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Captain Heimrich #12
Show Red for Danger
From the authors of the "excellent" Mr. and Mrs. North Mysteries: Captain Heimrich must solve the case of a Hollywood homicide in the Hudson Valley (TheNew Yorker).
Capt. M. L. Heimrich of the New York State Police may not have the flash of hard-boiled city detectives, but there's no lead the intrepid investigator won't follow until his every hunch is satisfied . . .
When Captain Heimrich and his ladylove, Susan Faye, stumble across the bodies of actress Peggy Belford and her former husband, it appears a dramatic murder-suicide has hit Van Brunt. But as Heimrich takes a good look at the crime scene, he starts to think it may have been staged.
Peggy was in town shooting a film, The Last Patroon, and with so many other Hollywood types swarming Westchester County, Heimrich has a long list of suspects auditioning for the role of her killer.
Jealous costars and moody directors all seem likely candidates, but when the murderer targets Susan, Captain Heimrich will have to figure out the twist ending before the woman he loves ends up on the cutting room floor.
Show Red for Danger is the 12th book in the Captain Heimrich Mysteries.
Capt. M. L. Heimrich of the New York State Police may not have the flash of hard-boiled city detectives, but there's no lead the intrepid investigator won't follow until his every hunch is satisfied . . .
When Captain Heimrich and his ladylove, Susan Faye, stumble across the bodies of actress Peggy Belford and her former husband, it appears a dramatic murder-suicide has hit Van Brunt. But as Heimrich takes a good look at the crime scene, he starts to think it may have been staged.
Peggy was in town shooting a film, The Last Patroon, and with so many other Hollywood types swarming Westchester County, Heimrich has a long list of suspects auditioning for the role of her killer.
Jealous costars and moody directors all seem likely candidates, but when the murderer targets Susan, Captain Heimrich will have to figure out the twist ending before the woman he loves ends up on the cutting room floor.
Show Red for Danger is the 12th book in the Captain Heimrich Mysteries.
- GenresMystery
191 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
34 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Frances Lockridge
96 books48 followersFrances Louise (Davis) Lockridge wrote popular mysteries and children's books with husband Richard Lockridge. They also published under the shared pseudonym Francis Richards.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 17, 2021
Hollywood has come to the Hudson Valley and the acting crowd brings a real show-stopper to Van Brunt. The beautiful Peggy Belford used to be married to resident artist Brian Collins...that was a few husbands ago. And now she has been found shot to death, lying artfully arranged beside his swimming pool. Inside the house, Collins is also dead, an apparent suicide with a gun on the floor beneath his hand.
Susan Faye had an appointment to meet Collins at his house to view a sketch that the artist thought she might work up into a fabric print (that being her business). She brings Captain M. L. Heimrich along on the way to dinner out and find the bodies as described. When Susan sees the set-up, her artistic eye registers how very staged it seems, how very much like an artist's composition. And something else strikes her as "wrong" about Collins's workroom, but she's just not quite sure what. Heimrich's experience also tells him that there is something phony about the situation, so he and Sergeant Forniss start looking for someone who fills the role of murderer in this little drama.
The Hollywood crew would prefer that the police decide that it is exactly what it looks like...murder-suicide. But there are plenty of people who might have wanted one or both of the victims dead. Francis Dale, middle-aged star; George Latham, a handsome up-and-coming actor; and Paul Marley, the producer--all who have had romantic entanglements with the lady. Anton Zersk, who is the director and a refugee from Eastern Europe with a possibly murky past. Chris Waggoner is a young woman who sees herself in spotlight and had a large case of jealousy where Peggy was concerned. And then there's Roland Fielding, the last of Peggy's ex-husbands, who may have resented those alimony payments more than he lets on.
Here he was confronted with a handful of people who, it might be said, lied for a living. Perhaps the word was harsh; fact was inescapable. An actor lives by pretending--with voice, with facial muscles, with the whole of the body--to be someone he is not. (p. 123)
With a cast of suspects whose business is to make the unreal believable, Heimrich has his work cut out for him to sift the truth from the lies. And Susan's nagging worry about what was wrong about the artist's workroom, will place her in danger once again when the murderer, wearing a disguise, tracks her down to try and make sure she doesn't remember.
Another fun, comfortable mystery from the Lockridges. A fairly straight-forward plot with one significant fact that might be taken as a red herring. If it is, then they might fool you. If it's not, then you might think the mystery was too transparent. With the Lockridge stories, I don't worry much about how easy it is to spot the villain. I just settle down and enjoy the ride. ★★★ and 1/2. (rounded up here)
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Susan Faye had an appointment to meet Collins at his house to view a sketch that the artist thought she might work up into a fabric print (that being her business). She brings Captain M. L. Heimrich along on the way to dinner out and find the bodies as described. When Susan sees the set-up, her artistic eye registers how very staged it seems, how very much like an artist's composition. And something else strikes her as "wrong" about Collins's workroom, but she's just not quite sure what. Heimrich's experience also tells him that there is something phony about the situation, so he and Sergeant Forniss start looking for someone who fills the role of murderer in this little drama.
The Hollywood crew would prefer that the police decide that it is exactly what it looks like...murder-suicide. But there are plenty of people who might have wanted one or both of the victims dead. Francis Dale, middle-aged star; George Latham, a handsome up-and-coming actor; and Paul Marley, the producer--all who have had romantic entanglements with the lady. Anton Zersk, who is the director and a refugee from Eastern Europe with a possibly murky past. Chris Waggoner is a young woman who sees herself in spotlight and had a large case of jealousy where Peggy was concerned. And then there's Roland Fielding, the last of Peggy's ex-husbands, who may have resented those alimony payments more than he lets on.
Here he was confronted with a handful of people who, it might be said, lied for a living. Perhaps the word was harsh; fact was inescapable. An actor lives by pretending--with voice, with facial muscles, with the whole of the body--to be someone he is not. (p. 123)
With a cast of suspects whose business is to make the unreal believable, Heimrich has his work cut out for him to sift the truth from the lies. And Susan's nagging worry about what was wrong about the artist's workroom, will place her in danger once again when the murderer, wearing a disguise, tracks her down to try and make sure she doesn't remember.
Another fun, comfortable mystery from the Lockridges. A fairly straight-forward plot with one significant fact that might be taken as a red herring. If it is, then they might fool you. If it's not, then you might think the mystery was too transparent. With the Lockridge stories, I don't worry much about how easy it is to spot the villain. I just settle down and enjoy the ride. ★★★ and 1/2. (rounded up here)
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
December 11, 2023
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Show Red For Danger is a 1960 novel by the writing team Frances and Richard Lockridge, authors of the famous mystery series starring “Mr. & Mrs. North” - entertaining puzzlers in which the Norths discover murder in society or while travelling, and often by chance or intuition, solve the case.
Show Red For Danger is a different series featuring New York Detective Captain Heimrich, lately transferred upstate.
This was not a pleasure to read, however. The opposite of breezy, I found this talky and pedantic - and filled, as one may find, with sentences broken, and choppy, convoluted without resolution, and stopping suddenly, as if interrupted.
Until -
Captain Heimrich is a large man, who thinks someone as 'fun' as Susan Faye would not be interested in him. Did he just call her ‘fun’? More like beautiful. With Susan herself just waiting for him to make a move, he certainly takes his time. The movie business has invaded a small upstate town, filming almost complete. The young starlet Peggy Bedford is visiting the home of local artist Brian (a man she was once married to), a man who built that very house for her at one time. When Heinrich and Susan go to the house to see Brian’s new fabric designs, they discover Peggy and Brian dead - she bikini-clad on the floor and he slumped in a chair - an obvious case of .38 caliber murder-suicide. There is a small cast of culprits to choose from - the recently widowed Producer; his impetuous young daughter with movie stars in her eyes; the male lead Francis Dale (another ex- husband of Peggy); Mr. Fielding - not in the business (but yet another ex-husband tired of paying Peggy alimony); a temperamental Czech director dubious of her talent. She was a flighty, ‘diamonds-are-a-girls-best-friend' type of actress, not sorely missed.
A mystery novel about a movie crew should be more interesting than Heinrich and the local sergeant endlessly interviewing and visiting the crime scene. After discovering the murders, Susan has enough foresight to survey Brian’s studio for the fabric design - only to find it marred by splashes of red paint. A deliberate act? Did Brian intend this a vital clue to his killer, or did the killer try to eradicate evidence? Either way, an intriguing development that is never explained, even at the denouement where Heinrich deigns to reveal what actually happened - because we the readers were not privy to any of it - the why’s and how’s not divulged for us to detect for ourselves.
I don’t mind being kept in the dark if the characters are engaging, the plot swift, and the banter witty. This has an unusually stilted way of replicating conversation, with half sentences, overlapped dialogue, and an unfortunate laboured pace. At the climax, as the culprit is about to be revealed, Susan spends two pages talking about letting the dog out.
Really uninvolving. I haven’t read a Lockridge novel I didn't like, so this was a surprise, especially as Merton Heimrich starred in 22 Lockridge mysteries, of which this is number 12.
Show Red For Danger is a 1960 novel by the writing team Frances and Richard Lockridge, authors of the famous mystery series starring “Mr. & Mrs. North” - entertaining puzzlers in which the Norths discover murder in society or while travelling, and often by chance or intuition, solve the case.
Show Red For Danger is a different series featuring New York Detective Captain Heimrich, lately transferred upstate.
This was not a pleasure to read, however. The opposite of breezy, I found this talky and pedantic - and filled, as one may find, with sentences broken, and choppy, convoluted without resolution, and stopping suddenly, as if interrupted.
Until -
Captain Heimrich is a large man, who thinks someone as 'fun' as Susan Faye would not be interested in him. Did he just call her ‘fun’? More like beautiful. With Susan herself just waiting for him to make a move, he certainly takes his time. The movie business has invaded a small upstate town, filming almost complete. The young starlet Peggy Bedford is visiting the home of local artist Brian (a man she was once married to), a man who built that very house for her at one time. When Heinrich and Susan go to the house to see Brian’s new fabric designs, they discover Peggy and Brian dead - she bikini-clad on the floor and he slumped in a chair - an obvious case of .38 caliber murder-suicide. There is a small cast of culprits to choose from - the recently widowed Producer; his impetuous young daughter with movie stars in her eyes; the male lead Francis Dale (another ex- husband of Peggy); Mr. Fielding - not in the business (but yet another ex-husband tired of paying Peggy alimony); a temperamental Czech director dubious of her talent. She was a flighty, ‘diamonds-are-a-girls-best-friend' type of actress, not sorely missed.
A mystery novel about a movie crew should be more interesting than Heinrich and the local sergeant endlessly interviewing and visiting the crime scene. After discovering the murders, Susan has enough foresight to survey Brian’s studio for the fabric design - only to find it marred by splashes of red paint. A deliberate act? Did Brian intend this a vital clue to his killer, or did the killer try to eradicate evidence? Either way, an intriguing development that is never explained, even at the denouement where Heinrich deigns to reveal what actually happened - because we the readers were not privy to any of it - the why’s and how’s not divulged for us to detect for ourselves.
I don’t mind being kept in the dark if the characters are engaging, the plot swift, and the banter witty. This has an unusually stilted way of replicating conversation, with half sentences, overlapped dialogue, and an unfortunate laboured pace. At the climax, as the culprit is about to be revealed, Susan spends two pages talking about letting the dog out.
Really uninvolving. I haven’t read a Lockridge novel I didn't like, so this was a surprise, especially as Merton Heimrich starred in 22 Lockridge mysteries, of which this is number 12.
June 18, 2020
Early Bird Book Deal | Weakest of the series, so far | The mystery in this wasn't very interesting, the characters were drawn very lightly, and the motive was obvious. In this case the entire murder seemed secondary to moving Heimrich's relationship with Susan forward, and since a previous book had shown them coming to an understanding, doing it again was unnecessary. I was pretty sure who the killer was relatively early, but the characters were such an aside to the book that I thought of the murderer not by name but by their connection to other people . In the big reveal scene, when the person's name was said, I honestly couldn't remember who that name belonged to...and it was the killer I expected, so that says something about how little personality the people were given. That said, I do enjoy spending the time with Heimrich, Susan, Forniss, Crowley, the whole bunch.
May 15, 2018
Another in the Heimrich series, again acquired through Interlibrary loan. This one has Hollywood invading sleepy up-state New York and puts Susan Faye (the captain’s girlfriend) into the center of the story.
May 28, 2021
As always, a fun writing style and plenty of character. But I would have liked more loose ends to have been tied up.
December 27, 2024
Not nearly as good as Mr & Mrs North, but very readable.
October 16, 2008
I love Richard and Frances Lockridge. This is a Captain Heimrich mystery and I prefer the Pam and Jerry North ones, but liked this one a lot. The Lockridge mysteries are really of their time, mostly the 50's - this one was published in 1960 - very stylish, sharp and smart language - everyone is always drinking cocktails and smoking. They are also very well written, the Heimrich books having an underlying pathos that is just barely discernable, but adds an interesting feeling to the books. Heimrich is a big, rough looking man who has very well-hidden personal self-doubts. It's not obvious, but makes him wonderful to read. In Show Red For Danger, Heimrich is investigating what appears to be a murder/suicide while slowly approaching a relationship with a woman that he met on another case. He is obviously falling in love with her, but can't believe that she could feel the same way that he does. She does, but is irritated and amused with his hesitation. In her mind she calls him a great oaf. There is also a giant, sad, loving, comic great dane in the book and I'm always a sucker for animals with personalities.
August 17, 2010
Book starts out with the love story between Susan Faye and Heimrich progressing. They go to meet another designer and find him dead as well as another woman who happens to be a famous "actress."
The story has all sorts of characters, but there was a big deal made out a specific design... and the fact that it had red in it. Problem with this was that this whole story line never resolved itself and fit into the story, though many things seemed to hinge on it.
This particular story probably was the weakest in terms of plot. Interesting in terms of characters. Essential to have read though to understand the development of the love story.
The story has all sorts of characters, but there was a big deal made out a specific design... and the fact that it had red in it. Problem with this was that this whole story line never resolved itself and fit into the story, though many things seemed to hinge on it.
This particular story probably was the weakest in terms of plot. Interesting in terms of characters. Essential to have read though to understand the development of the love story.
May 10, 2014
This is an excellent read! My Mom loaned it to me - it's one of her favorites too. I have to say that the authors in the 1950s and 1960s really knew how to write good mysteries. This is totally top notch. If you like a real, true to life, who-dunnit. This author is fantastic.
September 25, 2015
Heimrich's self doubt and droopy character is more adequately conveyed than any of the other characters. The modernist house and art is clearly of more interest to the authors. Some typical Lockridge suspense where the female interest is stalked by the murderer.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews