Murder Has a Motive by Francis Duncan
I admit it - I love vintage mysteries. In spite of the predictability, in spite of the stereotypes, I truly enjoy them. They're a little like stepping back in time.
Murder Has a Motive was originally published in the late 1940s, a great time for mysteries. Mordecai Tremaine is a retired tobacconist with a penchant for mysteries. He had been planning on staying with friends in Dalmering, but as we all know, murder follows amateur detectives around. When Mordecai arrives, his friends tell him that one of their neighbors, a woman who was also starring in the play the community is putting on to raise money for charity, was found dead that morning - stabbed to death. His friends, of course, want him to find the killer.
Mordecai is a quiet, sometimes pretentious man, but a romantic at heart. He's a quiet detective, watching, listening, having conversations. He's a little different from the other bachelor detectives of the era. He unabashedly reads...