Tue 20 Jul 2010
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: HILDA LAWRENCE – Death of a Doll.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[5] Comments
William F. Deeck
HILDA LAWRENCE – Death of a Doll. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1947. Hardcover reprint: Detective Book Club, 3-in-1 edition, April 1947. Paperback reprints include: Pocket #540, August 1948; Avon Classic Crime PN239, November 1969.
Only temporarily is Ruth Miller, department-store clerk, happy with her move from a furnished room to Hope House, a Home for Girls. Upon entering the lobby of her new domicile, she is frightened by a face from the past. Miller makes plans to get away, but her assisted plunge from a seventh-floor window renders her schemes nugatory.
A wealthy customer of the department store who liked Miller hires Marc East to investigate because the death is being treated as a suicide. Reluctantly, for he also thinks the death was self-inflicted, East begins checking out Hope House and its denizens.
More and more evidence, including the bludgeoning of a young lady in one of the bathrooms, accumulates to persuade East that Miller was murdered.
More or less aiding East are Beulah Pond and Bessy Petty, who are visiting the wealthy customer and who are acquainted with East through some of his earlier investigations. They are a delightful pair, despite Bessy’s slight problem with alcohol. On one occasion, just in case someone might be listening, Bessy spells out a word.
Often I have problems with people who are in danger, real or fancied, and who dimwittedly attempt to avoid any risk by keeping quiet. Hilda Lawrence convinces here. Miller, the residents, and the help of Hope House conceal information, but persuasive reasons are presented. This novel should not be missed.
Bibliographic Data: Hilda Lawrence was the pen name of Hildgarde Kronmuller, 1906-1976. There are five novels or story collections by her in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. Her series character Mark East is in three of them (so indicated by ME). Note that her books often underwent title changes when republished, and that the two long novelettes in Duel for Death have been reprinted individually.
* Blood Upon the Snow (n.) Simon 1944 [ME]
* A Time to Die (n.) Simon 1945 [ME]
* The Pavilion (n.) Simon 1946
* Death of a Doll (n.) Simon 1947 [ME]
* Duet of Death (co) Simon 1949
July 20th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Hilda Lawrence is an author whose books I’ve been aware of for a long time, but I haven’t read any of them, or at least not yet.
Nor can I remember knowing that she had a series character named Mark East, a fact that has completely escaped me until now.
Tomorrow I’ll reprint Marcia Muller’s review of BLOOD UPON THE SNOW from 1001 MIDNIGHTS. Her comments are as favorable as Bill Deeck’s were of this book.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
PS. Note the similarity (and differences!) between the two paperback covers.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Another of those Avon seventies covers …
I’ve read two by Lawrence, this and BLOOD UPON THE MOON. East is a good example of the soft boiled private eye in action. Beulah and Bessy should be a combined pain, but as said in the review they aren’t — indeed they are a bonus. I think I have a third Lawrence laying around in hardcover I will have to dig out and read.
Curious that all her books appeared over a five year period and stopped, since critical reception was good enough they were still reprinted sometime later.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Re your last paragraph, David, I’d be interested in learning more about her too.
All I’ve found so far is a short (very short) biographical statement about her on the Golden Age of Detection wiki:
http://gadetection.pbworks.com/Lawrence,-Hilda
and quoting in part:
“Hilda Lawrence (1906-1976) was an American author of mysteries. She was born Hildegarde Kronmiller in Baltimore educated in Rochester, New York, where she married and later divorced playwright Reginald Lawrence. She worked as a reader to the blind and in the clippings department of Macmillan publishers.”
A photo of her is included, but then piece goes on to talk about her novels, concluding with some unfavorable comments about one of them.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Steve
I checked the site, and I don’t disagree with his description of the book as an attempt to combine Archie Goodwin with Miss Marple, I just thought she did it well and it worked.