This is my fifth read in Dolores Hitchens’ (who originally penned these titles under the name D. B. Olsen) Rachel Murdock mystery series, something which would have been impossible, if American Mystery Classics (AMC) had not started reprinting them, since as a UK classic crime fan, vintage copies of these books are like gold dust. The only non-AMC title I own is Cats Don’t Need Coffins (1946), although it is an abridged version. To date the AMC series has reissued: The Cat Saw Murder (1939), The Alarm of the Black Cat (1942) and The Cat Wears a Noose (1944). Of these three my favourite is the first, and it is one I would highly recommend trying.
Katherine Hall Page writes the introduction for the AMC edition, and I enjoyed her consideration of how the activity of going to the cinema and watching films shapes the perceptions of some of the characters and arguably some of the plot action too. She brings our attention to the opening scene when Rachel Murdock uses her cinema-viewing as her point of reference for deciding what sort of person, the suspicious man is, who is spying on a neighbour’s home: “If I were casting him – […] I’d put him in as a cowboy. A range cowboy who’d lost his mirror.” Page further opines that:
‘Cat’s Claw draws on the horror movie genre that began in 1931 in the US with Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff’s first appearance together in The Black Cat, a 1934 adaptation of Poe’s short story.’
Having now read the book, I think there are a few key scenes which tap into the style of storytelling, particularly with the way the second corpse of the novel is revealed, with its emphasis on sensory information. That dripping noise, is not a tap which has been left unturned, it is in fact… Well, that would be telling, you’ll have to read the book to find out!
Page further adds that:
‘The other movie genre in these pages is of course the Western, given the case’s locale: the San Cayetano Mountain, sixty miles south of Los Angeles.’
I think this influence is more faintly reflected in Hitchen’s novel, but nature does provide jeopardy for our protagonists and is also linked to the motivation behind the crimes that take place.’
Synopsis
‘Unable to stop herself from investigating another murder, Rachel Murdock gets plenty of help from Samantha, the cat who follows her wherever she goes; her much less adventurous sister Jennifer; and Lieutenant Mayhew, who is grateful to have another sharp mind on the case. Miss Rachel, her sister, and her cat are watching with undisguised interest a bandy-legged man who is spying on a house across the street until a speeding black sedan runs him down. The sisters are curious to know why the man was murdered–and just as baffled about what happened to the mysterious tenants of the house, who disappear the next day. Their investigations take Miss Rachel and Samantha to the small mountain town of San Cayetano, where she gets entangled in a property conflict that could have deadly consequences.’
Overall Thoughts
Chapter 1 opens with Jennifer Murdock censuring her sister, Rachel, for watching a bandy-legged man from her window. Naturally, this individual has set off her suspicious activity detector. Jennifer and Rachel’s difference of opinion is amusing to read:
“I do believe, Rachel,” Miss Jennifer Murdock said severely, “that you have actually come down to spying upon people.”
[…]
“Our mother taught us,” said Jennifer, “never to stare at strangers. It isn’t ladylike and it encourages rudeness in return. Now when we were girls –”
“I’ve had more fun since I’ve ben older,” Miss Rachel decided.
In keeping with other books in the series, Hitchens uses foreshadowing to good effect, and in this case, I think there is a desire to not only intrigue the reader but to also tap into readers’ love of thrills and being thrilled. Danger, after all, is far more palatable when it is imaginary and most importantly, not happening to oneself:
‘Tucked away in the ball of the future, as securely as the rest of Jennifer’s sweater into her ball of yarn, were all the elements of murder, and personal, immediate, terrifying was the past she was to play in it. The million-legged horror that crept towards her in the dark while she waited, locked in and helpless, the slate pit with its ugly legend, the road that ended in a barricade, her first sight of San Cayetano: all of these waited in a cocoon of devious winding, whose end was to be found only with patience and the suppression of heart-knocking dread. Along the way were to be such minor horrors as the sheeted body on the kitchen floor, the stove that moved itself, and the thing that Jennifer found on the ceiling.’
Despite criticising Rachel’s interest in the mystery man outside, Jennifer is not immune to her sister’s curiosity, and she too cannot entirely escape wondering about him and what his mission is:
‘Jennifer pounced. “A process server! Of course he wouldn’t want the woman to see him. She’d warn the husband!”
“Hmmmmm. No, Jennifer, he just isn’t the type. Process servers are sly little men with glasses. Then people can’t hit them.”
“Where,” said Miss Jennifer suspiciously, “did you learn all of that?”
“Well – I see things.”
“Yes, Rachel at the movies. I know. Your actual experience with process servers is just as broad as mine – which means it’s non-existent.”
I enjoyed this scene for several reasons. It’s funny, and returns to the movie theme, mentioned earlier. Yet I also feel like it is upending the notion that elderly female amateur sleuths only gain their knowledge and expertise through serious experience and observation.
Cat’s Claw moves at a good pace, and Rachel and her sister inveigle their way into the case well, with Rachel using a painting and a newspaper article to aid her tracking down where the disappearing tenants might have gone. Locating this pair is achieved so easily, without even trying, that the reader has to conclude that this is not the main focus of the mystery and reflecting on the matter I think the motive is perhaps the key narrative priority.
Unlike several of the other mysteries in this series, Jennifer is a little more involved in the plot and the investigation. I felt this added some additional moments of humour, as she is not the most adept at sleuthing. For example, during one nocturnal ramble to search a garage without the owner realising, Jennifer is unable to turn her flashlight off when footsteps approach, so she has to sit on top of the torch, so the light won’t be seen.
Yet Hitchens pairs these light-hearted moments, with scenes which plunge the characters and the reader back into the horror genre:
‘The silence that came after Miss Jennifer’s remark reminded Miss Rachel of the scene in Hands of Darkness where a gorilla’s paw slid through a curtain to hover over the innocent head of the heroine. There was the same sense of breathless dread, of wanting to scream, and of not wanting to miss anything that might come afterward – only this was real […]’
It seems the fictional detectives I have recently been reading about have gorillas on the brain, as Lieutenant Valcour in Rufus King’s Murder by the Clock (1929) also ponders a murderous ape.
One downside of Cat’s Claw is that we do not spend as much time with the suspects, and certain relationships and characters are seen second hand and rather than directly on the page. I wonder if this is partially caused by the high levels of movement in this story, with Rachel moving around from place to place a lot. Perhaps we needed to stay with characters a bit longer at a time. The psychological quirks and the intensity of the personalities within the Aldershot family (who Rachel and Jennifer meet at San Cayetano) is very important to the mystery, yet I felt like it is assumed but not really evidenced within the narrative. This negatively impacted some aspects of the solution for me, which felt less convincing.
Katherine Hall Page, in her introduction, writes that ‘[…] the book’s action, occurring over only a few days, is realistically compressed with terror-filled roller coaster ride of an ending.’ This left me feeling optimistic about the denouement. Arguably there are two moments of peril in the ending, and I must admit the first one left me underwhelmed, the danger was too short-lasting and not really strongly evoked for the reader. However, the second perilous moment was much better, and in nature and location it hugely differs from the former, and I was not expecting it. I think the second scenario will also tap into reader’s existing fears and anxieties more. You are much better able to step into the horrified feelings Rachel experiences during it.
The Saturday Review of Literature described this book as ‘pretty good’ and as a ‘pleasant and action-packed tale – for those who don’t mind omniscient old ladies and sundry loose ends.’ This seemed to me like a reasonable assessment of the novel, which I enjoyed, but I felt like something was lacking. Interestingly this is the shortest book in the series that I have read to date, at a slim 187 pages.
Rating: 4/5
Source: Review Copy (American Mystery Classics)