A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #10 - The Final Pose

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #6 - The Final Lie

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hurricane Nurse - a Berkley orginal romance novel

I am not one for romance novels, but I happened across this book at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair a few years back.  I remember being curious about it, because with "hurricane" in the title, I figured it must have a Florida setting.  The price was a bit on the high side, so I passed it up.  The next year, I saw that the seller had the same book at the same price - meaning it clearly was not selling for the price he was asking, so I held off.  When I hit the book fair this year, you guessed it - the book was still with the seller, having not sold now for three years.  I made an offer, which the seller took, and I became the proud owner of a nurse / romance novel set in the southernmost part of Florida.  Now the question became - would I enjoy the book?

hurricane nurse (and yes, the title is actually spelled with small letters, not capitals) does not actually begin in Florida; rather, the reader is introduced to Betsy Stockwell and her father, Dr. Cal, in their hometown of Atlanta, where Dr. Cal is quite the famous surgeon at the local hospital.  When he has a serious heart attack, Besty is told her father must go someplace to convalesce where he can get plenty of rest and sunshine - hence, he is shipped off to Blue Heron Cay just off the Florida Keys (NOTE - there is no such place as "Blue Heron Cay," although, as we all know, the Florida Keys, and Key West in particular, are very real places).  Betsy, whose mother died when she was young and who is very close to her father (gee, what titian-haired detective does that sound like?), feels duty-bound to go with him, and thus, she must postpone her planned marriage to Dr. Paul Norbert, who is a bit hurt, but understands and promises to wait for her (yeah, like we don't already know that's not going to happen...).

Based on the title, I was expecting that once Nurse Betsy arrived in the Florida Keys, a horrific hurricane would come through, and she would be put to the test with her nursing skills helping out people injured due to the horrific storms that swipe through the area.  I mean, the cover gives the idea that in the middle of the storm, a shirtless man is carrying an injured woman to Betsy, so that she can administer first aid during the dangerous conditions.  The actual story, however, deals very little with the hurricane that does eventually come through - a hurricane that does very little damage.  There is a young girl who is injured when she crawls under her house trying to rescue her kitting just as the storm hits (this would be the young girl in the arms of the man on the cover - but in the story, the man is not shirtless, and Betsy is not outside waiting for him); but that is truly the only "drama" associated with the hurricane.

The main gist of the story is the hate/love relationship between Betsy and the island doctor who is watching over her father's recover, Dr. Mark Everett.  While Dr. Everett is congenial and friendly with Dr. Cal, he is aloof and downright rude to Betsy from the get-go.  She immediately resents the man to the point of almost hating him.  But, of course, as with any typical soap opera romance story, Dr. Everett has a secret in his past that, when Betsy learns what it is, paints the man in a whole new light, and she soon finds herself falling for him despite her fiance back home.  When Dr. Everett admits his own feelings for her after the hurricane, Betsy is torn, but she decides to remain true to Paul, and she returns home to Atlanta with her father after he is deemed fully recovered.  Of course, as can be expected, during her absence, Paul has fallen for Betsy's best friend, leaving Betsy free to back to Dr. Everett - but is it too late?  Has he already fallen prey to a bombshell vixen down in Key West, or does he still want to make her his wife?

Other than flying into the Key West airport, and brief mentions of Miami, there is very little detail at all about Florida, which was disappointing.  And the lack of any real hurricane drama also left me with a bad taste in my mouth regarding the book and its deceptive title.  The one part of the story I did rather find amusing were the residents of the Inn there on Blue Heron Cay where Betsy and her father stay.  The owner, Davanna (no last name), is a gruff woman who has a heart for starving artists who are trying to make their big break (but none of whom are talented, so that big break is likely never to come).  There was the "tall, thin, emaciated looking woman" named Mavis, who is a poet; the "short, intense, bald man" name Allan, who considers himself a composer; the "middle-aged, rather fluttery woman" named Gertrude, a self-proclaimed artist; and the "lank, bearded young man" named Slug, who has no job, no talent, and no patience for those who do work in the real world (pp. 34-25).  It's definitely a motley crew of residents, and it was somewhat engaging to see Betsy's first reaction to them, but gradually watch as she becomes not only accustomed to their idiosyncrasies, but eventually feels they are a part of her own extended family. 

With regard to the hurricane, Davanna makes mention that the hurricanes do not usually come through there until late September (p. 62); however, Florida's hurricane season is typically from June through November, with August through September being the "busiest" months.  And looking back at the hurricanes that went through the Keys prior to 1961 when this book was published, it seems most of them hit in September (making Davanna technically correct in her observation).  And when the eye of the storm reaches the Cay (p. 66), you gotta give Davanna credit, as she warns Betsy that the calm is deceiving, as the storm will come back with full force as soon as the eye passes over.  I just truly wish the hurricane had made a bigger impact in the story, to give some level of credence to the title.

 

The author is Peggy Gaddis,  who was rather popular back in the day with her nurse romance novels.  She was a rather prolific author, with a writing career spanning thirty years.  While she wrote a number of books under her maiden name of Gaddis, she also wrote under a number of pseudonyms, such as Gail Jordan, Joan Sherman, Carolina Lee, Georgia Craig, and several others (including some male names).  I do have a couple of her other books, so when I do get around to reading them, I'm hoping they will be a bit better than this one.

The cover art is painted by Harry Bennett, who provided cover art for a large number of romance, gothic, and mystery paperbacks over the years.  You can find out some of the artist's history at this website:  Harry Bennett - Artist.  And, coincidentally enough, I actually own one of Bennett's original paintings, which was used for a young adult novel called The End of Innocence, published in 1972.  I would love to track down the original art for hurricane nurse, as that cover is definitely much more dramatic than the story inside!

RATING:  6 battered, spray-stained yachting caps out of 10 for at least throwing in a bit of mystery surrounding the island doctor's past to provide some drama to the story.

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #2 - The Final Ring

As much as I enjoyed the first Zebra Mystery Puzzler by Marjorie J. Grove, this second Puzzler, by Marcia Blair, was even better.  Perhaps because this book is shorter, with nearly 50 less pages than the first book, the story moves a bit faster, and honestly, the illustrations are better - crisper with a bit more clarity when it comes to the clues (although not too easy, so don't think they just give it away!).  It also turns out that Marcia Blair may be yet another pseudonym (just as Marjorie J. Grove was).  While there are actually several Marcia Blairs who have been authors over the past five decades or so, this particular Marcia Blair seems to be a pen name for author Marc Baker (Marc Baker as Marcia Blair).  It's curious that these male authors seem to use female pseudonyms to write mysteries with female protagonists, which begs the question: did the authors simply not want to be known for writing female sleuths, or was it the publisher's choice, thinking a series marketed to female readers would sell better with female authors?

 

In any event, The Final Ring is Blair's first Zebra Mystery Puzzler starring Victoria Baxter, a nurse who has a penchant for solving murders. Just as Grove's books all have the "You'll Die..." in the title, Blair's books all feature "The Final..." in the title.  This series had a knack for utilizing similar titles for the same authors and their characters - I suppose that was so readers would instantly know what amateur sleuth they were getting when they picked up a book.  Which is a pretty ingenious idea, when you stop and think about it, because it not only attracted readers who liked one particular author or character, but since they were all published under the same "Zebra Mystery Puzzler" banner, those readers were likely to start picking up other books in the series written by different authors, pulling them into the series as a whole, thus increasing sales.  Whatever the reason, I'm sure people developed their favorite characters as the series progressed, and I'll be curious to see which one I like better than others as I read through the series.

Unlike the previous book which took a while to get to the murder, The Final Ring opens with the murder taking place within the first few pages (albeit off-screen).  Nurse Victoria Baxter, or "Tory" as she is often called, gets a middle-of-the-night call from her good friend and fellow nurse, Peggy Moore, who has been assigned as a caregiver to a wealthy woman who was involved in an accident that left her in a wheelchair.  The call frightens Tory, as Peggy is incoherent and only manages to say a few words:  "Two ... mailman ... bell ... our favorite ..."  While the words themselves make no sense, Tory knows Peggy well enough to realize her friend is experiencing diabetic shock; so, she calls Dr. Robert Clarkson, who also happens to be Peggy's fiance, and he immediately heads out to the Harrington house - but it is too late.  Peggy is dead, and there is nothing anyone can do.  While the death appears to be simply the result of Peggy's failure to take her insulin, or perhaps her lack of proper diet, Tory is certain something else happened.  So, when Dr. Clarkson asks her to take over as caregiver for Mrs. Harrington, Tory agrees, as this will put her in the perfect position to look into the circumstances surrounding her friend's death.

The one thing I like about Tory is that she is very strong-willed and not afraid to speak her mind.  Even though Dr. Clarkson and others try to convince her that Peggy's death was merely an accident, Tory is certain it was not.  That certainty grows stronger when she begins to realize that something sinister is going on inside of the Harrington home.  Mrs. Harrington gets violently ill after a dinner, where no one else becomes sick.  Then she begins to notice that Mr. Harrington's secretary, who visits the house to bring documents for him to sign, is extremely friendly with the man, yet gives a cold shoulder to his wife.  And when the downstairs maid winds up dead at the bottom of the stairs, Tory learns that Mrs. Harrington is afraid for her own life, as a pair of high-heels given to her by her husband have was on the heels, by which she could have easily slipped had she been out of the wheelchair and using the shoes!  Blair weaves a carefully plotted tale that leads the reader in one direction before completely pulling the rug out from under you by the end!  I love it!

And, as I indicated above, the clues in this book are a bit easier to discern, but not as easily solved.  Those incoherent words uttered by Peggy in her death call have a very important meaning that finally makes sense in the penultimate chapter, on those final pages before you reach the sealed chapters.  And believe me, once you figure out the meaning of those words, the entire mystery makes sense, and you realize just how much danger Tory's life is in.  I literally shouted out loud when the clues clicked into place, and I realized what was going on and who was behind it all - and before I opened that final chapter!

The book was definitely well-written and a great read.  Blair introduces the readers to several characters that I expect to see in future books - Jay Thorpe, the police detective with whom Tory is clearly in love with; Sandy Brockman, a resident at Pacific General that treats Tory to the occasional dinner and movie; and Aunt Tildy, Tory's aunt who writes a mystery series about a detective named "Max Good" (which is curious, in that the sleuth in the first mystery by Marjorie J. Grove happens to be nicknamed "Max" - coincidence?).  I did notice that in this book, the final chapter had smaller font than the rest of the book, for which there was not apparent reason.  And thankfully in this second book, the killer is not actually revealed until the final chapter - and Blair manages to put Tory into a situation that makes you turn each page wondering how he is going to get out of it.  This book makes me really look forward to reading her next book (which is book 6 in the series, The Final Lie).  

Now with regard to the interior illustrations - while there is no credit given anywhere as to the artist, the final illustration on page 157 has the name "Luke Ryan" printed near the bottom of the page.  I was not able to find out anything about the man, other than the fact that he apparently provided illustrations for at least one of the Zebra Illustrated Gothics back in the '70s (The Devil's Doorstep).  I wish I could find more of Ryan's work, as his pencil drawings are beautiful, with great detail and perfect shading.  They remind me a bit of Ruth Sanderson's illustrations for the Nancy Drew books in the 1980s.  

 

Finally, I do need to mention one thing I found odd about the formatting of the book. All of the chapters began on the same page where the previous chapter ended.  There were no blank spaced at the end of any chapter page; rather, the next chapter simply began below the ending of the previous.  Until chapter ten, that is.  Chapter nine ends at the top of page 147, while chapter ten starts midway down page 148.  The only reason I can figure for this sudden changer in format is so that the final chapter before the sealed one would end on a right-side page, rather than a left-side.  It doesn't affect the story in any way, but I did find it odd.

RATING:  9 glasses of dry sherry out of 10 for a superb mystery with a fantastic twist at the end that you are likely not to see coming!