Baynard Kendrick wrote 13 mysteries featuring blind detective Duncan Maclain, inspired by a friendship with a blinded soldier in the first World War. The Odor of Violets is the third, after The Last Express (1937), and The Whistling Hangman (1937).
The Crags is a large manor house built overlooking a small Connecticut town. Norma is the fourth wife of Thadeus Tredwill, a theatrical producer. Ten years ago she was married to stage actor Paul Gerente, and now she fears her young step-daughter Barbara has been seduced by Paul - there is a bottle of Black Violet perfume on her vanity, the kind Paul always gave her. Norma follows her to New York, hoping to convince them to stop, when she sees Barbara run out of his building. Arriving at his apartment, Norma finds him bludgeoned to death fireside. Barbara disappears that night - kidnapped or on the run, not to be found.
Captain Duncan Maclain arrives at the Tredwill house, ostensibly to find Barbara, but actually investigating top secret information leaks from son Gilbert Tredwill's basement lab. Gilbert works as an engineer for the Intelligence Department designing munitions at International Aircraft. In 1940, the radio is full of menace and vivid descriptions of the terror which has gripped the world, and although the plans are not stolen, they are leaked.
Everyone from sons Stacy and Gilbert, Thadeus and Norma, the inquisitive staff, nosy neigbours and guest Cheli Scott (writing a new play) are suspect, and everyone seems to know more than they let on. And, they were all in New York the night Paul was killed.
Wouldn't you like to know:
Why Gerente's neighbour quickly admitted to the killing, and why his girlfriend secured his guilt? Who was creeping in the Tredwill's basement, knocking Norma out with a falling bookcase? Why did the inquisitive maid lose her head - literally! How the munitions plans were leaked while locked in the safe? Why is there always the odor of violets? How is the advertisement from cosmetics firm House of Bonnee hiding a secret code? Who is an undercover spy - a counterspy - an FBI agent - a counterespionage agent - ex-intelligence - a saboteur - a cold blooded killer? After some deaths, druggings, and kidnapping of Maclain himself, this wraps up in an exciting Christmas Eve finale, where Maclain explains it all for those who got confused.
"He was blind, but it was the implacable blindness of justice."
Maclain is an ingenious and unique character, using his dogs Schnucke and Dreist as guiding hands, his keen facilities developed to know where you are in the room, what you are wearing, and how tall you are. He shoots with deadly accuracy, and like all good fictional detectives, has the uncanny knack of being one step ahead at all times.
I might like this more than it deserves. Kenrick has a verbose and florid use of language. There are far too many characters, and the pace is clunky - perhaps because it was serialized first. For 1940, there is bloody violence - decapitation, stabbings, close range shooting - and of course, I must mention the dated depiction of Maclain's negro chauffer Cappo. Invaluable and capable, he unfortunately speaks with the relaxed drawl of the time - "Yessah, he suttnly do."
The Odor of Violets was also published as Eyes In The Night, the title of the 1942 film starring Edward Arnold, Ann Harding and Donna Reed (rough copies can be streamed online). An entertaining film, it made a sleeker story based on the same characters. A second Duncan Maclain film was made in 1945, The Hidden Eye, based on the first Maclain mystery The Last Express.
Another popular mystery series was written by Kendrick under the name Miles Standish Rice, including Eleven of Diamonds (1936), The Iron Spiders (1936), and Death Beyond the Go-Thru (1938)
A romantic drama Lights Out was written by Kenrick in 1945, about a blinded soldier returning home, was made into a 1951 film Bright Victory.
Baynard Kenrick also wrote under the name Richard Hayward.
The Duncan Maclain detective mysteries are all easily available in print and eBook, including a free version of The Odor of Violets on Internet Archive. (https://archive.org/details/odorofvioletsdun00bayn/page/292/mode/2up)
1940 / Hardcover / 310 pages
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