Sat 17 Jan 2015
Archived Review: KELLEY ROOS – Murder on Martha’s Vineyard.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
KELLEY ROOS – Murder on Martha’s Vineyard. Walker, hardcover, 1981; paperback, 1986.
Readers in this part of the country [New England] are likely to pick this one up solely because of its title, read a page or two, and then find themselves suddenly hooked and being reeled in by one of the most suspenseful thrillers I’ve read in quite some time.
The background turns out to be only incidental. Audrey and William Roos, the names behind the joint Kelley Roos by-line, are a couple of old pros, however, who know all the tricks in snagging the reader’s attention and, more importantly, in holding it.
A young newlywed returns to the island with her new husband, only to find resentment still blazing on the part of one of the natives, who thinks she got off too easily when she was acquitted for the murder of her first husband.
She hires an old, used-up private eye to help clear her name, and he does a pretty good job of detective work before he’s finished, but too late. Situations where kidnapping is involved always produce a tremendous amount of tension, and here’s no exception.
I don’t want to give away too much, but while a good deal of what follows is predictable enough, you shouldn’t really expect a happy ending. Not completely, that is.
Rating: B plus.
January 17th, 2015 at 2:18 pm
I think I know what I meant by the ending, but I’m not sure. I do remember enjoying this one, but I also enjoyed the adventures of Haila & Jeff Troy, Kelley Roos’s husband and wife sleuthing team from the 1940s.
What I did not know, until I was looking up some data in Hubin, that the Troys made one final appearance in 1966, in a book titled ONE FALSE MOVE, after a gap of some 17 years. I will have to look for that one.
My review of GHOST OF CHANCE, a book with the Troys from 1947, appears here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=21899
while Bill Deeck’s review of the same book is here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=27607
January 17th, 2015 at 2:23 pm
I’ve just purchased a copy of ONE FALSE MOVE from a seller on Abebooks.com. Besides one copy of Detective Book Club 3-in-1 reprint, it was the only copy available.
Why a mystery from 1966 should be so hard to find, I don’t know. Luckily I didn’t have to have it on a printed want list and schlep it around with me from one used bookstore to another as I used to.
January 17th, 2015 at 3:22 pm
Did you notice that you spelled Roos as Roes twice in your review?
January 17th, 2015 at 3:34 pm
Nope, and neither did my spellchecker, Roes being a perfectly good word. This is always a problem when you scan in reviews from old fanzines with tiny print.
In any case, both are fixed. You have good eyes. Thanks!