ANN DEMAREST – Murder on Every Floor. Hillman-Curl, hardcover, 1939. Mystery Novel of the Month #39, digest-sized paperback, 1942.

   As New York City’s worst winter in fifty-five years begins, Christine Howarth has passed up the opportunity to go to Bermuda with a rich young man. She is moving to Greenwich Village with the hope of painting at least one really good picture.

   Unfortunately, there’s no opportunity for her to achieve her goal since the very first night she moves into a new apartment there is murder done across the hall. No matter that she just arrived that evening and knows no one in the building, she is a suspect.

   Howarth is an engaging character. Her lawyer, who helps the police investigate and who is interested in Howarth, and the occupants of the apartment building are not, nor are they well drawn.

   Read the book if you come across it and it’s free or cheap, but don’t make it a point to look for it.

Bibliographic Notes:   Anne Demarest was the pen name of Florence Demarest Foos Bond (1905-?). The only other mystery novel to her credit, according to Hubin, was She Was His Secretary (Gramercy, 1939), and that one is denoted as having only marginal crime content.