Fiction Friday: Mystery Releases by The Queens of Crime

Fiction Friday: 

Mystery Releases by The Queens of Crime

In 1941, three of the four “Queens of Crime,” Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh. At the time, the fourth “Queen,” Dorothy Sayers was focused on her radio dramatization of the life of Jesus as well as translating Dante’s Divine Comedy into colloquial English. The period during which these women wrote is known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and books published during this era were typically “whodunits” and often feature closed door mysteries (i.e. the killer is not from outside the group of people) and took place in country manors of “landed gentry.” With the exception of Agatha Christie who found success with two sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, the other authors are primarily known for one:

• Allingham: Albert Campion
• Ngaio Marsh: Roderick Alleyn
• Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey

Let’s take a look at their publications for the year.

Margery Allingham’s Traitor’s Purse takes place in the early days of World War II and intriguingly has

a plot line that mimics a real German operation, Operation Bernhard, that involved pouring counterfeit money into Britain. However, the campaign didn’t become public until after the war, so she wouldn’t have known about it. The main character, Albert Campion first appeared in her 1929 book The Crime at Black Dudley. He would show up in a total of eighteen full-length novels and copious short stories.

He awakens in a hospital with amnesia yet feels compelled he is on an important mission of some sort tied to the number fifteen. He overhears a conversation taking place in the hallway about an unconscious man who has killed a policeman and is to be hanged. Campion assumes they are talking about him and escapes. Stolen cars, secret meetings, and hidden trucks combine with espionage and murder to keep the reader (and Campion following clues) to ascertain the culprit.

Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun doesn’t refer to the war although ostensibly takes place in the present day (1941). Poirot is on vacation at “The Jolly Roger Hotel” in Devon and gets tangled up in the murder of an attractive woman no one seems to like. As is his penchant, the detective observes the other guests and their interactions, drawing conclusions and making associations no one else sees. The plot is somewhat convoluted because nearly every guest has a secret and/or motive to kill the victim. In the end, Poirot brings everyone together and announces that not one, but two people were involved in the murder scheme.

Ngaio Marsh’s Death and the Dancing Footman takes place in 1941, and the war is not mentioned. As was popular the story is set at the large manor of “wealthy dilettante” Jonathan Royal who hosts a party with guests “whose mutual animosity is sure to provide cruelly macabre entertainment.” A snowstorm arrives, and the telephone lines soon go out. Shortly thereafter, the victim is killed with a Maori greenstone mere weapon, a short, broad-bladed weapon in the shape of an enlarged tear drop, from Ms. Marsh’s native Australia. Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in from a nearby town and stages a re-enactment to determine the villain.

Have you read any of these classics?

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Murder at Madison Square Garden

1941: The dream of a lifetime becomes a nightmare.

Photojournalist Theodora “Teddy” Schafer’s career has hit the skids thanks to rumors of plagiarism. With any luck, a photo spread with Charles Lindbergh at the America First Rally will salvage her reputation. After an attempted assassination of Lindbergh leaves another man dead, Teddy is left holding the gun. Literally. Can she prove her innocence before the police lock her up for a murder she didn’t commit?

Private Investigator Ric Bogart wants nothing to do with women after his wife cleaned out their bank account and left him for another man, but he can’t ignore the feeling he’s supposed to help the scrappy, female reporter who is arrested for murder at the America First rally. Can he believe her claims of innocence and find the real killer without letting Teddy steal his heart?

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Mystery Monday: Raymond Chandler

Mystery Monday: Raymond Chandler

Courtesy Britannica

I am always amazed when I read about authors from the past who turned to writing to earn a living during difficult circumstances. Grace Livingston Hill is one of those authors, and Raymond Chandler is another. As a way to immerse myself in the world of my characters, I read books they might have read. The “hard-boiled detective novel” was a popular choice during the 1940s, and Raymond Chandler published quite a few.

According to several sources, Chandler decided to become a writer after he lost his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. Another source indicated he was fired for his alcoholism, absenteeism, and “promiscuity with female employees.” Fortunately, he seemed to find success with his stories almost immediately. But he’d done his homework by teaching himself how to write in the manner of pulp fiction authors by studying and imitating Erle Stanley Gardner’s work (most famously his Perry Mason stories). Chandler’s first money-making story was “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot” published in Black Mask magazine in 1933.

By the mid-1930s, he began working on novels in addition to his short stories. Published in 1939, The

Big Sleep, featured detective Philip Marlowe and was an almost instant best-seller. The second Marlowe book, Farewell, My Lovely, was published the following year and became the basis for three different movie versions. This led to a successful screenplay career in addition to his novels. Marlowe was his most famous character, and he went on to write seven of them.

Enamored with California (where he set most of his books), Chandler and his wife moved to La Jolla in 1946. Sadly, he lost his wife to illness in 1954 which exacerbated Chandler’s drinking and his depression. His writing suffered, and he traveled to England, but the trip didn’t seem to do much for him. He returned to La Jolla where he passed away in 1959. In 1988, on the hundredth anniversary of Chandler’s birth, Author Robert B. Parker completed Chandler’s unfinished manuscript Poodle Springs. The book was published in October 1989.

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Dial V for Valentine

Valentine’s Day is perfect for a wedding. If only the bride will agree.

Being part of the military is not just a job for Fergus Rafferty, it’s a calling. He’s worked his way up the ranks and doing what he loves best: flying Apache helicopters. The only thing that will make his life complete is marrying Celeste. After he transfers to a unit scheduled to deploy in three months, he’s thrilled at the idea of marrying before he leaves so they can start their new life. Except Celeste wants to wait until he returns. Can he convince her to wed before he leaves?

Celeste Hardwicke has just opened her law practice when she finally accepts Fergus’s marriage proposal. Not to worry. She has plenty of time to set a date, then plan the wedding. Until she doesn’t. But a quickie wedding isn’t what she has in mind. Besides, why get married when the groom will ship out after the ceremony? When she stumbles on her great-grandmother’s diary from World War II, she discovers the two of them share the same predicament.

At an impasse, Celeste and Fergus agree to call into WDES’s program No Errin’ for Love. Will DJ Erin Orberg’s advice solve their dilemma or create a bigger divide? One they’ll both regret.

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