Sun 28 Dec 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: LENORE GLEN OFFORD – Walking Shadow.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
William F. Deeck
LENORE GLEN OFFORD – Walking Shadow. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1959; Detective Book Club, hardcover reprint, 3-in-1 edition. Award Books A203F, paperback, 1966.
Barbara Wyeth, stepdaughter of Tod McKinnon, mystery writer and now TV script writer for the Harrington Harte series, is in Oregon for the Shakespearean Festival. She is not an aspiring actress, however, even though she is cast in the role of a witch in Macbeth; she prefers to work on the costumes for the plays.
Taking under her wing a young lady who obviously has some serious problems, Barby finds herself with problems, too. Her new friend is acting very strangely since she read a newspaper report of an “tentatively identified” body being found near San Francisco. Then things involving her friend begin taking place at the theater — thefts, poison oak in makeup, and the like. And one night Barby is attacked by a sword-wielding creature in one of the dressing rooms.
McKinnon comes to the rescue, putting aside his script difficulties to aid his stepdaughter. He manages to find out who the corpse really was and who made her a corpse and why. Not a fair-play mystery, but nonetheless enjoyable for the theater setting and a few of the characters.
NOTE: Previously reviewed on this blog are:
The Glass Mask
The Smiling Tiger (with a complete bibliography for the author)
December 28th, 2014 at 11:39 pm
I’ve only read a little Offord, and while she isn’t exactly my taste I enjoyed the ones I did read.
Speaking of Paperback mystery series as we were in comments on the Raven House book reviewed recently I don’t recall Award’s Inner Sanctum series at all though I assume they were reissues of original Inner Sanctum mysteries.
December 29th, 2014 at 12:14 am
It’s been a while since I read one of Offord’s books, but I remembering enjoying the ones I did. Part of the enjoyment was the fact that her primary series character, Todd McKinnon, was a mystery writer. I may be wrong but I’m fairly sure that in the early 40s he wrote stories for the pulps. (It has been a while.)
December 29th, 2014 at 12:16 am
Award Books must have made some sort of deal with Simon & Schuster to reprint some of their books and permission (or requirement) to designate them as Inner Sanctum titles. The Inner Sanctum ID didn’t appear on any other mysteries they published.