An auction that begins as a treasure hunt ends in murder, and an incredible discovery sends our unlikely detective off on a hunt for a killer. Were there secrets between rival art dealers, Miss Pitkin and Mr. Harmsworth? And where does Quin Sharp, the auctioneer, fit in? Here's Asey Mayo in a classic who-dunnit—as mysterious and amusing as his fans have a come to expect.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The twentieth book in the Asey Mayo mystery series,
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This review is from: Going, Going, Gone: An Asey Mayo Mystery (Hardcover)
It's still war time in Asey Mayo's world. Asey is home on a few days' leave from his job at the Porter Tank plant, and his cousin-in-law Jennie wants to go to a local auction at the Alden house. John Alden died recently, and people say he had a lot of antiques and loose cash squirreled away in his house. Asey drives Jennie to the auction, drops her off, and then intends to relax next to a nearby pond. But his leisure is broken by the sight of a young woman tossing books into the water. And then Gardner Alden, brother of the deceased, stops by the pond to wash his hands in it, when he really should have been attending the auction. Both acts seem suspicious to the amateur detective. As well they should.
When Asey returns to town to pick up Jennie, he learns that the auction didn't turn out the way folks expected. Solatia Spry, a Cape woman who was said to be an antiques buyer for a rich client in California, never showed up to bid at the auction. And Gardner Alden paid the astronomical amount of three thousand dollars for an old sea chest that supposedly just had books in it. But the chest is locked and the key is missing. Because Asey owns a lot of keys, Jennie offers his assistance and the chest is brought to the Mayo household. Lo and behold, when they are finally able to lift the lid, there's Solatia Spry, dead from a single knife wound to the heart. Who killed her, and when? And why? And what happened to the books that had been in the chest? Asey is afraid he is all too familiar with the answer to that last question, at the very least. As usual, Doc Cummings helps Asey figure out exactly what happened and who was involved in the crime. As usual, the local authorities are less than useful in the investigation. And before it's solved, several men are biffed and/or tied up (including Asey), and a lot more books are strewn about the peninsula. It also turns out that Solatia was on the town ration board and had more than once refused a commodity request by an irked resident. Was her death related to the auction, or to something else altogether? It takes a lot of thought, a lot of interrogation sessions, and a lot of driving around (as always). But since Asey's got a time limit, he solves the murder in just a day or two -- by devoting his non-stop attention to the matter. We have to wonder when the man sleeps. This entry is one of the more intriguing whodunits in the Asey Mayo series. It almost deserves five stars -- until the denouement, which isn't quite up to par with the rest of the plot. Nevertheless, "Going, Going, Gone" makes for good entertainment for avid mystery readers.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Back to the Basic Mayo mystery,
By
This review is from: Going, Going, Gone: An Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery (Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mysteries) (Paperback)
The first war time Mayo mystery had a speeded up pace and was chock full of war time activities. This book is also set in the early 40's but the war activities seem to have become routine, so the story could be told in a manner similar to Atwood Taylor's earlier works with their amusing portrayals of Cape Cod characters.
Asey is on vacation from tank manufacturing and is sorting fish line when cousin and housekeeper Jenny gets him to take her to an estate auction. Leaving her there, he goes off fishing, but when he gets home he's asked to open a trunk bought at the auction by one of the heirs. It contains the body of a local antique dealer who had failed to attend the auction. We're off with Asey wandering around, talking to a raft of auction goers, getting biffed on the head and left tied up, etc. The big questions are what happened to the money the estate owner kept in his house and what happened to the books that had been in the trunk before it was used to hide the body. The dead woman had been on the rations board so there were folks with a motive related to that as well as to the missing money and the antique business. As always, Asey cleverly sorts it out -- A recommended mystery from the classic era.
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