Sunday, April 9, 2023

John Putnam Thatcher #14

Murder without Icing - Emma Lathen

Given the reputation Wall Street bankers have in our money-ridden world, it’s hard to sell a mystery series starring a vice-president of the Sloan Guaranty Trust. But having read more than half of the 24 books starring John Putnam Thatcher, I like them because they are set in various industries: car-making, grain importing, mail order nurseries, garment making, and fast food franchising, to name just a couple, so there’s a nostalgic feeling ‘this is the way the world used to work,’ at least, for the haves.

In this 1972 mystery, the bank has changed its usual sponsorship from a symphony to a hockey team. When a potential partner of the team is killed at the airport after the team deplanes, the police get involved and Thatcher has to identify the perp.

This was written just a bit before the sports industry became the cultural and economic behemoth that it is today. So it is just as interesting to read as a cultural artifact – a shard of pottery, as it were – besides a mystery. Recommended to born-in-the-Fifties fans of boxing on ice too, especially ones who know who Rocket and Pocket Rocket were.

Click on the title to see the review.

·         Banking on Death (1961)

·         A Place for Murder (1963)

·         Accounting for Murder (1964); Silver Dagger Award

·         Murder Makes the Wheels Go Round (1966)

·         Death Shall Overcome (1966)

·         Murder Against the Grain (1967); Gold Dagger Award

·         A Stitch in Time (1968)

·         Come to Dust (1968)

·         When in Greece (1969); shortlisted for Edgar Award

·         Murder to Go (1969)

·         Pick Up Sticks (1970)

·         Ashes to Ashes (1971)

·         The Longer the Thread (1971)

·         Murder Without Icing (1972)

·         Sweet and Low (1974)

·         By Hook or by Crook (1975)

·         Double, Double, Oil and Trouble (1978)

·         Going for Gold (1981)

·         Green Grow the Dollars (1982)

·         Something in the Air (1988)

·         East is East (1991)

·         Right on the Money (1993)

·         Brewing Up a Storm (1996)

·         A Shark Out of Water (1997)



 

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