Terror By Twilight is a 'Margot Blair' mystery, a 1942 Crime Club selection.
Margot Blair has appeared in two previous mysteries - Rendezvous With The Past 1940, and Exit A Star 1941, followed by Design In Diamonds 1944. This was such an amiable puzzle, complete with so many old mystery tropes it was a pleasure to read. I hope to find the others in the series.
Margot Blair is partner with Felix Norman in a public relations firm. Umarried at 39, she is happily a career gal. To the tune of $500 a month, they have been hired by Benjamin Embrie, one of the great financiers of our time - initially to look for his missing daughter Adele Bourne, after many years presumed dead. For the past 3 years Margot has been buying all of his granddaughter Deborah's wardrobe, jewellery, even furnishings, as she does not leave their country mansion Thistle Hill. Embrie reveals why Deborah needs so much care: her mother disappeared mentally unbalanced, and they fear Deborah has inherited her homicidal tendancies. Recent events have shown she is not well of mind with fits of rage followed by a deep fog of amnesia. On the day Margot travels to Thistle Hill to meet Deborah for the first time ever, Benjamin Embrie dies. The family gathers in the house, and all the tropes are in place.
Deborah introduces her father Mr. Bourne, his rigid secretary Judith, her cousin Adrian (in love with Deborah), her imperious great-aunt the Countess and her husband the Count (fleeing Hitler and claiming impoverishment), and her disinherited scoundrel brother Brooke, hiding out these years in Mexico. Should we mention Craigie the butler and his wife, physician Dr. Devan, Dan the chauffer, Remsen the family friend, or Inspector Gorman of the local police? When they are gathered Inspector Gorman gives the news. Embrie was poisoned with arsenic in a sardine sandwich - which Deborah prepared.
The will states Deborah inherits it all in trust, unless something has happened to her mind. In which case it is split between the relatives. Classic stuff, but Margot manages to keep us busy with red herrings over the next days like mysterious sightings of a figure in the moonlit garden, a face appearing in windows of closed rooms in the house. Deborah has a few blackout episodes, perhaps signs of that congenital impulse to kill? Or is someone setting her up? Naturally, Margot becomes such a part of the home the inspector (and the family) take her into their confidence as if she was a real investigator. Her partner Felix thankfully remains in the city, as this is Margot's mystery alone. Several other characters appear and there are more shocking deaths. Is someone picking off the family one by one, or is there a ruse to kill Deborah off for the entire fortune?
Homicidal blackouts reminded me of the great 1992 film Final Analysis starring Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, a Hitchcockian thriller in which Kim suffers from 'pathological intoxication', a murderous rage when she drinks alcohol. Or does she? Deborah remains quite innocent to the proceedings, while Margot works double time to ferret the truth.
This does a good job of combining the wealthy family gathered for the will scenario, and even tricks your attention into thinking you can see what is coming, but, the big reveal at the end will catch you out. I had no idea who done it, did not see it coming, and was pleasantly surprised!
My other reviews for Kathleen Moore Knight:
1942 / Hardcover / 294 pages
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