Death Below the Dam (1936) by Esther Fonseca

Not much is known today of Esther Haven Fonseca, except for scraps and pieces of bio-and bibliographical information, but, what can be said for sure, is that she studied journalism and wrote three, now long out-of-print, detective novels – published between 1936 and 1939. Fonseca's first two novels, Death Below the Dam (1936) and The Thirteenth Bed in the Ballroom (1937), seem to have been relatively well received with the latter even being optioned for a movie adaptation. The third novel, The Affair at the Grotto (1939), looks to be her most obscure mystery. All I have been able to find is that it takes place at some luxurious health resort.

There are two obvious reason for Fonseca's obscurity: she only wrote three novels that are also standalone mysteries. It's an unfortunate fact that mystery writers without a series character tend to fall into obscurity more easily, regardless of quality (e.g. Max Murray). On the other hand, it's probably also the reason why Death Below the Dam is the least obscure, relatively speaking, of the three. There are still used, if somewhat expensive, copies for sale online and an audio edition is available through LibriVox. Why it weathered the sands of time better than Fonseca's two succeeding novels has all to do with how it combined the 1930s whodunit with the disaster thriller ("a breaking dam... raging flood waters... an isolated island... and a murderer at large").

Fonseca's Death Below the Dam takes place on Winnatchee Island, in the middle of Beaver River, connected to the mainland and nearby city by two bridges – on the east and west side of the island. There are several dams protecting the island from excessive flooding. So the island has been the home of two families, the Murrays and Pierdecks. Murrays own nearly the entire lower half of the island, live in a huge colonial house and have two children, Wanda and Hamilton. A writer and friend/love interest of Wanda, Peter Kerrigan, currently occupies a cottage to work on his book. So the upper half is the domain of Mr. and Mrs. Pierdeck. They have three children and a stepdaughter. There's the eldest daughter, Marie, who's married Jim Sears, their youngest daughter, Alice, and only son, Andy. Antonia, a young divorcée, is the Pierdeck's unhappy stepdaughter who returned to the island when her marriage ended much to the horror of her mother ("you know how old-fashioned Mother is"). Lastly, young Sidney Brown, a school friend of Alice, who comes to regret accepting the invitation to the dinner party.

Murrays and Pierdecks have not always been perfect neighbors over the years, "disputes about the use of the east driveway and about a clump of blue spruce," even a thwarted elopement between Antonia and Hamilton. Nothing serious enough for the Murrays to turn down an invitation to a dinner party at the Pierdecks, but the dinner party is interrupted by the worst storm the island has seen in decades. A freak storm that first took down the bridges and then all the electricity, gas, water and communications lines partially flooded the island ("the island was now completely isolated from the city that had seemed so close only that afternoon"). And then they hear an earth shattering roar coming from up river ("the dam!"). During the deluge, they hear the crack of a gunshot. One of them goes missing with a thorough search of the island turning up a body with a bullet hole in the back of the head. So both parties find themselves marooned at home with a dead body, an unknown murderer and the possibility of a stowaway on the island, because someone had spotted, what appeared to be, "a white blur in human form pattering off through the mud." What can they do on a half flooded island without help from the mainland for at least a few days?

A contemporary review described the investigation as "the families organize to form a detective bureau," which is an interesting take, but not exactly what happened. The divide here is not so much across family lines and friendships, but between those who were out of the house and those who were inside when the shot was heard. Not that this divide matters as suspicion is smeared thickly around, however, this still makes it hardly a traditional detective story. The isolation from the outside world and suspicion of murder is getting to some of them, especially towards the end when one of them unravels under the stress. There's also the excursions of the island itself like the old, long since abandoned Pierdeck brewery with its storage caves and Peter Kerrigan flood damaged cottage.

It all makes for a memorable debut and helps smoothing out some of the imperfections and rough spots bound to turn up in a first detective novel. However, the only real shortcoming of the story, or rather plot, is that the cynical and experienced armchair detective will have no trouble identifying, or becoming suspicious, of the murderer, but kudos to Fonseca for making me second guess myself with a second murder – second victim is even more unexpected than the first. That threw me off the correct trail for a moment. A second flaw that would have been a real problem had the murderer been better camouflaged is that the clueing is a bit clunky, but you can strike them off against everything else the book did right in telling an engrossing story of disaster and murder. What can be held against Fonseca is missing a golden opportunity in (SPOILER/ROT13) fhttrfgvat gur zheqrere fubg gur jebat crefba, orpnhfr gur ivpgvz jnf fubg sebz oruvaq va irel, irel onq jrngure. Guvf vf, bs pbhefr, abg gur pnfr sbe gur svefg zheqre, ohg rknpgyl jung unccrarq jvgu gur frpbaq zheqre. You know, something her more famous contemporaries would have done.

But other than those smudgy details, Fonseca's Death Below the Dam is a diamond in the rough making me even more curious about her other two extremely rare, out-of-print novels. Particularly to see what Fonesca was capable of doing with the impossible crime story in The Thirteenth Bed in the Ballroom. Unfortunately, the last two are not going to be as easy to track down, unless they get reprinted. Just based on Death Below the Dam, it probably wouldn't be waste of paper and ink to reprint Fonseca's three detective novels.