Sat 2 Dec 2023
A PI Mystery Review: ZELDA POPKIN – Death Wears a Gardenia.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[4] Comments
ZELDA POPKIN – Death Wears a White Gardenia. Mary Carner #1. J.B. Lippincott Co, hardcover, 1938. Dell #13, paperback (mapback edition), circa 1943.
Although she may come close to being a PI (see comment #1), when it comes down to it, Mary Carner probably shouldn’t really be tagged as one. As Death ears a Gardenia begins, she’s the assistant to the on-staff detective at a major department store in the center of Manhattan, and her expertise is not wayward spouses nor missing heirs. It is instead shoplifters and shoplifting, a profession and occupation that’s been around as long as there have been department stores.
But when murder occurs during a giant anniversary sale, she’s on hand throughout, offering opinions and interviewing suspects right along with the police. She’s slim and pretty, but tough-minded, and her opinions and questions are right on target, as if she’s been doing it all her life.
Dead is the store’s credit manager, and Zelda Popkin, the author, must have had some experience working behind the scenes in such an establishment is described in picturesque detail, and is a solid part of the tale’s background. Personal relationships, and the secrets the employees have from each other and (they hope) the world as well are revealed to all in the course of the investigation.
Popkin was a very good writer, with good insight as to how real people think and behave, but in this first book in the series, she doesn’t seem to have gotten the hang of portraying a book-length investigation and keeping things moving. The middle portion of the book deals with the ups and downs of the building’s elevators the night before, details of which are, well, boring. More attention should have been spent on the gardenia in the dead man’s hand. (Not a floor manager’s carnation.) This is what’s really important, and if they’d only asked the poor flower seller outside the store what she knew a lot earlier, the book would have been over in a third of the time, if not less.
Rating (on my well-tested HB Hardboiled scale): 2.5 (out of 10).
The Mary Carner series —
Death Wears a White Gardenia (1938)
Time Off for Murder (1940)
Murder in the Mist (1940)
Dead Man’s Gift (1941)
No Crime for a Lady (1942)
December 2nd, 2023 at 6:37 pm
Is Mary Carner a PI? The answer is yes if you believe Kevin Burton Smith. Her page on his Thrilling Detective website is well worth your reading:
https://thrillingdetective.com/2021/06/13/mary-carner/
December 2nd, 2023 at 11:28 pm
Over on his blog, Cullen Gallagher seems to have liked this mystery a lot more than I did. Not only that, but he points out how in several ways the book is more hard-boiled than my relatively puny HB rating would suggest. He may be right:
http://www.pulp-serenade.com/2020/08/death-wears-gardenia-by-zelda-popkin.html
December 2nd, 2023 at 11:37 pm
On the other hand, Nick Fuller’s review on his blog says:
“The book is hard-nosed without being hard-boiled: men have mistresses; modern girls spend the night with their boyfriends (“A woman capable of supporting herself can do as she pleases about her friendships with men…â€); and it’s understood that pregnant unmarried women might need abortions.”
And goes on to say, about the plot:
“The solution, however, fails to excite; there’s no real creativity in it, and no outstanding clues. Read this for the setting, not for the plot.”
https://grandestgame.wordpress.com/2020/08/30/death-wears-a-white-gardenia-zelda-popkin/
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:47 am
Popkin probably deserves to be revived, but I always thought her backgrounds and characters were superior to her plots.