Wed 23 Apr 2025
LEE THAYER – And One Cried Murder. Dodd Mead, hardcover, 1961. Detective Book Club, hardcover, 3-in-1 edition.
The stiff manners of Peter Clancy’s English butler Wiggar carry over to the stilted language and dialogue of nearly everybody else. For example, how does “So that’s where the unfortunate fellow got it!” (page 128) really sound? For my first introduction to San Francisco detective Clancy, this story is really a failure.
The death of a rich aunt by carbon monoxide poisoning leads to suspicion of two brothers and a sister, with a mysterious suitor sneaking around in the background. It suddenly turns out that he works for the FBI, and it is [REDACTED], who is the killer. Strictly from nowhere, for the most part. and slow, but interesting in spots.
Rating: **½
April 24th, 2025 at 11:17 am
Clancy first appeared on the scene in 1919 when the author was 45 years old. He continued for over 40 years and about 60 books; she lasted a little longer, passing away a few months before her 100th birthday. The author –Emma Redington Thayer — used her maiden name (Lee) and her married name for her pseudonym; although the marriage did not last, “Lee Thayer” did.
About a half dozen of Thayer’s books are available as e-Books. I don’t think there is much demand for her backlist.
April 24th, 2025 at 2:01 pm
Thanks, Jerry, for the brief recap of Lee Thayer and her mystery-writing career. She has been talked about several times over the time this blog has been active. Here, for example, is a long post Mike Nevins did about her:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=7756
There are others. Use the search box in the right hand column to find other posts about her.
This old review of mine may be about as positive as anything else written about her. She wrote mysteries for quite a long time, and most have been considered not very good.
April 25th, 2025 at 11:37 pm
Thayer never really improved over the long career of Peter Clancy and Wigar, but was remarkably consistent.
I don’t think Clancy or Wigar aged a day from 1919 to 1961, or the plots ever got much more interesting. Still she had her readers and the library crowd and it kept her published a good many years.