Book Review: Murder on Their Minds

Title: Murder on Their Minds

Author: George Harmon Coxe

Date: 1957

Publisher: Knopf

ISBN: none

Length: 215 pages

Quote: "He waited, wondering now just why she should come at all, for though he had known her for some time the relationship was tenuous and existed because of her husband, who had been a long-time friend of his before his death in an auto crash three months earlier."

Some of the murder mysteries of the 1950s were "hard-boiled," with detective heroes who detested, distrusted, and often ended up shooting women who were often guilty of killing the men they were ostensibly mourning. Compared with those dreary stories, Murder on Their Minds probably seemed an improvement; the amateur detective, full-time photographer Kent Murdock, ends up exonerating the young widow Rita Alderson, protecting her from the real murderer, and even admitting that now she can help him.

So who was murdered, who "dunnit," and why? No comment. If you like this kind of thing, read the novel and find out.

I'm not partial to novels aimed at "adults"--meaning rebellious teenagers--generally, whether they feature murder or adultery or both. (Was Rita technically guilty of adultery, in her fictional past? Read the novel and find out.) Novels about things that really interest adults, and novels that are frankly about kids, are more interesting. Novels with murder or adultery in them have to be awfully good to interest me. This one isn't and it didn't, but it seems to have satisfied many novel readers who are less particular, and if you like novels you may like it.

Murders: several, but no wallowing in onstage gore or cruelty.

Sex: yes, but all offstage and discreetly explained.

Naughty words: very few.

Psychological insight, moral wisdom, characterization, even sense of place: none. This is a novel for mystery fans whose interest is solely in guessing how the author set up the plot, more even than in whether or not the plot is plausible.

Does it keep mystery fans guessing long enough, not long enough, too long? I wouldn't know; I'm not mystery fan enough for it to have kept me interested. You might be.