Maude Louise Parker Pavenstedt (1892-1959) was born in Galveston, Texas, and attended the University of Wisconsin. She began writing early and documented her experience as the wife of the United States Ambassador to Italy during the years of political unrest before World War II. She wrote ten novels including six mysteries according to her New York Times obituary (November 13, 1959, p. 29) and seven mysteries according to Classic Crime Fiction, https://www.classiccrimefiction.com/maude-parker.htm, and Crime Fiction, https://embden11.home.xs4all.nl/Engels4/parkerm.htm. She also wrote short stories and articles for magazines.
Murder in Jackson Hole (Rinehart, 1955; Coachwhip Publications, 2021) was her fourth mystery and the last one that featured New York City lawyer Jim Little. It’s set at a dude ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where old sins cast long shadows with unexpected consequences. Brad and Mary Sloan, owners of the ranch, are going under. The only thing that will save them is the purchase of the ranch by Brad’s cousin’s wealthy fiancé, who is on his way with his daughter to stay at the ranch while looking over the potential investment. A former movie stuntman and B Western film actor with whom Brad has an unfortunate history shows up and begins to make trouble in every possible way. After convincing one teenage girl to elope with him, despite being still married, and terrifying the 10-year-old boy visiting the ranch with his uncle into nightmares and inveigling most of the adults to visit a sleazy gambling speakeasy, the rhinestone cowboy’s murder was only to be expected. The real killer was a surprise and the resolution for the Sloans’ financial woes was also unexpected.
Parker was well enough respected as an author for Kirkus to review her books, although the reviewer was lukewarm about this one. The Wyoming setting is gorgeous, the descriptions of clothing are intriguing, and the characters are mostly nice people, even though there are so many of them in a relatively short book that I sometimes had trouble keeping them straight. The plot leans into psychological analysis toward the end, and I would have been happier with a more straightforward answer. I am not sure what the purpose of bringing in her series character Jim Little was, when he had little to do and served mostly as a bystander and an occasional voice of reason. Overall, though, a good enough mystery with an exceptional setting and likable characters.
Obituary for Maude Parker from the New York Times, November 13, 1959, page 29