What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Murder Mystery-Hurricane
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Murder in Palmetto, Florida, 1952--a dank, sleepy spot on the Gulf of Mexico that's memorably evoked in this wry, lean, downbeat mystery debut. The first sign of trouble: somebody burns down the moonshine still belonging to the Calhoun clan. (The fire alarm comes in the midst of a "Womanless Wedding," a transvestite charity-show put on by the Palmetto Men's Lodge.) Then, soon after, Diana Landis--promiscuous daughter of the local Congressman--is found murdered. And though young religious fanatic Wesley is arrested for the crime (Diana did, after all, tempt him to the point of despair), general-store-owner Lily Trulock doesn't believe he's guilty. Lily, a quiet but tough matron who dislikes her daughter and doesn't think much of her sheriff son-in-law, sleuths a bit, learning that Diana had recently become attached to one particular lover. (The reader knows it was married moonshiner Bo Calhoun.) She trails a suspicious young man working with a rival moonshine gang--but he turns out to be an incognito revenue agent, Josh Burns, who'll become Lily's ally. And, as the moonshine-war escalates, there'll be a couple of gunpoint confrontations before Josh and Lily Unmask the (not-too-surprising) murderer. Sterling dialogue, drily comic atmosphere, but a pulse of grim reality too: Miss Marple meets Eudora Welty (with a trace of Erskine Caldwell), and the results are darkly, crisply disarming.
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Reliable sleight-of-hand for Asey Mayo's extrication from cod lines, square pudding, looting after the hurricane, and a run-around in the murder of the daughter of a man he once threatened. As popular suspect, Asey not only has to prove his own innocence but find the killer in spite of feminine and feline setbacks. Snap the whip foolery.
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After Henry Tibbett helps the police in their investigation of the disappearance of an old lady on a Caribbean island, he himself is kidnapped and his wife, Emmy, is left to unravel the mystery.
I didn't see yellow covers for any of these, at least for the English language editions.
None of those ring a bell. Thanks for trying.
Probably not your book, but for some reason your description made me think of Phoenix Island: A Tale of Disaster, Survival, and Rebirth by Charlotte Paul. I think it has a tsunami, not a hurricane though.
Lostshadows, do you think this was more of a cozy mystery or a more serious thriller mystery?
@Kim-There's no plot description, but way too recent.@Tab-I'd say not a cozy. I believe the main character was in serious danger at at least one point, which doesn't strike me as likely in a cozy.
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Phoenix Island try this link instead. the original one I posted was for the version I have on my Kindle. I didn't realize it didn't have a description or that it showed published in 2013. Original version of the book was published in the 70's I think.
@Kim- Definitely not. It seems a bit too post-apocalyptic to be my book.@Ann aka Iftcan- Not sure on the difference between cozy and serious then, but since I'm wondering if it might actually have been a thriller, rather than a mystery, I suspect its not a cozy.
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Agatha Christie aficionados will recognize Miss Marple's double in Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, Hart's 60-something sleuth. The setting is America rather than Miss Marple's sleepy English village, and Henrietta, a well-traveled retired journalist-turned-thriller-writer, is a perkier, more "with-it" version of Christie's heroine. But "Henrie O," as she's known to her friends, is every bit as adept at corraling criminals, unmasking murderers, and solving crimes as the intrepid Miss Marple. In this story, Henrie O is asked by her old friend and former flame Chase Prescott, now a wealthy media mogul, to discover who's out to kill him. He invites all the suspects to his isolated private island off the coast of South Carolina, and while hurricanes rage, people are electrocuted in hot tubs, and hidden assassins attack, Henrie does her darnedest to find the killer.
Lobstergirl wrote: "Just in case you have your year wrong - Dead Man's Island seems to be from 1993:"I'd remember if it was that late. I graduated HS in '93.
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Sounds like the heroine/secretary was trying to solve the murder. Or was she in danger because she witnessed it or overheard something?
Murder victim - gender, age, job, relationship to secretary, etc.?
Location - U.S./country, small town/big city, prairies/east coast/etc.?
I'm wondering if the keyword "hurricane" won't help if it only occurs at the end of the story...
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What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye (other topics)Angel Death (other topics)
Proof of the Pudding (other topics)
Police at the Funeral (other topics)
Phoenix Island (other topics)
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The only other thing I remember clearly was that the cover was mainly yellow. I'm fairly certain it also had disembodied drawings of heads with fairly old hairstyles, I'd guess 40's or 50's but I know jack about hairstyles, and I think a full body drawing of the victim.
I read it in the mid-80's, but it was a library book so it was probably much older.
Does this ring any bells to anyone?