Thu 8 Jul 2021
A 1001 Midnights PI Review: FRANCES CRANE – Death-Wish Green.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[4] Comments
by Marcia Muller
FRANCES CRANE – Death-Wish Green. Random House, hardcover, 1960. No paperback edition.
Pat and Jean Abbott, a private investigator and his wife, are returning to foggy San Francisco from a weekend in the sun. As they reach the toll plaza of the Golden Gate Bridge, they spot a familiar car being inspected by highway patrolmen and the local police.
The car, which was abandoned on the bridge, belongs to Katie Spinner, daughter of friends of the Abbotts, and it appears she has jumped off the bridge. Jean Abbott, however, is not convinced the girl committed suicide; and when Pat is hired by Katie’s aunt to investigate the disappearance, it becomes apparent Katie is still alive.
The Abbotts, who often work as an investigative team, focus on bohemian North Beach, one of the last places Katie was seen before she started across the bridge. There they encounter an art-gallery dealer with a taste for Zen Buddhism and opium; a model who calls her favorite color “death-wish green,” and dies wearing it; a mysterious stranger with a large auburn beard who was seen with the missing girl in a coffeehouse; and errant sons and daughters of some of the city’s wealthiest and most respected families. For all Pat Abbott’s investigative skills, in the end it is Jean who sees most of the action and carries the day.
Frances Crane’s descriptive powers are considerable, and the sense of place — particularly of the fog and its effect on San Francisco — is powerful. Her secondary characters are well drawn and indeed far more vividly drawn than either Pat or Jean. Jean, the narrator/observer, remains just that, and we come away without really having gotten to know her. Pat, the detective, is merely a figure going through investigative motions.
Frances Crane has written many other novels, all of them with colors in their titles, featuring the Abbotts. Among them are The Amethyst Spectacles (1944), The Buttercup Case (1958), and The Amber Eyes (1962). In addition to San Francisco, they are set in such locales as Tangier (The Coral Princess Murders, 1954); New Mexico (Horror on the Ruby X, 1956); and New Orleans (The Indigo Necklace, 1955).
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
July 8th, 2021 at 6:02 pm
I enjoyed THE YELLOW VIOLET (1942), and keep meaning to read more by this writer.
THE YELLOW VIOLET shows the influence of Dashiell Hammett. But it also has something of a “cozy” feel, with its happily married spouses. It’s an odd, but workable combination of approaches.
July 8th, 2021 at 8:31 pm
I remember the two or three I’ve read as being cozier than I would have preferred, a tad more so than the Norths’ books, say, but not enough so to cause me any concern.
I don’t recall a Hammett influence, though, but if you saw it, I won’t try to deny it. The ones I read were toward the end of the series; perhaps the earlier ones had more of a hardboiled nature to them.
July 8th, 2021 at 8:08 pm
The Abbotts were popular enough to have their own radio series THE ABBOTTS, and I generally like the books though perhaps Jean stumbles on too many solutions for Pat to be fully believable as a professional investigator. Jerry North is just a publisher and Jeff Troy a mystery writer so Pam and Halia’s skills seem somehow more in line.
I recall the settings in the ones I read being quite good, perhaps the strongest element in the books. Beyond that they were often a bit cozier than I preferred with pretty good plots.
My ranking as far as married sleuths go somewhat in line with Arab and Andy Blake or John and Suzy Marshall, well below the North’s or the Troy’s and far above du Bois the McNeils.
I always wondered if JDM got the idea for the color coded titles from Crane.
July 8th, 2021 at 8:37 pm
We’re pretty much in sync with rating those married couple mysteries, David. And all things considered, JDM probably never heard of the Crane books, but it’s fun to speculate.