Book Reviews: Eight Faces at Three; The Odor of Violets
In our first edition of the new year, we’re going retro again! I recently picked up three novels in the American Mystery Classics series, which “is dedicated to reissuing classic American mystery fiction in new hardcover and paperback editions.” So far I’ve only had time to read two of them. However, I have seen and liked the 1947 film version of the other one, Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes, so I’m guessing it’s pretty good. (Also, I’ve read and very much liked another Hughes novel, The Expendable Man, so that should be another point in its favor.)
But now for the two that I did get to read!
Eight Faces at Three by Craig Rice (orig. 1939; reprint by Penzler Publishers, 2021)
This one gives us a unique setup: A young woman wakes up at night to the sound of an alarm clock, discovers that every clock in the house has stopped at 3:00, and then runs across the dead body of her aunt. From there on, there’s not a dull moment, as her earnest young bandleader husband, her daffy pajama-wearing neighbor, a cynical press agent, and a wily lawyer join forces to try to prove that Holly Inglehart Dayton is not a murderer. From elopements to jailbreaks to mysterious long-lost relatives turning up out of nowhere, the pace rarely lets up for a second.
Craig Rice (full name Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig Rice) spins her tale with a lively wit fully representative of her era, which contained some of the sharpest and funniest writers this country has ever known, from Dorothy Parker to Dashiell Hammett. That tale does contain a few other things representative of her era, including plenty of drunk driving (mainly laughed off) and a couple of casual or even jokey mentions of sexual harassment and rape. Those things are unquestionably jarring, but aside from them, the story is a bright, rambunctious, and enjoyable mystery just right for an icy January day.
The Odor of Violets by Baynard Kendrick (orig. 1941; reprint by Penzler Publishers, 2021)
Baynard Kendrick set out to create a blind detective who could accomplish extraordinary—but absolutely realistic—feats. The fascinating foreword to his book explains how and why he did this, and it should not be skipped if you read this one. Anyway, the result was Captain Duncan Maclain, who, having lost his sight in World War I, now works as a private investigator with the aid of two fiercely loyal German shepherds, a couple of equally loyal staffers, and a few friends in very high places. Here, Maclain finds himself caught up in a murder case with enormous stakes, as the victim was working undercover against a spy network with Nazi ties and a penchant for violet perfume (the title is a very literal one!).
Despite the promising premise, I confess I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Eight Faces at Three. Kendrick is unfortunately the type of mystery writer who pops into the narrative every few pages to remind you how wonderful his detective is, a habit that sets my teeth on edge. (It’s why I finally gave up reading Ngaio Marsh, an otherwise terrific detective novelist.) Additionally, we’re introduced early on to a set of intriguing characters who then mostly drop out of the story so we can focus on watching Maclain and company at work. While that certainly has its interesting aspects—Kendrick does a commendable job of getting inside the mind of a man without sight—on the whole it makes for something of a thin story.
Still, if you don’t mind a mystery that’s more plot-driven than character-driven, and you like a novel set in the highly tense pre-World War II era, you might like to give this one a try. Oh, and the German shepherds are pretty awesome.
Book Links:
Eight Faces at Three on Amazon
Eight Faces at Three on Bookshop
The Odor of Violets on Amazon
The Odor of Violets on Bookshop