Ruth Otis Sawtell Wallis (1895-1978) was a physical anthropologist with advanced degrees who contributed significantly to her field, publishing multiple books and articles. During the war and just after, from 1943 to 1950, she also produced five detective novels. Her obituary in The New York Times said that the first one, Too Many Bones (Dodd Mead, 1943), won the Red Badge Mystery prize from Dodd Mead Publishers and was described as a “first-rate mystery story” in The New York Times Book Review. Stark House Press recently re-issued the first four, two each in two trade paperback volumes. The fifth one is harder to find. No reprints according to WorldCat, and it even seems to have been forgotten by some bibliographers.

I was lucky enough to find the first, and only, edition of Forget My Fate (Dodd Mead, 1950) in a nice hardbound copy with dust jacket, pictured. I am adding Wallis to my list of authors who I wish left a cache of as-yet undiscovered manuscripts. It’s a fine mystery that slowly builds tension across a few days at a fishing resort on the eastern edge of Minnesota near Lake Superior. Wallis’s ability to create a sense of place is marked; her descriptions of the region are vivid, no doubt based on the years that she lived there.

Eric Lund is undercover in his role of FBI agent seeking the identity of an individual who is attempting to blackmail a U.S. senator. The senator is of the publish and be damned mindset and has turned the matter over to law enforcement. The agency has collected enough information to believe that the culprit is meeting a colleague at this out-of-the-way resort, so Lund registers as a sportsman looking for a good fishing spot.

The resort is owned and run by an older couple, she’s highly competent, he’s in a world of his own. Their sole staff is a young man who cuts wood and carries luggage. The visitors are few, considering the time of year: three men alone, including Lund; a young woman who seems out of place; and a fuzzy-minded middle-aged woman who says she is looking for adventure. Lund views any of them as potential blackmailers; he settles back to watch and to fish while he watches. Within a day or so, things begin to happen.

This is a finely written mystery with credible characterization, atmospheric setting, and a strong plot. I can only hope it will be reprinted soon to allow a wider audience to enjoy it.