Spine title of Tied for Murder (1943), Lippincott U.S. edition Musing over which title to choose for this month’s Crimes of the Century community review event, there seemed to be one irresistible criterion. As the chosen year of publication at Past Offences this month is 1943, I searched for a crime novel that was set during that turbulent and uncertain time of global war, and found Tied for Murder by Cortland Fitzsimmons, an American author and screenwriter whose mystery stories sometimes used sporting events as backdrops: 70,000 Witnesses: A Football Mystery (1932), Death on the Diamond: A Baseball Mystery (1934), Crimson Ice: A Hockey Mystery (1935).
Tied for Murder finds psychologist and suspect Percy Peacock investigating the rather gruesome death of a heartless lothario named Christopher Smaed in a school building where a first-aid class practices how to care for air raid victims. Christopher is chosen as a test subject, and he is placed onto a stretcher by, ironically, his estranged wife Gloria and a frustrated ex-girlfriend, Ruth Teale.
Tied for Murder finds psychologist and suspect Percy Peacock investigating the rather gruesome death of a heartless lothario named Christopher Smaed in a school building where a first-aid class practices how to care for air raid victims. Christopher is chosen as a test subject, and he is placed onto a stretcher by, ironically, his estranged wife Gloria and a frustrated ex-girlfriend, Ruth Teale.
Ruth ties Christopher’s hands tightly on Gloria’s suggestion, and the group takes the man to a new room. But the lights go out – a blackout has been announced – and in the ensuing darkness and confusion the young man on the stretcher is forgotten about. But at least one person still remembers, because Percy soon makes a bloody discovery: he finds Christopher Smaed with his hands still bound and his throat cut.
Fitzsimmons does an admirable job building a list of suspects, each with a recognizable motive for revenge, ranging from jealousy to humiliation to blackmail to financial ruin. Added to the cast of characters are a flighty co-ed named Fanny, whom Percy nicknames Gracie, after comic radio personality Allen; Claude and Nancy Stevens, a rather unlikeable husband and wife with obviously something to hide and argue about; and Fred Hewing, whose fall at the top of a staircase during the blackout (was he tripped to create a distraction?) led to a cut on his hand. A police detective named Trenton clearly has Gloria Smaed in his sights as the murderer, so it is up to Percy and an affable deputy named Bill Dunning to prove her innocence and find the real culprit.
For me, the book (and my reaction) was a curious affair of the selected and the neglected regarding details and tonal choices. It starts with the intriguing murder-during-a-blackout premise, but after the stage is darkened for murder there is apparently no more need for references, so the author never alludes to life during wartime after Chapter Three. I had expected at least passing references to gas rationing or rubber shortages or further air raid concerns in the coastal California town, but the blackout and the first-aid training are the only details specific to the time.
Next, there was an intriguing but odd fusion of English cosy and American hard-boiled that did not quite succeed. Part of this is due to the reaction of everyone involved, who seem to take events following the initial murder – like two sprays of bullets into two different houses, the explosion of a runaway laundry truck, more fire in a backyard, and the discovery of another body – with a surprisingly calm resignation. For a tale whose amateur detective is a psychologist, I would expect the hapless citizens to show at least a few signs of inner stress and tension.
Fitzsimmons does an admirable job building a list of suspects, each with a recognizable motive for revenge, ranging from jealousy to humiliation to blackmail to financial ruin. Added to the cast of characters are a flighty co-ed named Fanny, whom Percy nicknames Gracie, after comic radio personality Allen; Claude and Nancy Stevens, a rather unlikeable husband and wife with obviously something to hide and argue about; and Fred Hewing, whose fall at the top of a staircase during the blackout (was he tripped to create a distraction?) led to a cut on his hand. A police detective named Trenton clearly has Gloria Smaed in his sights as the murderer, so it is up to Percy and an affable deputy named Bill Dunning to prove her innocence and find the real culprit.
For me, the book (and my reaction) was a curious affair of the selected and the neglected regarding details and tonal choices. It starts with the intriguing murder-during-a-blackout premise, but after the stage is darkened for murder there is apparently no more need for references, so the author never alludes to life during wartime after Chapter Three. I had expected at least passing references to gas rationing or rubber shortages or further air raid concerns in the coastal California town, but the blackout and the first-aid training are the only details specific to the time.
Next, there was an intriguing but odd fusion of English cosy and American hard-boiled that did not quite succeed. Part of this is due to the reaction of everyone involved, who seem to take events following the initial murder – like two sprays of bullets into two different houses, the explosion of a runaway laundry truck, more fire in a backyard, and the discovery of another body – with a surprisingly calm resignation. For a tale whose amateur detective is a psychologist, I would expect the hapless citizens to show at least a few signs of inner stress and tension.
It is a similar binary of strong and weak, of engaging and disconnecting that ultimately makes me indifferent to reading other works by Cortland Fitzsimmons. Tied for Murder is well-plotted and well-populated, and upon reaching the final chapter I recognized that it was a worthwhile fair-play entry of the genre. But it also felt disposable, with no distinct style or authorial perspective, the way many 1930s or '40s Hollywood B-pictures do. It’s by no means a waste of time to experience, but there’s precious little to put it in the ranks of the best stories from the era. The characters are a bit too flat and forgettable, the scenario not worth much beyond its initial novelty. To me, Tied for Murder is a serviceable and readable mystery story, nothing more or less, and sometimes a competent diversion is all that is needed to take one’s mind off the troubling skies.
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