The Pattern

by Mignon G. Eberhart

The Pattern by Mignon G. Eberhart in Hardcover.

Genres: Mystery

174 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Mignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.

Reviews

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major characters:
Nan Bayne, our protagonist
Reginald Preedy, a lawyer, Nan's host
Maud Preedy, Reginald's wife
Olga, the Preedy maid
Alec, the Preedy boatman
Freida Tredinick, Nan's aunt
Ted Tredinick, Freida's nephew
Jerome Cable, Nan's former fiancé
Celia Cable, Jerome's wife
Marietta Beauparle, Celia's French maid
John McHenry, sheriff
Jacob Wait, detective on vacation

Locale: Tredinick Island and adjacent Haven Island, on a lake near Chicago

Synopsis: There are two adjacent islands on a lake, Tredinick Island and Haven Island. Tredinick Island is home to the Preedys and the Tredinicks. Haven Island is home to the Cables.

Nan Bayne, a niece to the Tredinicks, is visiting the island and staying with Reginald and Maud Preedy. This is her first return to the island in three years - since she had left when fiancé Jerome Cable suddenly dumped her and married Celia.

Jerome meets Nan on the beach and he explains that he still loves her, and that the broken engagement was the result of a deception by Celia. Jerome insists he will get a divorce in order to marry Nan. Celia refuses to give him the divorce, and mentions something vague about her "pattern". Nan goes to Haven Island that night to confront Celia about her deception but cannot find her. On her way back to Tredinick Island, her rowboat bumps into a drifting canoe. Later the canoe is found to contain the body of Celia, shot to death.

The authorities want to arrest Jerome. Meanwhile, Nan has several close encounters with black widow spiders, and since one is found in a closed jar, it appears someone is planting them near her.

Review: This has an interesting setup with two islands, and the body found in between. This has the usual Eberhart plot line of lovers wrongly accused. The setting is well done, with much activity occurring an night on the two islands - and in between.

The leave-me-alone-I'm-on-vacation detective, Jacob Wait, is just annoying. He lurks in the background for most of the book while people get his name wrong (Mr. Mate) and when finally he does speak up, he wants to hurry everyone and get it over with; sort of a gruff version of Carolyn Wells' Fleming Stone. He could have been dropped from the story and Sheriff John McHenry could have handled it on his own easily.

One aspect that was a bit jarring was the introduction of a new character, Frank Duro, near the end of the book. He is an essential part of the murder mystery and it seemed unfair to wait until the end to bring him in.

I thought here could be some loose ends but everything was tied up, including the spiders, the second light by the boathouse, and what the "pattern" is.

Overall, a great book to read in your lake cottage on a rainy weekend. Watch out for spiders.

[Michela Derry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is quite good but something is a little bit naive