Sat 13 Dec 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: MERLDA MACE – Motto for Murder.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Reviews[2] Comments
William F. Deeck
MERLDA MACE – Motto for Murder. Julian Messner, hardcover, 1943. Detective Book Club, hardcover reprint, 3-in-1 edition, November 1943. Black Cat Detective #17, digest-sized paperback, 1945, abridged.
The classic situation — isolated old house, blizzard raging outside, nasty old lady hated by most of those in the house, and escalating murders.
Maria Hammond, the nasty old lady, has complete control of the family fortune and need not turn over any money until she is convinced that her grandchildren can handle the money responsibly. Since one of her children is a drunk who has married a money-hungry shrew and who has stolen $10,000 from the firm for which he works to provide the shrew with a fur coat in the hope that she will treat him kindly — a failed scheme, needless to say — it appears that the old lady is not completely in the wrong in not turning over the money at least to him.
Anyhow, she invites the three grandchildren to spend Christmas with her, and two of the spouses also show up. Her intention, violating the spirit of the season and maybe even the letter of the law, is to tell the grandchildren she is changing her will so that they will be totally disinherited. Her lawyer is murdered, she disappears, and others start being murdered.
Tip O’Neil, who works with the ne’er-do-well grandson, goes along for the weekend to make sure that the grandson does not run off to Canada. Since O’Neil is the only one not concerned in the murders, he does the investigating. On page 148, he says to himself: “Maybe it would be healthier for me to play dumb … on this investigation.” Strange. I had the feeling that is what he had been doing from the beginning.
One among many oddities appears to be a peculiar law of New York State in regard to wills. O’Neil is asked to witness “the will” of Maria Hammond. While watched by her lawyer, O’Neil signs a piece of paper folded back so he can’t see what is written on it. He can’t be sure it’s a will, and he certainly isn’t witnessing her signing it.
Deeck’s Law No. 1 states: Beware of authors who use exclamation points frequently in narrative! Mace is a big violator!
(A motto, by the way, is a piece of candy around which is wrapped a fortune, making it somewhat similar to a fortune cookie. It was apparently old-fashioned even in 1945.)
Bibliographic Notes: This was the only novel that Timothy “Tip” O’Neil appeared in. His day job was as a special investigator for a Manhattan-based investment firm. The author’s other two mysteries featured a continuing series character named Christine Anderson. She may have been the blonde in Blondes Don’t Cry, but other than that, no other information is readily available.
MERLDA MACE. Pseudonym of Madeleine McCoy, 1910?-1990?
Headlong for Murder. Messner, 1943. [Christine Anderson]
Motto for Murder. Messner, 1943.
Blondes Don’t Cry. Messner, 1945 [Christine Anderson]
December 13th, 2014 at 10:01 pm
From a paperback copy of BLONDES DON’T CRY offered on eBay, the seller has supplied a complete description of the book from the back cover:
“Christine Andersen , a blonde wolf-bait from New York, wanted an apartment in Washington almost in the worst way – but not quite, because she wanted it alone. So, when the place on Grenadier Walk was offered to her, Christine moved right in and was settling down happily when she discovered the other blonde and got the nastiest shock of her young life. For the other gal was curled up in the apartment dumbwaiter and was very dead. From then on, events began to crowd in on Christine – some nice, like Shamus O’Reilly, a good looking cop who wanted to protect her – and some nasty, like Rose Delaney, her predcessor in her apartment. What unpleasant business had Rose been up to and where did a seedy fortune teller called Madame Zerega fit in? Who owned the flexible steel rule, which would fit nicely round Christine’s throat? She knew that “blondes don’t cry”, but it was awfully difficult when somebody is after your life rather than your virtue.”
December 13th, 2014 at 10:50 pm
Let’s see Merdla Mace aka Madeline McCoy, MOTTO FOR MURDER from Messner … MMMMM? Anyone see a theme here?
Steve,
The second one sounds better than it likely is.
Is this a GUN IN CHEEK or SON OF … pick? I seem to recall Bill Pronzini mentioning a tec named Tip O’Neil (I suppose he put on a few pounds when he went into politics).
I love when the writer’s research on things like the law was apparently done watching B films with lawyers in them.