The Footsteps on the Stairs / The Troublemaker

by Jean Potts, Curtis Evans (Introduction)

THE FOOTSTEPS ON THE

When Enid Baxter runs into her old lover, Vic, she has a premonition that he is going to murder her. She shares this thought with her neighbor Martin but swears him to secrecy. So when Enid is found stabbed to death in her apartment, naturally Martin assumes the worst. But Martin has a haunting secret of his own. Back in his home town—though cleared of the crime--everyone assumes that he murdered his own wife by pushing her over a cliff. So he feels a certain bond with Vic. And besides, Vic has an alibi. He and his wife Thelma were in their own apartment when the murder occurred. But someone was heard running down the stairs that fateful day. Someone who either loved Enid too much to share her…or hated her enough to kill her.


THE

To some men, Lisa is a skinny little thing not worth a second look. But to Quentin, middle-aged college professor, she is enchanting. So he leaves his wife, and he and Lisa drive up the coast to Maine, where they find work at a summer seashore resort. Bax, who owns the resort with his wife Janet, is as enchanted by Lisa as Quentin. But Janet immediately pegs her as a troublemaker. It certainly isn’t Lisa’s fault that men are attracted to her. Before Quentin there had been Carlos, one of his students, who has fled his smothering mother and followed them to Maine. But perhaps Janet is right, perhaps Lisa is trouble, because one morning her body is found at the bottom of the sea cliff. The cops think it’s murder. Many men had loved her—but which one turned their love to murder?

232 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Jean Potts was born on November 17, 1910, in St. Paul, Nebraska. After she graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Potts became first a teacher and then a journalist, later moving to New York, which she fell in love with during a brief visit. It was there that Potts started her writing career, beginning with a mainstream novel Someone to Remember in 1943 and stories for magazines like Collier s, McCall s, Cosmopolitan and Redbook. After the success of her first mystery novel, Go, Lovely Rose (which won the Edgar Award in 1954), Potts concentrated on crime fiction, eventually writing fourteen mystery novels, translated into over seven languages. Though never made, The Evil Wish (an Edgar runner-up in 1963) was optioned for a film with Barbara Stanwyck and Sir Ralph Richardson. Potts died in New York City on November 10, 1999.

Reviews

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Troublemaker
1972
This was so good, I thought, starting out, but got a bit boring. Why does everything have to be so long?
Action happens on a cliff over the sea. This is set in Maine (where I was born and live).
The Troublemaker is a girl.

The Footsteps on the Stairs
1966
I loved the writing, the dialogue. I appreciated that it is a mystery about regular people, not professional crime fighters. I liked that there is a character named Rosemary. Just listing the positives.
Jean Potts wrote many mysteries. She lived from 1909 to 1999. I will definitely read more of her books.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my full review click on the links below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...

https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...