1941, #3 Mr. & Mrs. North, Police Lt. Weigand, New York City;a rich-but-nice young woman who works as a volunteer social worker gets herself poisoned at a posh nightclub, and surprisingly a lot of people wanted her out of the way. Cosy genteel police procedural, four stars. Lois Winston was a nice young woman who wanted to Make A Difference in the world, and so she studied and worked voluntarily as a social worker for an upscale Foundation that placed foster children and adoptees. As the novel opens she is ruminating about a problem she's having at work and that she's going to have to tell someone in authority about it soon... A bit stagey for a beginning, perhaps, since it's quite obvious from the get-go that poor Lois is doomed, but it's very nicely done. In the short time she's "on stage" we come to like her rather well, and to appreciate the set-up. While out dancing with her almost-fiancé at a roofgarden that evening, she is poisoned, and there's a goodly supply of suspects with her at the club (each with several motives): her wastrel brother, brother's club-singer girlfriend, a man and wife who might be connected with one of her "cases", and her own boyfriend. Not to mention her family, staff, and friends at home or those at work - it's unclear for much of the novel what the time-frame is for the actual dosing of the poison, as it might have been a slow-acting one, and possibly was given to her earlier that day. Enter Lt. Bill Weigand, the nice, sharp, and rather funny policeman from the two earlier novels in the series, Pam and Jerry North, friends and amateur detectives (by necessity only...) ditto, and the lovely Dorian Hunt, friends with all three, but Bill would like to modify that designation somewhat. And Mullins, mustn't forget Weigand's devoted Sergeant Mullins - a stolid "foil" for Weigand's more practical brainwork, although he ain't no dope, just a bit slower, is all. As the clues unspool and the plot thickens, the Lockridges mix things up beautifully, so that while it's extremely convoluted, by the end it all makes good sense, plus they were thoughtful enough to add a last chapter in which the four friends sit and talk together over drinks to finish up the case, going over all the bits and pieces. They've done this in each novel so far. It's not as stagey as a "gather all the suspects" scene, and far more fun for the reader, at least for this reader. There's nothing particularly dirty or gritty here, all the folks are fairly well-to-do and some are downright rich, the only potential adoptee child we see is shown in only the best light all the time, well-cared for and loved. So it's a fairly pretty picture, well, except for the murders - yes, there is more than one. And a kidnaping, and blackmail, and legal chicanery, and... And it's all done beautifully and written smoothly. Love this series. BOTTOM LINE:Another excellent entry from the beginning of a very long "amateur detective" series, what would now-a-days be called "cosy" which, although it's long been remembered as such, isn't - this is a classic Police Procedural, 1940s style, and well-done too. Bill Weigand and his procedures as he works through clues and talks to people, is the center of the novel, as he was in the first two, not The Norths who do participate, but minimally. And that's fine with me - Bill is a wonderful character, not as sweet and "cute!" as Mrs. North sometimes seems to be (and that's rather misleading too...). But more to come in the future for me - next in the series is #4 DEATH ON THE AISLE, 1942, but my library doesn't have that one, so I'll next be reading #5 in this series DEATH TAKES A BOW, 1943.
