Sat 3 Dec 2016
Mystery Review: PHOEBE ATWOOD TAYLOR – The Cape Cod Mystery.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
PHOEBE ATWOOD TAYLOR – The Cape Cod Mystery. Bobbs-Merrill, hardcover, 1931. Paperback reprints include: Pyramid R-1124, Green Door Mystery, 1965; Foul Play Press, 1985.
The Cape Cod Mystery is the first book in a series of 22 Asey Mayo novels and two hardcover collections, each of the latter containing three novellas reprinted from The American Magazine. All of the stories take place in the quintessential area of New England called Cape Cod, and over the years Asey Mayo became the model for the typical New England Yankee handyman, whose knowledge of the world and the people in it made him a natural-born solver of mysteries as well.
In this first foray into detective work, Asey Mayo tackles the death at unknown hands of a well-known novelist who takes up residence in a small cottage behind the residence of Prudence “Snoodles” Whitsby, who accompanies Asey as he tries to prove the innocence of his employer, Bill Porter, heir to a prosperous automobile company.
As it turns out, as the pair of sleuths continue to ask questions, they quickly learn that the dead man was someone who had made more enemies than friends over the course of his life. There is, therefore, no shortage of suspects, and it takes quite a while to sort out which of them was where and when.
It is difficult to believe that Phoebe Atwood Taylor was only 22 years old when she wrote this book. Each and every character is distinctively drawn, even if only in broad strokes, but most impressively, Asey Mayo acts and talks exactly like a man who might not have a formal education but has a ton of both life experience and common sense to base his observations and deductions on.
The book does get a little talky in the middle, and the ending — following a gathering of all the important players in one room — might be overly dramatic, but it works well enough for me to suggest to you that if you’re a fan of Golden Age mysteries, this is a series you really ought to look into. If you haven’t already.
December 3rd, 2016 at 1:43 pm
I read a number of these books many years ago and remember them fondly. Asey Mayo is along the same lines as Kathleen Moore Knight’s Elisha Macomber. I don’t know which author got there first, but it might be interesting to read a Mayo and a Macomber back to back.
December 3rd, 2016 at 2:32 pm
The first Elisha Macomber mystery was Death Blew Out the Match, which appeared in 1935. I’ve read more of the Macomber books than the Asey Mayo ones, none recently enough to talk about either similarities or differences, but they’re certainly quite a bit alike in many ways.
Here’s a link to a review I wrote of The Trouble at Turkey Hill a while back, one of the Macomber books:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1044
December 3rd, 2016 at 8:31 pm
Asey got a bit younger and more attractive as the series went on, a phenomena not unknown in the genre.
Atwood was a pleasure to read under any name.
December 3rd, 2016 at 8:49 pm
I’ve read that the books got lighter in tone also, but perhaps not as much so as the Alice Tilton books, the ones with Leonidas Witherall, the fellow who looked like Bill Shakespeare.
December 7th, 2016 at 12:23 pm
The later books certainly had screwball elements.