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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 30's classic,
By
This review is from: Sandbar Sinister (Hardcover)
I consider all of these Asey Mayo mysteries American classics. If you've never read one, the setting is Cape Cod, MA. The detective is an area native with diverse experience, a sailor, a cook, a master mechanic, etc. He's referred to as a hayseed because he's usually dressed in old corduroy trousers and flannel shirts. His age is never given beyond saying he's somewhere between 45 and 60.
In the earlier books, the story is told in the first person through the eyes of an older woman who accompanies Asey on the investigation. In this one it is Penelope Colton. The time is the 30's. The stock market has crashed and this woman is reduced to clerking in a department store, but a friend has invited her to summer at her house called Sandbar. Once there, she gets drafted into acting as housekeeper and the house is soon full of family and guests -- lots of suspects when there are two murders on the same night. Asey and Pen find the body of a young man in the boathouse and the body of the home owner buried in sand on the beach. Of course, there are no TV's, PC's, cell phones, etc. but I don't find their absence jarring because the mysteries are so well plotted. I am seldom able to figure out "who did it" before Asey wraps it up at the end. I do have to remind myself that in the 30's life expectancy wasn't as long so a woman in her 50's was considered older than she would be today. Also, the author was turning out these great mysteries one after another at a young age, (25 when she wrote this one,) so her perception of age would have been affected by her youth. I recommend this book and all of Taylor's work - great pure old-fashioned mystery.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The fifth book in the Asey Mayo mystery series,
By
This review is from: Sandbar Sinister (Hardcover)
If you're an avid reader of Ms. Taylor's 1930s-1940s mysteries, then you're also familiar with her formula. The pattern is this: A rich middle-aged woman from Boston finds a reason to vacation on Cape Cod. (She also narrates the book.) Soon after her arrival, she discovers the body of someone who has been murdered. Local handyman and amateur detective Asey Mayo shows up; and with the woman's help, he eventually lands on the identity of the proper suspect. It's a nasty piece of business that ironically takes place in one of the most peaceful, most beautiful, and most visited regions on the East coast.
In this episode, Penelope Colton is invited to spend the summer at Lizzie Richards' place, the Sandbar. (Or the former "Lobster Island," to the natives.) Actually, Lizzie's rich brother Caleb Frost owns the spread. He's even shown up for a visit. A number of other friends and relatives are boarding there as well. That's why such a stir is raised the next morning when not one but two murdered men are discovered on the property. Unfortunately, one of them is Caleb Frost. The other man turns out to be Richard Thorne, who was thought to have been dead for many years. And wrapped up in the histories of both is the name of a successful and reclusive mystery writer: Varney Cheyne. Had either Frost or Thorne taken on that identity? Was either man the genius behind those popular books? While Asey and Pen are puzzling out those details, they learn that much of the town of East Pochet had spent the previous weekend on a Prohibition Repeal bender. 200 cases of abandoned bootlegged hooch washed up on shore, and now the town's Main Street is littered with both bottles and hung-over bodies. Is the killer among them? Does he even know what he's done? Or should the impromptu investigators suspect everyone staying at Sandbar? Certainly it seems as though most of the guests and relatives had a reason to hate Caleb. But who would resort to murder? And why was Thorne taken out as well? Why was he even in the area? It may sound minor, but all the tubes of salve that Pen keeps buying, somehow keep disappearing. Who could use so much salve? By now, Asey Mayo has such a wide reputation for solving Cape Cod crimes that he feels the pressure of expectation, late in the book. "What d'you think, I'm goin' to pull the murderer out of my hip pocket an' wave him 'round my head till he turns into an American flag?" And yet it doesn't take him much longer to pin the dual deeds on the correct person. As with many of Ms. Taylor's plots, the twists and turns in this one are wild and interesting. But for some reason, I had trouble keeping all of the characters straight in my mind; and so, it's not one of my favorites. She also took an opportunity to poke some fun at TWO mystery writers -- the invisible and unknown Varney Cheyne, and a not-as-successful detective story crafter who was a guest at Sandbar. Taylor had enough books behind her that by the time this one came out, she had earned the right to aim a few quips and jibes at her profession. They're worth a few giggles. Contemporary readers may also gasp at Penelope's initial assessment of Caleb Frost, for reasons not anticipated in the 1930s: "I place Caleb in the same category with Laura Bush's pet leopard: both possess excellence in spots, but I've never made any pretense of liking either." Now, if you can't see the humor in that line, you've just not been paying attention to life in America during the last eight years. (Kudos for a great title, too. I'm reminded of Simon Barsinister, the perennial cartoon nemesis of Underdog. Now, *those* were the days.)
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