Sun 10 Jul 2016
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: PAT McGERR – Save the Witness.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
William F. Deeck
PAT McGERR – Save the Witness. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1949. No paperback edition.
Traveling to Rio to report on politics there, Andy Callahan chooses to go by freighter. It will be relaxing, he thinks, and he will be able to finish Act II of his play. With a doctor aboard who gave his wife poison “accidentally” and the doctor’s cousin traveling with him given to discourse on the most personal subjects, trouble ensues.
When the cousin is lost overboard, neither the captain nor most of the passengers, for varying at least to them valid grounds, want the death investigated. Callahan is sure it’s murder and sure the doctor did it. He is also certain there was a witness, keeping quiet for an unknown reason, whom he must discover before the witness becomes a victim.
Good but not great McGerr.
Editorial Comment: My review of Pat McGerr’s Follow, As the Night also includes a short career perspective of the author. (Follow the link.)
July 10th, 2016 at 8:01 pm
It would be hard to beat the first book PICK YOUR VICTIM.
July 10th, 2016 at 10:07 pm
PICK YOUR VICTIM is a outright classic. Here’s how a reviewer on Goodreads describes it:
“You have guys on a deserted military base and the only news they get is from newspaper clippings used to wrap care packages. Some sees [sic] that a former coworker died, but the paper was missing the who. He recalls what he knows about his coworkers and the other guys on the base bet on who the victim is.”
But the book is more than a gimmick. It’s a fair play detective novel in which the personalities of the characters themselves are essential keys to solving this reverse motion mystery.
I also noted that Bill Deeck referred to Pat McGerr in the last line as though everyone reading his review would recognize her name. I’m afraid she’s fairly well forgotten now.
July 11th, 2016 at 1:36 pm
Just added a link to this review from my article on McGerr:
http://mikegrost.com/mcgerr.htm
My McGerr article only gets a third as many hits as the Craig Rice or Helen McCloy ones. Suspect that Steve is right in saying “she’s fairly well forgotten now.”
McGerr’s stories about amatuer-but-gifted spy Selena Mead should be better known. They still make lively reading. LEGACY OF DANGER is an especially good Selena Mead book.