What Dark Secret is by Dorothy Dudley and Juanita Sheridan. Juanita Sherdan wrote a series of mysteries set in Hawaii including Waikiki Widow and Malihini Holiday (which were turned into episodes of TV's Hawaiian Eye in the 50's).
What Dark Secret was written in 1943 and presents a simpler version of the islands than can be visited now. I've read that Juanita was the main writer and gave Dorothy (her dentist) credit on the book for her help in locale descriptions, and in return for her daughter's braces. That seems to be the sort of idle gossip the main character Libitha Prentiss would pick up.
Lib has left her dental practice in Chicago for the islands on a holiday with her school chum Gloria Deming. Although Gloria is wealthy with family money, Lib prefers to stay at the big pink hotel on the small and quiet Waikiki beach. In the evening, Lib and several other guests enjoy a dinner party at Gloria's house in the hills. It is well known that Gloria's husband has been fooling around with Tanya Adams, the very woman who stole lib's fiancé away from her years ago, and now he has brought her to the dinner party. Though the other guests pretend not to know her, everyone has a connection to the golddigger.
Hawaii practiced regular black out drills during the war, and that night at 8 o'clock, after the characters disperse to the lanai to watch the planes overhead, Lib wanders into the library and has a seat on the sofa ~ next to Tanya, stabbed in the neck to a bloody death. Rather gruesome for a light mystery like this!
The police were called in, however, one of the guests is Angie Tudor, a Chinese reporter and part-time sleuth "whose soft feminine ways conceal a mind as sharp as a steel trap". This was the reason I bought this book, thinking she could be a female Charlie Chan, and she is a great character. She just isn't the main focus of the mystery. We stay with Lib as she consoles Gloria, finds out her ex-fiance is on the island, gets burgled, and catches a nasty sunburn. Also, her little dog went right into quarantine after the voyage to Hawaii, and there is far too much time spent on her worries over him - a whole chapter on her visit to the kennels.
It does get quite convoluted, and Lib works with Angie to discover the truth. I would call this type of mystery a "cozy", and feel it was written for Ladies' Afternoons.
Lib fusses too much and spends a lot of time in bed with her sunburn. As much as she snoops, spies and overhears, it is Angie who is the crackerjack one step ahead of everyone. As a newswoman, she is friends with the police, can interpret, and knows how it goes down on the islands.
There are a few funny references to the other famous detective from Hawaii, Mr. Chan - and even Sidney Toler! Reading about Hawaii as it was in the 40's was also interesting. A quiet secluded spot before tourists, hotels and shops spread out.
The conclusion to What Dark Secret was somewhat satisfying - though complicated it made sense. The problem was, the clues needed to solve it were missing. The dark secret is one you would never guess, and it's up to the detective's summation, as Angie reads back to you the story of what just happened and why.
The copy I have is hardcover with the really nice dust jacket picture here - A Midnite Mystery from Books Inc. I usually like these breezy mysteries and pick them up whenever I find them. Angie is a great character and I wish there was more of her, another novel maybe. Well written and entertaining, a mystery to enjoy but not solve.
1943 / Hardcover / 248 pages
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