Walling, RAJ - Follow the Blue Car (1933) aka In Time for Murder

Follow the Blue Car is RAJ Walling's second Philip Tolefree mystery.

Tolefree receives an anonymous letter telling him, "If you happen to be on the Paybury Road to-morrow afternoon, the 28th . . . you will encounter something of considerable interest. . . . Look out for an unmistakably blue car--and keep your eye on it." Tolefree doesn't drive, so he engages his friend Farrar to drive him there and then follow the blue car. They follow the blue car for nine hours; the driver appears to want them to follow him. Suddenly, just after midnight, the car disappears, and when they find it, it's deserted. They walk along the road to a house where they discover the occupants roused from their beds and a fresh corpse behind a table. In addition to the obvious questions--who killed the man and why--are two other mysteries: Who robbed a car carrying a week's payroll cash? Why did the driver lead Tolefree and Farrar on a nine-hour chase?

Farrar narrates the story, and Tolefree goes off for hours or days at a time to investigate. Tolefree occasionally has Farrar do some investigating, too. The local police investigate the murder, and Tolefree investigates the robbery. The two mysteries, of course, are connected.

The occupants of the house include Major Cramb, his stepdaughter Jane Upfield, her suitor Peter Hurst, and her companion Mary Bellairs; Maj. Cramb's secretary, Harley, is the dead man. Their neighbor Leybrook is visiting, as is Joseph Trinnery, who is the managing director of Cramb's firm. Trinnery has sent the firm's payroll to Paybury Harbor, and the car carrying it was stopped and robbed. Was Harley the robber? Peter flees before the police can interview him; where has he gone? Jane disappears, and Maj. Cramb engages Tolefree to find her. Leybrook clearly has a hand in Peter's disappearance and possibly in Jane's; Trinnery is up to something, and Tolefree looks into that, too. In the end, Tolefree ties all the plot threads together and answers all the questions.

Joan C. Cook, 5 May 2009