Lester Dent (1904-1959) was a wildly successful pulp writer, writing 165 full-length stories between 1933 and 1949 about Doc Savage, a crime fighter who was intrigued by technology, as was Dent himself. In addition, he wrote nonfiction, novels, short stories, and scripts for radio and television. He used several pseudonyms, among them H. O. Cash, Cliff Howe, Kenneth Roberts, Kenneth Robeson, Tim Ryan, and Robert Wallace.
He wrote a couple of mysteries about Chance Molloy, owner of a commercial airline, set in the late 1940s. The second one was Lady to Kill (Doubleday, 1946), in which Julie Edwards, tired of her drab life in small town Missouri, takes a train to New York City to visit her friend Martha Baxter and to seek employment there. Martha works for Transfa Air Industries, from whom Chance Molloy has been attempting to purchase equipment. The transaction has stalled and Chance is on the same train to New York to discover the problem and correct it if possible. Also on the train is a hired killer with directions to see that Julie does not reach New York alive.
The reason unremarkable Julie has professional assassins following her and the reason Chance can’t seem to obtain the equipment he’s paid for are linked, although not obviously until well into the story. The plot is a product of the late 1940s economy and the post-war shortages of almost everything.
My attention was caught right away, as Dent makes clear from the first few pages something is wrong, even though Julie is oblivious. His extensive experience shows in the skillfully wrought suspense and build-up to the final confrontation. The very best part of the story to me is the description of the train: the people who run it and work on it; its erratic motions and how the staff adapt to them; the noises and what each of them means. To someone unfamiliar with passenger train travel, it’s fascinating. A good mid-century thriller.