Puzzle in Porcelain (1945) by Elizabeth Gresham (writing as "Robin Grey")

"Robin Grey" was the pseudonym of Elizabeth Fenner Gresham, of whom not much is known today, except that she was involved with the Virginia theater scene and wrote both stage plays, novels, short stories and non-fiction – notably the Jenny Gilette and Hunter Lewis series. This series began with Puzzle in Porcelain (1945) and Puzzle in Pewter (1947), but it took a quarter of a century before Puzzle in Paisley (1972), Puzzle in Parchment (1973), Puzzle in Parquet (1973) and Puzzle in Patchwork (1973) to be published. Steve, of Mystery File, hypothesized in a 2013 comment Gresham "had the book written but no publisher for them until Curtis, a small and all but obscure paperback publisher in the 1970s came along and made her a deal." Adding "same thing happened with Mike Avallone and several of his Ed Noon PI novels in pretty much the same time period." So thank you Curtis for preventing four more novel from entering the Phantom Library forever.

The first two novels from the 1940s were published as by "Robin Grey," while the 1970s
paperbacks appeared under her own name, but there never was much of a mystery about the authorship.

I found a short write up from Times-Register, "Mrs. Greshham Will Publish Mystery Novel," which announces Gresham's forthcoming debut and introduces her two series-character, Jenny and Hunter. A second, 1947 write up from Times-Register informs Mrs. Thomas B. Gresham, of Salem, has published her second mystery novel, Puzzle in Pewter, full of local color. Interestingly, it mentions the book is dedicated to Roger Boyle, director of the Virginia Players at the University of Virginia, who "was instrumental in the formulation of the chief character in the stories." The piece optimistically ends with the news "Mrs. Gresham is currently at work on a third mystery novel" and "she has indicated that the Hunter Lewis series will be continued." That, as we know now, took another 25 years when Puzzle in Paisley finally made it to print.

I believe I first read about Gresham in The Anthony Boucher Chronicles: Reviews and Commentary, 1942-45 (2009) praising Puzzle in Porcelain as "a pleasing debut" with "some agreeable fresh angles." Looking a bit further into the series, the Jenny and Hunter mysteries sounded like a series the Rue Morgue Press overlooked to reprint. Well, I was not wrong! Puzzle in Porcelain would have been right at home in the reprint catalog of the Rue Morgue Press alongside Delano Ames, Kelley Roos and Margaret Scherf.

Puzzle in Porcelain introduces Hunter Lewis, a tinker/handyman, who makes a modest living mending valuable, or mechanical, things and drives a homemade, Frankenstein-like car ("ugly and noisy") which he built from the chassis up – affectionately called the Mongrel ("...no alley pup ever represented more breeds than Hunter's masterpiece"). Jenny Gilette, the narrator, is Hunter's next door neighbor and she been pursuing him for years to the point where everyone half-jokingly sees it has her job. So they make for a fun, lively pair of lead characters and Jenny makes for an engaging narrator and Watson. Or, as she's called towards the end, "Amanuensis Extraordinary to that stubborn sleuth."

The scenery of Puzzle in Porcelain is Albemarle County in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Yankee transplant and local humbug, Thomas Pottle, drops by Hunter's workshop to ask to have a garden statue of Psyche mended, which had been reduced to “a basket of china chips” – deliberately destroyed when a stone hit it. Pottle tells Hunter he had been out in the garden that morning and, when bending down to pick a flower for his buttonhole, heard a hiss and the statue shattered. When he stood up to look saw Jake, "bpoor-white boy who lived in the strip of woods between Pottle's place and Scottswood," twenty foot away with a silly grin on his face. Hunter finds it hard to believe Jake had thrown the rock ("that boy wouldn't touch a rabbit"), but promises to come over to collect all the pieces. That evening, Jenny goes to a dinner party at Scottswood where the reader gets a brief demonstration why Pottle is not particular popular in the community, as well as introducing the tight-knit group of suspects.

Firstly, there are Dan and Virginia Scott, of Scottswood, who are the neighbors of Thomas and Edna Pottle. They have Dan's 92-year-old grandfather, Colonel Bedford Scott, living with them who still has it out for those Yankees ("...blood hasn't had time to cool since sixty-five"). Gordon Claibourne, Virginia's cousin and Pottle's lawyer, Dr. Keith and a newcomer from Norway on the University faculty, Erik Salten. And, of course, Jenny.

Next morning, Pottle's body is found on his own doorstep, dead as a door nail, who appears to have succumbed from the poisonous effects of a rattle snake bite. Sheriff Dick Cox, Jenny's cousin, remarks that it's "very unusual for rattlers to come so far into the lowlands," but retracing Pottle's steps reveals evidence he had been attacked by a rattle snake, ran all the way home and the exertion hastened the action of the poison. So a clear, cut and dried case without a hint of mystery, until Hunter begins to notice inconsistencies and convinced the sheriff his idea of a human hand rather than a wayward snake being responsible was not "altogether mad." Hunter and Jenny embark on their first case.

A case that's more like a Herculean task and not merely because they have to get around in the clunky, noisy Mongrel. They have to prove it was murder, before they can go on to the who and why. And how do you fake, what looks like, a completely explainable death by snake bite? While they begin their sleuthing, the parade of clues and red herrings, ranging from a broken statue and brown beans to dead fish and the sounds of hissing and rattling, keeps growing – seemingly never getting closer to the truth. Not even a second death, presented as a suicide, nor another snake attack brings Hunter closer to cracking the case. On the contrary, the sheriff is ready to close the case after the latest snake attack resulting in something I have never seen before in a detective story, past or present. Hunter is far from satisfied and continues to poke around, which is when the suspects band together to legally prevent him "from further private ferreting into our affairs." Something that should have been explored and exploited better, but it's one of those fresh angles that makes Puzzle in Porcelain a smidgen more than just a pleasing debut!

There are no obviously nods or references to other mystery writers, or characters, but Gresham evidently must have been an enthusiastic consumer of detective stories. She shows throughout the story a good understanding of what makes a detective story tick and, perhaps more importantly, what came before her. That allowed her to find and work those fresh angles Boucher praised. It's only in the finer details of the solution, primarily method and motive, you notice the still inexperienced hand of the first-time (but promising) mystery writer still needing some time and a touch of polish. Other than that, I greatly enjoyed Puzzle in Porcelain and liked how the story kept making me second guess my brilliant armchair solution. I was sure I had figured it all out when deducing the method, which I did, but not fully. So well worth picking up, if you come across a copy. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep an eye out for a copy of Puzzle in Pewter.