The backs of dust jackets on older books are often filled with blurbs about the book in hand or the author’s earlier works but sometimes, especially the dust jackets of first editions or debut works, advertise the publisher’s other authors in that genre. It’s a great way to learn about less well known writers. Pauline Glen Winslow is an excellent example. She was mentioned on the back of Notice of Death by John Penn, along with other authors I recognized.
Winslow has written mysteries, Regency romance, and speculative historical fiction. Her half-dozen mysteries all feature Superintendent Merle Capricorn of Scotland Yard. Capricorn was born Merlin Capricornus, the son of The Great Capricornus, a vaudeville magician. His mother Jane who died young was part of another vaudeville family. Merle was raised to follow in his father’s footsteps but somewhere he veered away into law enforcement as a career.
In Copper Gold (St. Martin’s Press, 1978) both Merle’s parents are gone but he is connected to his mother’s sisters who remain in show business as The Magic Merlinos. The aunts are some of the best parts of the book. Boisterous and always seeking to poke fun at their stuffed-shirt nephew. They are outrageous and very funny.
Capricorn’s younger colleague Inspector Copper has taken up with a flashy young woman named Joss Parker who has climbed the night club ladder to ownership of her own very successful place. Both she and Copper are conspicuous in their spending, unwise on the inspector’s part whose supervisors are suspicious of the company he keeps. Capricorn likes and values the younger detective but is unable to keep him out of trouble when first the businessman with Mafia ties who financed Parker’s night club dies suddenly in the club and days later Parker herself is found in a welter of blood. Copper is promptly arrested for murder, leaving Capricorn trying to find the true culprit.
Supplemental threads incorporate gold coin counterfeiting into the plot as well as an organized crime kingpin who works in the shadows behind the thugs he employs. At one point one of Capricorn’s aunts is implicated in the murders, leaving him torn between reporting a family member or letting someone innocent hang.
Capricorn is overly given to introspection on the page, which makes the book far too long. Although he does have a lot to think about. Otherwise, the plot is unusual and the characters are fascinating. The actual killer is brilliantly hidden. This is one of the later books in the series, perhaps the first one explains just how the Superintendent transitioned from the stage to the station house. An interesting read for fans of police procedurals and British detective series.