by A.A.FairMystery- Donald Lam & Bertha Cool
Previously (7th) in the series is Bats Fly at Dusk
by A.A.Fair
1943. Donald is still in the U.S. Navy, and never appears in this book at all. Bertha wants to be the simple detective she was before Donald started bringing in the big money, and complex problems. When Everett Belder asks her to shadow his wife she thinks she's found an easy case. However, the wife, who appears to have no idea she is being followed suddenly loses Bertha and disappears completely.
But of course, this is followed by the discovery of a body (not the wife), and a whole series of poison-pen letters, plots and counter plots by all the females surrounding Belder. And there are plenty even without his wife! His mother-in-law, his wife's adopted sister, her birth mother, the maid, his secretary, and his old flame. Bertha tries to ditch the whole lot of them as she gets in over her head, but loyalty to Donald's persistence draws her back. She gets in deeper and deeper till she is in danger of being held by Sargent Sellers as an accessory to murder. She does get cracked over the head while housebreaking!
If you pay attention to the clues you'll at least know when Bertha and/ or the police are heading down mistaken pathways.
A complete recap of the case is presented in a letter to Donald at the end, another variation of the "denoument in the parlor" style of mystery. And the high point of this letter is to tell Donald that Sellers has proposed marriage to Bertha! 240 p.
Next (9th) in the series is Give "Em the Ax
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