Although the serenely levelheaded costumer designer gets to solve the mystery, Patrick often keeps her under wraps, and even...
Patrick, a fig-leaf pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team, debuts with a tale that entangles not-yet-famed costume designer Edith Head in a case of Hollywood murder.
The road to Miss Head’s acquaintance runs improbably through beauty queen–turned-shopgirl Lillian Frost, who’s shocked to hear that her former roommate Ruby Carroll has been shot to death and additionally disconcerted when the LAPD’s Detective Gene Morrow reminds her that although they’d quarreled and separated months ago, the two had met again quite recently when Ruby tried to inveigle Lillian into her scheme to borrow costumes from the Paramount wardrobe department, where Ruby had gone to work, and forget to return them. Lillian had indignantly refused, but there’s clear evidence that Ruby had found another accomplice: the gown she was found dead in had been worn by none other than Gertrude Michael in The Return of Sophie Lang, and a suitcase of Ruby’s Lillian discovers turns out to be full of clothing Edith identifies as Paramount’s very own. Why was Ruby so intent on swiping outfits that could have been easily identified when she might have availed herself instead of the largesse of her upscale friends Armand Troncosa and Princess Natalie Szabo? That’s an excellent question, and eventually Patrick provides an excellent answer—but not before Lillian and Edith have bonded over shared adventures, sartorial taste, and the travails of being a woman in 1937 Hollywood.
Although the serenely levelheaded costumer designer gets to solve the mystery, Patrick often keeps her under wraps, and even the cameos by Gracie Allen, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, and Preston Sturges aren't an adequate substitute. Here’s hoping the promised series will redress the balance.Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8184-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
PROFILES
Utter non-scents.
Die-hard Yankee candle maker Stella Wright (Murder’s No Votive Confidence, 2018) gets caught up in a trans-Atlantic murder plot.
Stella thoroughly enjoys her trip to Paris even though her mother, perfume expert Millie Wright, who’s scheduled to speak on a panel entitled “The Art of Scent Extractions” at the World Perfumery Conference, gets preempted by a murder. Sadly, once they’re back home in Nantucket, things get even weirder. Stella receives an anonymous note threatening her mom if Stella doesn’t turn over a secret formula hidden in Millie’s bag. Her mom can’t help because she’s in the hospital courtesy of an overenthusiastic attempt by Stella’s cat, Tinker, to befriend her. While trespassing on a suspicious sailboat, Stella meets U.S. Agent Sarah Hill, who warns her that well-known anarchist Rex Laruam plans to disrupt the upcoming Peace Jubilee using a stolen formula he secreted in Millie’s bag after he stabbed the agent guarding it back in Paris. Ignoring the advice of her friend Andy Southerland, a Nantucket cop, to leave detection to the professionals, Stella tries to unmask the elusive Laruam. As she spies on a bevy of unlikely suspects, the plot spirals further and further out of control: There’s a Canadian couple staying at an Airbnb run by Stella’s cousin Chris who whisper sweet but suspicious nothings in the dark, a shovel-wielding schoolmarm, a gang of old geezers who have a collective crush on Millie, a surprise 30th-birthday party planned by Stella’s beau, Peter Bailey, and an even more surprising impromptu airplane ride.
Utter non-scents.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2141-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A middling mystery with telling historical details and the usual pleasures provided by the regulars’ interpersonal dynamics.
A plucky group of early-20th-century detectives (Murder on Trinity Place, 2019, etc.) takes on the Black Hand.
The leads include Frank Malloy and Gino Donatelli, former police officers who started a detective agency after an unexpected legacy made Malloy a wealthy man; Malloy’s wife, Sarah, the daughter of a wealthy society family who runs a maternity clinic for the poor; and their nanny, Maeve, a budding sleuth who works in Malloy’s office. All of them leap to attention when Gino’s sister-in-law Teodora reports that Jane Harding, a worker at the settlement house where Teo volunteers, has been kidnapped by the Black Hand, who are notorious for abducting the wives and children of anyone who can afford to pay ransom. The New York Police Department is corrupt, and the local Italian immigrants never report crimes. Mr. McWilliam, who runs the settlement house, had asked Jane to marry him, but she’d asked him to allow her to experience more of the single life before deciding. Seeking clues, Sarah visits Mrs. Cassidi, an earlier kidnapping victim who’s refused to talk to anyone, in hopes that her nursing experience and sympathetic manner will get results. Mrs. Cassidi admits to being raped but knows little about where she was held captive, a quiet place in a house where she could hear children. Soon after Nunzio Esposito, a leader of the Black Hand, tells Malloy that no one’s been taken from the settlement house, Jane suddenly reappears but refuses to discuss where she’s been. Lisa Prince, Jane’s well-to-do cousin, reluctantly agrees to take her in even though Jane’s jealous of her wealth and can be unpleasant to deal with. When Esposito’s found murdered in a flat he rented for his mistress, Gino, who’s just arrived on the scene, is arrested. Now the clever sleuths must solve both the murder and the abductions to clear Gino’s name.
A middling mystery with telling historical details and the usual pleasures provided by the regulars’ interpersonal dynamics.Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0574-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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