Death of a Doll

Mark East #3

by Hilda Lawrence

Miss Small and Miss Brady do everything to make their boarders feel safe and secure: Hope House is one of the few places in new York City where a young working woman could enjoy a homey atmosphere at very little cost When Ruth Miller moves in, however, the atmosphere seems to change and when her body is found in the courtyard, the miasma engulfing Hope House becomes stifling, suddenly no one in Hope House is quite what she seems, and no one is above suspicion...

Pan Classic Crime. With an introduction by Minette Walters.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Crime, Historical Mystery

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Hilda Kronmiller Lawrence was a mystery writer. She worked in the clipping department of Macmillan Publishers, and as a reader to the blind. She published her fiction under her married name, Hilda Lawrence.

Reviews

[Fran ( one month hiatus-back late May) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hope House, a Home for Girls, was a New York City residence run by director Monica Brady, with assistance from social worker Angeline Small. In charge of 70 girls, Miss Small made sure they "slept correctly" and were "properly nourished". "These [are] poor love-starved babies, I must do what I can". Ruth Miller, 29 years old, was a salesperson in the toilet goods department of Blackmans. Ruth shared her excitement with wealthy, regular customer Roberta Sutton. She would be moving to Hope House where she would receive both breakfast and dinner and "all the hot water you want".

Suitcase in hand, shy,quiet Ruth entered Hope House with high expectations. Within minutes, her demeanor radically changed. "...in a sea of strange faces, one face was not strange". "Confidently walking into the future Ruth had come face to face with the past". Two days later, Ruth's body was discovered in the courtyard, presumably having fallen from a seventh floor window. Her death was ruled a suicide.

Roberta Sutton was shocked upon hearing of Ruth's demise. She didn't believe Ruth killed herself and convinced Private Investigator Mark East to investigate. Roberta's two house guests, elderly spinsters Beulah Pond and Bessy Petty were amateur sleuths. Mark had his methods of discovery while Beulah and Bessy contributed a comic element. Beulah decided to gather data at Hope House. She walked into the dwelling with an affected limp thinking that an infirmity would make her appear honest. Upon leaving, she limped on the opposite leg!

One thing was for certain. Ruth saw or heard "something" upon arriving at her new digs. The following day, at the house "costume party", Ruth knew she had been recognized. She had seen the "following eyes". She knew what she had to do. Her suitcase was packed, ready to go!

"Death of a Doll" by Hilda Lawrence was written in 1947. Lawrence created a claustrophobic atmosphere with Miss Brady and Miss Small demanding adherence to rigid rules, a stifling living arrangement bound to create discomfort and suspicion. The first half of the tome set the stage to question Ruth's death. The investigation in the second half was murky and slow moving. Fans of classic crime will enjoy the mystery and suspense from the pen of Hilda Lawrence.

Thank you Agora Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Death of a Doll".

[Sandysbookaday (on indefinite hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

EXCERPT: She went back to the night before, to the afternoon that was just over. She retraced every step. I don't think she knew me at first, she decided. Because of my glasses. I was wearing glasses before. But she knew me this afternoon. Maybe I have a special way of turning my head or using my hands. . . She looked at her hands and saw they were clenched. Maybe I did that this afternoon. Maybe I did that the other time.

She went back to the other time. She saw an office, richly furnished, saw two hatted men with hard eyes, saw another man, hatless, sitting in a leather chair behind an ornate desk. She saw the other girl, her face twisted with fury. She heard the voice again, low and quiet at first, then screaming: 'I'll kill you for this. Someday we'll meet and I'll kill you with my bare hands.'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Hope House, a New York boarding home for women, has led a rather sleepy existence in terms of emergencies. One wastepaper basket fire surely doesn’t count as a five-alarm fire. That is until new tenant Ruth Miller’s limp and lifeless body is found in the courtyard after plummeting to her death.

In a clandestine and hot-chocolate infused meeting, the heads of the house decide Ruth’s death couldn’t possibly have been foul play: no, she must have fallen or jumped. Shy and mousy, it seems Ruth had no friends to question… or ask uncomfortable questions.

But this was no accident: upon Ruth’s arrival, the atmosphere of this happy house shifted, her paranoia was catching, and her last days were filled with dread. If the heads thought a scandal could be averted, they were wrong. It turns out Ruth did have a friend… and she’s out for justice.

This claustrophobic and tense mystery is heralded as Hilda Lawrence’s best. Equal parts cosy and suspenseful, it’s sure to captivate lovers of all genres of classic crime.

Death of a Doll was first published in 1947 and is the third in the Mark East Series:

Mark East
1. Blood Upon the Snow (1944)
2. A Time to Die (1945)
3. Death of A Doll (1947)

MY THOUGHTS: This book is a bit of a mixed bag of tricks. It brought to mind old movies where the private eye wears a fedora and always has a lit cigarette in his mouth, the women are all dames or dolls, and people have a 'swell' time. In that sense, although Mark East was rather more refined than that, it was very enjoyable. I could see and hear most of this playing out just like one of those old movies, and the dialogue is superb, if occasionally a little hard to follow, but only because our speech has changed greatly in the last seventy years. As has the writing style.

There are some delightfully odd characters to enjoy, Bessy and Beulah, for example. Mark East says of them, 'With his own eyes he had seen them find needles in haystacks and thread them with camels'.
Two ladies of indeterminate age, independently wealthy (I should imagine that ten thousand a year was a great deal back then), and who don't mind a tipple or two, they provide a great deal of color.

The plot is dated, but perhaps all the more appealing because of that. It would not work in a modern setting where young working women no longer live in heavily chaperoned boarding houses, required to sign in and out if going anywhere other than work. It brought to mind living in the nurses home when I started my training. We were all required to 'live in' for our first year. But back to the plot - I got a little lost once or twice and had to retrace my steps to see if I had missed something. But no, it is just the writing style, deliberately obscure at times.

All in all, an enjoyable read, and definitely recommended if you enjoy atmospheric period 'whodunnits'. But I would also recommend that you read this series from the beginning to get a better knowledge of the main characters.

😊😊😊.5

THE AUTHOR: Hilda Lawrence was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1894. An avid reader of crime fiction, she wrote her first novel, Blood upon the Snow, in 1946. The novel introduced her three main series characters: Manhattan private investigator Mark East and sleuthing New England spinsters Miss Beulah and Miss Bessy. By combining these characters Hilda Lawrence's novels are a clever mixture of the hardboiled and softboiled styles of detective fiction. Hilda Lawrence wrote only four novels, all in the 1940s. Death of a Doll, which was published in 1947, is considered her masterpiece. She died in Manhattan, New York, in 1976.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Agora Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Death of a Doll by Hilda Lawrence for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

[Linda Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hope House is a hotel for women only ... mainly for working women who do not want to live alone. Payment is only $8.00 a month and that's much lower than what a small apartment would cost.

Wearing a doll's costume that all the ladies of the hotel were wearing one night, Ruth Miller falls from the 7th floor balcony. Or was she pushed?

She had been acting strangely and there are many red flags pointing to a mysterious past. The reader learns early on that she's been running ... from something or someone. Has someone recognized her? Or maybe it was paranoia?

The police mark this down as a suicide, but two elderly ladies who knew the victim hire PI Mark East to investigate. It's an easy decision for East to make as there is suddenly a second violent death. The residents are obviously scared and wondering who's next.

While a well-written mystery, humor abounds in the characters of Beulah and Bessie. They are funny and charming and well defined. The story premise is a good one. Mark East comes across as credible.

Death of a Doll, which was published in 1947, is considered this author's masterpiece. She died in Manhattan, New York, in 1976.

Many thanks to Agora Books and Netgalley for the digital copy of this 1940's mystery. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[Evi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This is a decent classic crime novel, although I'm a little disappointed in it. At the beginning it was exciting and thrilling, Hope House and its tenants were good material and I hoped it will become something very good. But after the death of Ruth Miller it became such a chaotic mess! I think there were too many characters, my attention got too divided between them, and it was hard for me to connect the dots and follow every aspects.

I think I have to stay with Agatha Christie's novels, if I want to read a classic crime story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

A classic cozy crime novel focusing on a seeming suicidal plunge from the seventh floor during a rag doll costume party at a women’s dormitory. Not the right choice for my reading. Exceedingly dull.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually third in the Mark East series and I hadn’t read the first two. However, I decided to break my usual rule about reading a series out of order and gave this a try, as I liked the sound of the setting.

Published in 1947, this is set in Hope House, a New York boarding home for women. Ruth Miller, who, like the other tenants of Hope House, has a fairly lowly paid job, works in a department store. She is delighted to have been accepted at Hope House, and tells her favourite customer all about it; the boarding hotel having been recommended by two of her colleagues in the stockroom. However, once Ruth moves in, her excitement turns to fear. She spies someone from her past and she fears that she has also been recognised. ..

This mystery is, obviously, dated. For me, though, this is part of the charm and I enjoyed the setting of Hope House and the scenes at Blackman’s Department Store. There is a good deal of tension, as Ruth tries to decide what to do. When there is a party, held at Hope House, all the girls wear masks and, later, Ruth is found dead – a suspected suicide. Ruth may have been a young, poorly paid worker, but someone cares that she is gone and an investigation begins to uncover what happened.

There are lots of interesting, and some quite odd, characters. Also, there is lots of period flavour and this will have great appeal to anyone who enjoys early mysteries. If you are interested in going back and reading the series from the beginning, the first book is, “Blood Upon the Snow,” published in 1944 and, “A Time to Die,” published in 1945. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third and final Mark East mystery (but my first) published in 1947, about a death in a women's boarding house or residential hotel: did she fall or was she pushed? Intelligent, interesting, credible characters. Plus a low-key private investigator who's not quite the center of the story though he is used to tie it all together while assisted by two sexagenarian amateur sleuthettes who soften the edges (not that there are many). Less than hard boiled but sharper than cozy. Engaging, slow paced, suspenseful. The whole book seemed a bit off-kilter, the dialog and character reactions are sometimes unexpected or non sequitur, which may be a product of when the book was written or the author herself (mystery writer Margaret Millar sometimes has the same effect). I'm going to track down the first two installments to read in order.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Death of a Doll .

I have to admit I requested this book mostly because of the old timey, fun timey noir-ish cover.

Originally published in old timey, fun timey 1940s, Death of a Doll has been re-released and features a private detective named and his two cohorts, meddling sisters.

It's also the third book in the series, which I did not know, but works pretty well as a standalone.

I really wanted to like this book. Really.

But it was hard. Really hard.

The mystery wasn't that bad. Was the death of a young woman a suicide or foul play?

But it was a combination of factors that didn't hold my interest:

1. There were many, many characters; no one was really interesting or sympathetic.

2. I found the sisters meddling annoying, not quirky or hilarious, as I think it was intended to be.

3. The prose was long and drawn out; kind of stiff, perhaps that was due to the time period it was written.

4. Also, the outdated references and slang were hard to understand and relate to and I didn't want to Google them.

This just wasn't the right type of book for me.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilda Lawrence was an American crime author best known for her series of novels featuring the private investigator Mark East, published during the 1940s. This one from 1947, Death of a Doll, is the third in the series and has been reissued this month by Agora Books. Lawrence is one of several ‘forgotten’ or lesser known crime writers to be brought back into print by various publishers recently; sometimes it’s easy to see why an author’s books have been allowed to fade into obscurity, but I was very pleasantly surprised by this one and am hoping the rest of the Mark East series will be made available again too.

The story is set in and around Hope House, a home for young women in New York City run by Monica Brady and her assistant Angelina Small. The home provides seventy girls with a safe refuge where, for a small fee, they can have a bed, hot water, two meals a day and the opportunity to make new friends. At the beginning of the novel we meet Ruth Miller, a woman in her twenties who works in Blackmans department store and who is excitedly telling her regular customer, Roberta Sutton, that she has been offered a place at Hope House. We don’t know why Ruth has found herself with nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to, but she gives the reader a hint that there has been some sort of trouble in her past. Later that day, we see her arriving at her new home, suitcase in hand, full of optimism for the future.

Two days later, Ruth is dead, having fallen from a window on the seventh floor of Hope House during a party at which all of the girls were dressed in rag doll costumes. Suicide is assumed, but Roberta is not convinced. Why would Ruth have killed herself just as her life was beginning to improve? What the reader knows, but the characters don’t – although some of them suspect – is that during those few days at Hope House, Ruth came face to face with someone from the past…but who was it and how could this have led to her death?

Roberta calls in her private investigator friend, Mark East, who arrives in New York accompanied by two more amateur detectives, the elderly spinsters Miss Beulah and Miss Bessy. It’s going to be difficult to know where to start – there’s so little known about Ruth and her background, and the fact that all of the girls were dressed in identical doll costumes on the night of her death doesn’t help – but surely between the three of them they can solve the mystery?

I really enjoyed this book. Although the story is slow to unfold – a lot of time is spent on exploring the relationships between the various girls and employees at Hope House – I still found it difficult to put down. I didn’t guess the culprit correctly, but felt as though I probably should have done! I did suspect almost all of the ‘dolls’ at one point or another, constantly changing my mind as more information was revealed. The setting is wonderful too; I could vividly picture the interior of Hope House, with Kitty answering the phones on the switchboard, Jewel operating the elevator, and Miss Brady and Miss Small seeing that everything ran smoothly, while making ambitious plans for the future.

My only problem with the book was that I felt there were too many characters and that we saw things from too many different viewpoints. I’m not sure whether we really needed three detectives either. I think Beulah and Bessy were probably included to lighten the mood and provide some comedy, but they didn’t add much to the story in my opinion and I would have preferred to have spent more time following Mark’s investigations instead. Otherwise, this was a great first introduction to Hilda Lawrence’s work and an unusual combination of the cosy and the dark and suspenseful.

[Joanne Tinkler (Mamajomakes) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ruth Miller is looking forward to moving into Hope House, a multi residential property for young women who work in New York. Upon finishing work at Blackman’s department store one night, she goes to the house but when she gets there Ruth is confronted with a voice from the past. The voice belongs to a woman who she fled her home town to get away from, a woman who promised that if she ever saw her again she would kill her........

The Death of a Doll was originally written in 1947 and though in many parts it felt old fashioned and clichéd, it was an interesting view of a bygone time. The story itself was entertaining if somewhat slow going but I think that was because of the age of the book.

Huge thanks to Agora Books and NetGalley for giving me access to this book in exchange for my opinion.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good crime/mystery with some dark aspects. Although the plot was dated, it was still appealing, though it would not have worked in a modern setting. The author's writing style was enigmatic at times, but I believe this was intended. With many subtle touches and clever turns of phrase that regularly amused me, the logic used in solving the mystery was clear and well constructed. Death of a Doll was a quality piece of writing.

The characters were well drawn by Hilda Lawrence, particularly the refined detective Mark East and his delightfully odd and quirky sidekicks Miss Bessy and Miss Beulah.

This was a marvellously disquieting and scary crime story where I was really rooting for the victim and for the detective and hoping that justice would be done. All in all, an enjoyable, though sinister read and definitely recommended if you enjoy atmospheric period whodunits.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Agora Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

[dmayr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death stalks Hope House, where the self-effacing Ruth Miller encounters a familiar face from her past and falls to her death from a window. Then another girl gets her head bashed in. Soon whispers abound and suspicion lingers, as every girl in Hope House starts to look at each other, wary and terrified. . . The atmosphere just oozes with malice and a sense of suffocation, while the killer hides behind an amiable mask. I just wish there were more of these kind of mysteries.

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hope House, a boarding house for young women, is run by the very genteel Monica Brady and her assistant Angelina "Angel" Small. Seventy girls are given bed, two meals a day, hot water and the opportunity to make friends. The story opens with Ruth Miller, a clerk at Blackman's department store, who has been able to take advantage of an opening at the boarding house. She is so pleased about the fact that she's finally found a place with hot water that she tells her favorite customer, the wealthy young Roberta Sutton, all about it. Roberta has taken an interest in the girl and isn't sure that Hope House is the paradise Ruth thinks. She promises herself to check in on Ruth when she returns from a visit to the country, but when she gets back Ruth is no longer at the store. She is shocked to discover that the young clerk has died from an apparent suicide.

The doctor on the scene and the police quickly declared it a suicide-though why she should have jumped from her seventh floor room window during costume party where all the girls were dressed as rag dolls is hard to fathom. But Miss Brady and Miss Small both say that Ruth was having trouble fitting in and seemed very withdrawn, nearly depressed--and that is that. Except--Roberta doesn't believe it for a minute. When she left Ruth, the girl was excited about her new living arrangements. And--just the day before the party Ruth had bought a new blue suit that shed been saving up for. Roberta asks her friend Mark East, an investigator, to nose around and see what he can find out. Why would a girl whose luck was on the upswing jump to her death? What the reader knows--but Mark will have to find out--is that in the short time Ruth was at Hope House she had found someone from her past. Someone who scared her upon sight. But who in Hope House is the menacing figure from the past and why did Ruth have to die?

Hope House is full of tension and unexplained suspicion. Beulah Pond, friend of both Mark and Roberta, says that the house "stinks" with an unpleasant atmosphere and once he starts investigating Mark can't disagree. This is in effect even before Ruth meets up with the enemy from the past. I suspect Lawrence was trying for suspense, but I just found it overly oppressive without building any desire in me to investigate the source of the atmosphere. And Mark's detective work, paired with that of Beulah and her tag-along Bessy, seems even more lackluster and haphazard than in the previous book I read.

On the positive side--there was a major clue to the culprit's identity dropped right in my lap and I missed it. So, Lawrence did a nice bit of misdirection there. But overall I just can't say I recommend her books. When I read my Lawrence book, Blood Upon the Snow, I said that it was an "almost" kind of book and I gave it 2.5 stars. I followed that with a non-Mark East book, The Pavilion, and it was a bit better--but given that I awarded 2.75 stars, I'd say it still didn't quite hit the target. And here we are again. Death of a Doll is even less captivating than the previous two, so I suspect Hilda Lawrence is an "almost" kind of detective novelist. I've still got one more Lawrence mystery on the TBR stack: A Time to Die, the second of the Mark East books. Maybe that will wind up being her masterpiece...but I'm not going to hold my breath.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some really promising ideas at the heart of this book. The setting - a charitable boarding house for young women in the 1940s - was both historically and dynamically interesting. The intersection with the world of a Department Store was credible. The device of a masked party for which the girls made identical masks from cloth bags was both creepy and suspenseful. Unfortunately, the characters and the plot got out of hand. There were simply too many characters for the reader to keep track of, or distinguish. A few were sketched more fully than others, but very few took on a life of their own. A movie might have been able to create distinctions and visual clues that assisted, but the book left this reader with a sense of institutionalised crowd rather than a set of individuals with motives and opportunities.

Similarly, the plot took too long to lay its trails and relied on too many past histories.

The strength was in some of the scene-setting. The early description of a desperate girl waiting on a staircase to see a doctor lingers in my mind.

It certainly held enough interest for me to finish it, but it fell frustratingly short of what it might have been.

Thanks to Agora Books and Crime Classics for the chance to read and review it. I’d like to give it 2 and a half stars.

[Audrey (Warped Shelves)]

DNF @ 16%

This review is based on an ARC of Death of a Doll which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Agora Books).

I'm really sorry that I couldn't get into this because it sounds (at least a little bit) cool, and I adore the cover (and the author's name!), but the one thing that really turns me away from this story is the writing. The writing is incredibly convoluted, and the points of view seem to switch erratically so that I never know who is talking when. Along with this, I feel nothing but distaste for any of the characters. They simply seem 2D to me, or like the author is forcing personalities on these characters which don't seem natural at all.

I definitely think that, for people who love a good 20s-30s-40s era aesthetic or mystery, this book could really be a hit. For me, I got bored and set the book down and didn't pick it back up again...

[Denise Mullins · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is so easy to imagine this very uneven and uber-melodramatic mystery as a campy B movie starring Mary Astor and Dana Andrews. The plot kicks off with shop clerk Ruth Miller's highly anticipated residence in a boarding house for young unmarried ladies which promises room, board, "privileges", and all the hot water desired for $8.00 a week. However, virtually hours after moving in, Ruth is filled with a mysterious dread that culminates in her death amidst an outlandish costume party that seems more suitable for an episode from Dr. Who.
The ensuing investigation is woefully unbelievable and finally comes to an all-too obvious conclusion that makes me wonder why I spent 270 pages of my time on this outdated and silly story.

[Marek Waldorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb dialog producing nicely individuated characters, especially impressive given the large cast; deftly plotted; atmospheric mix of humor & horror, ending on a somber note. Its predominantly female milieu reminded me of The Women (smug, reactionary) & Josephine Tey's Miss Pym Disposes (a bit too leisurely) while surpassing them both. And though it's also better than the two breezier mysteries in the Detective Book Club omnibus I read it in (by J Dickson Carr & Frank Gruber), they're worth puzzling over as well.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

La notte tornò come un tuono, l’ora, i minuti, le ultime parole.”
Un pensionato per ragazze, un flusso di persone, voci, discorsi e pensieri. La sfida delle squadre, il via vai di facce e avvenimenti, Mrs. Sutton e Mark, dialoghi leggermente incomprensibili perché veri, e poi, in sottofondo, loro, Bessy e Beulah, l’attempato Cupido e il falco ringiovanito. Non è niente di quello che ti aspetteresti, stile e ironia più moderni di molti thriller moderni. Una vera sorpresa. Una gradita sorpresa.

[Joanne Tinkler (Mamajomakes) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ruth Miller is looking forward to moving into Hope House, a multi residential property for young women who work in New York. Upon finishing work at Blackman’s department store one night, she goes to the house but when she gets there Ruth is confronted with a voice from the past. The voice belongs to a woman who she fled her home town to get away from, a woman who promised that if she ever saw her again she would kill her........

The Death of a Doll was originally written in 1947 and though in many parts it felt old fashioned and clichéd, it was an interesting view of a bygone time. The story itself was entertaining if somewhat slow going but I think that was because of the age of the book.

Huge thanks to Agora Books and NetGalley for giving me access to this book in exchange for my opinion.

[Edith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and 1/2 stars. The last, and probably the best, of the three Mark East mysteries by Hilda Lawrence. Written in the middle of the last century just after WWII, the book, with its New York setting, is very evocative. A young woman apparently commits suicide in a hostel for women, and East is called in when a friend finds the story unconvincing.

My chief complaint is that like "A Time to Die," the preceding novel, the ending has a flat and unresolved feeling. Otherwise, a pleasant diversion.

[Nelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite mystery novels that I have read, and the best non-Agatha Christie. I generally really enjoy murders in these kind of localised, all-female settings (like boarding schools or female hostels, this book being set in the latter.) There was something honestly terrifying in the way it was written, from Ruth's paranoia to the haunting image of the murderous doll silently following Ruth up the stairs. I also really enjoyed the numerous different perspectives, from the standard detective to the two bumbling elderly amateur detectives to the numerous girls in the boarding house - it prevented the monotony which can arise from more traditional narratives of detection. The reveal of the murderer did not have as much clarification as I would have hoped and there were some things which did not quote add up. The lack of perfection in terms of plot was admissible, however, because the murderer made enough sense whilst still being surprising enough to be enjoyable. The ending did genuinely quite upset me WHY CAN'T THE LESBIANS BE HAPPY? POOR MONNY
I literally loved this book a lot and I don't really know what to do now because I've just spent the last few days reading it and I REALLY WANT TO DISCUSS IT. Also really think an adaptation of this is needed because some images (like a room full of rag dolls) would be both horrifying and brilliant on screen.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light, disguise, and blindness, in various forms, are key elements in this atmospheric and rather creepy murder mystery, set in the claustrophobic, somewhat enclosed, world of a New York hostel for young women. It was the third from Hilda Lawrence featuring private detective, Mark East, and his sidekicks, Miss Bessy and Miss Beulah, and was first published in 1947.

It is the most successful of the three. Although it would have benefitted from a little pruning, here the momentum was better maintained. As the plot is more focussed on psychology and character than on detection, this is not one for pure puzzle-lovers. The culprit was not too difficult to spot, but the tension lay in what the next move would be and how a resolution would be reached. There is interest, too, in the various relationships of the women in the residence, particularly that of Miss Brady and Miss Small who “run” the place.

Recommended as very readable and quite engrossing.

Thank you to NetGalley, Agora Books and Crime Classics Advance Readers Club for the digital review copy.

[Kathryn Castles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting and the characterisations are great, very much of their time, very unique feel. The whole book has a darkness and dryness I really enjoyed, and I found it extremely readable. I did however find the mystery hard to follow, due the ambiguous way she reveals the clues, and felt like I really ought to go back and reread it to understand what was going on. And although the idea of the dolls is a strong visual, it didn't quite ring true.

But for the unique setting and sensibility, definitely worth a read.

[Kate Vane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death of a Doll was first published in 1947 and has been reissued by Agora Books. Like the British Library Crime Classics, it offers an insight into both the society it portrays, and the history of the genre.

Ruth Miller is excited to be moving into Hope House, a boarding home for young single women in New York City. Two of her friends at the department store where she works live there, and the conditions are much more comfortable than her private rental. However her mood abruptly changes when she arrives to book in at the reception, surrounded by staff and residents. She is terrified for reasons which the reader cannot immediately understand. The next night there is a party at Hope House where the girls and staff dress in identical doll costumes. At the end of the night, Ruth is found dead, having apparently fallen from a window several floors up.

The police consider it a suicide, and there it might have ended, except that one of her well-heeled customers takes an interest. She brings in her friends, an unlikely combination of a private investigator and former police officer called Mark East and two spinster sleuths from New England, Bessy Petty and Beulah Pond, who she invites to visit. (Coming to the novel cold, this feels like an abrupt shift, but this is the third book in the series and earlier books apparently explain how they all came to know each other.) While Mark employs his police contacts and knowhow, the two women have a number of ingenious tricks of their own and between them they work towards a resolution – but not before there are further incidents at the hostel.

This is an odd little book, because of the tension between golden age froth and social realism. On the one hand, you have the investigators, particularly Bessy and Beulah, who treat the death as an amusing puzzle. The mechanics of the mystery are also a bit tedious. They largely concern conflicting accounts of who went up and down in the elevator and when on the night of the party (complicated because they are all wearing basically the same costume). I did zone out at that point. It was confusing at the start because there are a large number of young women all introduced at once, and sometimes they are referred to by their first name and sometimes their last.

However, there is much to enjoy in the book. The characters are all brilliantly drawn. It is packed with fast, often funny dialogue and sharp observation. The novel also offers a fascinating depiction of a particular world – the young women drawn to the city, experiencing independence for the first time and living and working away from their families and community. The relationships between the young women are subtly drawn, their friendships, conflicts and rivalries. It also has a matter-of-fact depiction of a lesbian relationship between two of the senior staff at Hope House.

Death of a Doll is entertaining enough story and if you’re a devotee of the genre it’s an interesting, if at times uneasy, combination of cosy and more psychologically driven mystery.
*
I received a copy of Death of a Doll from the publisher via Netgalley.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Agora Books for a review copy.
This story centres around Hope House, a boarding house for young women in New York City. It was originally published in 1947 and is set during that time. The story tells of Ruth Miller, a store assistant who has just taken a room in Hope House and who has bright hopes for the future. As soon as she arrives she sees someone who terrifies her and the scene is set for her murder.
The first few chapters concern Ruth's arrival at Hope House and we realise that there is a mystery in her past which will come back to haunt her. She is soon found dead and the official verdict is suicide. However Roberta, a wealthy socialite who had befriended Ruth in the shop where she worked is not satisfied and persuades Private Investigator Mark East and a pair of spinster sleuths named Bessy and Belulah to take on the investigation despite a complete closing of ranks by the Hope House staff and residents.
The second part of the story concerns their investigations, initially into whether Ruth jumped or was pushed and then, on to the identity of the criminal.
Mark East, Betty Petty and Belulah Pond are series characters and appear in other novels by Hilda Lawrence. The characters are well drawn and the setting, a snowy, cold New York Christmas, is brought to life through the prose however I found some of the writing to be too whimsical for my taste.
Whilst I found Mark to be a competent investigator I thought that Betty and Belulah were quite irritating and, although they did help in the ultimate resolution of the story they did not, in my opinion anyway, produce any evidence which Mark would not have been able to find on his own,
The atmosphere in Hope House was particularly well imagined as it changed from a happy home to a sinister building in which the residents were terrified to stay but unable to leave even though they came to accept that there was a killer in their midst.
I felt the book was too long and could have been edited to make the story stand out more from the window dressing and the tension as the net closed on the killer much more prominent. I also did not really get on with the style of the prose though I think that it is probably fairly typical of post war American story telling.
There is little chance, I think, of the reader working out who the killer is until the revelation at the end and as such this has to be considered a character piece rather than a 'fair play' detective novel. Personally I think that it could be adapted into an excellent film where the undoubtedly clever and interesting story could be told against a backdrop of a New York winter and all the whimsical and superfluous sections could be removed.
I enjoyed the book and I certainly wanted to know who had committed the crime but I would not be in a rush to read any more of Hilda Lawrence's four novels.
In short this is an interesting story which sets it's scene well but which spends too much time on the trivial which detracts from the excitement of the story.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Agora Books and Net Galley for allowing me to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Death of a Doll had me interested from the cover. Simple yet terribly effective, it draws the eye and makes me think of classic crime novels. A fantastic cover design!

The premise of the book is intriguing- a young girl, Ruth Miller, moves to Hope House, a home for girls run by Miss Brady and Miss Small. She is a saleswoman at Blackman’s in the toiletries department and has regular, loyal customers such as Mrs Sutton to chat to. However, during a party at Hope House, whilst the entire home are dressed as rag dolls, Ruth falls to her death from the seventh floor of the building. Instantly it is ruled a suicide, but Mrs Sutton doesn’t believe it. She involves Private Investigator Mark East to solve the mystery. There are multiple threads to this story – Ruth Miller’s death, the mystery behind the musical powder box, and Ruth’s past being among them. I liked how they all separated and then merged again neatly at the end. It bulked the story out more and gave for a more rounded investigation.

It is clear from the off that we as readers already know a fair bit more about Ruth than does Mark East. For instance, we know that upon entering the home, she sees something or someone that alarms her, that sets into motion her plans to leave the house unseen. We know that she has some connection to a person in the house, other than her two fellow employees at Blackman’s. It’s fun being one step ahead in the investigation, and I enjoyed this aspect of the book!

The characters are a mixed bunch. I felt that the some of them could have been introduced better, particularly Mark East, Beulah and Bessy. They just sort of appeared in the story and it took me a while to figure out what they were doing there. As for the two older ladies, Beulah and Bessy were an interesting pair. Absolute busybodies who occasionally irritated me, but ultimately they offer some comedic value to an otherwise serious novel.

The pacing bothered me a little however. For example, I enjoyed finding out about Ruth prior to her untimely death, though I have to admit to finding the beginning a bit too long. I found myself waiting for the Unfortunate Event to take place so the plot would move forward. It wasn’t until about 60% of the way in that I realised I was now enjoying the novel. After this point, you can see the separate threads of the crime coming together and the pacing improved.

Overall this is an intriguing read. The murder mystery is interesting enough to keep me reading, but it wasn’t fast enough to hold my interest throughout. The characters for me weren’t the stars of the book – none of them shined particularly bright, but the plot makes up for that. Not a book I would re-read, but I’m glad I read it. Recommendable to lovers of classic crime!

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawrence presents the whodunit (and its siblings 'how' and 'why') through the perspectives of more than a dozen characters (not to mention the victim). It certainly gives the reader more to chew on, but this one's more about the journey than the destination.

What's particularly impressive are the numerous interested parties Lawrence lowers into the thick of it: there's the police buddy (a companiable but bureaucratic naysayer), the PI (who does the actual investigating), a concerned couple (the wife knew the victim) and two little old ladies (one of whom feigns psychic abilities and provides some supporting clues).

There's a lot of characters to keep straight, and Lawrence keeps some of the supporting cast distinct by building them around the archetypes common to the time: the prude, the social butterfly, the flamboyant shop clerk, the gossip. She garlands some nuance around their turns in the spotlight. For example, one minor figure isn't just a flamboyant shop clerk, but a flamboyant shop clerk with an understanding of the social hierarchy upon which his job depends.

A few scenes shine brightly thanks to some fine touches of imagery and turns of phrase. Lawrence permits the victim to stick around long enough to be an actual character, pique interest, and provide some foreshadowing clues about the mystery-to-be. The heightening of stakes feels pell-mell but does usher the mystery along.

Lawrence has a slight-of-hand which feels peculiar for the genre, but intrigues: quick cuts between perspectives in the middle of a scene. Unlike third-person omniscience, there's narrative darkness accented by a conspiratorial gleam visible in these pages. It compels a reader to pay closer attention, and brave the narrative whiplash when Lawrence cuts from terse dialogue to just summing the remainder of a conversation up.

Highly recommended, if you can find a copy.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Death of a Doll" is a mystery originally published in 1947 and set in New York city. The story begins in the viewpoint of the victim. We get strong hints about who the murderer is, but the murderer is never identified. There were only about 6 to 8 real suspects, and the death was initially dismissed as a suicide. Then two old ladies come to visit their private detective friend, and they hear about the death from a rich lady who liked the shopgirl and is upset about the death. The girl had been excited about living at Hope House, so it made no sense that she'd commit suicide.

So the private investigator started to look into the death, and the two ladies somewhat bumblingly also investigated on their own. Soon, the private investigator was given official permission to question people and the police were also called in. At this point, it's a matter of questioning people and comparing their stories. Because we saw events from the viewpoint of the victim, I strongly suspected one character. Things happened that made me waver in my belief, but I kept coming back to that character and was correct in that guess. So whodunit is guessable, but not glaringly obvious.

The characters were interesting, but too many of them were viewpoint characters. The author just slipped from one character to the other, and this frequent change of viewpoint was sometimes confusing. There was occasional use of bad language. There was no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Scilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope House is a home for girls who don't have much money. They get a bed in a double room and two meals a day. The nominal head is Miss Brady, but Miss Small works for her and appears to have a lot of authority. Ruth Miller, a young woman who works at a department store called Blackmans, has applied to live at Hope House. She has a customer, Mrs Sutton who is very fond of Ruth. She is pleased to hear that Ruth has a nice place to stay.

When Ruth presents herself at Hope House she appears to be very happy. However, very shortly she suddenly appears afraid. Sure enough, she is found dead the next day, supposedly from having jumped out of the window. However, Mrs. Sutton doesn't believe she would have done that, and hires her detective friend, Mark, to look into it. He very soon realizes that she was murdered before she was thrown out of the window. He does a lot of investigating and gives information to Foy, the local policeman. He also finally finds out about where she came from and the person who was her enemy.

The book is very suspenseful as we near the end and Hope House is full of police closing in on the perpetrator who must be one of two people.

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Received a copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I wish I had liked this more than I had. When I saw the cover and the title, I was intrigued. And the synopsis sounded interesting.

This book fell pretty flat for me. The language felt dated for probably a good third or so of the book. Since this was published initially in the 1940’s, a chunk of it was bound to be dated.

The pacing felt off, as well, once the murder had happened and Ruth’s friend got involved. It felt like it was happening relatively quickly. It also didn’t seem right that certain people were involved in the investigation.

Once it came out who the murderer was, all I could think was, “Really? Them?”

I don’t have a ton of positives about the book. I like the cover quite a bit. And I was interested just enough to find out who the murderer was. I mostly just wanted to get to the end and find out who did it to be done with the book. But didn’t want to cheat and just go straight to the end. I’m glad that this wasn’t a book that I wanted to throw across the room because it was just so horrifically bad. It was a good one to waste time with if I had a few minutes to kill. (Pun not intended.)