FRANCES CRANE – The Golden Box. Pat Abbott & Jean Holly #2. J. B. Lippincott, hardcover, 1942. Popular Library #80, paperback, no date stated, circa 1946. Rue Morgue Press, softcover, 2005.

   This second of a series of 26 crime-solving adventures of husband-and-wife (to be) takes place in Jean Holly’s home town of Elm Hill, Illinois, not in New Mexico, where she has been living ever since her parents died. She is single, but at the age of 26, she is starting to wonder how she will manage the rest of her life as an old maid. Her future husband, a private detective named Patrick Abbott, is in the picture, though, and part of the fun of this book is in watching how their somewhat bumpy romance is progressing.

   But from Jean’s point of view only. Pat Abbott is one of those strong, quiet kind of men, and getting him to say more than a couple of words about the case at a time, for example, is a bit of a struggle. What he thinks about Jean is another matter altogether — there we have no idea — but that he is in Illinois where Jean’s Aunt Sue is recovering from a short illness should tell you something.

   Dead is the rich old lady who runs just about everything in terms of Elm Hill society matters, and she is pretty much disliked for that very same same reason. Domineering, you might say. Her death might have been passed off as natural if it weren’t for the followup death of the black maid who found her body — in her case a suicide that that doesn’t look like one, not to the trained eye of an expert like Pat Abbott.

   The opening chapter is a bit of mess, with characters being introduced willy-nilly without very much of an introduction, and the ending is cluttered and confused. In between, though, the hometown sleuthing is fun to watch and goes down smoothly — there are lots of suspects!

   While there is one good clue as to the killer’s identity, Pat Abbott otherwise keeps all his cards too close to his chest (see above). The motive for the killing is discovered, for example, only by sending a telegram off to his secretary back in his office for her most timely assistance.