Haze of Evil is a 1953 Crime Club mystery by Kenneth Lowe, set in a Chicago steel mill.
Sammy the Sweeper was someone superintendant Steve Caldwell could count on to always do his job, so he was mystified as to why Sammy would venture under the great gears of the factory machines on Thanksgiving day - and how the machines were turned on at the same time. It didn't seem like an accident, but as Steve begins to uncover power struggles in management and workers small town gripes against immigrants, he is asked to back off.
The novel takes place over the days after the holiday, with chapters like Friday Night, Saturday Morning, and Late Sunday Evening et cetera. Steve has neglected his spoiled fiancé - the boss' daughter - to wander the dark streets and puzzle it out. There he meets Sophie Kovacs, a girl who works at the mill who begins to help him investigate. Although there have been a string of disasters at the mill, Steve finds his search blocked by the upper brass - who may or may not be complicit - along with the other workers who feel there is a communist plot rising amongst them and the mill is being over run by the Reds. It's that or infiltration by the Jews. This was 1953 and the paranoia of corruption from without and within is rife in some circles.
It's a quiet mystery, reminding me of walking dark and silent hours in the middle of the night, where the lights are all out and the the streets deserted. Since Steve was reprimanded, he must count on Sophie and his alcoholic friend Jim (who still had access to the mill) to sneak him in and uncover the truth.
Haze of Evil was a book I had my eye on for a long time. There is always the 'right time' for a book. On Thanksgiving evening itself, I picked up this book and started to read the first lines - "Steve had no appetite for Thanksgiving Dinner." What are the odds.
I wasn't let down. It was far quieter than I thought - moody, dark, introspective - but neatly written and tight. The tone was just right.
1953 / Hardcover / 188 pages
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