October on JPC Allen Writes means mysteries, so I’m starting off with a book review of Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice, published in 1944. Craig Rice was the pseudonym for Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, who credits her kids for inspiring this novel about the three children of a widowed mystery novelist solving the murder of their neighbor.
When the nasty neighbor of the Carstairs children, 14-year-old Dinah, twelve-year-old April, and ten-year-old Archie, gets killed, the siblings decided it would be great publicity for their mother and her string of crime novels if she solves it. But Mother isn’t interested, and besides, she has a deadline to meet. So the kids decided if they solve it, Mother will still get a lot of publicity.
This novel is a hoot with the three kids running circles around the cops as they try to mislead them so they have time to figure out the mystery for themselves. At one point, the girls decide they have to search the dead woman’s house. But the police have a guard. So they invite a bunch of their friends, along with Archie’s Mob, to their house for a party and treasure hunt. Dinah and April figure that once the treasure hunt spills into the neighbor’s yard, the chaos their friends make will cover their entry into the house.
When it isn’t working, the girls tell Archie that he and his Mob to create another diversion. By the way, Archie wants to swear but isn’t allowed to so he uses regular words as if he’s swearing.
“Oh, corn, corn, corn,” Archie swore. “We gotta do something. Why don’t you do something. And whether we gonna do?”
“Well, my gosh,” Dinah said, “you can think of something. Go burn down a house.”
A few minutes later…
There was a brilliant red glow just around the bend in the road, and great clouds of smoke. An instant later they could see the flames beyond the trees.
“Oh, my gosh,” April moaned, “oh, my gosh! Archie thought we meant it!”
The kids are also busy matchmaking because the lead detective of the case is named Bill Smith, the same name as one of their mother’s fictional detectives. The children think they’d make a great couple.
The novel reads like a cozy mystery with kids as the amateur sleuths, but it’s an adult book. There is murder, and the murderer’s motive is sad. One thing about current cozy mysteries is that food is often a focus in them, and many of the detectives have food-related jobs. This book is no different. Boy, do these kids eat. The girls do a lot of the cooking because of their mother’s work. The kids go down to the malt shop and get treats. The first time Mother and Bill Smith start getting to know each other, it’s over a late-night meal of roasted turkey and maple fudge cake.
If you don’t mind reading older books and want a good laugh, check out Home Sweet Homicide. It’s now one of my favorites, which means I’ll have to get a copy of my own.
For more reviews of mysteries, click here for The Daughter of Time, “A Scandal in Winter”, “The Long Way Down,”, and The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries,
What mysteries do you recommend?
