Monday, February 04, 2013

The Cape Cod Mystery (1931)

The Cape Cod Mystery. Phoebe Atwood Taylor. 1931. Countryman Press. 190 pages.

"'Heat wave hits East,'" Betsey read. "'Prostration record of all time. Mercury soaring.' Well that's gone and torn our peaceful vacation, that has. By tonight we'll have a stack of telegrams a yard high from city-sizzling friends who want to get cooled off." I sighed a little. "I know," I said wearily. As a perennial and thoroughly experienced summer cottager on Cape Cod I sat back to await the inevitable deluge. 

 I really enjoyed Phoebe Atwood Taylor's The Cape Cod Mystery. This is the first Asey Mayo mystery. There are twenty-four in the series spanning twenty years. The Cape Cod Mystery is not narrated by Asey Mayo, in fact, Maso is not introduced until after the body has been discovered and an arrest has been made. It is narrated by Prudence Whitsby; she is a very charming narrator. The novel opens with Prudence and Betsey deciding to invite TWO guests to visit them in their summer cottage. They have received plenty of telegrams already. But. They eventually decide to invite two women who have not asked for an invitation. Betsey selects one guest, Dot, and Prudence selecting the second, Emma. Soon after their arrival, Prudence discovers a dead body. The victim is a writer, Dale Sanborn. He's just recently arrived and rented a cottage, very few people know that "a famous writer" is in their midst. But someone obviously knew where to find him and had reason enough to kill him...

Prudence and Asey Mayo have no idea who the real killer is. But both know beyond a doubt that it isn't the man arrested for the crime, Bill Porter. These two will have to do some detective work. The officials have stopped looking for the murderer since they're sure they've already arrested him... There are plenty of clues, plenty of suspects, plenty of details to try to make a logical narrative of the crime.

I loved so many things about this one! I would definitely recommend this author!

Read The Cape Cod Mystery
  • If you love vintage mysteries
  • If you enjoy mysteries, American mysteries 
© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you enjoyed "The Cape Cod Mystery." Personally, while I enjoyed this one, I think some of the later books in the series are better - Asey is better developed, there's more deliberate humor and some of the plots border on screwball comedy. Taylor really gave her readers the feeling of being on Cape Cod, too. There's a lot to like here!