Sat 6 Feb 2010
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: BARBARA FROST – The Corpse Died Twice.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[8] Comments
William F. Deeck
BARBARA FROST – The Corpse Died Twice. Coward McCann, hardcover, 1951. No paperback edition.
Though suffering from a severe hangover, Jerome Carrigan doesn’t feel he deserves the obituary published in a New York City newspaper. He calls upon Marka de Lancey, attorney at law, to investigate it and also asks her to check on an insurance policy he is considering purchasing. She doesn’t have time for the latter since Carrigan is found dead in a Turkish bath at Coney Island under suspicious circumstances.
This is de Lancey’s second murder investigation with Lieut. Jeff McCrae of Manhattan Homicide. It is a moderately amiable non-fair-play novel.
Bio-Bibliographic Data: According to Al Hubin in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, Barbara Frost (married name Barbara Frost Shively) was a publicity manager for J. B. Lippincott Co., an obvious rival to Coward McCann, who was the publisher of her four mystery novels.
Bill is correct in saying that this is Marka de Lancey’s second appearance. He did not mention that there was a third, however, nor that Ms. Frost’s first crime novel was not a series entry. One source on the Internet suggests that the police lieutenant’s name was spelled “Macrae.” It is not presently known if he appeared with Marka de Lancey’s in all three of her cases.
FROST, BARBARA. 1903-1985. Note: Marka de Lancey appeared in books two through four:
The Unwelcome Corpse (n.) Coward 1947.
The Corpse Said No (n.) Coward 1949.
The Corpse Died Twice (n.) Coward 1951.
Innocent Bystander (n.) Coward 1955.
Editorial Inquiry: Marka de Lancey’s first appearance was in 1949, making her perhaps one of the earliest female attorneys to appear in crime fiction. Who may have preceded her in this category?
[UPDATE] 02-08-10. See comment #3. It isn’t a definitive answer, but if Jon Breen doesn’t know of any other female attorney who was a lead character in a mystery novel and who came before Marka de Lancey, then my money’s on the fact that there weren’t any.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Inez Stapleton is a woman lawyer in Erle Stanley Gardner’s D.A. books. She goes to law school at the end of The D.A. Holds a Candle (1938), and returns in later volumes. She is not the central series character, however.
Two-fisted lawyer-sleuth “Betty Bates, Lady at Law” in Hit Comics being long running series in the early 1940’s. It is barely remembered today.
A blog entry about her: http://goldenreadingdomain.blogspot.com/2008/04/betty-bates-lady-at-law.html
February 7th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Inez Stapleton may not have been a leading character in the Gardner books, but it’s nice to know about her, especially if she appeared in more than one book.
Betty Bates is also completely new to me, even though I had a small stack of Hit Comics that I’d collected and enjoyed reading some 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe I didn’t have any old enough for her to have been in, or more likely, I’ve forgotten her altogether.
(Wish I’d saved those old comics I had. Some DC from the 40s, but many more Fawcett’s — Captain Marvel, etc. — and Quality — Plastic Man, Doll Man, and the Spirit. I still remember them, but what I traded them off for, I have no idea. It must have been important to me at the time!)
— Steve
February 8th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
I queried Jon Breen on the question and received the following reply by email:
In NOVEL VERDICTS, I included Frost’s third novel, INNOCENT BYSTANDER, noting that Marka de Lancey was “ahead of her fictional times as an independent female professional.” I didn’t think much of the book otherwise and never read her previous two appearances. There may well be earlier women lawyers in crime fiction, but I don’t know of any.
All the best,
Jon
February 9th, 2010 at 10:12 am
The movie comedy THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBIE SOXER (1947) has Myrna Loy as a judge. It’s not a crime film.
Jean Arthur played a woman lawyer on her short lived 1960’s TV show, also mainly a comedy.
February 9th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Here’s an female attorney that I thought might be a possibility, until I checked the dates. (I have one or two of the episodes in my collection.)
From the Thrilling Detective website: https://www.thrillingdetective.com/marty.html
Radio’s The Defense Rests (also known as Defense Attorney) began on NBC in the spring of 1951 with Mercedes McCambridge playing the role of a female lawyer, MARTY ELLIS BRYAN. She spends little time in the courtroom and was usually on the streets, solving crimes. She is somewhat assisted by her boy friend, a reporter, played by Howard Culver (who had just left Straight Arrow where he played the lead and his secret identity, Steve Adams).
After a few months, NBC dropped it so ABC bought it, cast and crew, retitled it “Defense Attorney” and ran it from the August of 1951 (originally as a summer replacement for Richard Diamond, Private Detective) and then through December 1952.
…
But since Marka de Lancey’s first book came out in 1949, she’s still the one, until/unless someone comes up with somebody earlier.
— Steve
April 18th, 2011 at 8:17 am
Steve:
A little late, but better late than never. It was Anthony Boucher, in his review of The Corpse Said No, New York Times Book Review section July 24, 1949, stated that
“…Miss Frost’s Marka de Lancey is the first crime-solving lawyer to feature gold-flecked eyes and off-russet hair.”
The book was published July 18, 1949.
Victor Berch
March 24th, 2021 at 1:20 am
I’m surprised no one had this. There is indeed a character who beats Marka as the first woman lawyer/sleuth. 1945 – Amy Brewster created by Sam Merwin, Jr. She was a lawyer-financier. First appearance was in Knife in My Back. She’s also 300 pounds and smokes cigars. I was sure that one of the Brewster books was reviewed on this site previously, but my searches showed up nothing.
March 24th, 2021 at 9:12 am
Thanks, John. The question of who is the first in anything is almost never closed, but maybe it is now. No, Amy Brewster has never come up before on this blog. Here’s her resume, a la Al Hubin:
BREWSTER, AMY
Sam Merwin, Jr.:
Knife in My Back (n.) Mystery House 1945 [Boston, MA]
Message from a Corpse (n.) Mystery House 1945 [New York City, NY]
A Matter of Policy (n.) Mystery House 1946 [New York City, NY]
I don’t know if I’ll start hunting down one of the three, but I just might!