Felicity Worthington Shaw (1916-1989) published some two dozen mysteries under the pseudonym Anne Morice between 1970 and 1988. Felicity came from the show business world and used the “write what you know” maxim when she created actress Teresa Crichton, the protagonist for most of her books. Teresa (Tessa) is married to Robin Price of the Scotland Yard Criminal Investigation Department, and their worlds intersect more often than one might reasonably expect.
Morice’s mysteries enjoyed consistent if modest success as updated interpretations of the traditional mystery and then promptly went out of print. Dean Street Press has rescued all of the Morice books from obscurity, issuing them in paperback and ebook with eye-catching covers reflecting the 1970s and 1980s and an introduction and afterword by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
The third book in the series Death of a Gay Dog (Macmillan London, 1971; Dean Street Press, 2021) finds Robin and Tessa inviting themselves to the home of Muriel Hankinson, a distant connection of Tessa’s who lives in luxurious indolence a few miles outside Brighton.
The companionship of Aunt Moo is not the object of the trip. Robin is looking into a number of art thefts in the neighborhood and he wants to do so undercover. He would like an unofficial reason to chat with Christabel Blake, the quondam model and mistress of the famous artist Daniel Mott, who bequeathed an enormous collection of his work to her upon his death. Despite the best efforts of collectors, museums, and galleries, she declined to sell or even show any of them but she remains in the midst of the art world and is likely to hear about paintings popping up where they shouldn’t be.
Sir Maddox Brand, one of the victims of the art thefts Robin is investigating, also lives in the village. Tessa and Robin meet them all at the home of the Harper Barringtons, where they have been invited for drinks and to see the amateur videos taken of the Barringtons’ latest cruise. The entire party is herded into a darkened room expressly set up for viewing movies and when the lights come on again, Brand is dead, his drink poisoned somehow in front of several people.
Everyone in the room is logically suspect. Brand was far too interested in the very young women of the village, including the Barringtons’ teenage daughter, and his dabbling in investment art raised questions in some corners. Of course the bottle of vodka he claimed for his own could have been poisoned before it was brought into the room, which expanded the pool of possibilities. Because of Robin’s knowledge of the players, Scotland Yard assigns him to support the local Superintendent Cole. Of course Tessa cannot resist poking around and putting herself in danger.
A classic amateur sleuth mystery. The characters are cleverly delineated and the dialog is often witty. The motive is nicely hidden until near the end, as is the killer. Fans of Ann Granger, Elizabeth J. Duncan, and M.C. Beaton will likely enjoy this series.
For another mystery with a similar plot about an artist’s model inheriting a collection of work after the artist’s death, see Dead Man’s Mistress by David Housewright (Minotaur, 2019).