This old mystery, written in 1938, is a doozy. And, it qualifies for RIP XIX!
After losing her job through no fault of her own, Gwynne Dacres decides she has to move out of her apartment. She takes a couple of rooms in a rooming house owned by Mrs. Garr. Although the house is dreary, the rooms are spacious and nice—and available at a cheap rent.
Once she moves in, she is taken aback by Mrs. Garr’s behavior, popping in every time she moves furniture, and also her stinginess about hot water. But worse, at night she feels as if the house is listening for something.
Her rooms are on the ground floor with a door to the back overlooking a steep hill. One morning she goes outside and sees a dead body lying on the ground below the property. He is identified as Mr. Zeitman, a local gangster. The conclusion is that the area behind the house made an easy dumping ground.
Things keep happening, though. Gwynne sees a stranger dart down the stairs. She hears footsteps at night. Someone breaks in and is clearly looking for something.
Then Mrs. Garr goes on an outing to Chicago with her niece and doesn’t return. When her niece comes over, the residents find she may never have gone. She is finally found dead inside the kitchen that she always keeps locked.
Gwynne has gotten acquainted with another lodger, Mr. Hodge Kistler, who owns a local newspaper, and together they begin talking over the string of events. When Lieutenant Strom comes into the investigation, he begins to involve Gwynne because she keeps discovering things that his men have missed.
Then one night someone knocks Gwynne over the head.
Gwynne is 1930s smart and sassy. The story is fast-moving and it’s hard to know what’s going on. Once the investigation gets going, Mrs. Garr is connected to a horrible crime from years before, and connections begin to be made with some of the lodgers. This is quite a fun book, deeply entertaining.
What? Me Read? 