Classic Mystery Set in Tinsel Town: Other whodunnits set in Hollywood are The Case of the Solid Key (Anthony Boucher, 1941) and The Long Goodbye (Raymond Chandler, 1953). The DA Calls It Murder (1937) is a rare example of a satirical mood overtaking Erle Stanley Gardner, as he parodies shop-worn tropes of movie melodramas.
The Birthday Murder - Lange Lewis
This 1945 mystery features the breezy wit of a confident writer. This is the second of five that starred series hero Lieutenant Richard Tuck of the LA Homicide Squad and his faithful assistant E. Byron “Duck Butt” Froody.
It is a cozy with elements of a police procedural, narrated from the third-person limited point of view of the chief suspect Victoria Hime, who writes novels, plays, and scripts. Circumstantial evidence points to her as the poisoner of her husband Albert Hime, a producer of B movies. It does not help Victoria that the kind of poison used was the same chemical used to kill a husband in one of her novels. Tuck and Froody, however, can identify no motive that would have driven Victoria to snuff her quiet easy-going husband. Plus, Victoria’s independence of mind and knowledge of people impress Tuck, who is a curious combination of hard-headed and soul-deep himself.
The persons of interest to be interviewed by Tuck are three. Bernice Saxe is Victoria’s childhood friend with a raft of marital problems of her own making. Plus, we know how complicated friendships, especially long-time ones, can be. Moira Hastings is an ambitious starlet, willing to slander Victoria as jealous and back-biting because Victoria said Moira was not old or good enough for a movie part. Sawn Hariss is Victoria’s first husband, showing up for the first time in ten years like a bad penny. His juvenile personality has failed to improve even after active participation in World War II, only glancingly referred to in the story.
There is cringe-worthy content related to race, class, and gender but it takes up only a fraction of the novel and it is balanced by the excellent prose. This was included by Barzun and Taylor on their list of 50 great mysteries from 1900 to 1950. It was reprinted in paperback the early 1980s by Harper Perennial Mystery Library.
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