The Troublemaker

Author Jean Potts (1910-1999) graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1936. By 1940, Jean had moved to New York City, where she resided the rest of her life. With her newspaper experience in writing and editing, Potts eventually began contributing short stories to mainstream magazines like Woman's Day and Collier's. Her first book, Someone to Remember, was published in 1943, the first of 15 original mystery and crime-fiction novels. Along with winning a prestigious Edgar Award in 1954, Potts contributed to high-profile mystery magazines like Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock. Beginning in 2019, Stark House Press began reprinting many of Potts novels in two-in-one volumes under their Stark House Mystery Classics imprint. My first experience with the author is her 1972 mystery novel The Troublemaker. It has been collected along with her 1966 novel Footsteps on the Stairs as the newest reprint by Stark House.  

Quentin Leonard, finding himself unemployed, explains to his wife Grace that he needs to get away for a little while and spend some time finding himself in the northeast. After deceptively packing for a mini-vacation to New Hampshire, Quentin picks up his lover Lisa and the two of them head to the coastline of Maine. After their car breaks down, they agree to work for the Seaview Inn, a cozy little retreat for tourists wanting to explore the rocky shoreline. 

The two lovers quickly realize there is no real plan other than working the summer away in this picturesque little town. Complicating matters is that Quentin finds a handwritten letter addressed to Lisa from her former lover, a mentally unhinged man named Carlos. Quentin knows Carlos has found them, but he isn't sure if Lisa is more willing to love an older, married man like himself or a former suicide patient in Carlos. It seems that both paths will eventually lead Lisa to future heartache and ruin. But, she never makes it that far. Her dead body is found the next morning on the rocks. 

Potts places numerous characters at the proverbial crossroads. Who has tipped the scale to plunge into this jealous, homicidal rage? The obligatory suspects are Quentin, Carlos, and Grace, a trio of scorned lovers that all have motives for killing off sexy Lisa. What's really odd is that Potts injects some additional characters to create a denser narrative. Carlos' mother arrives in town prior to the murder and there is a guest named Margaret that just happens to have a broken car around the same time period as the murder. There's also the innkeepers themselves. But, the most surprising protagonist is a bird watching boy sleuth named Emerson. Aligning with Quentin, this young amateur detective is determined to find the killer.

The writing in The Troublemaker is propulsive enough to keep the pages flipping fairly quickly. It's a short read and contains enough mounting evidence to keep readers interested. I'm just not sure if this 1972 mystery novel is totally that original. If you are familiar enough with suspense thrillers, or Lifetime movies, the narrative is simply connecting the dots. The grand reveal comes within the last few paragraphs, but it's a sudden conclusion. I wanted a little backstory on the murder and what prompted such erratic behavior. But, overall, I'm not disappointed. It was an entertaining read.

If you enjoy the classic, traditional murder mystery, then surely you will be pleased with Jean Pott's The Troublemaker. Get the book HERE

The Evil Wish

Jean Potts, who lived most of her life in New York City, began her writing career by contributing short stories to the glossy magazines of the early to mid-20th century. Her first full-length novel, Someone to Remember, was published in 1943. She would go on to write 15 original novels, most of which have been published in twofer collections by Stark House Press. I've read a few and wanted to continue my pursuit of her work with The Evil Wish. It was originally published in hardcover by Scribner in 1962 and then later as a paperback by Ace. It now exists an affordable reprint by Stark House. 

In my prior Potts experiences I sampled traditional whodunits, complete with suspects and red herrings, in the 1966 novel The Footsteps on the Stairs and the author's 1972 novel The Troublemaker. However, The Evil Wish is a very different type of novel, one that emphasizes the concept of murder without actually doing the ghastly deed. In a unique presentation, The Evil Wish becomes a white-knuckle, unsettling pot-boiler that doesn't need an invitation to turn the pages. It's a mesmerizing, devilish descent into an unyielding conundrum – to kill or not to kill. That's the question. And it burns like a wildfire. 

In a spacious New England house, thirty-something sisters Marcia and Lucy avoid life and discomfort while living with their well-to-do father, a successful doctor with a practice in the home. The first two floors are the trio's domicile and the top floors are rented to tenants. Marcia is an alcoholic involved in an affair with a married man. Lucy has never committed to love and behaves like a frightened recluse. Both have serious social issues. 

The two have shared a habit since childhood of listening through the basement vent as their father talks to patients and a revolving door of pretty nurses. One night they hear the unthinkable. Old Daddy is marrying the hot young nurse that is clearly in it for the money. If that isn't off-putting enough, Daddy's language suggests that his grown adult-children need to get a life. But, Potts carefully, and sadistically, places the reader into the minds of these two attention-starved sisters. The reader sometimes isn't aware of what is real and what is really being imagined by the delusional duo. 

As the narrative unfolds, a plan of attack develops. What if Marcia and Lucy conspire to not only knock off “pretty young thing” but also Daddy himself? They could waddle in misery and comfortable discomfort in the confines of their own home without Daddy's condemnation. However, the plan backfires when it never comes to fruition. An unexpected death is wrenched into these smooth turning wheels that deteriorates and destroys the murder plan. This is where Potts absolutely shines. By fixating on a murder that can't physically happen, the sisters turn on each other in frustration. The finale is a coffee date from Hell. 

While I haven't read them all I can't foresee another Potts novel surpassing The Evil Wish. It is such an engrossing, all-consuming psychological story that twists and turns into a wretched lifeless state. While it may seem cold and heartless, Potts spruces up the storyline with a tongue-in-cheek look at death and the weird fascination we all have on the old business of murder. The Evil Wish is everything you could possibly wish for in a vintage crime-noir. Recommended! 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Footsteps on the Stairs

I enjoyed The Troublemaker, a 1972 mystery by author Jean Potts (1910-1999). It was packaged as a twofer in 2022 by Stark House Press with Footsteps on the Stairs, the author's 1966 crime-fiction novel. This new edition also features an introduction by author and Passing Tramp blogger Curtis Evans. Many point to Footsteps on the Stairs as the penultimate Potts experience, so I was curious to see how I would respond to it.

Vic is now married to an alcoholic lush named Thelma. But, four years ago he was involved in a relationship with New York interior designer Enid. Both have moved on, but run into each other again in Philadelphia. Pleasantries are made, awkward memories are relived, and soon Vic is cheating on his wife with Enid. The variable is Enid's good friend and neighbor Martin, a clumsy recluse that is recovering from his wife's mysterious murder. He suspects Enid and Vic are a thing, but he is suppressing desires for Enid. When Enid is found murdered, Martin is devastated and feels that Vic is the prime suspect. 

Despite being released as the culprit, Vic is still Martin's number one suspect days after the murder. Only, the murder mystery becomes convoluted when Thelma (again...Vic's wife) begins having an affair and Martin finds out. Did Thelma gain her revenge by offing Vic's mistress or simply by cheating on him? As Martin digs into the clues and becomes the amateur sleuth, he finds an unlikely ally in a young woman named Rosemary, a friend of Enid's. The two begin an investigation to learn who killed Enid, but the suspect list is lengthy. 

Footsteps on the Stairs is laced with all of the traditional genre tropes one would expect from a mid 20th century crime-fiction novel – numerous suspects, an amateur sleuth, clue-scavenging, and of course, the obligatory corpse. I found Martin to be a likable hero, perhaps enhanced with his mysterious past and his problematic self-awareness. His fondness for Enid is his curse, but it's a key to his own salvation as readers understand what Martin's challenges were in his prior marriage. There are a number of small intricacies that contribute to the much larger problem. How they work together is the marvel of Potts' literary work. 

Whether or not this is Potts' finest crime-fiction novel is in the eye of the beholder. I have nothing to compare it to other than The Troublemaker. I endorse both novels and highly recommend the twofer. It's money well spent. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

The Three Widows

Wisconsin native Bernice Carey (1910-1990) authored poems, short stories, and book reviews in newspapers and literary magazines before becoming the author of eight crime-fiction novels between 1949 and 1955. Stark House Press has reprinted all of these as twofers with introductions by author and blogger Curtis Evans. My first introduction to Carey is her 1952 novel The Three Widows. It has been packaged with the author's 1950 novel The Man Who Got Away With It in the 2019 Stark House Press reprint. 

This cozy mystery novel features three vacationing women as prime suspects for murder – Mrs. Smith, Ferguson, and Meadows. The three are introduced to the book's protagonist, Melvin, while on vacation in a California resort in Escondido. Prior to Melvin's arrival, he spent the prior days with his wife in Santa Cruz and Yosemite. Oddly, both locations featured law-enforcement recovering a corpse. With the murders following Melvin, he soon finds another dead person at the Escondido resort. Readers know Melvin isn't the killer, but after engaging in chit-chat with the “three widows” he soon discovers they were all vacationing in Santa Cruz and Yosemite. Do one of these women have a penchant for cross-country murder?

The Three Widows is a short, pleasant mystery with one of crime-fiction's most enjoyable tropes – the amateur sleuth. In a hilarious scene, Melvin begins piecing together his gumshoe manual by reading a mystery novel. Soon, he is on the trail breaking into the women's rooms, examining their belongings, and piecing together motives and peculiar pasts. Some of the mystery is removed when readers are placed into the minds of each of the three widows, creating intimate moments when readers learn more about the characters than the investigating bungler. 

Overall, The Three Widows was an excellent introduction to Bernice Carey's writing style, that of the prim and proper mystery novel complete with a dialogue heavy tenderness. Comparisons could be made with another mystery author of the era in Jean Potts, although she is a tad more abrasive. With tragedy afoot, a moderate mystery, and corpses 'aplenty, Carey delivers a solid crime-fiction novel with The Three Widows. Cheers to Stark House Press for keeping the torch lit on these early 20th century classics. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE.

Disturbance on Berry Hill

Elizabeth Jane Phillips, better known as her pseudonym Elizabeth Fenwick, authored three standard detective novels in the 1940s. In the following decade, Fenwick changed her writing style to feature flawed and vulnerable characters placed into high levels of distress drenched in tight-knit suspense. Often, the setting is a confined space with very little wiggle room to escape the impending doom. 

Like Fenwick's A Friend of Mary Rose (1961), which traps the reader and characters in an attic to contend with a home-invasion plot, or The Make-Believe Man (1963), which confines the compact narrative into a different type of home-invasion suburbia, Disturbance on Berry Hill (1968) has a similar set-up. 

In Fenwick's taut narrative, which she had perfected by this point in her career, the thrilling mystery lies in a small cluster of upscale homes on Berry Hill, a sub-division that was carved out of a sprawling farm in rural Connecticut. These seven homes are mostly owned by affluent, middle-aged couples that fit the mid 20th century mold – husbands journey off to daytime employers and wives remain behind to keep the home fires well lit. But, on Berry Hill someone else is staying behind as well, stalking and menacing these prosperous homes and providing white-knuckle fright for the ladies. 

The novel begins with Maggie Leavis recounting a frightening incident that occurred while she was in the bathtub. From inside the porcelain safety, Maggie hears someone enter the home, walk upstairs, and then methodically stand outside of the couple's bathroom – knowing Maggie is inside. Before you think Michael Myers, Maggie explains that this intruder, who she thinks was a mysterious man, didn't come in the bathroom and instead simply knocked a picture off the dresser and then slowly left the home. The author introduces readers to Berry Hill in a really significant way. Maggie's testimony is bone-chilling. 

When Maggie visits her female neighbors the next day she hears similar stories. In one account, this mysterious man closed a garage door behind a woman and then stood outside as if he (or it!) was daring the woman to open the door. In another incident, a woman is grabbed from behind and squeezed. The attacker then simply runs off. There are a few similar things, like a birthday cake flipped upside down or seeing someone near the creek behind the neighborhood. 

The neighbors all meet one night to discuss the intruder/prowler and what needs to happen next. Should they call the police? Ignore the rather innocent pranks? After the meeting, their concerns are met with an appalling revelation – one of the female neighbors is found dead near the creek. When the police arrive they discover it was foul play. Whoever has been gently plaguing Berry Hill has now escalated their game into cold-blooded murder.

Disturbance on Berry Hill is the proverbial page-turner. Fenwick's approach to the book's first half sets readers on edge with these disturbing intrusions into the sanctity and lives of these well-to-do Connecticut residents. As their white-collar emotional fencing caves, the flaws and vulnerability begin to show. One elderly neighbor is contending with dependency while another couple is dealing with depression and inadequacy. There are also the obvious early dismissals of the complaints by most of the men, who are either too busy to deal with the intrusions or simply believe these are daytime fantasies created by bored housewives. 

Fenwick knows when to increase the pace, tension, and atmosphere for the book's second half. After the murder, fingers begin pointing, accusations are made, and there is a real unnerving, unraveling of the neighborly ties that bind. Someone in the neighborhood is, or knows, the murderer. Through Maggie's experience, the readers delve into the mystery and eventually discover the identity of the killer. 

While the ending left me slightly deflated, Disturbance on Berry Hill was an extremely enjoyable read. The characters, the setting, and the slow atmospheric march to the murder really highlighted the book's opening half. As the book sped to the finish, fans of police procedural crime-fiction will enjoy the investigation and interviews.

Overall, Fenwick continues to impress. If you are wanting to explore her work look no further than Stark House Press's amazing preservation. They continue to focus on Fenwick, and her contemporaries in Jean Potts, Ruth Sawtell Wallis, and Nedra Tyre to name a few (I'm pushing on them to reprint Amber Dean!). You can get Disturbance on Berry Hill as a twofer with her 1961 thriller Night Run HERE. 

Death of an Intruder/Twice So Fair

Nedra Tyre (1912-1990), who was born in Offerman, Georgia, received her B.A. from Atlanta's Emory University and her M.A. from Richmond School of Social Work in Virginia. She worked as a teacher, staff writer, social worker, typist, and a sales clerk in addition to being a notable mystery and suspense author. She wrote six stand-alone novels and approximately 40 short stories for magazines like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Sleuth, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Monthly. 

Stark House Press have recently reprinted two Tyre novels in one volume, Death of an Intruder (1954) and Twice So Fair (1971), along with an introduction by Curtis Evans. Tyre's name was new to me, but thankfully this twofer served as a wonderful introduction to this talented author. Billed as “suspense classics”, both of these novels deliver deeply embedded mysteries that are ratcheted up to higher levels of tension and psychological edginess that is similar to Elizabeth Fenwick (real name Elizabeth Phillips) or Margaret Millar. 

The better of the two novels, Death of an Intruder, introduces readers to Miss Allison, a middle-aged woman who strives for independence after the death of her aunt. Allison finds a charming house, purchases the home, and begins a solitary life of enjoyment and simplicity. However, her bliss is short-lived when an elderly woman, Miss Withers, knocks on her door and invites herself in. After complaining about a rainstorm, Withers begs to stay the night. Allison, a quiet, non-confrontational individual, agrees to allow her uninvited guest to sleep on the sofa. The next morning, Allison is horrified to learn that Withers hasn't left. And she never will.

Through 150ish pages, Allison must contend with an unwanted roommate that violates her sanctity. As the narrative grips readers, Allison learns that Withers may have killed her pet, ruined her relationship with a prospective boyfriend and close friend, and alienated her from the life she once enjoyed. Debating on how to rid herself of the woman, Allison's only choice may be murder. 

Like Allison's introspective problems within her own home, Twice So Fair presents a recent widow, Rosalind, learning about her late husband's mysterious involvement with one of his students. Both of them were found dead in a college studio, but what was their relationship? As Rosalind contends with the loss of her husband, and the obligatory affairs of dissolving a happily married lifestyle by unforeseen circumstances, she is thrust into a mystery when a stranger invades her home. In a darkened room, the man confesses to be an estranged friend of the student found dead beside Rosalind's husband, and begins a conversational journey explaining his orphaned upbringing and potential “six degrees of separation” from Rosalind's life. But, could this uninvited stranger be a killer?

Nedra Tyre is a phenomenal storyteller, and it pains me to know that I've now read nearly half of her novels. I'm surprised, and disappointed, that she didn't write more full-lengths, but due to publisher issues in her late career, she was submerged into the short story market. Her perspectives on life, literary work, social inadequacies, marital harmony, and paranoia are center-stage attractions of these novels. It's nearly uncanny how well she can enter the minds of the characters she creates. 

According to Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Tyre had a niche for “superbly handled suspense”, evident with these novels and her short stories “Locks Won't Keep You Out” (1978, Ellery Queen's Napoleons of Mystery) and “On Little Cat Feet” (1976, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine). I enjoyed her characterizations of both protagonists, with Allison and Rosalind sharing similar outlooks – as dreary as they may be. Interesting enough, there is a sense of wrongdoing on the part of supporting characters, those acquaintances of both Allison and Rosalind. When the support system is most needed, both intimately and professionally, it fails these less-than-confident protagonists. It was clever plotting and development by Tyre to force these characters into independent (irrational?) action. 

If you are new to Nedra Tyre, then by all means this twofer is highly recommended. In general, if you are new to female mystery and suspense writers, Stark House Press have an abundance of long-forgotten, entertaining classics by the likes of Mary Collins, Helen Nielsen, Dolores Hitchens, Ruth Wallis, and Jean Potts to name a few. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.