Vintage Golden Age Mystery
Scavenger Hunt Category: Written Document
Date Finished: April 24, 2017
TBR #32
Follow the Clues step #26: from 1956 to 1956

A portrait painter falls to his death from the window of his fourth-floor Greenwich Village apartment. A young woman staying in an apartment across the street happens to see the whole thing, including a shadowy figure in the apartment with the painter, indicating that this might not be suicide after all. At first no one believes her, but soon other attacks occur that indicate that a murder may be nearby.

This one is well written, but some of the coincidences are far fetched. The young woman, Sarah, seems to have run in the same circles as the painter, with her aunt having an old house in the Cape Cod-like area where the painter, his ex-wife, her close friends, other odd types, and the painter’s biographer, who she soon falls for, all congregate by chapter four. Inspector McKee shows up, far outside his jurisdiction, but the focus is still on Sarah and the danger she faces. At times suspenseful with an ominous feeling, yet she could have easily removed herself from the area and from danger.