The Undertaker's Widow by
Phillip M. Margolin
pbk out January 00
(Warner)
at £5.99
The undertaker is Lamar Hoyt. He inherited his father's funeral parlours and diversified and expanded into a business empire called Hoyt Industries. He is sixty-two when he is murdered. A man breaks into his house one night and shoots him, then his wife shoots the intruder. The ensuing police investigation throws doubt on the wife's account of what happened. She is the third Mrs Hoyt. Her two predecessors were both divorced in their mid thirties and she has now reached that age. Did she suspect that her husband had a mistress whom he planned to marry? Had she engaged a hit man to kill Hoyt and then killed the murderer? The police think she may have done and she is put on trial for murder.
The judge in charge of the case is Richard Quinn, a man well known for his probity and fairness. Quinn suspects that the wife, the undertaker's widow, Ellen Crease, may have been set up and throws out later police evidence which might have convicted her. The case is adjourned and Quinn is unknowingly drawn into the matter when an attempt is made to suborn and ruin him. He is mystified at this turn of events. Who can be responsible? It is surely not Crease. Can it be her political rival, Senator Benjamin Gage, a Republican like Crease herself, whom she is standing against for election to the Senate?
This is an engaging mystery and the reader is compelled to keep turning the page. He is concerned for Richard Quinn and the developing plot against him. Quinn is worried about his career and thinks he may have to resign. He is also worried about his wife who has been sucked into the case and turns against him. She thinks he has been unfaithful and it takes considerable effort on his part to reassure her. She is eventually won over to his side and they join forces. Two more murders follow the death of Hoyt and Quinn and his wife both find themselves facing death as the story moves inexorably to its climax. The hero and heroine invariably find themselves in such a plight in a mystery of this kind and unwittingly enter the lion's den. The confrontation that follows is handled convincingly. The author writes well. A good read.
The Undertaker's Widow by
Phillip M. Margolin