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A review by saareman
The Cat Wears a Mask by Dolores Hitchens
3.0
A Poison Pen Murder
Review of the Mysterious Press/Open Media Kindle edition (October 11, 2022) of the Doubleday hardcover original (1949).
After exhausting Agatha Christie's Miss Marples, I find myself turning regularly to Dolores Hitchens' Rachel Murdock series for my lighter cozy mystery reads. Miss Rachel seems to be never aging in her early 70s and can be quite fearless and feisty. In The Cat Wears a Mask we also get a lengthy cameo appearance by disapproving older sister Miss Jennifer who is usually left at home when Rachel and her cat Samantha head out on yet another crime solving adventure.
Both Jennifer and Rachel (and of course Samantha) end up at the restored adobe ranch retreat in Arizona of Rachel's goddaughter Gail who is one of the victims of a poison pen campaign. Due to the insider knowledge of the poison pen, a limited group of suspects from college days are all gathered together at the ranch. But then the poison pen is murdered, a thunderstorm causes the roads to wash out and the survivors are stuck at the isolated location with a murderer in their midst.
Cover design of the original 1949 Doubleday edition when the book was published under the D.B. Olsen pseudonym. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Hitchens builds her story around the Hopi native culture with a visit to the local First Nation for their Snake Dance ritual. The Kachina dolls and masks of the Hopis also play a role in the proceedings. The isolated location of Gail's ranch and that she was an artist did make me think that Hitchens may have been inspired by stories of [a:Georgia O'Keeffe|140943|Georgia O'Keeffe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217443781p2/140943.jpg]'s Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.
The murderer's motive, methods and schemes seemed enormously elaborate for the given circumstances and did stretch believability. And no, Samantha the cat never gets to wear a mask. Also a half-point off for sloppy proofreading of the text scan for this eBook edition with several e's transcribed as c's, rn's transcribed as m's, etc. (you can see some random samples in my text highlights). Still a 3-star Like for me.
Review of the Mysterious Press/Open Media Kindle edition (October 11, 2022) of the Doubleday hardcover original (1949).
Obviously what was wrong with Rachel was that she had simply never grown up. To resist growing up through all those years, to refuse to take up knitting, to turn down the chance to be secretary for the Parchly Heights Methodist Ladies’ Aid, to read murder mysteries endlessly and go to see motion pictures named Corpses Don’t Like Candy or some such...
After exhausting Agatha Christie's Miss Marples, I find myself turning regularly to Dolores Hitchens' Rachel Murdock series for my lighter cozy mystery reads. Miss Rachel seems to be never aging in her early 70s and can be quite fearless and feisty. In The Cat Wears a Mask we also get a lengthy cameo appearance by disapproving older sister Miss Jennifer who is usually left at home when Rachel and her cat Samantha head out on yet another crime solving adventure.
Both Jennifer and Rachel (and of course Samantha) end up at the restored adobe ranch retreat in Arizona of Rachel's goddaughter Gail who is one of the victims of a poison pen campaign. Due to the insider knowledge of the poison pen, a limited group of suspects from college days are all gathered together at the ranch. But then the poison pen is murdered, a thunderstorm causes the roads to wash out and the survivors are stuck at the isolated location with a murderer in their midst.
Cover design of the original 1949 Doubleday edition when the book was published under the D.B. Olsen pseudonym. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Hitchens builds her story around the Hopi native culture with a visit to the local First Nation for their Snake Dance ritual. The Kachina dolls and masks of the Hopis also play a role in the proceedings. The isolated location of Gail's ranch and that she was an artist did make me think that Hitchens may have been inspired by stories of [a:Georgia O'Keeffe|140943|Georgia O'Keeffe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217443781p2/140943.jpg]'s Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.
The murderer's motive, methods and schemes seemed enormously elaborate for the given circumstances and did stretch believability. And no, Samantha the cat never gets to wear a mask. Also a half-point off for sloppy proofreading of the text scan for this eBook edition with several e's transcribed as c's, rn's transcribed as m's, etc. (you can see some random samples in my text highlights). Still a 3-star Like for me.