Cat’s Claw by Dolores Hitchens

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Rachel Murdock is an apple-cheeked, white-haired little old lady who lives with her prim sister Jennifer in Los Angeles. You’d think these elderly ladies would be quiet and staid, and in Miss Jennifer’s case you’d be right.  Miss Rachel, however, has become quite the fan of crime solving, much to her sister’s mortification. 

 

When a man is hit by a car nearby and the incident is not reported, Miss Rachel contacts the police—namely, her friend Lt. Mayhew—to investigate.  The people living in the rented house next door have vanished, leaving behind few clues except for the painting of a mountain in California marked San Cayetano.

 

Miss Rachel, being Miss Rachel, decides that she’s going to take a little vacation. 

 

In San Cayetano.

 

This is not a series to everyone’s taste, but I love it.  The books were written in the 1940s and 50s (this title came out in 1943) and haven’t been edited to suit modern tastes. Miss Jennifer turns positively pink at the mention of “petticoats” or (gasp!) any other undergarments. Samantha, the black cat of the title, has to be let out at intervals because the invention of cat litter is still a few years in the future. And despite the elderly protagonist, the crimes aren’t genteel at all.

 

Miss Rachel is a movie fan and, for me, the books read like one of those old black and white detective tales.  I can see Lt. Mayhew in his broad shouldered coat and the pale blonde of a woman’s hair.  Some of the scenes are theatrical indeed, and again I can see those play out as if in a movie.  World War II is firmly in the background, though there are mentions of men enlisting or going to work in war-related industries, which again reflects the escapism of the time.

 

For some readers, Miss Rachel is just a nosey old woman who ought to mind her own business.  I see Miss Rachel as someone who is determined to live life while she can and who enjoys the excitement. She’s also very independent, and while she gets herself into some scrapes, she also gets herself out of them.

 

The series doesn’t need to be read in order, but the first book is The Cat Saw Murder. There were twelve titles in the series, originally written under the more masculine  name D.B. Olsen, but which are now being reprinted under the author’s real name.

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.