A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #33 - Who's Next?

This thirty-third entry into the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series is the second book authored by Joan Allan, whose true identity remains a secret (although there is a clear connection with author Martin A. Grove, who wrote a number of books in this series under the pseudonym "Marjorie Grove").  While the first book by Allan, Who Killed Me?, has a dedication to "Marjorie, Martin and Geoffrey Eric Grove," this book has a dedication to Marjorie and Geoffrey - with Martin noticeably missing!  Once again, this begs the question as to whether "Joan Allan" is just another pseudonym for Grove himself.  In any event, this book sees the return of advertising executive Valerie Lambert, who must play amateur sleuth once again when faced with an ever-growing pile of dead bodies!

 

Who's Next? takes Valerie and her assistant, Oscar Fryman (known simply as "Fry"), to Paris, France, where they are to meet with the owner of her agency's latest client, Abbe-Roi, a vineyard famous for its champagne that is hoping to break into the American market.  Joining Val and Fry for the trip is wine expert Franklin Hertford, an Englishman who has agreed to offer his expertise to assist Val in coming up with a campaign for Abbe-Roi.  While there for the weekend, the trio are staying with their host at a rather lavish - and, coincidentally, very isolated - chateau that once belonged to the original owner of the land - Pierre Alexandre Saulnier, who was brutally murdered on the property and who is said to still haunt the halls of the somewhat worn down homestead.  No one believes in ghosts, of course, but for Val, it does set the mood for what is about to be a terrifying weekend!

 

Allan eases readers into the story, with 60 pages of build-up as Val and Fry first meet Hertford, and the three travel more than a couple of hours by limousine to the chateau.  They are welcomed and introduced to their hosts, Henri-Robert Verlaine and his wife, Claudine.  At the lavish wine-tasting being held down in the wine cellar, Val and Fry also meet the other guests for the weekend:  Michael Rochambeau, the vineyard's chef de caves; Edouard Cherbourg, the vineyard's advertising director; Nicole Courteline, who is Edouard's secretary; Roger Saint-Benoit, head of sales for the vineyard; and Alexandre Saulnier-Carpeaux, descendant of the original owner of the chateau.  Of course, there is also Gerard (the butler), Caroline (the maid), and Alain (the cook).  With the cast fully introduced, Allan wastes no time at that point getting to the murder we've all been waiting to happen.

 

Rochambeau is the first to be killed, before the wine tasting can even get off to a good start.  With everyone there in the room, it's next to impossible to figure out who the killer is.  Then Cherbourg's secretary is killed rather gruesomely, with a mess left behind (hint: this is the scene from the cover of the book).  After that, Saint-Benoit literally has his brains beaten out of his skull, making him victim number three.  Before the night is even over, Hertford is nearly killed, saved only by the fortunate turn of his head at the most opportune moment!  One of the survivors of the group disappears, leaving everyone else to wonder if perhaps this points to the guilt of that person - but that suspicion comes into question when two more dead bodies turn up, bashed in their heads by a heavy tree branch (with a rather horrific image of those bodies depicted in one of the internal illustrations, page 171!).  With everyone being picked off so quickly, over the span of one evening, it leaves Val and Fry wondering - who's next?  (Hence, the book title!  In fact, the author asks this question three times in the story:  pages 82, 108, and 143.)

 

I was actually rather surprised by the rather explicit descriptions of the bloody deaths.  "Roger Saint-Benoit's skull had been cracked open ... The sight of his brains splattered among the bedclothes was sickening..." (p. 103).  The last two victims "had been bludgeoned to death ... and now lay in a shallow pool of blood that trickled directly across the narrow trail" (p. 165).  This is a murder mystery, so I would certainly expect some description of the crime scene; but I believe this is the most horrific descriptions I have seen to date in any book in this series.  And the illustration on page 171, with those last two victims - definitely not for the faint of heart!

 

Speaking of illustrations,  Sanford Hoffman once again provides the internal illustrations, and interestingly enough, three of the six internals are horizontal, rather than vertical.  Normally, we might see one or two in this way, but to see half of them depicted in this form is a bit unusual.  What is not unusual is the framing around the illustrations, since that seems to be a standard for Hoffman in this series, which, to be honest, I rather like.  Especially when he has part of the illustration extend beyond that frame (as he does with that gruesome scene on page 171).  The clues in the illustrations are not obvious at all, except maybe for the one on page 151, which becomes extremely clear once you know the identity of the killer.

 

There was a part of me, as I was reading the story, that was hoping this would all turn out to be some elaborate hoax, such as the film April Fool's Day (1986), and in the end, it would turn out no one was dead, but it was all staged just to test the analytical and detecting skills of the guests.  But, alas, it was not.  Instead,we got a replay of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, in which ten individuals at a secluded estate suddenly find themselves being picked off one by one (with the only obvious difference being not everyone dies in this tale!).

 

There are a few things worth pointing out about this book.  Published in October 1979, I was surprised to see a reference to Star Wars (p. 14).  Yes, the movie had been out for two years at this point, but normally I would not expect a pop cultural reference like this to appear so soon.  The author also throws in a number of real newspaper columnists, such as Dorothy Kilgallen and Louis Sobel from the New York Journal-American; Frank Farrell from the World Telegram; Earl Wilson and Leonard Lyons from the New York Post; and Walter Winchell from the New York Daily Mirror (p. 44).  These came up as Val revealed her original dream of becoming a columnist, before changing direction and working in advertising.

 

9 shattered bottles of champagne out of 10 for piling up the bodies, subtly laying out the clues, and providing readers with a creative climax to the story! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #32 - Murder at Willow Run

This thirty-second entry into the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series introduces yet another author and another new amateur sleuth.  The author is identified as "Michelle Collins," but it is uncertain whether this is the author's action name or just another in a long-line of pseudonyms used for this series.  Other than this one and book 51 in this series, I can find no other books by this author (although I find plenty of books out there written by various writers of the same name).  The copyright for the book simply belongs to Kensington Publishing Corp., which likely means this was a house psuedonym.  In any event, Collins only offers two books within this series, and this one gives readers their first taste of art director Megan Marshall.

 

Murder at Willow Run is set in a preppy little art community called "Willow Run" in the Catskills of New York.  Megan Marshall is an art gallery director who is putting together a show for artist Evan Townsend, a young man with whom she hopes to one day develop a real relationship.  The story opens with the exciting news that Marshall has managed to get a world famous art critic, Garrett Winters, to come to the show!  Winters happens to be a long-time friend of Alfred ("Alf") Barnard, who runs the Inn in which the art show will be displayed, and he has agreed to come at Alf's request.  Megan is thrilled, Evan is hesitant, and Alf is confident that everything will work out fine.  However, from the moment Winters arrives, everything goes downhill fast!

 

Collins crafts a horrifically vile person in the character of Garrett Winters. From the moment he arrives, he has nothing but nasty things to say about everyone and everything - from Evan's art (which, at this point, he has not even seen!), to the small town setting, the decor of the Inn, and the townspeople and guests at the Inn.  In fact, the man has nothing nice to say at all!  Clearly, this man deserves to die - or, at least, that's what plenty of people think.  After a rather loud confrontation with Evan in the dining room, with Evan threatening to get rid of him, to a fierce battle in the kitchen with the chef that results in his being fired, to some snide remarks to one of the local women in town, Winters finally takes his leave, going to his room upstairs.  Before long, however, he's back downstairs, demanding a different room, as the bed is too small.  Megan accommodates him, moving him from Room 4 to Room 7, making sure he's settled in and that he has locked his door from the inside before she walks away.  So, imagine her surprise, when she and Alf come up the next morning, find the door still locked with the chain, and after breaking their way, find the critic lying dead on his bed!  The door was locked, the windows are still locked - so how in the world was he murdered?

 

It's a fantastically well-written locked-room mystery that, quite frankly, had me stumped.  The first internal illustration gave me a first thought as to the identity of the killer, but as the story progressed, my thought changed time and time again.  The clues pointing to any number of people, and Collins herself even points this out with the gossip of the townspeople:  "the culprit was variously Evan Townsend, the moody and passionate painter; Claude Monteaux, the temperamental chef; Alfred Barnard for some inexplicable reason; Bertram Van Riper, the man of mystery... (p. 72) - and even this list does not account for all of the suspects.  There were also Grace and Adelaide Wimble, the aging sisters who seemed to have a history with Winters; Shelley Barnes, a local woman "far more enamored of the artist than she was of the art" (p. 23); Quentin Lacy, the rather flamboyant and dramatic director of the theater across from the Inn; Hilda Stanwick, a former watercolor artist whose career had ended quickly after a bad review; and even Garth Hendriks, the Inn's groundskeeper who lived in the upstairs of the barn just behind the Inn.  So many suspects, so many motives, but only one of them did it.  The questions for Megan is:  which one?

 

Honestly, I was wondering if Collins would go the same route as the writers of The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries television show did with their season two opener, which features a locked-room mystery that stumped the teen detectives and nearly made them believe in vampires!  That two-part season opener offered up a rather ingenious solution, and I thought perhaps Collins had taken a page from that show, which aired two years before this book was published.  It certainly would have provided a clever twist, making the killer one of the least likely suspects!  But Collins went an entirely different route, for which I applauded her, as it made it much more difficult to figure out (for the reader).  While the clue on the front cover is very subtle, the internal illustrations offer very little actual clues - one offers no clue at all, one offers a very clear misdirect, two offer a connected clue that you have to really pay attention to catch, and the last two offers the clues that clinch it!

 

The author does reference the use of "flurazepam," which is referred to as "a soporific marketed under the trade name of Dalmane" (p. 107).  This is an actual drug that is prescribed by doctors for short-term treatment of sever insomnia.  The brand name of "Dalmane" has been discontinued in the United States, but flurazepam, which is the generic version, is still prescribed.  Obviously, this book was written long before the brand name medicine was discontinued in 2017.

 

As with most books in this series, there is no identification of the cover artist, and none of the internal illustrations are signed and no credit given - leaving it a mystery as to who provided the art.  I think it bears repeating what a disservice these publishers did back in the day by failing to give credit to cover artists, as well as internal illustrators - particularly for a series like this, where the art plays (or is supposed to play) just as important of a role in helping the reader solve the mystery as the story itself.  With this day and age of information at the tips of our fingers on the internet, one would think the information would be easy to find; but, alas, it is not.  Thus, the identity of these artists remain a mystery unsolved...

 

This mystery was extremely enjoyable, very well written, and definitely kept me guessing.  I am glad to know I will get at least one more mystery by Collins before the end of this series!

 

RATING:  10 blood-stained hotel towels in the trunk of a car out of 10 for taking the "locked room mystery" to a whole new level and giving us a fantastic new sleuth who is up for the challenge! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #31 - Death on the Circuit

I am now on the downhill side of this Zebra Mystery Puzzler series, with 31 books read and 29 still to go (not counting the four-book "You Solve It" series by Zebra for young adults, which were published around the same time, but aimed at a younger audience and without the internal illustrations).  This book introduces readers to another new author and another new sleuth - but with a catch!  This is the first of four books by Jan Ellery; yet, this is the only one to feature Navy Lieutenant Marsha Lenox as the amateur sleuth.  In fact, each of Ellery's novels in this series boasts a different protagonist, which is unique, since all of the other authors who wrote more than one book in the series continued the adventures of their main character.  And as far as the author goes, I could find nothing on Jan Ellery.  One website gives credit to both Jan Ellery and Jean Ross Ewing; however, Ewing's personal website does not indicate she had any involvement with this book.  Thus, the true authorship of this book is left a mystery...

 

Death on the Circuit is a different type of mystery, since it involves members of our armed forces - particularly, the Navy. Marsha Lenox is a Lieutenant who has been assigned to a USO tour with the famous comedian, Harry Carras.  Only, she learns very quickly that Carras may be funny onstage, but he's anything but funny off-stage.  The Hollywood actress, Cindy Carlson can't stand him.  His manager, Hal Squires, has every reason to hate him, as Carras is constantly berating and firing him.  Even the men and women of the Navy who are acting as escorts have nothing good to say about the man.  Carras even managed to avoid any long-term bad publicity for the suicide of a model years ago who killed herself when the egotistical man tossed her aside for another woman.  So, when Carras is electrocuted on stage when he grabs hold of the microphone, prepared to start his act, there are any number of suspects.  Because Marsha is nearly killed herself when she tries to lend aid to the man, she makes it her mission to uncover what really happened.

 

The mystery of whodunnit becomes a lot more complicated when the chain of command in the Navy hand down the decision - the death was simply an accident, and all investigation into what happened must stop.  Marsha cannot understand the decision, as she has a witness that will testify to the fact that the electrocution was caused deliberately.  Someone wanted Carras dead, and now someone is trying to sweep it all under the rug.  Marsha finally learns from a fellow officer that there is more going on than meets the eye.  Near where the concert was to be performed is an ongoing search for some nuclear weapons, and there is the possibility the Russians are involved.  Marsha does not see how this involves Carras until Lt. Jeff Harris explains that Carras was actually working for the government - and, worse than that, he was also working for the Russians as a spy!  Thus, the number of possible suspects just multiplied.

 

Ellery crafts a truly ingenuous murder mystery, once that had me going back and forth with who I though did it.  I even had a difficult time picking out clues from the cover and internal illustrations, as I could never definitively determine who the killer was.  Which is a good thing, as it kept me on my toes and offered me a surprise reveal at the end.  Once the killer was identified, and that person's motive was revealed, then looking back over the illustrations, I was suddenly able to spot the clues (although, to be honest, there are two internal illustrations that offer up no clues whatsoever, which makes them nothing more than red herrings).  I will say, however, that the way in which the story is told, literally ANYONE (other than Marsha) could have been the killer.  Everyone had a motive, and most everyone had the opportunity as well.  It all boiled down to the question - who had the skill and knowledge to set up the electrocution to take place, and who truly hated Carras enough to want him dead.  

 

There are no credits for the cover artist and the internal illustrator, so I have no clue who did either.  The style of the internals is familiar enough, though, with the full page art and tons of shading.  This artist likely provided some of the internals for earlier books in the series; it is just a shame the publisher never thought fit to give credit to the artists.  Plus, this new cover design with the small amount of artwork appearing in the glass area of the magnifying glass limits just how much you can actually see.  I wish Kensington / Zebra had kept the original cover style with full page art.

 

It's a shame this is the one and only Zebra Mystery Puzzler to feature Navy Lieutenant Marsha Lenox.  I like the character, and the limitations placed upon her by her position within the military made for an interesting read as she fought to navigate between her own curiosity and determination and the orders from her superior officers.  Nevertheless, despite this being her one and only mystery, it is a story definitely well worth the read!

 

RATING:  10 outdated issues of Vogue magazine out of 10 for a uniquely different murder mystery and a super-crafty tale that keeps readers guessing to the end!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #30 - Murder by Degrees

This book is the half-way point of the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers, as the series ended after 60 books.  The book offers up yet another new author to the series, Ann Pearson.  There are apparently a number of authors by this name, but with some research, it appears Ms. Pearson is (was?) a resident of Alabama (where this book is set), having received a PhD in English from Auburn University (which would explain why her protagonist is an English teacher at an Alabama university!).  She has authored a number of articles about local Alabama history, as well as historic preservation.  According to the sources I was able to find, the three mysteries she wrote for this series are the only three fiction novels she wrote.  Thus, her background and profession play a large part of this mystery, leaving one to wonder if perhaps Ms. Pearson was not putting herself into the story...

 

Murder by Degrees is one of those mysteries where the body is discovered within the first few pages, and the rest of the book is spent backtracking as the police, and our intrepid amateur sleuth, must sift through everything that happened the previous night in order to figure out just whodunnit.  The title is clearly a play on words, since the murder victim was the head of the English department at an Alabama university, and all the suspects are professors, some of whom have PhDs, others of whom do not.  As for the story itself - well, let's just say it surprised me.  A lot!  The writing of this book is unlike any in the series thus far.  While Maggie Courtney, a teacher at Jernigan College, is the main character and Pearson's amateur sleuth, the narrative does not stay on her; rather it seems to pivot among three characters - Maggie, of course, but also Jake Travis, the detective with the local police force, as well as Ted Meredith, a fellow teacher at the college.  There are also moments where we get snippets of some of the other characters, apart from Maggie, Jake, and Ted, and it gives the readers pause, wondering if the people we are following in the narrative could be the murderer, or if it is going to be someone from whom we do not get their point of view.  In fact, Maggie does not really take any active role in investigating until more than half-way through the book!  Her ultimately solving the puzzle is more by chance than any actual sleuthing on her part.

 

The story is also filled with a plethora of characters - and I mean a real plethora! In most mysteries, you get a few suspect, or in some instances, maybe five or six suspects.  Not in this book!  No, in this book, you get more suspects than you can possibly keep track of - and I'm not exaggerating.  The murder victim is Dr. Ruby Murdoch, Dean of Humanities and the Head of the English Department at Jernigan.  (And in case you are wondering, no, there is no real Jernigan College in Alabama.)  When Detective Travis begins his investigation, he quickly learns that Dr. Murdoch was not liked by very many people - in fact, most of the people who knew her had reason to hate her, giving them all motive for murder.  (1) Albert Cannon, assistant professor of English who is up for tenure; (2) Joe Waters is a teacher without a Ph.D. who is also up for tenure, worried that his lack of degree could hurt his chances; (3) Harriet McGraw, an assistant professor who shares a house with Maggie, who butted heads with the deceased over an art festival; (4) George Purvis, another assistant professor, about whom are a number of rumors regarding his proclivity for male students, as well as his drinking and debt problems; (5) Ronald Weir, a professor with tenure, suffering from Hodgkins' disease and a distant relative of the deceased; (6) Mrs. Boykin, a middle-aged widow who teaches only literature classes; (7) Jane Stone, the youngest instructor in the department who is reserved and keeps to herself, earning her the nickname "the Sphinx"; (8) Lorene Murphy, who is rumored to be having an affair with one of the other instructors at the college; (9) Paul Perry, the student liaison for the freshman English committee who is slick as oil and loves playing two sides against each other; and (10) Lucy, the English department's housekeeper, who seems to always be listening in or watching everything around her.  Of course, we must also remember that as far as Lt. Travis is concerned, Maggie and Ted are both suspects (but, of course, the reader can discount them, as they are both main characters, unlikely to be the culprit!).

 

Another oddity about this book are the illustrations, once again provided by Sanford Hoffman, making this the ninth book in the series illustrated by Hoffman.  The art is up to Hoffman's standard, but the scenes depicted are so bland and nondescript, one is left to wonder what possible clues could any of them hold?!  From scenes of Maggie dialing a phone with Cannon standing in the doorway, to Jane Stone sitting on the witness stand at the inquest, to three characters walking away from a shed, to a suicide note, to Lt. Travis looking at shelves of paperweights.  None of illustrations stand out as having any clues, and, quite honestly, it was not until I was reading the next to the last chapter that clues from the illustrations started to come to light - they are so subtle, so ingeniously placed, it changed my whole attitude about the book.  In fact, the clue on the cover was not at all what I thought it was; but when I realized what the real clue was, everything made perfect sense, pointing to the killer almost from the very start of the story.  For that, I have to give the author, illustrator, and publisher credit for taking what started out as a very dense, uninteresting story and turning it into quite a complicated murder mystery - one steeped in English literature.

 

Speaking of which, it should not be surprising the story is dosed with quite a bit of literature references, but one thing I did not know and learned from reading this book is that George Eliot was actually a pseudonym for a woman!  When Maggie first referred to Eliot as "her," I thought it was merely a typo.  But when Ted also refers to Eliot as "her," I looked it up and discovered that George Eliot was actually Mary Ann Evans, an English author, journalist, and poet who published her work under the Eliot pen name.  Just goes to show, you can learn something new every day!

 

What I thought was going to be the worst book in the series ultimately turned out to be one of the best, and definitely one of the most unique in writing style.  Pearson has two more books in the series, and I look forward to seeing where she takes Maggie Courtney from here.

 

RATING:  9 brand new literature book dust jackets out of 10 for a cunningly crafty murder mystery that gives readers an inside look into the lives of college instructors! 

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 #28 - Who Killed Me?

There are several important things to point out about this Zebra Mystery Puzzler, the 28th in this series of murder mysteries that allows the reader the opportunity to solve the crime before opening that final, sealed chapter.  First, this is the final book in the series to sport a full-cover painted scene.  The format of the cover changed with the next book in the series, reducing the cover art to a small circle inside a magnifying glass (thus, limiting the amount of space for the cover art to provide a clue to the crime).  Second, this is the first book in the series authored by Joan Allan (more on the author below), and the first to feature advertising account executive-turned-sleuth Valerie Lambert.  Third, it offers up what turns out to be a very well-crafted mystery, with clues so subtle you do not even notice them until they are pointed out at the end!

 

Who Killed Me? is taken directly from the note that is found on the dead body of  Nelson Bishop, an up-and-coming executive in the Associated Cosmetics company who has managed to make an enemy of pretty much everyone who knew him.  Thus, the question printed out on the back of a theater ticket and left on his corpse for the police to find is most appropriate.  The suspects include pretty much everyone who is involved in the photo shoot for the ad campaign for the company's new line of cosmetics named after the actress, Meri Milton.  Now, it is up to Valerie Lambert (whose name is included on that ticket, indicating the police should ask her who did it) to figure out which one of the likely suspects actually did the deed.

 

Something that came across as too unrealistic is how quickly Inspector Haverstock was willing to allow Valerie to become a part of the investigation.  Now, any real police detective who has a dead body with a note that specifically identifies one person on it would NOT partner with the person to find the murderer, but would more likely take that person as a suspect until evidence would show otherwise.  (And, yes, evidence does clear Valerie by the next day, since she was having dinner with the commercial director that night, then took a taxi back to her hotel at the time the murder took place - but still, that inspector did not know this when he agrees to let Valerie help with the investigation!).  Putting that aside, though, it is only through Valerie's persistence that the real murderer is revealed.

 

Allan gives readers a truly puzzling mystery with this one.  The knife used to kill Bishop is a left-handed knife (with the grooves on the handle made specifically for a left-handed person).  The note left on the body is written on the back side of an unused theater ticket and written with specialty ink.  The rare button missing from his suit jacket was cut off, not torn.  And there just happens to be a specialty store in London that sells only items for left-handed people.  And there is a shop in London that specializes in the kind of ink and pen used to write the note.  And an antique store in the area happens to reveal that someone Valerie knows purchased a set of those exact buttons not long ago - a set that was short one.  All of these clues lead directly to one specific suspect, all nice and tidy.  And when that suspect winds up dead, an apparent suicide by jumping off a bridge into the frigid waters of the river below. the Inspector is sure the case is resolved.  Valerie, however, is not satisfied.  It is all too convenient.

 

The clues to this crime are so very subtle, I was getting frustrated by the time I reached that final chapter trying to figure out whodunnit.  I took a stab in the dark based on the idea that the least likely suspect will turn out to be the killer - and boy, was I wrong!  When Valerie unmasks the killer at a party she hosts in her lavish hotel room (very Agatha Christie-like!), and she starts walking Inspector Haverstock through all the clues that led her to the realization of the killer's identity, I could only shake my head.  Sure enough, the clues were there - on the cover, in several of the illustrations, and in the story; but my keen eyes simply glossed over them and did not pick them up for what they were.  Which, in my book, made this a SUPERB story!  While I do enjoy being able to figure out who the killer is before the end, sometimes it is nice to be taken completely off-guard, especially when the author points out that all the clues were there if I had simply paid closer attention along the way.  So, kudos to Allan and the publisher for making this one so crafty! 

 

As with a number of the books in this series, there is no identification of the artist for either the cover or the interior illustrations.  While I do love both, as the artwork is beautifully rendered, I am disappointed that the publisher failed to give the artist a proper description for Valerie Lambert.  In the book, she has "long ash blond hair that spilled over her shoulders" (p. 6); yet, on the cover, she clearly has a dark, reddish-brown hair, and on the only internal in which Valerie is seen (p. 58), she is again depicted with dark colored hair.  I realize this is being a bit nit picky, but I do not think it can be that difficult for an artist to be given an accurate description of the main character in a book!  That being said, I love the internal artist's depiction of actress Meri Milton on page 17 - very "Marlene Deitrich" in appearance and pose.

 

"Joan Allan" wrote only three books in this series - this one, volume 33 (Who's Next?) and volume 47 (Who's on First?).  I can find absolutely nothing about this author anywhere, other than the fact that she (he?) wrote the three books in this series.  There is something in the front of the book, however, that raises a question as to the author's identity - on the copyright page, there is a dedication to "Marjorie, Martin and Geoffrey Eric Grove."  As fans of this series might recall, Marjorie Grove is the named author of a number of books starring Maxine Reynolds - but "Marjorie Grove" is actually Martin A. Grove (and there was a sly reference in the first book in this series to Martin Grove, his wife Marjorie, and their son, Geoffrey!).  Thus, is "Joan Allan" simply another pseudonym for Grove, allowing him to create another sleuth for this series? Or is "Joan Allan" someone who knows the real Grove family, and gave a nod to them, perhaps as a word of thanks for helping him or her get their work published in this series?

 

A couple of things worth pointing out from this book.  The author elects to avoid the "555" telephone exchange when giving numbers in the book; instead, the author puts forth potentially real numbers:  "836-4343" as the number to call for Valerie Lambert (p. 34); and "286-6010" as the number of the taxi service (p. 41).  I wonder how many people, back in the day, called those numbers just to see who would answer!  The other item of interest is the reference to the exchange rate between the United States and England.  The shopkeeper informed Valerie the cost will be "two pounds sixty-six" (p. 102), to which Valerie quickly figures out the American equivalent would be "$5.32" (p. 103).  According to what I could find online for 1979, the exchange rate was 0.4713 British pound to one American dollar.  A quick search online shows the exchange would have been closer to $5.64 in American dollars; however, the rate fluctuates, so at any given time, depending on when the book was actually written, that exchange rate given in the story could have been accurate.

 

Overall, a really great read, and I look forward to Allan's other two books in this series!

 

RATING:  10 stubbed out cigarette butts out of 10 for a wonderfully written, excitingly engaging, perfectly puzzling murder mystery well worth the read! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #27 - The Whispering Cat Mystery

First, there was a Devil Mask.  Next, there was a Golden Skull.  Then came the Green Lama.  And now, with book 27 of the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series, readers get the latest mystery involving television reporter Terry Spring.  This is author Ronald Joseph Goulart's fourth entry into the series, writing under the pseudonym "Josephine Kains," and he offers up a wonderfully fun tale of misdirect and red herrings set in New Orleans, Louisiana during the famous Mardi Gras festival.  In fact, I was loving the story so much, I finished the book in less than one day!  I rarely do that with any adult mystery (usually only happens with children's series books, which are much easier reading), but I love Goulart/Kains' characters so much, and I got so wrapped up in figuring out whoddunit in this mystery, that I literally could not put it down until I finished that last chapter!

 

The Whispering Cat Mystery once again opens not with our amateur sleuth, but instead with the psychic visions of Willa Farrway, the young "witch-woman" who lives near the Louisiana swampland on the outskirts of the wealthy Cullen family property.  The visions of the whispering cat were getting stronger, almost overpowering her, and she had yet to figure out what they meant.  Meanwhile, a man makes his way through the mists covering the swamps, finally reaching the cemetery, where he makes his move.  Now, as with Kains' other books in this series, the second chapter shifts the scene to Terry Spring and her friends, cameraman Janiero Chavez and producer Jess Berkeley, as they wrap up another on-the-scene story.  Soon enough, they receive their next assignment - a mini-documentary on the psychic girl who has been helping New Orleans' finest solve some cold cases.  Is she really psychic, or is she a talented fraud with insider information?  Terry and her crew intend to find out.  But the question on Jess's mind is:  will they get involved in yet another murder?  (Well, this is a Zebra Mystery Puzzler, so what do you think?)

 

Kains spends the first half of the book in set-up, as usual, introducing readers to the various players in this drama.  Laura Daventry Cullen is the wealthy socialite, who pretty much has her hand in everything in the area, and who married her jock of a husband, Chip Cullen, for unknown reasons.  Marcus Keaton, Laura's first love, has never gotten over her and has turned to the bottle for comfort.  Chip Cullen is trying to put together a spectacular jazz show for Mardi Gras, but he is frustrated with how tightly his wife is keeping those purse strings.  Jake Gossage is the local news celebrity who takes an instant liking to Terry - and also warns her to tread lightly around Willa Farrway's psychic abilities, as Willa is a personal friend of Laura Cullen, and bad publicity for Willa could result in bad consequences for Terry!  But Terry is not one to be intimidated, and she will only report the truth, whatever that turns out to be.

 

A painting of a black cat, one paw raised, seems to be Willa's way of releasing her visions - if they keep coming, then she paints them on canvas in the hope it will finally give her some understanding.  Only, this cat will not go away.  Not even when Chip Cullen's dead body turns up in Willa's living room one night, having been strangled by a lady's scarf.  A scarf that belongs to one Jennifer Claxton, the fashion editor for the local news, who was seen that very morning wearing the same scarf while having a rather heated discussion with the deceased.  But she is not the only one with a grudge against Chip Cullen.  Marcus blames him for stealing Laura away from him.  Willa has always been at odds with him, as he never believed in her abilities.  Laura was tired of him, blaming him for her brother running away a year or so ago.  So, which one of them finally did him in?  Or did Laura's brother return home and end his brother-in-law's life?  Although the local law tells her to stay out of it, Terry Spring is on the case, and before too long, she discovers a second body - one murdered long before this one, but whose death is directly linked to the current murder.  And as far as that whispering cat goes?  Well, let's just way that when Terry finds the location of that cat, it reveals quite the story...

 

Goulart/Kains must be given credit - he knows how to throw out those red herrings to keep you guessing as to the killer's identity.  One very obvious clue on the cover art had me believing it was one person, until nearly 3/4 of the way through, when another character made a passing comment that immediately contradicted an earlier scene - meaning my first suspect was wrong, and this was, indeed, the real culprit.  Plus, there was a certain cat scratch that gave the killer away, since Willa's pet cat has a tendency to scratch anyone except Willa, as Chavez quickly learns on their first visit to Willa's home.  Thus, the ultimate solution is not extremely difficult to figure out, but it's all in the fun of getting there that makes the story so enjoyable.  Plus, the whole Mardi Gras parade and chase scene had me remembering the Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew television crossover, "Voodoo Doll," which aired in February 1978 and introduced viewers to the "new" Nancy Drew (Janet Louise Johnson) during a Mardi Gras-themed mystery in New Orleans.

 

And speaking of Nancy Drew, I cannot get over how much Terry and her friends remind me of Nancy Drew and her friends.  Terry, obviously, is the Nancy Drew character, while Chavez takes on the Bess persona (loves food and is always falling in love) and Jess is the George of this series (being more health-conscious and even sporting a boy's name).  The three always work well together in solving mysteries, and Goulart/Kains even plays on the old series book format of referring back to previous mysteries (check out page 15, where Jess reminds Terry of "that witchcraft business in Grimshaw and the voodoo island thing and that haunted out out on the West," which refer to Devil Mask Mystery, The Curse of the Golden Skull, and The Green Lama Mystery, respectively).  This only adds to the fun of reading these books!

 

With no credit given to the cover artist, I have no clue who painted the scene; however, there are two major clues on there - one of which is a misdirect, while the other is definitely a giveaway for the killer.  The internal illustrations, though, are once again provided by Sanford Hoffman, who has provided interiors for at least seven of these first 27 mysteries.  His line art is always so beautifully rendered, and for some odd reason, I love the fat that he outlines most of his scenes with a thick black line, which is sometimes broken by a character or piece of scenery that "crosses the line," if you'll pardon the pun.  One of the illustrations (p. 140) is a bit weird, though, as it is supposed to depict Willa's own drawing of an unusual coffin she sees in her latest vision; however, based on Hoffman's representation of that drawing, how could Willa not immediately recognize it for what it actually is?  (And it clearly points to the killer's identity, which is why I'm not about to reveal what it is here!)

 

Twenty-seven books into this series, and I have not really been let down yet.  Sure, some are better than others, but none of them have been down right awful, and while a few have been pretty easy to figure out early on, they are still great reads, and I look forward to the remaining 33 books left in the series!

 

RATING:  9 pretty little faded roses out of 10 for throwing in a bit of ESP without letting it overpower the story or be used as a cop-out for solving the mystery! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #26 - Murder by the Book

It's been fifteen books since we last read the exploits of Kay Barth, assistant district attorney in Aspen, Colorado (Death on the Slopes), which is way too long.  I loved author Norma Schier's first entry into the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series, and this one only solidified my love for her writing. And Schier's love of puzzles and anagrams certainly comes into play again in this mystery, as does her habit of switching points-of-view throughout the book.  Rather than stay with the protagonist, as most murder mysteries do, Schier seems to enjoy following any number of characters throughout her books, which plays mercilessly on the reader's ability to figure out just who the killer really is!

 

Murder by the Book switches the focus from the ski slopes, which featured heavily in the previous book, to book collecting and the victim's bookstore.  Once again, the story begins not with our intrepid sleuth, but rather, with one of the suspects - Adele Bradford, wife of the murder victim - as she flies from New York to Colorado to confront the husband that left her, taking all of the money and disappearing without a trace.  The scene then switches to a sidewalk cafe, where Adele Bradford's daughter, Ronnie, is having lunch with her boyfriend, David Truro - lunch and a rather heated argument that ends with him storming off, telling her, "This can't go on any longer.  I've had it" (p. 9).  And, wouldn't you know it, but the D.A., Kay Barth, and her own boyfriend, Jason Ryder, happened to be lunching at the next table and overheard the entire thing.  Little did they realize then just how important that knowledge would later be!

 

Now, Schier switches scenes yet again to the Poison Pen Bookshop, where "Brad" Bradford is informing a very determined customer - one Frederick Carrington - that his early edition of Edgar Allan Poe's book is not for sale, no matter what offer Carrington makes.  But Carrington is more than determined, and he will get that book no matter what it takes.  Enter Jason and Kay as the dissatisfied man leaves the store.  Jason frequents the store and is familiar with the owner, but Kay is only just now starting her joy of reading mysteries.  Another change of scene takes our dynamic duo to the Green Goose pub, located, conveniently enough, right next to the Poison Pen.  Inside they happen upon Carrington once again, who quickly leaves, informing them he's going to make another offer to Bradford in order to get that book.  They strike up a conversation with the owner of the pub, Lulu Porter, when Ronnie shows up looking for her boyfriend. And to think ... all of this happens in just the first chapter!

 

Schier gives a quick jump in time, and with Chapter Two, we reunite with chief of police, Mark Field, who gets the call that Bradford has been found dead in his bookstore.  His neighbor, Lulu, found him; the overly persistent Carrington saw someone leaving the store; the ex-wife who is not an ex-wife arrived in town the morning before the killing; the daughter's boyfriend, David, has no alibi for the time of the murder; and the estranged son Kevin shows up just in time to "learn" that he and his sister have inherited their father's bookstore - the only problem is, Ronnie has gone missing, and no one knows where to find her.  It's a grand ol' mystery with plenty of suspects, plenty of clues, and plenty of motives.  It's up to Kay, Jason, and Chief Field to sift through it all to uncover the truth - and to hopefully find Ronnie Bradford before she becomes victim number two!

 

It turns out one of the biggest clues is an acrostic that Bradford had on his desk at the time of his death.  The killer clearly did not realize how important the list of names and book titles were, or he/she would have never left it there.  It's interesting, because that paper with the list of names and list of books is the first internal illustration on page 29, and from the moment I saw it, I picked up on the importance of the first letter of each name - however, Schier does not make it that easy.  It's not until nearly the end of the book when the truth regarding that acrostic comes to light, something I doubt very many people would think to consider.  But that revelation leads Kay to the identity of the killer - that, alongside a very important clue on the cover art (one that, I can honestly say, I picked up on right away, which revealed the identity of the killer from the start - I just didn't get the motive until the end).

 

Speaking of the cover - there is no signature or other identifying mark that reveals the identity of the cover artist, which is a shame, as I love the art.  I think Kay looks considerably more attractive in this cover art than she did back on the cover of book 11, and that give-away clue is subtle, but not too-subtle so as to be missed.  You just have to know what you are looking for, and you'll see it.  As far as the internal illustrations go, once again, there is no signature or other identification of the artist, but those internals are gorgeous.  I particularly like the one on page 143, where Kay goes to question Adele Bradford - I think the artist captures the personality and essence of both of these women perfectly, and one can actually feel the tension between the two screaming off  the page! I can almost picture in my mind a Dynasty-style cat-fight between these two.  And since I mentioned it, I cannot ignore the fact that the author has Kay Barth set in Colorado, and one of the characters/suspects in the story happens to have the last name "Carrington."  Now, this book was published in 1979, two years before the Dynasty nighttime soap premiered in January 1981; however, it is quite the coincidence that the television show was set in Colorado and featured a wealthy family whose last name happens to be Carrington.  Of course, Aspen is 160 miles from Denver (where the soap was set), but still...

 

One thing I did catch in the story is that the author managed to mention the Jerome Hotel (a/k/a Hotel Jerome), which Kay refers to as the "grandfather of Aspen hotels."  In the real world, the Hotel Jerome was built in the late 1800s by Jerome B. Wheeler, a co-owner of Macy's, and over the years, it has become quite the landmark in Aspen. A quick look online reveals the hotel to be QUITE expensive - a single night can cost upwards of $2,300 or more!  Definitely a hotel for the upper echelon!

 

I do find it odd that Schier does not stick with her main character, but rather, she constantly switches point of view from one character to another.  It gives the story an almost-soap opera style feel to it, as you are following the lives of several different characters, not just one.  It also makes pin-pointing the killer a little bit more difficult, since you learn a bit more about each of the characters from their own points-of-view, rather than just the protagonist's, and it gives the characters a bit more depth.  At least with this book, Schier did not wait until we were seven chapters in before she brought Kay into the story!

 

Thankfully, there are two more books in the series by Schier, meaning Kay Barth still has some mysteries to solve before this series ends!

 

RATING:  10 telling telephone numbers out of 10 for a creatively puzzling mystery that really tests the reader's powers of observation and analytical skills! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #25 - You'll Be The Death of Me

It's been ten books since the first of Miriam Lynch's entries into this series, and now I've reached the second (and final) offering by Lynch.  This book was a far cry better than her first Zebra mystery, so either she honed her mystery-writing skills between the time she wrote Time to Kill and this one, or that first book was merely a fluke (since online reviewers all seem to have nothing but praise to sing for Lynch's writing).  Either way, I found this book to be much more engaging, with a well-plotted mystery and plenty of misdirect and red herrings!

 

You'll Be The Death of Me takes small-town reporter Nell Willard  to the Belltown High School twenty-year class reunion, where long-time teacher Sarah Plunkett is being honored as she retires after years of service and Nell is there to cover the story.  Love her or hate her, everyone agrees that Mrs. Plunkett was strict, but she loved her students and only wanted to see them succeed.  But as the retiree prepares to give her speech, she suddenly collapses over the front table, dead!  Needless to say, Nell has an eyewitness account of the tragic event, and when it comes out the teacher was poisoned, Nell knows it's a mystery she must solve.  Police lieutenant Gerold Holbrow, Nell's somewhat boyfriend, is on the case, and although he warns her to stay out of the investigation, she cannot help herself.  After all, the woman had once been her teacher, and for the life of her, Nell cannot understand who would have reason to kill her.

 

Lynch gives readers a number of suspects, all with secrets and possible motives.  First, there is the chairperson of the reunion, Marion Hallison.  The woman is a mystery herself, with no known background, no photographs, and no friends.  Who is she, and how did she land the position of planning such an important event?  As Nell digs into her past, she learns that Marion may be holding a very fierce grudge against the teacher - but is it one that would give her cause to kill her?  Second, there are Stuart and Samuel Corbett, twins who served as co-presidents their senior year of high school, and who married the Bisbee twins (Grace and Gertrude).  The two couples became recluses after their marriages, and moreso after Samuel's wife died.  What secret did Sarah Plunkett uncover about the twins, and was it worth killing her?  Third, there is Suzanne Dixon, the beautiful young wife, married to the richest man in town (a man who could not bother to show up at the reunion, perhaps because he was too drunk!).  Why has she been making early morning visits to a local doctor, and what secret would make her want to leave her husband?  Finally, there is Dr. Harmon Gregory, one of the more successful members of the class, whose sole concern seems to be to care for his sickly wife, who also acts as his nurse at his office.  Is he having an affair with Suzanne Dixon, and if so, how would that justify killing a retiring teacher?

 

The mystery is definitely a puzzling one, and I admit, it had me stumped up until the very final chapter.  All of the suspects had dark secrets, but only one of them had a real motive for murder.  It is when an attempt to commit a second murder takes place (and the big clue is in that final internal illustration) that the killer's identity is finally revealed - and the motive is not all what you suspect.  It certainly took me by surprise, but it definitely made sense looking back at everything else Nell learns throughout the book. 

 

The cover art is provided by Mel Greifinger, who has provided the art on three prior Zebra Mystery Puzzlers. I love his work, as his visuals are stunning.  Sadly, I could not find any real clue on the cover (unless it is simply supposed to be the glass in front of her, which was poisoned.  The internal illustrations are drawn by Sanford Hoffman, marking his fifth book in the series.  As with all of his prior illustrations, he always outlines his scene, and he often has one part of the scene break through that outline (such as in the one to the right, where the gun is raised, breaking through the line).  This scene strikes me as odd, though, as the story indicates the person comes up behind Nell and strikes her on the head.  The object that strikes her is not mentioned, and it is not until later in the story we find out it was a gun - so to have it displayed so vividly here sort of gives away something (unless this picture on page 75 is meant to connect to the illustration on page 159; yet, the guns in each drawing appear different!).  I also find the gun and hand to be very out of proportion to the scene, since, if the person is behind Nell, wouldn't the perspective mean the hand and gun should be smaller?  Yet, in the drawing, they are considerably larger! Oh, well, I suppose that's just me being nit-picky!

 

This is definitely on my list of the top Zebra Mystery Puzzlers.  Loved the mystery, loved the characters, and loved the resolution.  It's just a shame this was the last offering by Miriam Lynch, meaning no more reporter Nell Willard solving murder mysteries...

 

RATING:  9 bottles of Silver Mist hair coloring out of 10 for a crafty, puzzling mystery that really does keep you guessing up until the end! 

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 #23 - Death in a Small World

Another new protagonist and another new author enters the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series with this book.  The 23rd book in the series is the first written by Laura Colburn, being followed up by books 34 and 46.  Colburn, in reality, is Ian McMahan, an award-winning author  and developmental psychologist who under his own name wrote a number of books, both fiction and non-fiction, including the three-book Microkid Mysteries and the one ESP McGee mystery for young readers back in the early 1980s.  I was not really sure what to expect from this book, considering the author's background (but, as one might expect, it turns out one of the characters in the book is a psychologist, which provides the author with an opportunity to include his profession into the story).  However, after a bit of a slow start, the book actually turned out to be surprisingly good.

 

Death in a Small World does not refer to a ride at Disney World, but rather, to just how small our world really is when it comes to running into people from our past in the most unexpected places.  What's the old expression about being in the right place at the right time?  Only, in this case, it's about someone being in the wrong place at most definitely the wrong time.  Our amateur sleuth in this book is Carol Gates, an artist and illustrator who is a part of the '70s bohemian movement in the Soho district of New York City. She happens to be at a party thrown by two of her friends, which is attended by a number of aspiring artists, several art dealers, and a few other miscellaneous people - including Steve McCullough, a stranger known only to the hosts (or so everyone thought!), who Carol finds dead in the elevator shaft clutching a gold lighter.  Was it an accident, as the police believe?  Or was it suicide, as Carol's friend Ginny firmly thinks?  Or was it cold-blooded murder, as Carol is sure it is?  Since the police are not investigating, and no one is really questioning it, Carol takes it upon herself to find out the truth - after all, being the daughter of a retired police chief, she has an inquisitive mind and an eidetic memory, so who better to solve a murder no one believes was a murder?

 

Colburn (a/k/a McMahan) does not open the story with his main character as most of the book do; rather, he opens it with his two main suspects - Angelo and Ginny Politano, an art-loving couple who are getting ready to host a very important party for their bohemian friends.  However, news of Steve McCullough's arrival causes a massive disruption in their plans, because it seems Ginny has a hidden past with Steve, and when Angelo finds out what it is, he becomes very unlike himself.  But, the party must go on, and so it does - until Carol is ready to leave and along with a fellow guest, Bob Fletcher (manager of several local buildings, including the one in which Carol lives), they wait for the elevator to arrive.  When it does, though, it bears an unexpected surprise - the body of Steve McCullough.  Carol knows there is something off - but her roommate doesn't believe her.  Her own boyfriend doesn't believe her.  Angelo and Ginny do not believe her.  Even Steve's best friend from the army who comes to town to claim the body does not believe her.  Despite all of this, Carol knows she is right, and she begins investigating, questioning everyone she can find from the party to find out what discussions they had with this stranger that no one (except Angelo and Ginny) knew.

 

The story then follows Carol as she starts questioning everyone. Angelo and Ginny know very little about Steve, other than his past affair with Ginny.  From attorney Robert Silverman, she learns about Steve's interest in Nazis who absconded with valuable art from Germany after the war.  From Steve's best friend, Arnie, she learns about his obsession with finding one particular Nazi by the name of Hans Bruckner who disappeared after the war.  From two different art dealers, she learns just how important that stolen art might be worth and what it cost people to escape from Germany after the war.  From Bob Fletcher, the building manager who knows some art dealers, she learns that both of the art dealers have something to hide.  From Steve's own attorney, Theodore Hornby, who is handling his estate, she learns not only a lot more about Steve's past, but also that his will leaves quite a large sum of money to his former lover - Ginny Politano!  The more Carol learns, the more questions there are, and the more suspects there appear to be.  When another guest from the party turns up dead from yet another apparent accident, and when two attempts are made on Carol's life, she knows she is getting closer to the truth. With nothing else to do, and with the help of her boyfriend, Carol sets up a trap to trick the killer in to revealing himself - the only problem is, the killer turns the tables on Carol, and she is the one tricked!

 

While I was not able to get into the story at first, it quickly shifted gears and the more information Carol (and I!) learned about Steve and the possible motives and suspects, the more interested I became in the mystery.  Every time I thought I had an idea of who did it, a monkey wrench got thrown into the works, and suddenly I changed my mind and went with another suspect (however, I should always trust my first instinct, because the person my gut first told me was the killer did turn out to be the culprit!).  I have to give Colburn (a/k/a McMahan) credit for crafting a well-written mystery.

The cover art, which depicts the scene where Carol finds Steve's body in the elevator, is painted by Mel Greifinger, the same artist who provided covers for The Curse of the Golden Skull and The Final Appointment.  None of the interior illustrations identifies the artist, but the shading and drawings seem similar to some of the other books in the series, so it was likely someone who Kensington Publishing Corp. used on a fairly regular basis.  The illustrations do not, in and of themselves, point to any specific clues, but rather, they merely depict scenes that are important to the story and moments at which Carol learns (or should have learned - such as the fact that one of the suspects, who turns out to be the killer, is left handed - it's a subtle sort of thing, but it's there if you notice it) something that would ultimately lead her to the solution to this mystery.

By the end of the book, I found I rather like Carol Gates, and I'm happy to know that I'll get two more adventures with her before this series ends!

RATING:  9 heavy attache cases out of 10 for a creative plot that works overtime to mislead the reader, taking you in one direction, when the truth lies in an entirely different area!

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!