The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer

 

First line:  Two little black penguins were the first to know the secret.

First published:  1931

The plot:  Hildegarde Withers, 39, pragmatic, no-nonsense, single teacher of third graders, teams up with New York City detective, Oscar Piper, to solve the murder of Gerald Lester, who she discovers floating, dead, in the penguin pool at the New York Aquarium. And playing detective is what she's always wanted to do.

"I can get a substitute for a few weeks," suggested Miss Withers eagerly. "I'm having the time of my life. ... That's why I came to New York ten years ago, instead of keeping on teaching school out in Iowa. I wanted a little excitement, though it's little enough I've got at Jefferson School. This is great fun, and better than any detective story I ever read....It's the ambition of my life to play detective."

 My thoughts:  This is not a mystery to be taken too seriously, but it is an entertaining step back in time. Oscar Piper and Hildegarde Withers are amusing characters. I enjoyed how they worked together to figure out the murder; their disagreements and arguments were equally amusing. Derbys and hat pins, the stock market crash, guesses and interrogations, all play a role in this fun 1930s mystery. I liked it, and wouldn't mind reading some of Palmer's other Hildegarde Withers mysteries. 

Happy Reading!

Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead

 "Murder as a puzzle."

Dr. Anselm Rees is a famous psychiatrist in 1903s London. He has three patients who are all famous, too, but only Rees knows their secrets. Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard is called in when Rees is found murdered in his study. The real puzzle is that all the windows and doors of Rees' study were locked from the inside. So, how did the murderer get in and back out again? Flint needs a little help with this one, so he calls in Joseph Spector, a retired magician, for his illusionist insights.

"When they'd first met a number of years before, Inspector Flint had viewed Spector with the guardedness he reserved for clever con men. After all, Spector was a famed devotee of the macabre and maintained one of the most comprehensive libraries on both crime and the supernatural. But it was this very 'otherness' surrounding Spector that made him a perfect foil in instances of impossible crime. The useful part about knowing a magician is learning how the tricks are done."

Locked room mysteries are always fun to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. In addition to the murder, there's also the theft of a painting to solve, and an interesting array of characters from a successful stage actress, to a writer, to Rees' own daughter, Lidia, and her wealthy fiancée. Spector was my favorite, of course. I loved the way he put the puzzle pieces together over the course of the investigation and then revealed the truth of it all at the end with a true magician's flourish. The narrative style and tone of this novel is very reminiscent of the best Golden Age mysteries, which I also like. All in all, this was a very fun mystery. 

Happy Reading!