Death in Lacquer Red (Hilda Johansson Mysteries, No. 1) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jeanne M. Dams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000

(1st in Hilda Johansson Mystery series)

The year is 1900 and Hilda Johansson is a young Swedish woman working in the South Bend, Indiana, home of the Studebaker family. She faces the typical problems of an immigrant and the demands of a job that is both exhausting and exhilarating. Her struggle to be a good servant is compounded when she discovers, on the Studebaker estate, the body of a woman just returned from missionary work in China. Everyone has a theory. Everyone wants Hilda to stay out of things that don't concern her. But is it possible that she's the only one who can see what the others refuse to even acknowledge? The first in a series that is nothing less than UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS meets MURDER SHE WROTE.

"Dams brilliantly crafts a mystery that defies the usual category." (Chicago Sun-Times)

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author of the popular and acclaimed Dorothy Martin mysteries (Malice in Miniature, etc.) begins a new series featuring a turn-of-the-century Swedish servant woman as sleuth. Hilda Johansson is a maid for the prominent Studebaker family in South Bend, Ind., in the year 1900. Coming home from an outing with her beau, an Irish fireman, Hilda discovers the body of a savagely beaten woman. The dead woman is a missionary lately returned from China and the sister of the Studebakers neighbor, a Republican judge with political ambitions. Impelled to trying to figure out who perpetrated such as brutal crime, Hilda uses South Bends network of servants and immigrants to aid her investigation, fearing that an innocent man might take the blame for the killing. The resolution of the puzzle is a bit slapdash, relying too heavily on coincidence and not enough on real detective work. Hilda is nevertheless an appealing heroine, and Damss rich depiction of South Bend will please historical mystery fans. Mystery Guild main selection.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In her new historical series, Dams (Malice in Miniature, LJ 10/1/98) endows turn-of-the-century South Bend, IN, with vibrant atmosphere and a bright young Swedish immigrant heroine. Hilda Johansson, employed as a housemaid by the wealthy Studebakers, discovers the body of a female missionary in her employer's yard. Though properly horrified and warned by the butler and others to mind her own business, Hilda feels obligated to fight against narrow-minded police and typical social/cultural prejudice as she manages to unearth crucial clues. A piquant but sometimes humorous lookAunderscored by an Upstairs, Downstairs mentalityAat a rapidly changing America, this solid beginning is highly recommended. [Mystery Guild main selection.]
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 225 pages
• Publisher: Thomas T Beeler (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574902407
• ISBN-13: 978-1574902402
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #886,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What a disappointment!, February 23, 2000

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Death in Lacquer Red (A Hilda Johansson Mystery, No. 1) (Hardcover)

This would never have been published as a first novel. I had read and loved earlier books by Jeanne Dams and was looking forward to reading this book. But the plot was almost nonexistent and the protagonist, young Helda, unbelievable and not very likeable. You had to do more than suspend disbelief with this book, since everything about the book was so improbable.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Farfetched and disappointing, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death in Lacquer Red (A Hilda Johansson Mystery, No. 1) (Hardcover)

I loved Jeanne Dams' Dorothy Martin series and looked forward to reading about her new heroine Hilda Johansson. Unfortunately, I found Hilda an unsympathetic and unbelievable protagonist. The plot has Hilda, a Swedish servant in a well-to-do household, investigating the death of a relative of the prominent family next door. Hilda, with sixteen years of a Swedish upbringing and only three years in America (which according to my calculations makes her all of nineteen) is found entering into such wildly diverse activities as rescuing another immigrant wrongly accused of the murder, planting stories in the press, and of course outwitting the police, all while cleaning house. The book is well-researched in terms of the lives of the servant class in the year 1900 but I think Ms. Dams seems more in control of her material when writing about the middle years of her widowed and remarried expatriate Dorothy Martin.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An interesting period piece but a failure as a mystery, August 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Death in Lacquer Red (A Hilda Johansson Mystery, No. 1) (Hardcover)

After thoroughly enjoying Ms Dams books and finding her character Dorothy Martin a vibrant and delightful character I was very disappointed in her new series. Her writing of the period and the life of an immigrant servant I am sure are well researched and accurate. The mystery was contrived and secondary to the story. Hilda Johansson at nineteen, although portrayed as an extremely intelligent young lady, was too brash and manipulating to come across as a character that I would be interested following on further adventures. If some of the characters had been developed further instead of being used just as Hilda's pawns I feel that the book would have had more life and Hilda would have been better portrayed. The most interesting part of the book was Ms Dams portrayel of the servant class at the turn of the century.