ABOUT THE MURDER OF A STARTLED LADY: A Thatcher Colt Detective Mystery

N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, 1935. 1st Grosset reprint edition. Orange cloth covers show some wear at extremeties, very lightly soiled else a very good - near fine copy, in home-made acetate dust wrapper. LOCKED ROOM MYSTERY. Adey #4. "Thatcher Colt tries a new kind of informer, one with a link to the Great Beyond. Mrs. Lynn, a medium, claims she heard the "voice" of a young dead girl whose body has allegedly been cut to pieces then sunk. Fraud? That's what Colt (and the reader) think at first, but both have to reconsider their opinion when the corpse turns up right where Mrs. Lynn - oh, sorry, Madeline Swift - told us it was. Despite its paranormal overtones, "Startled Lady" reads rather like an early procedural. Realism, at least by Golden Age standards, is the greatest strength of this book. Abbot obviously did a lot of research on forensics and procedures, providing a sometimes fascinating testimony on police methods in the thirties. But this realism is also applied to the subject as well as the treatment which is grimmer than usual back then. Abbot is not afraid to handle some then-and-now controversial issues such as political corruption, religious zealotry, family oppression (you won't forget the Swifts) and even sex. Colt's final conclusions are far ahead of their time. . First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Very Good-Near Fine. Book.