Milton Morris Propper (1906-1962) was an American writer of early police procedurals, publishing 14 novels between 1929 and 1943, all with the same series character Tommy Rankin, a detective in the Philadelphia Homicide Bureau. He joined the Pennsylvania Bar the same year his first book was published and he was also a civil servant. For more about Propper, see a Curtis Evans article here: https://crimereads.com/milton-propper-scion-and-imitator-of-the-golden-age-mystery-pioneer-of-the-procedural/
One Murdered, Two Dead (Harper, 1936; Harrap, 1937) is a strongly plotted piece of crime fiction with some memorably distasteful characters. The local beat cop catches a burglar leaving the Emery estate early one morning; further investigation reveals that young Madeleine Emery has been stabbed to death. She was in the late stages of pregnancy, due to deliver any day. When she died, her baby did too, hence the title.
The burglar was the obvious suspect but when the weapon could not be found and there was some question about the time of death, Detective Tommy Rankin had to look further afield. Madeleine was the spoiled only child of a steel magnate; her marriage to Ralph Emery was known to be rocky. Emery was the obvious suspect in his wife’s murder, Tommy assumed that his wife’s fortune was left to him. However, Madeleine’s father was a shrewd man who distrusted both his daughter and her shiftless husband. He set up a tightly worded trust for Madeleine and her children that doled the money out a bit at a time and ensured Emery could not touch it. A disreputable cousin was the unexpected beneficiary to the trust after Madeleine’s death, so he received police scrutiny.
Madeleine and Ralph led largely separate lives and members of their circles in addition to the cousin were objects of suspicion. The doctor attending Madeleine was definitely shady, as was the nurse brought in to assist, and they both set Tommy’s alarm bells off after hearing from Madeleine’s maid who was fired just a few days previously.
A short way into the book I immediately assumed the husband was guilty but then when the conditions of the trust were revealed I changed my mind and then changed my mind again. Propper set up some excellent misdirection here. Alibis are established, destroyed, and then established again. The paternity of the unborn child is called into question, and Ralph’s friendships outside the marriage are demonstrably dubious. Several people would benefit by Madeleine’s death in imperceptible ways and it took all Tommy had to sort out the pieces and fit them together.
A surprisingly intricate and original plot that I found quite readable.