Into Thin Air is a 1957 mystery by Harry Carmichael, the pen name of British novelist Leopold Ognall, who wrote over 40 mysteries under the Carmichael name (several featuring insurance assessor John Piper and reporter Quinn), and more than 40 more under the name Howard Hartley (many starring private eye Glenn Bowman).
Into Thin Air was not the first crime Piper and Quinn investigated, as they are already good friends here, dropping asides about the past and commenting on their friend Inspector Hoyle at Scotland Yard.
Gorgeous blonde film star Madeline Grey flies up to London for an overnight stay, avoiding publicity by staying at a quiet hotel. She has been shooting a film in Scotland. After checking into her suite, she makes a phone call and takes a telegram - while insurance assessor John Piper and Quinn wait in the lobby; Piper has a meeting to discuss her property, Quinn for an interview. In those brief minutes however, Madeline has disappeared. She was not seeing leaving her suite or the hotel, had not taken a cab or left by a back exit - a search determines she is not physically in the building. A popular and recognizable actress, it seemed no one could make her vanish, yet, how could she leave - and - where is she?
Since Madeline was insured by Piper's company against bodily harm, the hotel asks him to quietly investigate before calling the police. With most of the people she knew still in Scotland, there are just a few key players to interview - the nervous hotel manager; the silent housekeeper; the bell boys; and Madeline's agent who (it's just discovered) was also her ex-husband, and who thinks this is all a publicity stunt. Her current husband flies up from Scotland and is also baffled. Someone had been selling her stolen jewelry, could she have been blackmailed? Her luggage remains in the suite - one piece with an odd blood stain on it - but she took her mink coat. The case is presented to Detective-Inspector Thorpe, who wonders why the unusual team of an insurance agent, a reporter and a hotel manager, are investigating instead of the police.
Published by the venerable Crime Club, this fits the promise of a classic puzzler. There is a lot of discussion and an easy momentum, no violence or action - this runs on setting and mystery, and the winning combination of Quinn and Piper. This was also published under the title Put Out That Star in 1957, and was one of about 35 Quinn and Piper investigations. Not filled with dynamic action but puzzling until the resolution, when you look back and think, "Hmmm, I thought so".
1957 / Hardcover / 191 pages
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