A Southern California university and its vicinity are in a grip of terror, as young women are being stalked and murdered by the serial killer known only as Black Overcoat – due to the fact that they wear a… well, you work it out. When Garnet Dillon, the beautiful secretary to the dean of the medical school, collapses in a diner, and a man in a BLACK OVERCOAT steals her purse, it seems that the killer has struck again.
Or has he? As Police Detective Richard Tuck begins to investigate, he becomes convinced that someone other than Black Overcoat is involved. There was far more to Garnet than met the eye, and everyone in her small circle of friends from the medical school seems to know something about her that the others don’t. As both Tuck and Garnet’s replacement, Kate Farr, begin to look into the death, it seems that things are far more complex than a random serial killer…
Book Club time again, and you know what that usually means! But for possibly the first time ever, we managed to pick a book that we all agreed on.
Actually, that’s not quite true, we’ve all agreed on a book being rubbish a couple of times, but this might be the first time that we’ve all agreed on a book being very good. And it is a very good read indeed.
You may not be aware of Lange Lewis (Jane de Lange Lewis Brandt) – I certainly wasn’t – but she wrote five books, four between 1942 and 1945 and one in 1952. Some of them are available as vaguely dodgy looking ebooks, and American Mystery Classics has reissued The Birthday Murder. I’m rather hopeful to get a hold of these as Murder Among Friends is rather wonderful.
There’s a good selection of well-constructed characters. At first, I found them to be a little too defined by odd quirks, but soon they became well-rounded characters, none of whom seemed to be capable of murder. But that would be nothing without a well-constructed plot and this has that too. And even better than that, a resolution that will have you pondering well after you’ve put the book down.
I’m not going to say much more about this one, but I heartily recommend it any fond of a mystery novel with a little something extra. A really pleasant surprise.
No idea what’s going on with that cover though, nothing like it happens in the book…
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
We all liked Swan Song and Three-Act Tragedy, and of course the cognoscenti among us ADORED Jumping Jenny!!
I assume the book you read came from Wildside Press, which carries all the titles except TBM (available through AMC). Two of the books have the Dell Mapback covers, which are very nice and actually relate to the stories inside!
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I think you’ve misused the word “cognoscenti” there, Brad. And iirc, Kate was less impressed with Tragedy.
My book was indeed from Wildside – well, ebook anyway – but there’s no sign of Juliet Dies Twice on Amazon
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Maybe we only have it in the colonies.
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There is a small factual error in the opening sentence: the campus is located in in Southern California, not South Carolina. I am happy that you and the other members of the reading group enjoyed the book. I did as well.
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Oops. I’ll sort that, thanks.
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What an excellent read this was. I judge GAD books on their setting, puzzle/plot, characters, and narrative structure. So few detective novels get all four right, but this one does … especially its vivid, memorable characters. This isn’t fair play as the motive for the death of Garnet Dillon is only revealed at the end, but this book hooked me immediately and I had trouble putting it down.
While I enjoyed Lewis’, “The Birthday Murder”, this one is even better and it will be a book that stays with me a long while. Thanks for recommending it.
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