Palmer, Stuart - Cold Poison (1954)

Cold Poison (1954) is the last Hildegarde Withers novel completed by Palmer in his lifetime. Its puzzle plot is particularly disappointing; Palmer develops an interesting set of background events in his tale, which are dug up by Hildegarde and Inspector Piper with some Anna Katherine Green style sleuthing. Then the solution reveals that all these clues have nothing to do with the mystery! Palmer did this with a number of 1950's mystery works of his. The solution also exposes his weakness in handling motives. On the plus side, the first five chapters of the novel are well written. They are not going anywhere as a puzzle plot, but they remain an interesting torso. The book is set in an animated cartoon film studio of the era. This is similar to the film studio background Palmer employed for The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan (1941).

At the end of Cold Poison, there is a poignant moment when the characters speculate, that because of their age, there might not be any more Withers adventures. In fact, Cold Poison was to be the last Withers novel Palmer completed, even though he lived another fourteen years. It is very unclear what caused this. Did Palmer weary of the characters? Did he become to ill too write? Or did market forces make it impossible to publish more Withers books, with editors deciding the series was "old-fashioned"? Withers stories appeared in a steady stream through 1951, then slowed down to a trickle.

Mike Grost