Finished Fr 11/20/15
One of my books that I'd read before (Sa 12/7/03); reissued on True Crime/ Black Lizard Press
George Weaver- Lives in Kansas City. Mentally unstable. Recovering from a breakdown. He and his wife, Vi, are heavy drinkers. They have two daughters, seven and five; the girls are at summer camp.
George is in New Mexico recovering. He's looking for a house so that Vi and he can spent the summer. Locates a cabin near Taos that he can make some repairs and live the summer for free.
Luke Ashley is a writer and friend of George's. He tells him of a 'lonely hearts' murder that happened at the house eight years before. A man by the name of Nelson enticed a young woman, Jenny Ames to come to Taos and marry him. He kills the woman the day that she arrived.
George is obsessed with the killing. Realizes that the girl's suitcases were never found. He locates them buried on the property. Later finds a letter from Nelson that Jenny had saved in some blank pages. George finds that Jenny was from Barton, Ca. and he begins an odyssey to find out what happens. Finds that Jenny's last name was not Ames, but Ailes.
Goes to Barton and gets drunk. Tells Jenny's mother that she is dead. We don't know at the time, but the woman believes that George is the killer and notifies the authorities. Her daughter is not the body found on the Taos property because her daughter had a mole on her thigh and was two inches taller.
He finds that Nelson went to Tucson from treatment of his tuberculosis. Paintings at the facility prove that he was there and he died of the disease several years ago.
The final scene of the novel the local sheriff in Taos visits George and tells him that he has been under observation on his trek for the killer. He would have been jailed a number of times for his drinking but the cops knew he was writing up the incident for a magazine article.
Then, George realizes that Jenny escaped from Nelson on the night of the killing. Vi has the same mole, and he met up with her near the time of the killing eight years ago. For some reason he decides that Vi must die, so he is going to stab her at the close of the book.
QUESTIONS-
Why wouldn't Vi have reacted to the cabin? She doesn't seem ill at ease at any time and wouldn't she have some kind of a reaction if this was the place that she was almost stabbed to death?
A slim novel and can be read in a couple of sittings. A nice slice of Noir and a pretty good example of 50's mystery writing. (1951)
Link to author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Brown
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