Thu 18 Aug 2016
Archived Mystery Review: PATRICIA PONDER – Murder for Charity.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[5] Comments
PATRICIA PONDER – Murder for Charity. Manor 15281, paperback original, 1977.
Contradicting the ultra-macho image projected by the front cover, which shows the Cajun detective Louis Breaux being very protective of the cuddlesome Diana, this is in fact a detective story most reminiscent of the old-fashioned golden age of mystery fiction, complete with a country club overflowing with clues and suspects.
When Diana Parnell’s aunt is murdered while she’s running an antique show for charity, it’s Diana who’s suspected. The mysterious behavior of a friend caused her to be alone at the very moment for which an alibi is needed, but to her rescue comes Louis Breaux, convinced of her innocence even though they’ve only just met, and together they set off on the killer’s trail.
It must be remembered that most of the books of the golden age have been forgotten, with good reason. Only the Christie’s and the Queen’s still survive, and they’re the models that other writers of pure detective fiction must strive to equal. Here’s another that doesn’t measure up. When the clues are as falsely represented or slighted over as they are here, it may be playing fair with the reader in a technical sense, but the edges of an otherwise pleasing performance are curdled.
Nevertheless, flaws and all, it was a nice surprise to find this. Mildly recommended for those who are nostalgic for this sort of thing.
Rating: C.
[Note to bibliographers: Besides the haphazard proofreading system employed by Manor throughout the book, on the title page the author’s name is given as Patricia Maxwell.]
[UPDATE] Additional bibliographic notes: Patrica Ponder was indeed a pen name of Patricia Maxwell (1942- ). Under that name she also wrote Haven of Fear for Manor, 1977, but it is doubtful that Louis Breaux ever made another appearance.
Under her own name, Patricia Maxwell has seven entries in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV, all apparently gothics or novels of romantic suspense. (The line between them is often blurry.) There is also one entry for her there as Elizabeth Trehearne, another gothic. She is best known to readers of romance fiction, however, as Jennifer Blake, with 50 or 60 titles in that genre, and still counting.
August 18th, 2016 at 7:16 pm
This is a tough book to find, should you be so inclined. There are only four copies offered for sale in all of the Internet, and for some reason, three of them are by sellers in Canada.
August 19th, 2016 at 6:07 am
Ah, yes, Jackie read a number of Jennifer Blake books back a decade or so ago – many in the “Louisiana Gentlemen” series – before moving on to more hard-edged (and often paranormal) books.
August 19th, 2016 at 11:38 am
Re-reading my review, I’m think I should point out that there has been a resurgence of interest in detective novels published in the 1920 and 30s. Several publishers have been reprinting many of them, often by obscure authors and even more obscure titles. Many of the may actually be quite good, but while I tried for a while, they are coming out much much faster than I can keep up with them. They must sell OK, else why so many?
August 19th, 2016 at 8:40 pm
Whatever else Patricia Ponder is a great name for a Golden Age style mystery writer. To bad she didn’t live up to it.
I dip into some of the lesser known Golden Age mystery fiction, at least in eBook form. So far I haven’t discovered anything great or a lost classic. Pretty much the better known writers retain their hold and even the lesser knowns worth reading have been discovered and discussed in the past.
Still, I dip a toe in just in case I find a lost classic.
August 21st, 2016 at 1:01 pm
As soon as I read the review, I wondered if this was Jennifer Blake (aka, Patricia Maxwell)… and it was. A lot of her 1970s output had elements of mystery, gothic, suspense, and romance. By the 1980s, she’d gone full-on “bodice-ripper”, but even then there’s usually a mystery (frequently an unsolved murder) hovering in the background.