Customer Reviews

The Turquoise Shop

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Frances Crane had a fascinating history. Frances Kirkwood Crane was expelled from Germany by the Nazis during World War II. She had been married to Ned Crane, an advertising executive with the J. Walter Thompson agency and spent years abroad in England and Germany. Frances was a regular writer for THE NEW YORKER, and specialized in short pieces poking fun at the Brits. She eventually gravitated to Taos, New Mexico and began writing mysteries at the behest of an old editor. Characters from THE TURQUOISE SHOP are loosely based on people Frances knew in Taos, although she sets the story in a fictional town.

Jean Holly is a resident of Santa Maria and is in her twenties. She owns a turquoise shop, which does a modest business, and is considered the center of town for many of Santa Maria's residents. Although Jean tries not to gossip or offend, there are certainly characters in Santa Maria. But the real power is Mona Brandon, who is wealthy and uses her money to try to control many of the residents of this little town. The appearance of Patrick Abbott, a private investigator on vacation, will eventually change Jean's life and involve her in the investigation of murder and a counterfeiting operation that has landed in her beloved haven:

"There were two big skin chairs and a corner seat by the fireplace. My customer put his hat and the portfolio on one chair and took the corner seat, the best place because it looked towards the window. He crossed his long legs and concentrated on the picture. I worked with the rings. It was nothing which taxed the intellect, however, so I was able to concentrate on Mr. Abbott. His eyes were blue-green, deep-set under straight black brows, the flesh of his face was spare, and there were lines in his tanned cheeks and around his eyes from the sun."

Frances Crane had a lovely style of writing, which takes the reader straight into the surroundings of her story. She takes her time, employs lavish descriptions of the Southwest, and then slowly pulls the reader into a web of deceit and murder. Her characters range from oddball starving artists to haughty debutantes. Motives abound, the action is nonstop, and the reading of this little gem is absolutely delightful. THE TURQUOISE SHOP is an excellent little mystery that is ranks Frances Crane with the most popular of the writers from the 1930's to 1960's.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

This is the first of Frances Crane's Pat and Jean Abbot series of mystery novels. Jean is still Jean Holly in this one. She doesn't marry Pat until book number 3. These books were staggeringly popular with the public, but the critics didn't care much for them. I'm with the critics.

I started this hoping I'd found a whole new series to enjoy. My mistake was assuming that this would be something like Kelley Roos' Jeff and Haila Troy series. It's not. For one thing, it's surprisingly devoid of humour. Also, the plotting is pretty weak. And almost all detection is done "off screen" by Pat. Jean just sits around in her shop and her house and people come and tell her things.

It's rather frustrating reading for a fan of detective novels. I kept thinking, "come on Jean, do something. Go find Pat and see what he's doing. Get some excercise. Please!" I have to admit that when someone took a shot at Jean she did go outside to see who did it. Of course, she didn't find anyone, but this is only her first novel.

Eventually Pat stops by to tell Jean who the murderer was.

I'm probably being a little unfair. I MIGHT be able to bring myself to read another one of these on the assumption that Frances Crane probably got better at writing these things as she went along.