Charlotte Armstrong (1905-1969) was a U.S. author of novels, short stories, and plays. She also worked in the advertising section of the New York Times and as a fashion reporter. She’s most well known for domestic suspense novels, some of which were adapted for film. She received the 1957 Edgar Award for Best Novel for A Dram of Poison (Coward-McCann, 1956).
Her first book was one of three that she wrote about a retired college history professor turned private investigator named MacDougall Duff. Lay On, Mac Duff was published by Coward-McCann in 1942. The narrator is Bessie Gibbon, a 19-year-old recent orphan who goes to New York City to live with an uncle whom she had never met and knew little about. Bessie, the product of a Methodist minister’s home, was stunned by the large and lavish home of her uncle Charles Cathcart, whom she found in the midst of an acrimonious board game with three of his business colleagues and friends. They all played to win, insulting each other and gloating after a successful play. By the next morning one of the group was dead, stabbed in his apartment.
Since the murder was in the early hours of the morning, few of the men who last saw the victim could provide a solid alibi. The police interviewed neighbors and taxi drivers and any individual who might be able to validate the presence of the surviving game players in any place at a specific time. Fans of timetables and estimating durations of trips and clocks in convenient locations will relish the thoroughness of the police here.
An energetic reporter cornered the shocked Bessie and coaxed her into telling him everything she knew. He promised to bring in a friend who was good at solving mysteries. His friend of course was Mac Duff, who had quite accidentally fallen into a lucrative second career as a private investigator.
The so-so mystery competes with a prominent romance thread, which seems to be mandatory for many female mystery writers. The clues to the resolution of the murder aren’t well integrated into the story and the motivation isn’t clear until the end. Plotting takes practice. On the other hand, Armstrong demonstrated right away her ability to create suspense and to draw interesting and attractive characters.
A pleasant but not outstanding story. For readers of mid-century romantic suspense and anyone researching the development of Armstrong’s writing career or of domestic noir.