The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

 

I have been delighted with the reissues of classic mysteries of late.  Both British and American authors have been represented.  Some are old favorites, like Ellery Queen, or some that I have heard of, such as Craig Rice; others are completely new to me.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most of them.  When The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens appeared, I just had to pick it up.

First published in 1939, the introduction tells us that this was a first in series book which may be the forerunner of the many cat inspired mysteries.  It also tells me a lot of other things, more about which later.

Miss Rachel Murdock lives with her sister Jennifer and a cat named Samantha.  When their niece Lily asks Miss Rachel to come and visit her for a few days, Miss Rachel is puzzled but complies.  She packs up the cat and heads to the rather run-down boarding house where Lily is staying.  It’s populated with a number of suspicious characters and Miss Rachel is definitely ill at ease.  She knows Lily is in some sort of trouble—Lily is often in some sort of trouble—but the girl is being evasive. She owes money, that’s for sure, but how much and to whom is the mystery.

Then Lily is brutally murdered in the same room where Miss Rachel is sitting.  And by brutally, I mean bludgeoned to death.  This isn’t a squeaky clean cozy where people determinedly died off in the margins, hiding some of the gory details, but neither is it glorified.  Part of the solution hinges on blood splatter, so it’s not gratuitous. Determined to find the murderer, Miss Rachel teams up with Detective Lieutenant Stephen Mayhew, who is more than a little dubious as to what help an elderly lady can offer. He’s soon to find out that she’ll be invaluable.

I was drawn straight into this mystery.  Part of it is that I grew up reading mysteries of that era: Rex Stout, Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, etc., so I’m familiar with the conventions.  There can be a bit of omniscient foreshadowing, there may be some stereotypes that are no longer politically correct, and so forth.  I’m not unduly bothered by them because I know they are a reflection of a particular time and place, though I will admit I was a tad nonplussed by Ellery Queen’s descriptions of his elderly and decrepit father, only to find out that Dad was younger than I am.  Mayhew is a bit of an intimidating cop, and some of the things he does certainly wouldn’t pass muster today.  Miss Rachel is no shrinking violet, nor doddering little old lady. She has no intention of being the next victim and no intention of letting Lily’s murderer get away.  Her niece may not have been the brightest or nicest person on the planet, but she didn’t deserve her violent ending.

In fact, I probably wouldn’t have noticed some of these things if the introduction by Joyce Carol Oates hadn’t pointed them out. I’m sorry to say that after reading the aforementioned introduction, I almost decided not to read the book.  One other of the classic reprints I did in fact decide not to read after the intro which, like this one, pointed out all the book’s shortcomings and made little mention of any redeeming qualities.

But I forged ahead despite all these warnings and found it was indeed an entertaining mystery.  It was like watching one of those old black and white mystery movies, the ones where you can judge a character by his or her clothes or by the clichés. 

This isn’t a mystery that will be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it. In fact, I’d like to read more by this author.