The Deadly Dove

by Rufus King

With greedy anticipation, Alan Admont listened to gangster Joe Inbrun plan murder. The Deadly Dove, a ruthless killer, would be hired. The Dove worked quietly and swiftly. The result would be a fatal accident or illness. Alan had just married wealthy and eccentric Christine Belder, who was old enough to be his mother. It was a pleasant setup for Alan -- until Joe Inbrun saw in it a way to collect an old debt. Then suddenly Christine cut Alan out of her will and Alan now had to try desperately to keep her alive. But the Dove was at work. Not even Joe could stop him. Alan waited in terror for the deadly blow that would leave him penniless when without warning murder struck in the Belder mansion. But the victim was not Christine...

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Rufus King was an American author of Whodunit crime novels. He created two series of detective stories: the first one with Reginald De Puyster, a sophisticated detective similar to Philo Vance, and the second one with his more famous character, the Lieutenant Valcour.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in 1945, this book reflects the ethos of those times - much different than today's. Set in the greater New York City area, Christine is the widow of a millionaire who has just married Alan Admont, a 25-year-old, who wanted to make it on Broadway by producing a play thereon. Unfortunately, the play bombed and closed after just one performance. However, to produce the play, he had borrowed $25,000 (worth a lot more in 1945 than in today's money thanks to the inflation of the past 80 yers) from Joe Inbrun, a gangster from the Prohibition era, who wants to recover his money. Joe meets with Alan and Joe sets up Christine to be assassinated by his hitman, known as the Dove. Joe has no problem with that, since he will come into Christine's money. Shortly afterward, he learns, that Christine has just met with her lawyer, Stuyvesant Swain, and Christine has just moved all her money and property into an annuity, which will pay out over her lifetime but then the insurance company which handles the annuity will get the rest. So, if the Dove murders Christine, Alan will be penniless. So, he has to stop the Dove somehow. And the story goes from there. There are a colorful cast of characters. Christine has invited three people to live with her in her Belder Tor mansion in the Catskills. Godfrey Lance, an aspiring painter who was also an excellent cook. Cordelia Banning, who shoplifted occasionally. The third was Hugo Winterstreet, a one-time doctor who got in trouble for something in his past involving a fatality, but Christine set him up with a lab so he could do experiments. He was also Christine's chauffeur. And then there was Lida Belder, Christine's niece, who has become engaged to marry Barry Vanbuskirk, the son of another wealthy family, but they have to be married real soon since Barry is to be inducted into the army the following Friday. Christine is quite happy with their marriage. But there was a lady from the past that had once live with Christine, named Laura Destin, who had made a threat of some kind to Christine after Christine had expelled her from Belder Tor. So, there are all kinds of convolutions that can happen as the plot develops. Eventually Sergeant Emmett Asher of the police comes to pay a visit.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kinda dumb.