Sat 23 Mar 2019
KELLEY ROOS – Ghost of a Chance. Haila & Jeff Troy #6. A. A. Wyn, hardcover, 1947. Detective Book Club, hardcover, 3-in-1 edition. Dell #266, paperback, mapback edition, 1948. Armed Forces Edition #1292, paperback, no date stated. Film: As Scent of Mystery, 1960, without the Troys. Novelization of film: As Scent of Mystery (Dell, paperback, 1959), reset in Spain.
After a telephone message from a stranger warns Jeff Troy that a woman is about to be murdered, he and his wife Haila head out in a snowstorm to meet him, but (of course) they arrive too late. The man is dead. Who is the woman he warned Jeff about, and can they find her in time?
A suspenseful book, but it’s of the artificially produced variety that leaves you hungry an hour later. Jeff and Haila are a fun couple, however, modeled, no doubt, on Nick and Nora Charles. A cheerfully lighthearted story, just an inch this side of silly. (**)
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(**) Just what it is that Jeff Troy does for a living is never made quite clear. Apparently he dabbles a bit in photography, but why the former coachman decided to call on him with his warning was something that puzzled me all through the book. Since this wasn’t the first of the Troys’ adventures, though, I finally decided they had made the newspapers after one of their earlier cases. (Why Haila was allowed to tag along was something else that was never explained very well either.)
March 23rd, 2019 at 5:45 pm
Jeff is a mystery writer in the film REMEMBER LAST NIGHT, but like you I never quite figured out what he did for a living. I like the Troy’s though they take an obvious back seat to the Charles, North’s, and Duluth’s. Still they are in good company and Roos did have a gift for suspense that held her in good standing over the years.
The Troy’s don’t figure in the film, which was a gimmick with the audiences infused with certain scents during the progress of the film. It isn’t a terrible little mystery film, but the gimmick obviously doesn’t work outside of theaters. If I recall right Denholm Elliot stars.
March 23rd, 2019 at 5:54 pm
Yes, Denholm Elliot was the star. The movie did not do well, even with the aromas that were provided to audiences during its showings. There is a lot of information about the film on Wikipedia, including details about the various attempts that have been made to restore it. I’ve never seen it myself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scent_of_Mystery
March 23rd, 2019 at 7:01 pm
Jeff Troy is a professional photographer, working in the world of New York advertising. This is shown in greatest detail in the second Troy novel “If the Shroud Fits” (1941). This opens with a crime at the studio where Troy works. He’s very much a complete professional.
Jeff Troy also sometimes accepts fees to investigate crimes.
It’s a side business. Technically, this makes him a private investigator. But he is a million miles about from most fictional private eyes!
Wife Haila’s role in all this is ambiguous. Sometime she is simply a sidekick to detective Jeff. Other times she seems to be a full sleuthing partner.
March 23rd, 2019 at 7:12 pm
Thanks, Mike. That’s one of the Troys books I haven’t read. I wonder why Jeff being a photographer was only occasionally and vaguely referred to in the other books in the series.
March 23rd, 2019 at 7:41 pm
I need to research this more myself!