Mon 20 Mar 2017
LESLEY EGAN – Motive in Shadow. Jesse Falkenstein #10. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1980. No US paperback edition.
As a series character, lawyer Jesse Falkenstein has been around for quite a while. He’s not as well-known to mystery fans as Perry Mason, say, at least not yet, and he probably never will be, but the reason I find both their kinds of adventures so enjoyable is undoubtedly because their crime-solving activities both so closely parallel that of a good private eye (L.A. scene, of course.)
Not for them the seat-numbing sort of drudgery that most legal work must actually be. Unlike the previously mentioned Mr. Mason, however, Falkenstein always seems to be doing his own legwork, and hardly ever does he have to show up n court at all.
In this case he’s hired to contest a will, that of an old woman who’s disinheriting her own son from his own business. And this is where the legwork comes in. Uprooting the past — a 50-year-old diary proves most illuminating — coming up with blackmail — but for what crime or minor offense against person or state? — and recreating the laughter and sadness of people and secrets long since buried.
As a mystery novel, this is a warmly nostalgic piece of writing, one surprisingly almost totally non-violent. As a puzzle in detection, here’s one that’s quite genuinely fascinating all the way through.
Bibliographic Notes: There were in all twelve recorded adventures of Jesse Falkenstein. Lesley Egan was but one of Elizabeth Linington’s pen names, others being Anne Blaisdell, Egan O’Neill and Dell Shannon. Another series character who appeared under the Egan byline was Vic Varallo, described on one website as “a small-town cop who moves to Glendale, California.” Varallo appeared in thirteen novels, one a crossover case with Falkenstein.
March 20th, 2017 at 4:19 pm
Linington was an author who was very popular in her day, especially when she was writing as Dell Shannon, but who I imagine is all but forgotten now. I was selling paperbacks by mail back then, and whenever I came across one of her books, I knew I could sell it as soon as I got it listed.
March 20th, 2017 at 8:22 pm
Popular, but so reactionary in some books she could be hard to read.
March 20th, 2017 at 9:49 pm
Yes, she was known as being a staunch member of the John Birch Society. When her later books began to reflect her political views more and more, that upset a lot of critics and reviewers, as well as more than a few readers.
Also, as Dell Shannon and the author of the Lt. Mendoza books she was hailed as one of the first female authors to write police procedurals, but again as time went on, complaints arose that she didn’t really know all that much about actual police work.
A critical study of her work and popularity might make for a good doctoral dissertation, I think.