Helen Joan Hultman (1891-1985) taught high school English but she also wrote well-regarded mysteries. Her detectives included Tim Archer and Inspector Dan Bratton. The Golden Age of Detection wiki (http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930628/FrontPage) offers the following list of her works:
- Find the Woman (1929)
- Death at Windward Hill (1931)
- Murder in the French Room (1931)
- Murder Rings Twice (1944?) [WorldCat cites the publication date of this title as 1940.]
- Murder in Odd Sizes (Ready for Death) (1946) [WorldCat cites the publication date of Ready for Death as 1939. Murder in Odd Sizes is not listed.]
- Murder on Route 40 (1949) [WorldCat cites the publication date of this title as 1940.]
- This Murderous Shaft (1956) [WorldCat cites the publication date of this title as 1946.]
Coachwhip Publications has reprinted two of Hultman’s early mysteries. Its website says about Hultman:
“…. a Dayton, Ohio, native who graduated from Denison University and went on to teach English at Stivers High School in Dayton for thirty-five years. Her first mystery, Find the Woman, received the Doubleday-Doren prize for best mystery story sent in during the summer of 1928, and it was published in 1929. She noted that she wrote it while teaching full-time, and that when it was published, “They were loosening up old Victorian standards.” She wrote five more mysteries by 1955. Most of these were set in anonymous Ohio and West Virginia locations….”
Mr. John McGillvray of the Fairfax County library system found the following reference to Hultman in Dayton History Books Online, https://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/an_intimate_history_15.html:
“We have at least one Dayton writer whose writing falls behind the constant demand of the publisher and that is Helen Joan Hultman. A teacher by profession, Miss Hultman has fallen into the writing of clever detective stories. This is something like falling into a gold mine, for the public never gets enough of detective stories and the publishers in trying to supply that demand push Miss Hultman much beyond her capacity. Her ingenuity is marvelous. The reader never knows where the plot is taking him and not until the last page are all the murders cleared up and all the malefactors brought to judgment. She has chosen for her best title Find the Woman. If the book indicates anything it indicates that Miss Hultman better give up teaching and go to thriller-producing, for she does it unquestionably well and will always have both publishers and readers. She is also a frequent contributor to magazines, among them Modern Home Maker, Every Girls Magazine, the D. C. Cook publications, and the denominational journals of the Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran churches.”
The Dayton Journal Herald published her obituary in its June 5th, 1985 issue, page 15.
Murder in the French Room, Hultman’s third book, takes place in Line and Hollis, a high-end department store in an unnamed city near the Ohio-Indiana state line. Sales assistant Joyce Terry returned to her customer in the dressing room of the designer clothing section after an unavoidable delay, only to find her sprawled in a welter of blood. Horrified, Joyce alerted the store’s management hierarchy which led to the arrival of Detective Inspector Dan Bratton. The victim’s handbag was missing and identifying the victim became his priority after initial interviews.
Locating everyone who passed through the department during the relevant time on a busy shopping day seemed impossible but he tried. Determining who was where during the critical 20 minutes was challenging. A thoughtfully provided map nicely illustrates the floor layout and the scope of the problem.
Mystery aside, I was surprised how little information about clothing was given in this story, considering the setting. Tantalizing references to a Lanvin model, a blue dress with a bolero, a navy blue georgette, light gloves that matched shoes, a lady who shouldn’t wear green, but no details. Very disappointing, I was expecting more.
Bratton is a thorough and conscientious detective who left no stone unturned in his search for the killer. I am still trying to decide if enough clues were provided for the reader to arrive at the correct conclusion. A credible and readable police procedural that I could believe was written 20 years later than it was. How some authors achieve a sort of timelessness in their work and others are clearly tied to a specific period intrigues me. Hultman’s other titles are hard to find so I hope that Coachwhip can reprint more of them. Definitely worth a look.