Frances Davis Lockridge (1896-1963) and Richard Lockridge (1899-1982) were journalists known mostly for their Mr. and Mrs. North mysteries. The 26 novels about the Norths spun off a Broadway play, a motion picture, and several radio and television series. The characters originated in 1930s vignettes written by Richard Lockridge, and he used them in short stories in The New Yorker. These stories form an anthology called Mr. and Mrs. North (Stokes, 1936).
In addition to the books about the Norths and Lt. Bill Weigand of the New York City police, the Lockridges also created mysteries with Inspector M. L. Heimrich of the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification, stationed in upstate New York.
Between 1957 and 1965 13 short stories about the Norths and Inspector Heimrich were published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Eight of those stories were first published in This Week magazine between 1955 and 1958.
This Week was a nationally syndicated weekly magazine that was included in many American Sunday newspapers between 1935 and 1969. At the height of its popularity it was seen in 42 newspapers including the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Herald. It included fiction by some of the best-known authors of the time: Erle Stanley Gardner, Sax Rohmer, P. G. Wodehouse, Pearl Buck, and Bruce Catton. It also ran articles on national affairs from such luminaries as former president Herbert Hoover, Adlai Stevenson, and Nelson Rockefeller.
Crippen & Landru has collected these Lockridge short stories into a single volume titled Flair for Murder (2024). Only one features the Norths; Pam and Jerry attend a gathering of Pam’s old high school friends, where someone remembers their high school days far too well. The other 12 all showcase Inspector M. L. Heimrich and life in Westchester County, New York. Charles Forniss and Ray Crowley, Heimrich’s colleagues, make appearances, and I was delighted to see Professor Emeritus Walter Brinkley again. Professor Brinkley is an expert on local pronunciations and is writing what he modestly calls a note on American regional accents. The full-length novel Accent on Murder (Lippincott, 1958) explores the professor’s expertise in this area more fully.
Most of the plots in the Heimrich stories depend on knowledge of country life, poison ivy, water pumps, winter temperatures in unheated old houses, and such, but one involves the properties of automobile power steering coming into vogue in the late 1950s. All of them demonstrate Heimrich’s patience, thoroughness, and investigative abilities. A helpful introduction by Jeffrey Marks, publisher of Crippen & Landru, provides context for the stories.
Short mystery fiction readers will enjoy this compilation as will fans of police procedurals. Collectors of the Inspector’s longer adventures will want to add this volume to their personal libraries. Available in hardcover and trade paperback from the publisher and in trade paperback and ebook from the usual commercial sources.
I am glad you reviewed this book. I have planned to buy it anyway, but I thought it was a book of stories featuring Pam and Jerry North. Now that I know that it is mostly Inspector Heimrich stories, I am even more eager to read the stories. I need to go back and read more of the Inspector Heimrich series.
TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery
I was surprised to see they are mostly Heimrich stories. I knew there were many pieces of short fiction about the Norths but had no idea that the inspector had featured in so many short stories. There are 12 I think, apparently all that were written about him.