BOOK REVIEW
DETAILS
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books/H.B. Fenn and CompanyPrice: $27.95 cloth
ISBN: 978-0-312-38339-8
Page count: 288 pp.
Size: 5½ x 8¼
Released: Jan.
Death Was in the Picture
by Linda L. Richards
Imagine that Sam Spade’s secretary had to solve the mystery of the Maltese Falcon because Spade was too drunk to leave the office and you have the basic conceit of B.C. author Linda L. Richards’ series of mysteries. Richards, co-founder and editor of January magazine, already has one Arthur Ellis Award nomination under her belt, and with any justice, Death Was in the Picure will earn her another.
Times have been tough for the novel’s young narrator, Kitty Pangborn, secretary to one Dexter J. Theroux, private investigator. While it’s not always glamorous working for a P.I. with more bill notices than payments, in 1930s California a job is a job. Enter screen star Laird Wyndham, who was the last man seen with a starlet who died under suspicious circumstances. Wyndham’s lawyer hires Dex to exonerate his client, but there’s a slight problem: the gumshoe is already in the employ of someone who wants him to prove the actor’s guilt.
Richards effortlessly captures both the feel and lingo of a pulp classic. The banter between Kitty and Dex is ripe with an intimacy and familiarity that is deeply layered and honest. Kitty wants Dex to see her as a woman, not a girl, yet despite her own physical attraction to her employer, she doesn’t seriously want his attentions. Instead of a pistol-slinging femme fatale, Richards gives the reader a bright and capable woman, a heroine who – refreshingly – operates within the societal constraints of her time rather than anachronistically flouting them.
So holster your roscoe and make with the lettuce: Death Was in the Picture isn’t a book to miss.
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