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 #14 - Death on the Late Show

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #12 - Sing a Song of Murder

I've reached the twelfth Zebra Mystery Puzzler, and with it comes a new female lead sleuth from a new writer to the series.  Jan Michael is the seventh author in the series thus far, and from what I was able to dig up, the name is yet another pseudonym, this time for Jan Milella, who also wrote books under the pen name "Jan Mathews," as well as under her own name.  She only wrote two books in this series - this book and also book 14.  Milella also wrote books in the Harlequin Intrigue line of books, as well as the Silhouette Intimate Moments line and the "Second Chance at Love" line of romance novels.  Her first entry into the series was not bad at all, and I rather liked the lead character...

Sing a Song of Murder features a young country singer Darby Castle, who has hit it big and is just coming off a national tour with her band.  As they return to Nashville for one final concert, Darby learns from her boyfriend/manager that her new accountant has discovered Max Kingston, her promoter, has been skimming money for years, basically stealing tens of thousands of dollars that should rightfully be Darby's.  Upon arrival at the Nashville area, Jimmy (her manager/boyfriend) and Joe (her new accountant) confront Kingston, which sets off a chain of events that ultimately lead to Darby discovering Kingston dead in his office after the concert, strangled by a patch cord belonging to one of her musicians!  While there were plenty of people in the arena and backstage, it seems that the only real suspects who had the opportunity to kill the promoter are all members of Darby's tour group.

Milella a/k/a Michaels writes a rather fast-paced, but well-plotted murder mystery.  With only 174 pages, and the murder not actually occurring until page 63 (well, that is when the body is discovered), leaving less than 100 pages for the investigation to take place, since Darby reveals her knowledge of the killer's identity on page 161, the final page before the sealed last chapter.  The suspects include her maid, Bernadette, who dated Kingston before he dumped her for the next girl in a long line of flings; her guitarist, Billy, whose patch cord was used to strangle Kingston; her bandleader, Stan, who has some big time gambling debts and who could use the money Kingston stole; her boyfriend, Jimmy, who was allegedly sleeping off a drunken stupor at the time of the murder (but no one actually saw him during the time period in question); her accountant, Joe, in whose room the missing money was found; and even her other three band members, who claim to have been playing cards at the time, but who could easily be giving each other an alibi for the crime!  The obvious motive is the money stolen from Kingston's safe and lock box; however, Darby is intelligent enough to realize there is more to this mystery than meets the eye.

The character of Darby Castle reads somewhat like an adult Nancy Drew.  She is determined to help her friends and prove they are innocent of the crime, and she is quick to pick up on clues that the even the police do not seem to see (such as the lack of marks on the hands of one suspect who is arrested for the crime - marks a cord would leave when used to strangle someone).  She even has no problem getting cooperation from the police, who not only allow her to investigate and share information with her, but go so far as to give her a police pass to permit her to visit the crime scene without any supervision!  I would say that is probably the only drawback to this book, as no police force would be this accommodating, even where Darby is a big, multi-million dollar star in the music industry.  However, Darby is the star of the book, so I suppose the author felt the need to keep her at the forefront of the investigation, regardless of the unrealistic relationship between Darby and the police force.

There is no clue as to the identity of the cover artist, nor for the internal illustrations either.  I do like the internals, as they are full page illustrations, with the exception of a white space at the bottom of each one to allow for the page number.  The only one I found a bit off is the one on page 107, which depicts Darby and Lieutenant Hanson testing a theory regarding the marks that a cord would leave on someone's hands.  In the story, the two of them are at the police station, in the lieutenant's office; however, in the illustration, there are records clearly visible on the wall behind Lieutenant Hanson, which would have been hanging on the wall of one of the dressing rooms or perhaps in the promoter's office back at the arena (such as in an earlier scene as depicted to the left, here).  This, of course, begs the question on how much detail the artist is given when provided scenes to be drawn for the book.  Otherwise, the rest of the illustrations stay consistent with the story, and a few of them do provide some subtle clues regarding the identity of the killer (and, no, I'm not going to give them away here and spoil it for anyone!).

Finally, as indicated above, the story is mostly set in Nashville, Tennessee, and the author references quite a number of streets, rivers, and other locales throughout the story.  From the mention of taking U.S. 40 up to Nashville (p. 1), to Elm Hill Pike melting into Lafayette Street (p. 25), there are numerous references to actual places, including the Cumberland River, Hendersonville, and Sumner County.  The author's use of "King's Town" Arena is likely referring to the Bridgestone Arena, as both the fictional and real arenas are located on Broadway in the heart of the city.  Milella's use of actual locations tends to give the story some grounding that gives readers a sense of "reality" to the mystery, as those familiar with Nashville can easily picture the places described in the book.

Another solid read in the series, and leaves me a bit sad to know there will only be one more Darby Castle story to read!

RATING:  8 new Sony cassette recorders out of 10 for some great red herrings, some well-placed misleading clues, and a good over-all read!