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Mr. & Mrs. North #18
Death Has a Small Voice
Book by Lockridge, Frances Louise Davis, Lockridge, Richard
227 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
39 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Frances Lockridge
96 books48 followersFrances Louise (Davis) Lockridge wrote popular mysteries and children's books with husband Richard Lockridge. They also published under the shared pseudonym Francis Richards.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 20 reviews
May 19, 2017
This title is one of a couple of dozen classic murder mysteries started in the early 1940's and continuing into the 1960's. The charm (if you find them engaging) is entirely in the somewhat ditzy amateur detective couple, The North's, and their best-friend who is a senior police detective.
I've read that these characters were the inspiration for the classic Thin Man series--and, although I enjoy Nick and Nora Charles even more, there is an easy and engaging way about the North's and I am having a good time romping through the titles.
These are definitely not great literature. And, they are probably not great detective stories. But, they are great time-pieces for those of us who like to spend a few hours living within the cocktail culture and the club circuit of New York during the post-war period. Contrary to the Thin Man characters, there is no intimation of wealth in this young couple, but they dash around Manhattan every day, drinking at both lunch and dinner, and in the half-dozen books I have read there has not been one mention of a meal at home (other than for the siamese cats).
I realize that I am not talking about the plot or the writing or the substance of the book---that is intentional, because for me the title characters and their "top cop" buddy are the total essence of the book. If the reader doesn't place himself in their "circle," as a friend or a colleague, the books will probably be boring, trite, and slow-paced. And, they may be all of that, but i find them engaging in an Ozzie and Harriet kind of way---they take us back to a simpler time. The crimes are not terrorist plots. They are not gang-related. They are relationship oriented, and that is both the simplicity and complexity of the series.
I've read that these characters were the inspiration for the classic Thin Man series--and, although I enjoy Nick and Nora Charles even more, there is an easy and engaging way about the North's and I am having a good time romping through the titles.
These are definitely not great literature. And, they are probably not great detective stories. But, they are great time-pieces for those of us who like to spend a few hours living within the cocktail culture and the club circuit of New York during the post-war period. Contrary to the Thin Man characters, there is no intimation of wealth in this young couple, but they dash around Manhattan every day, drinking at both lunch and dinner, and in the half-dozen books I have read there has not been one mention of a meal at home (other than for the siamese cats).
I realize that I am not talking about the plot or the writing or the substance of the book---that is intentional, because for me the title characters and their "top cop" buddy are the total essence of the book. If the reader doesn't place himself in their "circle," as a friend or a colleague, the books will probably be boring, trite, and slow-paced. And, they may be all of that, but i find them engaging in an Ozzie and Harriet kind of way---they take us back to a simpler time. The crimes are not terrorist plots. They are not gang-related. They are relationship oriented, and that is both the simplicity and complexity of the series.
February 2, 2016
Wow, a major difference in the series. DHaSV is more thriller than cozy mystery and the effect was just what the series needed for a pick-me-up. The book was shorter and the pace was quick. Great read and great addition to the series.
February 2, 2024
Normally if Pamela North is going to find herself in a jam and at the mercy of a murderer, then she at least waits until the last chapter or so. And it's because she's suddenly figured something out or remembered something and the murderer realizes she's a danger to them. But this time she shakes things up a bit and just waltzes right into peril in just the second chapter. Jerry is on the West Coast, finalizing a book deal, and Pam has been away for a weekend in the country. She comes home to a set of very upset cats (What kind of human would abandon cats for a whole weekend leaving them at the mercy of the housekeeper, Martha, who--of course--never feeds cats. Or so the cats would have her believe.). She also comes home to a mysterious envelope with a dictaphone record in it which (if you scrunch your eyes up) seems to be addressed to Mrs. North.
Mrs. North remembers that Mr. North has a machine at the office that will play such records, so off she goes to find out what the mystery person wants her to hear. She no sooner listens to a recording of what seems to be a conversation leading up to murder when she hears someone approaching Jerry's office. Her instincts tell her to hide the record...so she does. She is promptly knocked out and toted who knows where and stashed in a coal bin where a whispering voice keeps badgering her to tell where the record is. The voice says that if she'll just cough up the record, then she'll be set free. But Pam is an old hand at this and knows full well that the whispering voice will more likely kill her. So she refuses....
Meanwhile, acting Captain Bill Weigand is intrigued by a report of the strangulation of a two-bit burglar well-known to the force. Men like Harry Eaton often get bumped off--shot, beaten up, possibly hit by cars...but hardly ever get strangled. And then Sergeant Mullins reveals that the little burglar had been an aspiring author (of the "My Life in Crime" variety) and had submitted the manuscript to....you guessed it....North Books. Mullins just knows it's gonna be another screwy one. And when they find out that the last thing that Eaton had stolen was a dictaphone machine belonging to a famous writer who has gone missing and they get told by the Norths' Martha that Pamela North is also missing. It looks like Mullins is right. They spend the rest of the story (urgently pressed by Jerry North who has made a mad-dash across country to help look for his missing wife) hunting for the missing Pam North and the missing Hilda Godwin (writer) and trying to find the connection between the two.
I read this from the local library once long ago and had absolutely no memory of the plot (it has been over 20 years, after all). I had given it four stars in my minimalist book log and, upon reading my own copy now, I think I know why. At least, I know why I'm gonna keep that star count for this round of reading. I really enjoyed the fact that the Lockridges turned the plot around and led with Pam in trouble rather than just ending it that way. Not that she's not in trouble at the end as well--true to form she and Jerry are held at gun point by the villain of the piece as s/he is still trying to get their hands on that darn record. Jerry gets to play hero and wrestle the gun away just before the cavalry arrives in the form of Weigand and Mullins. The husband and wife writing team also did a great job building up the tension and portraying Jerry's fears about Pam's fate. And you'll always find me happy when an academic-type appears--this time in the form of Creative Writing faculty member Bernard Wilson. A very satisfying mystery.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Mrs. North remembers that Mr. North has a machine at the office that will play such records, so off she goes to find out what the mystery person wants her to hear. She no sooner listens to a recording of what seems to be a conversation leading up to murder when she hears someone approaching Jerry's office. Her instincts tell her to hide the record...so she does. She is promptly knocked out and toted who knows where and stashed in a coal bin where a whispering voice keeps badgering her to tell where the record is. The voice says that if she'll just cough up the record, then she'll be set free. But Pam is an old hand at this and knows full well that the whispering voice will more likely kill her. So she refuses....
Meanwhile, acting Captain Bill Weigand is intrigued by a report of the strangulation of a two-bit burglar well-known to the force. Men like Harry Eaton often get bumped off--shot, beaten up, possibly hit by cars...but hardly ever get strangled. And then Sergeant Mullins reveals that the little burglar had been an aspiring author (of the "My Life in Crime" variety) and had submitted the manuscript to....you guessed it....North Books. Mullins just knows it's gonna be another screwy one. And when they find out that the last thing that Eaton had stolen was a dictaphone machine belonging to a famous writer who has gone missing and they get told by the Norths' Martha that Pamela North is also missing. It looks like Mullins is right. They spend the rest of the story (urgently pressed by Jerry North who has made a mad-dash across country to help look for his missing wife) hunting for the missing Pam North and the missing Hilda Godwin (writer) and trying to find the connection between the two.
I read this from the local library once long ago and had absolutely no memory of the plot (it has been over 20 years, after all). I had given it four stars in my minimalist book log and, upon reading my own copy now, I think I know why. At least, I know why I'm gonna keep that star count for this round of reading. I really enjoyed the fact that the Lockridges turned the plot around and led with Pam in trouble rather than just ending it that way. Not that she's not in trouble at the end as well--true to form she and Jerry are held at gun point by the villain of the piece as s/he is still trying to get their hands on that darn record. Jerry gets to play hero and wrestle the gun away just before the cavalry arrives in the form of Weigand and Mullins. The husband and wife writing team also did a great job building up the tension and portraying Jerry's fears about Pam's fate. And you'll always find me happy when an academic-type appears--this time in the form of Creative Writing faculty member Bernard Wilson. A very satisfying mystery.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
September 20, 2019
No kidnappings, please!
I love this series, but I enjoyed this one more after I finished it than I did while I was reading it. Is that even possible?
The Mr and Mrs North books are murder mysteries, so there's always a death and sometimes more than one, but they're bloodless deaths. In other words, we don't see the violence and the crime is solved by the Norths and Lt. Bill Weigand of the NYPD and his partner Sgt. Mullins talking things over and interviewing people. The blood and guts and danger is all off-stage and that's where I want it. Yes, Pam North gets bopped over the head occasionally or briefly held at gun point and once a murderer tried to choke her to death, but help always arrives quickly.
In this book, the authors abandon their tried-and-true formula and have one of the main characters kidnapped and in danger of being killed. Great if you love thrillers; unpleasant if you don't. So I spent much of the book worrying; sure that the authors wouldn't kill off a major character, but still worried. And I don't like to be worried. Once the kidnapping victim escaped, I breathed easier.
I wish the authors had omitted the kidnapping. Other than that, it's a fine mystery with a well done literary theme. A small-time burglar is found murdered, but danger is an accepted risk in a criminal's life. The police will investigate, of course, but the only really interesting feature of the case is the presence of a "Voice-Scriber" (an early dictating machine) in the man's shabby room. Did he steal it? If so, where and why?
Good police work determines that the machine belonged to poet-turned-novelist, Miss Hilda Godwin, but she's nowhere to be found. Various friends (her publisher, her former professor, and others) suggest that she may be at her country home or off on a vacation. Hilda is young and beautiful and has a tight-knit social circle of people involved in or on the fringes of writing/publishing. Everyone professes to be worried about her, but Weigand senses undercurrents of jealousy, anger, and fear. Miss Godwin's soon-to-be-published first novel is described as "autobiographical." Could she have written something that threatens someone? Or is it a case of a bunch of men fighting over a pretty young woman?
The manuscript goes missing and so does someone readers of this series care about. Bill Weigand must work against the clock trying to find out what happened to Hilda Godwin. Soon it's obvious that he's up against a dangerous person. A murderer who's killed once has no reason not to kill again.
What I treasure about this series is the fascinating look at life for New York City professionals in the post WWII period. The economy is booming and middle class people (particularly those with no children to feed) can afford to indulge themselves. Country retreats are popular and it's the norm for friends to buy country places near each other. Friends who enjoy bar-hopping or eating out together during the week also enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of entertaining in their cottages on the weekends or summer holidays. All very civilized, but the remote cottages complicate police work. Is a missing person in trouble or merely resting in the country? And those isolated houses can hide some strange secrets.
There are some intriguing characters and we see how a spirited young woman can easily run into danger without seeing it coming. It's the nature of youth to feel invulnerable and to underestimate the savagery that desperate humans are capable of. Older people know better and are more cautious. It's a good read, but you can keep your kidnappings. I'll take murder.
I love this series, but I enjoyed this one more after I finished it than I did while I was reading it. Is that even possible?
The Mr and Mrs North books are murder mysteries, so there's always a death and sometimes more than one, but they're bloodless deaths. In other words, we don't see the violence and the crime is solved by the Norths and Lt. Bill Weigand of the NYPD and his partner Sgt. Mullins talking things over and interviewing people. The blood and guts and danger is all off-stage and that's where I want it. Yes, Pam North gets bopped over the head occasionally or briefly held at gun point and once a murderer tried to choke her to death, but help always arrives quickly.
In this book, the authors abandon their tried-and-true formula and have one of the main characters kidnapped and in danger of being killed. Great if you love thrillers; unpleasant if you don't. So I spent much of the book worrying; sure that the authors wouldn't kill off a major character, but still worried. And I don't like to be worried. Once the kidnapping victim escaped, I breathed easier.
I wish the authors had omitted the kidnapping. Other than that, it's a fine mystery with a well done literary theme. A small-time burglar is found murdered, but danger is an accepted risk in a criminal's life. The police will investigate, of course, but the only really interesting feature of the case is the presence of a "Voice-Scriber" (an early dictating machine) in the man's shabby room. Did he steal it? If so, where and why?
Good police work determines that the machine belonged to poet-turned-novelist, Miss Hilda Godwin, but she's nowhere to be found. Various friends (her publisher, her former professor, and others) suggest that she may be at her country home or off on a vacation. Hilda is young and beautiful and has a tight-knit social circle of people involved in or on the fringes of writing/publishing. Everyone professes to be worried about her, but Weigand senses undercurrents of jealousy, anger, and fear. Miss Godwin's soon-to-be-published first novel is described as "autobiographical." Could she have written something that threatens someone? Or is it a case of a bunch of men fighting over a pretty young woman?
The manuscript goes missing and so does someone readers of this series care about. Bill Weigand must work against the clock trying to find out what happened to Hilda Godwin. Soon it's obvious that he's up against a dangerous person. A murderer who's killed once has no reason not to kill again.
What I treasure about this series is the fascinating look at life for New York City professionals in the post WWII period. The economy is booming and middle class people (particularly those with no children to feed) can afford to indulge themselves. Country retreats are popular and it's the norm for friends to buy country places near each other. Friends who enjoy bar-hopping or eating out together during the week also enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of entertaining in their cottages on the weekends or summer holidays. All very civilized, but the remote cottages complicate police work. Is a missing person in trouble or merely resting in the country? And those isolated houses can hide some strange secrets.
There are some intriguing characters and we see how a spirited young woman can easily run into danger without seeing it coming. It's the nature of youth to feel invulnerable and to underestimate the savagery that desperate humans are capable of. Older people know better and are more cautious. It's a good read, but you can keep your kidnappings. I'll take murder.
October 25, 2023
I love these books and have tried to buy as many as I could and somehow I didn't have this book. This was a slightly unusual mystery apart from Pam North of course getting involved. She goes to investigate at her husband's publishing business after he got a record in the mail that revealed what sounded like a murder. She is caught at the office and kidnapped and goes through quite an ordeal before getting back to the office. Jerry was so distraught that he hounded everyone to find her and helps to look for her himself. When he gets back to the office he finds the man manning the main desk has been attacked and he calls for an ambulance and then goes to the office and finds Pam and she is able to convert to him that they are not alone. I didn't figure out who the murderer was but not surprised at his motive. The one point I found amusing was at the beginning when the housekeeper knew something was wrong because Pam had not fed the cats in the morning and she knew she would never miss that.
March 11, 2020
The Lockridges show off their wonderful writing ability in the great beginning of this next Mr. and Mrs. North entry. The book begins with an unknown burglar walking around New York City with his latest prize in his pocket from his heist last night. When he realizes that he is being followed, he drops his prize - a dictation recording - in a US mailbox addressed to a publisher he knows - Mr. Gerald North. When Mrs. Pam North arrives home and gets their mail, she can’t read which of them is named in the quickly scrawled address. Her husband is away in San Francisco on business, her curiosity gets the best of her, so she runs off to the North Publishing offices and their dictaphone in the darkness of the evening. Unfortunately, Pam is being followed with every step she takes...
December 15, 2019
Early Bird Book Deal | A fast mover, though the murderer was clear from the beginning. | You never know whether a given North mystery will be a standard mystery or a rush from place to place, but they both work, so it's fine. I only ever thought there was one option for the killer, and clearly the Lockridges basically felt the same, because no time was put into red herrings. But there was suspense, despite knowing that the series continues so Pam must turn out ok.
May 7, 2021
More thriller than mystery
I have read maybe four books in this series. This one is the least humorous so far because it is a thriller. Pam (Mrs North) is held captive without food and water by the murderer who is a very definite threat to her life. Jerry, once he finds out that Pam is missing, becomes a haunted frantic man, missing Pam so much, worried about what might happen to her, or if she is still alive. For a series that is usually lighthearted, this one is not really at all. It is really quite good, but I do enjoy the zany Pam more than the terrified Pam.
I have read maybe four books in this series. This one is the least humorous so far because it is a thriller. Pam (Mrs North) is held captive without food and water by the murderer who is a very definite threat to her life. Jerry, once he finds out that Pam is missing, becomes a haunted frantic man, missing Pam so much, worried about what might happen to her, or if she is still alive. For a series that is usually lighthearted, this one is not really at all. It is really quite good, but I do enjoy the zany Pam more than the terrified Pam.
September 13, 2022
Whoa! Pam gets kidnapped in the second chapter and there's a lot going on from there. Enjoyed this one a lot, even with the lack of modern technology. (It's easy to think that a lot of this would not have happened if they'd had cell phones, for instance.) I especially liked the part about how the three cats meet Pam when she gets home. Anyone who has a cat will know the "I'm starving and you never feed me" attitude that all cats seem to have. Recommended.
January 19, 2018
re-reading series
February 1, 2019
Pam spends most of the book in danger: kidnapped and in danger of being murdered. Good if you are in the right mood for this kind of light mystery.
April 27, 2020
Yay for me, but rats! I figured it out.
November 21, 2023
More tense than a usual Mr. and Mrs. North mystery
November 28, 2023
One of my guilty pleasures. Good plots. Nice twists. Characters are a bit thin, but still fun.
August 29, 2015
This novel was first published in 1953. My Avon 35 cent paperback edition has a real pulpy cover and is one of the later entries in the Mr. and Mrs. North detective mystery series. This story is fairly well written and the tension starts on the first pages. We open with the thoughts of a blackmailer going round and round in his head as he walks the streets of New York thinking about his score.
Detective fiction has never been my go-to genre but I enjoy one now and then. This one is really an old-fashioned 50's style tale but probably a notch above the usual. Pulp fiction on the mild side. I must confess that the North's Siamese cats in the story increased my "like." The circumstances that make up all the little pieces of the story are certainly evidence to this reader that 62 years have passed since the story first appeared. I'll also confess to finding a certain charm to the storytelling.
Reading this is a little like watching an old black and white B movie. Mrs. North receives a Dictaphone type record in the mail and upon listening to it hears what she thinks is murder. She soon is aware when listening that someone is after that recording, and now her. The mystery deepens, spreads out, pieces of the puzzle start fitting together. I try and figure out whodunit and if there are red herrings. I think this is a story that would have been more enjoyable 50-60 years ago since I kept getting distracted by the differences between the 50's and more recent times, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I didn't really figure out the mystery mostly because we get introduced to a bunch of characters who aren't terribly well defined and then we go on with the story leaving almost all of them behind. When the reveal came I was like, which one was he? Oh, he's the one I thought who did it (seemed kind of obvious). My fault I think.
Detective fiction has never been my go-to genre but I enjoy one now and then. This one is really an old-fashioned 50's style tale but probably a notch above the usual. Pulp fiction on the mild side. I must confess that the North's Siamese cats in the story increased my "like." The circumstances that make up all the little pieces of the story are certainly evidence to this reader that 62 years have passed since the story first appeared. I'll also confess to finding a certain charm to the storytelling.
Reading this is a little like watching an old black and white B movie. Mrs. North receives a Dictaphone type record in the mail and upon listening to it hears what she thinks is murder. She soon is aware when listening that someone is after that recording, and now her. The mystery deepens, spreads out, pieces of the puzzle start fitting together. I try and figure out whodunit and if there are red herrings. I think this is a story that would have been more enjoyable 50-60 years ago since I kept getting distracted by the differences between the 50's and more recent times, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I didn't really figure out the mystery mostly because we get introduced to a bunch of characters who aren't terribly well defined and then we go on with the story leaving almost all of them behind. When the reveal came I was like, which one was he? Oh, he's the one I thought who did it (seemed kind of obvious). My fault I think.
March 27, 2012
I will begin by saying yes, I do recommend this book.
A short murder mystery, rather straight forward, and yet it led me by the nose to the very end, and I was not able to "guess" who the murderer was. Fast paced and suspenseful, it was a delightful read from beginning to end.
A short murder mystery, rather straight forward, and yet it led me by the nose to the very end, and I was not able to "guess" who the murderer was. Fast paced and suspenseful, it was a delightful read from beginning to end.
February 3, 2017
This is a bit darker than most of the series, with little of the light-hearted banter and much more tension. I spent more time worrying about Pam and worried with Jerry than focusing on whodunit. Once I started the second chapter, I couldn't stop reading. Very good.
March 31, 2011
on a voice scriber in 1953, well crafted
April 16, 2017
An enjoyable entry in this great classic series.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 20 reviews