Fri 9 Feb 2007
Review: F. G. PARKE – First Night Murder
Posted by Steve under Authors , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[11] Comments
F. G. PARKE – First Night Murder A. L. Burt & Co.; hardcover reprint; no date. First Edition: Dial Press, hc, 1931.
The bad news first, perhaps, if you happen to read this review and if I happen to convince you that you might want to read the book for yourself. There are three copies on ABE at the present time, one the Dial Press edition for $35, one in French for under $20, and one the British hardcover (Stanley Paul, 1932) for over $40. (The one from Dial Press has a jacket, and I think it’s worth the money.)
But what the heck, keep reading. I may not convince you anyway. And who is F. G. Parke, you ask, and well you may. No one seems to know, and it’s not even his (or as it has suddenly occurred to me) her name. It’s a pseudonym. I think the author is male, however, thinking about it even as I sit at the keyboard. It’s not a woman’s tale, what with the many-faceted male point of view which so generally obvious if not blatant — and maybe so obvious that I could very well be wrong.
But as I was reading this — and enjoying it, for the most part — and don’t worry, I will be sure to let you know at which point I stopped enjoying it — I pretended in my mind (and where else) that this was an unknown work of the cousins known as Ellery Queen, who needed some money at this point of their career, which would have been, roughly, between The French Powder Mystery (Stokes, 1930) and The Dutch Shoe Mystery (Stokes, 1931), perhaps.
Or perhaps not, but it was fun to pretend — and who knows, I could very well be wrong, and they actually did write it. What got me thinking this way, though, was the locale where the first murder was committed: in a theater during the actual performance of a play, the New York City Police Commissioner in attendance, among many other notables, it being first night, of course. A mystery drama is about to reach its denouement, the lights go out, a woman’s wild scream rings out, the lights come back on, the villain (of the play) is in handcuffs — and a noted Broadway producer is found stabbed to death in his seat near the front of the theater, the space next to him unused.
Fifteen seconds of darkness — hardly time enough for the killer to make a getaway — but no knife is found (everyone is searched) and no one heard anything, no one saw anything. There is no lack of potential murderers, for as if by pre-arrangement, motives for everyone seated in seats within a small vicinity are soon revealed. But once again, no one heard, saw or felt anyone move or pass by them, and — this is the key — there is no murder weapon anywhere in the theater.
Doing the honors as the detective at hand is Martin Ellis, the author of the play, the first step of what he had hoped to be a long career as a playwright. The inner flap of the dust jacket (the only piece of the jacket I happen to have) compares him favorably with Philo Vance, but on the other hand, you know how the people who write story descriptions on the flaps of dust jackets often seem to exaggerate.
No, it was Ellery Queen I kept thinking of (Ellis = Ellery?). The Roman Hat Mystery? And yes, I know that it was death by poison in that first novel the Queens wrote, but still, it was a during a play that the victim in that book, an unliked/unlikable lawyer, was killed.
But Martin Ellis on his own, and as a writer of mystery fiction himself, seems to be amiable enough and competent enough to solve this case, even though he is in love with the girl, the actress on stage, whom the dead man married earlier the same day, which in most books would make him the number one suspect. (I did suggest that there are motives galore — what’s lacking are means and opportunity.) Both Lt. John B. Gradey of Homicide and District Attorney Moore eliminate him quickly as a suspect, however, as he was seen by two witnesses just before and after the lights went out, and nowhere near the scene of the crime.
To help demonstrate Ellis’s prowess as a detective, along either Queenian lines, or Vancian, you choose, here’s a quote from page 98:
As I say, you choose. More deaths occur, with plenty of influence on the thinking processes of Martin Ellis, but as it occurred to me, with very little emotional impact. As for the solution, as I skip over in this short essay anything more about all of the suspects and the all of the suspicious activity that goes on in this book, it is the solution that tells the tale, and to tell you the truth, while I was ready for it, already having made a note to myself about the paragraph I quoted to you above, I really wasn’t ready for it. Don’t know as I still am, as a matter of fact, but I guess that means that I should take my hat off to Mr. Parke, whoever he was.
The gentlemen behind Ellery Queen could never have been quite this melodramatic — could they?
UPDATE [02-10-07] I emailed the seller of the Dial first edition of this book a couple of days ago, asking if there was anything helpful that was said about the author on either the back panel of the dust jacket or its flaps. Perhaps asking for too much, I also inquired if a scan of the cover might be possible. I’m still hoping, but to this date, I have not heard back.
UPDATE [02-24-09] Over two years later — have I been doing this that long? — and I finally have a cover image to show you. A big thank you goes to Luca Conti, who emailed me with it as an attachment a couple of days ago:
I’m not sure how well this additional scan of the blurb from inside the dust jacket will show up, but I since I mentioned it in my review, Luca sent it along. I think it’s worth the try:
July 31st, 2012 at 12:57 am
I’m working on a hypothesis, writing an article dedicated also to this book. I agree with your assumption that this is a novel unknown of “Danny and Manny”, but I tie it all to other novels of Ellery Queen.
I would like to know on what basis, you claim that the author is a man and woman. I’m interested.
July 31st, 2012 at 10:48 am
First of all, Pietro, thanks for being the first to leave a comment on this review. It’s only taken nearly five and a half years!
I didn’t mean to leave any impression that I knew who the author was. I did a lot of wondering about it, and I hope I didn’t overdo it in my review.
Refreshing my own memory of the book, I seem to have felt that Parke was male, but the suggestion that you made, that the Parke could have a collaborative one between a male and a female author, is an interesting one.
FIRST NIGHT MURDER is the author’s (or authors’) only book under this name. After reading my review again, I regret that it was “his” only one, but perhaps there were others under other names.
I hope this clarifies some of my comments about it. Please ask if I can help you more. I’d love to read your article when it’s done.
July 31st, 2012 at 12:30 pm
I am now sure that Ellery Queen, for the devaluation of the character mentioned in the open letter to readers on the occasion of the reissue of The Tragedy of Y, he decided to create another pseudonym, as well as Barnaby Ross, in other words FGParke .
The quality of the novel is very high, but it seems to me less than The Roman Hat Mystery: it might suggest that the novel could have been drafted as a work first and then first left and then resumed after the success. What I think is the consequence of a psychological argument that I made after reading the later novels. And what’s more, there are references to Ellery Queen’s novel: not only Ellis = Ellery, but also more.
Your blog is basic but important: I’ve noticed that you host several big names in the world of crime fiction, for example Bill Pronzini (I read a nice review of a novel Wynne that I own).
I will put it in the blog roll on my blog. See you soon.
Pietro
January 6th, 2017 at 7:21 pm
The author of First Night Murder was Rose Pelswick who was the movie critic for the NY Journal American. She chose the name F.G. Parke because she lived at 67 Park Avenue in NY City. (6th letter of the alphabet is an F, and the 7th letter is G).
January 6th, 2017 at 8:53 pm
Janet
Thanks for the information. I found it useful, and not only that, but very very interesting!
February 21st, 2017 at 10:02 pm
IHe Catalog of Copyright says :
5536 First night murder ; a mystery melodrama in 3 acts, by R. Pelswick, based on the novel First night murder, by F. G. Parke. © 1 c. Sept. 26, 1933; D 24449; Rose Pelswick, New York.
February 21st, 2017 at 10:48 pm
Thanks, Patrice. I wonder if the play was ever performed.
Hubin now says that F. G. Parke was a pseudonym of Rose Pelzweig, (1900-1981).
August 8th, 2019 at 12:45 pm
So we’ve discovered She was a woman truely to writing the novel! The style and the manner of writing indicate a woman, now I’ve read the novel. But how did Janet Akaha discover to be the novel from Rose Pelzweig?
August 8th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
I was wrong when I thought it was that novel written by someone related to Queen. The novel has a too mannered style. It also has a lightness that does not have a novel written either by Van Dine or by Ellery Queen or by another writer who refers to Van Dine. In some moments it seems written by a writer like Mignon Eberhart. It is useless: one must formulate a hypothesis only after reading a novel, and I had not read it. Now I have read the Italian translation. But whoever has the original novel, two friends of mine, told me that the writing of Queen or Abbot or Daly King was much more refined. At that time they didn’t really know how to be a woman, the writer of the novel, but they both told me that from what she wrote she seemed to be someone who copied Queen, not having the refinement of their writing.
August 8th, 2019 at 1:19 pm
Luca Conti is one friend of mine. Luca had got two copies of this novel, found in a bookshop in Milan. Probably, someone had come to US in ’30s for buying a lot of american novels of detective fiction, that after they had to be translated in italian. Perhaps someone didn’t like this novel, and so a few copies by some novels were forgotten, until they were brought in that bookshop and after bought from Luca. Luca after gave one of his two copies to Mauro Boncompagni, the consultant for the detective fiction of Mondadori publishing house. He gave his copy to his friend, that after the translation in italian, has published the bbok in Italy.
August 11th, 2019 at 3:13 pm
Steve, here is my long article about “First Night Murder” : https://eccoilcolpevole.blogspot.com/2019/08/fgparke-la-sera-della-prima-first-night.html?fbclid=IwAR3oMFzkzaSHsRP9XMEoduv2Gc3dbcQQAVFktlUYP4wSkl0Hb91kSV-Vy9s
The article is in italian. If you don’t lose time to translate it in english, wait that I translate it in english. Anyway here I want anticipate a thing I say in my article: First Night Murder is not the only work of detection fiction that Rose Pelzweig wrote: there’s another, a short story. In the article is indicated the reference magazine.