Writing under the shared pseudonym "Kelley Roos," William and Audrey Roos formed one of the best, cleverest and funniest writing duos of genuinely funny, cleverly-plotted detective novels starring their bantering, mystery solving couple of Jeff and Haila Troy – who appeared in eight novels and a dozen, mostly uncollected, novellas. The first seven novels were published between 1940 and 1949 with a surprising, final entry being published in 1966. And of the dozen, or so, novellas only three were gathered under the title Triple Threat (1949).
"Death of a Trouper" originally appeared in the December, 1946, issue of The American Magazine and reprinted in the May, 1980, issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, but something has to be explained first. Jeff and Haila's marriage has not been a perfect one and their last novel, One False Move (1966), begins in the aftermath of their divorce as Haila packed her backs and moved to Texas – only to stumble across another murder. They get back together, of course, but "Death of a Trouper" tells the story of the first crack in their marriage leading to their temporary divorce two decades later.
Similar to the opening in One False Move, this novella begins with the aftermath of a marriage ending fight ("I slapped him... he hit me back"). You have to read the story for yourself to find out what they were fighting and throwing hands over, but it firmly falls in the you-deserve-each-other category. Haila packed her bags and traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to take up acting again. She joins "a real, honest-to-goodness showboat," named The New Sensation, anchored on the bank of the Allegheny River. Haila discovers an old friend among the cast members, Greta Cole, who looks terrible, but things get worse for Greta when Russell Hogan, the leading man, is found stabbed to death in his cabin. Greta becomes the primary suspect, because it turns out she's the only one with a motive.
One of the reasons why Haila had enough of Jeff is "instead of settling down and becoming the fine photographer he could have been, had insisted on chasing about solving murders," but she picks up the telephone to ask him to help clear Greta from suspicion. This reunion between these two stubborn mules, who both refuse to give an inch, goes about as well as expected not helped by Jeff insisting on being funny when Haila wants to have a serious conversation. "Death is a Trouper" is not a lighthearted, thinly-plotted comedy mystery as the plot is absolutely packed!
There's not only the murder of Russell Hogan, but Greta goes missing under very unusual circumstances, Haila is knocked unconscious, a mysterious woman named Vivien somehow figures in the case and the inevitable second murder aboard The New Sensation. I'm delighted to report back the Rooses delivered on all of them!
Firstly, the solution to the murders turns on a tell-tale clue exonerating everyone, except the murderer, when understood of pointed out without needing much further explaining – only that person could have done it. Better yet is the motive for the first murder and how it relates to the second murder or ingeniously simple answer to the Vivien plot-thread. Or why Greta disappeared and the strange things that happened to her preceding the murder. Like I said, the Rooses packed the plot "Death is a Trouper" demonstrating they belonged as much to the Van Dine-Queen School as the screwball, murder-can-be-fun school. Only thing that can really be said against it, is that "Death is a Trouper" is not a novel-length Jeff and Haila Troy mystery. So much more could have been done with the showboat backdrop, the characters who work and live there and, yes, the troubles of the Troys. Other than not being a novel-length Jeff and Haila Troy mystery, "Death is a Trouper" is an excellent Jeff and Haila Troy novella with all the customary quality of the Rooses writing and plotting. Recommended!
If somebody, anybody, from Crippen & Landru stumbles across this review, the Kelley Roos novellas from The American Magazine would make a great collection like Philip Wylie's Ten Thousand Blunt Instruments and Other Tales of Mystery (2010). Just an idea for the suggestion box.