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melissa_who_reads's review against another edition
3.0
A tricky mystery, where the obvious suspect turns out to be not-so-obvious, and the solution is a lot more complex than it looks like ... Lois Winston is poisoned as she is out for dinner and dancing with a man who wants to marry her: who did it, how did they do it, and why? And why does Mrs. North insist that an orphan child named Michael is the heart of the mystery?
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
5.0
"A pinch," Mrs. North told him. "Like a pinch of salt. Only in this case, a pinch of poison." (p. 60)
Lieutenant Bill Weigand starts out quite convinced that the murder in this case has nothing to do with Pam and Jerry North. That his friends won't need to be involved. That Sergeant Mullins won't have to worry about this being another "screwy" one. That Deputy Chief Inspector Artemus O'Malley won't think that his lieutenant is making things more complicated than they need to be. Unfortunately, he's wrong on all counts.
O'Malley glared at Weigand, and said that Weigand looked to him like turning out to be one of the bright boys. "Making things complicated," he said. "Not seeing the noses on their faces."
But the nose on the face this time looks a little too obvious to Weigand. Lois Winston, a young society girl with a conscience, had been volunteering with a children's placement foundation--and doing good work for them and showing a lot of interest in those involved. She also took an interest in her younger brother's (half-brother--as he's quick to point out) affairs. Maybe too much interest. Her decisions in both realms carry a lot of weight and could affect people--for the good, certainly, but some might label her interest as meddling and take offense. Somebody certainly took offense to something, because it looks like somebody took advantage of the time while Lois was dancing on the rooftop of the Ritz-Plaza to add a little something extra to her drink. A little something poisonous.
Little brother was on the rooftop too. And he just happened to wander over to Lois's table while she was dancing. Plenty of opportunity to drop a bit of atropine into her drink. There's the nose that O'Malley thinks is so huge on the face of murder. Except the autopsy can't pinpoint when the poison was administered. And the drinks (thoughtfully gathered up by a crime-enthusiast waiter) don't show any evidence of doctoring. So...how was Miss Wintson poisoned? And who did it?
The Lockridges sped a bit of time educating Weigand (and the reader) about the attributes of atropine. He learns that it doesn't take much (quantity-wise) and the killer could have carried it in a convenient little paper. He learns that it affects people differently and it make take affect in minutes or hours.
It wasn't satisfactory, Weigand decided. Lois might have got the poison before she left home; she might have got it at the restaurant table shortly before she collapsed.
But that's one of the advantages of poison. The killer doesn't necessarily have to be on the spot when death occurs. One can be elsewhere doing completely innocent things. The question Weigand must answer is: did this particular killer have to be on the spot? Was she or he one of the crowd up on the rooftop? Because Lois's little brother wasn't the only suspect hanging out at the restaurant--there are others just as much in the running. Not to mention folks at home who might have set her up with a deadly little drink before she left.
This is another very entertaining entry in the Lockridge series. And once again (just like my previous read, The Norths Meet Murder) Pam & Jerry North are more spectators than participants popping in and out throughout. They appear in fairly substantial bookend scenes--Weigand and his new girl Dorian are having dinner with the Norths when he gets the call in the opening. And Pam and Dorian play a vital role in the denouement with a final wrap-up scene following in the Norths' apartment. But this is ultimately Weigand's book--with helpful assists from Mullins and various supporting policemen. This story has the advantage over the first book because there is no racial commentary--earning this police procedural with a light touch the full ★★★★★ that I gave it when I first read it from the library over 20 years ago.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Lieutenant Bill Weigand starts out quite convinced that the murder in this case has nothing to do with Pam and Jerry North. That his friends won't need to be involved. That Sergeant Mullins won't have to worry about this being another "screwy" one. That Deputy Chief Inspector Artemus O'Malley won't think that his lieutenant is making things more complicated than they need to be. Unfortunately, he's wrong on all counts.
O'Malley glared at Weigand, and said that Weigand looked to him like turning out to be one of the bright boys. "Making things complicated," he said. "Not seeing the noses on their faces."
But the nose on the face this time looks a little too obvious to Weigand. Lois Winston, a young society girl with a conscience, had been volunteering with a children's placement foundation--and doing good work for them and showing a lot of interest in those involved. She also took an interest in her younger brother's (half-brother--as he's quick to point out) affairs. Maybe too much interest. Her decisions in both realms carry a lot of weight and could affect people--for the good, certainly, but some might label her interest as meddling and take offense. Somebody certainly took offense to something, because it looks like somebody took advantage of the time while Lois was dancing on the rooftop of the Ritz-Plaza to add a little something extra to her drink. A little something poisonous.
Little brother was on the rooftop too. And he just happened to wander over to Lois's table while she was dancing. Plenty of opportunity to drop a bit of atropine into her drink. There's the nose that O'Malley thinks is so huge on the face of murder. Except the autopsy can't pinpoint when the poison was administered. And the drinks (thoughtfully gathered up by a crime-enthusiast waiter) don't show any evidence of doctoring. So...how was Miss Wintson poisoned? And who did it?
The Lockridges sped a bit of time educating Weigand (and the reader) about the attributes of atropine. He learns that it doesn't take much (quantity-wise) and the killer could have carried it in a convenient little paper. He learns that it affects people differently and it make take affect in minutes or hours.
It wasn't satisfactory, Weigand decided. Lois might have got the poison before she left home; she might have got it at the restaurant table shortly before she collapsed.
But that's one of the advantages of poison. The killer doesn't necessarily have to be on the spot when death occurs. One can be elsewhere doing completely innocent things. The question Weigand must answer is: did this particular killer have to be on the spot? Was she or he one of the crowd up on the rooftop? Because Lois's little brother wasn't the only suspect hanging out at the restaurant--there are others just as much in the running. Not to mention folks at home who might have set her up with a deadly little drink before she left.
This is another very entertaining entry in the Lockridge series. And once again (just like my previous read, The Norths Meet Murder) Pam & Jerry North are more spectators than participants popping in and out throughout. They appear in fairly substantial bookend scenes--Weigand and his new girl Dorian are having dinner with the Norths when he gets the call in the opening. And Pam and Dorian play a vital role in the denouement with a final wrap-up scene following in the Norths' apartment. But this is ultimately Weigand's book--with helpful assists from Mullins and various supporting policemen. This story has the advantage over the first book because there is no racial commentary--earning this police procedural with a light touch the full ★★★★★ that I gave it when I first read it from the library over 20 years ago.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
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