Brace, Timothy - Murder Goes in a Trailer (1937)

Pratt, writing as Timothy Brace, wrote four novels featuring wealthy amateur criminologist Anthony Adams. Barzun and Taylor in their COC dismiss him as a writer "without special distinction". My reading of Murder Goes in a Trailer (the second in the series) causes me to agree with them. His writing style can best be described as workmanlike. He has no great flair for dialogue or for creating memorable characters. The murder method (administering some type of poison gas into a seemingly "locked" trailer) is clever and the final pages wherein amateur sleuth Anthony Adams gathers the suspects and uses deductive reasoning to eliminate all but one of them and solve the puzzle are the highlights of the book. Unfortunately, Pratt/Brace took a short story plot and bloated it into a tedious novel totally lacking in humor and sustainable interest. Perhaps the most glaring error he made in writing this series was the creation of his sleuth. Anthony Adams is a bored rich guy (sort of like Average Jones or Philo Vance) who likes to intrude into murder investigations that capture his interest. The local police kowtow to him in a quite unbelievable manner. The Adams character carries all the unlikable qualities of Jones, Vance, Queen and Wimsey without exhibiting any of their redeeming features. Simply put, he is a boring, pompous, conceited ass who takes himself way too seriously.

Bob Schneider 09/08