Sun 1 Feb 2015
ELIZABETH DALY – Death and Letters. Dell/Murder Ink #21, paperback, 1981. First edition: Rinehart & Co., hardcover, 1950. Also: Mercury Mystery #165, digest-sized paperback, 1951. Berkley, paperback, 1963.
It’s nice to see some of Elizabeth Daly’s work back in print again. Her books are increasingly hard to find in used paperback shops, and the demand for them is high, as Carol Brener, the proprietress of Murder Ink [in part responsible for this line of paperbacks], most assuredly well knows.
And I’ve known it, too, for quite some time now, and yet I’ve never gotten around to reading anything by her until now. This book, written toward the end of Miss Daly’s writing career, was my introduction to Henry Gamadge, and do you know, from reading it I’m still not sure what it is exactly that he does for a living. Private eye work, apparently, but dealing primarily with bookish matters, perhaps?
Which certainly doubles the appeal to mystery fans, most of whom are collectors and savers of one sort or another.
In this case, a message via a crossword puzzle, and a Gamadgian response, with a little help from G.K. Chesterton, help spring a lady whose family has shut her up in her room as mentally incompetent. It seems she suspects something wrong about her husband’s “suicide.” One of the family knows for a fact there was. The others are merely afraid of scandal.
At first Daly’s storytelling methods seem rather dry and aloof, more British in tone than American, but the effect begins to diminish as the characters and the proceedings start to sort themselves out a bit. The quiet little climax/resolution only serves to reinforce the obvious statement. Here is the ultimate antithesis of the Mickey Spillane school of writing!
February 1st, 2015 at 5:52 pm
I read the occasional Daly and rather liked Gamadge. She wrote dry civilized books with a good mystery and detection and an attractive if very laid back hero.
I don’t recall a lot of high points but I don’t recall any low points. This was a series that was always what I wanted it to be when I picked one up.
February 1st, 2015 at 7:10 pm
I’ve read one or two more in the series since this one, but I don’t remember which. The stories were all but interchangeable. Nothing stands out now for me to tell them apart.
There were 16 in all. The first was in 1940 when Daly was 62 years old. This one was next to last. The Book of the Crime was her final one; it came out in 1951.
It’s been a while since I read one. I’ll have to try another.
February 1st, 2015 at 7:19 pm
I meant to say something about the cover of Dell/Murder Ink series of paperbacks. The gimmick of the covers was that on the front was a jigsaw puzzle piece, taken from a scene from the book on the back cover.
I think the piece that was missing from the back cover may have illustrated a clue of some sort from the story, but I could easily be wrong about that. It was a theory of mine at the time, but I don’t remember ever checking it out to be sure.
February 1st, 2015 at 8:20 pm
I think you are right about the jigsaw puzzle clues. Remember Dell is also the Mapback and Key cover people.
I don’t disagree about Daly’s books being fairly interchangeable, but I read them as reliable time killers at a time I was devouring mystery novels like popcorn so I may have a more favorable view. I could finish a Daly novel in an hour and a half easily so my investment may not have been as great as a more careful reader.