Lawrence G. Blochman published over 50 books, mostly mystery and detective novels, from 1934 to 1964. A journalist working his way around the world in the 1920's, he was a reporter in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Calcutta, and Paris. In 1948, he was the fourth president of the Mystery Writers of America, and in 1951 "Diagnosis Murder", his short stories starring Dr. Daniel Webster Coffee won the Edgar Award.
Recipe For Murder purports to be a 'Coffee' mystery, but the central character is Robert Gilmore, Public Relations Director for Barzac Soup Company. His latest stunt is to crown Francis, one of the fifty girls preparing the vegetables on the third floor "Queen of the Carrots" for radio and newsreel ads publicizing Barzac Soup, but the company heads have objections as her husband is being investigated by the FBI as a card carrying Communist.
This unusual setting for a murder mystery is the production canning plant and its cast of characters. There is Barbara, Gilmore's subordinate who he finds is now his boss; Peggy Bayliss, head of the Home Economics Department finding ways to make soup a full meal; a French chef concocting new recipes; and George Bayliss, Peggy's ex-husband and old Army buddy of Gilmore's. Everyone is present for the daily quality testing in the kitchens, but no one is keen to try their new canned Army rations, donated for goodwill and already shipped out. Peggy has a helping, but finds it a little too heavy on the arsenic - within minutes she is dead. Who would poison the Army product? And how could they do it?
Gilmore calls in Dr. Daniel Webster Coffee, Chief Pathologist for Pasteur Hospital and his Hindu partner Dr. Motilal Mookerji, Resident in Pathology. They are the experts and fill the novel with details of pathology, autopsy, and the forensic chemical reactions of poisons. Once word of poison leaks to newspapers, Gilmore works closely with Coffee and police.
I wish the novel was more focused on Coffee, with his exacting standards and analytical eye. Mookerji is as capable, but respectfully given slightly fractured english that is out of date ("Five times greetings Doctor Sahib"). I wonder what a reader in Delhi would think?
Gilmore hides his stubborn confidence behind a relaxed boyish smile, but we know nothing will stop his drive to find the truth, even when his apartment is ransacked, a bomb placed in his car, a body is found in a soup barrel, and the FBI are hunting for Commies. Yes, it is 1952 and the red scare is very present, slightly bogging down the proceedings in the final third, and causing my mind to wander awaiting the resolution - which comes with a detailed confession lasting 6 pages - helpful to the reader, but not plausible.
Well written and original, although I enjoyed Blochman's earlier mysteries from the 1940's Wives To Burn, or See You At The Morgue better.
Recipe For Homicide and the follow-up Clues For Dr. Coffee are available online as eBooks.
My other review for Lawrence G. Blochman:
1952 / Hardcover / 222 pages
Ten Times Greetings Thompson Sahib. Twenty times grateful to you for bringing the book to my awareness. Mookerji Sahib working as pathologist in 1952 in great country Amrika. My salaams to Blochman Sahib. From Your humble servant.