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Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery #11
Octagon House
Asey Mayo is called to the town of Quanomet when murder and mayhem follow the unveiling of an unflattering portrait of the townspeople at the new post office
- GenresMystery
296 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
1 person is currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Phoebe Atwood Taylor
40 books43 followersTaylor is an American mystery author. She is best known for her Asey Mayo series, based in Cape Cod. She additionally wrote and published under the pen names Alice Tilton and Freeman Dana.
Phoebe Atwood Taylor, born in 1909 in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first member of her family to have been born off Cape Cod in more than 300 years. Upon graduating from Manhattan's Barnard College, she moved to Weston, Massachusetts, to pen her first work, The Cape Cod Mystery (1931), which was published when she was 22. The book was written while Taylor was caring for her invalid aunt, Alice Tilton (the source of one of her two publishing pseudonyms, the other being Freeman Dana). Taylor was one of the first mystery writers to give a regional and rural rather than urban focus during the time known as the "golden age" of mystery writing (1918 - 1939). Gone with the Wind's author, Margaret Mitchell, was a great fan of the Asey Mayo series, and encouraged Taylor to pack the books with Cape Cod detail. In all, she authored 33 books. She died in 1976 at age 67.
- Bio by The Countryman Press
https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL685...
Phoebe Atwood Taylor, born in 1909 in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first member of her family to have been born off Cape Cod in more than 300 years. Upon graduating from Manhattan's Barnard College, she moved to Weston, Massachusetts, to pen her first work, The Cape Cod Mystery (1931), which was published when she was 22. The book was written while Taylor was caring for her invalid aunt, Alice Tilton (the source of one of her two publishing pseudonyms, the other being Freeman Dana). Taylor was one of the first mystery writers to give a regional and rural rather than urban focus during the time known as the "golden age" of mystery writing (1918 - 1939). Gone with the Wind's author, Margaret Mitchell, was a great fan of the Asey Mayo series, and encouraged Taylor to pack the books with Cape Cod detail. In all, she authored 33 books. She died in 1976 at age 67.
- Bio by The Countryman Press
https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL685...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 8, 2018
This one starts strong and tense, but after about 100 pages gets wilder and wilder. Lack of invention is never Taylor’s problem: too much invention is. Still, ambergris.
November 30, 2023
This 1937 novel is a first rate Asey Mayo murder mystery.
A remarkably unpleasant woman is stabbed and killed in the barn of the Octagon House, an eight-sided home in Quanomet, Cape Cod. We immediately have two Taylor specialties. She loves having nasty people murdered in her books because it gives a wide selection of suspects and, secondly, she is great a creating Cape Cod place names. The fictional town of "Quanomet" sounds like it should be on the Cape Cod map.
The story barrels along. It has a young woman who hunts ambergris, (goggle it), a small plane crash, a big fire and Mayo barreling around the Cape in his brand-new Parker roadster and then shuffling around town disguised as a housepainter in a broken-down pick-up truck. Taylor wraps it up with a satisfying solution to the crime.
This is a fun 1937 story of crime in old Cape Cod.
How you know the book was written in 1937.
Mayo offers a cop a couch to take a nap on and the cop says, "That's white of you."
Plot hole.
At one point a women is a passenger in a small plane flying low along the beach. Taylor has her casually looking out the window when she recognizes a piece of ambergris on the beach from the plane. Ambergris is hard to recognize walking slowly along a beach looking for it. It would never be noticed from a plane by someone not looking for it.
A remarkably unpleasant woman is stabbed and killed in the barn of the Octagon House, an eight-sided home in Quanomet, Cape Cod. We immediately have two Taylor specialties. She loves having nasty people murdered in her books because it gives a wide selection of suspects and, secondly, she is great a creating Cape Cod place names. The fictional town of "Quanomet" sounds like it should be on the Cape Cod map.
The story barrels along. It has a young woman who hunts ambergris, (goggle it), a small plane crash, a big fire and Mayo barreling around the Cape in his brand-new Parker roadster and then shuffling around town disguised as a housepainter in a broken-down pick-up truck. Taylor wraps it up with a satisfying solution to the crime.
This is a fun 1937 story of crime in old Cape Cod.
How you know the book was written in 1937.
Mayo offers a cop a couch to take a nap on and the cop says, "That's white of you."
Plot hole.
At one point a women is a passenger in a small plane flying low along the beach. Taylor has her casually looking out the window when she recognizes a piece of ambergris on the beach from the plane. Ambergris is hard to recognize walking slowly along a beach looking for it. It would never be noticed from a plane by someone not looking for it.
January 1, 2025
Quanomet has been a sleepy little town for a number of years, but their new post office has jettisoned it to the top of the news. Not only is it huge in size but the exterior is red brick, chromium columns, cement elements and pink granite steps. “Early Colonial Modified” is the defined style.
The frosting on this strange cake is the mural that is on the walls of the interior. Titled “The History and Customs of Cape Cod,” it portrays various historical figures in a variety of activities. The cherry was the faces were of citizens of Quanomet — and they weren’t complimentary images.
When the artist’s wife turns up murdered, things take a serious turn. The woman is the daughter of the Octagon House owner, and doesn’t have the nicest reputation. There is also the matter of a large piece of ambergris, worth fifty thousand dollars, that has gone missing.
After a two month absence, Asey Mayo finds this mystery to be his welcome home. Is one of the people who has an unflattering portrait in the mural the murderer? Is the victim somehow involved in the missing ambergris? Who and why and are these two events related?
Looks like the “Cape Cod Sherlock” has another mystery to solve.
The frosting on this strange cake is the mural that is on the walls of the interior. Titled “The History and Customs of Cape Cod,” it portrays various historical figures in a variety of activities. The cherry was the faces were of citizens of Quanomet — and they weren’t complimentary images.
When the artist’s wife turns up murdered, things take a serious turn. The woman is the daughter of the Octagon House owner, and doesn’t have the nicest reputation. There is also the matter of a large piece of ambergris, worth fifty thousand dollars, that has gone missing.
After a two month absence, Asey Mayo finds this mystery to be his welcome home. Is one of the people who has an unflattering portrait in the mural the murderer? Is the victim somehow involved in the missing ambergris? Who and why and are these two events related?
Looks like the “Cape Cod Sherlock” has another mystery to solve.
March 13, 2021
I've read several Asey Mayo mysteries now. I enjoyed this one from beginning to end. Ms. Taylor does a great job of spinning out characters, and with it being a mystery, all the characters appear one way in the beginning and as Asey investigates, of course, he learns that each one is more complicated than first assumed. There are several characters that appear to be suspects, but with varying shades of alibis that stand or fail scrutiny right up to the end.
Oh yes.... A central maguffin is a treasure hunt of sorts for a big ball of ambergris, found at the beginning of the story, and once it goes MIA, the whereabouts play a critical role in solving the crime(s)
Oh yes.... A central maguffin is a treasure hunt of sorts for a big ball of ambergris, found at the beginning of the story, and once it goes MIA, the whereabouts play a critical role in solving the crime(s)
July 8, 2021
Hidden ocean treasure and a shrew of a murder victim has Asey Mayo sleuthing undercover as a small Cape Cod village is in an uproar over a mural in the brand new post office. State police, Boston reporters and Cape Codders mix in this 11th installment of Atwood Taylor's Cape Cod series. Many possible motives and opportunities make for a fun 1930s detective story that has the usual stereotyping present in its time.
January 9, 2023
Another pickup at Powell’s bookstore & it has been some time since I last read it, so it was a lot of fun. It has put me in the mood to go back to her other books, so maybe I will keep slipping them in between the library books.
June 5, 2025
An enjoyable read. A different spin for Asey Mayo.
February 26, 2021
This is the first Asey Mayo mystery I’ve read. It really is a pulp mystery. There are more incredible twists and unlikely coincidences than you can shake a stick at. Most of the characters behave in the oddest most unexplainable manner just to keep things mixed up even more. Then there are motives galore, and wealth just waiting to be picked up.
It’s not one that you can figure out very early. Taylor keeps the vital clues hidden till right at the end. There are hints here and there, but not enough to put together.
However, it was rather poorly written. Sentences don’t always make sense and the random attempts at dialect are so sparse that when they do show up they are rather startling.
There was quite a bit of ‘mild’ cursing. Similar to what you would find in Agatha Christie’s later works. One of the characters is completely debauched. The seamier details are handled delicately but are alluded to throughout the story.
It’s not one that you can figure out very early. Taylor keeps the vital clues hidden till right at the end. There are hints here and there, but not enough to put together.
However, it was rather poorly written. Sentences don’t always make sense and the random attempts at dialect are so sparse that when they do show up they are rather startling.
There was quite a bit of ‘mild’ cursing. Similar to what you would find in Agatha Christie’s later works. One of the characters is completely debauched. The seamier details are handled delicately but are alluded to throughout the story.
December 16, 2008
Mayo is getting better as a character and the mysteries remain very well drawn.
November 2, 2012
And, now I want an Octagon House on Cape Cod and a fortune's worth of ambergris. No murder, though, please. I suspect that there's not a real Codfish Sherlock to get me out of that mess.
Want to read
September 24, 2016AKA: Alice Tilton, Freeman Dana
Want to read
September 17, 2018Synopsis: the story involves an eight-sided house on Cape Cod and a fortune of ambergris.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews