Sat 12 Mar 2011
Archived Review: DOROTHY GARDINER – The Trans-Atlantic Ghost.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[10] Comments
DOROTHY GARDINER – The Trans-Atlantic Ghost. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1933.
The detective in what was Mrs. Gardiner’s first mystery novel has a well-chosen name, I think you’ll agree, but the fact is that while Mr. Watson indeed did work for 20 years for the New York Police Department, he was for all that time a minor clerk, a statistician. (Though, of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that!)
The locked room murder he’s called upon to solve in this book is in California, however, where he finds himself as part of an around-the-world cruise he’s about to embark on, as he heads back home to his native England for good.
The locked room is in an English castle that’s been transported across the ocean and rebuilt in the hills of California by a wealthy millionaire; there is some talk of ghosts, and some obnoxious louts who call themselves policemen, led by the appropriately named Captain Bulnose; and lots of suspects.
What makes this book so disappointing is difficult to describe without giving the entire solution away, and you may as well have your own chance at it. Allow me to suggest, however, that it’s the obvious one, and one that at one point Watson is solemnly assured could not be the explanation.
Of course we shouldn’t assume that everyone knows the truth, or speaks it, but some tiny spark of imagination is to be expected as well, isn’t it?
There are some nicely humorous scenes to be pleased with, such as when the string on Watson’s pajamas gives way at one crucial point, and to be honest, this was no real chore to read, but as a mystery, it’s (sadly) rather a silly one.
Rating: C minus.
[UPDATE] 03-12-11. A scarce book, with only a single copy of the US edition listed on ABE, and my copy has no jacket, thus no image above.
I don’t know much about the author, but according to one website: “Dorothy Gardiner was born in Naples, Italy. She grew up in Boulder, Colorado. In 1917, she graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in History. During the Second World War she was in charge of all the files and records for the North-Atlantic Area office of the American Red Cross.”
From the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, a list of her mystery fiction:
GARDINER, DOROTHY. 1894-1979.
The Transatlantic Ghost (n.) Doubleday 1933 [Mr. Watson]
A Drink for Mr. Cherry (n.) Doubleday 1934 [Mr. Watson]
Beer for Psyche (n.) Doubleday 1946
What Crime Is It? (n.) Doubleday 1956 [Sheriff Moss Magill]
The Seventh Mourner (n.) Doubleday 1958 [Sheriff Moss Magill]
Lion in Wait (n.) Doubleday 1963 [Sheriff Moss Magill]
She also edited For Love or Money: The 1957 Anthology of the Mystery Writers of America (Doubleday Crime Club, 1957).
March 13th, 2011 at 5:47 am
I’d never heard of Dorothy Gardiner.
She also wrote a non-fiction history book on the American West called “West of the River” (1941), available free on-line at the Hathi Trust. And edited Raymond Chandler’s letters. as “Raymond Chandler Speaking”.
“What Crime Is It?” is her only mystery easily available for interlibrary loan here in Michigan.
March 13th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Thanks, Mike, for picking up on that huge slip-up of mine. I blanked out altogether on the Raymond Chandler book last night. I knew there was another reason mystery fans should recognize her name, and I just couldn’t come up with it!
From the comments I made in this review, which is all I remember about the book, I suppose you could say that I wasn’t recommending it, but (this is funny) I’ve intrigued myself into trying it again sometime. Or one of her later books, perhaps, of which I own them all.
March 13th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Steve,
I’m intrigued too. This author is completely new to me.
Today, mysteries set in rural regions of the West with Sheriff sleuths are commonplace. But back in the 1950’s they were much rarer, although they did exist. Maybe Rex Stout’s THE MOUNTAIN CAT MURDERS is an example.
Wonder what Gardiner’s Sheriff Moss Magill books are like
March 13th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
I know I’ve read at least one Gardiner aside from RAYMOND CHANDLER SPEAKING, and a mystery at that, but for the life of me I can’t recall a thing about it.
March 14th, 2011 at 7:34 am
In the second edition of TWENTIETH CENTURY CRIME AND MYSTERY WRITERS, no less than Dorothy B. Hughes wrote the Gardiner entry.
Hughes praised Gardiner as one of the most proficient of regional writers and singled out Sheriff Moss Magill as the most important of her characters. “Sheriff Magill is…easy going but shrewd with an authoritative sense of detection. He is a natural law man,” Hughes wrote. She said the best novel in the series was THE SEVENTH MOURNER when Magill is for once transported out of his native Colorado to the Scottish Highlands.
My first recollection about Gardiner was that she had been a mover and shaker in the Mystery Writers of America as executive secretary for much of the 1950s. Hughes, an MWA founder, had lavish praise for Gardiner’s role in the MWA: “No one was more important in shaping the organization and advancing it to its present high stature…No small part of the present standing came through Dorothy Gardiner’s eagle eye and forthright tongue.”
Hughes said Gardiner also assisted John Creasy in establishing the Crime Writers Association in England.
She was born in Naples on 5 November 1894 and died 4 December 1979. She wrote three non-mystery novels also published by Doubleday.
March 14th, 2011 at 11:58 am
Thanks, Richard! This tells me a lot about Dorothy Gardiner I hadn’t known before. I was wondering how it happened that she edited one of the MWA anthologies, but I never thought to look for an entry for her in the 20th CENTURY book.
You’ve also answered Mike Grost’s question about Moss Magill. I have the books but I’ve never read them. There’s a lot better chance that I will now.
March 14th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
The MWA bell rang in my memory probably because I was a member when she died in 1979 and there was likely a nice writeup on her. Also, I have a faint memory that Michael Avallone, who was very active in the MWA back then, mentioned her in his various articles.
I knew her mostly as the co-editor of RAYMOND CHANDLER SPEAKING, which was a book that had a great impact on me both in understanding Chandler and the art of writing. There was really nothing like it at the time.
By the way, I just checked and Dorothy Gardiner was dropped from the third edition of the 20th CENTURY CRIME AND MYSTERY WRITERS. Luckily, the second edition was the one easiest to grab and there she was.
March 14th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Richard,
Thank you very much! This is really informative.
Just sent in a request for THE SEVENTH MOURNER from inter-library loan.
It will come all the way from the wonderful Peter White Library in far off Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They have kept a large selection of their old mysteries.
February 28th, 2014 at 10:53 pm
Dorothy Gardiner also wrote western histories, specialized in the massacres of Native Americans and water development. I came across her as a newspaper reporters working on a story about the Sand Creek Massacre where several hundred women,children and elderly Cheyenne and Arapahoe were slaughtered by 400 U.S. troops led by Chivington. The Native Americans were flying a white flag and a U.S. flag given to tribal leaders by President Lincoln. Her research was extensive and accurate. No one believed her because of the horrors – mutilations with the body parts paraded through Denver by the “the troops.” She grew up in Greeley, Colorado.
March 1st, 2014 at 2:16 am
I always enjoy learning more about the authors of books I read. Thanks, Debbie!