This was originally published in 1951. I had never read anything by the author, Frances Crane, but this features a married couple, Pat and Jean, and their involvement in solving mysteries. I was hoping it would be similar to Nick and Norah Charles in The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet, or like Pam and Jerry North in the Frances and Richard Lockridge series.
This mystery was set in New Mexico, and starts off with Pat and Jean's friend, rancher Jim Rand, becoming engaged to Maggie, who has a cute four-year-old daughter. Then Jim's ex-wife arrives--after their divorce she married a gangster who has been recently murdered, and she uses one of her late husband's gangster friend as her chauffeur. Not to be outdone, Maggie's former husband also shows up.
There are an assortment of artist type people to add color, and there are warnings of possible trouble brewing ahead, with an gossiping man to add more fuel to the fire. There are a lot of stereotypes, which is par for the course for this time frame. Then there is the murder, committed using Jim's gun. And Maggie's daughter is kidnapped and can't be found. Jean and Pat get involved helping the sheriff find the missing girl, and solving the murder.
I was a little disappointed in this book, probably because my
expectations weren't realistic. There didn't seem to be much, if any,
lighthearted bantering between Pat and Jean, and the story seemed more
serious than other series that I've read. It also seemed to be dragging
at the beginning, and a little hard to follow.
It may
have been because of the time frame this took place, or the subject
matter, or I may have just not been in the right kind of mood, but this
wasn't one of my favorite books, although I will probably read another
book in the series to see if I like it better. Perhaps, as this was one
of the books from the middle of the series, I'll try to find one of the
first books.
This is part of my 2014 Color Coded Challenge--9) A book with a word that implies color.
It is also part of my 2014 Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge--E--book with detective team.
So far, I've read two of her books. The Yellow Violet (#3 in the series) was very good, while The Coral Princess (#18) didn't do as much for me. I have a feeling she may be a kind of hit and miss author....
ReplyDeleteThat's good to know. I'm still going to try to find one of the early ones--I'll be looking for The Yellow Violet, hopefully that will be one that I like better, too!
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