The Black Eye

During the waning months of World War II, sharp-tongued Eugenia Gates accepts Mary Fredon's invitation to borrow her apartment for an unexpected two-week vacation. Mary herself is away recuperating from her own unexpected development -- her colorless husband Homer apparently has skipped town with Betty, the wife next door who, unlike Mary, shares his interest in Egyptology. Unknown to Eugenia, the disconcerted Mary has also offered the use of the apartment to army sergeant Kendall Smith for his furlough. Eugenia wants to rest, the sergeant wants to party, and Lucy, the batty chaperone Mary sends when she realizes her mistake, is more interested in snooping than in keeping the sergeant from pursuing Eugenia. Other residents of the building join in their partying, including an undertaker only too eager to share the intimate details of his craft and the rakish husband of the straying spouse from next door, who seems more interested in locating a lost eye than in the whereabouts of his wife. Mary returns in time to see a murder committed and to express alarm at her guest's untidy ways, prompting Eugenia to offer a heartfelt soliloquy on the dangers of housework. Besides, why bother about dust and crumbs when bodies are being found under beds, nestled in armchairs, or tucked away in vegetable bins?

Crime and comedy abound in this reprint of sibling mystery mavens Constance and Gwenyth Little's 1945 The Black Cat, in which a cast of lunatic characters grapple with problems of murders and manners. Eugenia Gates (who's staying at her friend's apartment for what's supposed to be a relaxing mini-vacation) has to fend off the advances of an amorous sergeant, deal with a nosy chaperone and put up with oddball neighbors and a lot of partying and that's even before folks start turning up dead.

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