Thu 21 Jan 2010
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: BARBARA LEONARD REYNOLDS – Alias for Death.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[2] Comments
William F. Deeck
BARBARA LEONARD REYNOLDS – Alias for Death. Coward-McCann, hardcover, 1950.
On her way by bus from Chicago to Dayton, Ohio, in 1945, Abigail Potter, prolific mystery writer under her own name and various pseudonyms, hears the plot for a perfect murder as planned by an Army corporal.
By quick thinking, she discovers his real name and destination — Glen Falls, Ohio — and subscribes to the local paper awaiting news of an unexpected sudden death. Three years go by before one is reported, and then it is not the death of the person she believed was to be the corporal’s target.
Knowing how the crime was committed and by whom, but not having any idea of why the victim was not whom she expected, Potter decides to go to Glen Falls, discover more about the crime, and unmask the murderer. However, all — indeed, very little — is not what she supposed, and she herself may have been the target of a poisoner.
While not a first-class novel of a little-old-lady detective and not quite living up to its fine beginning, this is nonetheless good reading. Moreover, the author presented a situation that I considered nonsensical, explained it feebly, and thus caused me to overlook the essential pointer to the murderer. Excellent misdirection I thought, though it probably won’t fool anyone else.
This was Reynolds’ only mystery. Why didn’t she write more?
Bio-Bibliographic Data: As Bill says, this is the author’s only mystery. It’s a scarce book in nice condition; only good and/or ex-library copies can be more easily found — which I’ve done.
There’s no information about Barbara Leonard Reynolds on the jacket, only the photo which you see to the left. Says Al Hubin of her in the Revised Crime Fiction IV: Born in Milwaukee (1915); lived in Ohio and then Hawaii. Year of death: 1990.
March 13th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
This is an astonishing coincidence. Barbara Reynolds was my mother and just minutes ago I posted an article about her on Wikipedia. (It should appear soon.)
I am floored that a book my mother had published in 1950 was just reviewed less than two months ago!
She didn’t write more mysteries because she turned to writing children’s books for us 3 kids.
Her life was much more exciting than you know. If Barbara Leonard Reynolds is not showing on Wikipedia yet, look for Earle L. Reynolds or Phoenix of Hiroshima. She was some lady and I am grateful to have been her daughter.
Jessica Reynolds Renshaw
Long Beach, California
P.S. I’d like to order a copy of Alias. The only one I have is the gruesome-covered British edition.
March 13th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Jessica
Thanks for stopping by. I had no problem in finding my way to all three articles you created for Wikipedia; each of them is very interesting, as you say. (Well, actually I did have a problem, mixing your mother up at first with the “other” Barbara Reynolds, also an author and a god-daughter of Dorothy L. Sayers. But thanks to you, I surmounted my difficulties.)
For everyone else, here’s a direct link to the Wiki page for Barbara Leonard Reynolds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Leonard_Reynolds
Jessica, I see that you started to work on these pages in February, and I posted this review in January. This explains why I failed to find out more about your mother than I did when I wrote up my Editorial Comments.
In terms of the timing, yes, absolutely,this is quite a coincidence!
As for obtaining a copy of your mother’s mystery novel, I’ll send you to the same place where I obtained mine:
http://www.abebooks.com
If you look on Amazon, you may find additional copies to choose from.
Best regards
Steve