Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Among the latest releases in Otto Penzler's American Mystery Classics, which resurrects out-of-print American mysteries from decades ago, is this delicious installment in Frances and Richard Lockridge's Mr. and Mrs. North series, which ran in the 1940s and '50s. The sleuthing Norths comprise husband Jerry, a well-connected Manhattan publisher, and wife Pamela, ditzy-seeming but brilliant, who has a penchant for discovering newly murdered bodies and usually solves the crimes. The Norths are friends with NYPD Lieutenant Weigand, who frequently meets with them over cocktails to discuss ongoing investigations, and allows them to visit fresh crime scenes. This reissue, the fourth in the series from 1942, is a jaunty theatrical murder mystery filled with vivid details about the intricacies of onstage and backstage mechanics. During a rehearsal for a play the Norths have been invited to view, Dr. Bolton, a man who treats actors, seduces young actresses, and puts up money for plays, is found dead in his aisle seat, an ice pick protruding from the back of his neck. Much hinges on establishing who was in the theater at what time, and Lieutenant Weigand's interviews with cast and crew and Mrs. North's secret backstage explorations reveal a plethora of intracompany tensions and suspects. An enormously engaging old-school mystery.--Connie Fletcher Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
First published in 1942, this installment in the Lockridges' long-running series featuring the married amateur detective team of Jerry and Pam North exemplifies the series' strengths and weaknesses. The setup is a classic golden age puzzle-a murder committed in a Broadway theater during a rehearsal when all eyes were on the stage. The Norths and their sleuthing, however, are less than memorable, and, as Otto Penzler notes in his introduction, Pam is the archetype of the scatterbrained female lead who was popular in the mid-20th century. Both Norths happen to be on hand when someone uses an ice pick to kill Carney Bolton, a "backer of plays and beguiler of women." The investigating NYPD officer, Lt. William Wiegand, welcomes their help in figuring out exactly when Bolton was fatally stabbed, and where everyone involved in the production was at that time. Another person connected to the play is killed before Pam stumbles on the solution. Fans of the Thin Man movies are most likely to enjoy this somewhat dated entry in the American Mystery Classics series. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Lt. William Weigand's marriage to Dorian Hunt must be postponed yet againthis time by the discovery of a corpse in the West 45th Street Theatre. And naturally, the frustrated couple's old friends Mr. and Mrs. North are on hand in this charmingly lightweight reprint from 1942.Dr. Carney Bolton had such a reputation as a physician, theatrical angel, and man about town that he's recognized even by the ambulance surgeon who's come to haul away his corpse from the aisle seat where he was stabbed by an ice pick while taking in the latest run-through of Two in the Bush, a comedy by Penfield Smith, who'd imprudently planned to bring his latest production directly to Broadway without the obligatory out-of-town tryouts. Now Smith, director Humphrey Kirk, lead players Percy Driscoll and Ellen Grady, and assorted lesser performers, support professionals, and hangers-on must struggle to prove their alibisespecially for 1:18 p.m., the moment when actor John Hubbard says he got a glimpse of a cigarette falling from the aisle seat. All the leading discoveries in the case, including that of a second corpse, are made by Pam North, who comes across as both scatty and sharp-eyed even though, as she admits when she finally confronts the killer, "I never suspected you at all." Pam and her publisher husband, Jerry, whose repartee provides a remarkably prescient template for that of contemporary couple cozies, are eclipsed this time by the cast and crew of Two in the Bush, though so many egos have to fight for attention that most of them leave only blurred impressions.The biggest selling points are the story's rapid pacethe culprit is identified barely 12 hours after the murderand the unguessable but eminently logical motive, by far the most striking piece of this retro puzzle. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
