Fri 2 Jun 2023
Archived Mystery Review: NANCY RUTLEDGE – The Preying Mantis.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
NANCY RUTLEDGE – The Preying Mantis. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1947.
Curt Trevor gets a strange call from his younger cousin in New York, then [gets] word the next day Doug had been killed in a traffic accident. Arriving for the funeral is a surprise: Doug’s widow. They had been married [only] the day before his death, and she is blind.
Doug’s fiancee also finds the woman quite a surprise. Not the least of the surprises in this story is how violent – not to say vicious – it turns out to be, with the control of the United States at stake. [The story] has the sense not to tie up all of the loose ends, too.
[Bibliographic Update.] Nancy Rutledge (1901-1976) wrote ten mysteries from 1944-1960 under her own name, and one as by Leigh Bryson in 1947, with Preying Mantis as her third.
June 2nd, 2023 at 9:35 pm
So far, I haven’t come up with much information about the author, only a list of the books she wrote:
Bibliography
Beware the Hoot Owl (1944)
Blood On the Cat (1946)
THe Preying Mantis (1947)
Murder For Millions (1949)
Easy to Murder (1951)
Cry Murder (1954)
Murder in Disguise (1956)
The Frightened Murderer (1957)
Death Stalks the Bride (1958)
Escape Into Danger (1959)
Forgotten World (1960)
Alibi For Murder (1961)
as Leigh Bryson
The Gloved Hand (1947)
June 2nd, 2023 at 9:40 pm
Of course I spoke a little too soon. Following another blogger’s review of Rutledge’s book BLOOD ON THE CAT, another fellow and I tried to straighten out her rather complicated bibliography, to good avail, I think:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/2021/04/29/blood-on-the-cat-1946-by-nancy-rutledge/
June 2nd, 2023 at 10:19 pm
Is this detective with thriller stylings or thriller with detective stylings?
June 2nd, 2023 at 10:47 pm
Now that’s what I call a good question. I wish I could remember, but I didn’t go into enough detail back then to be able to tell you now.
Most of the mysteries published by the Crime Club by female authors tended to be on the cozier side, but in his case, if I were to make a guess, and that’s all it is, I’d say the latter.
A wild stab in the dark.
June 3rd, 2023 at 10:16 am
Another review of the book here:
https://readinggoldenagemysteries.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-preying-mantis-by-nancy-rutledge.html?m=1
Ny times also has a review in the archives (subscription only): https://www.nytimes.com/1947/05/25/archives/the-preying-mantis-by-nancy-rutledge-217-pp-new-york-crime.html
June 3rd, 2023 at 3:29 pm
Thanks for the links,Tony, even though I can’t access the review in the Times. (I’ve let my subscription lapse.)
The first one though, while interesting, doesn’t go into the reason why I said “… the control of the United States at stake.”
It is a mystery!