Customer Reviews

Diplomatic Corpse (Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery)

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This last of the Asey Mayo mysteries opens with the whole town of Quanomet involved in a local historical pageant. A chance visitor, Buff Orpington, meets an old friend, Kay and her son Bobby. He'd been best man at her wedding about 8 years before. She lost her husband and he his friend in the war. She tells him of all the efforts to sabotage the pageant, grandstand braces have been sawed, nails put in tires, etc. Kay has asked Asey Mayo to help figure out who is trying to ruin the event. Then the historical know-it-all, Muriel Babcock, is murdered in the cemetery. Not long after Asey turns up, he gets biffed over the head too. There are elusive clues and much chasing around to talk to suspects in borrowed cars because someone keeps filching Asey's Porter. The Doc is there mouthing off, and Jenny, with her fascination with genealogy, helps too with the problem of the irregular tombstone. Even little Bobby helps and is rewarded with the gift of a geiger counter, his heart's desire.
This is a book I'll read again just to pick up on elements I've missed the first time through.

The residents of Quanomet are holding a dress rehearsal for their upcoming patriotic and historical pageant, "Quanomet Through the Ages." And it's proving to be quite a complicated production. With Aunt Maude in charge, it has to be. It seems as though every resident in town is participating and is dressed up to represent an important event in local history. And tensions are beginning to rise. Some folks even think that someone is out to get Aunt Maude. A number of coincidental "accidents" have taken place. She's simply too headstrong and too adamant about administering her advice. But while attentions are focused on the matron and her safety, Muriel Babcock is found murdered in a nearby cemetery. Why was she killed, and why was she in the cemetery to begin with? And what was that rolled-up paper she'd been carrying? What a tangled mess!

Enter the Cape Cod Sherlock, Asey Mayo. As usual, he gets help from his cousin-in-law Jennie and from Doc Cummings to get to the bottom of things. Asey's homespun logic is a crucial part of his investigative style. For example: "Asey ... reflected briefly on the things that people hankered for. One man's meat wasn't necessarily another man's poison. More often it was just someone else's cold mashed turnip." (pp. 104-105) This case is a real puzzler, even for experienced readers. It also features one of the oddest assortments of characters and some of the most bizarre circumstances found in any installment in the series. You might as well go out with a bang.

As with a long-running series of any kind, it's sad to see it come to its end. It's sad to know we'll not be accompanying Asey and Doc and Jennie in any more adventures. One wonders why Ms. Taylor (1909-1976) chose to stop writing these entertaining novels. Maybe she thought that Cape life in the 1950s and beyond wouldn't be as interesting as it was in the years before, during, and just after WWII. Maybe after twenty years of dealing with Asey Mayo, she just got tired of spending time with him. What a shame! With the right marketing strategy, he could have been as big as Father Dowling or Columbo. I heartily recommend this whole (and relatively overlooked) series to devoted mystery aficionados.