Tue 11 Feb 2014
Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: EUNICE MAYS BOYD – Murder Wears Mukluks.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
EUNICE MAYS BOYD – Murder Wears Mukluks. Farrar & Rinehart, hardcover, 1945. Dell #259, paperback, mapback edition, no date [1948].
Last summer, when I purged my collection preparing to remodel my room, I thought long and hard about one book, the Dell mapback edition of Murder Wears Mukluks, by Eunice Mays Boyd, author of Murder Breaks Trail, Doom in the Midnight Sun, etc. Should I pitch it or keep it?
It didn’t seem likely I’d ever read this thing, but in some way my library seemed richer, warmer, more diverse and enjoyable just because there was a book there somewhere called Murder Wears Mukluks. Does anyone know what I mean?
Anyway, I compromised by putting Mukluks on my to-be-read shelf and a few weeks ago I actually started on it, only to give up fifty-some pages inwards. There was plenty going on: jealousy, murder, bitter feuds and even a ghostly apparition, but the characters never seemed to be anything more than figures in a puzzle, their whole existence in these pages defined by their relationship to the murder.
As such, it got rather hard to take much interest in them, and I gave it up as a bad job with two hundred unread pages to go.
Which leaves me once again with the same problem I had last summer: keep it or pitch it? I’d sold off much much better books than this, but there’s just something about going through my shelves and discovering Murder Wears Mukluks that appeals mightily to my heart.
Any thoughts?
Editorial Comment: My own review of this book was posted on this blog a couple of years ago. Check it out here.
February 12th, 2014 at 1:30 am
I know exactly what you mean and I have thousands of books and pulps in my house to prove it!
I recommend keeping it. I love the Dell Mapbacks. All of them. I believe I now have a complete set of them or almost complete, even the crossword puzzle books which are like impossible to find. I mean who keeps the crossword book after doing the crosswords?
You can never have too many books, even when they are pushing your family out the door.
February 12th, 2014 at 10:36 am
I can’t explain how or why, but the title of MURDER WEARS MUKLUKS simply caught my eye the first time I saw it as the title of the book, and reading it, also with indifferent results, has done nothing to eliminate or reduce the fascination it holds for me.
February 14th, 2014 at 11:03 am
As a guy who wore mukluks to school on occasion while growing up in northern Manitoba, I would never have considered dumping it. Now I want a copy. By the way, those muklulks have been in a box in my garage for countless years and I have pulled them once in awhile when major snow storms hit. Nothing keeps your feet warmer than what we called Indian mukluks or the shorter moccasins that were made by the Cree women in our community. When the weather was warmer and the snow melting, you wore what were known a “piss” rubbers over them. Just picture it and don’t ask.
February 14th, 2014 at 11:29 am
I have to justify keeping my books for some other reason than just a cool cover or wicked title. I’ll never get rid of my Eunice Mays Boyd books. They’re too odd and uneusual — a grocery store owner turned sleuth who lives in 1940s Alaska. That’s enough reason for me to hold onto my entire set!
Walker’s final sentence in the comment above makes me smile and laugh. I undestand it all too well.
June 16th, 2017 at 3:53 pm
I knew Eunice Mays Boyd. She was my mother’s best friend and a very sweet lady. I was always surprised that she wrote murder mysteries since she was a secretary during the day and loved children.
June 16th, 2017 at 9:55 pm
Steve
How wonderful it is to hear from you. It helps turn an author who’s been only a name to me for a long time into a real person. Thanks for stopping by!