published 1942
[excerpt from book]
… sitting opposite her in the air-conditioned comfort of a small restaurant in the East Fifties, he felt more ridiculous than ever. She had changed to a street-length dress of some thin black stuff with a jewelled clip at her breast. Her dark hair was swept up and piled on top of her head, giving her an added dignity. Her poise, as always, was perfect.
comments: Kate at Cross Examining Crime put me onto this book (as is so often the case) – this is her review here, though it seems to have taken me two years to follow up on her recommendation. It sounded exactly the kind of book I like: monied New Yorkers, family secrets, heartless husbands. I think it’s what our much-missed friend Noah Stewart used to call ‘a brownstone mystery’ (see my post here for more about those books - sadly, I think Noah’s blog has gone): a crime story set in a certain NY milieu, around certain parts of Manhattan, with a lot of attention paid to manners and the details of life.
And I enjoyed it tremendously: it was a very easy, clever read, and certainly kept the tension up. It starts with a young woman who has been acquitted of murdering her husband: she goes to a psychiatrist and says she honestly doesn’t know if she killed him – can the doctor help her? She is young and pretty and sad – of course the doctor can help her. (That’s their first dinner date above.) Dr Owen and his nurse, Miss Pomeroy, pursue their enquiries, and the story goes in some very unexpected directions: it has a good strong plot, which I don’t want to spoiler at all – but feel I can say that one storyline dives into our greatest fears, it’s one that I always think works well to worry the reader.
And Wells also does the details of life so nicely.
It’s a long time since I have worried about a ‘street-length’ dress, as in the exceprt above; but on the face of it, it is a very misleading term – I remember being very confused when I first came across it in an etiquette guide. Because it doesn’t mean – as it surely should – a full-length gown that touches the floor or street: it means an outfit that hovers somewhere around the knees, as being suitable for walking around on the streets in daytime. But I have a nostalgia for the days when I was determined to understand clothes terms like that one, in pre-Internet times when it wasn’t so easy to find out. (Starting on the long road that would lead to Clothes in Books…)
A patient in hospital says she would feel better ‘if I could have a bedjacket and some rouge and hairpins.’ As regular readers of the blog know, even hypothetical bedjackets are a joy to me, and after all – who wouldn’t feel better if they had those three things?
Later a character is wearing tennis clothes, so an opportunity to bring out this outfit from
the NYPL, which is supremely elegant, but does appear to show someone carrying a tennis racquet in an unconvincing manner while wearing high heels. I don’t think the person in the book really looked like this right then…
And yet again – the underlying importance of hats. A character in trouble is noticeable and possibly not respectable, just because she has no hat on: it is mentioned twice. (See this post about an Anthony Gilbert book for another no-lady-goes-hatless incident.)
I have to strain hard to find anything to criticize about this book, but have found three features.
Firstly, there are three different characters in the book who are ‘Mrs Meredith’ (mother and two daughters-in-law) and the author is occasionally not quite clear enough when she switches from one to another.
Secondly – you might guess who is guilty, but I feel it would be impossible to work out the methods and motive until very late on – one particular ‘clue’ is withheld from the reader and the characters in a frankly unbelievable manner. ('I didn't think anything of it...')
And thirdly – a small personal tragedy - a key character owns a large and important department store, and I do love a Fifth Ave dept store in a crime story. But sadly this emporium plays no further part in the plot, and there aren’t even any scenes set there, tchah.
But this is mere carping – this is a most enjoyable and well-written murder story, and I will definitely be looking for more by Wells.
Lady in a restaurant in black, from Kristine’s photostream
Vivian Leigh in a black dress…
[excerpt from book]
… sitting opposite her in the air-conditioned comfort of a small restaurant in the East Fifties, he felt more ridiculous than ever. She had changed to a street-length dress of some thin black stuff with a jewelled clip at her breast. Her dark hair was swept up and piled on top of her head, giving her an added dignity. Her poise, as always, was perfect.
comments: Kate at Cross Examining Crime put me onto this book (as is so often the case) – this is her review here, though it seems to have taken me two years to follow up on her recommendation. It sounded exactly the kind of book I like: monied New Yorkers, family secrets, heartless husbands. I think it’s what our much-missed friend Noah Stewart used to call ‘a brownstone mystery’ (see my post here for more about those books - sadly, I think Noah’s blog has gone): a crime story set in a certain NY milieu, around certain parts of Manhattan, with a lot of attention paid to manners and the details of life.
And I enjoyed it tremendously: it was a very easy, clever read, and certainly kept the tension up. It starts with a young woman who has been acquitted of murdering her husband: she goes to a psychiatrist and says she honestly doesn’t know if she killed him – can the doctor help her? She is young and pretty and sad – of course the doctor can help her. (That’s their first dinner date above.) Dr Owen and his nurse, Miss Pomeroy, pursue their enquiries, and the story goes in some very unexpected directions: it has a good strong plot, which I don’t want to spoiler at all – but feel I can say that one storyline dives into our greatest fears, it’s one that I always think works well to worry the reader.
And Wells also does the details of life so nicely.
It’s a long time since I have worried about a ‘street-length’ dress, as in the exceprt above; but on the face of it, it is a very misleading term – I remember being very confused when I first came across it in an etiquette guide. Because it doesn’t mean – as it surely should – a full-length gown that touches the floor or street: it means an outfit that hovers somewhere around the knees, as being suitable for walking around on the streets in daytime. But I have a nostalgia for the days when I was determined to understand clothes terms like that one, in pre-Internet times when it wasn’t so easy to find out. (Starting on the long road that would lead to Clothes in Books…)
A patient in hospital says she would feel better ‘if I could have a bedjacket and some rouge and hairpins.’ As regular readers of the blog know, even hypothetical bedjackets are a joy to me, and after all – who wouldn’t feel better if they had those three things?
Later a character is wearing tennis clothes, so an opportunity to bring out this outfit from
And yet again – the underlying importance of hats. A character in trouble is noticeable and possibly not respectable, just because she has no hat on: it is mentioned twice. (See this post about an Anthony Gilbert book for another no-lady-goes-hatless incident.)
I have to strain hard to find anything to criticize about this book, but have found three features.
Firstly, there are three different characters in the book who are ‘Mrs Meredith’ (mother and two daughters-in-law) and the author is occasionally not quite clear enough when she switches from one to another.
Secondly – you might guess who is guilty, but I feel it would be impossible to work out the methods and motive until very late on – one particular ‘clue’ is withheld from the reader and the characters in a frankly unbelievable manner. ('I didn't think anything of it...')
And thirdly – a small personal tragedy - a key character owns a large and important department store, and I do love a Fifth Ave dept store in a crime story. But sadly this emporium plays no further part in the plot, and there aren’t even any scenes set there, tchah.
But this is mere carping – this is a most enjoyable and well-written murder story, and I will definitely be looking for more by Wells.
Lady in a restaurant in black, from Kristine’s photostream
Vivian Leigh in a black dress…
Glad you enjoyed this one! I have to admit when I saw the title I couldn't recall what it was about. Has it only been two years since I read it? Your review has refreshed my mind wonderfully. Pity her work is not easy to track down.
ReplyDeleteI know! I immediately tried to get another book by her, but expensive or difficult to track down. I sympathize about not remembering - occasionally I read an old blogpost and it might as well have been written by someone else! Particularly annoying when I have said something like 'there's a very clever clue' or 'great plot twist' or even 'unconvincing development' and I have no idea what I was talkign about!
DeleteThat looks like an extremely impractical outfit for tennis - the high heels, as you say, would surely make things difficult, and there doesn't seem to be much room in the skirt either. But it does look lovely.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely designed for lounging near the court sipping a drink, in my view. I suggested to someone that she would be saying to her friends 'No no, I'll give up my turn at playing, I'll just sit here, you all carry on'.
DeleteThat is really interesting about the meaning of 'street length,' Moira. And the messages people got when you wore or didn't wear a hat... Anyway, the book does sound like a very appealing read, and I do like the psychological in my fiction. And I think we all miss Noah and his blog...
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot - and it is lovely to discover a writer that I like so much, even though her books are hard to find! (see above). And nothing I like better than digging out what a clothes reference means, of course.
DeleteI have this one--but, as I have such teetering stacks of TBR books, haven't gotten to it yet. I have read her Murderer's Choice--which, sadly, is her only other book.
ReplyDeleteDid you like it Bev? I will definitely try to find it, but it is proving elusive....
DeleteEnjoying early Perry Mason on CBS Justice - the hats women wear to court! Married women who have not done the crime wear the frumpiest of bucket hats. Women suspects wear black velvet plates, set horizontally...
ReplyDeleteOh this is like the news that villains don't have iphones! A lovely woman in the witness box (or dock) is a sight to behold. John DicksonCarr has a great description of a woman who is 'flirting her furs' - definitely what one should be doing, aimed at judge and jury. (And opposing counsel)
DeleteGwen Raverat, in her adorable book "Period Piece: Memories of a Cambridge Childhood", comments on the fact that it was absolutely impossible to go anywhere without a hat. It wasn't just that it was unseemly: "In summer we were told that we would get heatstroke and in winter that we would get colds in the head." I am quoting from memory here, but the point is that it was apparantly thought to be positively dangerous to venture out with your head uncovered. And today hardly anyone wears anything on their heads. How things change. Personally I'm perturbed by the fact that so many people go out in the middle of winter with no gloves on. This may be because I grew up on "Little Women", but still... I think bare, cold red hands in winter are so ugly. Why do people do it, I wonder, when it's neither comfortable nor pretty? Oh for the pays when people wore hats and gloves!
ReplyDeleteI love Period Piece, such a wonderful book. If you see pictures of mass public gatherings up till the late 20th century, it is startling to see that almost every single person is in a hat eg a crowd at a sports event. How did that change?
DeleteAnd totally agree about gloves! Though I do know that when I first went to senior school we HAD TO wear hats and gloves, and would be in trouble if caught without - which does lead any self-respecting teenager to rebellion!
Interesting - as soon as I read street-length, I assumed that it meant that it was short enough NOT to touch the street - must have picked that up in the course of my extensive GA reading. Yet another novel that I long to read. You have a lot to answer for, Moira . . .
ReplyDeleteYes, you can see it, but the contrast with floor-length is amusing! I think you will most definitely have come across it in books of the era.
DeleteAnd I have to say, this was a good book. Had you ever heard of her before?
No, never heard of her. But must track her down. Even a mention of a bed jacket . . .
DeleteYes indeed - it is the keystone!
Delete"And yet again – the underlying importance of hats..."
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it was still true in 1942 - probably not - but that applied to men as well in Victorian times. A character in Goerge Gissing loses his hat and embezzles money to buy a new one and you've already mentioned Saki's Cyprian with his... interesting ....reasons for going hatless..
Yes, I don't expect a man risked losing his character in the way a woman did, but it was definitely worth of comment: books often say he was hatless to imply that perhaps rushed, or in difficulties...
DeleteOh Saki. He would make ideal reading right now I think.
This is the perfect book for you. I am sure I would enjoy it too, and after all, it is a Dell mapbook, which I would love to own. So someday I will look for it.
ReplyDeleteHope it turns up at the booksale Tracy - you would definitely like it!
Delete