Murder in the Gilded Cage (1929) by Samuel Spewack

Samuel Spewack was a Ukrainian-born American journalist, Hollywood screenwriter and novelist who penned two detective novels, The Skyscraper Murder (1928) and Murder in the Gilded Cage (1929), before abandoning the genre – leaving behind two obscure, long out-of-print mystery novels. Obscure, out-of-print but not completely forgotten going by two somewhat modern and very mixed reviews. A 1990 review from William F. Deeck, posted on MysteryFile, dismissed The Skyscraper Murder as hackwork ("show biz has obviously taken its toll on our author"). Mike Grost, on the other hand, praised Murder in the Gilded Cage ("...an entertainingly written mystery story") and called Spewack "an absorbing storyteller." Even drawing an interesting comparison to Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot. So on the wishlist it went.

Last year, Spewack's Murder in the Gilded Cage entered the public domain in the US and quickly became available again through sources like Project Gutenberg (free) or the Wildside Press reprint. So on the pile it went.

The story of Murder in the Gilded Case is recounted and told by a Mr. Abbott, an ex-newspaper reporter, who reported on the public and sensational "divorce case that startled the country." Mrs. Dora Breese made a spectacle of "the tortuous trials and appeals" that completely destroyed her ex-husband, Henry, who lost more than just the divorce case and a hefty settlements. Henry was publicly humiliated, abandoned by his children, lost longtime friends and was thrown out of several social clubs. Mrs. Breese loved every minute of it and became upset when interest newspapers, tabloids and the public stopped paying attention to her. So she organized a trip aboard her private yacht (part of the settlement) to her Havana "winter palace" (also part of the settlement).

Mrs. Breese sets sail to Havana, Cuba, accompanied by her two children, Henry Jr. and Countess Giering-Trelovitch, who had a short-lived marriage with a Russian nobleman, family friend Gordon Rice and Abbott – who was hired as Mrs. Breese's personal press agent. Controversially, she also brought along her boytoy, Guy Thomas, who also figured in the divorce trial. So the trouble begins during the voyage as Mrs. Breese announces her intention to marry Guy, Abbott resigns after refusing to play her attention craving, headline grabbing scheme and someone has to be rescued after falling overboard. Only gets worse when they reach their destination. For one, Henry Sr. and Count Giering-Trelovitch turn out to be Havana as well to complete the party. One of these people shot and killed Mrs. Breese.

Fortunately, there's also a Great Detective staying in Havana, Boris Sergeivitch Perutkin, who was "a big gun with the Czarist police" until the Bolsheviks threw him out. Perutkin has a reason to be there. Before the revolution, Perutkin was in Riga to investigate the murder Count Giering-Trelovitch's neighbor, Baron Peter Setovski, who was shot in his bedroom. Count Giering-Trelovitch was the number one suspect, but before Perutkin could draw his conclusions, the revolution forced both the Perutkin and the Count out of Russia. Now all the suspects have reunited in Havana. Perutkin believes the murders of Baron Peter Setovski and Mrs. Breese were done by one and the same hand.

Perutkin is certainly an interesting and striking detective character to introduce in 1929. Mike Grost noted Perutkin has some features that reminds one of Christie's Hercule Poirot, "a flamboyant, good natured, slightly comical sleuth" who admires his own genius ("have I not done an extraordinary piece of detective work?"), but they couldn't handle their cases more differently. Perutkin's logic and reasoning has a blunt, bludgeoning and prefers theatrics and taking shortcuts. Perutkin not only tries to take a shortcut, but charges the chance at a shortcut like a mad elephant. This also makes it funny Perutkin sometimes foreshadows Miss Marple penchant for drawing comparisons to apparently unrelated incidents, but Perutkin's observations aren't about missing umbrellas or the butcher's son courting the maid working up at the big mansion ("I am reminded of the famous Sebastopol tragedy, where someone with a homicidal humor played just such tricks..."). Far from it.

However, Perutkin trying to rush and tackle that early shortcut provides Murder in the Gilded Cage with its most memorable scene and a stage for the second murder. They can't prevent a third murder briefly presented as an impossible crime, "nobody's invented an invisible gun or an invisible man," but that didn't last long as it was quickly revealed to have been ordinary shooting.

So the plot keeps Perutkin and the reader busy enough, but is it any good? I think it can be considered better than what can generally be expected from an obscure, 1920s mystery novel. The plot holds and hangs together well enough, however, it's über conventional, flirts with the odd cliche and barely poses a challenge to the seasoned, suspicious-minded reader – even with the spotty clueing and red herrings. Now, I don't want to sell Spewack short here. While I spotted the killer, there were enough red herrings to keep other options open and the story moving along. There's also a pleasingly clever, underlying logic to the series of murders.

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But going by what has been written about The Skyscraper Murder, Spewack improved considerably with Murder in the Gilded Cage. At least it appears to have more consistency than his first stab at the detective story, which is not an unimportant piece of good detective fiction. So maybe it's to be regretted Spewack quietly bowed out of the genre after Murder in the Gilded Cage. I would have liked two, three more Perutkin mysteries to see if Spewack continued to improve or if Murder in the Gilded Cage was his ceiling. The potential was there.

So, all in all, Spewack's Murder in the Gilded Cage is an amusing mystery full with humor, social satire and a detective who believes he's the hype, but too lightly plotted to satisfy the more demanding fan who read detective stories for their plots. But if the light touch to the plot is no objection, it's well worth getting the cheap ebook edition or downloading it.