I love mysteries that involve the performing arts. The dichotomy between the action on the stage and behind the scenes is fascinating. My favorite Ngaio Marsh books are those she set in her world of theatre. I was surprised to learn recently that Gore Vidal (1925-2012) dabbled in mysteries early in his career. The introduction to the Vintage Crime/Black Lizard edition of his first mystery Death in the Fifth Position (E. P. Dutton & Co., 1952; Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2011) explains how it all came about. One of Vidal’s early books shocked the daily reviewer of the New York Times, Mr. Orville Prescott, and Mr. Prescott declined to review Vidal’s subsequent books. Vidal published some ill-considered comments about reviewing and reviewers, and Mr. Prescott retaliated. Not only did he not review Vidal’s work, he persuaded other reviewers to pass them by as well, and Vidal’s career suffered accordingly. Mr. Victor Weybright (1903-1978), co-founder of the New American Library publishing firm as well as its Mentor and Signet imprints, recommended that Vidal turn to writing crime fiction under a pseudonym. Thus Edgar Box came into being, along with the fictional public relations consultant Peter Cutler Sargeant II, who serves as the protagonist in three mysteries published in the early 1950s. Judging by the number of editions I found when looking for cover art, the books were enthusiastically received by the reading public regardless of professional reviewer opinion.
In Death in the Fifth Position, the owner of the Grand Saint Petersburg Ballet Ivan Washburn hires Sargeant to deal with the negative publicity surrounding the ballet’s new choreographer Jed Wilbur, who some say is a Communist. During the early 1950s Red Scare, such an accusation signaled a career death knell and Washburn’s struggling troupe could not afford the trouble. Washburn invites Sargeant to attend the next rehearsal, where he meets the dancers and is immediately drawn into the alliances, rivalries, and quarrels of the group. In the midst of them was the company’s second ballerina Ella Sutton, whose quarrelsome disposition roiled the back stage atmosphere. Chief among her current complaints is the safety of a stunt required of her in Wilbur’s ballet which relied on a cable to lift her some 30 or 40 feet in the air. That night during the debut the cable supporting her broke and she crashed to the stage in full view of the audience.
The towline was new and deliberately severed almost completely, causing the fatal fall and thereby turning an accident into murder. Ella had so many ongoing clashes within the dance company that suspects were legion. The investigative challenge was to establish alibis in an environment where almost anyone could have cut the wires.
A highly readable traditional mystery rich with balletomane detail and full of snark. The thread about the predatory principal dancer is notably amusing. Students of the impact of the 1950s McCarthy era on the performing arts in the United States can gather some excellent period detail here. For fans of classic mysteries, especially for readers who enjoy mysteries involving the stage.