Dress Down Sunday: Dead Men Don’t Ski by Patricia Moyes


published 1959

LOOKING AT WHAT GOES ON UNDER THE CLOTHES



Dead Men Don't Ski 1


Henry stepped quietly out into the corridor, and went down to the first floor. He knocked on Maria-Pia’s door.

The Baroness, looking pale but enchanting in a fluffy pink and white négligée, was propped up on a plethora of pillows, reading a fashion magazine. At the end of the bed the blankets were turned back, to reveal a small, honey-coloured foot protruding from a large white plaster cast.


Dead Men Don't Ski 2


[Earlier]
Maria-Pia, who had obviously overheard every word, came in at once. She was very pale, and Henry thought she had been crying. Her fragility was enhanced by her huge, loose sweater of pure white wool, worn over sky-blue vorlagers. She smiled at Henry—a desperate little smile that mutely apologised for her husband's behaviour and begged him not to think hardly of her. Henry grinned back reassuringly. She walked gracefully across the room, and sat down.


commentary: This was the first of Patricia Moyes’ Henry & Emmy Tibbett mysteries, and has recently become fairly readily available: when Margot Kinberg turned the spotlight on it a few years ago over at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist, I wasn’t able to find it – but several more recent reviews (Sergio at Tipping my Fedora, Kate at Cross-Examining Crime, Noah Stewart) sent me looking again, and there it was.

Henry and his wife Emmy are on a skiing trip in the Italian Alps: they ARE on holiday, but Henry is also on the lookout for some shady business that might be going on in their small ski resort – the fact that they are very close to the border is relevant here. 

Charmingly, Emmy has been skiing before and is much better at it than novice Henry. They are with a small group of people, all in the same hotel. Eventually someone is found dead in the ski-lift, and Henry is forced to reveal his true profession, and help with the investigation.

I didn’t find the plot that surprising or inventive, and I looked with horror at the timetables of who was at the top of the mountain, and the bottom, or on the ski-lift over periods of several hours: I very strongly do NOT want that in a murder mystery. And I solved the crime without reference to it, actually.


Dead Men Don't Ski 3

LOOK at it. For goodness sake.

But, this was a splendid book because of the atmosphere among the holiday-makers, the details of the skiing, the sense that this was an unusual and quite exotic pastime for the Brits: right then, 1959, Moyes would be confident that the vast majority of her readers had never been skiing. And it does seem to be a most convincing picture, it was very real – and she handled quite a large cast of characters very well. There were plenty of subplots and mystery-making – blackmail, smuggling, murder, affairs, worrying romances, injuries… I have to say, no national stereotypes were being challenged – the Italians are vociferous and romantic, the Germans are stiff and unromantic. The Baron is scarey, his wife is scared.

But this was a very fine start to a nice series of books – a couple more are on the blog: click on the Moyes label below to see them.

I happen to be able to tell you what vorlage is, because of my careful reading of the James Bond books – this, and the skiing picture, from an entry on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service:

‘Vorlage’ is a mode of skiing,(‘leaning forward from the ankles usually without lifting the heels from the skis’), and vorlage trousers, apparently, had tapered legs and elastic under the foot.

--the trousers are also sometimes known as vorlagers.

The negligee woman is from the Library of Congress, skier from the NYPL.



















Comments

  1. I look forward to rereading this someday soon. I remember little about it, except for the obvious. It involves skiing and takes place in the Alps. We recently watched the film of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service for the first time in a long while. It will be a while before I get to that book.

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    1. I am not a skier at all myself, but I do enjoy a skiing setting, both this one and OHMSS, even though the books couldn't be more different! Look forward to hearing your views when the time comes...

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  2. So sorry! I was absolutely sure I'd commented here, Moira, but it must not have shown up! At any rate, thank you for the kind mention. I'm glad you got the chance to read this one, and that you found things to really enjoy. I agree with you about the atmosphere of the village and the hotel; I think Moyes did that brilliantly. And I've always liked Henry and Emmy's relationship - it's very well-drawn.

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    1. Yes, Margot, it was funny to realize how long I'd been waiting to read this one! As well as the ordinary TBR pile, there's always the ones waiting to be found as well as read. I agree
      with you about Henry and Emmy - so unusual to find an attractive married couple in crime fiction, who are happy and seem to like each other, without any great issues!

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  3. I was paging through Elizabeth Zimmerman's book "Knitting Around" yesterday (for something else) and came across her description of skiing in Bavaria in the early days of the Depression.

    Everybody walked, there were no ski lifts, and the skis weighed a ton.

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    1. It has changed beyond all recognition hasn't it? And it's always interesting when people are writing for an audience who would be expected to know nothing about it.... and not suspecting how much that would change in 50 years or less.

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  4. At last, a suitably attired woman skier. I knew there had to be at least one picture on the web of a woman dressed appropriately for actually going skiing. Now if I could just figure out what she did with her second ski pole. (The ski pole in the picture has to be a record length.)

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    1. So glad, as always, to have your practical criticism Bill! Do you think the other pole interfered with the artist's vision of the image...?

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    2. Always ready to help on winter attire. Still needed here. Almost a meter of snow still in my front yard and abit of snow falling tonight. Now, on the missing pole I hope it was interference with artistic vision for surely any artist with the knowledge and skill to accurately depict practical skiing clothing would know there are two poles. She does look to be a sturdy woman hoisting what appear to be a heavy pair of skis. No problem having two skis in the artistic vision. I guess if you are going to have to sacrifice reality for the cause of artistic vision one pole is a better choice than one ski..

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    3. You make a convincing case. We will assume that the practical skier and the practical artist knew what they were about, and it has just been laid out of sight temporarily...
      Little did either of them know that it would be bothering you so many years later!

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  5. Nothing to do with the books, but I was reminded of a JCC song lyric ..... you'll never see a nipple in the Daily Express

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    1. That picture is really hovering on the edge isn't it? I like her faraway look, and the addition of the book to make it clear she is an intellectual as well as glamorous.

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  6. Pants with tapered legs and an elastic strap under the foot? Why, I had a pair or two of those in the early 1960s (I was perhaps 12). So did my mom, I think. They were all the rage then.

    They were excellent for a Montreal winter, because you could get your feet snugly into your snowboots with a minimum of fuss.

    They were called....wait for it...Ski Pants!

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    1. Do you know, I had a paper cut out doll set, and SHE had exactly those, I was very jealous, they looked so sensible and snug! And they had a sudden burst of being very much in fashion in the UK In the 1980s, and I turned to them with enthusiasm: easy to wear, practical and flattering...

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