for killing Dr. Peters, but not all of them have the opportunity.  Dr. Jones and his wife happened to be out of town the weekend of the renaissance fair.  And oddly enough, Leanne's father does not even make the suspect list for the police.  So, was it Leanne?

 

Well, when Leanne turns up dead of an apparent suicide (complete with a typed-up, but unsigned suicide note right beside the empty pill bottle), the police think the matter is all wrapped up.  Tory is not so sure.  She is convinced Leanne was innocent, and for her, the girl's death only proves it.  She keeps looking into it, and suddenly she finds her own life in jeopardy, as she is nearly run down by a racing car and almost pushed into the path of an oncoming train!  Just when she has convinced her friend, Lieutenant Jay Thorpe, that the case may not be so clear cut, another body turns up.  With another typed suicide note.  Jay is convinced now that it really is all over, and he warns Tory to let it go.  Of course, anyone who knows Tory Baxter knows she is like a dog with a bone - she will NEVER let it go.  Not until the real murderer is caught.  Only this time, the murderer catches up to her in a dark parking lot with no one else around.  It makes one wonder just how she is going to survive this one...

 

As mentioned above, this book features several "firsts."  Not only is it the first Tory Baxter story to not have Tory taking care of someone, it is also the first Zebra Mystery Puzzler to NOT feature the title character on the cover.  This cover art, by none other than Sanford Hoffman, who has provided internal illustrations for a number of the books in this series (including this one), features the scene of Leanne having the knife taken from her by the masked man in the dark colored robe.  Hoffman even gets the minor detail right about the hint of blond sideburns peeking out from under the hood of the monk!   While Leanne is prominent, front and center, on the cover, our sleuthing nurse, Tory Baxter, is nowhere to be seen!  (Something else of note about the cover is that one the white car in the background, there appear to be some words written in red along the side of the car; however, I am unable to make it what they say, even when I try to enlarge the image. I would be curious to know what words the artist tried to sneak on to that cover!)

 

Another "first" for this series deals with one of the internal illustrations.  In all of the prior books, all of the illustrations have been included in the story before that final sealed chapter. Not so in this book.  The last illustration can be found on page 197, four pages into the last chapter!  And what is odd about it is that it holds absolutely no clues to the murder mystery at all - it merely shows the backside of Tory as she makes her way to her car in the dark parking lot (see above illustration depicting the scene just before the killer comes up behind her with a gun!).  I'm not sure why the publisher elected to have an illustration done from the last chapter, instead of adding another one to the main story, which might have provided another clue to the identity of the killer.  Which would have been helpful, as quite frankly, only one of the illustrations from the story had any sort of clue that would direct the reader to the killer.

 

Despite the lack of illustration clues, there were enough in the story to lead you to the killer - although, I will admit, there was some misleading ones as well, which took me in one direction, before I caught on the other ones.  I think I figured it out just before Tory did in the story - meaning Baker a/k/a Blair did a pretty good job keeping me guessing.  One big plus for this story is that Tory and Jay's relationship got pushed a bit further along, particularly right there at the end when Jay accidentally blurts out some things he never intended to say out loud, leaving him all flustered before he storms off - and leaving Aunt Tildy with a great big smile!

 

The author makes reference to Toll House cookies in the story (p. 20), which I found surprising, as these type of books usually avoid name brand references.  I could not even recall if Toll House cookies were popular back then, but apparently they have been around since 1938, so by the 1970s, they would be pretty well known.  The author also references the Cow Palace, which I first mistook for the name of a steak restaurant from back in the day when I lived in Kentucky (their slogan was "take ol' Alice to the Cow Palace!"); however, it is actually an historic exhibition hall where they host a "Dickens Fair" annually.  In the story, Aunt Tildy takes Tory to see the Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace, making it another non-fictional reference in the book.  As I've noted before, these type of references to real places and things ground the story, to keep it a bit more "real" for the reader.

 

Another good one is a series of good mysteries!

 

RATING:  9 enormous pieces of apple pie out of 10 for keeping the mystery challenging and the friction between Tory and Jay even more challenging! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #17 - The Final Appointment

For whatever reason, Kensington Publishing Corp. decided to publish two Marcia Blair (a/k/a Marc Baker) mysteries right in a row.  Book 16, The Final Guest, was published in January 1979, while this book, Book 17 in the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series, was published one month later in February 1979.  While Jan Michaels had two books published somewhat close together (books 12 and 14 were Michaels' two Darby Castle mysteries), this is the first time (and I believe the only time) an author had two books in a row published in this series.  Not sure the reasoning, but it gave fans of the series an opportunity to read two Tory Baxter murder mysteries one after another!

 

The Final Appointment finds our young nurse detective actually being sought out and asked to help solve a case.  The book begins with Tory being followed by someone - and being the intuitive young sleuth that she is, she quickly outwits the woman and confronts her, only to learn that Dina Severson needs her help.  Dina and her two best friends, Felicia Adams and Candice Jeffers, believe they are in danger.  Someone has been entering Felicia's apartment and moving things around. Nothing is stolen, but paintings are turned upside down, vases are placed in the middle of the room.  Despite the locks being changed several times, the culprit continues to get in.  Now the matter has escalated, as Felicia has received a photograph of the three girls - with Felicia's face marked out with a big "X"!  It seems Candice knows Tory's Aunt Tildy, and Tildy told them about Tory's sleuthing abilities, so they sought her out to help them.

 

The mystery becomes more dangerous than Tory expects when Felicia turns up dead, found at the bottom of the stairs in the girls' apartment complex.  Tory's police friend, Lieutenant Jay Thorpe, rules it out as an accident, but Tory is not convinced.  Especially when they find Felicia's key ring with an added bonus: a small golden charm of a monkey with its hands covering its mouth.  Dina and Candice swear that Felicia never had such a charm. Plus, with Felicia out of the picture (no pun intended), it seems Candice is next on the list - her apartment is vandalized, this time with a warning about the her time in Paris with Felicia.  Candice swears nothing happened on their trip, but Tory has to wonder if they did not inadvertently offend some psycho who is now exacting his (or her) revenge.  Before you know it, Candice turns up dead, and Dina is afraid she is next!

 

The suspects include Felicia's boyfriend, who turns out to be related to someone accused of embezzling funds from the financial firm owned jointly by the girls' fathers.  There is also the mysterious blond haired woman who was seen putting envelopes into the girls' mailboxes at the apartment complex, as well as having purchased golden monkey charms from a dealer in San Francisco.  Then there is the Paris connection between the two victims, which seems out of place, since Dina did not go to Paris - so why would the killer target her?  Does everything tie back to their fathers' financial firm and the problems that occurred decades ago?  Or is the motive something much darker and more sinister?

 

Blair (Baker) tries to craft a great whodunnit, but, unfortunately, the identity of the killer is pretty easy to spot from the very beginning.  There are plenty of red herrings thrown out there, even though they are woven in for purposes of making the reader think this is the real trail of the killer.  I was a bit disappointed in that aspect, as the previous mysteries in this series written by Blair (Baker) were actually pretty well plotted.  That being said, I did enjoy the further developments with Tory's friendship with Dr. Sandy Brockman and her love/hate relationship with Lt. Jay Thorpe.  I feel bad for poor Sandy, who seems to always get the raw end of the deal, but at least Jay steps up by the end of this book to let Tory know once and for all exactly how he feels - it sure took long enough!

 

The cover art for this book is provided by Mel Greifinger, who also did the art on the cover of  The Curse of the Golden Skull, which was a Terry Spring mystery by Josephine Kains (a/k/a Joseph Goulart).  Rather than a particular scene from the book, we get a collage of Tory, the three girls, the son of the embezzler, and one of the girls putting on make-up.  I find it somewhat amusing that all of these Tory Baxter covers show Tory in her nurse's outfit, but share rarely, if ever, actually wears such an outfit in the books.  And speaking of inconsistencies in the artwork (yeah, so that was a pretty bad segue, but whatever!), the internals in this book have some glaring mistakes in them.  The first internal illustration, on page 21, shows Tory holding the picture while sitting in front of the three girls - Dina, Felicia, and Candice (see above).  However, in the story, Tory has come racing over to Dina's apartment because Felicia is missing - and in the particular scene depicted, Tory is talking only to Dina and Candice.  Felicia is not in the scene at all!  It leaves you to wonder just what kind of information are the internal illustrators given when they are told what scenes to draw!

 

Now, the third internal illustration, found on page 59, shows a woman who I can only assume is Tory (her appearance is never consistent in these internals) looking at a woman's hand that is holding up a key ring that displays the small monkey charm, with its hands cover its eyes ("see no evil").  The only problem with this one is that in the story, the "little figure was beautifully done and tiny hands were over its mouth" (p. 58).  That is a pretty glaring error, particularly when these monkey charms are supposed to be a clue to the killer's identity!  Again, what information was given to these illustrators for the scenes they were to draw?  Aside from that error, though, I will say that Tory (if that is her) in this scene bears a striking resemblance to the Rudy Nappi version of Nancy Drew that graced the covers of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories in the 1960s and 1970s - similar hair style, facial expression, etc.  Perhaps the role of Tory Baxter was temporarily being placed by Nancy Drew (yeah, okay, probably not, but it is a funny coincidence).

 

While by far not the best mystery in the series, I cannot say it was a bad read.  With any luck, this was just a one-off for Blair (Baker), and the later mysteries featuring Tory Baxter will be a little bit more difficult to solve!

 

RATING:   7 wild blond mops of hair out of 10 for FINALLY moving Tory and Jay's relationship forward, which turns out to be the highlight of this book!

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 #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!