Murder Needs a Name / Murder Needs a Face - Softcover

Ruth Fenisong (Introduction By Curtis Evans)

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798886010589

Publisher: Stark House Press, 2023

Synopsis

MURDER NEEDS A NAME: The radio show has ended for the day, and the actors and writers are out for dinner, including their sponsor, Abner Ridenour. After the dinner breaks up, Jane and Abner announce their intention of eloping, so Catherine offers them her cottage for their honeymoon. Which doesn’t sit well with Daudette, who still holds a torch for Abner. Or young John Severence, their announcer, who feels the same way about Jane. That night, Jane disappears. And the next day, Daudette is found murdered. Lt. Gridley Nelson has a large cast of suspects for the latter, and a nagging suspicion that the two crimes are somehow connected. But who is this Daudette, she of the phony French accent… and what has happened to Jane? MURDER NEEDS A FACE: An unidentified man is found dead in the Greenhedge courtyard, killed by a blow to the head from a bottle. Franca is wracked with guilt because that night she had thrown a milk bottle out of the window to chase away a yowling cat. But Lt. Gridley Nelson figures that this is a case of murder. The group of apartment dwellers are a close-knit group, however, and try to block his attempt to get a straight answer, much less the name of the victim. The reticent renters include the Murtees―a browbeat husband and his raucous wife. The Coopers―a blind father and his over-protective nightclub singing daughter. Mr. Curtis, the love-sick manager. And a rather seedy couple, Vinnie & Myrtle Booth. Someone here knows something about the mysterious body, but this group would rather die than talk.

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Fenisong was born Ruth Feinsong on April 29, 1904 in New York City, the child of Jewish immigrants. During the Thirties she was employed by the Federal Theater Project, writing and staging plays, often with a Leftist slant. Fenisong began her mystery career during World War II with Murder Needs a Name, featuring Lieutenant Gridley Nelson, the Princeton-educated son of an upscale family who decides he wants to be a cop. Nelson was the hero of thirteen mysteries by Fenisong, written between 1942 and 1962. New York Times critic Anthony Boucher frequently praised her novels, singling Nelson out as a “quietly perceptive detective.” Fenisong lived for years in Greenwich Village with her life partner Kathleen Gallagher, an English teacher from Ireland, often traveling to Europe together and other locales together. Fenisong died in September 1978 in New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stark House Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798886010589
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 342