Daly, Elizabeth - The Book of the Crime (1951)

This was Daly's last Gamadge book, although it was written sixteen years before she died. It would be interesting to know why she stopped. There's no obvious falling-off in talent here, though the book does partake strongly of what I have come to think of as the 'magic realism' of classic detective fiction: it is set in a place where events follow rules, but not necessarily the rules of this world.

Serena (Rena) Austin has married a returned war hero, and finds herself cloistered in a Manhattan brownstone with her new husband Gray and his brother and sister, Jerome and Hildreth, living off Gray's lifetime annuity from a late uncle. Gray is moody and reluctant to go out; the servants are contemptuous, and Rena's in-laws downright sinister. Gray attempts to lock her in when he finds her looking at a couple of old books; she escapes and with the help of a good samaritan, Norris Ordway, finds her way to the Gamadge establishment.

Gamadge provides shelter and a disguise, and puts his contacts in high places on to investigating the Austin menage. He gets an unexpected assist when Gray Austin himself approaches him for help in investigating his wife's 'disappearance'. Gradually Gamadge winkles out the nasty truth behind the sinister trio in the brownstone, and the even nastier crime that follows.

I found it interesting and enjoyable, but more for the quality of the writing than for the plot, which the reader is highly unlikely to unravel. It had the mystifying, surreal property of some European films. Jerome and Hildreth are satisfyingly wicked, and the many moments of building tension would make this an ideal movie. It may even have been written with Hitchock in mind.

Jon.