Thu 29 Dec 2016
A New Year’s Mystery Review by William F. Deeck: RUFUS KING – Holiday Homicide.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
William F. Deeck
RUFUS KING – Holiday Homicide. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1940. Dell #22, paperback, mapback edition; no date [1943].
This is a possibly dubious entry despite the title and the fact that the murder takes place on New Year’s Day.
On board his yacht Coquina in New York City, Cotton Moon, private detective and nut — the edible kind — collector, is hit on the forehead by a sapucaia nut, a genuine rarity. It had been tossed inadvertently at him from, and brought his attention to, another anchored yacht, the Trade Wind, owned by a millionaire real-estate mogul, who had been shot in his bed, it appears, during the noisy revelry early on New Year’s Day.
Moon investigates at a fee even Nero Wolfe wouldn’t sneer at and encounters another murder, an attempted murder, an earthquake and a hurricane.
This book has its moments, but they are brief and sporadic ones. Apparently King himself was aware it wasn’t a completely successful idea since this is his only novel featuring Cotton Moon.
December 29th, 2016 at 8:40 pm
I don’t know why Bill called this a “dubious entry.” It sounds perfectly legitimate to me.
December 29th, 2016 at 9:47 pm
King was great fun to read, but everyone has a bad day.
December 29th, 2016 at 9:52 pm
Nero Wolfe had his orchids, while Cotton Moon collected … nuts?
December 29th, 2016 at 9:55 pm
That last offhand comment of mine got me thinking, so I went off to Google to investigate. I was right. Here’s what Kevin Burton Smith has to say on his Thrilling Detective websote:
“COTTON MOON is a hot shot private eye whose high fees go towards “plowing about the seven seas on his boat Coquilla in search of rare nuts to add to his collection,” in Holiday Homicide (1943), a spot-on spoof of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. He’s aided in his crime-solving (and his nut hunting) by his loyal secretary-assistant-narrator, Bert Stanley.”
https://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/cotton_moon.html
December 29th, 2016 at 9:57 pm
And here’s Mike Grost’s review of the same book, posted (of all places) here on this blog:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1442
December 30th, 2016 at 12:24 pm
I do like Rufus King, but this book was a hard nut to crack. Sorry. Not a success, but still, I did enjoy some aspects of King’s attempt to satirize Nero Wolfe.
December 30th, 2016 at 3:13 pm
Steve,
Thank you for the link!
I found Holiday Homicide a good deal more enjoyable than Deeck did. Like much of King, it is well-written and verbally adroit.
I’ve never eaten a sapucaia nut. They’re a close relative of Brazil nuts, and reportedly delicious.