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Captain Heimrich #17
Murder Roundabout
At 7 o'clock on a September evening, an attractive young real estate agent named Leslie Brennan arrives at the home of a glamorous former acctress, Annette Weaver, to keep an appointment with a prospect who has asked to inspect the property. When the prospect fails to show up, Leslie lets herself into the house and finds Annette shot to death.
- GenresMystery
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
20 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Richard Lockridge
129 books25 followersAn American writer of detective fiction, Richard Lockridge's frequent collaborator was his wife Frances Lockridge, who co-wrote the Mr. and Mrs. North mystery series and other popular books.
The couple also published under the shared pseudonym Francis Richards.
The couple also published under the shared pseudonym Francis Richards.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 12, 2022
The lovely Annette Weaver (née LeBaron, film star) had thrown a picnic on the Fourth of July. A lovely picnic...at least up until the point where she decided to tell all the residents of Van Brunt exactly what she thought of them. Over a loudspeaker. And now the lovely Annette was lovely no more. Shot through the neck, she's found dead in her own hallway--first the night before by a new real estate agent named Leslie Brennan, who is supposed to be showing the house to a prospective buyer (who doesn't show) and who doesn't report it, and then the next morning by Mrs. Weaver's cleaning lady, Harriet Larkin, who does.
Leslie receives a phone call from a Mr. J. K. Knight asking to be shown the Weaver house--which is up for sale. She arrives at the house at the designated time, but no one shows up. She decided to go in the house anyway to see if a message was left and is horrified to find Annette Weaver sprawled in a pool of blood. She is just about to call the police when she hears the roar of a familiar engine and rushes out in a panic to try and catch up with the car. She never does call the police and when questioned the next day (as one of several real estate agents who might have been there) doesn't reveal her adventures of the previous night.
Inspector Heimrich and Sergeant Forniss work their way through clues--among them the noisy sports car, the mysterious J. K. Knight who doesn't seem to exist, the many men (not her husband) that Annette had been seen wining and dining with, a missing realtor's house key, and Annette's distinctive voice--to weed out the red herrings. But not before the murderer makes one more, less fatal, attack.
Spoiliers Ahead--Read at your own risk!
One of the limitations of the Lockridge books is that occasionally there are few suspects to be had. In this particular outing, there should have been plenty of suspects. After all, we went out of our way to set up the possibility with Annette Weaver blasting all her neighbors at that Fourth of July picnic. But it wound up being a pretty feeble attempt at a red herring. When all is said and done, the picnic fiasco has very little to do with Annette's death. We're left with basically two trails of suspicion and when one has read enough Lockridges one knows that one of the trails is a dead-end from the beginning. So--not much mystery about whodunit in this one. The plot could have been much more interesting (and intricate) if Lockridge had made more of the possible motives of the residents who had gotten blasted.
What keeps this one from a much poorer rating (for me) is the characters. Heimrich likes to say that the character fits the crime--making character a vital ingredient in his investigations. And, for me, if the characters are good enough, I can overlook other flaws, especially in a series that I have a great deal of affection for. The Lockridge books are comfort reading for me and I can forgive occasional missteps in their various series. I enjoy Heimrich and Forniss and watching them do their stuff. I like Ray Crowley and wish that we'd had a bit more of him in this one. And it's always a treat to watch Heimrich interact with his wife Susan. We also have nice bit of deduction involving voices and vocal imitations (somewhat reminiscent of the books that involve Professor Brinkley). ★★★ and 1/2. [rounded up here]
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
Leslie receives a phone call from a Mr. J. K. Knight asking to be shown the Weaver house--which is up for sale. She arrives at the house at the designated time, but no one shows up. She decided to go in the house anyway to see if a message was left and is horrified to find Annette Weaver sprawled in a pool of blood. She is just about to call the police when she hears the roar of a familiar engine and rushes out in a panic to try and catch up with the car. She never does call the police and when questioned the next day (as one of several real estate agents who might have been there) doesn't reveal her adventures of the previous night.
Inspector Heimrich and Sergeant Forniss work their way through clues--among them the noisy sports car, the mysterious J. K. Knight who doesn't seem to exist, the many men (not her husband) that Annette had been seen wining and dining with, a missing realtor's house key, and Annette's distinctive voice--to weed out the red herrings. But not before the murderer makes one more, less fatal, attack.
Spoiliers Ahead--Read at your own risk!
One of the limitations of the Lockridge books is that occasionally there are few suspects to be had. In this particular outing, there should have been plenty of suspects. After all, we went out of our way to set up the possibility with Annette Weaver blasting all her neighbors at that Fourth of July picnic. But it wound up being a pretty feeble attempt at a red herring. When all is said and done, the picnic fiasco has very little to do with Annette's death. We're left with basically two trails of suspicion and when one has read enough Lockridges one knows that one of the trails is a dead-end from the beginning. So--not much mystery about whodunit in this one. The plot could have been much more interesting (and intricate) if Lockridge had made more of the possible motives of the residents who had gotten blasted.
What keeps this one from a much poorer rating (for me) is the characters. Heimrich likes to say that the character fits the crime--making character a vital ingredient in his investigations. And, for me, if the characters are good enough, I can overlook other flaws, especially in a series that I have a great deal of affection for. The Lockridge books are comfort reading for me and I can forgive occasional missteps in their various series. I enjoy Heimrich and Forniss and watching them do their stuff. I like Ray Crowley and wish that we'd had a bit more of him in this one. And it's always a treat to watch Heimrich interact with his wife Susan. We also have nice bit of deduction involving voices and vocal imitations (somewhat reminiscent of the books that involve Professor Brinkley). ★★★ and 1/2. [rounded up here]
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
August 9, 2022
This book concerns the murder of Annette LeBaron Weaver, former actress. She was on her third marriage at the time of her death. She lived next door to matriarch Emily Drake, mother of her first husband Stephen Drake. Emily also has another son, Oliver Drake, an architect.
Annette's husbands, in order:
Stephen Drake (now married to Florence Drake)
James Brennan (now married to Leslie Brennan)
Ralph Weaver, current husband, theatrical agent
Everyone else:
Leslie Brennan, real estate agent, married to James Brennan
Father Jonathan Cunningham, Leslie's father, a bishop
J. K. Knight, potential house buyer
Harriet Larkin, cleaning woman
Captain Merton Heimrich
Sgt. Charlie Forniss
Locale: Westchester County, NY
Synopsis: Real estate agent Leslie Brennan is on her way to show a house to potential buyer J.K. Knight. The house is for sale by current owner, glamorous ex-actress Annette Weaver. (Leslie is married to James Brennan, Annette's ex #2). Annette had recently hosted a Fourth-of-July party - confident her house had been sold and she was moving away for good, and used the opportunity to tell off her low-life Van Brunt guests over the musician's P.A. system. This was a move she came to regret when the real estate deal fell through and she had to stay on. Leslie, finding no one (apparently) home, uses the key from the real estate lock box, opens the door, and finds Annette's body, shot to death.
Harriet Larkin, cleaning woman, arrives the next morning and is the second to find the body. She notifies authorities. Captain Merton Heimrich and Sgt. Charlie Forniss set about untangling the family relationships. The prospective house buyer, J. K. Knight, had been a no-show; but he calls Leslie on the phone. Leslie suspects it is a different person entirely, and consults with her father, bishop Jonathan Cunningham who is somewhat of an expert on voices. Then, on her way home, she disappears.
Review: I had a bit of trouble getting oriented in the first chapter (in which Leslie finds the body). It is told in first person, but the narrator's identity is not revealed. The narrator seems to be someone going to the house with Leslie, but in a separate vehicle.
Beginning in the second chapter, the rest of the story is told in the normal third person. Suddenly cleaning lady, Harriet Larkin, becomes the second person to find the body - huh? A bit startling, that. What happened to Leslie? Did she flee the scene and not bother to tell anybody? It eventually comes out that she was scared off by hearing a loud Porsche leaving the scene - and her husband, Ralph, has one - and maybe he had done away with his ex.
The parade of Annette's ex-husbands and subsequent remarriages could be confusing to the casual reader, but I had made notes along the way to keep them straight (list above). The ex's all remained surprisingly cozy with Annette, as she enjoyed going out to lunches (and other activities) with them. She is termed a 'nympho' by one of them.
Leslie's disapperance and pursuit in the woods was a tense, dramatic episode which kept me turning pages past my bedtime. Lockridge succeeded in fooling me - I had two prime candidates for murderer picked out right away, but neither of them turned out to be the one.
The question of who-is-the-Chapter-One-narrator finally got resolved in the end. Please also note one occurrence of the n-word.
Please visit The Mystillery Blog and try The Mystillery Reading Challenges!
Annette's husbands, in order:
Stephen Drake (now married to Florence Drake)
James Brennan (now married to Leslie Brennan)
Ralph Weaver, current husband, theatrical agent
Everyone else:
Leslie Brennan, real estate agent, married to James Brennan
Father Jonathan Cunningham, Leslie's father, a bishop
J. K. Knight, potential house buyer
Harriet Larkin, cleaning woman
Captain Merton Heimrich
Sgt. Charlie Forniss
Locale: Westchester County, NY
Synopsis: Real estate agent Leslie Brennan is on her way to show a house to potential buyer J.K. Knight. The house is for sale by current owner, glamorous ex-actress Annette Weaver. (Leslie is married to James Brennan, Annette's ex #2). Annette had recently hosted a Fourth-of-July party - confident her house had been sold and she was moving away for good, and used the opportunity to tell off her low-life Van Brunt guests over the musician's P.A. system. This was a move she came to regret when the real estate deal fell through and she had to stay on. Leslie, finding no one (apparently) home, uses the key from the real estate lock box, opens the door, and finds Annette's body, shot to death.
Harriet Larkin, cleaning woman, arrives the next morning and is the second to find the body. She notifies authorities. Captain Merton Heimrich and Sgt. Charlie Forniss set about untangling the family relationships. The prospective house buyer, J. K. Knight, had been a no-show; but he calls Leslie on the phone. Leslie suspects it is a different person entirely, and consults with her father, bishop Jonathan Cunningham who is somewhat of an expert on voices. Then, on her way home, she disappears.
Review: I had a bit of trouble getting oriented in the first chapter (in which Leslie finds the body). It is told in first person, but the narrator's identity is not revealed. The narrator seems to be someone going to the house with Leslie, but in a separate vehicle.
Beginning in the second chapter, the rest of the story is told in the normal third person. Suddenly cleaning lady, Harriet Larkin, becomes the second person to find the body - huh? A bit startling, that. What happened to Leslie? Did she flee the scene and not bother to tell anybody? It eventually comes out that she was scared off by hearing a loud Porsche leaving the scene - and her husband, Ralph, has one - and maybe he had done away with his ex.
The parade of Annette's ex-husbands and subsequent remarriages could be confusing to the casual reader, but I had made notes along the way to keep them straight (list above). The ex's all remained surprisingly cozy with Annette, as she enjoyed going out to lunches (and other activities) with them. She is termed a 'nympho' by one of them.
Leslie's disapperance and pursuit in the woods was a tense, dramatic episode which kept me turning pages past my bedtime. Lockridge succeeded in fooling me - I had two prime candidates for murderer picked out right away, but neither of them turned out to be the one.
The question of who-is-the-Chapter-One-narrator finally got resolved in the end. Please also note one occurrence of the n-word.
Please visit The Mystillery Blog and try The Mystillery Reading Challenges!
July 5, 2020
Early Bird Book Deal | Didn't really stand up for me | I can't really place my finger on why this entry in a good series didn't do it for me. The best I can come is to say that it tried too hard to misdirect, and the red herring it kept dragging in front of the viewer was so clearly not the solution that little time was given to the actual killer. Also,the subtle early clue was, as so often in Lockridge books, just one throw away sentence, but it was such an unnecessary comment that it really stood out and focused my attention on the speaker, who did turn out to be the killer. One use of the N-word by stage performers, in a piece that Heimrich and Susan didn't care for because it was treating the horrors of slavery and racism too lightly.
January 1, 2023
I have spent the winter holiday binging on Captain Heimrich mysteries. This is not my favorite in the series, but I have not encountered one that I didn’t enjoy.
The appeal of these books for me is their mid-century time-frame and
Westchester County, NY setting. The books perfectly capture the social setting of the time, the class prejudices and mores. And, I get a tremendous kick out of a cop that never seems too rushed to stop in a country inn for a martini.
I read most of the Mr. and Mrs. North books ( supposedly Dashiell Hammett’s inspiration for THE THIN MAN) and, as much as I enjoyed them, I find Captain Heimrich’s adventures more satisfying.
The appeal of these books for me is their mid-century time-frame and
Westchester County, NY setting. The books perfectly capture the social setting of the time, the class prejudices and mores. And, I get a tremendous kick out of a cop that never seems too rushed to stop in a country inn for a martini.
I read most of the Mr. and Mrs. North books ( supposedly Dashiell Hammett’s inspiration for THE THIN MAN) and, as much as I enjoyed them, I find Captain Heimrich’s adventures more satisfying.
July 6, 2018
Another in the Captain Heimrich series. Real estate agent Leslie Brennan is supposed to meet a prospective buyer at the Weaver home but when she gets there what she finds is not a buyer but the dead body of Annette Weaver, formerly married to Leslie's current husband. Panicked, Leslie leaves, not reporting the death. Intriguing mystery as the victim had many people not so happy with her so Leslie and her husband are not the only suspects Heimrich has to deal with.
December 11, 2018
I am rereading classic mysteries I enjoyed years ago. I am getting tired of cozies. Lockridge was a favorite and his work still interests. I loved the dog and the hippo feeling. I wonder about Lockridge's self awareness. I bought these and they are used BOMC copies. I guess I miss BOMC, the Oprah of its day.
September 11, 2023
Pretty great classic mystery. I think I kept changing the hero’s name to “Heimlich” after the choking maneuver(lol). I read it with many of the caveats I use when reading books of this vintage (1966). However, it didn’t rely on too many outdated or offensive “aphorisms”. I hope I can locate others in this Captain Heimrich series. This one was one of a few lucky finds at a vintage shop
December 21, 2019
Good mystery!
July 13, 2021
The characters were almost as good as in the previous books in the series, but not quite. The mystery was almost as engaging, but not quite. The solution was less than satisfying.
August 31, 2010
An Captain Heimrich mystery of yet another actress who lived in Van Brunt, a bit faded in terms of stardom but still able to make money! Interesting plot twists, with many layers of lies and truths to sift through.
Ends up with Susan and Merton in NYC listening to voices of the murder victim and another actress.
Ends up with Susan and Merton in NYC listening to voices of the murder victim and another actress.
March 31, 2011
classic Heimrich
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews