Voyage into Violence is especially vividly written. The story of a cruise from New York City to pre-Castro Havana, the tale is remarkably atmospheric.
There are some similar plot patterns in Death Takes a Bow and Voyage into Violence. Both stories wind up having two villains, one an amateur who committed the actual murder, the other a professional criminal. This professional commits most of the recurring acts of violence in the tale: searching people's rooms, thefts, and the accompanying assaults and battery of the occupants of the rooms, usually with a blackjack. The amateur who commits the murder is actually far less violent that this professional, who is always stirring up the suspense plot by constantly menacing one character or another in the dark. The amateur has a strong reason to commit the crimes. The crimes are related to family life, and the motivation in each case is related to women's issues: the stories were plotted by Frances Lockridge, and like many woman detective writers of the era, she raised issues of concern to women in her stories. Both novels have a similar puzzle plot: in each the killer is sailing under false pretenses, and turns out to be someone different from whom they appear to be. In each case, the killer's relationships are involved, faked relationships that disguise the truth.
All of these plot patterns are better handled in Voyage into Violence (1956) than in the earlier novel. In Death Takes a Bow (1943) the professional criminal and the amateur have nothing to do with one another; their common presence in the story is just a coincidence. In Voyage into Violence, the two are linked by a logical plot construction. The puzzle plot in Voyage is more elaborate and more imaginative.
Mike Grost
See also: http://moonlight-detective.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-private-eyes-requiem.html
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