4/6/20

The Corpse Who Had Too Many Friends (1953) by Hampton Stone

Aaron Marc Stein was an American journalist with a degree in archaeology from Princeton University, New Jersey, who became "a full-time fiction writer" with the publication of the first Inspector Schmidt mystery, Murder at the Piano (1935), which was followed by over a hundred detective novels – receiving the Grand Master Edgar in 1979 for his contributions "to the craft of mystery writing." These contributions consist of four, long-running series published under three different (pen) names. And the one with the most name recognition is probably "George Bagby."

I've been aware of Stein for years as one of those reliable, mid-list writers who once were "the backbone of publishing and public libraries." A writer who appeared to have been a cross between Anthony Abbot and Erle Stanley Gardner, but never came across one of his novels until recently. Honestly, Stein was much better than most mystery writers who have been branded second-stringers on this blog!

The Corpse Who Had Too Many Friends (1953), published as by "Hampton Stone," is the sixth, of eighteen, titles about the New York Assistant District Attorneys, Jeremiah X. Gibbon and Malcolm T. Macauley – usually their names are shortened to Gibby and Mac. Mac is the S.S. van Dine-style narrator of the series and is often assigned to Gibby to hold him "somewhere within the limits of legality and prudence" or "a cautious approach" is warranted in regard to some of "the town's more gilt-edged reputations." The murder of one of the vice-presidents of Fiveborough National Bank requires Mac's "special talent" in spades!

Fiveborough National Bank is a big, solid and respectable New York institution, firmly rooted in "the financial tradition of Alexander Hamilton," with branch banks all over New York City that all look like "a little neighborhood Sub-treasury."

Every year, the Bank Club throws an exclusive dinner party at the Butterfield Hotel. Only this time, the "three-star binge" spilled all over the fifth floor where the body of Homer G. Coleman is found in one of the rooms. Coleman had "died horribly" with a black canvas strap pulled tightly around his throat, but Gibby and Mac immediately smack headfirst into an enormous contradiction. The victim was universally loved. Everyone liked and respected the guy, which actually made for a nice change. Stein put it to good use in the last chapter.

There are, however, many more complications surrounding the murders including two burglaries with stolen keys, two (attempted) murders, three assaults with a candlestick and traces of blood of third, unknown victim. But the bulk of the story concerns the plot-threads centering on two of the suspects, Art Fuller and Miss Ross Salvaggi.

Art Fuller has served time in Sing Sing and is now out on parole, but tried to split when the police recognized him at the hotel and the story he gave them is shakey, to say the least, which is why they "fix him up with a tail" – who'll keep a close eye on him over the next twenty-four hours. Surprisingly, this plot-thread turned into a minor locked room mystery when Fuller left and returned to his home without being observed by his unshakable tail. The Corpse Who Had Too Many Friends is not listed in either Robert Adey's Locked Room Murders (1991) or Brian Skupin's Locked Room Murders: Supplement (2019) and had no idea the plot contained a small locked room puzzle. I honestly tried to take a break from the impossible crime tale, but they won't leave me alone! Miss Salvaggi, on the other hands, acts as a human roadblock and evidently knows more than she's willing to tell, but she eventually finds her match in the stubborn, outspoken Gibby. She didn't went down in the first couple of rounds and Gibby had to take a dirty, roundabout way to get his hands on the full story.

So these (side) problems cover a large swath of the story and this comes at the expense of, what should have been, the central plot-thread that was already scantily clued. That's a pity because the identity of the murderer, along with the motive, were interesting and made the murder of Coleman a genuine tragedy. More importantly, it gave the story an ending you don't often see in these classic detective stories as everyone turned on the murderer the moment this person was revealed. Gibby has to tell the victim's friends they have to save the murderer for a jury followed by some banter ("Where do you go to find the peers of a thing like that? What are you going to use for a jury, bedbugs?").

The Corpse Who Had Too Many Friends is an engagingly written, busily plotted detective story with a fun detective who's not above a little housebreaking or playing dirty, but Stein lacked the coincidence in the main plot-thread, covered it up with extraneous story-lines and went light on clueing – dragging down an otherwise excellent detective novel to the second ranks. Still a good, entertaining read with some good ideas and I'll definitely return to Stein in the future. I want to try one of his detective novels about his archaeologist sleuths, Tim Mulligan and Elsie Mae Hunt.

A note for the curious: Mercury Publications edition had a $1000 cash prize for "the best new title submitted for this novel by September 28, 1954," but The Corpse Who Had Too Many Friends has never appeared under any other title. So, whoever won the contest, the winning title was not used.

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