A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #29 - You'll Die, Darling

After an eight-book break, author Martin Grove (a/k/a Marjorie J. Grove) returns to this series with his sixth murder mystery featuring gossip columnist-turned-sleuth Maxine Reynolds.  But this book marks more than just the return of Grove and his spunky columnist.  This is the first book to feature the completely revamped cover format!  Gone are the full cover painted scenes, and in their place, the publisher instead placed the cover art within the glass portion of a large magnifying glass, which lay diagonally across a colored box, with a white outline surrounding it all.  In the top right-hand corner, the number of the book in the series now appears in white against a different colored background.  Thus, the cover illustration has considerably less space within which to display a clue to the mystery, and there is now a much less chance of catching any artist signature that might give a clue to the identity of the cover artist.  I'm not sure why they chose to go in this direction, unless it was simply to set the series apart from all the other mystery novels on the shelves at the time and give it a distinctive look that would set it apart from the rest.

 

You'll Die, Darling has Maxine Reynolds hunting for the killer of a country-western singer who was preparing the change direction with her career by leaving behind her former singing partners and entering the rock-n-roll realm. Max may have been the last person to see the singer alive, as Cindy Chester went missing just as she was about to head to San Francisco to put on a show that would start her new direction.  But the story does not open with her murder; rather, it opens with her kidnapping, as her agent, Kevin Belvedere, calls Max to see if Cindy said anything to her during the interview that would explain her failure to appear in San Francisco for her scheduled concert.  A ransom demand, a scramble to get together the money, and a police stake out to capture the kidnapper lead to even more questions when the man who ultimately picks up the cash is only an intermediary - and the post office box number to where he is to mail the money does not exist!

 

Grove gives readers a twisting tale of murder, mystery, jealousy, bitterness, and revenge as Max digs deeper into the kidnapping, only to discover the songstress dead in her garage from apparent suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.  The police inspector is satisfied, but Max is not.  The only clues she has are a few strands of blond hair in the dead woman's fist, as well as a specially made key that has the logo scraped off.  With those two things to get her started, Max sets out to question everyone involved - from the dead woman's manager, to her two former singing partners, to the singer's abusive boyfriend, to one of the former partner's drug-dealing boyfriend.  One or more them wanted  Cindy Chester dead, but the questions remain - who and why?

 

The identity of the killer is not exactly obvious, but it is not too difficult to spot.  Only a couple of the interior illustrations hold clues to the killer; the rest have to be gleaned from the story itself.  And since we are on the topic of those internal illustrations, Sanford Hoffman is once again the one providing the framed drawings in this book.  However, despite how much I normally enjoy his framed illustrations, the ones in this book seem a bit off.  For example, the first illustration (on page 65 - see below), the middle-man who is arrested for picking up the package filled with money - if you look carefully, you will see that his left hand has two thumbs!  The second picture, on page 78, shows one of Cindy's two singing partners holding a round object in her hand; however, there is nothing in the story that indicates she is holding anything, and the circular object in the illustration is no plain there is no telling what it actually is.  In the third illustration on page 113, Cindy's manager is drawn holding a drink in his right hand - but the hand itself is oddly elongated, way longer than any human hand could possibly be.  The fourth and fifth illustrations are normal, but the last one, on page 173, shows three men who show up at Max's door uninvited, and the one in front is clearly holding up a gun in his right hand; yet, in the story, the man has no gun, and there is not even any mention of a gun anywhere in that scene!  Definitely not Hoffman's finest work in the series, that's for sure!

 

The cover art, limited as it is, has no identification as to the artist.  The scene nearly describes the moment when Max comes across Cindy Chester's dead body in the car in her garage, except in the story, she slides into the seat next to the singer, she is not standing outside the car looking down at her.  The artist does manage to sneak in the strands of blond hair in Cindy's hand, which I'm assuming is meant to be the clue on the covers, as promised in the cover blurb.  What is a little weird is it appears the car in which she is sitting had two gear shifts.  Perhaps one is meant to be an emergency brake, although I will admit, I've never seen any car that has an emergency brake so far behind the gear shift as the one in this painted cover.

 

While this particular story is not Grove's best work in the series, it is still a fairly good read.  As expected the obvious suspect is not the culprit (and in fact, that particular person winds up dead themselves!), and the real culprit is not really a big surprise.  I do like, though, that Grove always has his sleuth talk through all of the clues that led her to figure out whodunnit, so that the reader knows exactly what they should have seen (if they didn't) while reading the story.  Plus, Grove's books are always fun because of Pamela Tooth, better known as "Toothy."  Her quick wit and sarcasm make the whole thing worth it!

 

Sadly, there is only one more Grove mystery left in this series (book 39), so I can't wait to see what Maxine Reynolds' final case has in store for us!

 

RATING:  7 apartment complex pools filled with green water out of 10 for attempting to mislead the reader (and poor Max) and hide the real killer's identity for as long as possible!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #21 - You'll Die Today

There is a question of whether this book was published prematurely.  While the cover of the book shows it is clearly book 21 in the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series, if you look at the inside front listing of titles for this series (which is the first book in this series to have a complete listing like this!), it shows book 21 is The Final Fair by Marcia Blair, and this book is actually book 22!  However, if you look at the number codes after the books, you will this book is listed as (475), while the Marcia Blair book is listed as (476), which gives credence to this book actually being book 21 and not 22.  Somewhere along the line, someone screwed up and listed the books in the wrong order - will be curious to see if that gets corrected in future volumes of this series.

 

You'll Die Today is Maxine Reynolds' fifth foray into the world of Zebra Mystery Puzzlers, and by far, this is the best one yet!  Martin Grove (under his pseudonym of Marjorie J. Grove) writes an superbly crafted mystery that was filled with plenty of misdirect, red herrings, and a great Agatha Christie-style reveal!  Our favorite investigative reporter finds herself sent to San Francisco to attend a movie premiere - but when Max has to fill-in on a radio talk show unexpectedly as their guest - the movie director- fails to appear, Max finds another murder dropped in her lap when a caller informs her the director is dead!  The caller even admits to being the killer and gives Max (and the listeners) a cryptic clue of where the body can be found.  It turns out the cover to this book reveals the location of the body, and, of course, Max is the one to find it.  The only clues are the pink match sticks and the colored candy wrappers left at the scene of the crime.

 

Max is determined to solve the crime (after all, solving the murder will give her an exclusive to yet another first-page story!), but she has to figure out not only who might have killed the man, but also why.  Was it the ex-wife, who claims to want nothing to do with him, yet who is still in love with him?  Or was it the angry actor who stormed off the set when the director refused to change some lines for him?  Or was it the head of the union who was furious the director was not using his union drivers for the film?  As Max begins to look into each of the suspects, she starts to find that each of them had means, motive, and opportunity!  And just when you think she might be able to figure it out, WHAM!  Another body turns up - a local columnist who met with the director on the night of his death and may very well have been the last one to see him alive.  Did he unwittingly know something about the murder, and so he had to be silenced?  Otherwise, what connection could he possibly have had with the director?

 

Grove manages to keep you guessing right up to the end - and the final reveal in this book definitely makes the entire book worth reading!  In true Christie-style, Grove has Max bring all of the suspects together in one room (in this case, it is the sound studio for the radio show), and live on-air, Max calls out each suspect, reviews each person's motive, and one-by-one eliminates them until there is just one person left - the killer!  And very careful readers will pick up on one particular clue -a simple statement made by one of the suspects that actually has a very important connection to one of the internal illustrations - I caught it immediately when the remark was said and guessed this person was the killer, and I was right!  But I give Grove credit for keeping it subtle, but laying the groundwork so that once the killer's identity is revealed, the reader can see that all the clues were there from the very beginning.  Otherwise, if you miss that one statement, then you could very well bounce around the suspects trying to figure out whodunnit.  Grove throws plenty of misdirects, and admittedly, at one point, I thought perhaps the killer was the roommate of one of the suspects (and it could have been, as there were clues that pointed to this person!), but I changed my mind when the real killer said something that I remembered seeing in one of the illustrations - which is why it is so important to pay attention to those internal drawings!

 

And speaking of which, there is no signature on the cover art, nor on any of the internals, so I have no way of knowing who provided the art for this book.  The internals offer framing for the drawings, which is something Sanford Hoffman tends to do on his illustrations for this series; however, the way in which the people are drawn in this book lead me to believe it was not Hoffman who did the art.  It's truly a shame the publishers did not credit the cover and interior artists for these books, as they do these days.  This series has offered up some pretty great art, both on the covers and inside, and it would be nice to be able to track down some of that art (if it is still in existence today and has not been thrown out or otherwise destroyed).  But, alas, I guess that was not meant to be.

 

Something I did find a bit strange with this book is that for the first time since this series began, the published provided a complete listing of every book in the series thus far (including the three books published alongside this one - books 22, 23, and 24) in the front of the book across from the title page - HOWEVER, that listing shows book 21 as The Final Fair by Marcia Blair (#476) and book 22 is this book (#475). The number in the parentheses appears to be a portion of the ISBN, and since this book has an earlier ISBN than the Marcia Blair book, it would make since that this book was published first, as book 21.  But the error does not stop there.  While books 23 and 24 are listed with their proper titles, in the back of the book, on the order form page, book 25 is listed as Who Killed Me? by Laura Allen (#497), book 26 is You'll Be The Death of Me by Miriam Lynch (#494), book 27 is Murder by the Book by Norma Schier (#495), and book 28 is The Whispering Cat Mystery by Josephine Kains (#496).  Yet, when they were published, book 25 was You'll Be the Death of Me, book 26 was Murder by the Book, book 27 was The Whispering Cat Mystery, and book 28 was Who Killed Me?  As you can see, the actual publication order followed the ascending ISBNs.  So, I'm not sure why the books were listed out of order in the front listing and on the order form page, but looking ahead, I found that this error does not get corrected until we are into the 30s for this series!

 

A few tidbits worth nothing: first, Rob (Max's boyfriend) offers to take Max to the Blue Boar Inn (p. 68), which was a real restaurant in San Francisco.  Interestingly, you can find for sale on eBay matchbooks from that restaurant (which I say is interesting, but matches play an important role in this mystery!).  We had a Blue Boar restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, where I grew up, but it was nothing like the one described in this book.  The second thing is when Max comes across the column typed up by Shelby Duncan, she notes the column "had been completed because the -"30"- the mark newspaper people use at the bottom of their last page of copy - had been typed" (p. 78).  I smiled when I read this, because I had previously learned about this when I was reading the Penny Parker series by Mildred Wirt (Benson), as the title character in that series helped her father, who owned a newspaper.  Lastly, during the big reveal, Max references a play that is mentioned in Shelby Duncan's column: "a new topless production of The Iceman Cometh..." (p. 170).  That is an actual play, written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill, which premiered on Broadway in the 1940s (some 30 years prior to the publication of this book). I cannot begin to imagine what a "topless" production of this play would have been like!

 

Without a doubt, this is my favorite book in the series, and most certainly, the best plotted and written of them all!  This one certainly sets a very high standard for the 39 books to follow in this series!

 

RATING:  10 unstruck pink wooden matches out of 10 for superb plotting, excellent execution, and fantastic fun in trying to solve this one! 

 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #18 - You'll Die Yesterday

It has been nine books since Marjorie J. Grove's last Zebra Mystery Puzzler, so it was high time we had another mystery for everyone's favorite Hollywood gossip columnist Maxine Reynolds to solve.  Nurse Tory Baxter (by Marcia Blair) has had THREE BOOKS in the time between Grove's last mystery and this one, and country singer Darby Castle (by Jan Michaels) has had TWO BOOKS in between.  As far as I'm concerned, Grove deserves to have some more books in this series to catch up with these other recurring characters (although, to be fair, this is Max Reynold's fourth appearance in the series, and poor Darby Castle's two appearances were here only two to be had!).  I was more than happy to re-enter the world of Maxine Reynolds, her sassy assistant Toothie, and her devoted boyfriend, Rob Allan, as they set about to solve their latest murder mystery!

 

You'll Die Yesterday takes our main character to Paris, where she has been sent by her employers to oversee the French office of their magazine (as the previous woman in charge had married and taken off, leaving the office without any leadership!).  Max jumps at the chance, having just been wondering if her life needed a change, and she manages to convince her boss that she will need Toothie to assist her while she is there.  They arrive in the City of Love to be greeted by the nephew of the famous French film producer, Philippe Gustave-Grenier (since, as it happens, Max's employer is friends with Monsieur Gustave-Grenier).  She joins the producer and his nephew on an afternoon walk down the Champs-Elysees, despite the drizzling rain - but as they are out, a motorcycle speeds past, spraying water on the three, following which, a stranger in an overcoat bumps into Monsieur Gustave-Grenier, causing injury to his lower leg.  It all seems innocent enough; but, when the producer turns up dead the next day, Max suspects foul play.

 

Now, either I am getting extremely good at spotting the killer in these books, or the mystery was just not very complicated at all - but I was able to not only identify the killer from the moment it happened, as well as guess at the motive.  Honestly, it was not very difficult at all (it were almost as if the killer was carrying around a neon sign, saying "I'm the one! I'm the one!").  Nevertheless, the story was still a very enjoyable read, and this one offered up some really great banter between Max and Toothie.  And one aspect of the story I found rather amusing is how readily the French detective investigating the case allowed Max to be involved, sharing information with her as she provided what information she gleaned from the suspects she interrogated.  And Grove does manage to provide a variety of suspects - a disgrunted actor, a bitter musician, and an elusive businessman who is determined to buy our Monsieur Gustave-Grenier's production company.  The actor is only too willing to talk with Max, but the musician is brusque and refuses to even meet with her (and he becomes very irate when she sneaks into his apartment and interviews his wife under false pretenses!).  Max puts off trying to meet with the businessman and his two representatives, but when she does, she manages to uncover a rather interesting bit of information (that has nothing to do with the murder, but is rather clever in its execution!). 

 

The Paris setting of this story allows the author to highlight a number of French sites, such as the Eiffel Tower, the museums, the restaurants, the shopping districts.  Grove has a tendency to spend a lot of details on the surroundings, whether in Hollywood, London, or even here in Paris, which grounds the story in reality a bit more than if the reference were vague and entirely fictional.  There are times where, as I am reading, I am tempted to pull up a map and follow along to see exactly how accurate the details are!

 

While the clues that lead to the identity of the killer are fairly simple to spot if you pay attention, there are two illustrations - one near the beginning and one in the next to the last chapter (before you open the sealed final chapter) - that pretty much cinch it for Max, as well as the reader.  Honestly, it took me a moment when I looked at that final internal illustration before I realized the importance of the scene; but once it clicked, there was no more doubt about who the killer was.  Once again, there is no credit given to the internal illustrator; but the cover art is signed by "Iskowitz,"  I was able to locate a couple of artists with that last name, but while no credit is specifically given to him, I believe the artist is Joel Iskowitz, who is said to have provided a number of book and cover illustrations for books in the late '70s and early '80s, which would fit the time period when this book was published (and the signature on this cover matches the signature on other paintings by Joel Iskowitz).  And the cover scene, which is the moment before the motorcycle splash and the "accidental" bump, provides a very obvious clue as to the choice of murder weapon.

 

Readers are treated to a bit more insight into Max's growing relationship with Rob, as she debates whether she wants to stay in Paris if her employer asks her to make the job permanent, since it would mean leaving behind the man she keeps hoping will ask her to marry him.  One good thing about these recurring main characters in this series is you get to watch them grow as the series progresses.  I know there are still several more Max Reynolds' stories in the series, so it will be interesting to see where these two finally end up!

 

RATING:   9 warning messages written in lipstick out of 10 for a rainy, Parisian murder mystery whose enjoyment is not figuring out whoddunnit, but in following along with Max as she tries to figure it out!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #9 - You'll Die Tomorrow

One thing I remember liking about this series when it was first published, and I admittedly still enjoy it today, is that the authors who wrote more than one book in this series managed to use titles that immediately identified with the author and the character of the story.  For Marjorie J. Grove (a/k/a Martin Grove), each of the books with Maxine Reynolds was titled with "You'll Die..." something.  First, it was You'll Die When You Hear This ... then it was You'll Die Laughing.  Now, with Grove's third book in the series (numbered nine if the actual ongoing numbering of the series), we get another variation of this title. And since this book picks up literally right after Grove's second mystery in this series, it feels like returning to visit old friends again ...

You'll Die Tomorrow opens with Max waking up after a long flight home from London, where she was solved her last murder mystery.  In fact, there is a specific footnote referencing the last book on page 8, in case readers forgot.  Dealing with jet lag, the Hollywood gossip columnist must get up for her meeting with everybody's favorite agent, Ken Carson - a meeting that sets the ball rolling for Max's latest mystery.  While lunching with the older man, Max meets record producer Cory Collins, who is known for his wandering eye for women, and whose marriage to his second wife is rumored to be on the rocks.  Max is determined to get the story, so when Cory invites Max to his house for a party he is hosting, she jumps at the chance.  Of course, she intends to take her boyfriend, Rob Allan, with her so that Cory will know she is off-limits.

At the party, Max meets Cory's wife, Joyce (nicknamed "Joycie"), a woman who clearly enjoys the lavish lifestyle her husband provides.  But Max knows that lifestyle may be in jeopardy due to Cory's unhealthy love of gambling and the amount of money he loses during his jaunts to Las Vegas.  As coincidence would have it, Max is planning a short vacation to Aruba with Rob and - well, it turns out Cory and Joycie are also headed to Aruba at the same time!  Needless to say, Max's employer tells her to keep an eye on Cory and come back with some great columns for their magazine.  None of them realized that story would find Max involved in yet another murder mystery (although, for the reader, it is no surprise, since this is a murder mystery series!).  When Cory keels over dead at a craps table in one of the Aruba hotels, it is up to Max to figure out whodunnit.  Was it the young singer whose career Cory ruined years ago when she would not sleep with him, and who is now forced to sing in Aruba hotels just to make a living?  Was it the mysterious man with the briefcase who came out of the safe deposit room at the hotel with Cory earlier in the day, and with whom he was arguing at the time?  Was it Joycie Collins, who was worried her husband would squander away all of their money before she could divorce him?  Or was there someone else involved who Max had not yet seen?

Like Grove's previous books, the murder does not actually take place until nearly half-way through the book.  Grove has a habit in her (his) stories of spending quite a lot of time describing the meals and going into considerable detail about locations.  In fact, the hotels referenced in the book along the Palm Beach area of Aruba are actual places - the Concorde hotel (referred to as "the brand new Concorde" on page 53 because, at the time this book was published, that hotel had just opened its doors - now it has been renamed to the Riu Palace Antillas); the Sheraton hotel (which is now called the Aruba Grand, a part of the RIU Palace); the Caribbean hotel (which is now the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino); the Americana hotel (which has also changed names a couple of times, now called the Occidental Grand Aruba); and the Holiday Inn (which appears to be the only hotel that still retains its original name!).  Thus, if anyone really wanted to explore the hotels and casinos mentioned in the book (and see the place where poor Cory died in the book), it is actually possible!  The casino where poor Cory is poisoned is the King International Casino in the Holiday Inn, which is what the casino was called back in the late '70s - it later became the Grand Holiday Casino, and now it is named the Excelsior Casino.  Thus, I have to suspect that Grove at some point prior to writing this mystery actually visited Aruba and was familiar with those beach front hotels.

While the previous Grove mysteries featured internal illustrations that were not as distinct and clear as many of the other books in this series, this particular one offers some beautiful art inside (as well as on the cover).  No signatures on any of the illustrations identify the artist, and there is, of course, no credit given on the copyright page.  However, if you have learned by now to really pay attention to the details in the internals, as well as on the cover, you will see that this one gives up some fairly easy-to-spot clues as to the killer's identity.  In fact, the mystery itself makes the killer's identity pretty obvious, although the motive is not necessarily what one suspects.  And unlike the last book, the cover scene does actually occur in the book (albeit with more characters and Max is not quire so close to the deceased).  

Another satisfying read - and looking ahead, it appears I will have a bit of a wait until Grove's next mystery, since the next one does not come along until book 18, some nine books after this one!

RATING:  8 black Las Vegas gambling chips out of 10 for giving readers a trip to Aruba for a somewhat easy mystery to solve!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #5 - You'll Die Laughing

With this fifth Zebra Mystery Puzzler, we circle back to that red-headed Hollywood gossip columnist, Maxine "Max" Reynolds, who cracked her first case in the first book in this series.  Author Marjorie Grove (a/k/a Martin Grove) takes this smart, savvy sleuth across the pond to England in this second murder mystery, and so readers have the opportunity to follow Max as she ventures around London trying to solve yet another murder.

You'll Die Laughing sends Max over to England by her bosses in order to get the scoop on an older comedian who is making a comeback in a new television show.  But before she can even get on the plane, the actor is murdered - his throat slit from ear to ear! - and her trip goes from covering a comeback to solving a murder!  Unlike the first book, where Max actually discovered the body and saw the scene of the crime, this time she not only does not see the scene of the crime, but she doesn't even know what the victim looks like.  However, someone is clearly wanting to help her, because before she leaves for England, she receives a strange telegram that simply reads:  "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (p. 20).  An odd clue, since anyone who has ever taken a typing class knows that sentence is one that uses every letter of the alphabet.  And even more odd is the fact that Max can't figure it out, but her somewhat boyfriend, Rob Allan, is the one who points her in the right direction.

As with the first book, despite the murder being announced early in this one, Max does not actually become involved and start investigating until well after the first half of the story.  Instead, Grove gives us incessant details about the roads Max takes to get around Los Angeles and Hollywood, the food she orders at the restaurants; and even once she arrives in England, the reader is treated to considerable information about the roads and locations.  At least we do get some entertainment in the form of Max and Toothie (Pamela Tooth, her secretary) - their banter is so much fun to read, I almost wish Pamela was at her side the entire time.  Perhaps in a future mystery, we'll get that treat!  We also get to experience more of Max's bosses, the owners of TeleFilm, the show business daily for which Max writes - one is a domineering woman who is clearly in complete control, and the other is her happy-go-lucky husband who seems oh-so-happy to let his wife run the show.  

I give Grove credit for crafting a much better mystery in this book than in the first (even though that one was not bad, it was not quite as convoluted as this one).  Since we don't get to "see" the murder in the book, the only glimpse we have is that depicted on the cover (which is off, since Max was never at the crime scene and never saw the body - yet that apparently did not stop the publisher from having the cover artist depict such a scene!).  There is a glaring clue on the cover that also appears in one of the internal illustrations, so I do at least give them props for that, as it did help me as I was trying to figure out what was going on with this one.  There is quite a bit of craziness going on, as Max meets a man on the flight over the ocean who claims to be a reporter himself, and she finds a slight attraction to him, even agreeing to go out with him.  But then she meets the person who sent the telegram and finds herself a pawn of a British spy who wants to use Max's investigation for their own purposes.  Then she learns that the reporter is lying to her, and there is a possibility he is an intelligent agent for an enemy country!  And if that weren't confusing enough, she discovers the comedian who was killed could have been an agent as well!  Grove keeps the reader guessing as to who is telling the truth, who is really an agent and who is not, and what in the world is really going on here, but by the time you reach that sealed chapter at the end, it all starts to make sense (and the killer becomes apparent...).

The book utilizes a number of actual locations in England - from Heathrow Airport (p. 87) to the Savoy Hotel (p. 88) - and I have no idea of the directions from the airport to the hotel are accurate, but considering how detailed they are, I'm going to guess that they might well be!  The Savoy does have a side that faces the Strand as indicated in the book (p. 88), and it does overlook the River Thames as also stated in the book (p. 89).  From what I found online, the Savoy does appear to be quite the ritzy hotel (The Savoy London), so I have to wonder if perhaps Grove stayed there at one point.  Another location that was real (it has closed since this book was published) is The Grove pub that the British spy sets up a meeting with Max upon her arrival in London (The Grove), which was located on Beauchamp Place, as it is said in the story (p. 94).  In addition, there is the Inigo Jones restaurant in Covent Garden (p. 114), which closed not long after this book was published, named after the famous architect (Inigo Jones).  Perhaps Grove gets so caught up in his details about these real locations, he can't help but provide the most accurate directions on how to get there!

The internal illustrations are only a tad bit better than the illustrations in the first Max Reynolds mystery, but the accuracy has definitely not improved.  Max is drawn with the absolute worst, unfashionable hairstyles that make her look considerably older than she is; and the action depicted is certainly off - such as the illustration on page 169, which shows a man standing, holding a folded paper with a huge seal on it; in the actual story, he is sitting at the table with Max, and the document he pulls from his jacket pocket could not be anywhere near the size of the paper in the illustration.  Also, the drawing on page on page 200 show Max leaning against the bar, while a man is mixing a drink behind her - and in the foreground is a box containing mixing tools; yet, in the story, Max is relaxing in an overstuffed chair and notices the bar tools when the man moves some bottles around at the bar!  Definitely not accurate at all!  And let's face it - the Max shown in this final illustration is by far much prettier, much sexier, and definitely much younger than the Max drawn in the earlier illustrations in this book.  There are no signatures on any of the illustrations, or on the cover painting, so there's no way to know who did the art.

I definitely liked this mystery better than the first Max Reynolds' story, and I'm hoping it's a sign that her mysteries only get better and better as the series goes along.

RATING:  9 bowls of chilled cream of watercress soup out of 10 for a not-so-easy to solve murder mystery that was definitely an enjoyable read!

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!