I knew Gwen Bristow (1903–1980) as an author of historical fiction. Her book about pioneers on the Santa Fe Trail called Jubilee Trail (1950) was on bestseller lists for months and was turned into a successful film of the same name. She also wrote a generational saga about two Louisiana families known as the Plantation Trilogy as well other novels and short pieces for women’s magazines. Before all that she wrote four mysteries with her journalist husband Bruce Manning (1902–1965). The first one, The Invisible Host (1930), was adapted into a Broadway play called The Ninth Guest in 1931 and a film (1934). The story resembles Christie’s Ten Little Indians (1939), although there’s no evidence Christie read the Bristow/Manning book or saw the movie.

The last of their mysteries takes place on an island resort a few miles away from New Orleans. Two & Two Make Twenty-Two (The Mystery League, 1932; Mysterious Press, 2022) takes its title from a saying by one of the main characters, meaning there’s more than one way to interpret evidence. Only a few years old, it was known for its luxurious accommodations, gambling, golf course, and other amenities likely to attract high flyers. The resort is largely deserted as the story opens, most of the guests fled to the mainland in the face of an approaching tropical storm. Remaining are Andrew Dillingham, who is part of a task force to determine how drugs are being smuggled into New Orleans. His colleagues Major Jack Raymond and Linton Barclay are convinced that one of the remaining guests is behind the drug ring. Andrew is not convinced.

The storm knocks out communications with the mainland, creating a perfect closed circle of suspects when a murder is discovered. An island instead of a country manor house and a tropical storm instead of a blizzard, an update to the classic English mystery. Resort owner Brett Allison interviews each person, trying to establish and verify alibis while waiting to be able to reach the police. As is often the case, this part is a little slow.

The ending has a couple of surprises including a facile but not all that credible resolution to one of the plot dilemmas but the reader is just expected to roll with it, so I did. Well written, some original characters along with some predictable ones, great description of the island and the storm. Worth a look by Golden Age fans.