Vintage Paperback Index, BGSU.

Edgar winner
Lawrence G. Blochman
from UC-Berkeley's
The Blue and Gold (1922)

As a fan of Dell mapbacks, I'm enjoying prowls through the 1940s-70s cover art in the Vintage Paperback Index at Bowling Green State University's Browne Popular Culture Library. Mystery authors represented include Lawrence Goldtree Blochman, Robert M. Coates, George Harmon Coxe, Mignon G. Eberhart, A. A. Fair (aka Erle Stanley Gardner), Leslie Ford, Brett Halliday, Dashiell Hammett, Geoffrey Homes, Baynard Kendrick, Helen McCloy, Zelda Popkin, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Rex Stout, and Phoebe Atwood Taylor. It's also not without its pleasant surprises such as the inclusion of Lloyd C. Douglas (The Robe, Magnificent Obsession) for Doctor Hudson's Secret Journal and C. W. Grafton (father of Sue) for The Rope Began to Hang the Butcher and The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope. In addition, there are items for western fans (The Law at Randado by Elmore Leonard) and sci-fi aficionados (Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher; Invasion from Mars ed. Orson Welles).

Foxwell on Zelda Popkin, Jewish Women's Archive.

Zelda Popkin, from
her autobiography
Open Every Door

For Women's History Month, the Jewish Women's Archive asked me to provide a post on mystery author Zelda Popkin (1898–1983) for its tumblr site Jewish Women Inspire. I've previously reviewed Popkin's Death Wears a White Gardenia (1938) and Murder in the Mist (1940) for Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books on The Bunburyist. Bosun Books has issued ebook editions of Death Wears a White Gardenia and Time Off for Murder; see also the Kirkus reviews of Popkin's So Much Blood (1944) and Dead Man's Gift (1941).

Fri Forgotten Bks: Murder in the Mist by Zelda Popkin (1940).

Zelda Popkin, from
her autobiography
Open Every Door
(1956)

 "A country inn is a percolator. News seeps, simmers, and bubbles."
—Zelda Popkin, Murder in the Mist 143

As May is Jewish American Heritage Month, I chose for this week's forgotten books Murder in the Mist by Zelda Popkin, daughter of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, who wrote in her autobiography, "I have found being a Jew attractive and interesting" (26).

New York department store detectives Mary Carner and Christopher Whittaker are on their honeymoon when they check into a Massachusetts tourist hotel and find the body of an artist's model. The model's small daughter insists a witch killed her mother; Mary is more interested in word of a spurned lover; a jealous wife; and a new, younger boyfriend. Surrounded by self-centered artists, oddball guests, and gossipy staff, Mary and Chris piece together the story of a sad life, with Mary stating "I see murder as a struggle for possession" (234).

Mary has no problem dressing down an incompetent chief of police but regards her own detecting talents modestly: "My severest critics tell me that I just sit and wait for clues to drop into my lap. They feel I should go chasing around like Perry Mason or pontificate about little gray cells like Monsieur Poirot. But I'm not a story-book detective. I'm a thief spotter" (232). The lively prose (Chris has a tendency to say "God damn" and provides a hilarious commentary on art appreciation in one scene), a well-constructed puzzle, and keen insight into character keep the reader turning the pages.

The remarkable Zelda Popkin (1898–1983) was the first female general assignment reporter for the Wilkes-Barre [PA] Times-Leader at age 16. She wrote a standalone, So Much Blood (1944), and five mysteries with Mary Carner: Death Wears a White Gardenia (1938), Time Off for Murder (1940), Murder in the Mist (1940), Dead Man's Gift (1941), and No Crime for a Lady (1942). Popkin's A Death of Innocence (1971) was adapted as a CBS TV movie in 1971 and starred Shelley Winters as the mother of a murder suspect. Her best-known books are probably The Journey Home (1945), about a serviceman returning from World War II, and Small Victory (1947), one of the earliest U.S. novels dealing with the Holocaust. She assisted in rescuing Jews from the Nazis, worked for the Red Cross in occupied Germany, witnessed the desperate plight of displaced persons, and reported that a food parcel was given to the wife of the ill dancer Nijinsky. Quiet Street (1951) reflects her visit to the strife-torn Holy Land where her sister lived.

Friday's Forgotten Books: Death Wears a White Gardenia by Zelda Popkin (1938).

"The trouble with this crime," Inspector Heinsheimer complained, "is that there are too damn many possibilities. We've already got two wronged women, a coke sniffing thief, a mysterious business associate, and there were half a hundred people around the store last night after your closing time whom we haven't even talked to." . . . He sighed heavily. "A department store's a hell of a place for a murder. . . . Now you find a feller done in in a saloon, and you know where you're at." — Zelda Popkin, Death Wears a White Gardenia 98

Today's selection for Patti Abbott's Forgotten Books series is Zelda Popkin's lively Death Wears a White Gardenia, in which department store detective Mary Carner hunts for the murderer of the store's credit manager, who has been quite busy with an extramarital affair and various blackmailing activities. The pretty Mary, who was hired because "she looked like a lady, rather than like a detective" and for her "clear and quick" mind (25, 26), ably navigates her way among pretentious store executives, impertinent elevator operators, put-upon female secretaries, stalwart policemen and store security personnel, shoplifters from all walks of life, salt-of-the-earth cleaning staff, and—best of all—a prototype of that unique character, the New York cabdriver. Intriguing chapter titles include "The Inspector Finds a Clue," "Who Is Lying?," and "The Blonde in the Case." This is one in the delightful Dell mapback series.

Journalist, author, and PR professional Zelda Popkin (1898–1983) wrote one standalone, So Much Blood (1944), and four mysteries with Mary Carner after Death Wears a White Gardenia: Time Off for Murder (1940), Murder in the Mist (1940), Dead Man's Gift (1941), and No Crime for a Lady (1942). Popkin's A Death of Innocence (1971) was adapted as a CBS TV movie in 1971 and starred Shelley Winters as the mother of a murder suspect. Her best-known books are probably The Journey Home (1945), about a serviceman returning from World War II, and Small Victory (1947), one of the earliest U.S. novels dealing with the Holocaust. For further details, see this Web site on her work developed by her grandson, University of Kentucky professor Jeremy Popkin, and her autobiography, Open Every Door (1956).